Chapter 21: Know Thy Enemy And Thyself
Life was weird. One moment, Null was fighting a man that resembled walking Kryptonite more than a human being, the next he was hanging out with Supergirl eating burgers, and watching an evening baseball game from a quarter mile away.
Sitting on the edge of a rooftop with a very good view that Supergirl had procured for them, Null munched at his sandwich before setting it back in its shell and setting it aside. He had not stolen the food. He had ordered through the drive-thru with the help of a floating piece of metal and a nice note with instructions for the person working the window. Anything to avoid a little extra attention for him or Supergirl.
Null had expected baseball to bore her, because it bored a lot of girls he had interacted with, but it had been Supergirl's idea to sit down and take in a game from the Metropolis Monarchs. It sounded like as good a way to spend some time as any, either as Null or as Max.
"Can you really see everything that's happening from all the way up here?" Null asked as he and Supergirl sat at the edge of a skyscraper, looking down on the stadium containing the players and fans.
"Oh yeah," Supergirl assured him, taking a sip of the drink in her hand, "I can hear everything too. Trust me, it's no problem," Hearing everything was an understatement. She could make out the conversations in the dugout from where she was for goodness sake, "Do you get out to many games in Gotham?"
No one had ever asked Null about himself past who he was when he was in his supersuit, so it caught him off-guard at first. He then figured that it couldn't hurt to tell her a little bit, as long as he kept himself from being too specific, "No. The Goliaths suck though. And before, I never really had money to go to any games. Nowadays, I just never have the time," He said before chuckling, "I stole the jerseys out of their locker room once though. Got a good chunk of change off of that."
Supergirl rolled her eyes but smiled. He was talking about stealing. Why did that not bother her? Even if it was largely a victim-less crime, it was still a crime, "You know, I've been asking you all kinds of stuff about yourself. It has to be irksome. So go ahead. Is there anything you want to know about me?"
Null wasn't really in the business of knowing anyone else's secrets. He didn't have any burning desire to know everything about other people, "I'm willing to listen to anything you want to tell me," He said, getting a frown out of Supergirl. Did she want him to be interested in her? "Well now that you mention it, there are a few things I'm curious about. What are you into? Whenever you're not flying around, kicking ass and saving babies, what do you do for fun?"
Kara had given Null the green light to ask her questions without realizing that she had never had to really answer anything personal before, "I like music," She replied self-consciously, fiddling with her hands as she spoke. A generic answer to keep from making herself sound dumb.
Null let out a laugh and gestured with his hand for her to go on, "Listening to music? Playing music? What kind of music? What kind of instrument if you do play?" He asked, grinning wider as he could see her face get red, "Come on, hon. Meet me halfway."
Even though he was picking on her, it got Supergirl to loosen up a bit, "All of the above, jerk," She gave him a shove that knocked him onto his back on the rooftop, "I have a guitar. I know how to play a few styles, but I've really gotten into the Spanish sound, so I've been trying to learn how to play that way lately."
Null sat back up and brushed off his hood, "Well, well, well. You're making me want to go and find a guitar to 'borrow' so I can hear what you've got."
Supergirl pointed at him with a stern look, "Don't you dare. I will haul your sorry butt off to jail," Not just because it was stealing, but because playing anything for someone else would be embarrassing.
"I'm just messing around," Null said, holding his hands up defensively. All he'd wanted her to do was loosen up, and she had, so it worked, "Is there anything else you like to do? Or can I just add superhero-musician to the list of things to call you and leave it at that?"
Even with her threat, Null still smiled, which left Supergirl smiling as well, "I like to draw too. It's relaxing. I think design is really cool," She revealed, feeling very much at ease despite how she started out, "I'm trying to come up with a new design for my uniform. Just in case the old-fashioned blue and red ever gets old."
"I think your uniform works for you. It's bright. It's recognizable. When people see it, they get the feeling that everything's gonna be okay," Null assured her, "Not me, for obvious reasons, but regular people."
Kara smiled at him, but it was mostly just a gesture. It didn't reach past her cheeks, "The only life I have is as Supergirl. That's all anyone knows me as. Other than that, I'm just Superman's cousin. All of my friends are heroes, and that's just because I'm a hero."
That was what made this enjoyable. He wasn't asking her questions about being Supergirl. He was asking her questions about being Kara Zor-El. It always seemed to be that way when she was around him. The only time her being a superhero would have mattered to him would have been if she had tried to kick his butt and haul him off to jail. As far as she knew, he was pardoned for the crimes he'd been charged with in the past and cleared of his most recent ones, so there was no reason for that.
He seemed interested in wanting to get to know her, even though he didn't know her name and she couldn't see his face. Goodness, did she want to though. Just a peek. It wasn't like she would immediately recognize him. If he noticed though, it would instantly break whatever trust in her she had, which was not an option. Kara liked things as they were.
Null looked over at the super heroine next to him and then back to the baseball game in the stadium below, "That is just wild," He mentioned off-handedly.
Supergirl looked his way with a curious expression, "What is?"
Null gestured to her and then to the situation around them, "This. You're one of the strongest things on the planet, but you're so normal," He tried to explain, "When I watch you fly around faster than a jet, or lift a tanker out of the water, it's hard to remember that you're just flesh and blood like me. But you are. You care about stuff like that. It's... it's nice."
He wanted to say 'humanzing'. Supergirl was an intelligent girl. She could tell that was what he'd wanted. He just thought better of it. She was grateful for that.
"So what's it like?"
The sudden question broke her from her thoughts, "What's what like?" Supergirl asked in return, wishing for clarification.
Null had no problem going into more detail. After all, he had been pretty vague, "Having that much power. Being able to do everything that you can do," It was likely that this could have been a sensitive subject, but he had been curious. With the powers he had, he had turned to crime. He couldn't think of what he would be like if he were Kryptonian strong, "I mean, I'm just asking because one day, all of a sudden I got my powers. It was... an experience, I'll tell you that," Supergirl stared him down, which made him feel self-conscious, "Sorry, that's a bad question. It'd probably be hard to tell me how something feels when you've always had it."
Supergirl let out a sigh and leaned back, staring up at the stars in the sky, "I haven't always been able to do what I do now. That only happened when I got to Earth, because of the yellow sun," She said, remembering her first days on Earth, "At first it was scary. I was in a strange place, I couldn't speak the language, and all of a sudden I was strong. Really strong."
Null couldn't relate, even if he could understand how that would be freaky, "I wasn't scared. I was excited. Then again, my circumstances are a bit different from yours," Max Gabriel had no positive life projections on the horizon. He didn't even have a positive present. Then, Null happened, "It was like, for once, I could do whatever I wanted."
And he did, almost immediately. Yes, he had tried to prepare, but in hindsight he had rushed his way into the world he now found himself in.
Kara stopped Null there to poke him poignantly in the arm, "About that. Why aren't you worse?" She asked, "That guy, from today, Abernathy. The second he got the kind of power people can throw around, he went nuts," That sadly seemed to be the case for a lot of people, "But you – you don't hurt anyone. I've never heard of you doing anything to a civilian. You don't have any vendettas against any heroes. You don't even steal things that are that expensive or dangerous."
Null rubbed his bicep where he was sure he would have a small circular bruise underneath his supersuit, "I'm pretty sure you're gearing up to ask me something, so go for it."
"Everyone is hungry for something. Even someone like me. I guess I'm asking, where is your hunger?"
"I don't understand."
"Supervillain doesn't mean that they have superpowers," Kara reasoned, "Their aims are 'super'. Whatever their objective is, they want something big, and take extreme measures to get it. But you just... don't."
This had to count as the first time that a hero actually asked him what his thought process was on why he did anything he did, "For the most part, if I do anything, it's for subsistence," Null said, "I do what I want to get what I want at the time, and it's not just one thing. It can be anything. Anything I feel like at the time. When I want cash, I go find something valuable from somewhere that won't miss it. If I wanted sex, I'm pretty sure I could go find someone willing to give it. Same thing for a sandwich or a fight."
Kara raised an eyebrow, "So you're saying you're well-adjusted?"
Null scoffed, finding the thought funny, "God, no. I'm just well-fed. Like I said, I do whatever I want, whenever I want. It's just that I don't have problems with self-control."
"What about responsibility?" Kara followed up, "Are you sure you don't try to keep a lid on things because you don't want to be a menace?"
A fair question deserved a fair answer, and Null gave her one, "In the grand scheme of things, the only thing you're responsible for is what you want to be," In his mind, whatever your lot in life, no one could make you stand up and take responsibility for it. Not really. It was up to you, your expectations for yourself, and how much the opinions of the people who interacted with you mattered, "My sense of responsibility goes me, then the people around me that I like who are good to me, and that's it," It was then that the girl floated in front of him, a particular expression directed his way, "What's that look for?"
Supergirl had the widest, knowing smile on her face, as though she were far ahead of him about a fact he had yet to grasp, "You helped today," She pointed out, regarding Null's actions, "Null, you did help people. For nothing. You didn't get anything out of what you did earlier. What do you say about that?"
Null laughed and gently guided her out of his way, off to the side, "Don't get ahead of yourself. Trust me, I had my own reasons for trying to calm the Kryptonite Man down," If that psycho had gone on an all-out rampage, it could have ruined his school trip. Thankfully, crap like that happened in Metropolis routinely. He rarely got out of Gotham City out of costume. It would have been nice for that to last a little while longer, "Don't look for something where there's nothing. You're the hero here. I'm just the guy looking out for number one."
"Uh-huh," She was still unconvinced. That much was obvious, "For now, I guess I have no choice but to take your word for it," At that moment she seemed to perk up as though she had noticed something, "And it looks like we're done for today. It was nice."
"Huh?" Null seemed confused. They had just been having a pretty decent talk. He wasn't bored, so he figured that she wasn't either, 'Was I wrong?' He thought to himself, "You've got to go? Is something up?"
Supergirl shook her head before looking to her side, past Null, "Hi, Kal-El," She said to someone else entirely.
"Hello, Kara," Null froze in place at the sound of the strong, confident voice of the man in his blindspot, "And I'm figuring you're Null," Oh no, "We've never been properly introduced. You're out of your stomping grounds, aren't you?"
There was no need for introductions, because he knew who Null was, and he knew that he was Superman. Maybe if Null didn't run, nothing bad would happen, "Please don't beat my ass-, I mean, hi!" Null greeted, trying not to sound frightened, "Sorry, it's just that I've had nightmares that started like this."
Superman looked at the boy like an oddity, "...Alright then," He looked over at his cousin from Krypton, "Were you making sure he didn't steal anything?"
Supergirl shook her head, "I wasn't watching him. We were just hanging out," She admitted, sending a beaming smile back Null's way, "He helped out a lot earlier with Dr. Abernathy. He says he was just doing it for himself," She said incredulously. She let out a laugh when he hissed at her like a feline. Catwoman's influence ran deep, it seemed.
Superman raised an eyebrow, "Did he take anything?"
"A whole lot of nothing. He paid for the food too, like a real gentleman," Supergirl seemed proud to say this.
Null palmed his forehead in exasperation, "You were right there with me. What was I going to do, steal it? I'm not going down for $12 of fast food," It was then that he realized his presence in Metropolis could have been construed as suspicious, and he had no explanation for his presence there. All he could do was keep pleading innocent until proven guilty, "Dude, I've been good since I got pardoned. In case you didn't hear, I was framed for that last thing that I was involved in."
"Thinking about seeing how the other side lives then?" Superman said, somewhat in jest, "We could always use more good guys."
"That's a hard 'no'," Null said without so much as considering the option, "In fact, I don't think I could give you a more resounding 'no' without being a rude son-of-a-complain."
Which he was not about to do. He didn't think Superman would punch him in the face unprovoked, but it wasn't a theory worth putting to the test.
Superman walked over to Supergirl and rested a hand on her shoulder, "Kara, sorry for stealing you away while you're relaxing, but we need to talk."
She let out a sigh, but understood. Some things took precedence, "Well that's the end of our day," She faced Null and almost gave him a hug. Her arms began to move for it, but in the end they stayed by her side, "Null, thank you for spending the evening with me. I had a nice time."
Null waved off her thanks. It wasn't as thought it had been difficult. It was more interesting than being confined back at the hotel the way he probably would have been if he'd gone back, "I was just amusing you. Everyone deserves some time to take their minds off of their troubles, and being the strongest girl in the world has got to be exhausting," He said, stretching as he toed the edge of the rooftop, prepared to leave, "Later."
Kara floated in the air away from the building as Null magnetically propelled himself across Metropolis, "You'd better be good for as long as you're here, mister!" She shouted over the city noise, "I'll be watching out for you!"
She was able to catch his voice coming back to her, "Yeah-yeah-yeah! Enjoy the view, then!" He knew she could hear him.
Supergirl couldn't help but smile as she watched Null get farther away. He could say whatever he wanted. There was a lot of good in him.
It hadn't been the worst time she could have spent.
"Did I just watch the end of your first date?"
She really thought Kal-El was above teasing her, though, "Oh, be quiet."
XxX
(Gotham City)
Of course when Rose actually could have used Max around, he was nowhere to be found, off gallivanting in Metropolis and leaving her back at the apartment in Gotham City. Though it was probably a good thing in this case that he wasn't there. Deathstroke the Terminator was back in town. Those two hadn't parted the last time under very amiable circumstances, being that Deathstroke had shot Max in the leg after he'd finished his job for them.
Max likely hadn't forgotten that, and he held grudges if his response to what Anarky had tried was any indication. This time, his sense of eye-for-an-eye probably would have gotten him killed.
"It wasn't an easy thing to find you. This place isn't under your name," Deathstroke said, walking around "It's under the name of two dead scientists."
Rose hastily put together an explanation, "The landlord doesn't update his records," She said, "So long as money keeps coming in, he doesn't care who's paying under their name. Rent is rent," Not entirely untrue. Max had taken over paying for his family's apartment in that manner.
"Not bad," Her father said as he continued to investigate the premises, "...Not bad at all."
Thank goodness Max didn't believe in taking pictures. No image of him from any recent time existed in the apartment. Not that Deathstroke would recognize him on-sight anyway. He never saw him out of his suit. Even so, he probably still would have killed him regardless if he had come across Max when he'd arrived to see her.
Rose didn't know what would be worse, if Slade found out that Max was Null, and that was why she was shacking up with him in Gotham City, or if he figured that Max was her boytoy and that was why she was staying there.
A chill went down her spine. If Deathstroke somehow came to the conclusion that she was in love with Max somehow. Ugh, the thought made her sick. Not just because of how off that assumption would be, but because of what her father would likely do to Max if this became fact in his mind.
Any physical relationship between the two teenagers was strictly for fun. Rose made that clear the moment they had started. Max helped Rose blow off steam without possibly doing something that would result in a felony, and Rose allowed Max to play with a girl's naughty parts for the first time in his life. It was a win-win.
Deathstroke suddenly stopped looking around and turned to face Rose directly, "Well, as good as it is to see you in good health, that may not last long," From across the living room, Rose took an involuntary step back, "Have you done as I've asked? Let me see what you've earned."
Four million dollars. Rose hadn't forgotten. It was the same as the price that Deathstroke had put on her head. It seemed as though he were ready to collect. And God help her if it wasn't enough, "I don't keep my money here. I'll have to go get it, seeing as how you dropped in out of the blue... daddy."
The tone at the end of her sentence hadn't been missed by Deathstroke, but all he cared about were the results of her work, "Very well," He said, stepping aside to gesture to the research table he "In the meantime, what is this? Breaking into Arkham Asylum? No. Breaking something out."
Rose frowned. It was rather obvious what it was, "Research for a mission," She said as a smirk slowly grew on her face, "And don't take that as me not having enough money to pay you. This is in exchange for something else."
Not that she needed to say as much. Any excuse for him to not see her as worthless. This assignment he had dispatched her on was meant to show if she was capable of being his apprentice. The fact that she had survived and done as he had asked meant something great. He had to see that.
"Hm," Deathstroke let out a hum of understanding as he looked over the fruits of her labor thus far. If he was about to say something judgmental, Rose didn't need to hear it. She had been working hard to get everything in order as she came up with a plan, "I guess I'll be going with you then."
Rose visibly reacted, "What?"
It was just that he hadn't done anything with her in months. They hadn't interacted since he had given her his instructions, and now they were going to go back to work together, as if nothing had changed. She'd gone without him, proven that she could do it, without Deathstroke as a safety net.
She didn't need him to powder her bottom or wipe her nose. She was a big girl. She could do things on her own.
Deathstroke wasn't thinking about going with her to make sure she would be okay, however, "The point of sending you off in the first place was seeing if you were worth investing my time and effort in," He reminded her, "If you've made the money I've asked you to make, that's one thing. You could have earned it doing just about anything. I want to see first-hand how you operate."
Rose irritably blew several silver strands of disheveled hair out of her face, "Fine. As soon as I've finished my plan and gotten everything together-."
"One week," Deathstroke interrupted, holding up seven fingers, "Seven days to get everything you need arranged. That should be long enough, given the research I've already seen you've done."
Rose raised an eyebrow in return. When she had accepted the mission on behalf of Bruno Mannheim a few months ago, he hadn't given her a deadline. Just that she took timely steps toward completing it, "But there's no timetable on this mission."
"I can see that. I'm giving you one," Deathstroke clarified, "Show me what you can do, Rose. You're my daughter. You will live up to everything that this means," He pulled off his mask and allowed her to lay her gaze on his proper face for the first time since they'd reunited, "You're all I have left."
There was so much about this for Rose to resent. Another damn test. There was always something else. Why was what she had done never good enough? It had been with Max, before Slade Wilson had waltzed back into her life.
But those two people did not compare to each other. Not in Rose's mind, "...You're all I've got left too," She eventually said, wishing she could move in for a hug. If only it wouldn't make her look weak, "...One week then."
Despite everything, Deathstroke was the only family she had. Her mother was gone. Slade was the only living person she shared any kind of blood with. That meant something to her. He cast a large shadow as an intelligent and dangerous mercenary, known the world over, but to her he was just 'dad'. And all she wanted was for him to look at her and be proud. If he took no pride in her, he would cast her aside and leave her all alone.
Deathstroke accepted Rose agreeing to his command. No matter how prickly or irritable she came off, he knew she would always listen to her when push came to shove. Good girl, "Get in touch with me when you're ready to go. You know where to find me while I'm here. Of course, you're free to come with me," He offered.
To Rose's surprise, she wasn't very eager to place herself back underneath his wing entirely. She honestly hesitated in making her decision, "I'll think about it. In the meantime, make sure you're ready, daddy."
Slade chuckled and put his mask back on as he departed through the window in the living room, "You don't need to tell me that, dear."
No, she figured that she didn't. She needed to make absolute sure that she was ready though.
XxX
(The Next Day – Metropolis)
Max got his head chewed off when he came down the next morning to check in with his field trip group. With the chaos from the day before, a headcount had been gathered, and he hadn't signed in until after 9. Max made the excuse that he'd run back to the hotel and stayed there in his room all night.
"You mean I'm in trouble for doing what I was supposed to do?"
It was complete bullshit, but the bluff wound up working. Teachers hadn't actually checked rooms, so no one called him on not having actually been there until late. No one in his class really had his number either, so it wasn't like someone could call him to ask about him.
That was what was called getting off scot-free. All he had to do today was make sure that he caught the bus meant to take them out for the ribbon-cutting of LexCorp's new broadband initiative. For some reason, it was a big deal; the lynchpin event of the entire trip.
And… Max didn't care. There was a lot more interesting about Metropolis than this whole Lex Luthor philanthropy project. Namely, something he had been involved in yesterday.
He had plenty of time, so after slipping out of the hotel, he made his way back to the Avenue of Tomorrow. The place had been trashed and the setting for the science expo had been nearly destroyed. A place like that was ripe for scavenging.
Scavenging, not stealing. There was a difference, as one was significantly less illegal than the other. Though it was still technically illegal, which was why Max cursed to himself when he saw a police presence surrounding the scene.
"Shit!" He exclaimed under his breath, trying to remain inconspicuous as he walked past a blockade.
Max didn't want to suit up, but this was a chance he couldn't pass on – to get his hands on pieces of tech that he could potentially sell back for large amounts of money. And it wasn't like he would be disturbing anything. Hell, he'd actually be helping in the cleanup. So it was a good deed!
With that skewed line of logic, he switched into his Null gear and started slipping his way by the law enforcement encamped around the area. There were quite a few officers wandering around, but not as many as he would have thought with the amount of land covered in the blockade. They were spread thin, which made it very easy for him to avoid them even in broad daylight, something he wasn't used to.
The adaptable camouflage of Null's supersuit got a serious workout as he moved through the rubble left behind in the wake of the Kryptonite Man's rampage. He didn't have a lot of time to get a look at what was available to him. From what he'd heard, Metropolis officials were much quicker when it came to cleaning up superpowered messes than their Gotham City counterparts.
After lots of careful sneaking, he did manage to make it back to the expo building that had been the site of the latest disaster.
Walking back into that place had been a startling reminder of just how bad yesterday had been. Cleanup crews hadn't gotten that far yet. The fires were all out, but the bodies were still there. It felt wrong, as he walked past them, walked over them to head deeper inside of the expo building. But what had to be done had to be done. Time was of the essence if he wanted to get anything good. If the bodies hadn't been moved, the labs and businesses hadn't been given the all-clear to head in and retrieve the hardware they had left behind when the place had been evacuated.
'It's not like this is grave robbing,' Null thought to himself as he was careful to disturb as little as possible as he made his way along, 'This is still pretty morbid though. I better find something good in here for this to be worth it.'
Other than the rubble and debris, the place seemed untouched from what he had seen the day before. It was a lot creepier with the main power out in the building. Only the auxiliary lights were on.
Null almost didn't want to touch anything. But apprehension at disturbing the scene before him wouldn't result in his getting paid, and if it didn't make him dollars it didn't make sense.
Or… if it didn't make him salivate at the idea of owning it, it didn't make sense. The Gravboard qualified as one of these things, and damn it if the prototype wasn't still there.
Null almost sprinted up to the display once he saw that it was still intact, "Oh, baby!" He yelled out loud once he got close and punched clean through the glass keeping it from the outside world, "I knew we'd be together. It was love at first sight!"
*CLICK-CLACK*
The sound of a gun being prepared caused Null to dive for cover, just in time to avoid a rip of automatic fire that would have shredded him where he stood.
Null magnetically grabbed a pole from a security rope and hurled it in the direction the shots came from. He heard the loud metal bang of the object hitting the ground and poked his head up from behind cover to find that his attacker had dove behind cover as well.
Looking up, he saw part of the standard lighting right of the expo building and grabbed hold of it with his powers, "Oh no. It's not gonna be that easy," With his refined power and control, he ripped it down and dropped it on top of his target.
A person slid out onto the floor, avoiding the crash of heavy equipment and firing out at Null's exposed head. Null held up his hand and blocked bullets while firing electric bolts with his other. It was an unreliable, barely controllable attack from long range though, as shots sparked on either side.
Everything seemed to pause as Null tried to get a bead on his target, who smirked up at him from her back, "Having trouble performing, little boy?"
Null growled to himself and looked at the one finger he had extended to conduct electricity through. That one quickly became five, for even area coverage, "Nah, I think I'm working it out. Now fry, bitch!" More electricity flew her way.
"Tch," The woman on the ground rolled out of the way of the dangerous volts, unclipping a grenade from her belt and slapping it across the floor in Null's direction, causing him to scream, not unlike a young girl.
Null magnetically threw the grenade up at the ceiling and covered his head as it went off above them. Pieces of the ceiling fell down below as a loud ringing kept blaring in his ears. Not loud enough however to block the sound of more gunshots that Null turned to block. With a lift of his hand and a flick of the fingers, several small rounds were stopped mid-flight.
"I thought you couldn't stop a gunshot," The woman said, now back up on her feet, facing off with Null properly, "Liar, liar."
Finally stopping long enough to get a good look at his assailant, Null grimaced, "Oh, it's you again," He said, sounding less than impressed.
They had just crossed paths the day before, though not while he had been in costume, so would not have been able to recognize him. Fortunately, she figured he had been talking about their first meeting months prior and didn't look into it any further.
"The name is Mercy, but it's not like we really introduced ourselves last time around, did we, Null?" She said with a smirk, remembering the boy's name from the aftermath of their fight. He hadn't exactly gone away quietly since then either, getting involved in a big bombing mess in Gotham City, "You should have gone somewhere else if you planned on salvaging, junior."
"Like where?" Null demanded to know cheekily, "As far as I know, no other gigantic cache of tech got blown out yesterday. I'm an opportunist. I saw my chance, and I'm taking it."
"Give it a rest. You aren't here because of what happened. You were here before anything ever happened. You fought Abernathy after his little experiment went up in smoke. You didn't come to Metropolis to loot."
"You're right. I came to rip off something big from this expo, but you fucked up my plans. Now I have to make do with whatever I can find now."
The threateningly contentious, playful demeanor of Mercy faded swiftly at that moment. It was then replaced with a cold, stark stare that could have frozen a man solid, "How did you know I did anything?"
Null noticed the change in the woman, right down to the way she spoke to him. He readied himself for more combat, though he didn't initiate it, "I just told you. I was casing this place to steal something nice," He explained, not exactly lying. He had been taking... certain kinds of notes unintentionally during the expo, even though he had originally been doing a school-related thing, "...What did you do before that guy's display?"
He couldn't help but ask. He was here. They were already fighting. It wasn't like he could make her try to kill him any harder than she was already going to.
Mercy sucked her teeth in restrained irritation. And here she thought she was free and clear from what had occurred yesterday, "It's sad. If you had only waited a day or two, you and others like you probably would have had your run of the city," At least Null didn't know why she had done it, or who she had done it for. But the information he had, and didn't seem keen on keeping to himself was too much, "Now you have to die, because you're too damn nosy."
A handful of months ago, that would have shaken Null up. But too many things had happened in the interim for that to occur now, including having fought Mercy before when she had bigger guns on her. However, instincts ran deep.
"Nope," Null declared before taking off running, away from the battle altogether.
Mercy's mouth fell wide open, and for a second she couldn't believe what she was seeing. That second passed, and she began firing at him. A magnetic field bent the bullets around Null's body as he retreated. When Mercy went to reload, Null turned over his shoulder and made a yanking gesture with his hand, ripping the gun from her grasp.
She watched it fly away, surprise etched on her face, and when she turned back to Null, he was right in her face to deliver a hard knee strike to her belly. Air and spittle flew out of her mouth as she doubled over. She couldn't believe he'd managed to get one over on her and hurt her so badly with martial arts. Granted, there were tons of gimmicks behind his strike, but he'd absolutely smashed her.
Null inhaled deeply through his nose and pressed her to the ground with his hand to the back of her neck, "Things have changed," He said, "You can do whatever you want. Just leave me alone. So you keep doing what you're doing, and you can take that to whoever your sugar daddy is that bought you this window."
She was there for a reason, likely to clean up after whatever she had done yesterday that caused the accident. That was fine. Well, it wasn't. It pissed him off. But one had to pick their battles.
Mercy couldn't remove him off of her from the position they were in, "You know I'm going to make you pay for this, don't you?"
"No, I don't," Null deadpanned, "In fact, I'm going back to the expo room to grab that Gravboard. If you shot it up when this fight started, I'm coming back here to take it out of your ass."
Mercy grit her teeth in anger, preparing to force her way back up, "Who do you think you-? AAAAAAHHHH!" She screamed as electricity ran through her body.
Having thoroughly shocked the woman into defeat, Null dusted off his hands and took off running back toward the Gravboard, "Sooo… better hope I don't come back! Later!" He said, leaving the twitching woman behind on the ground.
It would be a while before she was good to move again, and by then he would hopefully be gone with his haul that just so happened to not have any bullet holes in it.
"Fuck yeah!" Null exclaimed, wrapping his arms around his hard-earned prize before taking off with it. He had no idea how it worked, but he could figure all of that out later. There were just two problems now though.
He ran several blocks before setting the board down, "How do I use this thing?"
And possibly more important... where was he going to hide it, and how was he going to get it home?
"Oh, man. It's a drone too?"
Well, there would be time to worry about that later.
XxX
(Meanwhile – Elsewhere In Metropolis)
Thousands of people stood in front of a stage and podium set up right by the Metropolis tower that had been built as a part of LexCorp's national broadband project. It was a big deal. For the first time, wireless internet would be available in countless homes that it hadn't been accessible to before. It was seemingly a trifle, and yet it was still a major achievement.
Lex Luthor looked out upon the crowd, and didn't say a word at first. Instead, he raised his hand, and with a loud sound of a power supply firing up, the tower behind him went active. The crowd cheered and applauded. Only then did he speak, "This moment doesn't require many words to get across its gravity. This isn't just a step forward for the areas around Metropolis. We're just leading the way. No, it's a step forward for the entire continental United States," He proclaimed, "Now... let's take the greatest country in the world into the future together."
He could only smile as he heard the people react. But even more than that, he could hear faint hum coming from the active tower. It was a beautiful thing. Just one of more than a dozen, covering the more desolate areas of the nation. And yet, their effects would be felt over most of it.
Luthor knew Superman was watching, wherever he was. He could only wish that the ultra-powerful alien was close enough for Luthor to see him suffer. But if he wasn't, there were other ways to make absolute sure that Superman fell for good while he would be at his weakest. And he would absolutely be at his weakest.
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Null)
Having stashed the Gravboard away somewhere safe where he could keep it in the meantime, Null went to make his way back to the hotel his school was staying at for the duration of their trip.
So what if he was a little late? As long as he could make it to the ceremony, then change into regular clothes and slip into the group, it would all be fine. All-in-all, not a bad day. He got something neat to take back home, and he didn't even get into that bad of a fight.
'And no superheroes came to get a piece of me while I was making off with my brand new baby!' Null thought to himself, leaping across entire streets to travel by rooftop, 'This traveling by foot crap is about to be a thing of the past!'
As he cleared the gap from one building to another, he picked up a fellow roaming soul, flying alongside him. Null stumbled to a stop as he turned to face a casually floating Supergirl.
Crap.
"Hey, Supergirl. How are you doing?" Null said, hoping that he didn't sound nervous. Oh, God, if she was onto him, he was going to lose his sweet new potential ride. That could not be allowed to stand, "Hope things are going smoother today than they were yesterday."
She was smiling, but that meant nothing. Plenty of people smiled before they hit you with bad news, "They are. That's why I figured I'd drop in on you and make sure you were being good, like we talked about."
That was a setup if he'd ever heard one, but he would not give up the ghost just yet, "Some would say good is relative," He replied.
"What are you doing?" Supergirl asked. Null had to take a moment to think lest he manage to spring the trap and give himself away, "I know you went back to the Avenue of Tomorrow," From the direction he had been coming from, there was nowhere else he could have been looking like that.
Damn. Well, all was not lost quite yet, "I wanted to go scavenging. Is that illegal here?" Because it was in Gotham City too, but the way he worded the question made it sound like it wasn't.
"Yes, it's illegal," Supergirl confirmed, amused at his 'confusion'. She knew he knew better.
Null could sense as much, and seeing as how he didn't have anything conspicuous on him, he decided to pass the buck, "Well, anyway, some chick named Mercy had the same idea. We got into it for a bit, and I left."
Supergirl's focus shifted from keeping Null in-line to the other person he claimed to have come across, "Wait, why was Lex Luthor's bodyguard there?" She asked, holding her head as she felt a measure of discomfort from out of the blue.
Null's jaw dropped, "Whose bodyguard?"
Lex Luthor? His bodyguard? That meant she had likely been there on business for him. Business that he had interfered with just so he could lift something for himself.
Sure, he had kept his nose clean for a while since he was absolved of his last escapade, but he was not a nice guy. He was the sort of guy that you could see through if you looked behind the media image. That, and LexCorp was the poster child for soulless big business, before accounting for all of the villainous escapades that the man had a hand in over the years.
Oh no. Oh, man. Mistakes were made. Mistakes were definitely made. This was a next-level kind of screw up. And Mercy knew who he was, so she would likely tell Luthor, and then Null would be a marked man... again.
The entire time Null contemplated his new situation and how it would be sure to screw him over later down the line, he didn't notice Supergirl's health quickly begin to decline. Not until she touched down on the roof, barely able to stand straight, "Whoa. Are you okay?"
Her face twitched in pain as she held onto herself, not seeming to know which part of her felt the worst, "Y-You're not carrying any Kryptonite on you... are you?"
Null was alarmed at what was happening, and befuddled by the question, "No. Why?"
Supergirl fell to her knees, almost collapsing entirely, "'Cause it feels like there's some around somewhere... really close."
Null didn't know what to do, or even what was happening. Maybe there was someone that could help him. With that in mind, he pressed the earbud hidden underneath his hood into his ear and touched at the phone he had set at the belt of his outfit, "Please pick up. Please pick up. Please pick up."
XxX
(Gotham City)
Museum showcases were a double benefit for Selina. While she oftentimes used them as a way to scout for potential items to steal as Catwoman, it also served as a way to relax... and get a chance to hobknob with some of the elite of Gotham.
And yes, it was so that she could also ascertain if they had something worth stealing. That, or Bruce Wayne might show up. Though a lot of the time, he straight-up asked her to accompany him if he needed to go to one of those things to keep his reputation as the city's resident wealthy playboy. It was a way to spend time with the man without him scowling at everything around him, even if that part of him wasn't quite real. Either way, it was something to do to pass the time during the afternoon. Just a relaxing look at some artifacts and interesting trinkets... at least until her phone went off with the chorus of Spandau Ballet's 'Gold'.
It was loud. Too loud for the quiet, classy atmosphere as all eyes settled on Selina until she was able to step away and take the call. This had better have been good. Very few people had the means to contact her during the day, and even fewer would actually use it. Looking down at the caller ID and the name she had punched in to describe him, any embarrassment vanished.
"Maxie, what are you doing calling me?" She asked in greeting, a smile on her lips, "I already gave you the week off for your little field trip. You don't need to check in with me."
As happy as she was to hear from him, he seemed to be a bit alarmed at whatever was currently going on with him, "Yeah, about the trip. Can you check the news and see if something is weird in Metropolis?"
'Oh no,' Selina thought to herself, wondering what the issue could have possibly been this time. He never came to her for help, so it had to be something awful, "Like what?" She asked with some trepidation, getting somewhere private in the museum to have her conversation.
"Uh… I don't know. Anything. I'm pretty sure at this point you'll know it when you see it."
If that were the case, then whatever this was definitely didn't bode well, "Hold on," Selina said, setting the conversation aside on her phone to get at her web browser and check out the news feeds. What she found almost caused her to drag her nails across the screen hard enough to scratch it, "There's a warning out that 60% of the country is seeing heightened levels of irradiation," Which sort of implied that these places saw radiation to begin with, "...Metropolis is seeing the most."
Which was where Max was.
"What? No way! What am I supposed to do?"
Selina wanted to throw her phone and make Max pay for the replacement. She loved him, but the kid could be a complete headache sometimes, "Get the hell out of there before you grow a tail, blockhead!" As if it needed to be said, "What are you going to do, stop it? You don't even know what it is!"
This seemed to make sense to Max's ever-present sense of self-preservation, "Where do I go?"
A good question, and yet at the same time it was also a stupid one, "I don't care! Anywhere! Just get out of there!" He already dodged the issue of what he had called 'electro-cancer' once. Selina figured he would have been quicker to make himself scarce upon hearing the word 'radiation'.
Selina heard Max curse and then heard some shuffling and rustling, "Alright. Come on, Supergirl. You aren't looking too good. We've gotta go."
"Supergirl is with you, and she's ?" Selina asked, realizing why he probably hadn't made a run straight for the city limits the moment she told him to. Supergirl was one of the heroes that he was actually on good terms with, "...Yeah, get her out of there. It's probably something Kryptonite-related."
"Yeah, that's what she said. No idea where it's coming from, but I think it's killing her."
There wasn't much more that Selina could do from where she was compared to where he was. Such a mountain of trouble, all the time, "You're going to need something fast if you want to help her. You hoofing it on foot isn't going to be very helpful."
"Don't worry. I think I've got something. I just wish I had time to play with it first before using it for something like this. Alright, I've gotta go."
"You stay safe," Selina said as Max hung up. She remained off by herself and stared at the pone, "Great. Now my day is ruined."
Of course, considering things objectively, she was far from the only one.
XxX
(San Francisco, California – Titans Tower)
"Guys, we've got a problem!"
Beast Boy's voice ringing out over the tower's intercom brought everyone running to where Superboy was lying on the floor clutching at his head. Sensors connected to the Teen Titans' incident computer were also going haywire, but it was right in front of their eyes which problem needed to be attended to first.
Wonder Girl was at his side quickly, tending to him as he tried to get up, "Connor! Are you okay?"
"Feels like Kryptonite…" Superboy said, "Ugh... are we under attack?"
It was a good question, but nothing else had happened or was happening to any of them.
Kid Flash slipped one of Superboy's arms around his neck and stood with the Kryptonian clone, "I'll get him to the panic room until we figure out what's going on. Hold on big guy," He said before taking off in a blur of speed. Wonder Girl followed after him to try and tend to her boyfriend to make sure he was alright.
That put many of them at ease. It was one problem that would be solved. In addition to other defenses built it, the exterior of the room was lined with lead. That left them with the alert. It wasn't an attack on the tower, or on San Francisco in general. It was something much more widespread.
Cyborg pulled up the necessary map that showed them just what the problem was. On an image of the United States, there were over a dozen
Beast Boy didn't know heads or tails of what to make of what he was looking at, "What the hell is all of this?"
An alien girl with orange skin, red hair, green eyes, and a purple outfit that left very little to the imagination moved ahead of everyone else to take a closer look, "This is radiation from Kryptonite. Victor, these are all places where-."
Cyborg sighed in exasperation, unintentionally interrupting her, "I know, Star. They center of each of these waves is coming from the LexCorp towers.
Beast Boy's shoulders slumped as Kid Flash had returned from helping Superboy into the panic room, "You can't be serious. The Luthor towers?"
The Justice League had kept a close watch on the project after Lex Luthor's public announcement. Anything the man did had to have an eye of scrutiny on it, and there had been nothing amiss in regards to the towers' construction. But there always had to be something, didn't there?
Cyborg's red eye scanned over all of the information. It was new. Brand new. As recent as five minutes ago, "All of this coincides with the ceremony for LexCorp's digital expansion towers," Which had also transpired five minutes prior.
"He's going to poison millions of people!" Wonder Girl exclaimed, looking between each of the others, all of whom had been at the hero game longer than she had, "You can't be telling me he's willing to do all of that just to get to Superman."
"You should sit down and talk to Conner about it sometime," Cyborg said, dryly. The stories that boy could probably tell, both firsthand and secondhand from the Man of Steel himself, "That's what we're dealing with here, guys."
Kid Flash scratched at his head as though he were pondering a difficult decision, "So… get cancer, or no coast-to-coast high speed internet. Tough choice."
Robin wasn't around, remaining in Gotham City, so that left Cyborg as the leader by default. He had the best grasp of the team and the most experience, "To the T-Jet. We don't know how the Justice League will mobilize to deal with this, so for now we've just got to start with the towers closest to us and move to the next one. Beast Boy, you stay back with Connor and make sure nothing happens here."
Beast Boy nodded with a grin as he began to head off to the panic room where Superboy was being kept for his own safety, "Sure. I know with all of the Kryptonite radiation in the air, he'll be glad to have to stare at something green until the rest of you get back."
Temporary exposure wasn't so bad, but too much for too long would be terrible for everyone. That, and anyone of Kryptonian descent would be dead long before anyone else was physically affected.
XxX
(With Null – Metropolis)
Null didn't mean to wait until Supergirl was next to unconscious to get his ride, but that was just something that could be considered a happy accident. There was no way she'd have been fine with him 'liberating' the Gravboard from the veritable tomb that was the expo center at the Avenue of Tomorrow, even if he was using it to save her life.
Standing on the flying device, he held Supergirl under one arm, secured there as he navigated the skies of Metropolis, at times having to make turns to avoid some of the taller buildings of the gigantic city. He looked down at her limp, motionless body and frowned. He'd never seen her so weak. It was a stark difference to the powerful figure he'd seen gracing the skies just the day before. It made him wonder how Superman was doing, but there was nothing he could do about that anyway.
What he could control was helping Supergirl, and that was what he would focus on. Worrying about anything else would do him no good, "I've got to get you out of here," He said to the girl. However, he was mostly speaking for his own benefit, "I can't think of a place to go except somewhere out over the ocean, so I guess that'll have to do until you recover," It didn't matter how powerful these new towers were, if they were the source of the Kryptonite radiation their reach could only extend so far.
Supergirl barely mumbled in return. Null doubted she was even halfway aware of what was happening.
As he flew, electricity sparked to life along the wires and leapt out at Null and Supergirl. Only through his field of magnetic awareness did Null notice anything was coming, and that was just enough for him to brace for it. For the first time in a while, he felt what it was like to have electricity coursing through him, and not in a good way. With his body locking up out of his control, Null couldn't use his body to steer the board, causing a crash to occur. The thief-hero pair crashed into a souvenir hut on the boardwalk. They wound up in the back with plenty of cardboard boxes full of novelty t-shirts and hats to break their fall.
"Ugh," Null pulled himself out of the storage area holding his head with one hand and Supergirl over his other shoulder, "And my day was going so well."
A woman with light blue skin and electric blue hair slowly lowered herself to the ground, presenting herself to Null with a very dangerous smirk. She wore black knee-high boots and a skintight black bodysuit with her legs exposed and a large 'v' opening down her chest and stomach, "-Before it got that much better seeing me, right?"
"I don't even know who you are, other than in my way," Null said in return, "I'm busy trying to save a life here. I don't do that very much, so I'd like to actually pull it off if you don't mind."
The woman put a hand to her heart, as though she were making an earnest plea. But her clearly sarcastic tone made everything clear, "But I do mind. You see, that thing you're holding is Superman's only living true blood relative. It'd probably tear him up good if I left her a corpse," She said with a malicious edge to her tone, "Not only that, but uh... there's quite a bit of money on her head. An anonymous donor called it in to every bad guy in Metropolis with the guts to go for it. It was promised there would be an opening. I can see what it is now."
As could Null. He didn't ask how the woman knew where to find Supergirl. Someone like this had probably been keeping an eye out for the Kryptonians for a while waiting for that opening she talked about. It didn't matter at this point anyway. The only thing that was important was ending this quickly and continuing with his escape plan.
Unfortunately, it seemed like he would have to fight, "Who the hell are you?" Null asked.
The woman was only too happy to identify herself, "Name's Livewire, kid. Now drop the Supergirl and get lost. Or don't," She said, lifting a hand to send bolts of electricity Null's way.
Null lifted his free hand and absorbed every bit of electricity that was shot his way. It was child's play as long as he knew it was coming and was prepared to take it all in. It barely left a tickle on his fingertips. He took great pleasure in the look of surprise on Livewire's face. As an added show of force, he let an electric glow come to his eyes, "I think I'll keep her, thanks. If that's all you've got, you'd better cut bait and beat it while you've got the chance. You can't hurt me."
A flash of anger crossed Livewire's face at the challenge before her confidence returned in full-force, "Oh, I can hurt you, junior. I just have to be creative about it. And if I still can't... well, I know someone who probably can."
A pair of hands tore through the wood of the boardwalk underneath Null's feet. He boosted himself into the air with a magnetically assisted jump that deposited him safely on the roof of a hot dog stand. The Gravboard hovered near, giving him something to set Supergirl down on while he took the time given by a spat between his enemies to assess his situation.
A thick, stocky man in purple and gold armor and helmet pulled himself up to find himself the subject of a tongue-lashing from Livewire, "Damn it, you had the drop on him! How did you mess that up?" She said, walking up to slap the man on the arm.
"He didn't have the drop on me," Null stated gravely, keeping his eye on both of his adversaries, "I don't have time for this," He had to get Supergirl out of Metropolis. She was still motionless on the Gravboard, but he couldn't run. Livewire had caught him once, easily
Wait... Supergirl was still on the Gravboard. That didn't mean he had to be.
Null touched at a spot on his belt. The Gravboard raised up higher into the air and took off flying in a single direction, out to sea.
Livewire could only gape at the flying machine getting away with her target. That was her chance to get back at Superman that was flying off! She glared back down at Null who grinned slyly underneath his hood, "What the hell was that? There wasn't anyone on that thing who could steer it."
The answer was, it was also a drone. Null didn't have to be on it to control it, but that was information that his enemies didn't need to know, "It doesn't matter now. It's gone. Guess you don't need to be here anymore."
Best case scenario, they gave up and left. There was little chance of that happening. The most likely outcome of what he'd just done was that they would-
"Ta' hell wit' dis," The armored lug said, dismissing Supergirl's departure, "We'll find her again. Da bounty says all we gotta do is show up wit' a Kryptonian body. Never said we had ta' be the ones ta' kill 'em," And Supergirl was looking very much close to being dead. Once they caught up again, she would be a sitting duck. All they had to do was go through this kid who apparently wanted to be a hero.
Livewire calmed down. It was true that they had time. The way things were, Supergirl would be in no condition to fight back or flee, if she would even be conscious when they found her. That meant they could deal with their little obstacle and move along, "What do you think, Shockwave? Maybe they'll take a bonus if we bring another deadee along? How about a meddling punk that wants to get his balls tickled by Supergirl?"
-go after him out of anger. That one never failed.
Null raised an eyebrow at the vulgar and odd statement, "I guess you're talking about me," Not odd at implying that he wanted to have sex with Supergirl, because that wasn't odd. She was very hot. It was the choice of verbiage used to describe said action that was off in his view, "And I don't want my balls tickled by anybody. That's just weird. I'd rather just bang somebody, thank you."
Calm tough talk aside, it was still two-on-one with one of the enemies being the likes of whom had no issues mixing it up with Superman.
"I just want to make this clear," Null said, dropping into a ready stance, keeping his eyes on both Livewire and Shockwave, "I am NOT a hero."
"Don't make no difference to me," Shockwave said, punching his fists together.
"Just making sure," Null said before magnetically ripping several light posts out of the ground.
There was no reason not to go all out, right?