Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Brightest Doom

Machinations of Talia Al Ghul

My stance was relaxed as I leaned against the brick wall of the roof's entrance. Before me stood Talia Al Ghul, the famed daughter of the Demons Head. Talia stood tall and imposing for a woman of her stature, but that didn't affect me in any way. I understood though how she might have used that to influence others as the silence hung thick between us. While Talia persisted with her silence, I extended my mental range to cover the rooftops.

Again, four other minds felt like blanks within the area. The only thing I could think of that would be able to do that was chi and a lot of training. This meant that Talia had brought some ninja's as backup.

This entire time Talia had watched me and sized me up while I watched her and took in my surroundings. Deep dark soulful chocolate eyes look back at me as I took in her Asian features and sensual pose framed in a tight hugging ninja suit. My eye twitched as I realized that even now, Talia was attempting silent seduction. I guess such training was so ingrained into her system that she would perform such things subconsciously.

On my face was the stoic look of a man ready to just leave, but I could see the calculating look in her eyes. As I turned to leave, she finally decided to break the long-standing silence.

"I have come with an offer for you." Talia said, breaking the long-standing silence and stopping me from turning to leave.

"I already know that, but you have wasted my time enough for one afternoon." I said as I continued to turn and walk to the edge of the building. Within my mental radar, I felt the other voids shifted in my direction. My foot reached the ledge before Talia finally broached the topic that she came here for.

"My father, the great Ra's Al Ghul, would like to extend an invitation." Talia spoke, forcing me to stop and listen.

"And what does the Demon's Head want with someone like myself." I asked, with my back now turned to the ledge. The void shapes on my mental map closed around me, and I made a note of their advanced senses.

"Ahh so you know who that title belongs to." Talia purred with a seductive smile tugging at the edges of her lips.

"The number of things that reside within my mind can not even be quantified, Miss Al Ghul." I replied non-committedly.

"Then why don't you share some with me, and I shall share some with you." Talia said as she sauntered over to my location.

"Then as the old adage goes, ladies first." I replied, then I moved away from the ledge. This was just in case she tried to spartan kick me over the edge.

Talia looked at me for a moment before opening her mouth to speak.

"My father would like to meet you and present a proposal."

I stood there and mulled over what she was saying; something was wrong. There was no hiding from the small feeling at the bottom of my spine; something was very wrong.

"What did he send you to do?" I asked with a neutral tone. Something was wrong, and there would be no more harmless flirting. The only reason Ra's would send his daughter was to either try and gain Bruce once more or to test someone to be his heir. No, there had to be more to it than that.

"Ohh, I didn't do anything." Talia replied, but I knew better than to just trust her and take her word for it. Unfortunately for her, I am not the hero type, and she f.u.c.k.e.d herself. Swift as a striking snake, I grabbed Talia by the neck and hoisted her into the air.

The voids within my mind began to rush towards my direction, but I was already prepared for them. The five hidden assassins were pulled towards my location with a telekinetic phase grasp. Forming my right hand into a fist, I watched as the ninjas died underneath the crushing force of my telekinetic hold.

I could never understand how ninjas could be such a problem for supers. The power scale within the DC universe was so monumentally broken, and yet, no one ever died.

"What did you do." I asked, eyes glowing, menace dripping from my voice.

"What…. What… What are you?" Talia asked while trying to work her way out of the grip I had on her neck.

"Doom." I replied, deflecting a kick away from my face and c.h.e.s.t. Talia was starting to realize exactly who she was f.u.c.k.i.n.g with, but it was far too late now. Kicks and fists flew, but I ignored them as I dug my way into her mind.

Talia's mind felt like I was encountering vault walls, but there was no keeping me out. The mind was the Sage forces domain, and I ruled over that same force with an iron grip. I watched as the blood vessels along her neck bulged out as I shifted through the last twelve hours in her mind.

And what I found almost set me off something fierce. Her father had sent her here to set up a battle between Bruce and I. This would have been fine, but it would seem that Ra's was trying to use the Joker situation to his advantage. My grip had gotten so tight that I almost choked the life out of her. I persisted and watched the replay within her mind on the meeting with Bruce. Talia didn't give him that much information, but she had given Bruce enough to have set him on a path that would lead him to my door eventually.

The look of defiance in Talia's eyes pissed me off, and I couldn't help as I turned around and slammed her headfirst into the rooftop.

"Do you know what you have done, you half pint!" I growled out my disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e. "You knowingly set that man on my path to ruin my cover and dealings."

Bruce might have had his speculations, but they were just that, speculation. But, now, if I was not careful, he would obtain definitive proof before starting to cause me trouble.

"My father... Can help…. You." Talia was able to get out between her teeth as my vice-like grip continued to crush her throat.

"He is the f.u.c.k.i.n.g problem," I replied as I looked her over. Talia had started to turn an interesting shade of purple. "Well him and the rest of these shit heroes. Lucky for you, you're integral to one of my contingency plans."

Talia's eyes widened, but I ignored her attempt to struggle again as I forced my way back into her mind and started to copy the information to my own. Years of martial arts were now my own, and so was her understanding of chi. The next thing I copied was her ninja training, and so much more was assimilated into my mind and sorted.

That twisted sense of loyalty for her father was further twisted and set to serve my will. Her drive towards her goals and everything that she was and everything she would be; was now set to serve Vincent Von Doom. The obsession that she had for Bruce was replaced with my visage as I dug deeper into her subconscious thoughts and machinations.

While I was digging around within Talia's subconscious, I found a sliver of light, and I found that strange. Hell, what was even stranger was what I found down in her cold dark pit of a heart. And that was the face of a child learning to walk, a child that went by the name Damian.

My reaction to that was so jarring that I reeled back from digging through her mind. Talia being as ruthless as she was beautiful; she did not fall and curl up into the fetal position. No, she launched a set of throwing knives aimed for my neck and eyes before running for the edge of the roof.

Slapping away the blades, I followed her over the ledge and down into the alleyway. Grabbing hold of her back foot, slamming her against the fire escape. Then I had to dodge from the knee that shot out for my groin. I caught the knife hand centimeters from my trachea with my telekinesis.

"Ohh, am definitely keeping you." I said back at the challenging look she had plastered on her face. Before she could reply, I activated the programming that I had placed within her mind mere moments ago. The look of loathing melted from her features, but I wasn't finished with her yet.

I was not expecting to learn that Damian had been born already, but I could work with that. All it took was some adjustment of a few plans. As I looked down at Talia, I knew what I was going to do with her. I didn't just need her loyalty; no, I needed a Mercy of my own like Luthor's assistant.

Talia was going to be my Mercy.

Talia's eyes fluttered closed as I reset her mind and shut her down for a reboot. Pulling out my phone, I gave Waylon a call for him to come and pick us up at the corner.

GreenHouse.

3 Days Later...

I was sitting in my lab going over the kryptonite that I had acquired a few weeks ago. Before me sat a small piece that I had carved off the larger chunk sitting under a lead-lined cover. I pulled my chair back as I prepared for another test with the inversion ray I had built. I knew from Lore and DC comics that you could turn the standard kryptonite into different varieties that worked on Superman and normal humans. No, I wasn't doing this to steal his powers, no that would only bring the Justice League down on my head that much faster.

What I wanted out of this was the gold or blue variant.

Blue had healing properties for the human body but also worked if Luther was keeping some Bizzaro clone down in his labs. The gold could work in two ways though, It would give Superman an instant s.e.x change for a few hours while the other would permanently remove his powers. The trick was to get it right because I didn't want to end up with the red variant and get some Superman teenager full of angst running around. No one wanted a de-aged Superman running around, causing teenage drama.

Once my chair was the appropriate ten feet back and behind a shield. I pulled out a remote and activated the inversion array.

SHOOOOM!

The lights flashed all around, but I kept on looking through the shielding. I waited to the count of five before shutting everything back down. I gave everything a moment to rest before leaving from behind the shielding. What I found sitting on the center of the table was a purple shard of kryptonite. Grunting, I opened my drawer and threw it in with the other failed variants.

Sitting in my drawer were platinum, yellow, pink, and the red variants. Removing the lead lining, I had to cut out another shard before turning back around. I then changed the frequency on the emitter dial of the inverse array. Pushing down my frustration, I went back behind the shielding before pressing the start button once more.

Doom does not fail.

While the beam was focused on the shard, I started to tweak the settings a bit. I watched as the waves matched up before canceling each other out. I changed the frequency before extending a telekinetic tendril to rotate the shard of kryptonite. The light started to shift, but I kept the beam steady on the shard as the sound of oscillation began to ring out around the lab area. The glow of green that peaked over the edge of the protections started to change shades as I held the beam steady.

The color shifted from green to purple, then indigo, to deep dark blue. The moment I noticed the light sea blue, I shut down the beam. The w.h.i.n.e of the machine lowered as the power went down, and I rushed from behind the protective covering. I picked up the ray gun I had on the side and slid opened the chamber, I then slid in the blue shard.

Turning around, I found one of Ivy's plants on the far countertop, a flex of mental psionics had the plant losing a few leaves. Taking careful aim, I slowly pressed the trigger. A blast of blue light shot out the end of the ray gun to encase the plant in a bubble of blue energy. The plant shook a little before the part where I had ripped off the leaf started to heal. The process moved so slow that I was able to watch as the wound closed before the whole planet started to grow and blossomed within its pot.

Cutting the beam, I looked at the ray gun within my hand with a smile on my face. It would need some tuning before human testing, but it looked like the healing factor was working. This meant that the blue kryptonite was working as it should, and now it was time to solve my lack of gold kryptonite.

Putting the blue variant on the lead-lined box to save for later, I sat down at the lab table once more.

BLAMM!

"VINCEY-BOO!"

I cringed hard, almost scattering my tools as Harley came barging into my lab time. Looking up, I spotted Harley rushing into my section of the lab with perfect make-up and Ivy trailing behind.

"Yes?" I asked, then turned towards them both with a raised brow.

"You promised to come and pick up Selina with us." Harley said as she took a seat on the top of my lab table.

"I did, didn't I," I said as I tapped a finger on my chin in fake thought. Harley was dancing on the table in a little fit, but I ignored that to see Ivy looking over the plant I tested the blue kryptonite beam on. Ivy gave me a look, then went back to checking the leaves of the plant.

"Hmmm," Ivy hummed as she looked her lovely child over, ignoring Harley's antics on the table. "Dear what did you do?"

Holding out the ray gun, Ivy looked down at it before giving me a raised brow. In return, I said nothing and motioned her to the ray gun. I watched as Ivy looked the ray gun over but never placed the two pieces of the puzzle together. Still, I said nothing, what I did do was summon the ray gun out of her hand. Levitating the potted plant out of her hand, I fired the ray gun at it. Ivy started to yelp in protest but stopped once she noticed the growth of the potted plant.

"Amazing, why did you make this?"

"I built it for the henchmen of Gotham," I answered with a shrug. "How are they going to pay their bills, when Batman likes to break every bone in their bodies."

Ivy gave me a look before going back to watching the growth of the plant.

"Dats so sweet, does it grow back teeth?" Harley asked as she took the ray gun. Harley then started to look it over, but I had to take it out of her hands with a little telekinesis.

"By my calculations, yes it will fix the enamel deficiency caused by the loss of a few teeth" I answered before raising out of my lab chair. Walking over to my lab side, I removed my coat and put it on the rack before standing by the door leading back out. Then I turned to find Ivy and c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at her.

"Coming?"

Ivy didn't even get a chance to say anything as Harley bolted out the door with a whee! I noted that she had lifted the ray gun from my lab table. Ivy sauntered over to stand by me; she then looked at the plant before leaning in to whisper in my ear.

"Ohh, I'll be c.u.ming, alright."

O.O.O.O

TIN ROOF BAR

Walking into the Selina's bar was something else, it was like walking into a brand new world. It was like walking out of Gotham's dark depression and into a gritty old school noir type feel. I couldn't help the smooth slide I did as I spun Ivy before dipping her into a kiss as the smooth jazz played in the background.

Oh yeah, I was starting to like this club.

Before I could pull up to the bar and order a drink, Ivy pulled me towards the upstairs VIP section. The bouncer let us through without a problem, but I had to pull a Jedi mind trick for him to allow Waylon along without any fuss. I was not surprised at who I found sitting at the large table in the back. On that same table lay a black cat with white tufts on its c.h.e.s.t, lying on the table as if it owned the place.

Without saying anything, I took a seat and waited, causing the tension to become thick in the air. Selina sat there in front of me, but I said nothing to break the tension that formed. Before Harley or anyone else could break the silence, a person wearing all black ninja garb fell from the roof and landed on their feet in a crouch.

"Perimeter is all clear, no Batman."

"You may stand with Waylon." I returned as I looked Selina over with an appraising eye. Of course, she was a stunning beauty since that was the only flavor female super villains or heroes came in the DC Universe. Sharp cunning eyes and more than enough intelligence to guess who the ninja that made her report was.

"Gasp…. You said you only wanted to talk," Harley started to w.h.i.n.e in my ear. "You promised not to kill her."

I raised a hand to cut Harley off before speaking. "I plan to keep that promise, but she told Bruce something, and I would like to know what it was."

Ivy and Harley were beyond confused, but Selina understood and with how her eyes flared for a second. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had come here in his investigation.

"Bruce you mean that billionaire womanizer?" Ivy asked as she took the seat I had pushed out with telekinesis for her. Harley took the other, but Waylon and the ninja stayed back.

"Yes, the protector of this cursed land." I replied, tilting my head in her direction.

"The only protector we got is batty bat boy." Harley said in a sing-song voice.

"Yes, funny how the one that desperately clings to control would craft such an alter ego." I confirmed with an enigmatic smile.

Selina took one last look at me before flipping her chair over and trying to bolt out the backdoor. A sigh followed with a wave of my hand, pulling her back. I then settled Selina in her seat before waving a finger in her face.

"I already made a promise not to kill you," I said, playing up the sadness in my voice. "Please don't make me have to hurt you. Harley would like you to join her roller derby team after this is all done."

"Yeah! We can play together and kick so much a.s.s. Then we can go out and rob things." Harley spoke up in excitement. "Sorry, liberate items to a better home."

I smiled at Harley, while Selina was looking at us strangely. The look on Ivy's face told me that she was still processing the information about Bruce's secret identity.

"She is learning." I answered with a shrug. "My issue with you though, is what you told Mr. Wayne."

Selina gave me the side-eye before answering.

"I didn't know anything concrete, so I gave him less than even that." Selina answered, using a slow controlled tone of voice.

"And that was?" I asked, prompting her to roll her eyes at me.

"That he could be found at the chuckle palace." Selina answered succinctly.

It was far too easy to tell that she was giving me the truth. As paranoid as Bruce is, he failed to get someone to help her with her mental defenses. That meant that Selina's mind was viewed as easily as if it were an open book. I gave her a nod before turning and taking the drink from the waiter I had instructed with a little telepathic probe. Urgh, the list of things to fix and work on just keeps on growing.

"Thank you for not breaking trust, Miss Kyle." I said as I held up my drink. "Cheers."

A/N

See you guys in 2 weeks.

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