A mission, and a step forward

Jonah spent the next week familiarizing himself with not just the station but the world he was now living in. It seemed that it was mostly the same history wise up until the 1940’s and after that the general trends were the same. The biggest difference was the geography. There were a lot more large cities in this America, and apparently the island of the Amazons and Atlantis were real here. Also, aliens and superpowers are way more common.

As for the station itself, there was every amenity he could think of. Though, most of the rooms he encountered he didn’t really understand the purpose of. But Jonah wasn’t an engineer so that makes sense.

Jonah routine of exercise, training, research, and exploration was interrupted one morning by an order to report to operations. At some point during the past days Jonah got his hands on some more respectable clothing from Starfire. Jonah was still unofficially under house arrest at the station so she had to get them from earth. Apparently, it was quite easy to go back and forth through fix placed teleporting technology from certain locations to the Watchtower. In fact Starfire had visited Jonah many times, almost always matching their first encounter in purpose and pleasure.

The operations center of the Justice League was a busy place. Workers hustled around the large circular room tracking different emergencies across the globe. In the center of the room was a raised platform which overlooked a holographic earth which had several pins at different locations. The head of the hive was Wonder Woman who was shouting orders and instructions to the workers below her. Jonah went to said raised platform and waited for further orders as far away from any busy person as possible.

The only other superhero the room was a blond man on the room end of 30 with gold colored armor. He had a scratchy five-o-clock shadow and a fancy pair of sunglasses which poorly hid his glum look.

“Booster Gold, Jonah Richardson come here.” Wonder Woman said with authority.

“It’d better be important if you called me all the way up here.” Booster Gold sighed.

“I know you don’t want to be here, but the league currently has a massive manpower shortage with all the injuries and” Wonder Woman trailed off.

“I imagine that’s why I’m here as well” Jonah added.

“That’s partially true. Your mostly here bec-”

“Enough with the pleasantries. Let’s get on with this.” Booster Gold said.

“Right. As you may or may not know, the metahuman known as Sister Sanguine is being executed by the American state of Texas today. I need you too to go there and make sure it goes off without a hitch.”

“Blue just died and you want me to babysit a damn execution!” Booster Gold shouted suddenly “and when’s the funeral by the way. I haven’t heard any news about it.”

Wonder Woman nodded stoically. Instead of getting angry she placed a comforting hand on Booster Gold’s shoulder. “We are all mourning those we lost. I know you were very close to Blue Beetle but now is not the time to lose our heads. We still have responsibilities. Blue Beetle would tell you the exact same thing. The funeral arrangements are in the works, you’ll be the first to know alright?”

Booster Gold nodded; his anger expertly diffused.

“Perfect. As to answer your question: you are right, we usually don’t tend to such affairs of state. However, Sister Sanguine is different. She is a powerful metahuman who used her powers of persuasion to create a massive cult following. By Hera She has faked her **** more times than I can count. So, we need you too down there to make sure nobody interrupts the procedure.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Booster Gold seemed to be in a better mode once the two had left the Watchtower. They had stepped on a pad in the operations center and after some button pressing they were teleported to an identical pad in Austin, Texas.

“Tell me kid.” Booster started “are you a super or some sort of pencil pusher?”

“I have powers if that’s what you are asking. But I’m not very experienced.”

“A newbie ay? You’ve heard of me of course.”

“No sir can’t say I have.”

If Booster Gold was disappointed, he hid it well, quickly moving onto the next topic of conversation. “Can you fly?”

“No but I can get us there quicker than flying. I just need a photo and the general location.”

“Alright let’s see it kid.”

Jonah focused on the new power inside of him. He was too afraid to practice more than small portals in the Watchtower because of the danger of space but now that he was on solid ground, he could use it properly. The key was visualization. If he could picture where he wanted to go, he would go there. Any complications were glossed over with intention. Whatever it was it just always worked better than expected. Booster Gold pulled up a picture of the facility where the execution was happening and Jonah pictured himself there.

Jonah drew a line in the air and a crackling hole in space sliced open. It was just big enough for one person to step through.

The transition from one location to another was seamless. Once Booster Gold was through Jonah willed the portal closed.

“I read the files for this broad and apparently she used her powers to amass a massive harem of attractive men and women.” Booster explained as they were being shown to the witness room.

“Wow.”

“I know right. The weirdest part? None of her harem knew they were being manipulated, it all seemed natural them, even years after the fact.”

A sinister idea grew in the back of Jonah head. Execution? Incredible manipulative powers? If he was lucky, he could permanently steal these powers for his own purposes. His own harem of sexy superhero’s sounded pretty appealing to him.

The whole process was a solemn affair. The Sister Sanguine in question was an older red-haired woman who looked to be at the end of her roped. Jonah thought that she looked tired, that her soul was running on empty. If she wasn’t such a ruthless criminal and cult leader, he might have felt bad about her ****. But he didn’t, her **** would be a steppingstone for him, and this time he wouldn’t feel bad about it. People die everything, might as well be somebody bad for once. The prison warden knew why they were there. Booster gold kept a close eye on the other witnesses, in case they tried something, but none of them did. Jonah watched carefully as the inmate was injected with a cocktail of deadly chemicals which would supposedly kill the woman painlessly. Once in he saw the light fade from her eyes, she sure looked dead.

Much to Booster Gold’s confusion Jonah insisted that he join the doctor in examining the body for proof of ****. “We came all the way here, might as well make sure she really kicked the bucket.”

Jonah watched the doctor perform his checks and while nobody was looking, he got a quick touch at the woman’s legs. Perfect! There was just the smallest wisp of life left in the woman. Before she could fade into eternity Jonah stole her powers.

Each time Jonah used his powers it felt different. It all depended on the person and the power. When he was Dead Ringer, he would use that first boost of feeling to get a quick understanding of the power. It allowed him to work quickly, a must-have skill in his previous line of work. When Jonah took Sister Sanguine power of manipulation he did not feel a manual tool like with sideways but more of a on-off switch all around his body. He willed it on and off quickly, feeling the effect on his body. Instead of his eyes or mind Jonah felt something all over his body and skin. Maybe it was a pheromone thing? He thought to himself. He would have to experiment later.

For now, his job here was done. Both he and Booster Gold were glad to be finished of this assignment with no troubles.