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Chapter 38 by ambergris ambergris

So Charlie's completely screwed... right?

Depends on how much Batgirl can figure out... (Probably!)

Charlie opened his mouth with bare a sound, closed it and reopenned it a few more times. Babs' accusatory pressure was pulpable and it brooked no arguments.

"I'm sorry." He quietly managed. "I didn't mean for any of this."

"I'm sorry? Pardon my French, but I'm finding that FUCKING hard to believe right now," said Dick.

"I'll explain..."

"You had every chance to explain, Charlie. Every chance to come clean," said Babs.

"I didn't know. Until Lex told me I didn't know." Charlie said with a sinking stomach. Half truths, that was the only way he might get out of this. That was Diana's tactics. That has to be his tactics now. He still felt so guilty lying.

"Seriously? That's your defense?" said Babs incredulously. "Alright, I'll bite. If you didn't find out until Lex told me, then you told the League all about your condition. Didn't you?"

"As much as I could, yes. Lex thought my 'condition' affected Kryptonians and that's what I thought," he said. "Clearly that's not true anymore." Charlie gestured at the paused CCTV of Kori then looked away. He didn't feel good about any of this, but there's hope he might get out of this yet.

"But I didn't know," he added. "How could I have known?"

An uncomfortable silence settled into the room as Babs considered Charlie's story. Nightwing tried not to stare dagger into Charlie, and failed. The Flash flanked him from the other side, all pretense of nonchalance gone.

"On face value... but no," started Babs as thought out loud. She paced and she fiddled, openning and closing her smoke bomb pouch. The smoke bomb was her go-to fidget. Perhaps there was a meaningful psychology in the fact that she just wanted to disappear from hairy situation. She would never ran from a fight nor from her life calling as Batgirl, but she was never comfortable when the whole operation depended on her judgement call.

"It doesn't... match up," she said.

Then a lightbulb lit up behind her eyes. A spark. A fluster. A panic. "Dick, how much time did he spent with Kori?" she asked.

Nightwing scowled. "We had the double date and then after the Metallo fight she flew him home so that must be three, four hours? Five tops?"

"It took him much less with Power Girl," said Wally suddenly, startling Charlie. "Granted it was a... higher dosage, but that was no more than fifteen minutes."

"If it takes him between fifteen minutes and five hours to affect someone, we have a bigger problem on our hands," announced Babs finally, grimly. "He spent days on the Watchtower and none of the women on the League reported any issue, which means..."

"Someone was compromised," said Wally.

"And that person or persons must be helping Charlie from within the League," said Babs. "And by the way, if this is true, it rules out your innocence Charlie. You might not know about Starfire, but even if you're that dense there's no way you noticed nothing strange on the Watchtower."

"And if you noticed that then you were lying about the full scope of your power. Which means your story is bogus and you've been lying about other things," she said.

Charlie felt a sharp pain in his stomach and collapse to the floor. Moral of the story? A full contact Nightwing gut punch™️ was nothing to scoff at.

"Cuff him," said Babs, but truly it needn't be said. Nightwing was already on it. Charlie on the other hand was too busy puking his gut out.

"Buddy..." said Wally. Charlie looked up at him expecting to see judgement in his eyes. Instead, he saw a sad look of disappointment, even a hint of betrayal.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Charlie said, but when that was met by silence he added, "Not at first. Things just... took on a life of its..."

"Who do you think is his accomplice in the League?" Babs asked ignoring Charlie.

"Super Girl and Power Girl are behind bars so that leaves only Diana and M'Gann... son of bitch it was Diana," said Wally. "She proposed he took control of Power Girl and I don't think it was a coincidence M'Gann was left in the room, exposed to Charlie as it happened. So now it's the both of them."

"That suggests a degree of organization way beyond what this fucker seem capable of and way beyond..." said Dick gesturing at the video of Kori.

"Stalkery behavior," Babs concluded for him.

"As much as I hate to admit it, that opens us up to the possiblity that Wonder Woman was compromised early and she's the mastermind behind this. Wait a sec, she could even be our mysterious caller." said Dick.

"We can't rule out that possibility for sure, but he could be giving her orders and playing dumb. Anyways, this is actionable intel," said Babs. "Dick you make sure Charlie is secure and search him for any communication device. I'll contact Batman. Wally I need you to alert as many of our assets as you can. If we have this many League members compromised, Charlie's an Omega-level threat in the making."

"Batgirl, come in," Babs' speaker crackled to life just as the Flash stood up.

"Batman! We need to..."

"There's been a jailbreak at the Watchtower."

"Lex?"

"Lex's dead, murdered in his cell. It's..."

"Batman, listen. Wonder Woman she's..." started Babs. "Wait... Wally!"

Who dares intrude on the Clocktower?

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