Meetings and calls

It was pretty much un heard of for Kara to be home, alone, in the manor… Bruce had been asked to come up to the Justice League Space Station which resulted in Bruce threatening Clark with Kryptonite. Arthur and Mera had more luck submitting a formal request for him to review and provide an outside opinion and oversight of the detention of a criminal to ensure everything was on the up and up. Dick had unsurprisingly gone over to Barbara’s while her father was at work. Jason of course was at the Saturday detention teaching unarmed self defense and Alfred was out having driven the red-haired psychopath that morning.

“No, no, no… dang it…” Kara muttered to herself as she tried to contort to avoid the VR wall while hitting the rogue bar, “Missed it…”

Kara’s phone started ringing…

“Son of a…” Kara muttered.

Kara tried to pause her game only for the stage to end on her costing her her score. Kara took off the VR helmet with a scowl and looked at her phone on the coffee table behind her. She detangled herself from the VR gear and went over to the phone as the ringing stopped…

“Well…” Kara took a deep breath.

Kara was putting her hands on her hips figuring that there was a message being left. Rather the phone rang again. Kara reached down and looked at the caller ID. Donna Troy was calling her via a secure Justice League network. Kara answered the phone.

“Hello? Kara started before her eyes shot to the side as she was struggling to make sense of what was being said, “Donna… slow down, your mouth is moving faster than your brain! Calm down…”

Kara pinched the bridge of her nose as Donna started verbally spazing out verbally again.

“Ok, stop Donna…” Kara snapped, “Lets go over this slowly, you check the libraries of Theymescara? Why… Ok, what di you find? Donna, I am sure your Amazonian Greek gets brownie points with your Greek Lit professors, but can we speed this up with simplified version? Αδάμ ο Μαύρος? Meaning? So what about this ‘Adam the Black?’ That sounds a lot like Tyrant… So it is, what else? The wizard was censured? What wizard… Ok that would be why he was censured… Isis, like the Eygptian goddess? Someone using her name, that makes more sense… So what happened to them? The record stopped? Just like that? Oh, you did meet the author, what did she say? Well, that isn’t helpful. I can feel her frustration, instead of how it ended, the god turns into a fish and swims away… Well there is a Reason we got him and his sister in Gotham Academy Donna, you know full well what the Saturday denetions really teach. I will give Bruce the cliffnotes version, ok? Alright, Dick is at Barbara’s place, so best not to call. I will have him call you when he gets back. Alright, bye.”

Kara hung up the phone and sat down on the couch.

“Adam the Black, tyrant without mercy… Great, lets hope the kid does go egocentric…”

*

“Well Papa Gordon has seen me naked…” Dick announced as he walked into the family room, “At least that awkwardness is out of the way…”

“What?” Kara asked.

“Spent all morning helping Bab, move furniture around and we were going to go to a movie this afternoon, so I hopped in the shower,” Dick said as he sat at the couch, “Papa Gordon came home for lunch and thought it was Babs in the shower… So he is talking to her right outside the bathroom door. When she walked out of her bedroom, he kicked open the door to see who was in the bathroom.”

“That it?” Kara prodded.

“Yeah, there was some WTFs and WTHs from Papa Gordon…” Dick said.

“No screaming like a cheerleader in an 80’s slasher movie from you?” Kara grinned.

“You had your dampeners off, didn’t you?” Dick put his hands over his face.

“No, I took a message for Bruce,” Kara smiled, “I have been getting interesting phone calls today.”

“So, besides my humiliation, what other calls have you taken?” Dick asked.

“Donna called,” Kara rolled her eyes.

“Oh?” Dick asked.

“Seems she has been looking up what she can find about Billy Batson’s alter ego,” Kara took a heavy breath, “It seems there are records in the Amazon libraries that there was a previous Captain Marvel, someone called Adam the Black, no points for guessing how his rule of the lands turned out with that name.”

“Black as in Black Hearted and tyrannical?” Dick asked.

“Pretty much,” Kara said, “Bruce has been up in the penthouse for hours, with his phone off by the way.”

“He is be in a fowl mood,” Dick rolled his eyes, “Any other calls?”

“Lucius called asking for a special security investigation oversight of Tetch’s program. Seems there are some anomalies in his work logs,” Kara said, “And he wanted Bruce’s OK for a deep dive.”

“Great…”

*

Helen checked the doors to her apartment, there was no sign that anyone had gotten while she supervised Jason Todd’s class on unarmed combat with the Student Titans. Clearly Karen hadn’t returned yet. She had heard that Clark had called her father, well the man who should have been her father, up to the Space Station for a meeting. Hopefully, seeing the completeness of Karen’s plan would calm him down. She knew that was not likely. Helen took out the micro UV flashlight and examined the doorknob and the three pieces of clear fishing line. The chemical wouldn’t be invented for another few years, but the lack of reaction meant that no one had tampered with any of her warning signs since she left. Helen walked into the apartment and took off her boots.

“I am surprised I don’t have a package waiting for Karen,” Helen muttered, “Something kryptonite. Maybe this version is less vindictive at this point that Father was.”

Helen started to the bedroom to take off her suit. As she approached the archway to the kitchen, she noted a hint of movement in the shadows. She silently reached into the hiding place as she walked closer to the kitchen and pulled out the custom Korth .357 Magnum pistol. The moving shadows indicated that the intruder was at her kitchen table playing with something. Helen put the pistol around the corner of the archway and poked her head out just enough to put the pistol on target and instantly realized how completely fucked she was.

“I believe you are missing this Madame Helen,” Alfred said holding a metal tack up on the tip of his finger.

Helen lowered her revolver as she stepped fully into the archway. Alfred kept the Canadian made Browning Pistol trained on her with his right hand. On the kitchen table was a blue roll of paper towels with the firing pins for all the hidden firearms she had, including the ones in her cars.

“Grandpa Alfie…” Helen started as she put the revolver on the counter.

“Don’t try to charm your way out of this,” Alfred’s tone remained stone cold, “You are going to have a sit down conversation. And we both know how a real fight would turn out Madame Helen.”

Helen looked away from Alfred for a second before looking back at him.

“So… You were sent to kill us?” Helen said knowing that Alfred would have realized her hesitation to say Father vs Bruce.

“You know full well that if Master Bruce gave the word, even Ra Al Ghul would be the dinner entertainment at Etragine’s palace,” Alfred said, “And he wouldn’t realize it until he was dancing on the hotplate in a tutu.”

Helen didn’t say anything. She looked at Alfred for a long minute considering her options.

“Oh please…” Alfred said as he put the firing pin down and held up a piece of fishing line, “The Claymore mine under the seat was a nice touch. I would recommend acts of contrition, because you don’t want to fight.”

“You think I can’t handle myself?” Helen asked.

“I know you have no qualms about using lethal force, you do not have PTSD, and many other things you do not want the world to know,” Alfred said, “Now do be a good girl. You don’t want to disappoint your FATHER.”

AS much as Helen tried to show no reaction, Alfred saw the twitch. She couldn’t help but see Bruce Wayne as her father, and she felt guilty about his death… Something that this Bruce Wayne and Alfred clearly knew and would not hesitate to use against her…

“Now, If you will excuse me, I have a child return to their home and you have a lot of cleaning to do,” Alfred said as he nodded his head to his left.

Helen looked to her right and saw what Alfred meant, an empty twenty-pound jar of cosmoline. Enough to render every firearm useless.

“Good day Madame Helen,” Alfred said standing up.

As much as Helen raged inside and she saw plenty of weapons and possibilities, she wasn’t Damian, she wasn’t Jason, she was the daughter of Bruce and Selina and knew better. Helen stepped aside and let Alfred leave without any other action. She listened as he left for any clues as to what else he tampered with, but only heard him leave via the door to the school.

*

Alexander Knox was sitting at the desk rewriting the opinion piece for the fourteenth time. Viki Vale walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“What gives? It’s been day’s and still nothing from you on the Woodrue Murder,” Viki leaned down and looked at Knox.

“Well, you know me,” Knox leaned back in his chair and looked up at his friend, “It isn’t my beat, not Gargoyle related. Besides, I don’t think there was a murder…”

“What do you mean?” Viki asked as she went to sit on Knox’s coffee table.

“I think it is Snapper Carr’s beat,” Knox said as he adjusted his chair to face Viki.

“Snapper? The Justice League PR guy?” Viki asked.

“Think about it,” Knox said, “What facts do we know? Plants, freaking plants broke into Woodrue’s lab, there is a hole in the ceiling where someone dropped in. And there is no body, just burnt plant matter, clothes, and some singed hairs. Not Gargoyle stuff.”

“So what?” Viki asked, “Some new super-villain tried to kidnap the doctor and the Justice League took him?”

Knox looked around and then weaved his fingers together and put his joined hands in back of his head and leaned back to look up at the ceiling.

“I don’t know, but if he was incinerated from what the contacts at the forensic labs tell me, it would have to be some sort of heat-slash-death ray out of some sci-fi movie. All signs indicate the clothes were burned from the inside out, not from the surface down…” Knox looked down his nose to Viki.

“Can’t Superman do something like that with his laser eyes?” Viki asked.

“Maybe,” Knox shrugged, “Lane and Kent have me blocked so I can’t ask them about it. And they are the experts on the Man of Steel.”

“What about the Star Labs people?” Viki asked.

“Restraining order is still good for another ten years,” Knox looked back up.

“So what are you working on?” Viki asked.

“Opinion piece,” Knox said, “Trying to convince people that this ‘lets use Superheroes to enforce Gun Control’ is a bad idea… but the whole premise is so perverse I can’t comment on it without being condescending or vindictive.”

“So draft twenty-three?” Viki smiled.

“Fourteen,” Knox said, “I also wrote up a piece on the announcement that Lex-corps is building a new robotic center in Jersey City.”

“What do you make of the Gargoyle going off on the Bird gang?” Viki asked, “You see something else behind it, don’t you?”

“I think it is beyond question that the Gargoyles are territorial as hell,” Knox said, “So I think the Woodrue thing pissed them off, outsiders came in, and then left, faster than they could react...”

“So when the bird boys went ATM clubbing the Gargoyles used them for anger management?” Viki finished the idea.

“Just a thought,” Knox said.

“doesn’t have anything solid to go on,” Viki pointed out.

“Hence why I left it out of the article,” Knox said, “Any luck on the new Sports Hurst?”

“Now, the Gargoyles are even more picky about driving that around compared to the old model,” Viki sighed.

“I am sure the blizzards aren’t good for driving,” Knox said.

“Yeah, no sign of that Red X racer lately either,” Viki hung her head.