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To the attention of the readers who enjoy reading an intelligent main character like Miles will definitely like my original story, Arrival : Ruptures. Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Metropolis
The Justice League was off to stop Brainiac and foil Darkseid's plan, and Miles was free to spread more of his bugs across the country.
Federal and state institutions, secret research sites, and especially Cadmus.
Robert's political efforts, funded and coordinated by EnviroCorps, were focused on spreading his name across the US. Political ID was necessary, and the more people knew about Kerdon, along with his plans as a president, the better.
It wouldn't be enough, however. Both the Republicans and the Democrats were too entrenched, and something monumental would be necessary to knock them out and potentially put an end to the two-party system.
Such as the atrocities committed in Jotunheim.
A blitz attack to dump all the information gathered from the research facility, blaming the past presidents, along with their political parties, just before the elections, would leave both sides scrambling for damage control.
Jotunheim wasn't the only piece of information he had.
Remaining illicit deals of Cadmus and the corruption in the Senate would be like pressing salt to the wound.
The lobbies would have to be shut down since they presented a clear political danger to anyone that did not align with their interests.
Which is why Robert Kerdon needed a guard.
—
Brooklyn
"Miles, welcome," Robert greeted him with a firm handshake.
"Thank you. I must admit, the new party name is rather catchy." He tilted his head forward.
The Next Step.
He assumed it meant the next step in America's history.
Robert gestured to the work outside his new office, where the new party members were working like a beehive, "We are doing our best."
"So am I," he gestured to the new additions.
"These are?" he asked. The two muscular men Miles had brought looked pretty similar, with sunglasses and identical suits. Overall, they looked like generic Secret Service agents.
"Androids disguised as humans. They are your and Abigail's guards," he introduced the latest creations of Thomas.
The angular faces of the androids shifted, revealing the red, metallic surface. Upgraded with Ivo's nanotech, Helix Argentum and Helix Aurum were tasked with protecting Robert Kerdon.
"Mr. Robert," both androids said at the same time, their voices lacking any synthetic tone.
"I… don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything, Robert, just stay safe."
—
Infinity Island.
Home to Ra's al Ghul and his family, as well as the headquarters of the League of Assassins. The vast fortress complex on the island was protected with the latest in security tech and a small army of lethal assassins.
Infiltrating it was impossible through conventional means. The assassins were either zealots or feared the Demon's Head too much and could not be converted.
A man that had lived for centuries and had the opportunity to learn from his mistakes thanks to the Lazarus pit on the island was a dangerous one.
The bugs negated much of the danger posed by the League of Assassins, but there was a small issue. The Caribbean Sea was too large to find the island, and its exact location has never been stated.
Fortunately, Sportsmaster was sighted in Metropolis by one of his contacts.
He didn't know why the assassin was here, but he had just volunteered to be an unwitting mule.
Killing Lawrence Crock would have been his first preferable act. It's just the man was too useful alive.
For now.
Discovering his target had proven to be simple. Leonard Penwell, a reporter, had discovered damning evidence tying several shadowy figures, most likely League of Assassins members, to covert media manipulation efforts in the USA. If released, it would cause a great setback for their cause.
How delightful.
—
"Leonard, there you are," Miles greeted as the man opened the door of his house.
"What the?!"
"Here, we already packed your essentials. Let's get going." He put his arm around the reporter's shoulder, pushing him to the kitchen.
Baraka and Zalika followed, carrying two small bags.
"Who are you? Where are you taking me?" Leonard, terrified of the intruders, did not resist as he was outnumbered.
"We are the people saving you from the assassin after your head. Less questions, more walking," he dragged the man along.
"What assassin?"
"Leonard," he stopped, facing the man, and putting both hands on his shoulders, "you stepped into the den of a hyena pack. They are going to tear you apart. Do you see that car at the corner?" He pointed at the delivery van on the corner of the street.
"Yeah?" It was a delivery van, nothing out of the ordinary.
Except the delivery hours were over.
"If you aren't out of here in two minutes, the assassin posing as the cargo delivery guy will snap your neck like a dry branch," Miles revealed.
Sportsmaster had planned well, but so had he.
"Shit," Leonard cursed, fixing his glass.
"So, are you coming, or would you prefer to lollygag?" he asked rhetorically.
Leonard's throat bobbed, but he followed along.
They took the backdoor and left before Sportsmaster could enter the building. Leonard's phone, which was being used to track him, was handed to another car to take Lawrence on a wild goose chase.
—
Sportsmaster understood something was off the second two vehicles sped out from the back of the house.
Checking his tracker, he calmly returned to the borrowed vehicle and raced to catch the reporter. Whoever took Leonard Penwell could possibly know what the reporter had on his hand.
This could spiral out of control.
"What happened?" Cheshire asked from the back of the van.
"Someone took the target. We need to hurry."
"And here it was supposed to be a simple job."
He kept up with the car but couldn't catch up to it. It left the residential area, driving out to the docks of New York. It pulled up to an alley, and the man inside left, escorting Leonard out. The reporter had a ballistic vest and a helmet to cover him against any weapons fire.
The unknowns took him inside a warehouse. Lawrence ordered Cheshire to stay inside the vehicle to watch the outside and climbed to the roof. The tracker showed the reporter right in the middle of the compound, waiting.
Realizing the trap, he sprung it with smoke bombs. Diving inside, he raised his javelin to attack where the tracker indicated, but Leonard Penwell was nowhere to be seen.
A blinking light caught his attention, and he was about to dive back, thinking it could be an explosive. Seeing it was just the phone he was tracking, Sportsmaster reached out to take it. It had one message on the screen.
"Nice try."
Throwing the useless phone away, he made a beeline for the exit. This mission had failed, and they had to leave immediately.
He ran to the car, but before he could get in the range, a crimson beam struck the vehicle, blooming into a blinding orb in an instant and annihilating the car.
With Cheshire inside.
Sportsmaster dove to the nearest cover and ran away from the scene as fast as possible.
Ra was going to hate this.
—
Miles leaned back, watching everything from his tablet. Not only has the bug been planted on Sportsmaster, but Jade Crock, Artemis' sister, was in custody.
Her equipment and comms device were left inside the car, and all Lawrence witnessed was her annihilation. Not that the assassin would care beyond losing a tool.
The girl was out, though they still searched and cuffed her. Taking her was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Jade wasn't a part of the League of Assassins out of loyalty, but because she was groomed for it. If she could be broken out of her psychological state, he could employ her.
If not, wiping her mind blank and sending her home was a possibility. Once the League understood that the assassin they had trained was gone, with no chance of her returning, they would back off.
Ra's al Ghul was practical, if nothing else.
There were several matters he had to oversee while the League was away.
The Justice League might have agreed to work with him, and some members had come to trust him, but their suspicions did not disappear. Batman was still searching for clues related to his past. The rest of the members didn't exactly share the Dark Knight's skill set, but they were helping the search.
He had left crumbs here and there. Fake photos, mentions of him in person, fake graves for his father and grandparents, bank transactions of his mother's escapade with her young lover.
Now, he planned to create evidence that his mother and her new husband had fallen afoul of a gang and were dead.
How fortunate it was that it happened to be in the Caribbean.
—
Cheshire had to be locked up because, as young as she was, she was still an assassin. She wouldn't be isolated, however, and he wanted to talk to her.
He opened the door to her room but did not step inside.
"Jade, why don't you get down and we talk like two civilized people?" he asked. The girl was nowhere inside the room, and seeing as she had not left, there was only one place she could be.
A beat of silence, and the teen dropped down where she had been waiting at the top of the wall. "Do civilized people keep one another locked up like this?"
"The door was open; you just didn't think it would be and never bothered to check," he said. True to his words, the door was actually open; he just knew she would never think to try.
"Oh," she blinked owlishly.
"Here, I am sure you are hungry," he handed her a tray with bacon, bagel, eggs, orange juice, honey, and jam.
"Aren't you quite the hospitable captor?" Jade said, taking the tray. She sat down on the bed, watching the man lean on the door frame.
"What do you want from me?" the teen demanded. No one would just kidnap a member of the League of Assassins and be so kind.
"Lawrence thinks you are dead after we blew up the car," Miles said. He didn't call Sportsmaster as her father because she never saw him as such.
"So?"
"So, by all means, you are free for the time being, unless you would like to return and throw away your chance," he moved aside, leaving the front door in her view.
"My chance?" she asked, testing the word.
"To abandon the people that have been controlling you ever since you were born," he said. Perhaps it wasn't that dramatic, but Sportsmaster was controlling and molding Jade from a very young age.
She let out a short laugh. "You think it is that easy?"
"With my help, yes."
Jade did not believe he could possibly hope to stop the League from finding her, but she wasn't willing to leave the house either.
He knew that the young girl inside thought she was bad and deserved this life. He also knew she could be proven wrong.
"You know, I met your sister," he revealed as Jade finished her breakfast.
"Artemis? Why? How?" she asked. Not yet at the point of being able to suppress her emotions in such a casual setting, her tone was a pitch higher.
"She was banned from the library; I made sure her card was returned," he explained without mentioning why she was banned in the first place.
"Why?"
"Because Lawrence is a piece of human garbage, and she fully intends to bring you both to justice," he winked.
Artemis, as a vengeful daughter and a sister, wanted to bring both Sportsmaster and her sister to the light.
"I was hoping she would stay out of this whole thing," Jade muttered.
"She is too stubborn for that."
As he had said, she was free to leave. Her status as a KIA meant no one would be looking for her. He offered the house to her, and if she was willing, to help her break away from the League.
The road to breaking the chains on her mind would be a long one.
—
Caribbean
Jamaica
Known for reggae music, blue mountain coffee, jerk cuisine and more, the island nation of Jamaica was a perfect destination for a vacation in the caribbean.
It was also the island closest to being in the middle of the Caribbean Sea and the mosst logical destination to plant the relay.
With the wonders of teleportation, they were done in an hour, and the three of them even joined on a small tour before arriving in Haiti for lunch.
Now, he just had to plant more relays on other islands, creating a network to boost the signal reach, and wait for Lawrence to return to Infinity Island.
It would be fun.
Their trip across the islands took the whole day, but twelve relays were planted. The small network would eventually pick up the signal from the NEXTINSECT, and the island's exact location could be determined.
He wanted to blow up the island, but one matter stayed his hand.
Damian Wayne.
Should he exist, he would also be killing Batman's son.
Not that he liked the boy very much to begin with, but still, he had the potential to be a hero. And it would be sweet to hand a folder to Batman with the images of the son he never knew he had.
The following day, he returned alone. A digital trail, describing the death of a woman in her fifties and her husband, had subtly appeared on the local network.
He had to support it by inserting fake police reports into the precinct, using the credentials of a dead officer to fill the form. When Batman came looking, he would be hard-pressed to find anything out of the ordinary.
—
Infinity Island
"Demon's Head," Sportsmaster knelt before the monitor, waiting for permission.
"Speak," Ra's granted it. This mission was important for their efforts in the United States, and he had personally wished to hear the results.
"The mission was a failure," he admitted, head still down, "An unknown group took the reporter before I arrived. I was drawn to a trap, and Cheshire was lost in an attack."
"Pity, she had potential. You are dismissed. It appears a more adept hand will be necessary for this," the Demon's Head declared, and the screen turned black.
"As you wish," Sportsmaster muttered to himself.
The deliberate sound of a single step came from the shadows. "Tell me more about these unknowns."
Talia al Ghul, the daughter of the Demon's Head, and his most trusted tool. It was not surprising for her to be here.
"They knew I was tracking Leonard's phone and managed to draw me away with it. They blew up the vehicle with Cheshire inside," he reported. This failure would look bad on him, but there would be a chance to make up for it.
Ra did not tolerate too many failures.
"Your daughter is dead, yet not a speck of emotion in your face. How cold," Talia said with a light voice.
Sportsmaster turned around and left.
—
In the next chapter:
One by one, the members began to leave to rest. Miles stopped Batman, holding out a small bag.
"What is it?" Bruce asked. He didn't even attempt to take the bag at first, but Miles held it closer.
They locked eyes, and the Dark Knight finally deigned to take the bag, blinking, "Clothes for a child? Why?"
His question was understandable. As a solitary creature, a life companion was not in the plans of Batman. Unless he somehow slipped out, there would be no child born from him.
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