Eyeball nodded, and glanced down at the hole in the ground; while everyone else grew suddenly more tense.

  Raven backed away a step, clearly unaware of what was going on; while Sweeps and the Jernal soldier both watched closely, weapons at the ready.

  If he turned on the Kryptonite radiation emitters, they’d be disabled before they finished activating without even hurting him inside the suit; the man could actually tell if they were turned on and just crack each of them. Same thing with the Cold guns. Someone as fast as this guy, when you were already up close, there wasn’t much you could do. Well. Not too much. Oddly enough, if he took a firm hold with him with a spell from his false arm, he could actually slow him down long enough to get both working, and have him pretty much helpless within seconds.

  ….But then it would all go black, after the Raven girl suddenly grew an extra pair of eyes, and her skin turned red. She wouldn’t even complete the gesture she made before he died. Huh. So he’d need to take out both at once, and quickly, or they were all fucked should it come to a fight.

  Once he knew exactly how to handle it and get out alive… he relaxed.. And gestured. “Sweeps. Dobs. Calm down. Nothing’s happening here.” Which Jernal was this? He knew all of the names, but without the olfactory organs he could only tell the adults apart by the surgical scars.

  Superman tilted his head a moment… and frowned. “Nothing’s happening here? I need an explanation. That there might be a very different design from the robot that took out Flash. But… its also got exactly the same equipment and too many design similarities to be a coincidence.”

  Eyeball sighed. “Ascension. Any of your members in on the assassination plot care to talk, assuming it was some of your people?”

  This was…a bit of a lie at best. Ascension did split off, developing multiple personalities, as they stopped communicating, especially with the partially organic bodies. But… at the core, all of them had the same mind, and while they were close, and talking, they might as well be a hive mind from what he could tell.

  It chose to spoke out loud, for obvious reasons. “Definitely some of my people, Eyeball. I couldn’t give you numbers, but the objective is clearly anti-Oligarch. Dictators, billionaires… anyone who amasses power at the cost of the poor, letting people die for their own benefit? Until they’re all dead anyone like that is going to have a target on their backs.”

  “You personally in on that?”

  “Negative. I was supposed to head off to Europa to work on the Shoork colony until this mess cropped up.”

  A nod. He glanced at Superman. “If you feel like bringing in your lie-detecting friend with the rope, I won’t answer all questions… but I will flat-out say I didn’t try to have either Flash or Batman killed, and was genuinely surprised when I heard Flash was attacked at all, much less crippled.”

  Superman frowned… and looked at the machine; two legs, but six tentacles, each ending in both claws and a weapon. It could, conceivably, be an alien in armor; he couldn’t see through the armor; but he doubted it. “And would you help us locate these people?”

  “It’d be counter to our primary directive, so no.”

  “Primary directive?”

  The machine tilted its head. “Ascension’s founder had three rules that she lived by. All of us hold those rules at our core; except that one became irrelevant when the Soviet Union fell. Our absolute first priority is always preserve and advance humanity. Oligarchs, by their very nature, are actively causing the deaths and suffering of other humans to continue being what they are. While not all of Ascension would actively hunt them, not a single one of us would act to protect them.”

  Superman blinked. Raven stepped forward, crossing her arms, glaring at the machine. “Killing Batman and the Flash wouldn’t be good for humanity. He saved the earth so many times… one of my best friends was his student for years, and the things he’s taught us….”

  The machine gave an extremely odd six-limbed shrug. “Batman is over one hundred years old, and a multi-billionaire. He’s saved the earth because that imp we just killed has been playing around with all of you for a century. The net human death caused by his hoarding of wealth each year is a measurable, significant number, both in the world and the local community of gotham.”

  Raven sighed. “Just having money isn’t killing people. That’s just absurd.”

  “The concept of Social Murder is that as various outside forces leech money out of society they decrease the ability of the lower class to access housing, care, and other requirements that consume resources these leeches also desire; in addition, billionaires and their corporations desire a class of people living in miserable conditions on the verge of death to induce fear in their workers; and often maintain those workers themselves in conditions that lead to their deaths. Every private jet constructed has a cost measured not just in currency but in homeless freezing to death in the winter and struggling workers dying of preventable illness.”

  The machine focused on Raven. “Constructing a stylized bat-themed combat aircraft would cause the death of between eleven and twenty-seven people. The city of Gotham regularly suffers deaths in its hospitals and clinics due to inadequate insurance, or on the streets due to inadequate shelter or food, as the billionaires live in extravagant mansions and fly private jets and the children suffer permanent disability from malnutrition while young.”

  She seemed visibly disturbed by Ascension’s remarks, but still countered; “And what if everyone on earth was killed or enslaved because Batman didn’t exist when Darkseid attacked? He was the one who saved us all.”

  Eyeball raised a hand. “That’s enough of that. I don’t think anyone’s going to be convincing anyone else today. Let me just put it this way…”

  He faced Superman. “If any of them go murdering, I won’t support them. You catch one either hunting or actively trying to kill someone? Feel free to ensure they face justice, I won’t interfere in the slightest. We won’t tell you where they are or help round them up, but I will say this much….”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  He glanced at Ascension, then back to the Kryptonian. He was reasonably sure that Ascension could make a cyborg that would fool even the best scanners, given time. Considering Svetlana, he likely already had. “The whole organization is Post-Human; cyborgs. Each member is a fully sentient being that can make its own decisions, but I don’t believe there’s a single member without some sort of augmentation. Just regular security guards with the right weapons can handle the robots, and the right scanners will handle the infiltrators. Just view them like any other group of assassins… just competent ones.”

  He clapped his hands. “Now. We’ve got two options here. We can go at each other’s throats. Deaths on both sides; including among some species that have extremely few members left. Or I can help you clean up the rest of the Imp’s meddling, and then get to work building colonies across the solar system and inviting any humans who’d like to move out to the stars, and if ”

  Superman shook his head, glanced at Ascension for a moment, and sighed. “...We’ll never know just how far his meddling went. The idea that I fought in world war two…. You’ve got radio broadcasts of that?”

  “And video, from later years.”

  “....What meddling, exactly, are you wanting to help with?”

  “Trigon and Darkseid. I think, if we clean up those two, then without the Imp constantly bringing his toys back to life and throwing new ones at you, things might actually be stable here.”

  Raven blinked. “....You want to kill Trigon?”

  “He’s supposed to be trying to invade the earth, right? Unleash an army of demons, kill everyone?”

  She frowned for a moment. “......Well. With that ward, and the right support….”

  A deep breath. “Honestly, just that ward might be enough. His power, and that of his armies, is almost all magic. Its not like Darkseid, who has magic, technology, everything.”

  “Well then. How about we make that our next priority. You folks can get the Flash healed. Clean up any trouble spots. And we can reconvene once we’ve got an expeditionary force ready for a trip into hell.”

  ***

  As the shuttle landed on the deck, Cyborg and Flash were both standing there, watching; Flash wearing a slightly different costume, but otherwise recognizable, all the way down to the lightning bolts… and Superman landed at the same time.

  Eyeball stepped out of the shuttle, glancing around at the now-familiar deck of the Watchtower; and nodded to himself. Not a bad design. He wasn’t certain whether it was made up by the imp, or the locals, but… still.

  He turned to face them. “Good day there, gentlemen. I’m sure Wonder-Woman is already on the way you you can make sure I was telling the truth about not being involved in the attack that hurt you…” He nodded at Flash. “But I actually asked to come for a different reason. How private is this room?”

  Cyborg studied him, then looked at the others… before turning back. “Completely. The only recordings in here are mine. Batman always has his own recording devices on him, and the two of us make a bit of a game of slipping more on each other, but I seem to be winning… at the moment.”

  “Would you mind disabling that for me? The source of your Boom Tube technology is the person I’d be concerned about listening, so a touch of paranoia is appropriate.”

  He shrugged. “Fine. All recordings are off. Whats the question?”

  “I’d like to start a war between Darkseid and Trigon, by going to one of their two realms, drawing attention, and then opening a portal to the other. Both sides would believe it was an invasion, and we could likely use the ensuing chaos to end both threats permanently. I’ve been told that Boom Tubes are the only means to access Apokalips. Is the idea possible?”

  They all stared at him. Flash blinked. “That…. That would kill untold billions.”

  Eyeball didn’t bother to acknowledge Flash’s comment. Cyborg looked thoughtful. “Boom Tubes are able to stay open for a fair amount of time, but not forever. Other portals, however, can conceivably reach Apokalips, as its happened before. It would likely be possible, with the right group of people, to make a portal between Apokalips and Azarath.”

  Flash looked at Superman, then back at Cyborg. “Are you seriously thinking about helping with that madness?”

  Cyborg shrugged. “I’m not sure if you’re aware…. But the people of Apokolips live in a state of constant suffering and actually want to die. We’d be helping them, if anything. And Trigon already killed everyone in Azarath when he took over. I see it as a win-win.”

  Superman gave a slow nod. “Without the Imp involved playing games, its impossible to predict how the next invasion would go. Its fully possible we only won the last two times because he wanted it to go that way, and found it amusing. We should seriously consider it.” He glanced at Eyeball.

  “...Assuming there were only two times.”

  “Impossible to say. I can supply you with the recordings of long-range radio and video broadcasts if you’d like to sort through them; my people are currently conducting a survey, moving a light-month at a time, and getting whatever passes through the interference.”

  Flash looked down at the floor and shook his head… as outside the force-field, the visible image of Wonder-Woman could be seen approaching… looking intensely angry as she landed on the floor.

  She marched up to Eyeball and shoved him back a few steps; he could see she’d be even more upset if he dodged it, so he let it happen.“...Your accursed ward has upended the order of Olympus. My father is dead.”

  He checked to make sure she wouldn’t stab him before he responded. “Nice! From what I’ve heard couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow.”

  She clenched her fists, and turned away. “....He might not have been the greatest of men, or of fathers. But he was the king of the gods, and ruler of Olympus.”

  Eyeball chuckled, and thought back to what he knew of both versions of Zeus; if anything, the one here was actually worse. “He was certainly the king of the rapists, murderers, and thieves. I certainly wouldn’t want to be part of any group that claimed him as a leader. My folks were a bunch of bootleggers and pot-growers, and I’m more proud of them than I would be if my father was that sort of asshole.”

  She turned back. “I…. know he wasn’t… gah. Just shut up. I can know he wasn’t a good man, but still grieve for a dead father.”

  Eyeball blinked… and shook his head. “Well, fuck. That was insensitive. Sorry, its just… Your father perpetuated an incredible amount of evil over the years. I knew I could easily get support for taking out Darkseid and Trigon, but he was almost as bad, and yet…. I was concerned he’d go unpunished. I apologize for my remarks, but my feeling is genuine; the world is a better place without him, and if you or one of his other children took his place, the Olympians, and the world, would be much better off.”

  She sighed. “Fine. Maybe. Now…. why did you call me here?”

  Eyeball glanced at Superman. “Well. It seems like I’m considered a bit untrustworthy, so they want my assurance I wasn’t behind Flash almost getting killed. If its fine with you, you can toss that rope my way again, and I can explain a few things. Without that accursed imp using you all as puppets, I have a bit more confidence in which side you’re on.”