Chapter 45: Machinations

Volume 2: Fire

(General P.O.V)

The screen came on with a snap, showing a neatly dressed baldheaded handsome man. Luthor smiled lightly, revealing a neat set of teeth as he stared at the refined looking man in a doctor's coat and a light moustache from the other end of the screen.

"Luthor. What do you want? I told Anthony I want no part in whatever little games you're involved in. My work comes first."
T.O. Morrow said, barely waiting for Luthor to talk. Lex, swallowed the rude comment he had about the mad scientist with practiced ease. After all, he wasn't the first annoying person he dealt with on a daily basis. There was 7 billion more on the planet even.

"Professor, I suppose I caught you at a bad time. My apologies."
Lex started off courteously, his voice smooth and not at all thrown off by the annoyance apparent on Morrow's face.
"Fine. I accept your apology. Now speak up. I have more pressing matters to deal with than entertaining you."
Mercy who was behind Lex, tightened her fingers into fists. Luckily she had her hands clasped behind her, ensuring that Lex didn't notice her slight anger at the way Morrow was addressing him.

Lex smoothly reached out a hand and patted her on the arm.
"Oh believe me Professor, you will want to listen to what I have to say. A glass of Goût de Diamants, my dear."
Mercy turned on her heel and left to do as ordered.

Morrow's eyes showed a trace of interest.
"You're not a man I take lightly Luthor. Don't make me lose that respect for you, if this turns out to be nothing."
Morrow warned. Luthor's face turned serious.
"It has recently come to my attention that a particular group of sidekicks are about to crash into your base Professor. They know of your whereabouts and I estimate you have less than a day before they arrive."

Morrow's eyes bulged out of their sockets. A panicked look crossed his face. He was so close! Red Volcano was complete but he hadn't completed the upload. Volcano was going to be his greatest creation! His magnum Opus! How had the League's daycare members, found out of his location?! His Teton county lab was supposed to be a secret.
"How? How did they know? Was it Anthony? No, Anthony would never stoop so low. professional courtesy and his pride wouldn't allow him. Was it you, Luthor? If it was…"

"You insult me, Thomas. Can I call you Thomas?" Lex interrupted, he took a sip of his drink and looked back at the Premier Android maker in the world.
"You need to calm down. I have a way we can both get what we want. "
Lex's voice was soft yet contained an undeniable charm in its tilt that forced you to listen. T.O. Morrow was not an exception.

(10 minutes later)

Lex, leaned back on his chair and stapled his fingers together.
"Did you learn something from this conversation Mercy?"
He asked his ever quiet assistant.
"Yes."
Luthor nodded at her answer.
"Well out with it then."

"Your purposefully downplayed the Junior Justice League's Team strength."
Mercy replied.
"I did."
"Why?"
Lex's smile changed into a cunning one.
"One of the main reasons behind all this is to test 'his' power, not to kill him. A child possessing control over all the classical elements, would no doubt rub Morrow the wrong way, causing him to respond accordingly with lethal violence and terminate him or study him. I'm leaning more towards the former. Morrow's calling card his is androids and he seems to hold a derision towards our more… traditional biological make-up." Lex said while holding up his hand towards the light. You could see the red coloring caused by the light shining through his skin.

"This way, he gets to owe me a favor, I get to see the depths of Maelstrom's full power, test out our 'benefactor's more esoteric technology and if Morrow gets captured by the children, all the more better. It would make it easier to coerce him into providing his assistance at a crucial juncture in the future. Phase one has already began after all."

"And the real reason?"
Mercy asked after Lex's long speech. He raised an eyebrow at the smartly dressed and beautiful young woman.
"What makes you think there is one?"
There was a brief silence between them before Mercy stared her boss straight in the eyes.
"It's you."
The simple response made Lex chuckle.
"Bravo my dear. Bravo."
Mercy's face remained blank. Only the slight and brief upturn of her lips, showing how proud she was of the compliment.

"I'm a humanitarian at the core. If what Green Arrow told our little pet is true, it means Batman suspects what I already know to be a fact. Computer, pull up the data files on Yellowstone national park."
He ordered and the console before him lit up. A map of the world appeared and Lex maximized it by a gesture, showing a red blinking zone situated in Northernwest Wyoming.

"As you can see, there is a super volcano underneath the park, if Morrow's frustration with Red Tornado's…heroic inclinations grow, they could push him to the extreme and given by the League's swift recon mission, this might very well be the case. Now factor in what we know about mad scientist types, they are like children throwing a tantrum when their plans fail. I don't want a world covered with ash. Morrow has proven too dangerous to be left to his own devices. He needs to be kept in constant surveillance, whether that means by the league or under us, is trivial."
Lex stood up and went to the window, staring out at the city, just as the first rays of the sun hit.

"Giving you access to all his tech, one way or the other without doing much except for owing a few 'friends' some favors."
Mercy added.
"You'd be right my dear, if it wasn't for the fact you can't see the bigger picture. It's not about the technology. Not really. It's about giving me access to Morrow himself. One way or the other."
The smile that accompanied the words was less charming and more straight up devilish.

(Aden's P.O.V)

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I switched on the stove and a flame started burning. My hand stretched out, the palm hovering over the fire. My Adaptable Body might seem like a massive cheat but it actually wasn't. Not really. Without regeneration, my enhanced healing was just that, enhanced. I could increase its level by hurting my body continuously then allowing it to heal before doing it again but that would be exhausting. Both mentally and physically. Not to mention, how slow the progress would become as a given skill increased in level.

It wasn't like the system to make it that easy on me. Otherwise I would much more powerful, if all it took was exposing myself to different substances, environments and harmful elements.

That wasn't to say there wasn't a noticeable change in me. For instance, these days M'gann had to struggle to form a link with my mind if I blocked her. I doubt I could currently hold her off at her full Martian form power but it was becoming more and more clear that I was on the way to achieving… something substantial.

That aside, the training I was doing was mostly to trigger anything from my firebending. No matter how much power I tried to pull out from inside, the fire bending eluded me. That led to me deciding to get a sense for it in a more direct manner. Exposing my body to heat. I woke up and after my morning exercise, which was mostly coordination, stretching and reflexes training, I went out into the beach. Hoping that the sun's rays would trigger something.

Despite feeling the warmth hitting my skin, there wasn't much to say on that. I had settled into a cross legged position, attempting to control my breath. The set of forms, stances and basic information I got from the system upon unlocking firebending, told me that firebending was energy and life. Traditional Firebenders draw their power from their inner drive. I had drive! Who could you say had more drive than me? Well except for Batman. That guy is relentless.

Zuko faced a similar situation when he let go of his goal to hunt down the Avatar and instead decided to join the Gaang. His flames had grown weak because for so long he'd been using that as the drive for his firebending. He later accepted that his role was to help the Avatar with restoring the balance and thus was able to get it up again. Totally unrelated to my case though. At least he knew what was wrong.

I had a massive case of Firebending ED and I didn't even know why! Was it psychological? Biological? Hell maybe environmental?

"Morning, Aden, What are you doing?"
I cursed for being so distracted I hadn't noticed my Martian teammate fly in. Then again, her version of flight was very silent. Couple that with her having access to phasing and invisibility and you have a very terrifying spy master race of aliens. Their only weakness was fire and their relatively low population. I think.

Take that away…wait in the comics I remember there being a group of martians with no weakness to fire…

"M'gann, what's up. I didn't feel you come in."
I greeted, turning my attention to the girl. There would be more time to figure out firebending in the future. I also didn't want them to know I had access to it just yet. That secret wouldn't stay hidden for long but downplaying how fast I was progressing in my abilities was a good idea.

She landed and smiled.
"That's because you were distracted silly. I almost didn't feel you too, you're learning how to shield your mind and hide the surface thoughts very fast."
I matched the smile.
"Fast for a human you mean. I might as well be progressing at a snails pace in Martian standards."
She laughed at my comment.

The door to the kitchen opened and in walked Superboy amid her laughter. M'gann made a snort which quickly changed into embarrassment once she saw Connor.
"Connor! How was…huh…your night?"
Connor looked slightly uncomfortable.
"It was fine."

We stared at each other and I jumped off the counter before moving towards the door. Connor reached out a hand and lightly touched my shoulder.
"I'm…huh… I'm sorry. About everything."
He told me sincerely. I looked back at M'gann and saw the slight surprise. I smiled.
"I forgive you Connor. I was actually more mad about the fact that M'gann had to talk you into apologizing the first time around. This apology feels more sincere."

Connor's face lit up.
"So we're good?"
I patted him on the back.
"In the immortal words of Robin, we're whelmed."

Everybody groaned. I laughed because, that shit was actually growing on me.

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