Sell you a Bridge chapter 207

March 21st 2016 The Himalayas 10:00 PM EDT

We  regrouped after the fight. After Black Beetle died we regrouped with  the whole crew on the same hill we came from. We were able to  successfully subdue the other scarab warriors but everyone was pretty  tense. I knew why, even if Nightwing had offered to ignore it basically,  the execution of someone like the Beetle or anyone at all for that  matter wasn't going to sit well with some of the heroes. There were  quite a few glares in my direction. Oddly Wonder Girl and Miss. Martian  were the ones who seemed least upset after Impulse, who seemed to trying  to hide a satisfied smirk.

The speedster didn't seem  upset at all, but Superboy was another story. The T-shirt clad meta  stalked up to me, getting in my face. "What the hell was that?" His eyes  were wide and full or rage and denial. I didn't blame him, that must  have been jarring as hell. "You can't just execute somebody because you  don't like them. You just shot him in the head!" His voice was high,  almost panicked, but my own expression remained calm.

I  didn't yell or scream or push him away, I just gave a calm smile. "Did  I? How can you be sure he's dead? Scarabs are tough, a gunshot wouldn't  have finished someone like him. He was probably playing dead. You can go  check." My comment was followed almost immediately by a massive  explosion of red flame. I'd taken Nightwing at his word. No body, no  crime. I left behind an insanely densely packed orb of unstable  ectoplasm infused with an explosive demonic energy spell. I wrapped the  whole thing in shadows and dropped it under the Beetle's body to make  sure it got the job done.

His eyes widened as he turned to  stare in horror at the remains of the building. We'd captured all The  Reach soldiers and carted them out here with scarabs, all that was left  down there were the bodies. I'd killed the Beetle but he and the other  scarabs had offer more than a few of their own people as collateral  damage. Those guys gave no fucks about friendly fire. I shrugged  casually. "Oops, guess not. I'm sure he got up and ran off though.  Probably blew the place to cover his tracks."

Superboy  looked like he was about to slug me, but shockingly Nightwing stepped  in. "Enough Conner. We have no proof that he killed anyone, we can't do  anything about it now." The clone seethed, but Nightwing wasn't done. He  turned to me. "If you had done it, not that you did, would you have had  a choice?" His voice was serious. He wanted the others to hear this,  even if they weren't interested.

I shook my head. "I  didn't kill him, that shot wasn't fatal. But if I had killed him, which I  didn't. It would have been unaviodable. He would have been too strong  for me to deal with, he would have been a dangerous psychopath who  planned to hurt a great many innocent people, and I would have been  acting entirely in self defense." I paused. "That's what I would say if I  had actually killed him."

Superboy looked...not  mollified, but less angry. To my surprise Impulse spoke up. "Superboy,  my dude, Morgan just crashed the mode in a major way. It's not spoilers  anymore so I can tell you, Black Beetle was one bad hombre. He was a  sadist who killed tends of thousands of people and enjoyed it, including  some of the people on this very team. He did terrible things to good  people, and the world is a better place without him in it. I'm not  condoning murder." He looked at me wryly. "Not that one took place. But  someone like Black Beetle being killed in self defense isn't murder in  any situation. It's karma."

He didn't look happy about it,  his teeth were gritted and his eyes were blazing as he turned and  stalked away. The confrontation hadn't mollified all the others, but it  had calmed down most of them. Hearing Impulse talk about Black Beetle  like that had given some context, and knowing that I hadn't had a choice  helped a bit. I personally couldn't have been less upset about it. I  didn't want to be a murdering psycho and fall off the deep end but  killing a psychopathic people eating alien mass murderer wasn't going to  disturb my sleep at all.

Zee didn't seem troubled by it  either, nor did Dreamer, though I'd expected that. Wally  looked...confused. I think he understood why I needed to do what I did  and wasn't angry and he was beginning to question why that was. Our time  in the OZ had opened his eyes to the fact that the world wasn't black  or white, it was shades of grey. That thought made me snicker internally  as I remembered that creepy monochrome tomb DG had gone into, but I  kept the laughter off my face because it seemed inappropriate.

I  headed over to check on Zee and Dreamer after everything was said and  done. The two spare clones were dismissed and I verified they had been  safe the whole time. Zee was cuddling and praising Solomon, which was  fair because the little magic using summon had saved my entire ass. I  put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you ok? That was a rough fight." I  was less worried about Dreamer, being a New God adventurer I was  betting her hands weren't blood free. hat planet WAS at war.

She  gave me a bright smile, though I noted a bit of strain in her eyes.  "I'm fine baby, no worries at all. You were the one who had the hard  job. We just took on the cannon fodder. They're all present and  accounted for, and hopefully with Blue and Green to disable the scarabs  and Miss Martian to read their minds we can learn something about The  Reach. Seems like this war is just getting started if what that guy said  is true." She grimaced at my very damaged and still regenerating  Knights. "We're going to need a LOT more of those things Morgan."

I  nodded. "Yes, yes we are. Stronger ones too if I can manage. I'm going  to be going into seclusion to study and build up points after this. I  need higher void spells to use for Soulless templates, and void magic is  much too complex for me to half ass it. I don't know why The Reach want  Earth, maybe metahumans really are that special, but I absolutely won't  let them enslave my planet without a fight, not when my little sister  has powers of her own."

She smiled and took my hand in  hers. "We'll be fine. We have friends and family with us who can help.  We aren't alone. Hell, we have the entire planet on our side, minus a  few assholes. I don't know about you, but I'd be terrified if I were the  reach. So what if they have an invincible galaxy consuming army of  cyborg beetle warriors? We have the Joker, and Poison Ivy, and Black  Adam. Every terrifying villain that ever set the League on their heels  lives on this planet, and they are not big fans of sharing. Even minus  the ones with Savage and Luthor...that's some scary shit."

She  wasn't wrong. I thought about the Oblivion Bar, about the Shadowpact,  and The Shade, and Morgana. About my cousin who was running around  somewhere with her new demon boyfriend and an army from hell most  likely. About Mary Queen of Blood, and Acheron, and every other  terrifying bastard I'd come up against. Honestly, I did feel so much  better imagining the reach having to deal with all of them at once. That  was just the villains too. There were some damn scary heroes, and The  Reach was picking a fight with all of them.

But that left  another problem to be dealt with before the actual battle went down. I  gestured for Zee to follow me over to where the other had gathered. I  turned to Nightwing. "You know what our biggest problem is now? What we  need to deal with at all costs? Because this war IS coming, even if they  have to keep it small on their scale. The century of scarabs is on  world, and those bastards need to be dealt with for sure, but we both  know they won't make the first move. The biggest threat isn't from  space."

He grimaced, but nodded. "The Light. If we're  fighting an all out offensive we can't leave them scurrying around in  the background to take pot shots at us and exploit our weak moments.  When this was a three way duel in the shadows it was tenable, but  fighting a war we need to be stable, and watching our backs all the time  for a backstab from our own forces will split our focus." He made  frustrated sound. "But how the hell do we put the brakes on the Light."  He glared at me. "And DON'T suggest killing any of them. Self defense is  one thing, but we aren't murderers."

I had absolutely  been about suggest killing at least three of them. I was pretty sure my  gun would put down Savage, and Luthor was only human, but that was fine.  I could work around no killing. After all. I had a base, and that base  had a dungeon, and that dungeon...could be upgraded. I grinned at him.  "I actually have something for them if we can take them down. Nothing  lethal, I promise. I'll even take you to see them once we have them  locked up."

He looked dubious about that, but it seemed to  give him a bit of hope. He knew more than anyone the kind of places I  could get in and out of. I had a pretty unique grasp on security systems  and keeping things in a locked box. He frowned. "Well, if we do this we  need to take cane of the biggest threats first. They won't be together,  but they are in contact. Savage is the one we need to worry about most.  Tracking him down is going to be a pain, but with all the resources we  can bring to bear if we have somewhere to hold him I bet it can be  done."

I grinned. "Oh we will. I'll need some time to get  it ready. Say a month to be safe." That would be a lower tier dungeon  upgrade for sure, but it wasn't like it should matter. The current tier  of my defenses was like five, and even I would have some trouble leaving  a dent. Vandal Savage, as far as I knew, was just a really old guy.  Though I wanted to fight him at some point. I was better in terms of raw  technique even I was far behind. If I could add him to my Outer Body  Training regimen I would definitely learn quite a bit.

Nightwing  didn't look like he liked the idea exactly, but he did glance around to  where the others were watching. "We've been fighting The Light for a  long time. The whole League has. What makes you think you can take them  down where we can't? Savage and Luthor may not be physically  unstoppable, but both of them have their own defenses, and they're  always prepared. If we can even find them I guarantee they'll have  forces in place to give them time to escape. What makes this different  than every other time we've tried."

That one drew a  chuckle from me. "Because I have an army." I pointed at the Knights. "A  team of magic users." I gestured to the girls and Solomon. " And then I  gestured to me. "And I'm one of the best infiltration specialists in the  world. Not to mention I was trained by THE best, and he'd be willing to  help out. Whatever nonsense bunker or super security they have won't be  enough. The Reach are enough of a problem, we can't afford  distractions." I grinned viciously. "In one month we turn out The  Light."