Sell you a Bridge chapter 193

March 6th 2016 Reach Factory 12:00 PM EDT

Getting  a meeting with the League turned out to be both easier and harder than  expected. The big three and a few others were off world for some reason  that we couldn't get a straight answer on, but we got an agreement to  meet up with Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Captain Atom at an out of  the way diner on the river between Gotham and Metropolis. Wally came  along with us, as did Jim and B'arzz, but otherwise we kept it to  exclusively Dreamer, Zee, and me.

When  we entered the diner though, I was stunned to see a blonde blur sweep  Wally up into a tight hug. Black Canary was clutching the redhead like  he was her own son. "I'm so glad you're ok. We thought the worst when  you didn't come back from Arkham all those years ago. The Flash will be  so glad you're home. He wanted to come see you, but with Superman,  Wonder Woman, Batman, GL, Manhunter, and Hawkwoman all gone he's the  most senior member of the League on the planet and is acting chairman of  the League."

Wally  hugged her back, and I was surprised to see Artemis wasn't jealous of  him hugging the busty heroine. I'd always had a bit of a crush, and I  saw Zee give me a measured look as she sensed that through our bond, but  Artemis clearly knew Wally and Black Canary had history. The strong  maternal aura made it clear to me that the two of them had been through  some things together but it was more familial than romantic, so she  obviously had a point.

The  redhead laughed as he pulled away. "Tell him it's fine. I get it. I saw  mom and dad and I knew he'd be busy. It's good to see you BC. You look  good. Thanks for taking this meeting. We were afraid you might not take  this seriously considering the source." He flicked his eyes to us as we  all took a seat in a red plastic booth, a waitress who was much too  blase about this whole thing coming to take our order as we all squeezed  into two of the seating structures that were right next to each other.

Black  Canary looked over at us an sighed. "Aside from the legalities of their  situation being clear, we were never really willing to push things with  your friends." Her eyes sharpened. "The events that occurred during the  siege...it was decided that legal ramifications for the measures taken  to survive would be unfair, as well as gridlocking the justice system  since literally everyone in Gotham broke SOME law or other. Enough  people saw Devastation and Myrina trying to kill you that you  technically fall under the bulk self defense clause."

She  didn't sound happy about that, but she also didn't sound as spiteful as  I would expect. I guess not everyone on the Justice League was as big  of a goody goody as Superman. It also made sense. Gotham was a burning  pile of dumpster rubble morally speaking. There was no way the sheer  number of crimes during the Amazon War wasn't so mindbogglingly high it  beggared the imagination. We'd gotten lucky. The whole murder thing  completely slipped my mind. Lucky we brought Jim just in case as backup.  Captain Atom would be a tough fight even for me.

Speaking  of Jim, the busty blonde was smiling at my mentor fondly. "Good to see  you old ghost. Sorry everyone has been giving you such a hard time, but  I'm sure we're all glad the kids are back." Her aura had a spike of  remembered fondness that I recognized, and I tried not to groan at the  knowledge that my boss had at one point been fucking Black Canary.  Knowledge that Green Arrow apparently already had, given his acidic  glare towards my ghostly mentor. The more things changed, the more they  stayed the same.

I  cleared my throat. "Posturing aside. Our friend B'arzz here, brought us  some pretty upsetting info about The Reach, and we dug up a bit more  ourselves. We have a vested interest in making sure that this world  stays safe, obviously, and we're planning to attempt to counter their  influence as best we can." I had automatically defaulted to my more  formal Random mannerisms in the presence of the Leaguers, but I saw no  reason to stop it. "He can fill you in on the details."

I  nodded to B'arzz, who told his story, which was picked up by Wally with  news of what he found. By the time we were done the Leaguers looked  disturbed. Black Canary looked to Captain Atom. "That might be where the  missing teens have been going. Though it doesn't explain what they've  been doing with them. Assuming they ARE pre-metas, what's the point of  kidnapping them?" Her voice was tight with anger and concern, and I  tried to piece together the story from her comment.

It  turned out to not be necessary. She turned back to us with an  apologetic smile. "Sorry. Over the last year or two there have been a  series of disappearances. Teenagers have been vanishing, most have been  thought to have run away, if anyone bothered to even check."

Artemis  was gritting her teeth. "So you're telling me that they've been  stealing humans for over a year and nobody even knew? That there's a  bunch of teens in a lab somewhere being experimented on by some crazy  alien doctors?" Her dark grey eyes were cold, but she took a deep breath  trying to calm down. "Do you know how many? Whatever they're doing with  them can't be good so I hope for their sakes and ours that they don't  have a stockpile."

Black  Canary shook her head sadly. "No. We can't be sure we even noticed them  all. Considering the targets there are bound to be plenty we couldn't  get information on or who no one noticed missing. For all we know they  have hundreds of them now. The worst part is we don't even have any  direct evidence. The word of a self proclaimed alien spy won't hold much  weight. The chemicals are bad, but they can just claim they were  planted, after the debacle with the secretary general support for the  League is at an all time low, and our biggest critic is in their god  damned drink commercial."

I  nodded. "We know. It's why we approached you. We're in a position to be  a bit more...flexible, about combating the threat. We're GOING to  handle them, but we would really appreciate backup from people with your  skillset. Keep in mind you can't stop us from doing this. So your  options here aren't whether we're involved or not, they're whether  you're going to help us or actively get in our way." My point may have  been a bit blunt, but I had no time to coddle their feelings. I was  genuinely pissed.

Black  Canary closed her eyes in consternation. "This is the damn team all  over again. Fine. We can't stop you. But we CAN make sure you do this  safely. You want to work with us you work by our rules. We have a team  made up of people your age, Kid Flash is familiar with them I'm sure. If  you're willing to work with the Team we aren't against collaborating,  we just want to make sure you stay safe."

Green  Arrow glared at Jim. "Unlike SOME people we don't let teenagers run  around competing with adult superhumans with little to no supervision."  He clearly had some issues with Jim, but to my surprise, my mentor  didn't fight back or even snark, he just sat there and took it. It was  clear he still blamed himself for us getting sucked into that portal,  and telling him different hadn't changed that.

Still,  I wasn't letting some jumped up Robin Hood talk shit to my mentor. I  was back up at five thousand points now, having topped off at noon from  my new crazy upkeep. I poured a small helping of points into my ghost  powers, but not into any aspect of them I'd tried before. This time I  poured my energy into my "ghostly presence". The temperature dropped  radically, the sodas the waitress has brought over while we talked  frosting in their glasses as everyone turned to look at me warily.

My  eyes were blazing with ectoplasmic light, based on the green glow  spilling over the table in front of me, and I stared daggers at the  emerald archer. " I am not a child. I am not an invalid. I make my own  decisions, and my mentor's role in those decisions is none of your  fucking business, so why don't you keep your stupid dick van dyke beard  in its upright and locked position before you say something that will  REALLY piss me off."

The  frost creeping across the table was clearly convincing, and Green Arrow  stopped glaring at Jim long enough to look at me warily. Zee reached  over to take my hand, and I let the ectoplasmic aura drop. She smiled  placatingly at the Leaguers. "I'm sorry about that. We haven't been home  in a long time, and Morgan is upset at how much of our absence has been  blamed on his mentor. I'm sure you can understand why he'd be unhappy  about how Gentleman Ghost has been treated in our absence."

I  took a deep breath. "We're willing to work with your team, and even  communicate about our plans and accept feedback, but we aren't joining.  Wally told us the kind of backseat sidelining bullshit you guys pulled  on him and his friends back in the day. We'll work with you, or we'll  work without you, but we ARE doing this. You cool with that? Or do we  walk?" I expected them to tense up and get annoyed, but weirdly Black  Canary in particular smiled at my little speech.

She  shook her head with a chuckle. "Get on board or get out of the way,  huh? History really does repeat itself. Fine. We won't sandbag you, but  we expect open communication before you engage in any operations,  especially with team personnel. We know you can handle yourselves, that  much has been made clear, but the last thing we need is one of ours  following you into something they can't handle and getting hurt."

I  sighed, nodding once, and she relaxed. Artemis chewed her lip. "There's  more." We all looked at her. "I want information. That thing about  Gotham was something we didn't know. We need someone to fill in the  blanks, because just the stuff the general public knows isn't going to  cut it. I have people I need to find, and just in general I think we all  want to be caught up on what's been happening."

Black  Canary nodded. "Very well. We can arrange it." She nodded to Wally.  "Wally knows the way to the Zeta tubes, you'll be green lighted for  travel to mount justice, but only when there's a chaperone on the  premises. No offense, but you WERE professional thieves. You execution  of Devastation in particular will be a big sticking point for some of  the League, but this is too big to just ignore. Without our heavy  hitters it's all hands on deck for this Reach business, so consider  yourselves temporary allies."

I  nodded once, reaching out to shake her hand. Once that was done she  stood to leave. I realized that while some of us had ordered, Black  Canary, Captain Atom, and Green Arrow hadn't. They were never staying. I  was off my game to have missed that. Once they were gone I turned to  the others. "Well...that went as well as could be expected. I feel like  an idiot for forgetting I killed Devastation, thank the gods Gotham is a  dumpster fire, or I might have ended up on trial. Regardless, mission  accomplished I suppose." With that out of the way I decided to relax and  try to just enjoy the night with my friends...and a martian. "Now, I  kind of want to try the cherry pie."