Chapter 8: Take me to your leader.

  Rigal Phenex

  Phoenix Roost, NJ, USA

  Things settled down somewhat after I scared the shit out of Dan the accountant. Leaving him alive was the right call. Now, not only was he too terrified to cheat me, he was also too afraid to quit his job, making him a constant reminder of my displeasure. Best of all, he wouldn’t even off himself because half the fear came from the idea that I could and would pay him a visit in the afterlife.

  Nowadays, my men kept their noses squeaky clean. Sure, some of them acted as middlemen and peddled drugs... And maybe a few of them worked as bodyguards without appropriate licenses... And a few people took the Dealer’s old book of blackmail and squeezed some concessions out of some of the businesses in the city…

  Okay, maybe we weren’t squeaky clean, but we were clean as far as shady organizations in Gotham went.

  We had to be. Truth was, we weren’t the top dogs in Gotham, not even close. We didn’t have dominance over the city’s underworld or political scene, never mind competing with Wayne Enterprises economically. There were only two things protecting the Phoenix Roost: my phoenix tears and mine and Max’s personal strengths.

  Part of this was by design. I couldn’t have the Dealer’s old crew thinking they could survive without my protection, after all. The mooks were a little more manageable with Victor Fries overseeing them, but I believed the stick was still the most reliable way to keep them in line.

  That said, I couldn’t deny that my fledgling organization had several glaring vulnerabilities. Which was why when Victor set a folder in front of me, I actually took the time to read it.

  “Donald McGuyver. Lindsay Henderson. Sabrina Sandhavi. These are all resumes, Victor. Why are you showing me people’s resumes?” I asked. “We don’t exactly have a normal hiring process. If you think they’ll be useful to us, just bring them on.”

  “I would for any other position, but this is important. We need someone to handle our cybersecurity operations,” he said. “You’ve got magic, fine, but I don’t think that helps with this sort of thing, unless I’m wrong?”

  “No, you’re right. The wards around the place keeps out casual onlookers anyway. I wouldn’t bother with physical security personnel if I didn’t need all those minions. Can’t you do it though? You’re a doctor, right?”

  “In biochemistry with a focus on cryogenics research,” he said flatly. “Do you think that makes me an expert in digital security?”

  “I guess? Aren’t all mad scientists the same?”

  “Your willful ignorance is vexing.”

  “Fine, fine, so we need someone to handle digital security.”

  “Indeed. No matter how you choose to expand this organization later, someone who can handle that side of our operations will be critical. Most of all, they must be trustworthy. That folder contains a list of people I think may be worth hiring.”

  I leaned back in my chair and sipped my coffee. It was nice, having minions to delegate to. More minions would mean I could delegate more tasks. Therefore, I could spend more time researching magic, getting stronger, and beating up my little brother in the name of training.

  Now that I thought about it, it was about that time. She was a capable computer scientist, someone skilled enough for my needs, surely.

  “You know,” I told him, sliding the folder back. “I think I may have someone in mind.”

  “You?”

  “Yes. It’s about time I paid them a visit, anyway.”

  “Uhh… Pay who a visit?”

  “My entertainment.”

  X

  I snapped a picture of Max. In a speedo. Posing with his arms flexed around his torso, well-oiled muscles on display.

  He had the Superman good looks, what with his chiseled jawline and perfectly sculpted muscles, and with that came some of the less dignified contract requests. He did have the good sense to turn down the request to participate in a porn video, but my little brother was turning out to be something of a completionist.

  At the moment, I was helping him make a muscle man catalog to promote at a gym. The owner, his contractor, wanted to draw in more customers and thought Max’s literally out of this world physique would be just the thing to draw in gym bros and thirsty women.

  Personally, I doubted it’d work. Having pictures of physical perfection all over the walls wouldn’t make normal people want to work out. If anything, it’d make the average person feel inadequate.

  At least Max got to keep his sunglasses on. His weird pupils would have given him away as a metahuman otherwise and the posters had to feed into the dream that Kryptonian bioengineering perfection was achievable with a few extra hours at the gym.

  “You realize how silly this is, don’t you, Max?” I asked, not for the first time.

  “Yeah, so what? It’s not my fault if it doesn’t work. I’m just doing what the contractor wants,” he grunted. He turned around and flexed so I could get photos of his back muscles. “Besides, I’ve got it. I may as well flaunt it.”

  “As you wish. Anyway, you wanna come meet the heroes?”

  “I don’t know… Why are you interested in this Roquette lady again? You didn’t care about Amazo. I thought you only cared about magic.”

  “I told you, it was Amazo’s lack of personality that put me off from recruiting him. Besides, Serling’s more like Ivo, the creator, than Amazo, the creation. I can respect a fellow researcher,” I said patiently, snapping off a few final photos.

  Dr. Serling Roquette was brilliant. She was recognized as a genius and offered a full scholarship to Royal University in Star City at the tender age of fifteen. There, she’d complete her doctorate in only four years and become a renowned expert on nanorobotics before she could legally drink.

  Now, at the young age of twenty-six, she was a leading research scientist, having programmed her own, experimental cloud of nanomachines that she hoped to use for the betterment of humanity. By any metric, it was quite the impressive resume.

  Which, now that I thought about it, made her rather mediocre given all the other brilliant minds in this world. Even discounting alien technology, Atlantis, and magitech, experts in robotics such as Ivo and Morrow were hardly unheard of. Ant then there were universal geniuses like Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor. She was a large fish that left her river and found that the ocean was filled with fishes just as big, if not bigger, than her.

  There was one more reason that made her incredibly attractive to me, and no, it wasn’t because she was young and blonde.

  Later on this year, the Light would launch an attack against the Justice League using Starro. Starro-tech was nearly perfect mind control, a masterful blend of xenotechnology and magic that no one was immune to. Not Red Tornado with his robot body, not Superman’s kryptonian physiology, not even Doctor Fate, a Lord of Order who, by his very nature, ought to be immune to shit like that.

  That whole mess would be resolved partially thanks to Serling Roquette, one of several scientists who’d go on to work on the uncreatively named Cure-tech. The details of the creation process was never elaborated on, but she and a few select scientists from STAR Labs managed to undo the Light’s work in a matter of days.

  In other words, she’d become incredibly valuable in the near future. I wasn’t sure if she’d be right for my peerage, but having her on my side wouldn’t be a bad thing. I wasn’t foolish enough to think I could control the Justice League with just that bit of leverage, they were too high-minded for that, but a part of me just wanted to rub it in their faces anyway.

  In other other words, she was like a limited edition Pokemon card I wanted, just to make all the other kids on the playground jealous.

  Yes, I could admit it. No, I had zero shame.

  “You said Connor’s still trying to figure things out,” Max said.

  “He is. And are you going to stay away from them until he does?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “What would I even say to him?”

  “Usually, people start with ‘Hello.’”

  “That’s awkward as fuck, Rigal. And I’ve got all this power while Connor’s…”

  “Half-human?”

  “Yes! Not that that’s a bad thing, but…”

  “But you’re afraid that him knowing you exist will make him feel inadequate,” I finished for him. It was a fair assumption, and probably correct. “Have you considered that when he finds out you exist but refused all contact, he might think that you’re ashamed of him? Ashamed of your weaker little brother?”

  “You know it’s not like that.”

  “I know. Superman feels pretty damn awkward about Connor, too. I suspect that’s why he hasn’t visited you as well because we sure as hell haven’t tried to keep you a secret. Look, I don’t know how to make this go smoothly. In fact, I’m positive it won’t. But putting things off might not be the best choice.”

  “I don’t know…” he groaned.

  Max was quickly becoming an assertive and forthright person, as he should. But when it came to his “little brother,” he became far more hesitant, always wondering if he was making the right choice.

  I wondered if that was partially my fault. I took on the role of an older brother figure, but maybe he felt that he ought to have done that for Connor from the beginning as well? It was an impossible expectation of course, he was also in stasis, but emotions weren’t logical.

  “Just think about it,” I told him gently. “Think about what kind of relationship you want with Connor, then work towards it. You’ve got a long life ahead of you, Max. It might take months, or even years, but you’ve got time.”

  X

  Happy Harbor, RI, USA

  I remembered this episode vividly because it was the true debut of Artemis, one of Green Arrow’s proteges and a favorite character of mine. It was also the episode that established the existence of the mole on their team. Though I didn’t know where the Shadows held Roquette, I did know where the team would hide her. For whatever reason, they chose a high school computer lab in Happy Harbor.

  Warding every high school in the small, port city with a subtle detection ward was the work of a single evening. It was basically the same magic that let me know when someone tore a bookmark to summon me. While I was at it, I also went and warded Salem, the infamous town of witch burnings. Thad wouldn’t be relevant for a while yet, but it paid to be prepared.

  That was how, several days later, Max and I found them guarding a slim, blonde woman in a labcoat in the school’s computer lab. It was hilarious. I would have thought they’d at least have gotten her a jacket that didn’t scream, “Look at me! I’m a scientist!” but hey, what did I know? My sole attempt at stealth ended with me flirting with Zatanna.

  “The green one’s M’gann M’orzz, Miss Martian. The freckled ginger with the lightning bolt on his chest is Kid Flash, or Wally West out of costume. Beefy tan dude with short, blonde hair is Aqualad, real name, Kaldur’ahm. Green archer-girl is Artemis, whose real name is also Artemis,” I pointed out each of them to Max. I’d snuck Rick Grayson inside before instructing my familiar to tail the archer while Max was keeping an eye on them via his x-ray vision. “And of course, you know Robin and Superboy.”

  “Is the martian going to be a problem?” he asked with a frown. “We’re not immune to telepathy, right?”

  “You build up a resistance to it as you accumulate more magic and reinforce your external reality with a more self-actualized soul. Basically, the more magically powerful you are, the harder it is for anything, magic or otherwise, to invade your psyche.”

  “And that’s a problem for me, less so for you.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “It is, but M’gann is probably not going to mind-whammy you right off the bat, or unless you give her a reason to. She’s been taught that it’s really not okay on Earth even if it’s regular practice on Mars.”

  “Got it. Hey, why’re they splitting up?”

  I looked over. Sure enough, Robin, Miss Martian, Artemis, and Superboy were headed outside, leaving Aqualad and Kid Flash with the good doctor. Then, the two boys got on Miss Martian’s bioship before flying off.

  I thought about it. A bodyguard mission would obviously benefit from having as many guards as possible. This was a team mission in canon, so they should all be involved…

  No, that wasn’t quite right. After Roquette started working on the virus, she had to put herself online again to track the Fog canister being deployed by the Shadows.

  “Ah, fuck. I know where they’re going.”

  “Where?”

  “They’re tracking the Fog’s deployment route. Once Roquette makes the virus that’ll shut down the Fog, she’ll upload it onto the internet. That will allow Robin to download it from his end and connect it to the Fog’s control center. Superboy’s there as an added backup.”

  “So… I didn’t need to do the whole soul-searching thing to come here because Connor won’t be around anyway?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Hey, I really didn’t remember, alright? Besides, it’s good to think things through anyway.”

  “Fine, so now what?”

  “Now, we introduce ourselves.”

  X

  Artemis Crock

  Not for the first time, I wondered what the hell I was doing here. Those guys were clearly still pining for Speedy, Red Arrow, whatever he went by these days. I hadn’t even been here a day and I already felt like the bargain bin replacement.

  Miss Martian wasn’t so bad. She was nice, just really naive. It was like she expected everyone to be pals just because our mentors shoved us all together on a superhero playdate.

  Still, she was by far better than the “Wall-Man.” That jerk acted like Red Arrow's emotional issues were somehow my fault, as though I’d kept him from the team and filled out some unmentioned “archer quota.”

  “There is no archer-quota. But if there was, you know who we’d pick,” he’d said. Ugh, yeah, that was exactly what the new girl wanted to hear. Douchebag.

  I sighed. I just… I just wanted to make a difference. I wanted to prove that just because my old man was a murderous asshole didn’t mean I had to follow in his footsteps. Maybe, I could use my shitty childhood to accomplish something good for the world.

  I had thought that a team of teen heroes like me would be the way to go. Turned out, I was wrong. They gossipped and nagged and played the blame game like every other social group I’d been part of. Maybe they did good work, but sometimes, the emphasis shouldn’t be on “heroes;” it should be on “teens.”

  I tried to focus on the mission. Miss Martian and I were outside, patrolling the perimeter, while Aqualad and Kid Flash watched the good doctor. Miss Martian hovered to the other side of the school so we could cover more ground.

  Robin and Superboy had just left when a robin, not the bat-brat, an actual robin, flew over. It sat on the chain-link fence and opened its beak.

  “Oh~ Who lives in a pineapple under the sea~” it, no, he sang, surprisingly on-key. He gestured with one wing towards me.

  I stared in silence. I was going crazy.

  “What? You don’t know that one? Ugh, kids these days. What an uncultured pleb you’ve turned out to be,” he complained. Apparently, I was supposed to sing along. It hopped from foot to foot before chirping, “You know, Superboy does have a fantastic ass. I saw you checking him out earlier.”

  “I-What?”

  “I have a photo catalog if you want it. Speedo, body oil, lots of poses, the whole shebang.”

  “That’s-What?”

  ‘What’s going on, Artemis?’ I heard Miss Martian in my mind. ‘Your mind suddenly felt confused. Is there something happening?’

  ‘I… There’s a robin talking to me.’

  ‘Why would Robin call you?’ Kid Flash scoffed. ‘He’d call one of us if he wanted something.’

  ‘No, a literal robin, you jerk.’

  ‘Pull the other one. Robins are diurnal.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It means they’re active during the day and sleep at night. Like right now.’

  I frowned. Did he always have to be such a smartass? ‘Well, there’s one on the fence. And it’s talking to me. Like, in English.’

  ‘Great, she’s crazy. Glad we figured this out early.’

  'So, you interested in that photo album?” the robin said, oblivious to the voices in my head.

  Maybe I was starting to lose it, but I could swear the little shit was smirking at me. With a beak. Somehow.

  It must be the stress. There was no way a bird was trying to sell me some… relaxation material.

  “No thanks. I’m good,” I replied politely. Even if I was going mad, there was no reason I shouldn’t be nice to the cute birdie, right? “So… does the talking bird have a name?”

  “Rick. Rick Grayson.”

  “Okay, Rick. Aren’t robins supposed to be asleep by now?”

  “I should be. It’s really far past my bedtime, but what can ya do?” he said in an obviously fake Brooklyn accent. He shrugged helplessly, feathers making him puff out for a moment. “The bossman’s a real cock. Blazing turkey, ya know? He woke me up just to let you know that your sister is going to try to murder that blond bird inside.”

  “I… What?”

  “Jade Crock, though she goes by Nguyen now, because holy shit do you two have daddy issues, is coming. She’ll have backup from two third-rate nobodies calling themselves Black Spider and Hook. Oh, and her codename is Cheshire.”

  “You… You can’t possibly know that. I can’t possibly know that,” I stuttered. Schizophrenics weren’t also prophetic, were they?

  “Jade signed on with the League of Shadows because she wanted to get away from daddy dearest. And, you know, because she’s got more flexible morals than most devils I know.”

  “You know a lot of devils?”

  “Hooh, girl. Yes, I know lots of devils.”

  ‘Artemis? Is everything alright? I’m getting a lot of distressing emotions from your end,’ Miss Martian said. ‘I’m coming over.’

  “I’m going insane,” I muttered, both out loud and through the link. This was the single most surreal conversation I’ve ever had.

  “You’re not,” the talking bird disagreed with me.

  “Of course the talking bird would say that.”

  “Yup. In the stories, every wise witch the hero goes to for advice has a bird familiar. I mean, I’m no owl, but ya ain’t no Perseus either, sugar.”

  “Yeah, and every pirate has a parrot. What’s your point?” I asked dryly. “God, what’s wrong with me? I’m talking to a bird.”

  “Nothing’s wrong with you. Rigal’s just being a dick, again,” someone said behind me. I could hear the barely suppressed snicker in his voice.

  I whirled around, bow notched. I hadn’t even heard him approach. That shouldn’t have been possible. I wasn’t that distracted.

  Then, I found a familiar face hovering two feet off the ground. Weird, since I just saw him leave on a ship and last I checked, he couldn’t fly.

  “S-Superboy?”

  “Max, actually. Connor’s my… little brother.”

  Now that I looked, “Max” did look slightly older. That might have just been his outfit though. He looked like he put more care into his appearance than Superboy’s black t-shirt. He had on a dark-brown, collared shirt with teal, bird patterns sewn into it. He also wore a well-fitted pair of jeans, casual, but not sloppy. He could have stepped off a magazine cover.

  Then there were his eyes. His irises were the same, piercing blue as Superboy’s, but his scleras were black. They made him look a little strange, that constant reminder that he wasn’t a normal person.

  “Superboy doesn’t have a brother,” I said automatically. I hadn’t been told exactly what happened with Cadmus, but Green Arrow told me that Superboy was a clone. Either he was telling the truth, or he was some kind of shapeshifter.

  “He does. There was one more clone in Cadmus,” Rick’s voice said. Except this time, it wasn’t Rick talking.

  This time, I heard him coming, but only because he deliberately walked on the ground and made his footsteps audible. The big, flaming wings on his back made that clear. Rick the robin flew over to perch happily on his shoulder.

  The blonde man was probably a few years older than me, somewhere in his twenties. He was easily the prettiest man I’d ever seen, enough that he’d probably make male models feel self-conscious.

  There was something impossible about his appearance though, and nothing as obvious as not-Superboy’s eyes.

  He wasn’t just well-dressed and good-looking. He was so unnervingly gorgeous that it triggered my uncanny valley senses. This man, no matter how charming that smirk of his was, wasn’t human. He reminded me of those young adult novels with dashingly handsome vampires that I’d deny ever reading.

  “What are you?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  He smiled and took a formal bow. Hand over his heart, waist bent ninety degrees. He looked like a prince straight out of the storybooks. “I am Rigal Phenex, heir to House Phenex, which holds the rank of marquis in the Underworld. And I, my dear, am a devil.”

  “Devils don’t exist,” I said, but it was more of an impulsive response than something I believed.

  I was reminded of something one of my Christian friends said: The devil wasn’t some ugly, red man with goat horns and a pitchfork. The devil was the most beautiful, most handsome man you’ve ever seen; all the better to tempt you with.

  ‘Guys? There’s another Superboy here with some guy called Rigal Phenex,’ I reported telepathically. ‘I might need backup.’

  ‘I’m coming,’ Miss Martian said back.

  ‘Wait, Rigal? Tweety’s here?’ Kid Flash asked, recognition in his voice. ‘Kal, do you remember last month?’

  ‘Yes, the Cadmus Incident would not have gone as smoothly without his assistance,’ our fearless leader replied. Which was weird because that meant that the heroes knew a self-proclaimed devil.

  ‘Umm, wanna bring me in on the loop?’ I asked. ‘Because that guy just said he’s the devil.’

  ‘I’m lost as well,’ Miss Martian added. ‘Devils in your culture are… antagonistic to your God, right?’

  ‘He says a lot of things. He’s not an enemy,’ Kid Flash said.

  ‘Kid Flash is correct, Artemis,’ Aqualad confirmed. ‘He assisted us in rescuing Superoby from Cadmus. What do you mean there is another Superboy here?’

  I let out a mental sigh of relief. I didn’t want to fight some guy who called himself a devil, especially not if he had a kryptonian friend. ‘Exactly what I said. There’s a Superboy lookalike who’s flying. He just has some weird eyes but I swear they could be twins. He said there was another clone in Cadmus.’

  ‘You know, Kal, he did dip on us halfway through the mission,’ Kid Flash said, now a little suspicious. ‘He might have helped us to make things easier on himself.’

  ‘Perhaps. I believe we should hear what he has to say.’ I could hear the confusion in our leader’s voice. ‘Robin’s data sweep of Cadmus headquarters revealed no such project.’

  “Hello? Anyone home?” Rigal said, waving a hand over my face. “Are you done with your team pow-wow?”

  I leapt back with a squeak, bow coming up to shoot him point-blank. He snagged it out of the air and put it back in my quiver like nothing happened.

  That was something I’d have to keep in mind. Telepathy was great, until it distracted you in front of someone potentially dangerous.

  “I wasn’t talking to anyone.”

  “Sure you were. M’gann’s telepathy is very useful, isn’t it? And she’s a real sweetheart too.”

  “How do you–”

  “Magic. Have you told them the Shadows are coming? I estimate an hour at most before they track Dr. Roquette’s signal to this location. Really, they probably already have and the delay is the travel, not the nerd-work.”

  I forgot. I told them and pretended like I remembered. “Yes. Aqualad says you’re a friend.”

  “I can be.”

  “Artemis, are you okay?” I heard Miss Martian call. The green-skinned ginger appeared out of thin air. I was starting to get sick of people who could do that.

  “I’m fine,” I replied.

  “Excellent! Wait, sorry, let’s try that again,” Rigal said with a faux cough. He waved his hand with a cheery, valley girl accent. “Hello, Megan~ There, that had to be done, you know?”

  “Umm… I think so?” my teammate nodded hesitantly.

  “Stop confusing them, Rigal,” not-Superboy cut in. He pulled off the broody bad boy look as well as our Superboy did. “Aren’t we on a time limit?”

  “Ehh, not really. The Shadows are dangerous like a housecat is dangerous,” the “devil” shrugged with a nonchalant smile. It was really unfair how handsome they both were. I didn’t think of myself as a shallow person, but damn. “If you’re really, really unlucky, they can cut the vein in your wrist just right and you’ll bleed out. Otherwise, they’re not really threats to you or me.”

  “Well, I’m getting bored standing around.”

  “Right, fine. Ahem, in the words of aliens everywhere: Take me to your leader.”

  I sighed. Miss Martian looked constipated. Clearly, someone brought her up to date on old movies.

  I decided then and there that I didn’t care how good-looking he was. Rigal Phenex was a pain in the ass.

  Author’s Note

  No, Rigal will never stop fucking with people. No, the team doesn’t know Robin’s real name yet. Except maybe Wally? He might know because besties or something.

  I’d like to think Max takes on habits from Rigal without even noticing. Rigal, being a Phenex, dresses like a debonair heartthrob, usually with slacks, tight shirts, pressed collars, etc. Max is a bit more casual, but still looks more put together than Connor, halfway between business casual and streetwear.

  Animal Fact: Stag beetles are some of the largest beetles in the world, some growing over four inches long. Depending on the species, they live anywhere from three to seven years.

  However, most of that lifespan is spent as a larva inside a single tree trunk, eating wood. After emerging from their pupae, their adult stage only lasts for several weeks, with the sole purpose being to mate and lay eggs. During that time, adults will consume very little, only occasionally feeding on tree sap or fruit.

  Joke time: What is a vampire's beverage of choice?

  Coffee...

  No? It'd be funnier if you spoke Korean. But not that funny. Okay, so it's not funny at all. But it made drunk-Fable chuckle so I'm sharing it anyway.

  Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: .