With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Positively indolent.

17th February
09:57 GMT -5

I shuffle across the bed, noting that I appear to have moved during the night so that my face was on Jade's part of the pillow. A quick glance at the flat's internal monitoring shows that there've been no attempted breaches since I got in this morning. There's a team meeting scheduled for this afternoon and I've got no plans to do anything of significance until then.

But…

Ring, status of Sondra Fuller.

I walk in the direction of the kitchen.

Sondra Fuller remains in containment at Gotham Central pending a decision on her possible transfer to Belle Reve.

I take my bowl of milk-soaked oats out of the fridge and put in it the microwave.

Since she clearly isn't insane, there isn't any case for putting Ms Fuller in Arkham Asylum. Despite what some elements of Earth Prime's Bat-media seemed to think, Arkham Asylum is a maximum security hospital and not a prison. Mr Cobblepot -for example- has never been there, as he's clearly sane. Mr Lynns didn't go there initially, as it wasn't originally clear that he had actual pyromania and wasn't just on a more normal power trip. Dr Fries didn't go there before his transfer to Belle Reve. Mr Blake...

The point is, it isn't really a metahuman containment facility. And neither is Blackgate. By the time that Gotham was functional enough for it to be worth considering creating that sort of institution, Belle Reve was up and running and it was judged that it would be better to send them there, relying on Batman to arrange the actual transportation. In fact… Aside from Dr Isley, I don't think Gotham really has any local supervillains who'd need that sort of institution.

I should probably visit her. While I think I convinced her to stay put, imprisonment is an extremely stressful thing and the situation will only get worse if she does something ill-advised. Plus, the Gotham police don't actually have all that much experience in handling metahumans. The Major Crimes unit isn't Metropolis's Special Crimes Unit and I remember… Reading something about the Spiderman villain Sandman. Because his body works nothing like the body of a normal person, if you didn't have the right equipment when you confronted him then you were going to lose.

The microwave pings and I take out my bowl, a construct oven glove automatically appearing around my right hand. That's nice to see after last-. This morning's construct-failure. I'm not used to not wanting to do the thing I'm working on. The privilege of being an absurdly powerful superhero and your own boss. I had thought about trying to get myself more invested in Gotham, but I just… The place is getting better and there aren't any supervillains powerful enough to actually need me to deal with them. I wanted to make it clear that I was available if I was required, and then… Things just snowballed.

Ugh.

I'll need to check in with John Quinn and Dr Balewa-. Actually… Do I? Dr Balewa had clear seniority, John's allegedly grandfathered Justice League membership notwithstanding. And… Find out if Talia got anywhere.

A construct filament opens a nearby cupboard and pulls out a box of granola. I shake a handful out onto the porridge for texture and sweetness, then return the box to the cupboard before generating a construct spoon and taking a mouthful.

Or do I? Dealing with baleful supernatural foes is actually Dr Balewa's job, by virtue of his Justice League membership. I'm just a volunteer. Building rep with the Gotham establishment doesn't benefit me at all; it just might save them a little time in a crisis because they know they can call on me. No, the relics John sounded like he wanted to acquire. Those might actually be beneficial. The gang who attacked the Dragons and the gang who attacked the mayor… Don't care. Kobra gang… Don't care. We took down one crazy cult and another expanded to fill the void. The best way to stop their local spread is by improving social institutions and employment opportunities, both of which are already underway and neither of which I can really help with.

I'm not feeling particularly heroic at the moment.

I frown, spoon evaporating in my bowl. I had been assuming that enlightenment rendered me immune to external mental influences, and that has been borne out so far. But…

I step

fully into the Honden, fragments of all of the desires Jade felt here mapping out an approximate representation of the room. And previous residents too, I notice. My own don't stick out in the same way, fitting into the metaphysical flow of the place better than those of people who don't integrate them quite so well. In theory, only the Ophidian and I can access this place at the moment, though I imagine that wizards and mystics of various stripes have peeked into it at one time or another. Since I don't have a physical body there shouldn't be any way for most mundane influences to work.

So… Gotham…

Yeah, I don't care about the place. Saving that people I care about live in it. I can't even sell it to myself as a structure which was built by human hands and so has value as a manifestation of human ingenuity. Almost every place I've been was clearly built by the lowest bidder to the lowest standards, even the apparently nice property.

There are reasons why I haven't tried visiting Blüdhaven. With Gotham I just can't be bothered to upgrade things with my rings anymore. With Blüdhaven I'm genuinely concerned that I might start tearing it down.

I look around at my orange light body. No unnatural-looking strands anchoring me to things, no unnatural-looking cut ends where I should be connected to things. That still leaves the possibility that my other emotions are being influenced, but that's less of an immediate concern.

I suppose that's as much assurance as I'm going to get. I step

back into the material world, picking up my bowl again and recreating my spoon. So what, what is my next objective? The gnomes are working on Dolmen Gate production so planes and long distance road travel are going to be a thing of the past. Power generation is getting much cheaper. Inclement weather… Volcanism? There must be a few volcanologists who might be lured into animistic magic. I can't think of any volcanologists from DC at the moment but I'm sure they were there. But as concerning as Yellowstone is, volcanic activity isn't a widespread concern-.

The doorbell rings.

I turn to the door, frowning mildly. Who-? Oh. Talia.

I put my bowl down, swap my pyjamas for a morning suit and then walk over to the door, my ring disarming the flat's defensive systems as I go. I open the door and then step back to allow her inside.

Talia is similarly dressed for a business occasion. Though Batwoman visiting the house of Orange Lantern would make perfect sense, it isn't really a sensible getup to loiter around in during the bright of the day. People would ask her for selfies, and I'm sure that she'd find that demeaning.

She walks inside and waits for me to shut the door and reactivate the security before speaking.

"Winslow Heath."

Ring? Ah. No, hang on.

I frown. "Why would he spread Smilex?"

"He wished to revenge himself upon Batman for failing to permanently end the Joker." I raise my right eyebrow. "I suspect that his own exposure to Smilex has affected his reasoning. He wished to sell the Smilex-based narcotic cheaply enough to addict people, and then use that addiction to encourage them to cause violent havoc across the city. Now, he will spend many years in Blackgate."

"Not Arkham? If his mind has been compromised that much, wouldn't that be a better place for him?"

"In the same facility as the Joker?"

"Plenty of people in Arkham have wanted to kill each other before. A secure hospital is either secure or it's not, and if it's not then I'd rather find out using people who aren't going to get better than people who might."

"Fortunately, you are not the one who makes such decisions."

I nod. "Well done for tracking him down. I got a bit distracted."

"Perhaps you will give me a little more deference in future."

"I'd like to argue that I was perfectly happy to acknowledge your abilities, but honestly? What I learned yesterday and this morning was that I don't care about Gotham. You're welcome to it. Have as much fun as you like and call me when you need fire support."

She regards me cautiously for a moment. "That's all you have to say?"

"Yes. The Bat-signal's all yours."

"Very well then." She turns away and walks towards the door. Then she stops and looks back at me with a frown. Then she returns her attention to the door and marches out of the flat.