"If that we could," I said.
"If indeed," Constantine echoed, "but I suggest we leave the sniping and finger-pointing until after we table all the facts. Anyone opposed to that?"
"I am," Batman said. "We'll need a Binding Vow from each of you before we proceed."
"And shackle ourselves to you," George scoffed. "You're no better than Artisan."
"What in the bloody hell are you doing?" Constantine asked, throwing George a glare. "This isn't what we agreed to."
"No, it's not," George said, pointing at me. "He has more reasons to be paranoid than most, and he didn't ask us for vows before our trip to Zandia. All we had to keep us honest was our shared interests. I see no reason why we can't shake hands and do the same here."
Wonder Woman's face was as hard as stone. "Because we have no common interests. You want Artisan dead, and we want to make her pay for her crimes and save the lives of billions in the process."
"We'd also like to save the world," I said, then shrugged. "We like the world the way it is, warts and all. I think we proved that with our trip to Zandia."
"Zandia?" Wonder Woman breathed. "You flattened the town. Thousands are dead."
She was leaning slightly over the table, looking about ready to jump me.
"They were trying to end the world, and there was very little time. It was either give it our all, or not try at all."
Wonder Woman breathed out of her nose loud enough for human ears to pick up. Batman took over the talks before she lost her temper.
"The League is well aware of how you operate," Batman said.
"Fair enough," I said. "We prefer not to take a life if we can avoid it, after all; we're all victims of Artisan. But if we're up against a Kryptonian clone and a Hollow Purple to the face is the only way to stop him, then George will fire one off. The best we can do is make sure he fires it at the sky."
"Why the sky?" Wonder Woman asked.
"So he doesn't disintegrate a few acres of farmland," Shelim answered, plopping down in the chair beside Constantine. "Or a few thousand people if it goes off in a populated area." He picked up the restaurant menu and scanned through it. "Nathan has the right idea with this lunch business. I just might try the fried rice."
Batman offered the professional antagonist nothing but a passing look before turning back to me. "What you're offering isn't enough."
"And yet it's all that we can promise," I said, "unless anyone aside from Constantine has an objection."
The Magician had been studying us in the time that George and I had been speaking and had graduated from his earlier anger to something closer to fascination. Although I'd always planned on not agreeing to a Binding Vow, it made me seem less selfish now that George, and ostensibly the rest of the Sorcerers, were pushing for the same thing. Maybe he was as distrustful of the League as I was, or maybe he was planning to murder me as I planned to murder him.
Either way, I was glad for the turn of events.
"Is this your final decision?" Batman faced Nathan.
Singling out what he thought was the weakest link. How very Batman. Nathan, however, surprised me before I could give voice to his blatant attempt at manipulation.
"Yes," he said. "I took my first Binding Vow when I didn't know any better. Now, I do." He shared the briefest of looks with Gina, his teacher. The discovery still felt fresh.
Batman's white eyes scrutinized us from the eye slits of his cowl. They made it nearly impossible to tell which direction he was staring. But I suppose that was the point of his ensemble. Mystique. Intimidation. Many a low-level dirtbag must've crapped their pants when they saw his silhouette stalking them.
"It's ultimately up to Wonder Woman," Batman said finally, putting the Amazonian on the spot, "but you've won me over."
I blinked at the sudden switch-up.
"Why?"
"You've shown a remarkable amount of progress in a very short time," he said. "The Julius I knew in Gotham would've never entered a partnership with the people responsible for his Mother and Sister's death period. Vow or no vow."
I couldn't tell if it was an honest compliment or if he was trying to bait a reaction out of me. Either way, I was pissed, but Body Control wasn't level 9 for nothing. I mastered myself, meeting his white eyes, unblinking. He continued.
"I'm also inclined to agree with you on the risks of Binding Vows. Besides, we will not win if we can't trust each other with our lives on the line."
"Color me surprised, Batman," Constantine said.
"You sound like Superman," Wonder Woman grumbled, folding her arms.
"He would approve of my support."
Both heroes shared a look that spoke volumes, a silent argument taking place inside their heads.
"We'll settle for a handshake deal, but in exchange, we have some conditions. " Wonder Woman said. "You will share everything you've learned, and we will, of course, do the same. You will train extensively with us so that we can fight effectively while causing the least amount of collateral damage. You will be granted non-lethal tools and resources to restrain defeated combatants. I must insist that you use them."
"Anything else?" I asked.
"Kill Artisan, fight without regard for collateral damage, and turn on one another, and you make an enemy of the Justice League and me. That goes for you as well, Constantine. Do we understand each other?"
Of all the stipulations I expected from the Justice League, loyalty wasn't one of them. All of us sorcerers passed each other questioning looks, having our own mental conversation just like Batman and Wonder Woman had. We were all untrustworthy, Shelim especially so.
The tech savant noticed our stares, looking up from the menu. "What? Fine. Fine. We—well, I agree to follow the rules. So long as you agree not to try and imprison us during our joint mission or immediately after. Because believe me, if you think they're assholes, wait till you get a load of me." He finished with a wicked smile.
Constantine pulled out a cigarette. "I'll skip the threat portion, but yeah, I agree."
The rest of us gave our verbal agreements as well.
"Well then," Constantine said, taking a drag, "now that all the posturing is done, can we finally begin?"
The talks lasted longer than we expected, and the information the League provided had multiplied since that very morning when Constantine teleported to the Island.
No, I realized. They were just holding back. They didn't trust him yet. Now that we were all here, they had no other choice. Probably.
In addition to the place in Appalachia and the facility in Germany, the Justice League, using their vast network of helpers and confidential informants, had managed to identify seven other major facilities and discerned their use. One was a training camp, another a bioresearch facility. However, the most worrying one, at least in their view, was the LA Taskforce Headquarters. It was their deployment site for their high-impact contingency plans, i.e., the Superman clones.
Batman's theory was that Artisan was keeping them on ice and programming them until she was ready for phase 2, which was radical exposure. Thanks to their Kryptonian biology, they didn't have the same energy bottlenecks I or any of the other metas created with my gene had. They could constantly evolve. And Batman estimated that in a few short months of non-stop training, they could be complete matches for Superman while possessing none of his weaknesses. A frightening proposition.
And that was why removing them from the battlefield was priority Alpha, alongside neutralizing the Psychokinetics and rescuing the people in Appalachia.
Yeah…lots of priority Alphas.
We told them everything we knew. Nathan and Gina identified specific sorcerers, their meta abilities and sorcery combinations, and the locations of other bases they knew. The hard numbers of Teleporters they had, and so much more.
They suggested changing locations before we got into any more detail. While Constantine had basically spelled the dining area we talked in soundproof, it wasn't truly secure.
They led us to a Zeta-tube that whisked us away to Mount Justice.