I'd had to discard ten tons of insects in the landfill due to infection by the Rot even though I hadn't tried filling lungs or most of my usual tricks other than eating eyes.
My Mimics had done better; chitin was already dead, like human skin and hair, and it was much thicker and tougher. I'd altered their compound eyes so that infection was less likely, but they still had to breathe. I'd still lost two of the nine hundred I had available, and the others had torn those bodies apart and hid pieces under the landfill; the last thing I would have needed was for a Green Lantern to get a full scan and figure out countermeasures.
Luckily Green Lantern had waited until after Captain Atom had destroyed them to do his scanning.
Passing through decontamination was almost becoming standard.
An extra decontamination tent had been dropped off at the edge of town, then the Waynecorp employees ordered to come and fix up this one. Just because I'd cured all thirty of the people in the vault of their infections didn't mean I'd gotten rid of all of it on their clothes and bodies.
I'd been careful myself, but they insisted and I didn't argue.
I'd hate losing the T-Shirt Puck had given me, but it was likely to disintegrate in the government bags sooner than later. I had a feeling it wasn't completely real in some way, and I hadn't used my ability to see through illusions on it because I hadn't wanted to see the truth.
Green Arrow and the others would be losing their costumes, although replacements had already been sent by the League.
They'd been kind enough to get me a Waynecorp black sweatsuit at least, one of the nicer ones that was soft instead of scratchy. It helped to know the boss, I suppose. I had Waynecorp brand black sneakers too; fancy.
None of my bugs could detect any additional metals, but I'd be ditching them in a different city before I headed home.
Emerging from the tent, I saw the silver form of Captain Atom hanging in the air overhead.
He was staring at me.
Superman and Captain Marvel were nearby; I was relatively confident that he wouldn't drag me off to be enslaved by the government while they were watching, at least until this whole thing with the Rot was resolved.
After that I'd better be ready.
Staring at him I waved, then let my middle finger rise in his direction.
"Was that really necessary?" Black Canary asked me.
"He's going to try to enslave me," I said. "For some fat senator and his cronies, and it'll be totally legal."
"That's not…" she began.
"Prisoners are the exception to the rules," Green Arrow said. He still seemed a little freaked out about me, but he was starting to relax. "A show trial and they get to do what they want. You know about the Suicide Squad."
"You guys know about the bombs they're putting in villains heads?" I demanded.
Green Arrow's face looked like he'd sucked a sour lemon.
"Like you said, it's the law. If we spend all our time fighting the government then we wouldn't be able to help against villains. None of us are happy about it. We've tried to reveal it to the public, but the public didn't give a damn. There was a poll where the majority wanted to put bombs in every villains head."
"So I'm expecting him to attack me the moment this whole thing is done," I said.
"So you antagonize him?" Black Canary demanded.
"It won't change what he does," I said. "He worked for Luthor when he was president despite knowing what he was. Being willing to do monstrous things just because your boss says so...well, the whole 'I was just following orders' thing went out with the Nazis."
I was willing to work with Luthor, but I sure as hell wasn't going to take orders from him. According to the Internet Captain Atom had been in the military at that time and he'd even made some controversial captures of people he probably shouldn't.
"He's not exactly biological anymore," Green Arrow said. "Just energy inside a shell. Even if you manage to break into the shell you could end up causing a nuclear explosion."
"And I'm the one you guys are worried about?" I asked incredulously. "You mean every time he fights inside a city he could end up nuking it, he works for and is loyal to a government that has tried to kill most of you at one point or another, and you guys can't even risk hitting him too hard for fear of blowing him up?"
I'd done a checkup on Brain recently in Boston; he'd been doing well and had been pleased by the progress of his lawsuit. He'd given me some tips on the weaknesses of some of the heroes.
"Well, it's not like I've got an arrow that can affect a guy like him. It'll take guys like Superman or Captain Marvel to stop him. But I don't think he's got a physiology; he's supposed to be some kind of energy being inside a shell, so I wouldn't antagonize him."
"I thought you were supposed to be the one that talks back to the people abusing their power?"
Captain Atom was extremely tough, but according to Brain being overloaded with energy tended to push him forward in time. I hadn't figured out how to do it yet, but I would.
"I do my share of mouthing off to those guys, but they supposedly like me," he said. "And I don't really have anything they want like the government wants you."
"Batman just tolerates you," Black Canary said, patting him on his shoulder.
"He just tolerates everybody."
"I think he likes me," I said. I smirked. "Compared to you anyway."
He glanced at me.
"You mean that, don't you?"
"I'm trying not to lie these days," I said. "So when I tell you I'm getting ready for war, and not just against the Rot…"
"Right," he said. He was silent for a moment. "Just be sure regular people aren't hurt. I saw those things you've got working for you, and they worry me a little."
"They do what they're told," I said. "And they're not self replicating."
"And if you have a falling out with Skitter?"
I felt happy suddenly.
Apparently Batman hadn't simply blabbed my dual identities to everyone.
"We're of one mind about things, for the moment at least," I said. "But there are steps that can be taken against powers like hers."
Amy had certainly been able to shut me down, and so had Bonesaw.
"Let's go in," Black Canary said.
I'd refused to go up to the Watchtower for obvious reasons, so we were having this meeting inside a tent. It had the advantage that my Mimics were close enough to help extract me, although they wouldn't be much more than distractions against Captain Atom, Captain Marvel, Superman and the Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern...more than half the League.
Maybe they were giving me false confidence.
We were far enough outside of town that this place wasn't infected, and somebody and brought out folding chairs for us all to sit in a circle. They were more sturdy than the regular folding chairs I'd seen, probably because some of the League were big people, but they weren't any bigger, and they sunk into the ground when people sat on them.
Batman's chair was nicer, in black with his symbol on it. It was a little petty, but I sort of liked it. He was probably paying for everything, and it wasn't like these chairs probably saw much use. They may have been purchased specifically for this at the last minute, while he'd had his for a while.
Captain Atom stood in the back of the room, even though most of the other big guys chose to sit.
Everyone was silent as they filed into the room.
There wasn't any horseplay or casual conversation. People were as silent as a tomb.
It'd been like this after some of the Endbringer attacks at the Protectorate, people stunned and shocked by what had happened, but I couldn't see what these people had to shocked about. They hadn't even been here and Captain Atom had destroyed the bodies before most of them had a chance to see them.
Were they just not used to losing like this?
"This is only going to get worse," Batman said. "This kind of death toll is unacceptable."
"Could Elixir have saved them instead of killing them?" John Stewart asked. He looked directly at me.
"No," I said. "By the time their behavior is affected it's too late. My power doesn't affect dead flesh and the infection starts at the point of entry but goes straight to the brain. If it hasn't metastasized I can create a cyst around infected tissue and move it through tissue and out of the body, healing the damage afterwards. Fortunately people's bodies tend to fight it off instinctively and from what I saw from the civilians it spreads very slowly at first before it finally reaches a tipping point. At that point it grows rapidly throughout the brain and metastasizes throughout the body."
"If you can't see dead tissue how can you know?"
"Some of the infected weren't all the way dead yet," I admitted. "Their brains were gone, but they were living bodies being puppeted by an alien presence. These are probably the infiltrators. Eventually the Rot completely takes over and they can't even hide it anymore. I managed to get a look at multiple specimens at various stages which gives me a pretty good idea of the timeline."
"Is there anything you can do?" Batman asked.
"It'll take time," I said, "But I'll be able to create a vaccine. I could administer it to every hero we can find and even every villain. We probably should prioritize metahumans because they'll be better at infecting people than regular people. I could create replicating vaccines to put in reservoirs that would help protect people in larger cities. It'd leave people in rural areas underserved, but it would be something."
"But viruses mutate," Batman said.
"This isn't a virus," I said. "It's a mystical force. But it acts enough like a virus that people can potentially fight it off. There's a reason it takes three days to completely take somebody over; people in this universe naturally have magic, and their bodies fight it off."
"Does that mean that Kryptonians are vulnerable?" Superman asked soberly.
"I'll have to take another look, but probably," I said. "Things evolved differently on Krypton?"
"Homo magi interbred with humans," Zatanna said. "To the point that there's hardly any humans on the planet that doesn't have some level of magical ability, although it's generally so far back that it doesn't amount to much. A few lines continued to breed true, and occasionally you'll have people with ancestors a few generations back that manifest."
"Kryptonians had their own magical subspecies," Superman said. He grimaced. "But they were isolationist and inbred and didn't spread their genes among the general population. It's possible that the later genetic engineering might have removed whatever potential was left."
I had magical potential.
Did that mean that I had ancestors that had jumped worlds, or had there been homo magi on Earth Bet all along? Or had whatever gave me the metagene come from some sort of original patient, with magical potential coming along as a bonus?
"I'm learning some magic," I admitted. "Which means I'll be combining my power with magic to come up with the treatment. But we'd never be able to get it to everybody in the world. There are people who drink well water, other people who drink nothing but bottled, and most importantly the moment the Rot learns what we're doing they'll start changing what they're doing."
"Like a virus mutating, but with intention," the Flash said. He grimaced. "That's going to be a problem."
"If I do end up inoculating everyone, it'll be up to the Flashes to distribute it. They'll be the first ones to get inoculated because of how potentially bad it would be if they got infected. But if we do it too early we risk the Rot getting alert and then to start changing things."
"And if we do it too late people will die," John Stewart said. He grimaced. "The Ring's scans agree with your analysis. Oan science can potentially remove the contamination, but it's an involved process and is slower than you can apparently do it."
"We're going to have to find Anton Arcane," Constantine said. "He's the one pushing this whole thing. If he dies or loses his post then the Rot may lose interest, at least until its next host pushes for something else."
"What would it take for him to lose his post?" Green Arrow asked. "It's not like a vote of no confidence from the Board of Directors is it?"
"Hell if I know," Constantine admitted. "The Parliaments are a lot more close mouthed than demons and angels. But Anton is tricky. He's died before and gone to hell, and he came back as a demon. I'm not even sure how he managed to turn back into a human. He's more than a hundred and fifty years old and he's forgotten more magic than most mages will ever know. I wouldn't be surprised if he uses that to help him get a foothold with one hero or another."
"Like holding them in place so his minions can infect them?" I asked.
He nodded.
"Illusions so that somebody like Superman doesn't realize that he's eating a bowl of the Rot instead of his Wheaties, or controlling somebody's spouse to have them slip it to them. He's vengeful enough to kill a loved one who was immune due to being vaccinated too."
"Any luck in finding him?" Green Arrow asked Batman.
"He's not moving around in his own face in cities," Batman said. "We've got cameras worldwide on the lookout for him, and we haven't found anything."
"Are there signs of Rot infection?" I asked. "Maybe something that would show up on satellites? Like houses where the grass dies off or something when there's no drought?"
"It's how we found this place," Oliver said. "We've been looking for sites where there's unusual dieoffs from plant life. Turns out there's a lot of reasons plants die, but we got lucky with this one."
"It would have been simpler to have sent the speedsters to check over all the sites, but without a vaccine it's too dangerous," he continued. "So they sent me because I'm expendable."
There were muttered protests around the room.
"Once I run out of arrows I'm just a handsome guy with some fighting skills and a great goatee. I won't be that much more dangerous than anybody else. Flash on the other hand once moved an entire town out of the way of a nuclear explosion. He could put things in everybody's milk just as quickly."
"And while a vaccine would keep people from getting infected in the first place, I'd have to heal people by hand once they are. I'm not fast enough to heal cities with millions of people."
"We should figure out who among us is immune," Captain Atom said. "And have them do the investigation."
He was probably sure he was one of those, and he might be right, although the mystic component of the Rot meant it wasn't certain.
"The magically inclined among us will likely be more resistant," Zatanna said. "Captain Marvel will probably be immune given that he's empowered by the gods. Diana too."
Captain Marvel looked a little uncomfortable for some reason.
"I can do a scan, maybe," Zatana said.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Laever esoht enummi ot eht toR," she said.
A white glow surrounded all of us except Superman.
It was blinding around Captain Marvel, although there was a weird flicker. Wonder Woman was just as bright. Captain Atom glowed brightly. Most of us glowed in varying degrees, with Zatanna, myself and Constantine glowing at the medium to high level.
Superman looked disappointed that there wasn't any glow around him at all.
"It looks like I need to get working on that vaccine sooner than later," I said as the glow faded.
"It looks like our mystically inclined members will need to take point on encounters," Batman said. "Finding Anton Arcane will need to be our first priority."
Everyone nodded.
"Before we leave," Green Lantern said. "What the hell are those invisible things outside?"
Superman didn't look surprised; supposedly he could hear a butterfly fart from a hundred miles away so it wasn't surprising. He hadn't said anything though.
"Insurance," I said.
"What things?" Zatanna asked.
"Human sized with wings," he said. "My ring can't see them, but it can detect the movements of the air around them."
"Skitter's powers allow the control of insects," I said carefully. "I can change lifeforms."
"So you grew an army of giant bugs?" John Stewart demanded.
"I'm concerned about certain entities enslaving me," I said, giving a hard look at Captain Atom. "I need protection. The invisibility helps keep panic to a minimum. It saved lives today."
"Keeping an army on American soil…" Captain Atom began.
"What did the second amendment say about militias being needed for the security of a free state? Not that your masters are all that concerned about human rights."
"Controlling your own private army isn't a militia!" he said.
"Private military companies have their own private militaries," I replied. "And they can provide security within the United States. If you want to be all technical about it, isn't the Justice League itself a militia?"
"Fighting among ourselves only makes it easier for the Rot to win," Green Arrow said.
Captain Atom scowled, but shut up.
"Now, about the Joker…" John Stewart said.