I sat in my designated quarters, the spartan metallic walls reflecting the cold light of the Watchtower. My stomach was full of engineered nutrient paste, but my mind was empty of solutions.
"Ring," I pulsed the thought, the green light faintly illuminating the room. "Data-index complete. Show me nearby high-energy locations again."
A holographic map of the station materialized above the bed. Red dots hovered over the main reactor, the Zeta-tube power conduits, and several specialized research labs.
"Recommendation: The Zeta-beam conduits offer the highest yield with the lowest risk of triggering station-wide alarms, provided the siphon is undetectable," the AI droned.
"That's what I used in the warehouse, but it's not permanent," I thought, pacing the small room. "I need a Power Battery. I need to know where the League keeps the confiscated alien tech."
"Alternative found: The Binary Fusion Generator acts as their main reactor and provides the second-best yield to risk ratio."
"Good". I closed my eyes, activating the Sharingan. I didn't need to look at the map. I'd already committed the blueprints to memory. I was looking for patterns—security patrols, thermal anomalies, structural weak points.
There.
A maintenance tunnel ran directly adjacent to the main power core housing, currently marked as "inactive" due to a faulty pressure sensor. It was a blind spot.
"Ghost protocol active," I told the Ring. "Route the energy siphon to the secondary cell only. If I hit 100% capacity, vent the excess into a subspace, not into the station."
I slipped out of my room, moving with a silence that I'd perfected by watching Robin. The corridors were nearly empty. That meant the heroes were either off-world or sleeping. My eyes were a dull brown, but I could feel the Sharingan buzzing behind them, ready to flare into life at the first sign of danger.
I reached the maintenance panel for the inactive tunnel. It was sealed with a biometric lock.
"Ring," I whispered. "Construct: sonic laser. Needle-point precision. Don't melt it. vibrate the lock mechanism until the tumblers align."
A thin, intense beam of green light shot from the ring, striking the lock. The metal hummed, vibrating so fast it became a blur.
Click.
The panel popped open. I slipped inside, the tunnel closing behind me. I was now inside the walls of the Watchtower.
The air was hotter here, radiating with the complex energies that fed the tower. I crawled along the conduit pipes, following the blueprint I'd memorized until I reached the massive, glowing conduit that was clearly the source of the heat.
"This is much more energy than I expected," I whispered, reaching out to touch the shielded casing. "An overload is guaranteed."
I prepared to siphon. This wasn't a game. If I screwed up, I'd trigger an alarm that would bring Superman down on me in seconds.
pressed my hand against the shielded casing of the conduit, the raw energy humming through the metal vibrating up my arm. My heart was hammering, a frantic rhythm against my ribs that I had to fight to slow down.
"Ring," I whispered, the word barely audible over the roaring torrent of power. "Begin siphon. Low-level draw. Mask the energy signature as a calibration fluctuation."
"Siphoning... Energy detected. It is... unstable." The AI's voice seemed to fluctuate, struggling with the sheer volume of power. "Warning: This conduit is not just transmitting energy. It is transmitting data."
I blinked, the Sharingan flare-up revealing a complex lattice of light within the conduit that I hadn't seen on the blueprints. It was a digital signal, a stream of encrypted information buried in the power flow.
"Analyze it," I commanded, my voice tight. "What is it?"
"It is not League data. The encryption signature is... organic. Insectoid. It matches the Reach-derivative technology from Santa Prisca, but it is vastly more advanced. It is not sending information to the Earth; it is transmitting a beacon from the Watchtower to a location in the Andromeda Galaxy."
My blood ran cold. The Light wasn't just stealing tech. They were using the Justice League's own station to send a distress signal—or a warning—to the Reach armada.
"Can you trace the origin?" I demanded, the icy Reach energy in my secondary cell suddenly feeling like a ticking bomb.
"Scanning... The signal is originating from a hidden transmitter located within the main reactor core. It is disguised as a diagnostic routine."
I looked at the conduit. I had a choice. I could siphon the energy and fill my ring, becoming more powerful than I ever imagined. But if I did that, I might disrupt the signal, alerting the Reach to the fact that their hidden transmitter had been detected.
But if I didn't siphon it, I was just a passenger on a ship that was about to be boarded.
"Ring," I said, a cold, calculating resolve settling over me. "The power. Siphon it. But I need you to create a 'Ghost Signal' loop of the data transmission so the Reach don't know the energy flow has changed."
"Risk of detection by station security: High. Risk of Reach countermeasure: Absolute."
"Do it."
I felt the energy pour into the ring. It was addictive—raw, infinite power. But the data I was stealing was far more valuable. I now possessed the Reach's encrypted communication protocols and more of their biotechnology.
"Siphon complete. Secondary cell at 100%. Data download: 30%."
I pulled my hand back, my arm shaking from the exertion. I had the power. I had the secrets. Now, I just needed to get back to my room without getting caught by a League security patrol.
I started to crawl back through the maintenance tunnel, the data I'd stolen playing like a movie in the back of my mind. The Team was looking for a "mysterious loner" to bring into the fold. They had no idea about the mysterious thief in their midst.