Chapter 8: An Impromptu Meeting!
One Month Later
Early morning in a Russian Breakfast Bar!
The aroma of fried eggs and pancakes filled the bar as persons filtered in and out, many of the rushing towards their early morning jobs, while some of them just sat around, enjoying the experience.
The quietness of the Bar was only broken my a International News Broadcast playing on the Breakfast Bar's television.
"In Gotham, citizens are experiencing extreme unrest after The Joker conducted an attack at Gotham City Museum, leaving 21 dead and many more injured."
"However, we have to once again question how The Joker escaped Arkham Asylum once again. This gross negligence continues to leave citizens dead and criminals roaming the streets."
~SWOOSH~
At the front table of the Breakfast Bar, the owner, a middle-aged muscular Russian with a gruff beard and various tattoos slid a drink across the desk towards a young man sitting at the head seat, chowing down on some pancakes.
"Hah, thank god my beloved Russia doesn't have psychopaths like that Joker fella, or else we might've all been dead already." The bar owner spoke, looking towards the man who was eating.
The man grabbed the glass, looking upwards revealing his piercing purple eyes. It was Kayn, who had just came out on a resource run to buy some useful supplies, taking a stop on the way there to enjoy a nice breakfast.
"Who knows bossman. Maybe the thugs out here are just in hiding. Disappearances have increased over the past few years." Kayn spoke to the boss, picking up the coffee he ordered as he takes a sip, the rich aroma flowing into his nose as the delicious drink flowed down his throat.
"You're too paranoid fella. This? This is Russia! Ahahahah!" The boss spoke, before laughing wildly and taking a good chug of his glass of alcohol, downing the rest in one go before taking a seat.
"Thanks for the meal bossman." Kayn said, tossing over a tip before exiting the bar, returning to his vehicle and driving off.
"Sign-In." Kayn muttered.
[ Congratulations! You have received – Glasses of Oblivion ]
- Glasses created at the Origin of Oblivion, which provide many benefits such as:
Features –
1 - Increased Charm - The Hosts attractiveness towards the opposing gender is massively improved, and people are much more likely to believe Host's words and follow host's plans.
2 - Identity Protection - Persons who do not already know the Hosts secret identity will be unable to draw connections to Host and his alternate self unless Host allows them to recognize him.
3 - Indestructible - Glasses cannot be broken under any circumstances.
______________________
Suddenly, a gold plated reading glasses appeared on the dashboard of the vehicle. Kayn chuckled and picked it up, putting it on and looking in the mirror.
"Hmm? I do look a bit more, handsome." Kayn said before chuckling to himself and driving off.
After around 15 minutes, he arrived at the store, quickly going out and buying what they needed. Mostly some fertilizer, alongside some food stuff such as flour. Packing everything up into the vehicle, he began driving back, while thinking about the recent situation.
Kayn controlled the steering wheel with his left hand, while his right hand hung outside the window, feeling the cool breeze that blew by as he drove back towards home.
After realizing that CADMUS was probably testing their powers and had most likely moved to more secret, off the grid bases, Kayn and the gang decided to stop raiding those shell bases, as it would prove useless.
Thus, they had spent the past month mostly just training themselves and growing stronger.
Alongside that, in the past month, Violet has begun the project to create their identities and working alongside the Business members to create a surface business organization to bring in suitable revenue.
Everything was currently going smoothly, and falling perfectly into place for the future when they inevitably travelled back to the USA.
Kayn hummed a song as he thought about this, taking a turn off-road towards the forest as he went on the trip towards home, fewer and fewer signs of humanity as he drove further and further.
In the quiet environment, the chirping of birds and the growls of wolves was all that could be heard from time to time.
Just as Kayn was enjoying the music, his eyebrows furrowed, he had suddenly felt the aura of two ( 2 ) beings floating above his vehicle appearing, and it was obvious they were looking for him.
"Fuck." Kayn muttered, wondering who this could be. His mind running extremely quickly. If push came to shove, he would simply kill his way out of any potential dangers.
Kayn parked the vehicle on the side of a dirt path, exiting and leaning on the car as he awaited for the beings floating above him to reveal themselves. Time slowly ticked by, until...
"Are you two never coming out? I don't have all day." Kayn murmured softly, yet he instinctively knew they could hear him.
As he finished speaking, the two beings slowly floated onto the ground, revealing themselves in front of him.
Both of them were instantly recognized by Kayn, the first being Martian Manhunter, wearing his signature costume from the Justice League Animated Series.
The other was a woman, noticeably tall and fair-skinned with straight long black hair, blue eyes and a slender, athletic frame.
She wore a red bustier held up by a brace of gold resembling two W's. She has a large golden belt and blue briefs with five white stars on them. She wears red boots with a white stripe on the front side, with brilliant bracelets on her wrists, red star earrings and a golden lasso hanging from her belt.
"Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, if you're here to accuse me of any crimes, then I have the right to remain silent." Kayn said.
He definitely didn't expect any Justice League members appearing before him. He definitely didn't dare act like he was invincible or unfindable, but their appearance certainly caught him off guard.
"Don't worry, we've heard of your exploits. Whilst I do not fully agree with your methods, it is commendable that you have dedicated yourself to protecting all of those you rescued." Martian Manhunter said in an empathetic tone.
Kayn simply nodded, to him, it made sense that Martian Manhunter empathized with his and the other children's plight, due to his own traumatic background.
From what Kayn remembered about Martian Manhunter's background, he had lived a normal life on Mars with his wife and two children before his people were invaded, killing his family as Martian Manhunter took part in a losing war, leaving him as the last Martian.
Although Kayn didn't know how much of that backstory changed in this new Universe that merged with multiple other DC storylines, such as Young Justice, it would still follow the basic path.
"How many of the Justice League actually know my identity?" Kayn asked curiously, he certainly didn't want everyone knowing who he was as that would just be dangerous.
"Only the two of us, alongside Batman. He was the one who sent us here to bring you a proposition." Wonder Woman took the lead as she spoke.
"I'm sure you yourself has figured out that the organization that initially restricted you all, APEX, is a subsidy of CADMUS." Wonder Woman spoke, to which Kayn nodded.
"Although we'd like to help, not only do the main members of the League all have various threats to deal with by ourselves, but most of our heavy hitter allies in Europe are currently out of commission for various reasons." Wonder Woman continued, before Martian Manhunter took over,
"We've also been investigating CADMUS, and we've seen various files in data we recovered, most notably 'Project Match' and 'Project Kr', although we have no idea what these are, and they don't seem finished, but this cannot be good news, so we need to handle CADMUS over here."
"So Batman proposed that you all over here can handle APEX, taking them down and sending any information you gather from the organization to us." Martian Manhunter finished speaking, allowing Kayn to simmer on the information.
"What will we get in return?" Kayn inquired.
Wonder Woman sighed, taking out a wad of cash and tossing it to Martian Manhunter, who chuckled before speaking, "I told you he'd ask that, but you didn't listen."
Wonder Woman just scoffed and looked away, giving Martian Manhunter the signal to continue on the conversation, "Batman will use his resources to get all of you legal identities, visas and everything else. He'll also get your businesses up and running, although there are conditions."
"No killing?" Kayn asked the obvious one.
"Yes, but also, no futuristic, or military grade technology to be commercialized by your company. Basically, don't do anything with your company that can get you in trouble, noticed too much, or investigated." Martian Manhunter spoke.
Kayn thought for a couple seconds, before smiling and saying,
"Tell Batman he's got a deal!"