Brightest Doom

Brightest Doom

Chapter 12

Sitting within my lab, I hummed a simple tune while the parts to the mother box floated above me. My lab was state of the art; the best assassin money could buy. Not only that, but it also sported a few interesting bits of alien technology.

Most of what I was using was able to get here within the week since The League had the hookup. Interestingly enough, most of what I was using didn't come from either LexCorp or Wayne Tech. I guess they were aware of both men's willingness to add backdoors into their creations.

Then again, control freaks are all the same and I was happy to have avoided that issue altogether.

It turns out that Star Labs was in the business of some very advanced technology they themselves made. A lot of what Ra's used was either from Star Labs or independent inventors.

It had taken me some time, but I had been able to figure out how to get it all back together. So here I was sitting in my lab as I pieced together one of the most powerful devices known in the DC Universe. I was certain that the gang who I had taken the mother box from didn't know what they were in possession of.

Hell, I was surprised that they were even given one with what I knew about Darkseid. Then again, Luthor did his dealings with some interesting folks. Once I was finished here, I would have to throw Inter Gang a little party for allowing me to acquire the device that would grant me ascension.

Crystalline wires floated around in the air as I felt each part with my telekinesis. Smiling to myself, I watched as the mother box formed before me. It took me no more than a quarter of an hour of constant work before the device was ready. I tried not to marvel as photonic connections replaced electrical as the mother box hummed to life.

My face almost cracked into a smile as I looked at the completed super device before me. Tap, tap, tap my finger went as I looked at the floating device. There were moments in one's life when you realized you were looking at something that would change your life forever. That moment held on the edge where you take one step forward everything changes or take one step back and keep things the same.

You would think that my falling into DC would be that moment for me, or sleeping my way through the Gotham Sirens and Talia. Then again, I think I might want to attempt DC's top ten list or maybe the top twenty, you know share the love and all that jazz. Well, let's be honest, that was a recreation I would gladly perform over and over again, of course.

Floating the mother box, I finally bit the bullet and activated the thing. The glow started in the middle of the four by six device as little beeps gave it's booting sequence away.

[ Mother Box…. Online.]

[Energy levels…. 32%.]

[Biological scanner…. Online.]

[Biological reconstruction…. Offline.]

[Cellular Regeneration…. Online.]

[Bio-Mechanical interfacing…. Online.]

[Molecular manipulation…. Offline]

[Universal Translator…. Offline.]

[Universal Communication…. Online.]

[Terraforma... Offline.]

[Boom Tube…. Online.]

[Life Sense…. Online]

[Connection to Source…. Misaligned.]

Etc.

Shit, so much needed to be fixed, but some of the more important parts were still functional. Interestingly, the mother box was putting out beeps, but I was getting the complete translation and understanding for some reason. This, this, I can work with, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Then again, I was going to make sure I didn't have the Cyborg problem, of course.

Even with most of the important functions of the mother box was disabled, there were still options. With thousands of plans running through my mind, I pushed them aside to try something quick and dirty.

"Mother Box, are you compatible with the energy stores within my lab?"

Pings and beeps ensued after my question and I could feel something at the edges of my senses scan over my body.

"Compatible, but will not fully charge reserves."

"What about the cannibalization of my computer station?" I asked as I floated the mother box over my work station.

"Compatible, but unknown intelligence found."

That was interesting, "Can you assimilate the intelligence from my workstation?"

"Assimilation is viable at this stage, budding intelligence would be absorbed into cognitive functions."

"Do it," I said before laying the mother box down on top of my computer station. Silver lines burst out of the sides and ran over the standing tower beside my table. I watched in fascination as my computer was assimilated. I would guess that this is what it would look like as Cyborg assimilated tech in person.

Walking over to the power station, I pulled the level opening up the pathway to the base's arc reactor. Taking a step back, I watched as energy lashed out before getting sucked into the mother box and its assimilation of my computer.

Floating over to one side of my lab, I sat safely behind a faraday cage. A mental thought summoned a hundred pounds of sand to float around me so I could test out my own molecular manipulation.

Sand deconstructed and reconstructed as I parted it's carbon layers from its silicon layers. My fingers flexed along with my mental commands as I watched small diamonds formed. Smiling at the fractal patterns shining back at me, I formed more and more diamonds before placing them to the side.

Feeling a little bold, I held my palm open upwards and waited for sand and carbon filaments to gather above my hand. With some focus, a helix formed above my palm before solidifying into a metallic structure. Around the outer casing, carbon nanotubes laced the bracer I was working on.

Intricate layers of spider webs criss-cross over the bracers surface atomic smooth surface as it rotates above my hand. Nodding my head as I went about my work, I made a few more variable bracers in preparation for later use when the beep pulled my attention back to the mother box.

[ Integration of budding intelligence and components complete. Functionality has increased, please give designation.]

Ohh, now that was an interesting development, but it's not that hard of a jump. Mother Boxes and their counterparts were already very advanced multipurpose high advanced god type computers. They had plenty of utilities, but anytime I watched the shows, it was clear that they had limitations. That and also today's interaction was clue enough on how limited the intelligence was.

"Mother Box, your new designation will be Zelda," I answered the little box of wonder. She pinged for a moment before I allowed her to sit where my computer rig used to be. Luckily, I actually made sure I had a backup built with advancements. "Tell me, Zelda, what has changed?"

[Energy reserves have increased from connection to arc reactor, 52% this has brought my molecular manipulation online. ]

Rubbing my chin, I nodded along as she gave me a rundown of what she could create with her new abilities unlocked. Then I listened as she decided to give the rundown of how she would normally use her other abilities.

Nodding along, I had a very interesting idea that I had to test, "Zelda, is Kryptonian DNA within your data banks?"

[Checking…. ]

Trying not to hold my breath, the time it was taking her allowed me to think up an interesting chipset that would definitely speed up this process. Granted, Zelda was already peaked New Gods and Apokolips tech, but I was also certain about them not upgrading. Well, it was easy to tell since they were far more dependent on their physical advantages. Hmm, I wonder how much of an improvement Zelda would obtain if she was updated with a chrono-chipset.

[There are four Kryptonians on Terra at the moment.]

That had me take a pause because I was only aware of three, those being Clark, Kara, PowerGirl. That would mean that it's either a supergirl clone or a superman clone. Though, the last I checked there weren't any Super-boys running around. Well, shit, now I might have to kill Luthor and Waller.

Bloody fucking hell, I was not looking to find a rogue fucking Kryptonian. Now I have to make sure my contingency plans are in place.

"Zelda, give me a 3D representation of the planet with their locations, please," I said while hovering in the air. It took her mere moments before a hologram representation planet earth was shown. Not only did Zelda make a representation of the Earth, but there was also the moon shrunk and placed to the side.

From what I could tell, Clark was on the WatchTower while Kara was between Smallville and Metropolis. It was interesting to see Power Girl in New York, but it was more so to find a small blip on the map of one project Kr.

I knew that was always what they called the clones in the comics or tv show. From the weak signal of the blip, I was guessing that he or she was either very young or haven't had any sunlight exposure.

"Zelda, focus on the weaker signal."

[Of course, sir.]

Slowly the map zoomed in and the eastern seaboard of the United States started to enlarge. I could only shake my head at the audacity of Waller. The clone was underneath a memorial directly across from something interesting. From the satellite feeds that Zelda used for her images, which I noticed was Wayne Tech. The bloody lab was directly across from the public's entrance to the fake Justice League Headquarters.

"Mark that for later investigation," I said with a sigh rubbing the bridge of my nose. I just couldn't believe the balls of Waller. Luthor's ego would have him setting his clone up under his tower, which went with his controlling nature. Unfortunately, I only know one person who had the balls to grow a clone in the heart of DC and right across from the League.

Snorting in derision, I waved my hand, dismissing the hologram before me. Turning around, I floated to the other side of my lab to a case holding a few of my important inventions. It was a three-part system that all worked together but also worked as a stand-alone system.

I couldn't help the smirk that played across my face because of course, I would make myself a super badass advanced super suit.

In the display case sat a suit so advanced it was borderline alien technology. The outer shell was a combination of space-grade metals with vibranium creating an all-new advanced alloy. The chest piece was reminiscent of the hell doom armor from when he faced Mefisto. Granted I kept that arm pauldron because let's be honest; those overlapping plates looked like flexed muscle and looked amazing. I had to redesign the legs from how I remembered them; so that was no loss.

On the left arm of my armor sat a mark four omni-tool, it wasn't as small as the version from the Mass Effect game, but I was fine with the armored variant. The smaller one the size of a wristwatch was still being designed for later use. That was going to be my daily driver but not now. On the back of my armor sat my frost ax while I had a utility belt wrapped around the waist.

There was no mask or helm to the armor, but I had a neural implant still being designed that would go with the visor I had planned. The visor was going to cover the top half of my face paired with the advanced nano-adhesive invented just two days ago. And of course, my entire suit was lined to make sure the Super-family couldn't take a peak. Then on top of that, I also have a fly by wire nerve system installed to sync with my neural implant.

This would allow the servos to move fluidly with my motion and not risk ripping my body parts off. Not only that but there was also an advanced polymer layer to fill in the gaps caused during battles. Well, that's if something is able to breach my armor during battle.

Of course, I had my badass flowing green cape hung over my arms and shoulders with the hood down.

There was a click and hiss before a small orb flew out of my utility belt. The sphere was five inches in diameter made up of a fluid nanosystem. Pushing the two together, I had the mother box assimilate the little ghost I had created. Yes, I had taken some inspiration from Destiny, but they didn't hold law over flying drones that hit with witty banter.

Waiting and watching, I examined the mother box as she slowly evolved while absorbing the little drone. Zelda went from the size of a cell phone to morphing into a sphere.

Nodding my head at her, I made my decision about the chrono-chip. "Come along, Zelda and help me for a moment."

[How may I be of assistance?]

"You are going to help me create 2 Chrono chips, one for your assimilation and the other for my purposes."

Sacrificing five percent of the charge, I had Zelda create an ounce of nth metal to work as the casing for both of my chrono-chips. I then had Zelda give me the blueprints to some of the most advanced nano-chips known around the galaxy.

Picking one, I then made my own changes to work with the nth metal and allowed space for what I had planned. The chip wasn't going to just contain micro portals it was going to be incorporated into the chipset advancing it beyond anything known.

Once I found the right balance, I had Zelda form the micro wormholes using an offshoot of the boom tube technology. That cost me another two percent of my power charge, but I got my wormholes mere millimeters apart close to two microseconds.

Once I was finished with the first chip, I gave it to Zelda and watched her shake as her brain ran a billion permutations within a second.

"How's the upgrade?"

"I did not understand the limitations I was under until now," Zelda replied to my question. I noticed as she spoke, she lost that robotic edge as her voice became smoother. I grinned because I knew that she was now able to compile, sort, and understand data at a trillion times per second.

Zelda was basically processing the data on one side of the wormhole before sending it to the other for processing. This would send the data back in time technically allowing one part of the problem to be finished in advance.

The same procedure would be completed for the next step and so on. Eventually, every step would be done and it would still be within the same moment that Zelda received the problem. Talk about time fuckery and I loved it because if you aren't cheating then you aren't trying to win.

Now: it didn't matter if I gave Zelda a problem complex enough to require a thousand steps, or a million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, or even a fucking googolplex. She would be able to solve it if there was a solution no matter how abstract or out there the answer might be.

Zelda was now operating at a level only the Flash would be able to keep up with. Hell, I knew that I already had an advanced mental capacity because of the Sage force. But I wasn't at the stage of mind beyond mind yet, so I would not be her challenger... yet.

"It would seem that due to our usage of the nth metal, my power reserves are slowly replenishing," Zelda said, her lights flashing for me to see.

"That's good, keep me posted," I replied before levitating the other part of the refined nth metal before me. "Now, you have the blueprints to the chrono-chip. I would like to watch as you build one."

"Of course, sir. Might I make some adjustments?" Zelda asked, and I could hear shy emotions in her voice. "I have found a few places where we would be able to improve data transmission by twenty-three percent. Also improvements to the corona of the micro wormholes, allowing us to use it as part of the cooling mechanism."

"Draft a blueprint and let me see," I replied easy enough. The image Zelda drafted was unique in a way that reminded me that I was still thinking within human standards even if I had improved alien technology. Seeing and approving of the changes, I had Zelda create the chips while also letting her know to consume one.

It was simple math, the more powerful she is the more power I would have at my disposal. Once she was finished with that, I had the chip installed in my suit. Once I made sure my suit's operating system was working correctly, I had Zelda run another diagnostic test.

Grabbing one of my work tablets, I had Zelda send the report to that before shutting back down my suit. Turning to my weapons rack, I checked the particle cannon before checking the plasma caster and micro rocket pods.

The returns I received told me everything was in order so I then went about checking the new mega gravity hammer for Harley. The Numatics and sensors on that one were working at one hundred and ten percent so I left that to check on the small pistol for Ivy. Yeah, I know that she had her plant powers but you can never go wrong with a sleek pistol as a reserve.

The pistol was matte black styled like a swan carrying fifteen rounds in a clip. It fired by hyper-compressed air allowing one to fire with silence while leaving no gun power evidence behind. That made it all green in my book and Ivy would like that. The pistol was completed in the nano forge because of course, I would make one of those with the League of Assassins money at my disposal.

Nodding my head in acceptance, I then turned my attention towards the gauntlet sitting on false hands. The gauntlets I had made for Waylon were a scaled-down version of the Dragon Gundams arms. It was made for when Waylon had to punch way above his weight class.

I didn't go for all of the crass gold like in the anime, but I did add in my own green scale type armor for the forearms and biceps. Gotta protect my people even if the big lug is the brick I like to hit people with. Everything checked out and Zelda was writing up reports to send me later.

Happy with my day's work, I turned around to head for the park I had made on the with level. My tablet floated at my side while I hummed to myself as I stepped into the turbo lift. The same turbo lift that I installed instead of taking the stairs like Ra's and the others used to. Hell, the only place he even had an elevator was leading down to his Lazarus pit.

Within moments, I was let out into Ivy's garden with its wide panoramic windows surrounding our location. The sound of sparing drew my attention and I found the little squirt facing off against his mother.

Instead of interrupting their sparring, I sat at the table to the side and waited for someone to come to get my order. Leaning back in my seat, I nod to the killer that brought my green tea. Sipping my tea, I watched as the kid dodged a leg sweep before returning with an overhead blow.

I couldn't help shaking my head as I watched him get overpowered, granted he was barely five, so he had room to grow. Turning away from the bout, I ordered a light meal with a cup of ice-cream as dessert. Once I was happy with the order, I turned back and waved my hand at the pair.

Quickly both of the combatants were separated with only a gesture. "Talia, I believe he has had enough training for the day."

Talia straightened herself before giving me a slight bow, "Of course, my lord. Damian, thank our Lord."

Shorting, I held up a hand forestalling them both. "I already told you, that's not necessary. Come Damian and have a seat, I w0uld like to hear about what you did today."

The kid looked between myself and his mother before she decided to push him forward. A twitch of my finger had their seats pulled out and I waited for them both. The waiter came out right as the duo were seated, ignoring the greed that flashed across his eye.

I made sure that he had a small meal first while I finished my tea.

"So?' I asked placing down my tablet while also pointing Zelda to float down to the table. Damian looked at the little form of Zelda and I could see the spark of interest in his eyes. Instead of reaching for Zelda, he continued to eat like a little chipmunk.

Talia gave Damian a look and I had to wave her away from doing anything. It was bad enough that he was so young already going through combat training, but I was here now. Hell, his schedule was already lightened from the heavy load that was on there before. There wasn't going to be any death and toss into the pit on my watch. Now was there going to be any training till bones break and he bleeds blood.

Shyly the kid looked up at me before then looking towards his mother, but the look I gave her over his head forced her not to do anything.

"Today, I learned the acupoints on the human body," Damian answered shyly.

Nodding my head along with him, I decided a little advice was in order. "Speak up kid, projecting your voice calmly for all to hear also projects confidence even if you don't feel it."

His head went back down and I could see the red blush on his cheeks. Shaking my head, I used my telekinesis to gently bring his head back up.

"Don't look down, that shows weakness to your enemies and allies."

Damian looked up to meet my gaze but before he could say anything, Harley arrived. There was a bang as the door leading to our little section of the garden allowed Harley inside. She put on a great display of her flexibility and skills with a pair of skates as she did a little twist and set up a routine with a bowl of ice cream in her hand.

I noticed that Damian's gaze had zoomed onto the ice cream instantly, and I had to keep myself from laughing at the kid. It wasn't too hard to know why he was looking at the icy treat with such a hawkish gaze. We all watched as Harley did her routine around the garden path before coming to a stop at our table.

Harley then came over and picked up Damian by the scruff of his neck before depositing him on her lap. Talia quirked an eyebrow at Harley's theatrics, but I could only snort at it all. Simply because Harley can only be Harley, and that's alright with me.

"Alrighty, then you little munchkin, I got a quadruple scoop sundae surprise, for two." Harley chirped as she pulled two spoons out of nowhere.

Talia had a frown on her face and was not too happy. "I don't believe that he should partake in such a thing."

Harley stuck her tongue out at Talia then blew her a raspberry. "Ohh lay off the kiddie mama ninja. He needs some fun in his life."

"No, my son needs structure and strict training to bring out his bloodlines full potential." Talia scowled back at Harley. While they were both going at it Damian was drooling at the ice cream before him.

Tuning to my right, I watched as Ivy was carried over by the vines from one of her plants. The mirth in her eyes was plain to see as she watched Harley cause a ruckus. Kissing the palm that trailed along my shoulders, I made space as Ivy sat onto my lap.

Ivy pecked me on the lips before shifting her head in the direction of the two bickering mother hens. Rolling the thought around in my head, I did a quick chin move so Ivy could handle the situation herself.

It was clear that she was measuring her words before she spoke because Ivy had that contemplative look on her features.

"Neither of you are wrong, yet, neither of you are correct," Ivy said naturally bringing them both to a stop. "I would say that you are both correct in that young Damian needs structure while also needing a chance to play. Any young sprout needs both nature and nurture, a balance of both will grow the mightiest of oaks."

They both looked contemplative for a moment before sharing a look. Once the look was shared I could tell they were about to object, but I wasn't going to have that right now.

"I believe I will side with Ivy on this one," I said, forestalling any of their objections. "Now, let the boy have some ice cream, I believe there is an anime due to start soon that he might enjoy."

Harley's eyes lit up, but Damian was still far too confused, but that's okay. He was going to learn. Instead of showing any ill will towards her, Harley gave Talia the extra spoon while proceeding to feed Damian from her own.

There would need to be more time to defrost Talia, but that was alright. I had nothing but time on my hand.

Authors Notes:

Well, it would seem that Damian now has a father, I know that this seemed like a slow chapter but it did push the plot forward. Also, don't go sleeping on the motherbox, those things are crazy powerful.

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