25

The Island of Santa Prisca-" Batman began after all of the kids were assembled. "-stopped producing the enhancement steroid Venom near the end of last month. Recent sattelite imaging however would suggest that either the island has come under the control of another criminal enterprise, or else Bane has resumed production for reasons unknown."

A series of low resolution pictures flicked across the screen behind him. It was a square, with a couple of other squares around it. And some smaller squares were pulled up to it that might be generously called trucks.

Hologram technology existed, there was no good excuse for this kind of image quality.

"This was the main production facility-" The image focused on the largest block. "-and beginning just a few days ago it resumed production after being inactive for the last two weeks."

About this time, Leslie stopped paying close attention. He did have another issue to take care of.

--FROM: Ultra-powerful best goddess Terra-Tan!--

--So, as an Alpha Tester, you've actually got some other responsibilities you need to take care of. Like telling me how you're enjoying the game, issues you've come across and various exploits that may need to be patched.--

--TO: Ultra-powerful best goddess Terra-Tan!--

--Well, when I tried to open the settings menu, it glitched so bad it caused VP damage before crashing.

Not sure if this is a bug, but I've put a bunch of wild animals in my party. Only ended up being a short term benefit though before I couldn't gain any experience from the local vermin.

Recently tried to purchase a skill from the Game Shop, but it said I needed Gamer's Mind. Might need to figure out a workaround if you're going to avoid using Gamer's Mind in the future.

Metamagic: Pierce might be a bit OP? I've got a raid boss sitting in my inventory thanks to it.

Not a fan of the setting, too grimdark and the win conditions are pretty iffy. Gamer system is otherwise alright though.--

The computer stating "Zero-Eight, Green Arrow" broke him out of his thoughts.

"B-Zero-Six, Speedy" However fully caught his attention. Neither of the two had been heard from since the whole Cadmus incident.

At least, not that Leslie was aware of.

It definitely caught the attention of the people around him, too. Batman paused his mission briefing as they waited to see if Green Arrow would be joining them.

Several minutes went by before the Robin Hood cosplayer did, in fact, show up. The man in question did not look like he'd been taking especially good care of himself. The goatee was significantly less manicured that normal and there was a pallor to his skin that was clearly unhealthy.

Give the man a makeup team and twenty minutes, it'd all be hidden. Nothing that would be too difficult to hide... So he clearly wasn't worried about it too much.

Speedy on the other hand was looking much better.

Still one-handed, yeah, but he wasn't on ice at this point.

Batman was looking at the older blonde man, his expression inscrutable. "Green Arrow." His voice was calm and even. "You were not expected today."

"Yeah, I know." Oliver sounded exhausted. "I'm still handling the fallout for that Cadmus mess."

Behind him, Speedy waved with the one hand he had left.

"One of these kids, they're a healer right? I need to know if they can do anything for Speedy." Well, the man was good about getting to the point at least.

"That's me. And unless you've got the rest of him on ice somewhere? Probably not. I can still try though." Alchemist stood up from his seat and began walking to them.

"Alchemist. We're not done." Batman did not seethe. But he did try to loom menacingly. It worked fairly well inside of the dimly lit cave with the massive screen behind him.

"I know. But it's not like I'm going on the mission anyway." This would either be espionage or combat.

Considering the kids in question? Likely both.

He was halfway to the door behind the archer and a half when he heard M'gann asking a question.

"Batman? What is a 'Hispanic leather daddy'? And why does Alchemist think we're going to check on yours?" It was asked with absolute innocence, something Leslie was fairly sure the girl couldn't fake yet.

He hurried out of the room.

-----

"So you can't do anything to fix-" Speedy waved his stump in front of himself as they walked. "-this?"

"Probably not, especially not yet. If you've got phantom pains, maybe muscle problems, I might be able to do something. If you get a prosthetic or graft, I should be able to help with that." There wasn't really any point in giving the kid false hope.

"You mean like pulling an arm off a corpse, kid? I don't think we can really go for that." Green Arrow sounded resigned, and definitely tired.

"Well, that's one option, yes. The genomorphs might be able to just grow an arm. They grew a Kryptonian, after all." Which was incredibly fascinating, moreso than Leslie thought the others could really understand. Depending on how much of the DC movies made their way into the cartoon and comic book realities, that would mean Kryptonian DNA was heavily black-boxed.

They walked on in silence for a good while before coming to the common area, one of the various rooms Alchemist had barely spent any time in.

"Hey Red, not interrupting you are we?" Oliver asked the android.

Leslie hadn't actually been introduced yet. Either an oversight on Batman's part, or everyone was just too busy.

"You are not." Leslie waited for a moment, but Red Tornado had nothing else to say.

Green Arrow moved into the room and sat down on a large, L-shaped couch. Speedy next to him and Alchemist across from them both.

"So kid, Alchemist. How's this thing work? You just wave your hands, do some hoodoo and make people all better?" As much as Leslie disliked someone else pulling his schtick with sarcasm, that was basically correct.

"Kind of, yeah. Gonna need two dead chickens and a mummified llama fetus for this one." Best way to handle someone else being sarcastic? Play along.

"Wait, what?" Speedy must have been thrown off by the fetus comment.

"Sorry, that's the ritual for good luck. I thought you might need a hand with that." Alchemist fired back. "Nah, but seriously, yeah. I just do this-"

Leslie snapped his fingers at Green Arrow, casting Esuna on him.

"And bam, magical healing."

AN/ I've been pretty busy writing this week and gotten a lot out pretty quick, so I figured I could share the love.