The shield won’t keep them safe from me, Ivy said. Give it to them.
“We move forward,” Batman said.
“I see four votes for, three against,” J’onn announced. “Would anyone like to change their vote?”
“I’m good,” Barry said, moving toward the teleporter.
“Barry, sit down,” J’onn ordered. “We are not done yet.”
“Batman,” Aquaman warned as Flash found his seat once again. “You’re making a mistake.”
“You will respect the majority decision, Arthur,” Superman repeated. “Bruce isn’t changing his vote, so drop it.”
“Why?” he demanded. “Why are you letting Luthor have this much power?”
Ivy would have her own answer to give him, but he didn’t need help with this one. “Because it’s not just power we’re giving him; we’re giving him a leash, too. A slip-up here will ruin his chances forever. Let him have this last try.”
The king shook his head, grumbling. “He’s already had too many chances.”
“It is decided, then,” the Martian Manhunter announced. “We will continue work on the shield. Victor and I will keep you all updated on the results.”
“Sure,” Cyborg sighed. “I’ll keep my eye on him, Arthur.”
Aquaman blew air out of his mouth. “I hope you do.” He looked to J’onn. “Are we done here?” Flash nodded eagerly.
“That concludes the first matter I wanted to discuss today,” J’onn reported. “There is another, however, that I feel that I must share with you before we part.”
“What is it?” Diana asked at the same time that Arthur groaned “What now?” The two exchanged a bitter glance before returning their focuses to the Martian.
“This is not related to the shield project, but I still fear that this could affect all of us.”
“What’s wrong?” Diana asked.
J’onn rose to his feet, passing around Cyborg to stand a short distance from the table so that he could watch all of them. “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I fear that someone on the Earth is attempting to tamper with my mind.”
Superman sniffed, looking to the side. He seemed to be listening for activity, and he then confirmed Bruce’s suspicions when he spoke. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Not through an audio frequency, Kal,” J’onn said smoothly. “Through some psionic device.”
“I scanned the Watchtower and the Earth using our long-range subsonic frequency radars,” Cyborg said. “There was no trace of any psychic attacks that I could find, but the scanners aren’t perfect.”
“But you still think there is someone attacking you?” Arthur inquired.
“I do, but I do not know why.”
“Then what were you doing voting for the shield?” he all but shouted. “How do you know that this isn’t Lex making you do what he wants?”
“Lex wouldn’t do that!” Superman defended.
“Kal, I will handle this,” J’onn reminded sternly, though his voice was still in monotone. Looking to the Atlantean, he continued. “Arthur, I do not believe that this is Lex’s doing; if Lex had the technology to perform an act like this, I don’t think he would have left us in disagreement about his device. Nor would he have used it only on me.” J’onn looked to Superman. “If anything, I suspect that he would have used it on you first.”
“That’s ridiculous,” the Kryptonian scoffed. “Lex would never do that.”
“Even so, I do not think this is Lex. Whoever it is has to be someone with access to advanced equipment and is using something as vital as that for something as insignificant as… well, I do not know what purpose it is for.”
“Or that it is even happening,” Victor pointed out.
“This is true.”
Flash sighed loudly. “You kept us back because you think you might be experiencing effects of a theoretical device that Cyborg found no evidence of even existing?”
J’onn smiled. “I suppose that I did.”
“Are we done here?” Arthur asked pointedly.
“Yes,” J’onn said, looking directly at Flash. “You are all dismissed. Barry, would you stay for a moment? There is something that I would like to discuss with you.”
“I’m sure it can wait until tomorrow,” he replied, standing up. “Or next week.” He disappeared, a quick snap of the wind.
Smirking to himself, Cyborg stood himself. “Don’t worry; I turned off the other teleporter before I came up here.”
J’onn shared the smile. “Good. I will go find him there.” J’onn strode away to the elevator, Cyborg remaining behind. “Please see the others out.”
“Will do,” Cyborg announced.
Aquaman, Superman and Wonder Woman all made their way over to the teleporter. Cyborg turned to join them to power up the transportation device.
Arthur angrily stepped onto the platform first. “Just send me home, Machine.”
“Roger that, Majesty,” he returned quietly.
Everyone was turned away from Batman, all focused on getting in line into the teleporter. Glancing left and right to verify that J’onn had indeed exited the room, Bruce extracted the final pebble-sized object from his belt and gave it his best, most silent throw.
It landed right between two grate filter bars under the teleporter, passing through without making a sound. To give extra insurance, the teleporter began at that same time, disguising the noise.
And good thing too, as Diana turned around to look at him just after Arthur had left. Noticing her less-than-Ivy figure once more, he held her gaze as she inspected him, an obvious hunger in her eyes.
I’ve got to get out of here.
Arthur was gone, leaving only the four of them. Superman volunteered to leave next. “Just send me down to Star City. I’ll go to Smallville from there and tell my mom the news.”
“Sure thing,” Cyborg said. “If you see Barry around, I won’t mind if you smack him around a little bit.”
“Oh, you were paying attention to that?” Superman joked.
Victor nodded. “He fools around with my mother online sometimes. I wouldn’t put it past him to play jokes on your mom.”
“Thanks for the tip,” he said. A moment later, a flash of bright light took him away.
“Send me back to the Amazon,” Diana purred, not taking her eyes off of Bruce.
“Yep,” Cyborg said lowly. “Hope they haven’t broken the damn thing down there.”
Good, Diana was leaving first. All he had to do was get off of the Watchtower, and then the plan would be complete. Superman leaving would probably work for the best, and Aquaman was no threat to Ivy’s plans given his underwater residence. Wonder Woman leaving was unfortunate, but he couldn’t make her stay without causing suspicion.
The teleporter flared up as Diana sultrily stepped on board. She caught his eye, then winked.
Oh, no.
She disappeared, and standing in her place was a very confused Cyborg. “What?”
At the controls pad, Diana pressed the button to send him away. “Sorry, Victor. Have fun down there.”
“Diana!” Cyborg exclaimed before the teleporter took him away to the Amazon.
That left just him and Diana alone.
Bruce, Ivy said. You need to leave.
“Well, Bruce,” Wonder Woman said breathily. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
Suddenly, Diana was on top of him, tackling him to the floor. Bruce grunted, unprepared for the surprise assault. They hit the ground with Diana sitting atop his waist, both arms pinned between her knees. Moaning, Diana grasped his cowl by the front and ripped it off his head, crushing the camera inside.
Bruce, get out of there!
Straining, he did his best to pull his arms free to no avail. Her superhuman strength and speed was too much for him to liberate himself. She moaned as his struggles only served to arouse her.
“Diana, get off of me!” Bruce yelled.
“Mmmmm…” She didn’t appear to be listening as she rocked atop him.
Bruce, where are you?
He couldn’t escape. Even if he managed to get Wonder Woman off of him, he couldn’t use the teleporter to take him back to the Batcave without someone to send him there.
He was trapped.
Dammit, I’m starting the attack now! Ivy decided. Make your way to one of the hangers and get off the ship quick.
Bruce nodded, though she wouldn’t know. It was very unfortunate that the communication between them could be only one-sided. Resigned, he prepared for the strike.
He was still unprepared for the force of the explosion.