Litchfield County

August 3, 20:30 EDT

I hummed a ditty as we drove through the countryside on the way to Gotham.

"Sucks they couldn't keep the villains we arrested," Robin muttered, "Now they have intel about the team. And we're supposed to be stealthy."

"Stealth is overrated," I chuckled. "It's a crutch. True strength is visibility. They know who we are? That's perfect. It just means that they will shit their pants in terror the next time they see me. Us," I hastily added the last part. "But yeah, I'm annoyed too. But it can't be helped. At least it wasn't us that screwed up the—" In the corner of my wide field of view, I saw them—a swarm of flying robot monkeys, gray with shiny green bands, descending from the sky. "Important message, Bravo and Alpha. Uh. Flying robot monkeys in the sky headed for our van."

"What?" Robin asked, shocked, looking up. As did Superboy, who was driving up ahead.

"I've spotted them," I heard Aqualad's voice in my earpiece, "Flying machines converging on our location."

I raised my finger to blast them to pieces with Red when I remembered my Restraint Level. I was only supposed to use raw cursed energy to fight, and only then inside my body. I cracked a grin. This should be fun.

As the robots were starting to fall on the van, I revved up my pace to full throttle and prepared to jump off the bike and onto the van, angling the bike to leave the road after I jumped off.

I flipped twice before landing on the ceiling of the van, throwing away my impractical helmet as well and grinning at the monkeys as they descended on me.

I lightly tapped them with my fists, blowing them back. I counted twelve monkeys in the vicinity. That meant I'd have to take out four to keep things fair to the others.

"A little help here?" I asked as I looked back and saw Robin jumping off his bike and at the roof of the van the same way I had while a few of the monkeys were harassing Superboy. Robin effectively repelled a trio of monkeys, easing the non-existent pressure the monkeys were exerting on me. Throughout all the fighting, I suddenly had an idea, and transmitted it through radio, "These monkeys are probably going to bring the robot back to its maker. Crazy idea—let them."

"You're right," Robin said with a grunt as he expanded a staff and started swinging it around, "It is crazy."

"We follow the monkeys," I said, punching one hard enough to explode it, "We find the maker. We find Ivo. He's the real prize. Aqualad?"

"Ivo may have any number of villains reinforcing him," Aqualad said, "There is no guarantee that he's acting on his own. From what we've observed—," he grunted, clearly caught up in his own fight, "Sportsmaster! Alpha team has encountered Sportsmaster." Wow, way to prove his own point.

"Great!" I said, "Let's bag him again, and I'll be on the lookout for pale ghost freaks. I'd love to smash that cultist bastard's face in again."

Superboy roared as the robots wrecked his bike and sent him rolling on the ground. He ripped the monkeys to pieces, glared after the van, and jumped.

I pointed my hand towards him to stop him from destroying the van with his landing, but I remembered—no Limitless. Damn.

He landed anyway, throwing off Robin's balance. He almost fell off the van, and then a monkey tipped him over. Rather than fall on the hard ground, he jumped off purposefully into the off-road, rolling to dissipate the force of impact. I had been about to use Blue on him, but he had seemed so confident that I just let it play out.

Superboy went berserk against the robots, batting the air, but failing to hit them with every turn. In the meanwhile, a pair of robots were trying to cut through the windshield to get at the driver.

I opted on saving the driver, kicking at the robots and distracting them into focusing on me. In the corner of my Six Eyes, I saw the robots lifting up Superboy and tossing him back into the road.

And the van's backdoors swinging open while a pair of monkeys brought out the robot parts. Damn.

"The monkeys are taking off with our parts," I said, looking up at them flying away. Superboy followed them with giant leaps. "Superboy is in hot pursuit."

"Why did you let them get away?!" I heard Robin shout.

"Level two?" I asked Aqualad.

Aqualad responded quickly, "Not yet."

"What about Athlete Man?" I asked, "Take him down yet?"

"He almost took us down," Aqualad admitted. "An arrow managed to save us. I believe Green Arrow may have tailed us. Sportsmaster got away, however." Dammit! Did I have to do everything?

"Level what now?" Kid Flash asked.

"New plan," Aqualad said, "We'll follow the parts back to Ivo. But Infinity, make sure they're not assembled. That's your highest priority. Lower your restraint as needed."

I guess that meant I would have to use flight to follow the monkeys.

Or stealth.

I warped on top of the crate the monkeys were carrying, and then used Infinity to veil myself and my heat signature. The monkeys looked around, shocked, unable to make out my presence. Rather than swarm me, however, they decided to keep flying, carting me back to their maker.

000

The monkeys carried me to a railway in the sticks, and then started floating around, probably waiting for the train a few kilometers away to arrive. I floated away from the crate holding me up, confusing the monkeys again, and radio'd the team, focusing intently on keeping my cloak activated while also floating. If it was hard, that meant it was good training. I should be doing this all the time.

"Waiting for a train to arrive," I reported.

Once the train thundered into view, I leapt into action, tailing the monkeys as they braced for impact with the speeding machine. With precise timing, they jumped aboard, maneuvering with ease as they landed on the roof, their nimble machine hands already setting to work. In seconds, one monkey produced a small, potent laser from its palm, cutting a glowing line into the metal roof. The sounds of sizzling metal and rushing wind filled the air as the section came loose, revealing a dimly lit, industrial corridor below.

I slid in silently behind them, landing in the shadows just as the monkeys gathered around a set of crates, pulling back the heavy canvas covering. The car was cramped and dim, the rumble of the train vibrating through the metal walls, and the smell of grease and machinery hung thick in the air. As they unwrapped the crates, an older man stepped forward to inspect their cargo, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. Professor Ivo—a squat, ginger-haired figure whose age showed in his lined face and hunched stance—examined the crates with a manic energy. He wore a long, pristine lab coat, an odd contrast to his rumpled hair and small, round glasses.

In the far corner, a striking woman stood, her gaze steady and unflinching. She exuded a quiet, dangerous calm, her hand resting idly on the piandao sheathed at her hip. The saber's dark hilt glinted under the dim light, hinting at its honed edge. Her presence felt at odds with the metal and machinery surrounding them.

She was dressed in a red long-sleeved body-suit with a diamond-shaped boob window of all things treating me to a rather distracting view of her cleavage and she wore tights that reminded me of Black Canary.

And like Canary, she was hot. I could really get used to this superhero gig.

Looks aside, however, I could clearly tell that this thorny rose, beneath that unflappable exterior, was a powerful foe.

"Finally!" Ivo's voice rang out over the din of the train, a bright grin stretching across his face. "Once again, Amazo is mine. And I did not even require your services after all."

The woman eyed the crate and spoke with detached curiosity. "So, this android can analyze and mimic any power?" Her tone was both inquisitive and unimpressed as she approached the open crate with slow, deliberate steps. "And yet it fell. Impermanent, like most empty things are."

Ivo's face twisted into a scowl, bristling at her words. "It is the ultimate technology," he shot back, his tone laced with condescension. "I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand."

"The ultimate technology," she repeated, glancing back at Ivo with a slight, sardonic smile. "If it was really so ultimate, why would it need you to rebuild it?"

Ivo scoffed, ignoring the barb. "My genius was always the secret to Amazo's success. Reassembling him just reminds me of the brilliance I poured into every part. Nothing a sword-swinger would understand."

Her expression remained cool. "Believe me, Professor, if I wanted to understand machines, I would," she said dryly, her hand still resting on the hilt of her saber as her eyes swept over the crates, the crates, then to me, as if somehow sensing my presence. Her gaze lingered in my direction just long enough to send a prickle of warning down my spine. "Besides, I'm here to assess... other things."

"Oh?" Ivo's curiosity was piqued, but she didn't elaborate, keeping her cards close. She finally turned back to him, adjusting her grip on the saber.

"I'm here on orders," she said with a touch of impatience, making her purpose clearer but still guarded. "It seems there's a new 'hero team' around—children, I heard, with unusual abilities. My employer wants to know if they pose a threat." Her eyes narrowed in irritation, betraying her distaste for this task, like she would have preferred a fight to scoping out kids. "Frankly, Professor, whether you rebuild your robot or not is... irrelevant to me."

Ivo's lips twitched, sensing the power struggle in her dismissal. "Isn't that lovely?" he sneered. "Here you are, reduced to babysitting duty while real minds get to work. Tell me, how does it feel to be the errand girl?"

"It puts me in the mood to do my job well," she said, and in a moment, flicked her wrists in my direction.

Infinity stopped the ninja stars cold. It wasn't fear that stunned me, but utter shock. How had she seen me through so many layers of obfuscation? No heat, no light, and I was standing in a shadowy corner. I should have been a complete void to her senses. Was it a superpower?

I turned my invisibility off and gave her a grin, "You certainly are good at your job."

"Ah!" Ivo shouted, "You! Monkeys, attack!"

The robot monkeys descended on me as one. I grabbed the first monkey and used it as a bludgeon to destroy a second monkey, then kicked another one to pieces while I gave my report to the team, "I've been spotted. Ivo's with a hot sword chick. He has the parts."

"Superboy is on the train," Robin said, "According to GPS."

"Level two," Aqualad said.

All the monkeys around me froze, caught in the pull of my Blue technique. I crushed them into a ball and threw them right out through the wall of the train.

"Save me!" Ivo shouted as he slaved over the robot parts. I pointed my hand at him. The woman ran in to cut my arm off. She couldn't even get past Infinity.

I grabbed her with Blue and slammed her against the wall hard. She didn't even let out a sound as I bruised her body severely. "The name's Infinity," I told her, "And you're not my match."

Ivo, who was still fiddling with the parts, cried in fear as he redoubled his pace, but it was all for naught. I threw him into the wall as well. Ivo snarled, "This is police brutality!"

I slammed him into the wall again with a laugh. What was he gonna do? Sue me?

"Amazo!" Ivo shouted after the disassembled machine, most of its parts still inside their cargo crates, "Reassembly Protocol One Alpha! Access: Martian Manhunt—!" I wrapped him around a sound barrier before he could complete the order, but it was too late.

The parts of the machine began to float out from the box, "Ah, crap. The android's piecing itself together."

"Get out of there, Infinity!" Aqualad ordered.

I could see why. If this Amazo was put back together, it would undoubtedly try to scan me. If it succeeded, that would give it a new power on par with the ones it had already taken from the League.

I dropped the woman and gestured sharply, "Two temples. Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue," I incanted as the woman tried to cut me. Was I being paranoid, supplementing my technique with several incantations? No, Amazo was… weird. I refused to let myself get caught by surprise by it.

I dodged and weaved out of the way as I focused on the android. I tried to lock the pieces in space using Blue, powered by an incantation. They just effortlessly broke through my control. No, not quite. They became massless. And if they had no mass, that meant that attractive forces fundamentally could not work on them.

Shit.

Red? No. That would destroy and derail the whole train which would put the drivers in danger, not to mention the trillions in damages that Batman wouldn't shut up about. What a drag.

Although I couldn't move the Amazo parts, I could still move the space they occupied.

I warped the remaining pieces out from the train, sending them somewhere up the mountains, around a hundred kilometers away.

"I've bought us time," I said into my earpiece. "Sent the parts into the wind. But the parts are flying back."

"Keep stalling if you can," Aqualad ordered.

"Teleportation," the woman muttered, "Invisibility, and telekinesis."

"Infinity," I corrected, "There's an infinite distance between you and me, and there is nothing your sword swings could do to ever cross that distance."

"Interesting."

She threw a smokebomb down on the ground which didn't get in my way at all, or even through Infinity. My barrier filtered it all out, and the smoke might as well have been crystal clear glass to my Six Eyes.

As I made to attack the woman, it turned out that the smoke didn't much get in her way either. Definitely some sort of sensory power. We exchanged strikes, narrowly dodging each other, and I realized… this one was on Black Canary's level. Probably higher.

The more we fought, the more I realized. No. Not on her level. Way stronger. For a sword-swinging normie, of course. They were all the same to me, however. I'd even consider Canary stronger overall for having a cry that managed to hurt me for a split second.

This one seemed to have nothing.

I imbued my body with Cursed Energy, outstripping her in speed and power with ease as I dug my fist into her stomach hard enough to cause her to cough out a wad of blood. She flew into the air from my strike and I caught her with Blue and slammed her into the wall again and again. Then I used Blue to clear the air and grin at her.

"You came here for information," I said, "I'll tell you everything you need to know." I said in Japanese. "Number one: I am the strongest being you have ever encountered. Number two: you cannot beat me. Number three: wholeheartedly embrace your luck that I'm a hero and not someone who would pull your arms and legs off you like the insect that you are for daring to attack me."

She grinned slightly at my words. Oh, so she understood me. Even better. "What are you doing in the company of children and do-gooders?"

I chuckled. "It's a job, beautiful. Don't lump me in with those weirdos. I'm here to show something new to the hero world: How it's done."

"You shouldn't be so liberal about giving away your own information," she said.

I grinned, "In a few months, you will speak my name in the same breath as Superman."

"I've seen Superman. Do you still think you're the strongest being I have ever seen?"

"Without a doubt."

She gave me a serene and slight grin, "Your conceit is astoundingly high for someone so young."

My grin widened, "Now you're starting to get it."

It's not conceit if it's true. Any other attitude of mine would have been false modesty.

Then I pulled her away from the wall and slammed her into it again, finally knocking her out. I let go of her, freeing my attention up to focus on the floating Amazo torso and the rapidly approaching bodyparts.

"You can't stop this!" Ivo shouted.

How did I stop the inevitable march of intangible objects? Infinity. Just because something was massless still didn't mean that it could cross an infinite distance. I was about to imbue the torso with Infinity when I stopped.

Was that a good idea? Giving the power-stealing robot direct contact with my power?

Perhaps there was something else I could do? Like keeping objects inside of the intangible machine until it grew tangible again? Still, that would run into the same issue of it coming into direct contact with my cursed energy.

Dammit.

I should I even try fighting this thing? Aqualad had given me direct orders to leave.

I turned on my earpiece with Blue, "I've slowed Amazo's reassembly down," I said, "Amazo is what Ivo calls it. But the pieces will fly back unless I teleport them away again. I don't know if affecting the robot with my power is a good idea. But it's using Manhunter's phase shifting ability—I can't hold it."

"We cannot risk Amazo copying your ability!" Aqualad said.

"You guys can't fight this thing," I said, "I need to stop it from reassembling. Captain?"

"…I've contacted the League," Aqualad said. It sounded like a concession, but it really was the most natural conclusion to things. "Keep stalling the reassembly as long as you can, Infinity. But once it has fully reassembled, leave."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

…But why leave when I could beat it?

From the video I had seen, the League had managed to exploit Amazo's weakness of only being able to use one ability at a time. The eight Leaguers had kept switching tactics, trading off attacks and abilities in rapid succession, forcing it to constantly adapt. Whenever it used Superman's strength, it couldn't access Martian Manhunter's shapeshifting. When it tried Wonder Woman's combat prowess, it had to sacrifice Green Lantern's constructs. Each hero contributed to wearing it down, keeping it off-balance and unable to fully capitalize on its vast arsenal.

The coordinated teamwork was impressive to be sure. They didn't rely on raw power alone; it was a chess match, each Leaguer a piece strategically positioned to exploit the android's limitations. Batman had to be the one calling the shots, reading Amazo's every reaction, orchestrating their movements like a conductor.

But most of that fight had been digging for a weakness, and then pressing on that point with all their might. A brief delay, only twelve milliseconds long, between each power switch. During that moment, it was just a robot.

The only problem became beating Amazo again without completely erasing the thing from existence. Batman wouldn't take kindly to that, but what were our options here?

First, I created a sound barrier around us all. Then, I turned to Ivo with a smile and started stretching his arms like taffy. He screamed, "Deactivate the robot or I will kill you."

"Save me, Amazo!"

Superboy was incoming.

"I will break both your arms now." I snapped my finger, and his forearm shattered.

He let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"Now, the second arm," I said.

"No, no, wait!"

I waited. Three precious seconds ticked by before I grimaced and snapped my fingers again. His other forearm shattered.

He let out a sustained cry that I choked out by pressing on his airways with Blue. "Focus, professor. Disable Amazo and I will only break your legs and stop there." I'd show him real police brutality. "Every five seconds you stall is another bone shattered." I snapped my fingers again and his knee bent the wrong way. Superboy would be here in twenty seconds. "And when Amazo reassembles, professor, I will literally implode your heart. Feel that?" I asked, prodding with Blue inside his chest.

"Oh!" he screamed in horror. He went slack. I snapped my fingers and his other leg broke. That woke him up instantly. "Please! Please!"

"Just do as I say, Professor."

"Lord have mercy, oh the horror!" He cried.

I snapped my fingers again, breaking one femur, to remind him that I wasn't done, "Two-hundred and six bones, Ivo. I could do this all day. Three," snap, his other femur shattered, "Two," snap, his kneecap broke, "One," I snapped my finger again, breaking a bunch of foot bones at once. All he did was scream and nothing else. What an annoying resolve!

Dammit!

Then, he finally said something intelligible, "I'll see you in hell!"

Hah!

Superboy was here. Dammit. I turned Ivo invisible just as Superboy punched through the car door and stepped in. He wasn't wearing his earpiece. Figured why he hadn't said anything.

"Where is Ivo? I heard him in here." Superboy looked around, and then saw Amazo. His eyes widened at that and then they narrowed as he glared at it. "Why haven't you destroyed it yet?"

I threw a box at it. The box phased straight through, not disturbing the robot at all. I looked around and sighed, "The parts are here. I'm going to teleport the robot out of here before they reach."

I gestured, and the torso disappeared into the countryside. The flying parts were quick to change directions and follow.

"And Ivo is there," I said, gesturing at the corner, where Ivo was laying spread-eagled, body destroyed, after I had lifted the invisibility. I would have hoped for him to gloss over the villain, but it couldn't be helped.

He looked at what remained of the professor and then glared at me. "You did this to him."

"He resisted a lot, and he had help," I said, flashing Superboy a brief grin. "I couldn't hold back! But it's not like we won't give him medical attention after the fact."

Batman beat the crap out of his villains all the time. And he let them dangle off rooftops in search of information. This wasn't so far away from that. We were equally traumatizing.

I grabbed everyone in the train car—where was sword lady?

How had I lost track of sword lady?

Oh god.

Dammit!

I looked around, pushing power into my Six Eyes—I couldn't see her. There was too much noise in the endless sea of particles and my brain, powerful beyond belief as it was, still wasn't strong enough to filter it all out in search for the woman. Had she teleported? How could I miss this? If she had used a teleportation power, I would most assuredly have noticed, being that I was the real authority on space. No, she had made off on foot. Off the train, certainly.

Dammit. I teleported Superboy, Ivo and I to Amazo's new location.

Ivo gave out a cry of pain as he fell slightly on the grass. I looked away and saw the parts flying towards Amazo.

Superboy saw them too, "Shoot them down!"

I aimed a finger gun at the flying parts, "Pew, pew, nothing." What was he, stupid? I had already told him that they had phase shifted, and I had nothing for that except for teleportation.

I refocused on Amazo's torso instead and focused on a place I could send it to—

"Scan complete," the floating torso said, "Powerset categorized—Infinity. Access Infinity." Suddenly, it bloomed with a rudimentary version of my cursed energy. Not quite the real deal, but a good copy at least.

Huh. So it had managed after all?

I tried to teleport it and found that I couldn't anymore.

I grinned and fired a Red against it, blowing the torso back almost a hundred meters. Superboy didn't hesitate to follow it, his mighty steps digging into the earth and sending him flying towards the flailing robot torso trailing smoke.

"No!" Ivo shouted.

I flew after it as well and threw Reds at the incoming body-parts. They phased through. Had it already reactivated Manhunter's powers? Dammit. Whatever.

Superboy caught up to it first and tried to punch it, only to phase right through. I tried to teleport it again, only for it to change abilities and resist the teleportation. Wow, this was getting interesting.

The bodyparts finally caught up, and in fifty milliseconds, it had reassembled its entire body. Then it glared down at us emotionlessly, "Access: Captain Atom." It said, pointing its palm towards Superboy and taking a shot that blew him back.

"Curse Technique Reversal: Red!" I roared, sending a Red hurtling at him.

"Access: Martian Manhunter." It phased through the destructive divergence of infinity. Then it said, "Access: Infinity."

And I could feel its energy transmuting before my very eyes. One moment, this soulless machine, this joke of a facsimile of life, began to brim with cursed energy. And now, it felt like the real deal. Proper cursed energy belonging to a sorcerer—a powerful sorcerer at that.

And then I saw something I never thought I would ever see.

Something in the depths of its being sprung up from nothing and created something I had seen everywhere, on every living human for all my life, but I never noticed its uniqueness, that it was somehow divorced from a human being's cursed energy. I had conflated the two things. But cursed energy was cursed energy.

This new thing that had sprung up… was a soul. There was no doubt about it. This thing now had a soul. I had so little real data to go on, but I was so sure of this!

I started twitching and spasming erratically, "Access, Ac-Ac-Ac-Ac-Access: Sup-Sup-Sup-Sup—"

Superboy roared and punched it in the face. The robot's expression twisted from neutrality…

…to shock. Mouth a gape, eyes wide, eyebrows raised.

Emotion. It had emotion.

Oh no.

I had seen the goddamn movies. I wasn't letting this thing live for another second if I could help it.

I'd go all out.

I gathered my negative and positive energies, running them through my cursed technique at maximum output, and made the gesture, holding my index and middle finger back with my thumb and pointing my other hand behind me. "Superboy, get back!" I roared. Superboy turned to look at me and widened his eyes drastically. Did this moment perhaps count as a moment of near death that would allow someone without cursed energy to see my technique forming, see the searingly purple light of two infinities colliding to form imaginary mass?

I wouldn't miss this time. I wasn't freshly healed from deadly wounds. I was in the best shape of my life. And no speedster would save this villain. Superboy jumped out of the way without hesitating and I lined up my shot. "Hollow Technique…"

It looked at me, and saw death. And it showed fear. Fear that turned into hatred as it cursed me in its last moments.

"Purple."

I released the technique. Instantly, it dug a trench through the plains for hundreds of meters, utterly erasing Amazo as it passed.

Its energies instantly dispersed into the atmosphere, but it was over. Amazo was gone.

Mount Justice

August 3rd , 23:29 EDT

"I wasn't able to heed Aqualad's orders because I was able to keep the robot from reassembling," I said the moment Batman singled me out to have a discussion about the mission after Aqualad gave his report, which didn't really put any blame on me, even though I felt like I was probably going to be in deep shit for not leaving the moment Amazo was reassembled.

But what was I supposed to do? He hadn't even reassembled before scanning me. I had to finish him off.

"For a time, at least," I continued. "That's why I stuck around, searching for a solution. And also interrogating with that woman sent to dig up information on me." Not so much 'interrogating' as a good old quid pro quo—I gave her what she wanted and tried to glean her own origins and whether or not I should take her and her mysterious 'employer' as a threat.

"The League of Shadows has taken an interest in you," Batman said. I shrugged. "Do not take them lightly. They are not the type to be satisfied with leaving an enemy to roam without having figured out the specific method to kill them. To kill you. The more you defeat their fighters overwhelmingly, the more intense that search for a weakness will be."

"I'm shivering in my boots," I chuckled.

Inwardly, I felt a pit grow in my stomach as I pictured that lip-scar bastard. I needed to automate Infinity stat.

"You did good, largely," Batman said, "The loss of Amazo is regrettable, but Ivo's capture tied any loose ends. The intelligence we've gathered today was also valuable. It seems like it is indeed possible to produce cursed energy in this world, even from non-natives of your world."

"He… grew a soul," I said with a frown, "I think that's what I saw. And he started showing emotions. Which does make sense. Cursed energy is inherently emotional after all."

"Avoiding a battle against Amazo was for the best," Batman said, "The team would not have been ready for that level of threat."

I was just glad that the thing was dead. And that I had killed it. My cursed technique would have prevented it from rising up again as a vengeful spirit.

Hm, maybe I should mention that tidbit right now?

"I wanted to talk to you about your treatment of Ivo," Batman said, "It was wholly unacceptable. We don't torture criminals into compliance."

I raised up a sound barrier between us.

I scowled at that, "Do you not let them dangle off rooftops in order to dig for information?"

Batman's voice was sharper now, as cold as his gaze fixed on me. "I use fear as a deterrent, not a punishment. It has boundaries, limits. Torture has none—it's unchecked, uncontrolled."

I crossed my arms, feeling a stubborn heat rising in my chest. "Spare me the ethics lesson, Batman. I get it. But Ivo's no innocent bystander. He's a threat. I did what was necessary to make sure he'd cooperate."

"Necessary?" Batman's eyes narrowed, his posture growing even more rigid. "You didn't just bend the rules. You shattered them. We have to be better than our enemies—above them. We don't turn to brutality just because it's convenient."

"Convenient?" I scoffed, leaning forward. "I did what you wouldn't, what you couldn't. I made sure he understood that if he tried to hurt innocent people again, there'd be consequences." Nevermind that my real objective failed. At the very least, I doubted he'd ever step up to someone like me again.

"That's not for you to decide," Batman snapped, and for a moment, I saw a flicker of real anger behind his calm mask. "You don't get to play judge, jury, and executioner. Not under my watch."

I let out a harsh laugh. "What's the point of dragging guys like Ivo through the system? He'll be back on the streets in no time, building more monsters, more weapons. And people like you let it happen."

Batman's jaw clenched, his voice lowering dangerously. "You think I let it happen? I know the cost of putting people like him away, the line I have to walk every single day. And if you think for one second that I don't weigh every life, every action, you're wrong."

"You're too careful," I retorted, my voice hard. "And that's why you're stuck cleaning up the same messes over and over. Maybe if you'd let someone like me—"

"Enough." Batman's voice cut through the air, final and absolute. His gaze was like steel. "This isn't a debate. Torture and cruelty are lines we don't cross. Ever."

I opened my mouth to respond, but he raised a gloved finger, silencing me. "Never again. If you pull something like that again, there will be consequences. For you. Are we clear?"

A tense silence stretched between us. Finally, I forced myself to nod, though the anger still simmered just beneath the surface.

"Crystal," I muttered.

Batman held my gaze for a moment, as if to be sure the message had sunk in, then turned and walked away, signaling the end of the conversation.

Gotham City Hospital

August 3rd , 23:01

Amazo pressed his incorporeal hands against the boundary line between life and death, finding that it had no give whatsoever.

Would this be the rest of his newfound existence? An outside viewer looking in through a window in the cold darkness, watching his father go through life without him? Father had risked everything to bring Amazo back, and now he was going to go through surgery after—after that boy had almost killed him. Broken his limbs, rendered him a half-corpse. The doctors were replacing his blood from all his internal bleeding with new blood, but it would take years for him to gain full function at his age.

Amazo felt a cold and dark rage that resonated perfectly with the energy he had imitated from the boy. Even now, in this half-life that was more death than life, Amazo could still feel the energy.

He could do nothing with it however.

Very well. He would watch for now. And if a time ever came that he could step through the boundary line, he knew who he would hunt for next.

Curse you, Infinity!

Curse you!

000

Location Unknown

August 3rd , Time Unknown

"I almost lost another asset," Ra's reported to the five screens displaying light-cloaked figures each, feeling a growing sense of irritation. Lady Shiva, one of his premier assets, had barely gotten out with her life in the battle against that hero that acted nothing like a hero. "But now we have a name, and capabilities. Infinity. You've all seen the pictures."

"Rearranging the landscape certainly makes a statement," Queen Bee commented dryly.

"I'm really starting to like this boy!" Klarion announced.

"He's an odd one," Ra's said, "He acts nothing like the other heroes. My agent reported that he tortured professor Ivo, effortlessly breaking the man's bones with his telekinesis. And he threatened to torture my agent as well. While his potential for disruption is… great, I believe he may present a unique opportunity for us as well."

"His temperament is atypical," Vandal Savage commented, "For a hero. They may reject him in time, rendering him vulnerable to subversion. Until then, Klarion—devise countermeasures should we come to blows against him once more."

"You're right," Luthor said, "A soft approach would do wonders for us in this situation. An overly powerful youth with little scruples and reservations towards violence sounds like the perfect pawn for our plans. I will take the lead on this, gather more information before making my move."

"Wait," Klarion, the Lord of Chaos, said, "Are we killing him or are we recruiting him? Or are we doing both? Eh, whatever. No, stop that, Teekl! Not on the couch!" His volume dissipated as he moved away from his microphone.

"One way or another," Vandal said, completely ignoring the Lord of Chaos, "Infinity will see the Light."