The Watchtower, Earth, 7:14 PM.

October 13th, 2010.

“Of course, we still have your ship,” Diana said gently. “It hasn’t left the Watchtower since we brought it here.”

Aiden nodded and took a deep breath before blowing it out, nobody said anything for a moment, and he used it to regain his calm.

“Okay,” Aiden said evenly, “Solutions time, we have several problems—Cadmus has Match hidden away in the basement, what are we doing? And before you tell me it’s league business—Don’t, or I’m going to go free the guy myself right now.”

Batman stared at them, calmly for a long moment before speaking.

“Superman, Superboy, retrieve the pod containing Match, and return to the Watchtower,” Batman said seriously, “Diana, Power Girl; take Aiden and investigate the location of his recent battle against Dr. Sivana and ‘Divine.’”

Annoying, but he wasn’t getting cut out entirely, so that was something.

“You’re going to find Emil?” Aiden fished, expecting nothing.

Surprisingly enough, he confirmed it.

“Yes,” Batman said simply, turning away.

Superman didn’t wait as he strode across the room towards the Zeta-tubes, and Superboy turned to follow him, but not before he shot a look that might have been gratitude over his shoulder. Aiden just nodded before turning back to Diana.

“Lead the way,” Aiden said simply.

Fawcett City, 7:21 PM.

October 13th, 2010.

They apparently had a zeta-tube connection tucked away in Fawcett City, which cut the travel time down to basically nothing.

When they arrived, Aiden found that he had left the city in much more of a mess than he realized—all the adrenaline and vicious fighting hadn’t exactly left him time to study his surroundings.

Almost five floors of the building that Dr. Sivana had been hiding in was trashed, and the spread of broken windows where he had tackled Divine out of gave the image of some kind of impact into the building. Emergency services were set up all over the city, and the entire building was shut off from public access until it had been deemed safe.

Several blocks away, where he had kicked Divine with all of his strength lay the shattered remains of the street far below, completely shredded and impassable by any land-based vehicle. The glass frontages of the shops around the impact zone were totaled and cordoned off.

Aiden swallowed as he looked around at the damage they had caused; this wasn’t at all what he had planned on when he agreed to help Enkidu capture Sivana. He’d assumed that by ‘Heavy Hitter,’ she had been talking about someone with a high level of strength—and that was it. He thought he was going to be in control of the fight with his superior mobility, but that hadn’t been the case at all.

Instead, what he had gotten was a fucking Kryptonian—something he aspired to reach eventually, but he knew just based off his spars that he wasn’t near that level of strength yet—if anything, he was even further away then he had guessed, or Conner was holding back a great deal.

From start to finish, the fight against Divine had been a desperate struggle to remain whole, unbroken, and relatively unharmed; she was vastly faster, stronger, and much like his battles with Conner, completely impervious to his level of strength.

Aiden stared around at all of the damage and made a promise to himself; he was going to become stronger, and he was done messing around.

“Ever hear about collateral damage, Aiden?” Power Girl said weakly, looking around the destroyed floor of the building.

“Call me Bubbles in public, please,” Aiden said, annoyed, “I didn’t do anything in here except the window, and last I checked, Enkidu doesn’t have explosives; this had to have been Sivana.”

He was being honest too, Enkidu seemed to primarily be a highly competent melee fighter, he couldn’t remember her having blown anything up—well, she had admitted to setting fire to the previous building, but this didn’t look like that kind of damage.

Pieces of the massive table had been snapped off, and there were long scorch marks, a single line that crossed most of the room in several areas. It honestly looked more like the result of a laser—or heat vision.

Aiden studied it for a long moment.

“Divine came back here and did this afterward; that’s all damage from heat vision,” Aiden said seriously. “Temper tantrum, maybe?”

Karen looked vaguely upset at the idea that a clone of her had trashed an empty room for no other reason than to take her anger out on something.

“It does look remarkably similar to the aftermath of a fight against a Kryptonian,” Diana said calmly. “Search the area; we need to see if they left anything behind.”

Aiden broke off from the other two and started picking through the debris.

There were no bodies thankfully, the room had originally been full of people, most of which had looked like businessmen and hired bodyguards. He was glad that they hadn’t stuck around to bask in the displeasure of the Divine.

He found what looked like the remains of some kind of unknown device, a metal rectangle with a curvature along the back of it; right near the center was a long spike—it was also cracked in half, well, more sheered in half than anything actually, and an imprint of a boot was sitting right over the top of it.

More than anything, it looked like something from a movie.

“Anything inside?” Diana called calmly, drawing his attention back to the room.

“Can’t see through it,” Karen said, frowning, “It’s lined with lead; want me to break it open?”

Aiden turned and stared at her incredulously.

“The guy was working with a cloned Kryptonian, and he has a briefcase lined with lead, something she wouldn’t be able to see into.” Aiden said slowly, “You don’t harbor a single doubt that it’s a lump of Kryptonite? Seriously?”

Karen flushed and then held the briefcase further away from her.

“As obnoxiously as he put it,” Diana said dryly, “He is correct; we will take it with us; it most likely belongs to Dr. Sivana.”

“There’s some kind of technological device over here as well,” Aiden said evenly, “It honestly looks like some kind of mind control thingy from a horror movie, I’m not going to lie.”

The end of the spike even had the tiniest splash of red on it—yikes.

“There were probably cameras in here, right?” Aiden said, frowning, “Think the footage is saved somewhere else?”

“Unknown,” Diana stated calmly, “It’s part of the process however, we will look into it.”

Aiden just nodded.

“A briefcase, a mind control thingy, a clone of a beautiful girl, and a mad scientist all walk into a room,” Power Girl said idly, “What’s the punchline?”

Aiden snorted at the self-brag she managed to slip into the question and earned a smirk that once again brought back very recent memories of having his ass kicked horribly.

“Starting with solutions ironically isn’t the optimal solution to solving a situation,” Diana said distractedly, “Hold onto those theories until we have more information.”

Aiden had heard that piece of advice before if worded a bit differently.

“Batman probably already knows how everything happened anyway,” Aiden said off-handedly, “Anything we can come up with is probably less informed.”

Diana raised an eyebrow at him.

“How would he possibly know what happened here?” Diana said strangely. “We only found out about this when Superman contacted us.”

Aiden opened his mouth and then closed it.

“It’s Batman.” Aiden said, annoyed, “He probably has a horde of Batdrones or Batrats scurrying about around looking in everyone’s houses checking for thought crimes!”

Karen let out a startled laugh at the idea, but Diana shook her head.

“You have some very strange misconceptions about him, Aiden.” Diana said hesitantly, “I’ve never seen anything like what you are describing.”

Aiden floundered for a moment, unable to really argue with the rather gentle statement.

“Did he bug the apartment he gave me?” Aiden said seriously, narrowing his eyes at her. “Don’t lie, or you’ll be disappointing your rope.”

“Her rope?” Karen said incredulously.

Neither of them paid her any mind.

“To the best of my knowledge, nothing like that has occurred.” Diana said firmly, “I’m willing to repeat that statement under the influence of my rope.”

Aiden frowned at her; once again, he didn’t find himself mistrusting her. So his characterization of Batman may have been influenced by his old world’s popular culture to some extent—maybe he wasn’t quite as invasive as everyone had seemed to believe. Or, Aiden thought, that’s exactly what Batman wanted him to believe—no, that way lay madness.

“Fine, I was kind of treating him like a super violent private investigator, I won’t lie,” Aiden admitted.

“To be fair,” Karen interjected curiously, “That’s more or less how Robin describes him.”

Diana gave her a look that might have been exasperation.

“What?” Karen said indignantly, “He does!”

Aiden opened his mouth to respond when his phone started ringing. He retrieved it from his pocket and held it to his ear.

“We found him,” Conner said pleased, “The pod is now back at The Watchtower.”

“Nice work, Conner.” Aiden said honestly, “You did good—not as good as us; of course, we found a briefcase.”

“A briefcase?” Conner said, confused.

“I found a briefcase,” Karen huffed.

“Sorry,” Aiden said easily, nodding at Power Girl. “I meant, ‘I' found a briefcase.”

“Hey!” Karen said indignantly.

Diana just sighed.

Aiden’s Warehouse, Boston, 11:37 PM.

October 13th, 2010.

“Are you seriously still working?” Aiden said tiredly as he entered the Byrna’s area of the warehouse. “It’s almost midnight.”

“Hello to you too,” Byrna said, bemused. “Of course I am, and I’m almost done too.”

Aiden could see that; most of her new power armor was assembled on a mannequin by the wall. Sleek, blue, with smooth interlocking plates, clean lines, and polished to a mirror finish, the only thing missing was the helmet—which was the piece she was currently remodeling. The helmet now had a dark glass visor horizontally aligned within the faceplate, and the inside seemed to be filled with thick padding.

“Looks about three million percent better than the Abominable Snowlump,” Aiden taunted. “Nice job.”

“It was cool, dammit!” Byrna said heatedly, “You just have no taste!”

Aiden wondered about her self-awareness sometimes.

“Oh!” Byrna said suddenly, “Tracy said she was done with your death machine; she left this morning.”

“Oh, hell, yes,” Aiden said happily. “I wish it was done a week ago because a lady snapped her foot off in my ass today.”

Byrna turned away from her helmet to look at him for the first time since he entered the building.

“Snapped her foot—,” Byrna said, bewildered before her eyes widened. “What the hell happened to you?”

Aiden tugged at the bandages that were wrapped around his shoulder. Diana had finally convinced him to go to a hospital instead of returning with them, and he honestly had no problem with never using another Zeta-tube in his life, so he had gone fairly easily.

He didn’t trust those things at all.

His back had been pretty badly scratched up from being dragged through the asphalt for a mile or two by his face, and his left shoulder hurt from blocking repeated hits from the wrecking ball that was Divine.

He’d gotten himself treated and then left, partially against the wishes of the doctor, but he did manage to get some painkillers to go—better than nothing, really. He would heal fairly quickly, and honestly, he was lucky he hadn’t been injured worse. He must have grown a little bit stronger after his almost defeat by the giant plant because he’d taken far less damage from what was probably more force.

“I was helping Enkidu capture a villain, and then I got into a fight with a Kryptonian clone,” Aiden admitted, “I’m not even joking either.”

“Can you not?!” Byrna said, outraged, “If you get killed doing something stupid, who’s going to pay me?”

Byrna moved to inspect him for damage, and he raised his arm obligingly so she could check the bandages. Aiden rolled his eyes at the complaint.

“Wow,” Aiden said deadpanned, “I feel so loved right now.”

She was seemingly satisfied that he wasn’t about to drop dead because she gave him a heavy-lidded gaze that piqued his interest.

“I thought it was ‘just business,’” Byrna said mockingly, looking up at him.

Byrna patted him on the chest gently before suddenly spinning away, returning to her desk with a smirk.

“You suck,” Aiden said, flustered, watching her flounce away. “I’m going to test out the gravity chamber, idiot.”

“Are you actually stupid?” Byrna said, alarmed, “What did I just say about doing anything dangerous?!”

Gravity Chamber, Aiden’s Warehouse, 12:12 AM.

October 14th, 2010.

The chamber was literally just that, an empty room with pale white walls made of a hyper durable material that he had no idea the composition of. The panels seemed irregular at first glance, but there was an emerging pattern when you took a sweeping glance at a wall. There was a control panel by the vault-like door, which had locked audibly when he stepped inside. He studied the screen that was projected into the air, some kind of projection.

Hard-light perhaps?

He fiddled with the controls for a moment before reading through the instruction prompt that appeared; the controls were simple, voice-activated commands, and manual access by the door. The gravity level was shown on one side as a multiplier, and the power available was shown opposite it.

The instructions had indicated that once he went over a certain power threshold, that was the hard limit unless he purchased additional power storage modules. The maximum charge would last for four hours at maximum gravity, and once the current energy reserves were depleted, it would recharge over the course of twenty-four hours.

Aiden was more than pleased with the design; Tracy was a literal mega-mind galaxy-brain as far as he was concerned. How she had managed to even draw out a design for such a thing baffled him. He cleared his voice before speaking.

“Increase gravity to five times,” Aiden said evenly.

The world pressed down on him, and he grunted at the pressure but managed to remain relatively unbowed. He had grown used to the force of the collar’s maximum output, but it was still a large increase from the normal everyday forces.

He lifted his good arm up and threw a straight punch, finding it perhaps a little bit more difficult than the collar’s pressure. Perhaps whatever calculation Tracy had used to control the effect of the force had been refined or changed?

Aiden did a slow lap around the room before coming to a stop by the door.

“Increase gravity to…ten times,” Aiden said bravely.

His shoulder ached as it thudded into the unmoving floor beneath him, and he barely managed to turn his face to the side before he hit. He forced himself to raise his Ki and slowly pushed himself up to his knees with some effort, and as he approached his maximum sustainable power level, it grew easier.

Topped out, he could almost move freely under the force, but there was a noticeable effort involved.

“Well fuck,” Aiden managed, “Increase gravity to eleven times.”

He bent under the weight, even under his maximum, but he found himself grinning as he forced himself upright with effort. Aiden took a slow step forward, and then another, slowly making his way around the room in a walk almost as slow as a crawl.

This was exactly what he needed; he could already feel the sweat start to appear on his skin from the exertion. It had been a long while now since he had reached a level of exercise that had manage to challenge him.

Aiden had known that Conner was stronger than him, even at his maximum power, and that Diana was even stronger than that. Even so, Divine had been a wake-up call; if he wanted to be a contender in the top-level, or even be able to defend himself from them should they come knocking—as he was now, he had no chance. He’d escape Divine by running away like a coward; he’d hit her harder than he had ever hit Diana or Conner, and it had done nothing but send her through the air from the force.

He knew that from Emil’s stat-tracking of his S-cells that he had been approaching a point where they would exist throughout his body, and he knew that they increased faster the more often he used Ki to enhance his physical capabilities. So the obvious conclusion he could see was to train in a way that maximized the infusion of Ki within his body.

He took a deep breath and began reaching for the state that was Roshi’s technique. His muscles surged outward in fits and spurts as he forced his power into those patterns inside him. He felt the effect of the gravity falling away again and forced his mouth open.

“Increase Gravity to twelve times.” Aiden gritted out as the world did its best to crush him.

All of his efforts went into holding the technique, and he stopped trying to move around entirely, standing dead still in the middle of the chamber, Ki surging around him.

Aiden knew that eventually, even without the use of techniques that he would reach the level of power needed to face a Kyprotnian in battle evenly, but he also knew that it would be a long time until he got there naturally—he also knew of a much faster way to achieve that level of power.

Aiden was going to become a Super Sayian.