Kevin Curry
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Devil's Consultancy 55
🕑 Added 2025-12-15 15:00:25 +0000 UTCTo be honest, this one probably could use a few more words, but I'm not posting it late again. I'll just shove the next bit into the next chapter.
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Fortunately, Blackfire was just a spiteful teenager who was mostly lashing out at the galaxy, and her sister in specific, because her life was hard and she blamed her parents and society’s abuse of her on the sibling that was treated well, because that’s just what people do when exposed to unfair treatment. She admitted to everything when confronted, and was thoroughly confused when Starfire responded with a hug instead of anger.
The Centauri were told that Blackfire sold the necklace and went into hiding, they were thus given the option to get the necklace now, or wait until the thief had been properly apprehended for the rest of the stolen goods, which could take a few days. The sentiment was along the lines of ‘she’s your problem now’, followed by a peaceable exit from the system back to their own.
“So… you’re just… letting me live here?” Blackfire asked incredulously. They were in Tanya’s official Watchtower office as Rhine, and she was wearing the “Rhine” uniform. “Why?”
“Put simply, we in the Justice League believe in rehabilitation.” Tanya said, “You’re young, still, and I don’t know how you do things on Tamaran, but on Earth that means we cut you some more slack than we’d give to an adult.”
“But I tried to kill my sister.” Blackfire said, still not quite understanding. “Get her arrested for something I did.”
“Well, we’re not just letting you do whatever you want.” Tanya elaborated, “You were dealt a bad hand, and you wanted things to be set to rights. Anyone would want that.” Her gaze hardened. “However, the way you acted to make that happen, trying to get revenge, doing so to an inappropriate target, escalating your crime spree beyond reasonable survival concerns… an unfortunately common reaction to the galaxy’s unfairness, but it hardly makes you some irredeemable monster. I know irredeemable monsters, trust me.”
“What does that even mean!?” Blackfire half-shouted.
“It’s easy to commit crimes.” Tanya said in an attempt to summarize a complicated issue, “As someone exposed frequently to the criminal element, I was surprised at just how lazy and stupid they can be. Even the ones who think themselves clever, the ones who think they’ve come up with some clever scheme, they simply prey on the inherent trust that makes civilization thrive, supping on the blood of society like a parasitic tick or mosquito.” Tanya paused, realizing that she had drifted a bit from the point.
“Really selling me on this ‘Stay on Earth’ thing.” Blackfire said sarcastically. She was leaning back in her chair, only still standing due to her cheating with her flight power.
“I’m not going to pretend that I understand your mindset.” Tanya continued, getting back to the point. “You’re not human, and Koriand’r was not exactly helpful when it comes to understanding Tamaranian culture. But our respective peoples are similar enough that I can make some educated guesses.” Bruce’s criminal profiling lessons were incredibly helpful when it comes to this kind of thing.
“You’re wasting your breath.” Blackfire said, increasingly irritated.
“You think that life’s not fair, so playing fair is stupid. Only fools do that.” Tanya began, which was simple enough that Blackfire grunted in agreement. “You’re not wrong, the galaxy can be a very harsh place to those who trust too easily. But at the same time, it is because of mutual trust that society can build up and advance enough that interstellar travel becomes possible.”
“I can fly between stars on my own.” Blackfire countered.
“But your capabilities are from the Psions, who trust each other well enough.” Tanya retorted, “My point is that, when you look at society, who rejected you for a bafflingly stupid reason, and decide that polite society is not for you, it’s difficult to take that back, and life as an outlaw means living in fear that one day, someone comes for you, whether that’s when you are weak, or tired, or if they are simply stronger than you, it doesn’t matter. It’s a hard life, and even if it’s exciting now, it’ll lose its luster sooner than you’d think. We are offering you a chance to return to lawful society, if you will take it.”
Blackfire continued to look at her incredulously. After a moment, she furrowed her brow. “...You’re serious.”
“Deathly.” Tanya said, “You’re young, and you were made a social outcast for an incredibly petty genetic mutation. The Justice League doesn’t get to practice rehabilitative justice as often as we’d like, but we’re willing to help you get back on the straight and narrow, if you’re willing to give it a try.”
“You don’t know everything I’ve done.” Blackfire said, now floating in the air with her eyes glowing purple, “You know barely anything about me.”
“The list of criminals that we’d be unwilling to attempt rehabilitation for, if it was truly sincere, is very small.” Tanya said patiently. She was getting through to her! “Even that list is mostly limited to those that we could never be sure of that sincerity.” The list of people that they’d insist on telepathic monitoring and oaths sworn on the Lasso of Truth before attempting that, on the other hand, was much larger. “At some point, we’d prefer if you made some sort of amends with all that you’ve hurt in your criminal actions, but it is not a requirement.” It was frequently counterproductive to belabor the point for rehabilitation, so the similar program that certain other ex-supervillain Leaguers go through tended to limit things like required apologies. There would be one, but Starfire’s already forgiven her, so… “I would wager that your initial criminal actions were because you did not see another option that led to an acceptable outcome, the alternative likely being the slavery that Starfire mentioned, and then you just continued on because you were already a criminal, so there was no point in trying to lay down and take it from a cruel galaxy. Am I off base?”
“My ‘initial criminal activity’, as you call it,” Blackfire spat, “-was killing my captors and escaping. Do you have any idea how much money gets put on the heads of escaped slaves by the Psions?” She mumbled something under her breath in Tamaranean, but all Tanya caught was that she was calling someone a ‘double-dealing traitor’. Interesting… but hopefully irrelevant.
“I looked into it when Koriand’r became an official refugee, yes.” Tanya said, “I’m given to understand that one could buy a small spaceship with the price on her head.” It was curious how the bounty didn’t even have Starfire’s name, just a detailed description that emphasized her star bolts, along with a tattoo that Tanya later magically removed from Starfire’s buttocks that was the Psion equivalent to a slave brand.
“Exactly.” Blackfire said, “There is no ‘rejoining society’ for me. The only thing that will make them back off is force.”
“Not to brag, Komand’r, but we have a fair amount of that here.” Tanya said, “The Justice League, as well as most of Earth,” While slavery was at an all time low, particularly as the League had been waging a war on human traffickers for the last several years, it had not yet and probably can’t be completely eradicated, “-look very poorly on slavery. As long as you reside on Earth, you will be under our protection. So yes, you can. It may mean you can never go back to Tamaran, but something tells me that’s not much of an imposition for you like it would be for Koriand’r.”
“You got that right.” Blackfire said, sitting back down with a glower. “When I get back there they’ll rue the day-” She paused, realizing that she should not be saying that. “-I mean… they will… I will?” She seemed genuinely confused on how to rephrase ‘rue the day they mocked me’ into something that was not promising revenge somehow. “Hang on…”
“Genuine question: is there anything there for you that isn’t related to addressing that poor treatment?” Tanya asked.
“Well, there’s my birthright, of course.” Blackfire said, “With Ryand’r and Koriand’r out of the way, I’ll rule them all.”
What? After a moment, Tanya realized the implications. “Ah. Koriand’r never mentioned that you two were royalty. That explains a fair bit.” Like why the bounty was so vague. “It also introduces other questions, though…”
Blackfire chuckled. “Well, I’ll go ahead and answer them: The galaxy sees Tamaraneans as inconsequential barbarians of no notable intelligence or influence. They call us ‘Nothing’ which means-” It was pronounced ‘Troq’.
“I know what it means.” Tanya interrupted, “Spiritual entities like demons intuitively grasp the intent behind communication, which means we speak all tongues.” It did tend to ruin puns when she was in demon form, though.
“Useful.” Blackfire acknowledged.
“So what’s the normal rules for succession?” Tanya asked, “You’ve implied that both of your siblings would be ahead of you, and as you’re the oldest, that’s an unusual situation.” Starfire had mentioned that Wildfire, her brother, was the youngest of the three.
“There are rules, but the only one that matters is that the King and Queen can pick the order.” Blackfire explained. Presumably, most of the rules were in place in case there wasn’t a pre-selected line of succession. “They didn’t completely cut me out of the line of succession, a cruel mercy, but they made no secret that I was the last resort.”
Tanya silently penned ‘investigate Tamaran’s current political situation’ onto her mental to-do list. Who could she task to that? “We’ll need to have a conversation at a later date about the viability of you assuming the throne, with all relevant stakeholders at hand.”
“Sure.” Blackfire said sarcastically. “A meeting. That’ll help.”
Now Tanya was the one who chuckled. “Jokes about corporate culture aside, you’d be surprised what can be wrought through simple discourse. If you play your cards right, it may even end with a crown on your head.” Tanya mentally penned in ‘statecraft lessons’ on Blackfire’s curriculum, as well as Starfire’s. Arthur can take point on that, and it’ll be really useful data when it comes to deciding what to do about the whole thing.
Once more, Blackfire looked carefully at Tanya’s expression, trying to find a hint of deception. “Okay, I’ll play along… for now.” She said slowly. Success! “What’s first?”
“J’onn’s going to be your probationary officer and legal guardian.” Tanya started. While the martian wasn’t willing to take responsibility for a child, he was willing to handle cases like this, where the minor was old enough to take care of themselves, just needing to be watched. “Don’t leave the planet without his supervision, check in daily, and stay out of trouble. Before introductions, there’s the same paperwork that Koriand’r had to fill out, and we need to figure out what to do about the stolen goods you have besides the returned necklace. It’s not like the Centauri are coming back for them…”
She still gave this even odds of blowing up in her face, but that was far, far better odds than she’d have given this stupid kid a decade ago.
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Unfortunately, just as much as the outside world refused to wait for Gotham’s bitchfits to settle, Gotham was still prone to exploding every time it was left unsupervised.
Arkham Asylum and Blackgate prison were both busted into, and every single criminal within their walls that played into the hero/villain dynamic were now released into the city. It was only six in the afternoon, too…
It was the last straw.
Batman could have gone forth with Rhine’s full support, taking in wide swathes of the criminal element every night and get the situation under control within a week. A week where Tanya would not get nearly enough sleep, they would inevitably have yet another fight about lethal force, and all the while innocents died in the chaos. But… if she didn’t help him, he had a serious chance of dying. It was too much, her divinations pointed to a long, hard night of pain. It was absolutely in their power to quiet this storm. But the cost…
He was about to ask, Tanya knew it. She steeled herself for the request, to pretend that her assistance was anything but guaranteed, even when both of them knew that she’d go even if he asked her not to, when it was this bad. He turned to her, to request her assistance… but paused. “...This is going to be awful.” Batman said, too casually.
“It will be.” Tanya agreed.
“This isn’t your fight.” He said, clearly working up to something and hating every minute. “It never was.”
“I’m not letting you go out without extra backup.” Tanya said firmly. “No one else is strong enough to make a difference. I must.” Or else Bruce will play the game with Death itself. “If you go, I go.”
“Stay home.” Bruce commanded, opening up one of the messaging programs. When he opened up a particular menu, Tanya’s eyes widened. With a deceptively gentle press of a button, call lines opened up in a flurry on the Bat Computer’s screen. Dozens of contacts. “Attention, Justice League.” Bruce said, voice firm. “Emergency contingency G-9 Activated. All available Heroes converge on Gotham City. Neutralize and contain all hostiles, Zeta Tube Batcave access granted to all members in good standing, be ready for a briefing and communication equipment. Priority Beta.” Lifting his finger off the button, he glanced back at Tanya. “You’ll want to change or go upstairs.” He said softly. “This is an escalation… but Intergang started this, and we’ll finish it. All of us.”
“I’ll be right behind you, B.” Jason said, already in his Robin uniform. While initially, he used the exact same one that Richard did, he customized it a bit to his liking since then: the green shorts were exchanged for a darker color in full pants, the cape was switched for a full cloak, cowl included, and the domino mask was extended a bit down his nose, giving a vaguely avian impression of a beak. This was primarily to hide the fact that Jason and Richard’s noses were just different enough to be immediately apparent to those who weren’t face-blind.
“Good.” Batman said, connecting yet another call. Good thing that the Batcomputer runs on advanced servers for decryption purposes, which should be able to handle the upcoming traffic without issue. “With this many unfamiliar with the terrain, we’ll need as many local experts as we can get running overwatch.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Batgirl said over comms. “Me and Zatanna are already linked in and I’m setting up the emergency comm beads into new accounts so we can act as a switchboard.”
“I want to be clear that this sucks.” Zatanna added. “I didn’t sign up to sit on my butt when things are going crazy.”
“Thank you, Zatanna.” Batman said, “Where’s Giovanni?”
“This oracle he knows is going nuts over something.” Zatanna said idly. “Dad’s off sobering the guy up so he can get some answers out of him.” Ominous.
“Master Bruce, your uncle has arrived, and is requesting to meet.” Alfred said, his face popping up on the Batcomputer.
“I’m busy, Alfred. Also, we’ll be having guests, so maintain secrecy protocols, the cave will not be secure today.”
“I take it you won’t be making time for dinner, then?” Alfred asked disapprovingly.
“I’ll entertain him.” Tanya volunteered, “I have a hunch I know what he wants to talk about anyway.”
“You better hurry, because the Zeta tube’s bringing in the first Justice League members.” Robin said, pointing to the notice on the Batcomputer. Apparently the Watchtower decided to send the first wave as a large group, which made sense.
“To my room, going soon!” Tanya incanted, warping away just as Diana, Clark, John, and J’onn walked into the room, followed by at least thirty other heroes, none of which got a clear look at her.
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“Uncle, it’s good to see you again.” Tanya said politely, curtseying as she greeted the CEO. “Daddy’s pretty busy, he’s been trying to convince Diana to overrule Batman and get Superman and the others to help sort out all the crime stuff.”
Whatever Jacob Kane was going to say, it died in his throat at this news. “...He could do that, couldn’t he?” He said softly, mostly to himself.
“Daddy says that Batman can’t stop them.” Tanya said, nodding to herself firmly with arms crossed. “They break the law all the time to fight villains, what’s one kung fu furry going to do?”
That made the man laugh. “Yes, what is he going to do?” He said, unable to stop his smile. The answer is ‘call in the cavalry’. “Well, I came here because I was concerned about you. Anyone smart without milspec security forces like me skips town for the first few days after an Arkham or Blackgate break out, and with both?” He looks outside, where his helicopter was waiting. “No, I’d feel better if I could take you and Bruce to a safe place. I’ll accept taking just you, though.”
“What about Jason?” Tanya asked.
“What about him?” Jacob echoed, waving his arm dismissively.
“Master Bruce would never even consider leaving without Master Todd.” Alfred said, still watching them. “I’m afraid we’ll just have to decline your generous offer.”
“Or I could secure the Wayne family’s future and let Bruce dig his own grave.” Jacob said, grabbing Tanya by the arm. Tanya immediately became dead weight, which led to him dropping her. “She is… surprisingly heavy.”
“You calling me fat?” Tanya asked dangerously from her position on the floor. She was only one hundred twenty pounds! Which was rather high for someone who was only four foot nine, but she was supposed to get offended in this case, even if it was just because she had a rather large amount of muscle packed in her tiny frame. She stood up slowly, not dressed for acrobatics.
“No no, it was just surprising.” Jacob said, distracted from his previous actions by her faked anger. “Look, Bruce can risk his life all he wants, but you’re my sister’s granddaughter, and I’ll be damned if I let him get you killed by sticking around when it’s this bad.” He refocused his attention on Alfred. “You have a problem with that, Pennyworth?”
Alfred and Tanya exchanged a look. Silently, Tanya indicated that she could handle this. “...I suppose it would be prudent, Mr. Kane.” Alfred said slowly. “If any harm should come to her, of course, you’ll be joining Mr. Grundy for the foreseeable future.”
“Smart.” Kane said, smirking. “Come on Tanya, let’s go somewhere safer, more secure than here.”
Tanya went into the coat closet, opened up a panel in the back, and took out a suitcase. “Bug-out bag.” Tanya said in explanation. Alfred was supposed to be keeping the supplies current, but she could use it as a cover even if it was missing something, or if the clothes didn’t fit.
“Get in the chopper.” Kane said insistently.
Now, Tanya had quite a few ideas and suspicions on how this would go. Perhaps Jacob was going to do exactly what he said, and take her to Cancun or something for a few days. But more likely, was that he was a member of the Court of Owls and was securing her for that reason. Whether this meant that he was surreptitiously inviting her to join or if she was going to be hypnotized was rather up in the air.
What was certain, however, was that the helicopter was being piloted by a woman in a Talon suit, and there was a large man in a similar suit in the other front seat. “Are you really Uncle Jacob?” She decided to ask, pretending to only be a little suspicious.
“Of course I am.” He said, “These are my bodyguards. They’re metahumans.”
“Because the secret society guys had suits like that.” Tanya explained, “The one Abbot’s brother used to try to… do something. I wasn’t really paying attention. Azreal kicked their hineys.”
“I am also a member of the secret society.” Jacob said, clearly annoyed at this line of questioning.
“Cool!” Tanya said, “Can I join? Do I get a cool mask like Abbot’s brother?”
The man laughed, like he couldn’t believe his luck. “Yes, yes you can.”
All too easy…
Comments
Serina Tsukaya
Infiltration time woohooo!
Dragonin
Oh boy, he was really eager to pull the pin on the hand grenade he just grabbed
