JustIce League: The Malignant Uprising

It's Been Long and Hard for All of the Magnolia's

Vestra's Base: Unknown Location

Vestra smiled, as she saw the battle scene decay on her large screens. She knew that the League was no more and that Tempest was as good as hers.

A guard stood in the doorway and saluted. "Madame?"

"What is it?"

"The package has arrived."

Vestra walked quickly to the loading docks, guards behind her heels. When she arrived, all of the guards stood behind her. All work had stopped. In the center of the room there was a chair, and on that chair there was a man with a burlap sack on his head. She walked up to the man and ripped the sack off.

The man's head rolled back and forth. He was analyzing the scene. She lowered her voice and whispered to Green Arrow. "Now you're going to listen very carefully."

Green Arrow spit on her and she didn't hesitate to draw a knife to his throat. "Feisty. I hate feisty."

He held still.

"Now Arrow, you're going to help me get my daughter, even if it's the last thing I make anyone else do. By now everyone knows her as Tempest, but her real name is Amber. Amber Kane."

Green Arrow screamed as Vestra shoved the knife into his charred leg. She repeated herself. "Got that?"

He hesitantly nodded in submission as his wound began to bleed onto the floor.

******

The Bat Cave

It's been long and hard in this life. Overall, it has just been so tiring. My reactions and skills are not as fine tuned as they used to be and I've had to watch a psychopath grow up to be a hero with a twisted sense of justice.

It's been long and hard in these years where I have grown old. My hands are shaky when they used to be steady and firm. My eyes need the help of rimmed spectacles perched precisely on the tip of my nose, and they only make the bags under my eyes more clear. My hair has faded along with my spirit. Sometimes it's hard to see, "The Great Alfred Pennyworth," they were all talking about.

It's been long and hard these past hours. I've seen a mighty force be destroyed by another more threatening one. A force that beat the other power only because they fought harder with the bigger sticks.

And it's funny how destiny and fate have a way of ruining people. As the days of my life have gone, I've seen so many men and women walk away with blood forever staining their hands and eyes and memories.

They were the ones who started out so innocent.

Even though the blood is invisible, I can still see it in Bruce's eyes sometimes. They way he remembers having blood on his hands. The way he pauses and stares off in thought. I can tell he thinks about war, if not the one we are fighting.

With a sigh, I focused my attention back to the present. I cleared my throat as Bruce and I began mixing different chemicals and started burning different solutions. Apparently, he needed a serum. One that would be able to put Tempest to sleep.

I didn't know if it would kill her or not, but I knew that the chemicals we were mixing had enough potency to at least put her into hypersleep.

Bruce pulled away his mask and gave me a sideways glance with his tired eyes, "Do you think this will work, Alfred?"

"Well, it has the same ingredients as your injection did."

"Do you think she'll be immune?"

I looked away and into the far corner and gestured with my right hand. In that far corner, a dull bronze light illuminated a long glass case. The base of it was white and the top of it was a rounded glass dome. It poetically reminded me of Snow White's coffin in a way, though this reality isn't a fairy tale.