"You said he claimed his abilities were related to heat," Batman finally spoke, his deep, measured voice breaking the silence.
"Yes," Batwoman replied.
"And yet..."
His eyes remained fixed on the frame showing Kai forming the warhammer.
"...something doesn't add up."
Wonder Woman glanced toward Bruce's window.
"What are you suggesting?" she asked calmly. "That the boy is lying to us?"
"If that were the case..." she continued, "...I wouldn't blame him."
Her expression softened ever so slightly.
"After everything he has endured, I wouldn't expect him to place his trust in us so easily."
Batman shook his head.
"No."
"I don't believe he's lying."
That answer drew the attention of everyone in the room.
"I think he genuinely believes what he told us."
Bruce enlarged the footage showing the instant black smoke emerged from Kai's flames.
"The problem is..."
"...he's describing the phenomenon from the perspective of the user."
The recording slowed frame by frame.
"The explanation he gave—that it has something to do with heat—isn't incorrect."
"It's simply... incomplete."
Cyborg leaned forward in his chair.
"Meaning?"
Batman folded his arms.
"The specific mechanism responsible for converting thermal energy into a stable, solidified construct shouldn't be possible under any conventional model of physics."
He paused the recording the moment the black warhammer finished materializing.
"Smoke doesn't become this."
"Not without an intermediary process."
"Whatever his ability is doing..."
"...it's rewriting matter."
The room fell silent.
Batman continued.
"Whether that's through exotic energy, dimensional interaction, or some unknown conversion process, I don't know."
"But I do know this."
He looked directly at the frozen image of Kai.
"The boy wasn't trying to deceive us."
"He simply lacks the scientific knowledge to explain what his own abilities are actually doing."
A small smile tugged at the corner of Wonder Woman's lips.
"So, in other words..."
Bruce met her gaze.
"He's telling the truth."
"...Just not the whole truth."
"Precisely."
"And not because he's hiding it."
"Because he doesn't know it."
Meanwhile far away from all this a different kind of meeting was taking place
"Lois, we need to leave. Now!"
Alex shot to his feet, the crimson tomoe of his Sharingan spinning furiously as he moved through the apartment at blinding speed, grabbing anything that looked remotely useful.
His sensory abilities had evolved by leaps and bounds ever since awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Right now...
Every instinct in his body was screaming the same warning.
Run.
Whoever was coming...
He wasn't ready to face them.
Not yet.
"Alex, what's going o—"
"Get down!"
Without hesitation, he grabbed Lois by the shoulder and yanked her to the floor.
CRACK!
A high-caliber round tore through the window an instant later, passing through the exact spot where her head had been.
Glass exploded across the living room.
"...Damn."
Alex let out a shaky breath.
"That was way too close."
He didn't need to see the shooter to know who it was.
"Gotta say..."
"...he really earns his reputation as the best marksman in the DC Universe."
There wasn't a second shot.
There were six.
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
Each bullet pierced a different window, wall, or piece of furniture, every trajectory carefully calculated to herd them into a kill zone.
Alex grabbed Lois by the arm.
"Move!"
Keeping low, the two crawled away from the living room as another volley ripped through the apartment.
Bullets slammed into the floor inches from their heads.
A wooden cabinet exploded into splinters.
The couch behind them was shredded in seconds.
To anyone else...
It would have been impossible to survive.
But Alex's Sharingan refused to let him die so easily.
Every trigger pull...
Every change in the sniper's breathing...
Every microscopic shift in the bullet's trajectory...
His eyes caught them all.
Again and again, he pulled Lois out of the way at the very last possible moment, the rounds missing them by mere centimeters.
His heart pounded against his chest.
Not from fear.
From frustration.
Because he knew exactly who was outside.
And he also knew...
If Deathstroke had accepted the contract...
Then this wasn't an assassination attempt anymore.
It was an execution.
"How the hell did they even find us?"
Alex muttered under his breath as another round tore through the apartment wall.
"Everything was perfect."
"I erased the evidence."
"I brainwashed the people who saw too much."
"I even made sure there wasn't a single trace left behind."
Another bullet ripped through the hallway, forcing him and Lois even lower.
His mind raced.
Every possibility.
Every loose end.
Every variable.
One by one...
He eliminated them.
Then—
His eyes widened.
"...Damn it."
His hand shot to his forehead.
"How was I stupid enough to fall for the oldest trap in the book?"
Lois looked at him, confused.
"What are you talking about?"
Alex let out a bitter laugh.
"No..."
"I'm the idiot."
"I've been thinking like a ninja."
His grip tightened.
"When I should've been thinking like her."
Amanda Waller.
That devil of a woman.
The moment everything started going perfectly...
The moment this city became just a little too peaceful...
I should've known.
That wasn't normal.
That was the trap.
"I changed the board..."
"...and convinced myself the game had changed with it."
It hadn't.
Not against Amanda Waller.
She didn't need evidence.
She didn't need witnesses.
Hell, she didn't even need to know the truth.
If there was even the slightest chance someone could become a threat to humanity...
She'd move first.
Questions came later.
Alex clicked his tongue.
"Damn it..."
"I've been playing chess..."
"...against the woman who flips the entire board when she thinks she's losing."
Another deafening crack echoed through the apartment.
This time...
The bullet didn't come through the window.
It punched straight through the ceiling.
Alex's Sharingan instantly tracked its impossible angle.
His blood ran cold.
"...He moved."
Deathstroke had changed positions.
"...Amanda freaking Waller."
I let out a long, defeated sigh.
At this point...
I wasn't even angry anymore.
Just...
Frustrated.
"Lois!"
I turned toward her, my Sharingan already tracking another incoming shot.
"Freeze this place over. Now!"
She didn't hesitate.
The temperature around us plummeted as frost spread across the floor, walls, and shattered windows, thick sheets of ice rapidly consuming the apartment.
Meanwhile...
I questioned every life decision that had led me to this exact moment.
Seriously...
Why did it have to be Amanda Waller?
Of all the people in the entire DC Universe...
Why her?
Had I known she was the one pulling the strings, I would've packed my bags, moved to Gotham and taken my chances with the Joker.
At least the Joker was predictable in one regard.
He wanted chaos.
Waller?
She wanted results.
And that made her infinitely more dangerous.
The woman didn't need superpowers.
She didn't need magic.
She didn't even need to pull the trigger herself.
She simply found the people who could... and gave them a reason to do it.
I'd heard enough stories about her to know one thing.
When even John Constantine—the man who regularly bargains with demons and devils—would rather avoid making deals with Amanda Waller...
...that tells you everything you need to know.
You don't survive in her world by outsmarting her.
You survive by making sure she never notices you in the first place.
"...Seriously."
I sighed again.
"How the hell did I end up on her radar?"