Braedey Martin: Unlimited

Ch 17: Veiled Threats

San Francisco

After the incident on San Baquero, Braedey had been sent home for a much-needed break. Even before getting injured, he had been putting in more hours than most of the other heroes. Braedey had tried to object, but he'd been overruled by the senior members, and was thus back home in San Francisco. Of course, that didn't mean that he couldn't do his job and protect his city, but since he was rarely needed there, it was more of a part-time job than anything else.

For the first few days of his temporary exile, Kara had stayed with him, and they enjoyed being a normal couple for that time. Unfortunately, Kara was soon needed elsewhere; the League required her to help end a dispute between two neighboring star systems, and that left Ben alone. So Braedey ended up doing what he normally did when he wasn't with Kara or being a superhero.

He was making money in the stock market.

Since coming to this universe, Braedey had never spent much money to begin with, save for his car, but he knew from experience that heroes needed resources of some kind, and almost all resources cost money. Braedey might have been wealthy, thanks to Bruce Wayne, but he had decided to make some extra, just in case he needed something expensive. He had turned into Ratchet and, using his vast intelligence, figured out what to invest in. It wasn't insider trading or anything illegal; he was just being smart with his money.

After a few hours of that, Braedey went on patrol, spending more time than usual to make sure that everything was fine. Normally, he'd be happy that everything was quiet, but after spending so much in the League, and going from one crisis to the next, he found himself getting restless without something to do. He remembered telling Supergirl to enjoy the downtime, and now he saw the irony.

Still, he wanted something to happen.

~*~*~
Cadmus Headquarters

Amanda Waller sat in her office, reading the latest report on the members of the Justice League; while she wasn't responsible for finding out their weaknesses, she did review their files, in case they were updated and something new was to be learned. Knowledge was power, and Waller considered herself very powerful.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Waller looked up and saw a Cadmus soldier in her doorway. "Professor Hamilton would like a word with you, ma'am."

Waller sighed, then nodded; she had a feeling that she knew what Hamilton wanted to discuss. It had moved beyond scientific curiosity and into a disturbing obsession. Waller had to constantly keep the professor busy with other projects in order to distract him; sadly, Hamilton was able to complete every task presented to him with incredible speed, and always returned to his most-discussed topic.

Braedey Martin and the Transformatrix.

Cadmus had easily discovered the identity of the shapeshifting hero; if Batman's identity had been uncovered, there was no way that Braedey could hide his own. Still, they had no reason to try to blackmail Braede with this information; at least, not until he did something to warrant such an action.

As Waller made her way to Hamilton's lab, she reflected on just how worrying the wielder of the Transformatrix was. He had dozens of different forms, and more powers than the entire Justice League put together, and Waller had a sneaking suspicion that they hadn't seen all of Braedey's transformations yet. It was entirely possible that he had even more powerful forms that he'd yet to reveal; something more powerful than Metroplex was a terrifying prospect.

Waller entered Hamilton's lab, only to be greeted by a horrible noise; it sounded like nails on a chalkboard, mixed with a chainsaw against wood.

"Hamilton!" Waller shouted over the noise, "Turn that racket off!"