JustIIce League: Calamitous World

4 - Changes

"Bruce, listen to me, you are not okay. You will let me help you." Alfred is grasping my shoulder with desperation. 

I shrug him off and continue to walk in the cave. I sit on my chair in front of my large array of computers.  

You need to search for Vestra again. You need to find her weakness. Then you must kill her.

Alfred just stands in the corner where I left him. I can tell that he is suspicious of my recent behavior.

Ever since I took the serum to reverse the injection that kept me under control, I've had nightmares, flashes of anger, and I have gotten a terrible bloodlust that I know Alfred can see. I try to keep that part hidden so that Alfred doesn't worry, but I know that he sees through the mask I put on for him. 

The qualities of the original injection made me normal. It me sane and made it so that I could feel  for things deeply. I was able to stop killing things and it made it so that I didn't enjoy hurting others. It had its faults and wasn't one-hundred percent effective, but it was able to separate me from the villains and thugs and turn me into a hero for the league. It made me a pillar of society.

This reverse injection took away the helpfulness of the first serum. I feel the urges I once felt so long ago and I cannot control them. I used to kill animals and hurt myself to feel something. Before the first serum I couldn't feel anything and now I see the difference between the old me and the new me. I know it is only a matter of time before I lose it completely and become an animal. 

An animal obsessed with the hunt. The kill. 

I ask myself if I want to stop it. To be the other self of mine, plagued with guilt of my fallen friends and family. And the answer each time I deeply think about what the best thing is for me is no. No, I don't want to stop this because it is the only way I can make Vestra pay for what she did. It is the only way I can get enough anger to target her and destroy her. 

I am who I am now and it is the only way for me to stop Vestra and her army of dogs. 

Alfred slowly walks up to me, stopping at the stairs that lead to the computer platform. He balls his fists and gives a sigh. "I know you're changing Bruce. You can wear that cowl and hide your face from me, but you can never hide the look of disdain in your eyes. It is an emotion so deeply ingrained in your soul, that you can't hide it no matter how hard you want to." He crossed his arms. "I hope you don't make me regret changing you. I think Vestra should be stopped, but you have to maintain control of yourself."

I turned around and faced him. He could see things I'm sure I'll never understand about myself. I cleared my throat. 

"I won't lose control. I know that this me, the one you're seeing with the new vengeance, is fine. I've controlled bigger issues than my conscious."

"So you say," he starts to walk to the exit of the cave, "just know that I can see changes that you may not be aware of and sometimes, those changes even make me afraid." Alfred left me alone. 

He could be right. What if you lose control and destroy more things that you're protecting?

I will maintain in control. That is the only option. Now focus, you need to act on your plan that has been brewing.

I glance at Tempest in her coffin. She's the dangerous thing that fuels my rage, anger, and revenge. She is the thing that took my life away. I will take her mother from her and destroy hers. 

I focus my attention to the computer. For the past year I've been compiling data on who's in her army, who's posted where and when, and how to get to her. 

She's stationed in an abandoned military center in the heart of Gotham. It's a storied building with space for her cohorts to live. It has room for weapons and the means to train sergeants and soldiers for her guard. 

She has the Young Justice team stationed in the west end of the building as well as Manhunter and Green Arrow. That means I know her room is in the center of the most protection. I've complied statistics of where she is likely to be in certain times of the day and who will guard her when. She is weakest at the end of the day, when her guards are rotating. 

I've also mapped out the sewer systems all along Gotham City. There are sewer lines under her fortress that I can use to get in. 

I back peddle. Those sewer lines will be heavily guarded and controlled. People use them all of the time for petty crime. 

I look more at my data and notice the patterns of the different resource lines in the city. There are gas lines surrounding certain areas of her base. If I can get to one, I can destroy her and her base and end her mind control of the people. I just need to find a way to get close enough to a gas main without being seen by her cameras. 

After a year of mapping, watching, and planning, I think I finally have a plan that can succeed. Vestra watches me as I watch her. Every time I thought I could get her in the past, I fail somehow because of her guards and her powers. But she will not get away this time. I've weighed all of the outcomes this time and there is no room for error. 

I have a plan. I will blow up her base. It is destructive. Who knows how many it will kill. 

But that's the price for victory.  

I will scout the lines tomorrow to make sure they're what I think they are. 

Things are going to change here. There will be victory for the price of death.