âWaitâŚâ You couldnât even process something that ridiculous at first. âMy best friend all through high school was in that trial too, thatâs how we met. She was a lot of things, but superhuman wasnât one of them.â
Barry reached in his pocket and pulled out a pocket sized composition notebook and paged through it.
âWhat was the name?â Oliver demanded as you, and everybody else at the table watched Barry, but you were the only one who didnât know what he was doing.
âUh⌠oh! Me? Sorry. Her name was Irene. Irene Schumer. Why?â
Barry went back a page and then looked up from the book at all of the heroes around him and shook his head sadly.
âWhen did you last talk to Irene?â Diana asked gently. Too gently. Gentle to the point that you knew something terrible was up.
There was a tightness in your chest as you tried to remember. I guess it had been a while, but not a lifetime ago. You still saw her spouse posting stuff on Facebook with their kid. But now that you thought about it, Irene was always tagged in the picture, but not in them⌠âItâs been a few years. Maybe⌠nine?â
After they all exchanged a glance, Bruce said solomnly, âIâm sorry to tell you this, but we have it on good authority that Irene has been killed.â
Suddenly the room seemed to dim and all of the Justice Leauge were looking at you, Clark even leaned towards you as if he expected you to break right there. But you had more tact than that.
âYou have it on good authority? What the hell does that even mean, Mr. Wayne? Whoâs authority is good?â
Clark stopped Bruce from talking and slowly explained, âOnce we found out about the⌠nature⌠of the experiment, we started trying to track down the results and the participants. Something that Barry found out⌠well⌠every year, one person from the trial was killed.â
âSorry to interject,â Hal suddenly spoke.
That was the first time you actually paid attention to him. His features were nearly as strong as Dianaâs and Clarkâs, but his hair was much more⌠shaggy?
âBut we thought that maybe the reason they were being killed was because of how dangerous the testers determined them to be-â
He stopped when you snorted.
âImpossible,â you insisted, âIrene was the only fully grown adult Iâve seen with a 1 above her head. Iâve had a three as long as I can remember until recently.â
âUntil recently?â Diana repeated.
Oops. Probably best to leave out the fact you were a ten right now.
âMaybe,â Clark said when he saw you didnât want to answer, âit has something to do with the type of power it is.â
Clark seemed to be trying to put you at ease more than anybody else sitting at the table.
âA person with superhuman abilities or whatever canât give off a one. Thatâs⌠insane,â you started arguing.
âUnless her power was deception,â Oliver muttered. He looked at Barry and asked, âhow many people are left from that experiment that havenât died, disappeared, or become incompacitated?â
He didnât even look at the book before saying âjust oneâ
Every eye fell to you again.
It was like someone poured something hot over your head. Your scalp burned and tingled and then it trickled down your neck and spine and made your shoulders ache until your arms tensed. You had to decide if you believed them or not. They were supposed to be the good guys, Clark seemed to think you two were friends, but some of the stuff they were saying was⌠ridiculous. Impossible. Inconceivable. Unbelievable. Just⌠You picked your coffee up and took a drink. To mask everything you were thinking.
You set it down and tried to lighten the mood by saying, âMight need something stronger.â
That pulled a few smirks out of some.
âOkay,â you sighed, âletâs say-hypothetically- I believe you and Iâm willing to go along. What is⌠I mean, what do you want⌠what are you gonna do about it?â
âWell, we started with meeting up with you for lunch to see if youâd be interested in joining us. Joining our little team.â
You examined all of them. Perfect, poised, powerful, with some kind of super power- besides Bruce (you assume). You had none of that. You had a history of hapkido, a green belt in tae kwon do, and saw floating numbers above peoples heads. That was hardly as impressive as anyone else at the table.
âWhy would you want me to?â You finally asked. âIt doesnât make sense. Iâm not a hero. I canât throw buildings, or fly, Iâm not bulletproof, at all. Thatâs not a⌠liability? Or a bad idea?â
âNone of us think so,â Bruce Wayne leaned forward.
â-Bruce,â He corrected without making much noise.
âBruce. What do you think I have that somebody else doesnât have?â
It was a while before he said, âSkill. Spirit. Talent. But more importantly, a calling to be part of our team.â
The word your grandmother had said to you everyday since your parents died until her death echoed in your head. Everything leads to your destiny, but you have to know when youâve reached it. Was this is? Did you reach it?
âSo,â Bruce said abruptly, âWhat do you say?â