Chapter 14

I was able to take a seat thanks to the spare chairs in the corner of the dark room. As apparently this was just a storage closet. Ethan just has a flair for the dramatic. 

Unsurprising, he always has. 

Perhaps it comes with being the Penguin’s son. Or perhaps that’s just a trait he’s developed on his own. Or maybe that’s just an effect Gotham has on people.

“So, how are you doing? How’s Min-Jun? Is she around?”

I asked him. I was curious as to what he and the others have been up to while I was with the Titans. And as to whether they were getting by or not. Ethan cracked a smirk at my questions before answering them.

“Oh, so the guy who became a fucking superhero is interested in what I’ve been up to huh? As for Min-Jun, she unfortunately had to stay behind in Gotham to take care of some gang business.”

Oh? So, they’ve already formed a gang? I’m not sure why I’m surprised, the Cobblepot name carries a fuck ton of weight in Gotham. It’d definitely make starting up a lot easier, that’s for sure.

Not that I really had any idea of what’s needed for a gang. Ethan’s always been the business and numbers guy. It’s what he’s good at. Being the son of one of, if not the kingpin of organized crime in Gotham gave him a pretty damn good idea of what’s to be expected.

“Ah, I see.”

Ethan huffed at that.

“Sound disappointed. But probably not half as disappointed as she was.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“I wonder…”

Ethan trailed off, before pulling out his phone from his pocket. He needed a few minutes in order to type several messages before looking back up at me. Then he put the phone upside down on the table and gave me his attention once more.

“Sorry, business. Now, it’s time for my questions. The Titans? Becoming a Superhero? Law? How the hell did any of this happen?”

Oh boy. He was in for a long story…unfortunately I had to give him the cliff notes version of events as Galatea was still eating and would probably be finished soon. I left out pretty much nothing as I explained the series of events that set my life on this track. To which Ethan laughed at.

“I still can’t believe you went with Law…I mean, how unoriginal can you get?”

I frowned at that.

“Could have been worse.”

“How? By going with ‘Lawrence’? Honestly when I heard the news, I thought the boy wonder had forced it on you. Never would have thought that you’d chose that for yourself…”

He paused in order to reach in his coat pocket, this time bringing out a silver box that was filled with pricey looking cigars. He took one at random before putting it in his mouth and lighting it up. He offered one to me, but I refused. He shrugged and continue to sit silently while observing me.

“So…you have a gang?”

He nodded at that, before taking the cigar out of his mouth in order to talk.

“Of course. Gotta make money somehow. Haven’t really came up with a name for us yet, but they’re calling us the Pharmacy on the street. I’ll give ya three guesses why.”

Drug trafficking. It was the obvious choice to go with, especially with the powers he and Min-Jun have. It was also a pretty safe choice as well. As long as you weren’t straight up robbing banks, committing mass murder, or involved in human trafficking, Batman probably wouldn’t stick his nose in it. Or rather, he’d have difficult doing so with so much on his plate.

Not that he’s never bust down a gang for drug trading before, but the days where every crime was in danger of the bat had long since passed. Gotham has since adjusted, showing just how much of a shithole it can really be.

Then again, I have heard talks of more people wearing the Bat symbol…well, nonetheless, I highly doubt they’ll crack down on a small gang when they have much bigger fish to fry popping up every day.

“And what about Ki?”

Ethan immediately scowled at the name. No surprise there, he’s always hated her, and from her deriding remarks, it was probably reciprocated. No, that wasn’t quite right. I don’t think she hated Ethan or me. It was more like…a sincere disinterest.

“Ugh. The bitch is back in Gotham. I didn’t tell her about this little excursion, or she’d probably follow and make a big scene with your super pals. Speaking of…”

He put out his cigar as he gave me a serious look. I knew this moment was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. A pit formed at the bottom of my stomach as I felt torn.

“I need you to be real with me here. You look like you’re getting along with these guys. Fitting in. Making something of yourself.”

“Come on Ethan, you know me. I wouldn’t-“

He put a hand to stop me. Giving me a look that told me all I needed to know.

“Listen. You doing what you’re doing isn’t a bad thing, and we’re not going to think of this as some sort of betrayal if you choose to keep doing it. I mean, you’re living the life right now, and neither me or Min-Jun would want to take that away from you.”

“…”

We all had our flaws. There was a reason we were in super juvie, including someone as well known as the son of Oswald Cobblepot. Ethan’s flaw, besides the god-awful genetics handed down to him by his father, was that he was actually had a heart.

Something that was pretty dangerous and debilitating in that line of business.

He knew that he could have just asked me to come back to Gotham, and I would have left. That he could make that decision for me. But instead, he gave me the decision. He gave me the out.

Which is what made this so much harder.

“I…I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be. Besides, if this whole super hero business doesn’t work out, you’ll always have us to fall back on.”

Even now he showed a face that seemed like he wasn’t even bothered by my choice. When in actuality he was probably disappointed underneath his façade. Sometimes I could be a pretty shitty friend.

It was hard to really say that I deserved them.

“…That being said, I am still going to need some drugs from you.”

Ethan finally revealed, shrugging his shoulders before pulling out several zip lock bags and a brief case with a false bottom. I huffed in amusement before pulling off several capsules on my belt. He looked at them with confusion before nodding as he realized what they were.

It was one of the few abilities that I could do that I hadn’t really shared with the Titans. It wasn’t out of malicious intent or anything, it was mostly for my own safety. Though even now that I trust them, I still wouldn’t tell them about it as I don’t really intend to ever do it outside of situations like these.

I listened to Ethan as he gave me specific instructions as to what he wanted. Heroin with enhanced addictiveness, Meth with little to no addictive qualities, High quality Cocaine, Oxycodone, Xanax, you name it. Of course, I had a limit to the supply I could make, but that didn’t matter much.

The rest was Ethan’s job.

He informed me that he’d probably try to stay away from me in order to help keep my superhero life as squeaky clean as it could be. Which meant that this might be the last time we meet.

Before leaving, he gave me a number to call in case I ever changed my mind or needed his help. We hugged, before saying our goodbyes.

…was being a superhero really this important to me? Was the Titans that important to me? More important than helping the friends who’ve had my back for years?

…I wasn’t sure. But even so, I had given an answer.

I was a bit silent as I returned to Galatea, who had long since finished her meal. After a few more minutes, we started to make our way back to the Titans tower. This time by simply walking.

Which Galatea wasn’t opposed to, as it might be past noon, but the sun was still up. And if there’s something she liked doing, it was being under the sun. We got a few looks due to Galatea randomly starting to float off the ground, causing people to do a double take.

Heh, if this was Gotham no one would have looked twice.

…

“…You hear that?”

Galatea stated, suddenly looking straight towards a nearby building with a frown. I perked my head up at her action.

“Hear what?”

“I don’t know…sounds like…piiiiiiiiiiiii…”

I shrugged.

“Could be a smoke alarm.”

She nodded at my explanation, before continuing to walk forward. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again.

“Hey, Law.”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you help save people?”

Hmm…that was a difficult question. Personally, I wouldn’t really want to go out of my way to help someone I don’t know, but I also wasn’t going to go out of my way to make their day worse. If what I needed to do was practically inconsequential, the I wouldn’t mind doing it off hand. Hell, most of the time I’ve done the saving bit stuff, was simply due to me following the lead or orders of other Titan members.

So, the truth was…I really didn’t care all that much about others unless I knew them directly. At least, not as much as the other Titans or heroes.

“I guess it’s because the Titans want me to, and it’s expected of me.”

Galatea seemed to relax at that answer before giving me a satisfied smile and a nod. Interesting response to what was admittedly a pretty cold response.

“Why do you ask?”

“I was interested in finding out the reason why I and the other Titans did it. Everyone had pretty similar answers that confused me, except yours.”

Hmm.

“And you? Why do you help people?”

“Because if I do so, Superman promised that I could eventually met Supergirl.”

Supergirl. There was that name again. When I had explained the whole events at Cadmus, the only time I saw Batman’s expression change even slightly was when I brought that name up. Reinforcing the idea that the Justice League was likely hiding a Kryptonian from the world.

As I digested that, Galatea continued.

“And also because of you. You’re my sidekick after all.”

I smirked as Galatea put her hands on her hips. Looking well and truly full of herself. Before finally looking back at me.

“By the way…that bat creature you fought with BB and Aqualad…was it particularly strong?”

“A bit yeah. But nothing noteworthy.”

I was surprised that she brought it up. She hadn’t seemed interested in it when I first told her what happened. She shrugged her shoulders before continuing to walk forward.

“Shame. I was hoping for a bit of a work out.”

I followed her gaze just as a familiar shape hopped over a roof of a nearby building and suddenly starting to fly towards us. After a few seconds, several more figures joined it. Leading to a total of four Man-Bats swooping down at us.

…What? What the hell?

Galatea cracked her knuckles as they got closer and closer, before finally shooting up from the ground and shooting herself into their path. Causing them to panic and split off, but not before she got her hands on one of them, and immediately pivoted towards the ground with it in her hands.

Resulting in a rather loud boom noise.

…That must have been painful. But not as painful as what was about to happen to me as the rest of the three seemed to think I was easier pickings than Galatea. Which was completely true, but it didn’t mean I was happy about this situation. My reflexes had been enhanced by my adjusted Blockbuster serum, but that didn’t mean I was going to be able to dodge all three Man-Bat creatures.

Leaving me to immediately pivot away from being dive bombed.

I was able to avoid one of them, but the second one was on a direct collision course. Or at least it had been, before Galatea punched it into the ground. Forcing it to stop flying and slam into the ground before instantly going limp.

Yeah, I would too buddy.

The one behind it continued it’s divebomb attempt, and actually sunk its talons into Galatea. Causing her to narrow her eyes in annoyance before gripping it with both hands. My attention was torn away as the Man-Bat that previously attempted to dive bomb me the first time started to make a bee line for me at top speed on foot.

As I couldn’t out run it, I decided to simply pause and wait for a direction to strafe in the moment it got close. As it closed the distance it jumped off the ground and flew straight towards me in an attempt to spear my body.

I immediately jumped to the left, but I had done so too early, as it’s wing lashed out and caught me in the chest. Pushing me forward with it and onto the ground in a pretty painful move. Knocking out the air from my lungs.

…Or at least, it should have been painful. But I didn’t really feel it. Maybe I landed well?

Or maybe this was a side effect of the Blockbuster variant?

The Man-Bat creature took a few more seconds than me to shake off the landing before immediately jumping on to me. Fortunately, I was able to grip its head with my hands and from there it was a few seconds before it fell to floor.

I looked over to Galatea who…had apparently wiped her ass with the remaining Man-Bat awhile ago, and was just watching me.

“What happened to helping out your sidekick?”

I complained only for her to nod seriously.

“I was. In order for you to get stronger, you need experience in fights. Even against these weaklings.”

Weaklings huh? I guess that’s just something someone truly on another level like her could say. With these Man-Bat creatures, any wrong move that I make would have likely spelled either a painful injury or potential death. But to her this was about as easy as throwing out the garbage. Even the injury on her shoulder didn’t look that deep, and the Man-Bat creature had been trying to hurt her with all of his enhanced strength.

Kryptonians were truly bullshit, weren’t they?

“Hold up. Let me take a look at your shoulder.”

She paused before looking at me and then her shoulder.

“There’s no need. The sun will fix it.”

Right, Kryptonians could also heal from sunlight. Not only that, but she had also refused to let the Justice League look at her body after the scientist tried to pull the plug on her.

“…Alright. Less work for me then. Just thought you’d want to conserve more solar energy…or whatever the hell it is you do.”

She paused at that. Thinking for a long moment before finally sitting down and exposing her shoulder to me.

“Alright…I trust you.”

This feels like some sort of touching moment, but all I did was stick some of the healing tree sap stuff on her shoulder, slap a bandage on it and call it a day. Which took like ten seconds.

Unfortunately, as I turned back towards the Tower, I was rudely taken by surprise by Galatea sweeping me off my feet once again, and flying into the air.

…This better not become a constant thing with her.

Still, I had to admit that the view of the sun setting was much nicer up here.

So, I’d let it slide. Just this once.