Aden Strong: Avatar In DC

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(Aden's P.O.V)

I pocketed the note and turned my attention to the small black box sitting on the table. The box was cube like, similar to an engagement ring box and fit inside my palm nicely. I opened it up and revealed what was inside. Within it, the box had a raised platform with the shank of a ring holding something at the top. A thin film that looked like the pad of my thumb.

Studying the setup, it was very obvious what I needed to do. I pressed my thumb on the thin film and felt a small current run up my finger.

"Identified, Aden Strong. New User registered."
A synthetic voice sounded from the Multiversal Data Pod.

I raised my hand and watched in marvel as the MDP covered my whole thumb in a water like motion, extending to below the first joint and changing into a silver ring. I whistled in appreciation at the cool shift. Recalling I was on a time limit, I got up and stretched. My movements were impeded by the cuffs holding my hands together. Luckily, that was the only thing I had to worry about, seeing as Wonder Woman had untied me from the Lasso the second we had made it to the Watchtower.

I tested the strength of the cuffs and felt that I could break them apart by tugging. They weren't meant to hold me down for long term, just to inconvenience me until the League brought me down in a more secure way. Then I found out that I had underestimated the Magi-tech device. I flexed my arms, giving it about 20% of my full strength. The cuffs surprisingly held. I frowned a little as I increased the strength. In response the magical symbols constructed along the length of the cuffs flashed and a blue electric charge flashed, electrocuting me.

I winced a little. That shit actually stung! I re- evaluated the Cuffs and decided against breaking them. Zatara was a magical genius of that there wasn't a doubt. Plus Logomancy, his brand of magic was very powerful. Maybe there was a way I could use that…the stirrings to a follow up plan to this begun. I would think more on that later, right now I had to deal with the cuffs first. I turned my attention to the MDP. This thing could supposedly open anything right?

I placed my thumb on the the metallic side of the cuffs and tried hard to think on what I wanted. Nothing happened. Well that does away with the notion I can control the MDP with my thoughts.
"Huh…MDP, unlock the cuffs."
I tried using my voice to activate the function. Nothing happened, making me frown. What would I do if I was the one handing the device over to my past self? I wondered. A second later, an annoyed look crossed my face and I sighed. I knew exactly what I would do.
"MDP, Unlock the cuffs…please."
Upon uttering the last word, tendrils extended out of the silver ring, running up my finger like flowing water and made contact with the cuffs.

Then they got to working. The MDP was nano machine tech with the software to interface with any technology to acquire data or in this case control any device to do the user's bid. It was suspiciously very similar to Roquette's version of nanites. Mmmh, there were some implications there. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out she was probably the creator. And with the way Future Me had worded it...

The cuffs suddenly unlocked, cutting through my thoughts. I held them up by my right hand curiously, as the MDP tendrils retracted back into the silver ring. Just like I'd said, I couldn't leave this behind. A boom tube appeared on the surface of the table and I dropped the cuffs in. Then with an inaudible pop the portal disappeared and I rose up. Time to get to work.

I hummed the tune of Sweet Dreams as I walked towards the door of the interrogation room. I held out my hand without stopping and tightened it into a fist. The metallic entrance crumpled like a piece of paper through sheer air force. I had been making steady progress in my air manipulation despite Firebending being the main focus. In fact, once I was done here, it was time for a month long grind. I was long overdue to getting those Firebending Sub-skills and add to my repertoire of badassery.

I stepped out of the interrogation room and looked around. You couldn't tell it but everything was frozen. Even the watchtower floating about in space was held in place by a fundamental aspect of reality. Shit. This had to have garnered attention from some really powerful guys...must have been why I only had 5 minutes...4 now that I spent one trying to unlock the cuffs.

My steps made no noise as I walked the long hallway, headed to the central computer terminal of the Watchtower. Despite the fact that time was stopped, I tested and found out that my other abilities could still be used. Fire still spread, showing my abilities were backed more with mystical bullshit than science. Anything under my direct control really, was exempt from the temporal shenanigans. Not complaining.

I arrived at the control room and accessed the door. Instantly rows and rows of servers appeared in my vision. Now you might be wondering what I was actually doing in the Watchtower. Here's the answer. I hadn't been exaggerating when I'd said that the League's main base of operations was a marvel of technology. The fact that it had been floating in space for close to 4 years without the public's knowledge was just crazy. I had an even better version of cloaking and disguise with my elemental dimension, so that wasn't the main highligh. The thing I was after was the monitoring and surveillance aspect of the Watchtower.

Those blue prints would propel my own realm to the next level, if I could incorporate them. Initially, I'd thought of getting and holding on to them until I got someone to outfit them into my dimension. The reality however was that only I had the Admin privileges and I wouldn't be exactly comfortable with someone else making changes into my personal dimension. That just screamed betrayal. With their surveillance tech, I could better be prepared for things like alien incursions and respond accordingly. This was still my home. Or well a version if it anyway.

And the best part of it all, I could find out the locations of some interesting figures and characters that had what I needed or keep tabs on them. The Watchtower also had live satellite footage on some places of interest like the infinity island. Knowledge was a powerful tool and that knowledge was the first step into turning my Elemental Dimension into something scary.

I extended my finger towards the chassis of the first server, then ordered the MDP to copy The Watchtower's blueprints, any information with a level 3 and above only clearance protocol and locations of interest to the League.

Tendrils glowed into the servers and despite the fact that time was frozen, everything the tendrils touched lit up and activated. It took two minutes for my new favorite device to do it's work and when it was done, I left the room surprised at how easy it had been. And with that, I was done with my business at the Watchtower.

I passed through the rejuvenation chamber where Superboy was sleeping, being bombarded with solar energy for faster recovery through wide panels on the ceiling. Miss Martian was watching him through a mirror with a worried look on her face. These two...

Then my feet dragged me to the meeting hall where I found the League in a meeting to discuss, you guessed it...me. One point of note was the random streaks of yellow lightning that escaped Barry's body randomly. It was as if...he was trying to counteract the temporal restriction. And normally he would but something was actively stopping him. Wow, Future Me must be one heck of a powerhouse. Before leaving, I pressed Green Arrow's fist onto his smug face. When time resumed he would punch himself. Done with my petty act for the day, I bounced.

The next room over, housed the Teen Team playing table tennis and Robin was losing to Artemis. Guess, dexterity applies to everything else despite being a skill she gained due to her bow and arrow practice. Aqualad was combing through files from the holographic display about Connor's condition and the most recent mission. Wally on the other hand was eating hot puffs. This guy is almost always chowing down on something. The drawbacks to his version of Super-Speed. I'll make sure that when I get some sweet speed for myself, I won't fuck it up like he did.

I stared at them before I started feeling like a creep and sat down on a chair, near the door to the bathroom to wait as the time run out. 1 minute later and...

"Yes! Eat that you sunglasses wearing freak!"

Artemis shouted just as Robin missed the ball by a few inches.

"Dammit. So not turbed."

I chuckled a little, grabbing their attention.

It happened almost simultaneously, the alarms started blaring throughout the room and I'm guessing the Watchtower. Then the team also scrambled into a formation ready to attack me. I held up a hand and they were all restrained by air.

"I am not here to fight you guys. Honestly, I think we're all past that and besides we all know it's a waste of time. I will always beat you."

"Oh yeah, let us go and we'll see about that!"

Wally shouted with a mouth full of cheetos.

"Dude, don't talk with your mouth full, it's gross."

I looked at him in distaste.

"What do you want Aden?"

Aqualad cut in. I got up from the seat and walked towards him.

"I'm not going to start a monologue like a second rate movie villain about how I beat you blah blah blah. No. I'm not about that, I'm here to make something very clear."

I looked at their faces to judge their expressions. Surprisingly, they were all listening attentively. It was shocking to see Wally shut his mouth from just Aqualad's look that I had to ask.

"Wow, Kaldur you really got the team to tow the line. I'm surprised that Wally isn't running his mouth like he usually does."

"What are you planning?" Artemis spoke up. "You followed us into the Watchtower willingly..." Her face went ashen.

"What did you do?!!"

Robin shouted, the implications being made clear.

Before I could answer, I felt something cut through the air with massive speed.

"Sorry, let's continue this talk somewhere else."

The familiar light of the boom tube appeared below us. Unfortunately The Flash broke the door apart before I could pull the team all the way through, so I abandoned that move and jumped into another boom tube behind me. The speedsters priority was on the team, hence I successfully got away.

The last thing I saw was the terrified faces of my former team.