Chapter 6

Practically on the dot of half an hour later, Batman came back with Wonder Woman in tow to test my answers to a piece of paper that all boiled down to whether I was going to give away League secrets and whether I had any inclination to harming humans beyond a level to subdue them should they be criminals.

"I agree to all these terms and acknowledge that the League is temporarily in charge of my living situation as I am physically incapable of getting my own apartment or home," I said with the Lasso binding my wrist pulsing within Wonder Woman's hands making her nod and turn to Batman.

"His story and his agreement check out with the Lasso so let's move him to the mountain." Wonder Woman said to Batman she stood up and then offered a hand to me. "As you may well know I am Wonder Woman but in private you can just call me Diana. We never actually got your name what was it?" She asked as she heartily grabbed my wrist in a warrior handshake that made me almost smile at the feeling of someone matching my strength.

"My uhh... Human name was Jake Bariss, but I guess I am going to need a new hero name?" I said with a wry smile as I absently considered a name that could go with my Hollow theme.

Wonder Woman burst into laughter as our handshake broke apart and she used the same hand we shook to pat me on my shoulder. "Young man I will give you a piece of advice. So long as the modern media doesn't hear too much about you. You have the chance to change up your name if you feel like it. So, no pressure."

"Jake come with me. It's time you get situated at Mount Justice." Batman announced as Wonder Woman gave me another encouraging smile.

"Alright it was nice meeting you Diana and I look forward to working beside you in the future." I called out as Diana sat down in the meeting room with a small laptop, she pulled out of a bag that was behind her as Batman escorted me out of the room and towards another Boom Tube probably.

But as we were heading to the Boom Tubes that the Flash brought me to; Batman broke the silence with an overly open question that displayed his investigative nature. "What capabilities do you have as a powerful spirit? The data I was able to collect from interviewing Dr. Fate and what scant occult knowledge I have, has proven inconclusive as each spirit is very different."

I couldn't help but blow some air out my lips as I grunted before speaking with a shrug. "Honestly I am still growing in strength but in the meantime, I have the Superman package with flight, durability strength, and energy blasts in my repertoire along with some more racial abilities that coincide with my race of spirits that consist of a speed boost technique. A sensory technique. And lastly, a technique that can further increase my durability."

Despite the powers that I mentioned. Batman seemed to lock onto my little tidbit about being a part of a race of entities that were likely similar to myself. "You said you are part of a race? And what is your races name?"

For a moment I almost automatically answered with the generic catch-all name of being a Hollow but instead, I answered. "At my stage of power, I am called a Vasto Lorde. We typically are at the top of the Pyramid of my kind but just as a baby shark that was placed in a lake, I grew too fast in Hell as I had no natural predators in that new Hell Plane that didn't have powerful enough demons that would force me to grow at a much slower pace."

Giving Batman a sort of perceived weakness that he could control and know in me being a Vasto Lorde that grew to power way too quickly would give the overly paranoid man a sense of security and wouldn't push to see if things like holy iconography could contain or hurt me.

Even if Batman was completely a bare bone human, I couldn't neglect him with how strong his soul was, I knew all too well that my spiritual pressure wouldn't paste him into the ground like I could with normal humans so if he needed, he certainly could get the jump on me if I wasn't expecting it.

But I didn't give him all my secrets as I didn't mention the all-so-important fact that I could simply open a Garganta and flee to another side of the world or even another dimension or even my potent regeneration that was getting closer to Ulqiorra's level of high-speed regeneration.

My biggest weakness was honestly my age as I hadn't spent the literally centuries that other Hollows did hunting their fellow kind and developing their unique abilities like Barragan's time control that would age everything in his vicinity to dust within moments, or Tier's water manipulation abilities to name a couple.

Finally, while Batman was ruminating over the thoughts, I gave him we went through the Boom Tube again and we were deposited inside a large, reinforced cavern with a weird cone in the center of the room that glowed with some LED lights, and I remembered that it acted as a projector to share details about upcoming missions.

"The living quarters and the kitchen is down that hall and the training area along with the library is down that hall. For now, all the living quarters are empty so take any room you want as they are all free... Do you have any diet restrictions?" Batman asked as he seemingly remembered I was a spirit.

But I didn't give him a hard time or answer with something stupid like 'yeah' with the souls of my enemies...' I simply shook my head. "I don't need food, but it helps me recover my energy faster. I will go find my own room and maybe go check out the training room in a bit."

Batman nodded. "Knowing your new strength in comparison to this world's human levels will do you well. But I must leave you here for now. Soon a colleague who is in charge of the younger group of heroes that will be joining you will keep an eye on you and the rest." Batman said pivoting on his foot with his cape flaring behind him dramatically as he walked into the Boom Tube that loudly spoke. "Batman 02 registered." And was lit up with light before he was teleported away.

-

After getting myself set up in my room by simply flopping onto my bed and rolling around in it to mark my territory as I literally had nothing but the clothes on my back that I nabbed from a Goodwill container when I reached Central City.

Once I got into the training hall, I could definitely tell that Superman once did some light training here as there were some super dense metal free weights and mechanical presses that would press down on the user should they be doing stuff like bench presses and stuff.

I started with the free weights and more particularly at the 1-ton range and once I knew I could fairly easily do reps with them and the heavier weight sets of free weights.

"I don't know how to use those machines. But just knowing I can curl ten tones with some strain is more than enough information." I muttered as I cleaned up the gym after I used it.

I then decided that after my stint in Hell, I needed to do something that I was surprised no one had commented on. 'I still smell of brimstone... I am going to take the longest shower in my life.' I thought as I did just that and my lord was it a religious experience?

-

As I was just relaxing in my bed I realized that my future team had probably thrown their hissy fit at being called sidekicks and were probably infiltrating Cadmus and will be picking Superboy sometime soon but unfortunately, I had completely forgotten which city Cadmus was in so even if I wanted to go there via a Boom Tube to help or something I didn't even know where to go and using the room's laptop to look up where Cadmus was... Yeah, this Laptop was obviously going to be bugged to all hell.

But unfortunately, I had completely forgotten which city Cadmus was in, so even if I wanted to go there via a Boom Tube to help or something, I didn't even know where to go, and using the room's laptop to look up where Cadmus was... Yeah, this Laptop was obviously going to be bugged to all hell.

Thus, seeing as there was literally nothing for me to do other than watch TV I just relaxed and knowing I was in a rather safe place fell into a comfortable sleep that I hadn't had since I first was deposited in Hell.

-

I was awoken from my slumber as the room's intercom buzzed and Batman's voice came through "Lorde come to the debriefing chamber. Your team has been brought in early." I grumbled as I literally rolled out of my bed colliding with the ground before I got back to my feet and tiredly walked through the rock walls of Mount Justice's tunnels.

Once I came into the main room, I saw the beginnings of the first iteration of the Young Justice team consisting of Robin, Superboy, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and that very Superboy that they retrieved earlier today.

"Lorde this is the new team you were going to be added to. In time more members will likely be added as well so make sure that everyone gets along." Batman spoke mentioning how I was basically the oldest and probably the most mature of the group.

"What's up with him? He is kinda blurry?" Robin complained and my face twitched as I realized that despite how experienced Robin was in Gotham's nonsense he was still young, and his soul may not be fully strong enough to see me.

"I can see him just fine?" Superboy said blankly and that honestly surprised me as he was a clone and thus literally less than a year old. Maybe his Kryptonian heritage has strengthened his soul?

"Yeah, Robin, I can see him just fine. Is the lenses of your cowl fogged up or something?" Kid Flash joked and I wasn't surprised someone with even a connection to the speed force could see me.

But before others could interject Batman grunted to get everyone's attention. "The person before you is named Jake Bariss and is a spirit of sorts so people with weaker souls cannot see him..."

I coughed as Robin shrunk in as he was the only person who couldn't fully see me but my cough gathered everyone's attention. "Honestly just him being able to see a blurry form of myself will encourage his weaker soul to rapidly gain strength as the primordial fear of the 'unknown' will give the soul strength to grow. So, within a couple weeks if not a month at most he will be able to see me just fine."

Well, that and just being around an area I had saturated with the essence of my Vasto Lorde grade spiritual energy would fuel everyone's souls which if I was right would make Aqualad in particular more powerful with his Atlantean magic.

"I can hear him perfectly fine at least," Robin muttered while Batman grunted in thought to my words.

"Jake, I suggest that other than Superboy you do not spar with anyone lest you use too much strength as the League has seen the footage of your curling multiple tons of weight without problems. Now seeing as the team formed entirely much sooner than the League anticipated I ask that you all behave as your handler Red Tornado will be here in the morning." Batman spoke as he walked out of the room and back through the Boom Tube teleporter.

Robin is my voice garbled or something?" I asked as the room quieted down with the rooms occupants began studying me with great interest.

Robin shook his head as he sighed. "No, you are fine Jake... Unless we are on a mission, I won't be calling you Lorde as that's kinda a weird name honestly." Robin said jokingly as he took in the debriefing room of Mount Justice.

"Let's all go to the living room as we have been fighting and dealing with stuff all day." Aqualad said as he saw that despite the younger members in Robin and Kid Flash obviously wanting to grill me for being a spirit of sorts, they were obviously rather exhausted from the day's adventures.

Once we were all sat down in the living room Kid Flash leaned forward in his couch seat and questioned me. "So, as a man of science I mean really you think you are a ghost? That's impossible right, magic doesn't exist?"

Hearing Kid Flashes denial of my existence at being a spirit of sorts I couldn't help bursting into laughter and then for the hell of it I let go a tiny bit of my spiritual pressure that began vibrating the air as it basically flash boiled from the spiritual weight tearing apart reality which obviously made the teenagers sink into their couch seats.

"Kid Flash I literally tore my way out of Hell after weeks if not months of slaughtering very real demons. If you get permission from your mentor and a written note from your pastor, I don't mind actually taking you to Hell..." I said as I slowly retracted my spiritual pressure making the teenagers rise back from where they had sunken into their seats almost seemingly growing a couple inches as they did so.

"Woah alright dude. I won't judge." He said disarmingly and I snorted as I clearly saw he didn't believe me, so I just shook my head as I knew he would face things that would change his mind without me bullying the speedster into doing so.

"So Aqualad how compatible is Atlanteans in foreign magics?" I asked conversationally as Robin and Kid Flash began feeding Superman real human food and not the weird paste that he had originally been fed almost exclusively when Cadmus had control over him.

I was curious if I could learn some DC, magic but it turns out that during the twenty-odd thousand years that Atlantis had been around the people had mutated to perfectly be compatible for water magic and using water-based magics.

So, his water magic was likely off the table.

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