Chapter 184: Butterfly Effect Part 1

It was now just a little past 9pm in Gotham, but the city was incredibly lively. Following the news regarding Arias's presidential pardon, many of his supporters who had initially gathered to protest were now in celebrations.

However, not every one shared in this lively mood…

While the city was loud and chaotic, the Ark Academy grounds were much more controlled. Following the incident regarding the HS virus, students were under strict regulations, and even now, the measures were yet to be lifted until it was confirmed to be safe.

Normally, children, teenagers and young adults weren't the type to follow rules, especially when they had gotten used to the freedom normally offered by the academies. However, having seen hundreds of their peers die, no one was stupid enough to test their luck, so they celebrated in isolation.

One such isolated area was the common eating area, where children and teens who were placed in dorms without cooking facilities could go to eat and or purchase food of a wide variety.

The area was packed with students cheering and chanting, banging tables and stomping feet.

Despite many not even being hardened supporters of Arias, they simply joined in due to peer pressure, all except one.

Sitting on a lone table, Raven watched her celebrating peers with a side glance before turning her attention back to her plate of food.

She hadn't even eaten much from it and seemed to be lost in thought, simply twirling around the fork in her hand.

However, in such a lively atmosphere, it was easy to stand out if one didn't partake in the action. And in the next moment, that's exactly what happened as an excited boy bumped into her table.

"Oof, sorry about that. Hey, how come you aren't celebrating? Didn't you hear? Are you wearing headphones or something?"

Whether uncaring for what personal space meant or just drunk on adrenaline, the boy took a bold action and pulled down Raven's hood, causing her to shuffle back uncomfortably, her mood souring. "I don't want to celebrate, just leave me alone," Raven quickly raised her hood and ignored the boy, not wanting to draw any attention to herself, sadly her attempt to do so only worsened things.

"Look I said I was sorry, no need to be so bitchy about it. The least you could do is be happy the man who gave you a new life is free." The boy didn't take a liking to Raven's attitude, thinking her to be one of students who doubted Arias's innocence despite him doing so much for them.

Raven though, didn't care for his words. "Whatever," she dismissively replied, not wanting to interact any longer.

However her tone only made the young man grow more frustrated. "Hey, what the fuck is your problem huh? If you don't wanna celebrate you can just leave instead of ruining everyone-"

"You're my problem you insufferable little worm!" Raven suddenly yelled in anger, and for a split second, her pale white skin became redder whereas two pairs of glowing red eyes appeared under her hood.

As for her voice, it echoed loudly and frighteningly, causing the ongoing celebrations to come to a halt as attention turned to her.

Seeing this, she quickly regained composure but the damage was done. The boy she had yelled at had retreated backward and fallen on his ass, looking at her with fearful eyes. "What the fuck are you?"

Those words caused everyone to gaze at Raven while talking in whispers. Raven looked around and began to feel her anxiety rising, just as her own voice was ringing in her head.

'They think you're a freak!'

'They're scared of you now, it's your fault!'

'You can't runaway from what you are!'

Unable to take it anymore, Raven simply stood up and left the scene in a hurried pace, leaving the building entirely.

By the time she came to a stop, she found herself near the sports field. But feeling like she was being pursued, she chose to enter it and hide by the bleachers, sitting in a dark corner and hugging her legs.

'What the hell am I doing? Dammit.' She sighed and soon lowered her head, as if in resignation.

…

At the same time, I'm Washington D.C, news of Arias's pardon had caused greater outrage at the hall of justice.

It hadn't been long since Batman and the league held a meeting to discuss how they would treat the Arias situation and they were already receiving a second set of surprising news.

This particular news regarding his pardon was incredibly hard to swallow.

"Are they being serious? Bats, are you seeing this?" A dumbstruck Flash reacted more lively than anyone present to the news, perhaps due to the fact most of the members had already left.

Martian Manhunter who hovered in the air beside flash, also observing the news on a large screen, couldn't help but comment, "this does not bode well." Although his tone was calm, he found the situation to be very unfavorable right now.

As for Batman, he didn't say a word in reaction, his expression only looking incredibly displeased.

Without commenting on the news, Batman turned around and left the area, causing Flash to call out to him as he was doing so, "Hey! Where are you going?"

Batman didn't halt his movements and only gave a cryptic reply, "to get answers," before his figure vanished behind a corner.

Once he left, Flash turned his attention back to the screen and shook, "Arrow is definitely not gonna be happy about this."

Martian Manhunter gave a subtle nod and agreed, "true, and he won't be the only one. How do you think Superman will react to this when he recovers?"

"Right, Supes is gonna lose it," Flash also passed agreement to Martian Manhunters words before watching the rest of the news in silence.

…

As for the man of hour himself, he had received a police escort to Markovic tower, where he was welcomed by Mercy, with Terra already en-route from their residential tower.

Although the choice to pardon him came as a surprise, Arias could guess that the government would likely present him some terms soon. So until then, he wanted to avoid giving any comments to the media about his side of the story.

Since the government chose to end things, he had no need to fan flames and deteriorate the situation. In his mind, the government had already lost, and there was no use in beating a dead dog.

After getting escorted inside, Arias received a fitting welcome from the employees still present at the tower.

Most of them gathered in the lobby and clapped for him as he walked toward the elevator with Mercy in toll. Although technically speaking he wasn't their boss anymore and had no stake in Leviathan, they treated it as redtape.

Once inside the elevator, Arias finally stopped smiling charismatically and sighed. "What a night."

Mercy scoffed at his attitude and replied with her usual fiery and seemingly uncaring attitude, "Well if you had given me a heads up about this presidential pardon then maybe I could've made it easier. You know they might question the legitimacy of your transfer of assets since you came back waltzing in here like nothing happened right?"

Although Mercy had grounds to worry, Arias remained unfazed. "You worry too much, you and I both know they'll do no such thing. And if they do, I know I can count on you and our legal team to solve it."

"Sure, just pile more work for me. You really have no idea how hard it is running a mega-company, especially one with so much to hide! I did that and gained us profits while you were away, do you think just any one can do that?" Mercy argued, clearly irritated by Arias's laidback demeanor, especially since it reminded her of an arrogant Lex who always acted like everything would work out fine for him.

"Of course I don't, that's why you're here, to do the tedious work for me. Now, do you have anything useful to actually tell me or are you just going to keep complaining?" Arias replied while loosening his tie, still clearly uncaring for Mercy's venting.

Without saying anything, Mercy handed over a large enclosed envelope to Arias and crossed her arms before leaning against the elevator side, a frown painting her face.

Arias retrieved the envelope and opened it, it's contents were a variety of documents, some with images and some with blacked out lines in their written forms.

"What is this?" Unable to make immediate sense of it, Arias turned to Mercy and asked.

"Many criminal organizations increased their activity ever since you basically became the league's most wanted criminal. It was fine at first but now they're cutting into your profits and they don't look like they'll be slowing down, they never do." Mercy answered flatly, but this time Arias showed a small smile.

"Oh, I'm sure they will after a little… negotiating."

A/N: Stones, gimme. And also show some love to my other works and no I don't mean jack off to them, I'm looking at you Endo and Wes.