Chapter 301: Baiting The Elite Part 7

Arias, undeterred by the commotion, turned and walked deeper into the chaos. Kara, on the other hand, hesitated, debating whether to follow him further into the island or to survey the surrounding areas just in case. Observing her indecision, Arias chuckled and queried, "Are you standing here to protect me, or to stop me from going after the rest of these guys?"

Kara, remembering what Arias had just done, turned to face him, frowning deeply as she argued, "Yes, if I have to. For all I know, you could've been killing them to hide information. Even if you weren't, it's still up to the law to deal with them."

"I always find it so amazing that you, Batman, Superman, and even the rest of the League as a whole really have it so easy in making such tough decisions," Arias cryptically revealed, prompting Kara to frown as she asked, "What do you mean?"

Arias gave a cold smile and began to walk away from the debris, now walking deeper toward the island. This prompted Kara to fly ahead and block his path. "Hey, where are you going?"

Arias, unfazed by her efforts, explained, "What I mean is this: you have no qualms about protecting people who blatantly murdered countless others and are willing to experiment on children who they then plan to sell off for profit." 

"Once we capture them, they will be put in jail for the rest of their lives, and they'll pay for what they've done."

Arias chuckled at the naïve answer, and then added, "And what about those who fund them? The many billionaires and millionaires who hate aliens, meta-humans, or anyone really who is gifted in any sense. I should be a prime example of the law being useless to those with enough power and money. How many times has Lex tried to kill your cousin and threaten the whole integrity of the nation? Yet he goes scot-free and died a man without a criminal record. The history books will mention him as a sort of pioneer for Metropolis. You'd see it as almost comical."

Kara frowned as she heard these words. She could understand the meaning behind them and could see the sense there. However, she had a strong belief in her principles and way of doing things, believing that slowly but surely, a difference was being made.

Arias was by no means trying to convince her with mere words, and was instead just planting the idea within her mind, setting a motion she would now consider going forward. This made it much easier for him to influence the direction of events that would occur in her life.

Kara was completely unaware that Arias had begun slowly chipping away at her beliefs, laying the foundation for the eventual destruction of her morals. 

"It's just that simple. You claim to be different, but deep down, I know you're just like the other people in power, pretending to be helping," Kara replied, whereas Arias showed a small smile as if humored by her conclusion, though he wasn't surprised given that her investigative abilities were far from being her strong point.

Meanwhile, further ahead, Batman was moving quickly through the forest of tropical trees, stopping only to glance at a small holographic projection displayed on the wrist of his bat suit. "Alfred, can you have the satellite pick up images of what's at the center of the island? I think whatever was blocking the signal has cleared out now."

"Affirmative, Sir. There is a central structure in the middle of the island, though it's hard to make out what it truly is. I would advise sending drones down from the jet to investigate the site a bit better."

"No need," Batman quickly answered, turning his attention to the ground as his visors highlighted numerous footprints rushing toward the direction of the center of the island. "They've been spooked, and they are rushing back to the center. I need to find out why they are in a hurry back before it's too late."

Having said that, he then asked, "How far out is the rest of the League?"

Alfred replied, "I sent the League your current coordinates, and according to track data, Superman should be arriving at your location in the next minute or so."

"Good, have the drones monitor Arias Markovich's location instead. I left a tiny tracking chip on Supergirl's cape when we were talking at the beach. For whatever reason, she seems very keen on following him." 

"Is that good or bad, sir?"

"Right now, I'm not sure, but I don't have time to worry about that," Batman continued on his way.

Meanwhile, within the central complex, Tala's figure hovered within the main area, her hands extended out as she chanted again and again and as she did so, she directed her hand in varying directions, causing things to both disappear and appear, practically crafting the scene of her choice. 

As she was doing this, a black mist of smoke hovered together just below her before Enchantress's ominous figure appeared, standing creepily in a hunched posture.

Tala observed the Enchantress with some caution and asked, "Iz it ze time to go already? *Tsk* I waz not yet done crafting ze perfect scene for ze mazter, but no matter, iz good enough."

Saying nothing more, Tala brought her hand near her face as it continued to glow in a purplish hue, then suddenly, her entire figure vanished, followed by that of the Enchantress.