The blonde haired woman's hair had mostly gone to gray but her stride was still athletic as she strode through the corridors of the White House. She wasn't traditionally beautiful looking, there was too much strength in her face for that, but she certainly was striking. She knocked on the door then headed inside after being invited. "Mr. President," the blonde nodded formally, carrying a set of files with her. "Director Chase," the older man looked up and smiled, "it's been awhile." Cameron Chase smiled back as she took a seat, setting the files down on the top of the desk. "It's good to see you, sir," the former agent of the Department of Extranormal Operations said firmly. "What's the status of the Fortress captives?" he asked grimly. "Over eighty percent have been recaptured," Chase reported before admitting, "but most of the remaining numbers are the major players, including Braniac, Enchantress and others." "So we're not out of the woods yet," he sighed. "No, sir," Chase met his gaze calmly, "has a decision been made on my request, sir?" "With some debate it's been decided to reactivate Task Force X," the President of the United States answered her crisply, "as an umbrella organization containing your DEO, Checkmate and the new Suicide Squad." "Good," Chase nodded, "we need some oversight on our agencies." A ghost of a smile, "And our liaison with the White House is?" "Nathaniel Adam," he answered, "he has experience both with the Task Force X and with some of the dirtier end of our covert operations." "Understood," Chase noted the information calmly before adding, "I'll pass that on to the head of the Task Force." She leaned forward, "I'll give you an overview of the briefing before the rest of the cabinet arrives." "Carry on," the President nodded. "As you may know superheros never really stopped operating," Chase began, "they just became more covert about it. Superman, Wonder Woman and others may have saved the world several times in the last twenty years, but the public has never known about it." Chase flipped open a folder to show a blurred image of the JLA Watchtower, "Some weeks ago Superman and Wonder Woman reappeared just long enough to retreat to the Watchtower then take off in pursuit of an alien vessel that attacked Earth and took at least one hostage." "Do we know why the hostage was taken?" the President asked. "It's only conjecture at this point," Chase cautioned, "but we suspect the girl C-ko was an alien, one that crashed at the site where Graviton City is now. Why the aliens want her and how come they waited this long are still unknown." Chase moved the Watchtower photo aside to reveal a redheaded girl in a familiar uniform, "After that their daughter A-ko began to appear in public as Supergirl, drawing out other superhumans in the process." She flashed a grin, "And pulling me out of retirement." "Any information on the identities if the members of this new Justice League?" he asked with a slight frown on his face. "Not much yet," Chase conceded. "Green Lantern has been fairly easy, Kyla Scott has never really tried to hide her heritage. We've tentatively identified Flash as Iris West, mostly due to her brother being the new Professor Zoom, but it's not been confirmed yet. And of course the third Steel is B-ko Daitokuji," she finished. "And we can't move against her without annoying the Japanese government," he noted before looking up to meet her eyes. "Well done," he smiled slightly. "My people have done their best to hit the ground running on this," Chase answered, "and on investigating the other teams forming as well. Both the Titans and Outsiders have reformed, and there's rumblings that a third JSA may be in the making." "Combined with all the independent heroes out there and it looks like things are getting exiting again," he sighed. Chase looked at him curiously, "Is there a official policy on the superhumans yet?" "Based on your earlier reports and the recommendations of my top advisors," he shrugged, "we're choosing to leave them be, for the time being." He fixed her with an intense look, "However, I want the DEO and others keeping an eye on them. If any of the heroes begin to cross the line we need to know soonest." "Understood, sir," Chase nodded. The President got up, the two walking from the office to the conference room. "Has the United Nations made a decision on the Justice League yet?" he asked curiously. "There's a resolution that's been put forward by the Themescran ambassador Circe," Chase answered, "to grant the JLA special status. I suspect it'll pass." "I still can't believe that the Amazons could forgive their ancient foe like that," the President shook his head, referring to the sorceress and former villain Circe. She had pulled some very nasty stuff on the Amazons, so much that he found it hard to believe they could put it aside so easily. "They preach peace and sisterhood," Chase said cynically, "they'd look pretty hypocritical if they didn't live up to it themselves." "Point," he acknowledged. They reached the doors to the conference room and went in Chase meeting the eyes of the White House inner circle, the advisors and politicians that helped shape the fate of a nation. As she took her place she had to muse, 'And for this I gave up being a field agent?' "I hate meetings," Chase muttered some hours later, rubbing at her eyes tiredly. She sat in the director's office at the DEO, her desk covered with computer and paperwork, a few momentous of her cases scattered around the room. 'Better try this now than wait," Chase sighed as she booted up her computer, quickly connecting to a remote facility and hitting enter. "Hope our internal firewall is as good as the tech boys say it is," she muttered softly. The image formed on the computer screen in a moment, a stylized mask of an oracle. "Director Chase," Oracle said formally, her voice a bit tinny through the older computer's built in speakers, "we finally meet." "How do you know who I am?" Chase blinked in surprise. "Batman had an extensive file on you," Oracle answered simply, "one that he backed up in the Watchtower mainframe. I've since added to it, of course." "Of course," Chase echoed. She forced herself to focus on business, "I contacted you to propose an exchange of information, a commodity I understand you value." "Oh?" Oracle didn't give anything away. "The DEO has maintained extensive files on the super criminals operating in the United States and abroad," Chase said simply, "I'm willing to pass that data on to you in exchange for one thing: the personal data on the new Justice League." "Not interested," Oracle said crisply. Before she could break the connection Chase said, "Not even in learning the current status of the Joker?" In the long silence that followed Chase added, "I'm aware that you've involved yourself in Joker related incidents several times over the years, even with superhumans that you wouldn't normally choose to work with." "An empty offer," Oracle finally said, "I know where Joker is, I have a constant video feed from his prison to entertain me." She actually sounded amused as she said, "Good try, though." "I had to try," Chase shrugged. "Now I have something to tell you," Oracle sounded serious, "advise the government to stay away from the Justice League. I'm well aware of some of the dirty deeds done over the years, including the Mockingbird sanction, the Major Force project and others, and I'd quite happily spill the beans if needed." With that, she abruptly disconnected. Once Oracle was gone Chase hit a switch, bringing up the video feed from another part of the building and asked, "Any luck back tracking into her system?" "Yes and no," Razorsharp answered, the criminal computer hacker temporarily on loan from the Suicide Squad. She sighed, "As far as I can tell, Oracle is operating out of the Watchtower itself." "Fits," Chase admitted, "so no chance of getting any information from Oracle's system?" "Not with the Martian, Kryptonian and Thangarian tech in there," Razorsharp answered before admitting, "in fact, I think that Oracle got some of our data, even with all the firewalls." "Damn," Chase shook her head with a sigh.
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