DISCLAIMER: I do not own Justice League or the characters within.
A reminder that the character mentioned here, Dr. Light, is the lady hero from the Justice League show and not the male villian from the Teen Titans show.
Seated at a table located near the entrance to the main cafeteria of the WatchTower, several heroes were ... recalling the day's events.
As mess up as they were.
"I can't believe all that happened and we missed the majority of it!" whined Green Lantern as his girlfriend Black Canary handed him his drink. She flashed a small smile of understanding as their eyes meet. He smiled back feeling instantly better.
"You're telling me." Replied Vigilante as he nursed his own drink and tenderly stroked his still soar chin. "If it weren't for the fact those ... kids hadn't shown up in time to save our collective behinds, I'd a been a might more put off from the butt whooping they done laid out." He moaned. Obviously still very unhappy the fact that some skinny, barely a teenager had bested him in one embarrassingly short, very short, first fight.
Opposite side of the table Booster Gold moaned loudly as he place his iced mocha-chino up to his bruised swelling check. His fight against the young red head had lasted even less time than Vigilante's. Oddly reminiscent of the first time he sparred against Batman. The Dark Knight had quickly and easily wiped the floor with the cocky hero and left him with a bruised and swollen check (plus ego) very similar as this young fella had done.
Next to him Dr. Light snorted and cast the three men a less than sympathetic look. Taking a quick sip of her drink she ground out.
"Quit complaining ... you big babies. Him and his friends didn't even try to fight the women. That little emo kid just waved a hand and put us all to sleep! Can you imagine the nerve?! I mean who does he think he is ..." Was about as far as she got into her rant when Fire spoke up.
"I don't know how you were raised , but in my country a man that will not raise a hand to a lady is to be admired. In fact it thought him to be a very sweet young man to do what he did. How he did it." she said looking around at the others , particularly the other women.
She of course was referring how to the small pale boy in questions had apologized in advance before he put almost all the League females to sleep with a wave of his hands. The only exception was WonderWoman. On top of that he somehow, no one saw so nobody knows how he did it, placed all the sleeping women in their quarters. Something she herself was very grateful for. She felt it preserved some of their dignity as members of the League and as a woman.
Next to her Ice nodded as she took a sip of her tea.
Opposite her HawkGirl said nothing. Staring at her untouched latte. In fact since she sat down she barely said two words. Or moved. Or did anything but sit there with both hands curled around her drink and just stared at it. An odd and somewhat contemplative look about her.
"How can you say that ?" Dr. Light demanded. "He completely disrespected all of us women by refusing to give us the chance to show our courage, our bravery in a fight just like the men." She waved her arms around like the boy did. "Him and his little trick was a slap to the face of all women Leaguers. "
"Don't complain." Booster Gold moaned. When she looked at him he added. " My face is killing me. I'll trade you and your little cat nap any day."
Fire reached over and gave his arm a sympathetic pat. When he looked at her she cast a soft smile which made him brighten instantly. However, when he tried to smile back the pain caused him to visibly wince at the intense pain. She moved closer and started to rub his shoulder soothingly. He was a happy man.
Dr. Light rolled her eyes at the pair, but decided not to comment.
Just then Question entered the café and headed for the coffee counter. When he passed close to their table Black Canary could hear him humming that annoying little pop song again. She ignored the argument between her boyfriend and their colleague. Instead she watched him get his customary black coffee with one sugar and two creams. When he made to pass by their table on the way out she reached over and touched his arm. Remembering what Helena told her about how jumpy he could get and if she wanted his attention she had to be like the man himself. Subtle.
When he stopped to look at her, imagining a raised eyebrow underneath that mask, she spoke.
"OK Questions spill. You know something don't you?"
"Me?"
"Yes you." By now the conversation had ceased and present were watching the exchange.
"Well ... it is true I know many things. However, you have shown little interest in my unique take on the world in general, but I digress. What is it that you think I know? And more importantly ... why would I tell you?"
She smiled.
"You definitely know something about what happened earlier today with our ... visitors. Huntress says you always hum that tune when you know something good. Juicy good. Because we are your colleagues ... your friends. And that's what friends do."
He shrugged off her hand with a small harumpth he made to leave.
"Nice try, but I'm in the business of information gathering. Not sharing. Good day. Enjoy your drinks."
Her smile turned into a smirk.
"Come now Question. We both know you're too intelligent not to realized that Huntress and I are friends. Girlfriends."
He paused.
"And what do you think girlfriends talk about 90% of the time?"
He turned slightly to look at her.
Her smirk had grown into a look Ollie had seen many , many a time. The one she always got when she knew she was going to win that particular argument.
"That's right. The men in our lives. Shall I ... share some information?"
His shoulders dropped and he sighed knowing full well he had lost. Of course he could simply call her bluff, but he and Green Arrow had enough 'guy talk' themselves to know how well that would mostly likely work.
Grabbing a chair from another table he took a seat to get comfortable and prepared to spill the beans. Taking a long drag of his coffee he proceeded to tell them , in hushed tones , everything he knew , how he came to know it , what he thought of the missing bits , and what it all meant as the events unfolded.
A good twenty or thirty minutes later he finished his tale as he finished his coffee. Tossing the empty cup over his left shoulder , he made the wastebin of course, he waited for their response.
Around the table the collective heroes were staring at him with what he would later describe of their average facial expression as completely stunned. He could not blame them. It was an incredible tale. Almost as impossibly incredible as the days events, but hey ... they were the Justice League. Par for the course.
So stunned and unnerved was Black Canary she was hardly aware she had somehow ended up in Green Arrows lap with his arms securely wrapped around her. Although the entire JL knew they were and have been a long time couple , they never did anything remotely close to this. Deciding such juvenile displays of affection where unprofessional at the least and at most just plain embarrassing for people their age, however she was glad for the comfort it brought and pressed closer to him.
Fire had pressed close to Booster Gold whom was just gapping at the Question.
Even Ice had inched closer to Vigilante.
Dr. Light just sat there and stared in utter disbelief.
Hawkgirl ... Hawkgirl looked even more lost in thought than before.
The silence was eventually broken by Vigilante.
"Are you shitting me?"
"Oh my God ..." mumbled Green Lantern. He pulled Dihana closer. She did not protest.
Question simply nodded.
"Oh m God ..." blurted Booster Gold.
Vigilante shook his head a couple times trying to dislodge whatever had gotten stuck up there and repeated with a little more force.
"Are you shitting me?!"
Question just nodded again.
"Oh my God."
"Booster! Get a grip!" Dr. Light barked.
"Partner ... you best not be pulling my leg ..." Vigilante started.
"Why? For what purpose? To what end would I make all that up?" Question interrupted.
"You all wanted to know what I knew and I told you everything. "
"Oh my ..."
"Booster!"
"Sorry ..."
Black Canary found her voice again.
"Knock it off you two!". After glaring down Light she turned her attention to Question.
"Come on Q. You have to admit even for us that's a hard story to swallow."
"Why is that?" he asked.
"Why? Why?! You claimed that those kids came back in time to smack the guys around, put the majority of the League women to sleep and out of the way, saved the WatchTower , the Founders, the entire Justice League , probably the world from a threat we couldn't even see coming! And to top all that off their leaders was ... is ..." She shook with her struggle to get all that out. Only to choke on the last bit.
"The Batman's grandson?" Questions asked.
Hawkgirl flinched and drew into herself a little more. This did not go unnoticed by the Question.
"Oh. My. God !"
"Holly shit ..."
"You have got to be shitting me !"
"Enough! Come on Q how can you possible believe that?" Asked Dr. Light.
Questions looked at her , well what looks like looking at someone for him at least.
"I told you what I heard. The name he called Batman. Mind you this was second hand hearsay , but I did manage to find it in the database. I won't disclose the language too dangerous for any of us to know, but the closest translation to English is grandfather. "
"Closest?" Ice asked taking a drink and finding it way to cold even for her tastes.
"Well ... I say closest since there wasn't an exact word for word translation. More like a phrase that fits. I can't really say any more. It could ... jeopardize things. Especially for him."
"Oh my ..."
"Damit Booster! Why do you keep saying that?!" Light yelled.
He turned and absolutely glared anger at her.
"Because!" He shouted back. Looking around the assemble heroes he continued when he was sure he had their attention.
"Didn't you listen to what Q said?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Of course you dimwit! We were all present."
"No you didn't! Cause if you did you would realized how close we came to bitting it big time! That was the Batman's grandson. His grandson Light!"
Now everybody looked confused at that. Except Question and Hawkgirl.
"His grandson." He elaborated and looked to each hero in turn as he spoke. " We don't know when in Batman's life this happens , but think about it. After how many years of training and experience ... the stuff he knows ... a baby raised under HIS watchful eye. His guidance. Being trained from birth to be ... to be ... well probably the next Batman! We're all lucky we walked away with all of our heads attached. You heard what Q said the boy said about his mission. How he would not , could not fail. That nothing would stand in his way. Ha ... Let's face it we were in his way. "
That had sunken in an unpleasant way.
Green Arrow was pondering the possibilities when Questions spoke.
"An astute observation ... there may be hope for you yet , but you missed one very important point."
Booster looked up.
"From what I could gather from their overheard conversation. He wasn't raised to be the next Batman."
They all looked at him funny.
"No ... he was raised to be greater than the Batman. To exceed his grandfather in every way possible. A leader like the world has never before seen."
...
"Holly shit indeed." That had come from Dr. Light.
After a long silent pause Hawkgirl asked a question.
"The other two ... the ones that came with him. Did they say ... do we know ... if ..."
Question shook his head.
"No. No children of ours or any other Leaguer. I believe another group. Maybe the Titans."
Hawkgirl sighed and went back to looking into her drink.
Black Canary regarded her behavior and asked.
"Shayera? Are you OK? What's wrong?"
Hawkgirl shook her head and sniffed.
"Nothing. It's ... it's ... I was near the leader. Batman's ... anyway when I went under just before I thought I head him say something to the one who did it"
The others just stared for her to continue.
She sighed , pushed her cup away and rubbed her arms.
"I thought he said 'Careful with all of our friend's moms.' or something close to it. I'm not sure."
That had to conversation going at an impressive rate. So much so they barely notice WonderWoman's entrance and susbequent trek to the coffee bar. Where she proceeded to get a large cup totally ignoring the coffee, grab a handful of sugar packets toss them in, crack a creamer, add a stir stick stirring twice, walk over to the counter to swipe a pay card just to drop the whole mess on the floor then walk away in a trance like state. Without blinking an eye she passed the group in that same odd semi-blank state. Ignoring the greetings and queries to her well being left theft the café.
The odd thing. She looked somewhat happy.
They all exchange curious and worried glances with each other. Expect for Question. He had stood and was fixing his tie and hat obviously preparing to leave. Black Canary quirked an eyebrow at him and spoke.
"OK Q ... spill."
Fixing his fedora in place he turned slightly and said before he walked away.
"He called her grandmother."
AN: A little something that just came to me sitting here when I should really be getting ready for the work week. Hope you all enjoy. R & R if your are so inclined.
Thanks for reading!
Take care and God Bless.
