Death of a Legend
Superman looked from left to right, and saw nothing but rubble and humans working pointlessly to pick it up. He was sad, thinking to himself, "am I the reason this is happening?"
"I was thinking the same," said the Martian as he landed next to superman.
"Well, what do you think the answer is?"
The Martian paused, the faced forward and stared across the horizon. "I'll let you know when I have one,"
Brainiac had launched his worst assault yet on earth and the justice league. He used various gravity controlling weopans to destroy the surface, while using machines to keep the league occupied. When this didn't prove to work as long as brainiac hoped, he released his sub-bionic microscopic mind control devices to attack several members of the league. Of those were flash, plastic man, batman, hawkman, and shazam, who removed his by turning back into a boy. The attack failed, but was successful in killing thousands, the civilian death toll was more than ever. Among the dead were two members of the young justice league, kid flash and Robin.
"It's batman that has me worried more than anything. He was under the influence of mind control longer than anyone else, he was still under when the control ship went down,"
"That and the loss of Robin,"said the Martian, "his mind is now a twisted mess,"
"Describe the attack," Wonder Woman said. But Batman said nothing in return. He sat in his chair, slumped down with a ripped tank top, dirty jeans, and a near broken mask on. He wasn't at all himself. He was a broken shell of his past self, he normally ran the room, he commanded it. He had power in his voice. But not anymore, he seemed weak, and emotional. You could feel the hopelessness radiating off of him. "Bruce please, if you don't talk we..."
"Bruce," he cut in, "Bruce Wayne. Billionaire. Philanthropist. A good man. But what is Bruce Wayne when he is attacked by a robot alien force? Nothing. Worthless. You can't protect yourself with money. Or achievements. And you sure can't protect ones closest to you,"
"You're referring to Robin?"
Batman said nothing. Wonder Woman sighed and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you Bruce. What should I call you?"
He sat there, then slowly looked up, not yet facing her, but said, "bat-mannnn" the words were slow to leave his lips.
"The dark knight. Hero of Gotham. But then these gods showed up. You gods showed up. What is the dark knight now? The game changed, and I'm still playing by the old rules. When I forgot one of the oldest tricks in the book," he looked Wonder Woman directly in the eye, "if you can't beat um, join um," and he stood up and left the room.
'Batman to superman, batman to superman'
Superman's com link rang. This was perculior, batman hadn't singled him out on com since the discovery of superboy.
"Go ahead"
"I need you in Gotham. I need to put some things to rest before I can move past this matter,"
Superman paused. This didn't seem right. Then again, Bruce hadn't seemed right in days. Anything he could do to get his right hand man out in the field again would be beneficial to the entire team, so it was worth a shot.
"I'll be there as quick as I can"
"And we all know how quick that is" said batman sarcastically
Superman chuckled "the cave or the mansion?"
"Just let yourself into the mansion"
With a thousand unanswered questions on his mind, superman flew off to Gotham.
When superman arrived at the mansion, what he saw horrified him. The mansion was burning, it looked like it was the victim of an explosion.
"Bruce!" Superman yelled as he began running through the house. He used his super hearing to try and listen for him, and he heard rustling in the cave. Superman was there in an instant, frantically looking for any sign of Bruce. He found him calmly at his computer, typing what looked to be an important document.
"Bruce, what is going on? The mansion, it's burning to the ground! We need to do something now!"
"Bruce is dead. Read the report,"
Superman came closer to see what he was typing.
'Bruce Wayne found Dead in Wreckage of Mansion'
"Uhhh Bruce, what's going on? You can't file a police report that you died that's against…"
"But I am dead. That's what you don't understand.I died when that robot sycopath forced me to murder Robin and Rachel. Then I died when brainiac was ripped out of me. Bruce Wayne no longer exists. Only batman."
"Bruce this is madness, you've always been the strongest minded of…"
"And batman stands for justice," batman cut in, barely acnologing superman, "I stand for justice, peace, and the protection of the people. Protect them from you, and the freaks that follow you here. But I'm not well equipped for that, at least not yet," before superman could say anything, batman pressed a button and a large door opened. Behind the door was an eight foot hulking metal suit, with a matte black finish, equipped with two machine guns on the shoulders and batman's emblem on the chest.
"Bruce, you don't want to do this. If start this, there's only one way this ends,"
"You're right. With peace,"
The suit sprang out of the doorway with surprising grace, landing in front of superman and delivered a crushing blow to his head. Superman crashed into the wall, the blow being much more powerful than he expected. He launched off the wall at batman, but the suit grabbed him by his legs and flung him against another wall. Superman was experiencing more pain from these blows than he normally did, but that didn't stop him from leaping up to the suits chest and delivering two blows to it's head. The suit stumbled back, but the punches did less than superman expected.
"Not as strong as normal, huh?" Batman chuckled, "would it have anything to do with this custom power core?" The batman emblem on the suits chest opened to display the green glow from the kryptonite core.
'That's why I'm hurting and weak' superman thought. But there wasn't much more time to think, batman got inside the suit, and as the suit closed shut around him, batman grabbed a table and hurled it at superman. Superman doged to get out of the way, he felt the sting of 50 caliber bullets pelt his skin. He quickly hid behind Bruce's computer, as he heard him say,
"The suit's system can actually predict my opponent's next move, so I can already be shooting were you haven't even gotten to yet. Impressive right?"
"Predict this, mad man!"
Superman shot x-Ray beams that melted right through Bruce's computer system and struck the suit right in the chest. This gave superman just enough time to spin around the computer and fly at batman, but as he raised his fist to deliver a punch, batman caught his fist. The suits chest opened again and kryptonite Rays flooded out. Now closer to the Rays, superman was rendered nearly powerless. The suits other giant hand clamped around supermans back, and brought him up face to face with batman. Superman flailed and struggled to get free.
"Now you're the one making this harder for everyone," batman said.
Superman the felt a sharp pain go through his back, and he let out an ear shattering scream. The pain was a deep injection, all the way to the bone.
"Now that wasn't too bad, was it?" Batman said. He then tightened his grip on superman, intending on crushing the hero. Superman, with every last bit of strength he had, grabbed the kyriptonite core, pulled it out of the suit, and tossed it aside. Batman, enraged, threw superman to the other side of the cave and attempted to re-install the core.
'Suit power at 10%' the suits system said. Batman ejected from the suit, grabbed the kyriptonite, and began to put it back. That's when a beam struck his hand and the kryptonite. Batman yelled out in pain, clutching his burned hand.
"I was just trying to do what's best!" He said as superman approached. "Get away from me!" He yelled as he pulled two strangle looking things from the suit. "Don't come any closer!" Superman picked him up by the neck and held him up.
"I'm sorry Bruce," he said as he knocked batman unconscious. As he flew him the the justice league tower, he rembered what batman had taken from the suit, but when he looked for it on Bruce, he found nothing.
'one new message' said Lexs computer. It's funny, he thought, no one ever sends messages on computer anymore. He opened it, and immediately heard the force of Batman.
'Attached to this message is a blood and bone marrow sample, the two things you need to make the serum. My suit has already prepared the samples for my body being the recipient, so don't count on you being able to take it. Bring it to the holding cell of the justice league watch tower by any means necessary, then we'll talk'
The samples arrived soon after. Lex thought about it. The two had collaborated on work before, especially on the anti superman suit, but this was much more serious. This serum would give Batman all the powers of superman. However, if he made it for batman, who knows, maybe he could get some himself.
"If I'm getting in that tower, I'll need to get a squad together," a smug smile developed on Luthors face.
Birth of a God
Bronze tiger, deadshot, shrapnel, killer croc, killer frost, and Harley Quinn were all in the back of the highest security van, on there way to Lexcorp tower. When they arrived, there blindfolds were pulled off, and Lex was standing in front of them. He explained his plan on breaking out a criminal, but didn't tell them who. When he was done explaining, Haley pipped up, "Well why us? Why couldn't you hire your big strong mercenaries to do it?"
"Cause we're the best, you crazy clown," deadshot fired back.
"And because you're free, and expendable,"
An awkward silence followed.
"What's stopping me from chocking you to death and jumping out of this van?" Killer Croc chimed in.
Lex put on a thin smile then replied, "You know the collars they had on you in Belle Reve? I hacked them, they're active. I could blow your heads clean off if i wanted. And if you're thinking you can kill me before i do it, think again. The detonator is hooked to my heartbeat, so if it stops, you all die,"
Another longer silence followed, and croc dialed back down.
"Look I ain't no Bruce Willis or Silvestor Stilone, and I don't wanna go on this suicide mission," Broze tiger said, with anger in his voice.
"Oh trust me, you do," Lex replied smoothly, "because what are your options, you go back to your cell? No, freedom awaits if you succeed. And if you fail, well, you go out fighting. Not rotting in some cell,"
"I-I-I don't wanna die!" Harley exclaimed nervously.
"So what are you gonna do, go back? I know one man who'd be disappointed to hear you quit on him," Lex replied cooley.
Haley's face went from nervous to excited and determined. She was on board.
"Well why haven't you broken us out sooner? I think we all deserve to know that," killer frost said, as murmurs of agreement floated around the room.
Lex put his head down. "I admit I have been down lately, haven't really had much of a good plan for a while. And admit it, the chances of you all coming together and working as a team are slim, so I had to give you a mission and a reward to get you all to actually work together. So please, can we get this done?"
Everyone around nodded simultaneously.
"Nothing from the muscle?"
Killer croc and shrapnel shook their heads.
"Then lets get it done,"
At the base of the tower, the squad gathered around. The tower had very few windows, but the ones they could access had alarm systems. Killer frost created some ice stairs the squad climbed, then they got to the level of the window.
"My turn?" Harley asked.
"Not yet sweet cheeks" frost replied, "when we bust through this window, the alarm will sound. I can build a pretty convincing window, and one thick enough so the sensors will stop going off. But we need to all go in at once so the alarm isn't on very long and we don't arouse suspicion. So get behind shrapnel,"
Shrapnel got into position, with the team behind him, and he flew through the window, easily shattering it. The team followed, and killer front created a window of ice to cover the hole. The alarm was on for four seconds. Long enough for the justice league to send someone to investigate. The team got out of there, watching two guards rush to the window to investigate, then leave. Deadshot ran to the nearest computer and hacked his way in. He loaded up building schematics and security cameras, finding the two most important points of the mission, the elevator room and cell block 5. Soldiers were littered around the elevator room, and soldiers were in a strict formation around the prison cells. "Guards around the elevators should be easy enough to pick off. its the ones one the cell block will prove more difficult. I say to get on the elevator, we send croc through this wall pipe. Their pipes are huge here, probably all the super sized bm's they have. Then, croc jumps out and attacks, and we flank them, then as they're distracted by croc, me and tiger are gonna take out the guards. While we're taking them out, the rest of you get to the elevator and get it going. understood?"
the team nodded. Shrapnel busted a hole in the wall and killer frost froze the pipe, then croc cracked and broke the pipe and jumped in. He swam around the corner to the room, behind the guards, and waited. Harley peeked around the corner, giggled, and hurled a pink grenade at the end wall. It exploded and croc launched out, roared and immediately killed two guards. The other guards turned and aimed at croc, but not before deadshot jumped out and began mowing them down with his wrist machine guns. Bronze Tiger sprang out from behind the wall and began picking off the rest of the guards. When they were done, they got on the elevator with the rest of the squad. When the elevator rang and doors opened, killer frost created an ice wall, and shrapnel punched two holes in in. Croc began pushing the wall, which acted as a giant shield to protect the team. Deadshot and Harley began gunning down guards through the holes until only breathless bodies and blood were between them and the cell. They got up to the cell doors, and haley put a charge on the wall. She set the timer. 5…4…3… the seconds ticked by like hours. The team was anxoius, feeling around corners waiting on the justice league to strike. they'd been in the building for two minutes now…1. The charge finally worked, but instead of an explosion, it heated up so hot it made the cell door metal became softer.
"Will that work Bronze?" Deadshot asked skeptically.
"Oh that will work just fine," he forced his claws deep into the metal, moved them around to create a big enough hole, then yanked them back out. deadshot got the vile out of his pocket 'You owe me -Lex' was the note on the vile, and giving it one last look, he tossed it into the cell.
The squad then ran back to the elevator, but when they arrived, the Martian manhunter was standing in their way.
"Did you not think I would detect your presence?" He said, cooley.
"My turn now?" Harley asked impatiently.
"Yes sweetheart. Blow it." As Floyd said the last two words, Harley giggled and pushed the detonator she had in her hand, triggering a nearby building to burst into flames.
"Whoopsie! She exclaimed, "looks like a job for a hero!"
"Superman, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, get into that building, flash, get on the ground and see if…" before the Martian could finish, shrapnel delivered a blow to him that sent him flying across the room.
"Alright Lex, package delivered and shrapnel has engaged the manhunter. orders?" deadshot said into his com.
"Take out comms, destroy them. Don't let anyone trace this back to me. You're on your own," and just like that, the team was abandoned.
"Alright, destroy comms, and every man for himself," With that, deadshot yanked out his comm, stomped on it, and made a dash down the stairs. The rest of the team followed, leaving shrapnel to take on the martian by himself. The two exchanged a few punches, but clearly the Martian had the upper hand. Once he had shrapnel ripped apart, he paused, listening. He heard rustling, struggling. A low scream ecoed through a cell. He looked into the minds of the prisoners, until he found the disturbance. It was in cell 1256. He gasped. Batman.
The cell door came flying off its hinges and slammed against the wall. The Dark Knight emerged from the cell, menacingly looking the martian in the eye. Before Martian could say anything, Batman yelled, grabbed the cell door, and hurled it at the Martian. This was easily avoided, the Manhunter just let it go right through him. What he didn't expect was Batman flying at him and delivering a strong blow to his stomach then an uppercut to his face that sent him flying through the ceiling. He came back through the floor, batman had left, headed for the burning building. The Martian flew after him.
As Superman helped the last victim get clear of the burning building, he turned to see a dark figure flying rapidly towards him. He dodged to the left just as the figure crashed into the ground, shattering the sidewalk and sending a wave that blew his hair back. The figure raised his head, revealing the mask and cowl of batman. Superman gasped, "Batman, how did, what did you do to…"
"Enough of this!" Batman yelled, his voice getting more and more horse. "I'm giving you a choice. You can either leave this planet alone, forever, freeing it of any enemies you might bring with you. Or you can stay, and I'll fix this problem myself,"
"Meaning what?" Superman asked, a slight bit of arrogance in his voice.
"I'll take that as your answer," with that, Batman launched himself at superman, spearing him then slamming him into the concrete.
"I'm not going anywhere!" Superman yelled as the exchanged blows, "What is the difference in you fighting crime than me?" Superman threw batman back through the justice league building. Batman tumbled through floor after floor, until he finally caught himself and stood back up. Superman landed nearby.
"There is a difference between me and you. You try and use your strength and power to enact justice. But you're delusional. Everyone you face is powerful. Making you normal. And leaving the rest of the world at risk," Batman pummeled Superman with swift powerful body blows. He kicked him through one wall, and then another. superman was getting weaker.
"And now i have your powers. But I'm not going to waste them like you do. Im going to use them to inspire fear. Criminals will fear me and my power, not look at me as some boy scout in a cape who can fly" Batman took superman by the neck and hurled him into the next room. Inside was batman's room, it wasn't much, but it had an extra suit. As batman put on his suit, after only having his mask, superman tried to get up, but couldn't. he felt so weak. Batman pulled out the source, kryptonite, from his closet. "I will be the twice the enforcer of justice with none of the weaknesses and less rules, and i will bring peace to earth without you getting in the way and causing more problems than you're worth,"
"What happened to your rules, Bruce. Don't tell me that they finally broke you. If they did, then Braniac wins, and so does the Joker," Superman said, his voice now weak, any arrogance had left him.
"No, they don't win. Its hard to win if you're dead. I realized as I held Jason in my arms, if i am truly going to stop crime, i have to make compromises. I have to destroy criminals, not stop them. Stopping them inst enough anymore. You people have changed the game. So i have to adjust accordingly. Now, Superman," Batman lifted superman to his knees, then walked around and stood behind him, "Will you leave this planet, and take your troubles with you?" Wonder Woman, Hal Jordan, and Martian Manhunter were all at the doorway now, too far away to help but close enough to see. Superman took in a heavy breath and said,
"Never," And that was the last thing he said, for Batman snapped his neck. It was like the earth stopped spinning. No one said anything. They were all shocked. With more of the justice league gathered around now, they all watched, frozen in horror as batman picked up the lifeless body of superman and slung him over his shoulder like a nap-sack.
"When i get back, if every gifted member of this team isn't gone from this earth, they will be hunted and killed," and with that, Batman flew off into the sky. Wonder Woman feel to her knees and sobbed as the rest of the team looked at each other helplessly.
"It just doesn't add up," Batgirl said. She came when she heard what all had transpired, as did Nightwing. "He wouldn't crack now. he's been through worse than this,"
"Has he ever been under mind control?" Dick replied, "He's had mind altering agents, but never controlled,"
"Thats another thing," Batgirl fired back, "Why didn't he come out of it sooner? All the other controlled members did, but he kept doing brainiacs work!"
"What are you saying?"
"Im saying that I'm not giving up on him"
Dick was astounded and almost angry, "He just snapped superman's neck, after, mind you, creating a super hero serum and injecting it in himself. I think he's guilty,"
"You know what he used to say, be ready for anything, expect the unexpected, and everything may not be as it seems,"
The two looked on as fireman shuffled around the justice league tower, and the sun came up.
New Oath, Old Rhymes
Batman arrived on Qward and dropped superman's lifeless body at his feet. Three yellow lanterns quickly surrounded him, rings ready, as if responding to a threat.
"Take me to sinestro. Now," he kicked superman's body closer to them, and they understood the message. They took him to their leader, sinestro.
"Batman? I don't remember you being able to travel the stars," sinestro said, surprised to see the hero.
"I used my breath mask and my shuttle I have at the international space station,"
"And superman?"
Batman made no expression. "He was a problem that needed to be eliminated. I'm playing by new rules now,"
"Yes I see that," sinestro said, taken aback, "so what can I do for you?"
"I want to know about parallax, his whereabouts, abilities,"
"Actually, he's right here," sinestro motioned over to his power battery, having trapped his entity inside.
"Very well then, I require a ring,"
Now sinestro was really shocked, "you wish to join our core? Why?"
Anger was building inside batman, he was getting sick of the questions, "I mean to rule earth through fear. It is the most logical way to ensure that people cooperate and it's about time they do so,"
"Bringing balance to earth. I approve. You will be given a ring at once. And once you've completed reconditioning, you will be able to weild the power of fear,"
Batman had had enough. He grabbed sinestro by the throat and held him in the air, "does it look like I need reconstructing? I've had enough of your protocol. You have the greatest agent of control in the universe, and you sit on this planet and do nothing. You are a weak, vision less leader and I will outshine you," and with that, batman pulled the ring from sinestro's finger, placed it on his own, and was filled with the power of the yellow lanterns. Guards rushed in when they heard the clamor, but were quickly stopped.
"Stop," batman said, "you see this? This is your previous leader. Nothing got done. Look at me. I am your new leader. We will rule through fear. Understand?" The guards looked at sinestro, then bowed on their knees.
"Take him to the prison. I may have questions for him. Also, gather the most powerful members of the core. I have selections to make," the guards left, and batman turned and made his way towards the power battery.
"In blackest day, In brightest night,
Beware your fears made into light
Let those who try to stop what's right,
Burn like my power, Hail the Dark Knight!"
He slammed his ring into the battery, and the power of fear flooded him. A sick smile developed on his face as he looked over his new world.
Batgirl kept scrolling through her computer, minute after minute, hour after hour. She'd been going over evidence for two days, countless leads, suspicions, and her hunches. 'Remember. Don't ignore the signs. Don't get too emotionally involved. Don't get too emotionally involved…' But how could she not? Her whole life was crashing around her. First the war against brianiac, which turned into a mind controlling justice league civil war. Then, her mentor and man she's looked up to gets taken under by mind control and attacks her and Jason. And finally, the climax. Impaling Jason on a broken metal beam. Batgirl watched in horror, there was nothing she could do, he turned, looked her in the eye, he was advancing, but she was so weak, she gasped for air, she couldn't breathe… "Barb? Hey Barb wake up!" The memory had become a nightmare. Red arrow, formally known as speedy before the brainiac war, was standing over her, trying to wake her. "See, i told ya, you got to take a break from this garbage and get some sleep, otherwise you're gonna be too tired when the team really needs ya,"
"Yeah, thanks Roy," she said as she sat back up in her chair, "It just doesn't make sense, according to everything I've reshearched, the only company working on anything mind related is a company called cadmus, but when i search that in our directory, it says the company was shut down over two years ago,"
"Weird," Roy said, not making and expressions and showing little interest.
"And here's the really weird part. The data about the company in our database was manually edited the day before batman started acting strange,"
"You mean murdered superman?"
"Listen!" she yelled, "Im sick of you and richard throwing this in my face, i am doing my best here! I know there isn't a lot of evidence to back up my claim, but if there is any evidence at all that the man i looked up to is somehow innocent and not doing this of his freewill exists, then I'm going to follow it, to the grave if i have to!"
"Maybe that's exactly what you should do," Batgirl seemed surprised but Roy carried on, "I recognize three of these scientist. They were all murdered," Roy found an article containing details and obituaries of the scientists. Batgirl searched them on the JL database.
"See! Nothing! They must have cleared this off too!"
Roy got up, "Alright, ill help you chase down a cold case. But don't say i never did anything for you,"
She smiled at him as they walked to his motorcycle. "You sure are more helpful than Dick is," she said smoothly.
"Gotta live up to that name," Roy said as they mounted the bike and rode off.
Batman had chosen his team. They were the strongest, swiftest, and craziest members of the team, the members that would suit him well. The group was preparing to head to earth when a beam of green light landed a ways down from them. The green light rapidly approached, then halted in mid air. It was Hal Jordan.
"What have you done!?" He yelled at Batman, "When will this insane quest for power be over?"
"When i have people like you out of the picture forever," Batman replied, "and replaced with soldiers like these, soldiers who are loyal, soldiers who fear me,"
"You think you're going anywhere? The green lantern corps are preparing to stop you as we speak!"
Batman cocked his head back and laughed. "Oh no. They won't be fighting me, they'll be fighting you,"
Hal's mind was filled with confusion, but he wasn't kept waiting long. Batman held up his power battery and yelled, "Be free, my entity! Go, Take hold of your enemy," and with that, parallax was set loose. He erupted from the battery, roared, and did as batman told, he went straight for hal. Hal quickly summoned all the power he could in his ring, but it was too late, Parallax was all over him. Hal yelled in pain as the entity enwrapped him, then fell to the ground.
"Rise, Parrallax"
Hal Jordan rose, now covered in yellow light, flexed and roared to the sky. Batman stepped forward, looked the half man-half monster in the face, and said, "Go to Oa. Kill every Green Lantern member. Then return to earth,"
As Hal Jordan flew off toward Oa with a roar, the yellow lanterns, led by Batman, took off for earth.
Roy and Barbra arrived at the grave site and got off the bike. They searched the grounds, looking for the right grave site. She finally found one. One of the scientist whose name was on the list.
"Anything on the tombstone?" Roy asked. But she didn't answer. Batgirl got down on her knees and stared at the tombstone, fixated on the symbol. She ran her hands over it, "it can't be them…" and then silence. The last thing she saw was an arrow through her stomach, and she collapsed to the ground.
As Red arrow began filling in the grave he'd made for batgirls body, he felt someone watching him. He was right.
"How'd I do?" He asked the figure.
"You're not ready yet. But you're getting there. Next time, have alittle fun," the figure said, and it disappeared back into the shadows. Red arrow then filled in the hole and drove away.
The yellow lanterns arrived at earth. They had surrounded the planet, and batman descended on it. He spoke into his justice league comm, delivering a chilling message to all members, "all justice league members, meet at the Lincoln memorial in one hour to surrender. If you are not there, you will be hunted," With six corps members around him, he waited on the memorial steps.
"Let me take him. I can handle him." Shazam said. The remaining members of the justice league were gathered in the justice league tower. Flash, aquaman, Martian manhunter, shazam, Wonder Woman, hawkgirl, John Stewart, green arrow, Nightwing, and superboy were all gathered.
"You can't fight him alone, none of us can," Wonder Woman said.
"You can't fight him period. Even with the whole teams effort, that guy ain't going down," Aquaman said.
"So you're are just giving up? You've got to be kidding!" Wonder Woman snapped.
"I agree with Aquaman," Green arrow said, "this is madness. We don't have the strength to face him right now. We need to just stop and think about this,"
"I refuse to do that," Wonder Woman injected, "if we sit around and wait, he will grow stronger. Striking fear into the hearts of the people of earth will only make him and his people stronger,"
"Yeah, but people watching us die will cause more fear," aquaman cut in.
"Look," Wonder Woman said, "if you want to fight, then strap up and fight. If not, then head to those steps. But no one is wasting any more of my time, I'm getting ready for a fight."
"I need to help my people. I received a distress signal from Oa, and that's where I need to be," John said.
"I can get you through the yellow lantern blockade. I need to get some things straight in my head." Martian manhunter said. John nodded.
"Batgirl and red arrow haven't answered there comms in a while. I'm going out to look for them," Nightwing said.
"Me too." Superboy said.
Wonder Woman, flash, shazam, and hawkgirl all decided to stay and fight, and aquaman and green arrow decided to turn themselves in.
Insurrection
Earth was calm. Crime was basically eliminated. But so was peace of mind. People walked from work to homes, day after day, constantly watching the sky's, afraid of a yellow lantern attacking them. The justice league was collapsed. Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, and green arrow were all imprisoned on Qward. Aquaman was back in Atlantis, but under strict watch by three yellow lantern members. Martian Manhunter was still alone on Mars. Shazam was buried alongside superman. Nightwing and superboy never found red arrow or batgirl. Flash escaped imprissonment, and formed an underground justice league with superboy and Nightwing. John stweart was on Oa fighting the war against parallax. In a sewer system under metropolis, a secret justice league meeting was underway.
"I say we try to disable his mind control device. If he has one, that is," Nightwing said.
"It's worth a shot. If batgirl thought that he could still be under mind control, then it is very possible," flash said.
"What do you think happened to her? It's been over a month now that she's been missing," superboy said.
"I fear the worst," dick said. "Actually I don't fear. I assume. Don't want to give that maniac more power than he deserves,"
Planning of a strike continued, until they heard a sound in the tunnels. They stopped and spread out, preparing for an attack. What came out of the tunnel was very anticlimactic. It was a man, strong build, wearing a long trench coat and a snap back.
"What are you doing here and how did you find us," Nightwing demanded.
The man took a look around and said, "I guess I'm in the right place," with that, he took off his trench coat and hat, revealing his green lantern suit underneath.
"Anouther earth green lantern? That's what I'm talking about!" Flash exclaimed, excited, "this must mean they're winning the war against parallax!"
"Actually, it's quite the opposite. Defeat is imminent. The chances of us winning that war are slim to none. I was given two of some of the final rings, and was told to use one to save earth, and give the other to a fallen warrior to save Oa. The last part is the part that I can't figure out,"
"Well if you help us, we'll help you. What's your name man?" Flash asked.
"Kyle Rayner"
The team met, but were again disturbed by a sound, but it quickly faded.
"So how'd you find us?" Nightwing asked, nicer this time.
"I first asked my ring, but I ended up following leads to find you guys,"
"And that led us straight to you"
A voice from the shadows startled them, then revealed himself to be batman. Then, 20 yellow lanterns crashed through the ceiling, nearly collapsing the entire structure down on their heads.
"We've been on to you since the beginning, Kyle. We knew you would try to find remaining members, and you didn't disappoint. Now, as punishment for not turning yourselves in and stirring up hope, I'm going to hang your heads over the citizens of earth and let your blood drip onto their foreheads as they look up and fear the punishment for insurrection,"
"Wow. Could you have used a few more words there big guy?" Flash said, inspiring batman to angrily fire energy at him, and the battle comensed. Yellow lanterns decended into the sewer, creating all sorts of projectile constructs and firing them at the four. Kyle created a wall that nightwing hid behind, while superboy launched into the air and collided with two lanterns, sending them flying back. The other lanterns then began focusing fire on superboy, freeing up Kyle to form a giant fist and knock one lantern to the ground. Nightwing used his shock sticks to send an electric current through a nearby pipe, causing the water to be electrolized and in turn disabled another lantern. The flash was having a more and more difficult time running from batman's blasts. Finally, batman began to run after him, the two running faster and faster around the sewers until batman tackled flash and the two burst out of a pipe and onto the street in downtown metropolis. Flash was then sent flying by an on coming car, and batman hurled a vehicle coming his way to a different street. Flash got up gingerly, but was in batman's grasp before he knew it.
"With the death of you three, i can finally beginning making true change here, making change without opposition, and the whole world will know true power, and they will know peace," Batman raised his fist to kill flash, but as he did, his armor was pierced by something. He turned to see an arrow, green, and a blinking red light. Flash used this distraction to punch batman and escape, just before the arrow exploded. Batman shook off the blow to see wonder woman decending carrying green arrow and sinsestro, and hawk girl, who delivered a bone shattering mace swing to his jaw. In the tunnels, Kyle felt the other ring surge with power, and glow brighter than before. The ring tried to escape his grasp, but he wouldn't let it. "let go," He heard a voice in his head say, and he released the ring. The ring flew out of the sewers, circled the group, and right onto the finger of sinestro. "Lesson 1, batman. Fear does not always yield loyalty," Sinestro said as blasted Batman with green light. "Not a good idea to have my guards be my team members, Batman. Also not good idea to keep me alive. Because i promise you this, you'll never get that close again," Kyle came up from the sewers and with the combined light of their rings, they pushed batman and the rest of the lanterns back into a retreat. They began to follow him, until Batman threw his fist in the air and screamed his oath.
"what is he doing?" Wonder woman asked, trying to catch up to him.
"He's calling parallax," Sinestro said with grief.
Hal Jordan smashed into earth with a bang, sending a shockwave that launched the team back. Hal then let out a spine shaking roar and took off toward sinestro. Superboy did his best to hold him back, but he proved to be no match. Hal pounched on sinestro, but got a blow to the head from Wonder Woman. After making sure she wouldn't move for a while, he turned to Kyle. Kyle didn't flinch. He simply raised his ring and was ready to fight. he exchanged a few blows, but eventually he was brought to his knees. Parallax roared into the air, ready to kill his victim, until out of no where, a flying man carrying a steel beam came flying down, and with all he had, put it straight through his chest.
"Forgive me," said a beaten, Dying John Stewart. Hal Jordan fell to one knee, and parallax flew out of him and back into space with a loud roar. Hal collapsed onto the ground, next to john, and died.
"Check his pulse and I'll check johns" Wonder Woman ordered at Nightwing. Wonder Woman checked, John was still breathing, but it was weak. The justice league tower was in no condition to help him, she would have to use the E.R.
"Nightwing, how is he?"
Nightwing paused, then sighed, "no pulse,"
Wonder Woman cursed into the wind,
'How many more of us have to die before we stop this?'
"Try and see if we can make contact with aquaman. With batman on the run, he may be more willing to join our cause now that he knows batman can be beaten. I am going to fly John to the hospital, and I'm going to see if I can get him a power battery," Wonder Woman barked.
"I'll take him!" Hawkgirl burst in, "uh…if it's all the same to you,"
"Thats fine, but the rest of us… where's sinestro?" Wonder woman stopped and her and the team looked around. He was gone.
"Should we go after him?" Kyle asked.
"theres no time. there is nothing he can do now thats worse than what batman can do. Thats our first priority. we find him,"
The team took off, hawk girl to help john and the rest to try and track batman.
Revelations
"Load up the protocol ned. Override code, Bruce Wayne." Batman loaded up the protocol on the fortress of solitude computer. His last few followers were gathered around, when the androids walked out of their cages. "Time to change the game up little bit boys,"
The androids approached batman, looking for a command. "The justice league has gone rogue. hunt down each member, and bring them in,"
"Sir, why don't you just kill them?" A yellow lantern said.
"If their orders are suspicious, they won't carry them out without a retinal scan." Batman began pecking away at the computer, rifling through various projects he could use to his advantage.
"Also, load up the watchtower protocol. how long until that can be up and running?"
"This protocol will take five hours to complete. Proceed?"
"Proceed. Did you hear that boys? Those robots are going to have to distract the rest of the justice league for that long, and I need you to help. Understand?"
'Don't do this'
Batman heard someone say.
"Who said that!?"
'Its you Bruce. I'm still here, he's in your head, controlling you, you have to believe that'
"No, stop this! I know what I'm doing, get out of my head!"
Batman then began struggling against himself, he was slipping and falling, someone else was trying to control him. And with Bruce Wayne's final act, he pressed the justice league distress signal, and let go.
"No! What happened? Who was in my head?"
The justice league arrived within minutes. They had hawkgirl, both lanterns, Kyle and a weak john, flash, nightwing, aqua man, green arrow, Superboy, and of course Wonder Woman. Batman growled in fury, furious but also confused as to how this happened. Wonder woman went straight for batman, followed swiftly by the rest, save John, who was being held back by hawk girl.
"Ugh, let me go! This freak nearly singlehandedly destroyed Oa!" John yelled.
"You're too weak! I can't lose you again!" Hawk girl replied, then embraced John in a kiss. "Please, just stay back and try to take out some of these Super Androids,"
"Can't argue with that," John replied with a grin, then slammed two androids against the wall with a construct fist.
The fight was leaning heavily against Batman and his few remaining lanterns. The androids may have some of the strength Superman had, but they were nowhere near as durable. Wonder Woman smashed a yellow lantern against the floor, then tossed him to hawk girl, who swung her mace upward and making contact, launching him to the ceiling. Green arrow fired two back to back explosive arrows, both hitting the lantern as he was about to hit the ground. When he finally did, Aquaman took a running start, then lept in the air and came crashing down on top of the lantern. He took his trident and cut off the ring finger of the lantern, all but incompasitating him. As the lantern howled in agony, Aquaman nodded to him fellow teammates, appreciating the teamwork. They all turned their attention to Batman, who had been trying to ward of Flash and Kyle. Batman couldn't hit flash with anything he had, and Kyle was trying to use his constructs to rival his. Kyle made a missile and launched it at Batman. Batman created two giant bats, one absorbed the blow of the missile, but the other raced towards Kyle and began to attack and pester him. Batman then flew over and hit Kyle with a wild overhand haymaker, smashing Kyle's head into the ground. Just then Flash ran in and knocked Batman several feet into a room away from the rest of the team. Flash was running all over the room, punching Batman every now and then. Batman snarled, closed his eyes, and used the power in his ring to expel as much light as possible. This worked in temporarily blinding Flash, then Batman shut off the lights in the room an hid in the shadows. As Flash's vision returned to him, he looked around for Batman. "You're pathetic you know that!" Flash yelled out into the dark. "I lost my partner too. He was going to be better than me, and i ruined that. But at least I'm not taking over the world to compensate,"
"You ran around yours until he disappeared. I blew mine up with land mines. Theres a big difference,"
The voice had come from somewhere, but Flash couldn't pinpoint it. Then, Batman flew in from behind and punched the back of the flash's leg, knocking him to the ground. He then grabbed him under the chin and hurled him under the light breaker. "Let me show you what it felt like,"
Batman then used laser vision on the breaker and it exploded, and he left the Flash's charred body as he returned to the main fight. He saw his teammates had been dropping like flies, and he summoned their rings to his own hands. He was now wearing eight rings of his fallen lanterns, his eyes glowing yellow with power.
"Stay! Away!" He screamed, as Nightwing stepped in front of him.
"Bruce, please try and fight this. You're stronger than this! I know you're still in there!" Nightwing yelled.
Batman snarled and approached him, then stopped. He could feel the same thing in his head, a pulling. It felt like his brain was going in two different directions at once. He yelled, gritted his teeth, and kept advancing toward Nightwing. He felt the voices again, and this time, he collapsed on the ground. It felt like his brain was tearing in half. He felt a faint voice, like one he hadn't heard in a long time. It grew louder and louder, and more familiar. "Who are you!" Batman yelled. Then it hit him, it was his mother. It all came flooding back, the things he'd done, what he was doing, and that he was so wrong. A tear began to form in his eye.
"Wonder Woman, don't! He's figuring it out on his own!" Nothing Nightwing could say stopped wonder woman from flying behind Batman and raising her fist. As the tear fell from his eye, wonder woman knocked him tot the ground, rendering him unconscious.
Bruce awoke quickly in his bed, startled, and looked around. It all felt like a dream, a terrible one. Dick Grayson then entered the room, carrying a tray with breakfast.
"Didn't know if you'd ever wake up, but I brought you something to eat,"
Without even touching his food, Bruce cut in, "Is it true, Dick? Did i do these things?"
Dick looked at his feet, unsure how to answer. "Look, everyone understands. They even helped rebuild the mansion,"
Before he could even finish, Bruce was tearing off toward the bat cave. As Dick ran after him, he kept repeating himself that Batman was innocent, that he was mind controlled.
"We pulled the chip out from under your skin! It was just like the ones Brianiac used! Which by the way we found out were cadmus created, which raises other questions, but they got to you the most, its ok!"
Bruce locked himself inside a chamber, which he'd used as a prison to hold some of his rogues.
"You're wrong Dick. This one was different. I knew what i was doing. It wasn't the same technology. They placed it on me when the brainiac war was dying down,"
"Who did?" Dick asked.
"I can't fully remember, they had masks like birds. Brainiac forced me not to attack them, but thats all i know. It doesn't matter. This chip didn't order me, it suggested things. In my arrogance, i accepted the suggestions as my own thoughts. I was wrong. I did all those things, it was my own fault. I killed one of earth's greatest heroes, and did exactly what i swore not to do, rule the world in fear. I have to be punished for this Dick. The world will never forgive me. But more important, ill never forgive myself,"
After he said this, his pressed a button inside the case and gas began to pour inside. He yelled in agony, and Dick beat on the glass trying to save him. He saw the outline of Bruce's body hit the floor and begin to flop like a fish out of water. Dick grabbed a nearby wrench and tried to pry the chamber open as more gas entered the holding cell. But by the time the gas had dispersed, Bruce was gone. Dick searched the cave for his body, but found nothing. he slumped down against the wall, disappointed and confused. There were so many unanswered questions. Who were the owl men? What all has Cadmus been involved in? Where was batgirl? What would happen to the galaxy with the lantern cores nearly destroyed? Dick stood up and walked over to his suit. He looked at it, and knew what needed to be done.
"Let's get to work."