I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

Here We Go Again

Once again I found myself in a room with the Dark Knight, nearly a year after the last time.

In the past year, a lot had happened. Annie had built her Sue boot camp which was starting to become quite the success as some of the Sues were starting to 'graduate'. Some have gone on to join the League, Clean-Up Crew, the camp itself, or just society in general. One of the firsts had opened a rather successful restaurant in Central City which had food that was even better than Annie's. In addition to the camp and helping with the League, Annie had even started officially dating Eugene. Apparently, he was one of the few guys to 'appreciate her Sue self and normal self'. Watching them together can be rather sickening sometimes. Sara and I bonded the other night by throwing cheese puffs at them since they were both asleep on the couch. And for her to get sick of the love birds says something.

But anyway, another year was gone, Gary and Nikki were officially engaged, and I was all set to graduate in the spring. Things were just seeming to go back to normal, until everything just went crazy. Hopefully it wasn't about to become an annual tradition. I don't know if I could put up with something freaky happening every year.

Of course, this time he wasn't alone. He had Amanda Waller, courtesy of Cadmus with him. That was fine, I wasn't alone either. I had Gardner with me.

"We need to know everything that happened," said Waller.

Batman opened his mouth to speak, but I suddenly became consumed by a fit of giggles. It started off slow, but before I knew it, I was doubled over laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. No doubt, Batman and Waller were watching, thinking perhaps I belonged in Arkham.

"What's so funny?" demanded the cape crusader. That only made the giggles worst. I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to be able to take Batman seriously again, let alone be intimidated.

Eventually, I managed to say, "Adam West."

I could hear Gardner swearing. Then, "Think of Christian Bale."

Did he seriously just suggest Christian Bale? That actually made it worse. "Newsies," I managed to get out before continuing. Then I started laughing harder and said, "Lex Luthor took forty cakes, and that's terrible."

Gardner tried again. "Nine eleven."

That sobered me up, and the laughter subsided. Till recently, something like nine eleven seemed impossible to think of to me. It was just a movie, something as bad as that couldn't really happen, the League wouldn't let it. Except it had happened. There. Where Adam West and Christian Bale had played the role of Batman. Where my world was fiction.

It wasn't West's fault that he had such a campy show, but I still had a hard time looking at the current Batman with a straight face. As for Bale, I couldn't take him seriously as the Dark Knight since I kept expecting him to burst into song, like his character from Newsies did. And ever since I saw that Luthor meme, all credibility for him was now shot.

Tears had clouded my vision, and my sides were aching from the laughing, but I had at least stopped. Looking up I found Batman and Waller looking at me curiously, while Gardner just looked amused.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I finally said, "I'm okay, I swear."

Probably wondering why two minor actors had given me a case of the giggles, Batman said, "Let's begin."

Gardner's POV

"Stupid program..." I cursed under my breath. Of course I knew it wasn't technically the program's fault; the error lied with the user (me) for not inputting information correctly. But blaming the program made me feel better. It'd had been over three hours since I started, and I still wasn't done with my MATLAB program, and it was due the next day. Correct that, today according to the clock on my computer screen. This is what I get for being a procrastinator. A program that won't work, and no time to ask for help from the teacher.

MATLAB was kind enough to tell me what line the latest error was in. Just not kind enough to tell me exactly what was wrong with it, and I'd already rewritten it five times to no avail. "Stupid program..." I muttered again, this time tempted to bang my head against the screen. Either that or say screw it and turn in the program anyway. We just had to turn in the input file, not the result, so maybe the teacher wouldn't know that my program didn't work. I guess I could call someone in my class, but since I've done that the last couple homework assignments, they were starting to get sick of it. I really needed to work on the whole procrastinator thing. Next week sounded good. Really good in fact.

Deciding to call it a night, I printed what I had, and logged off the computer. By the time I got back to my room, I'd be lucky to get six hours of sleep before I had to get up for class. Which was actually pretty good since I normally only got three or four on weekdays. Between my procrastinating nature, and my roommate who stayed up all night playing video games, sleep wasn't something that occurred much in my room.

BANG!

What the hell was that? It was two in the morning, who else would be in engineering? I know some joked about practically living in engineering, but who'd be making such a racket at this hour?

I weighed my options. I could go investigate, or ignore it and go back to my room and sleep. Sleep sounded like the better of the two options. And the fire alarms weren't going off, so it couldn't be anything too serious.

I exited from the computer lab and headed down a hallway that would lead out onto the path connecting me straight with my dorm. Once there I would climb into bed and collapse till I had to go to class. Or that was the plan at least.

"Hello?" said a voice, this time coming from a hallway off to the left. It sounded female which was strange. Girls were rare in engineering. That's not to say we didn't have them, I was even friends with some. But one alone in engineering, at night?

I was so close, just a couple more steps and I could pretend that I never heard the voice. Except I had waited too long debating what to do. Just as I had finally made up my mind, a girl started to come toward me. Running wasn't much of a option anymore since she clearly saw me, and I clearly saw her. Not unless I wanted to be mock by all my friends that I had ran from a girl.

She must have been the voice from earlier. I didn't recognize her, but that didn't mean she wasn't part of the college. With her jeans and hoodie, she was dressed like a girl in engineering, or at least the ones I knew. Though, I was unfamiliar with the logo on it, CCU, it could have been some smaller university that I just didn't know about. Connecticut maybe? Colorado? Or even Canada for all I knew. She was also panting heavily, like she was out of breath.

Stepping closer, she asked, "Can you tell me where I am?"

Shrugging off the strangeness of the question, I answered, "UMKC."

"Which is where, exactly?" There seemed to be an edge to her voice, as if she was fighting back some sarcastic remark about how I didn't really answer her question.

Rolling my eyes I went on. "University of Missouri at Kansas City, located in Kansas City, Missouri."

Out of all the responses, what she said next was one I wasn't expecting. "Kansas City, Missouri? Are you sure it's not Central City, Missouri?"

Suzy's POV

When you get down to it, it was all Eugene's fault. He wanted to surprise Annie for their one year anniversary. Knowing that she still had questions about her origins, he decided for his senior design project to create a device that could take her to the other world, the one where her author was from. I said it was stupid, but did he listen to me? No, of course not. What could I possibly know that he didn't?

Since he didn't want her to find out, he kept it stored at the university. As far as I knew, things were going fine, until one day he came to me asking for help. I should have known better than to say yes since it was on a Wednesday. Nothing ever good happens to me on a Wednesday; they're the bane of my existence. But like a moron, I agreed to go with him to check it out.

He said that he thought somebody was messing with his device, or stealing data, something like that, and he didn't want to confront them on his own. Given his lack of upper body strength, I agreed. He normally would have asked Annie to go on a stake-out, but since it was her present, he asked me instead. From experience he knew I could usually hold my own, and did have a tendency to become violent when somebody really pissed me off. I couldn't deny this. He also offered to buy me Pokemon Black, which I had been drooling over but was too embarrassed and cheap to buy myself.

I know, I'm in college, but my brother had Red which he let me play when he was done and bored, and I got hooked. I watched the show, had the cards, and even had the first Pokemon movie on video along with the soundtrack. When Crystal came out I was so excited since I could play as a girl instead of a boy. It was after Sapphire came out that I lost interest and declared myself 'too grown up' for Pokemon. But ever since Black and White had come out a year ago, I couldn't help but drool and feel the urge to 'catch them all' again. And the temptation of a new game that I didn't even have to pay for, proved to be too great, and I caved.

"Eugene, my legs are starting to cramp," I complained. We were sitting on the floor, hidden behind some some computer desks. On the other side of the room was Eugene's device. He had shown it to me once we walked in. I had been expecting some door/portal thingy, but instead appeared to be a simple, everyday wrist watch. Originally he had thought about a portal thing, but figured a watch would make for easier transportation and be less suspicious. I couldn't help but agree.

"Just a little longer, Suzy, please?" he whispered back.

I sighed. The game better be as good as the reviews claimed it was. My legs were sore, and I could be comfortable in my bed instead right now. "Look, if you think somebody's been breaking in and messing with it, why don't you tell your adviser?"

"Um..." said Eugene, while his face started to turn red. "He thinks it's all theoretical and doesn't know that I've actually managed to make it work. Ever since Stuart tried to take over the world, the university has been paying closer attention to our projects, in case we try something similar. And what I'm doing isn't necessarily illegal..."

"It's better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission," I said, finishing his statement for him, to which he nodded. "You do realize that the League will find out eventually right?"

"I know, but I was hoping to show Annie first before they did." I just sighed. He was a fool in love. I couldn't say much since I was the same way once. I was such a fool in love, that my boyfriend almost succeeded in taking over the world without me knowing. The same one that was now the reason for the university's crackdown on projects like Eugene's.

Just as I was about to give up for the night, somebody jiggled the handle of the doorknob and entered the room. Eugene clenched my arm in terror, he much rather face his opponents from behind the screen of a computer, or his girlfriend. As for me, I'd much rather not face them at all. Simply being here went against the Rules, willingly placing myself in potential danger, where something would (and most likely) go wrong. I mentally cursed pikachu and his cuteness.

The intruder slowly made his way over to Eugene's device, and pocketed it. When it became clear he was about to exit the room with it, I decided it was now or never. I wasn't a complete moron though, I didn't come empty handed.

"Hey you," I said as I stood up, startling the intruder.

He (I'm assuming a he) turned to look at me. Big mistake, because that's when I shined my flashlight right into his eyes, which had grown accustomed to the darkness. Putting his hands up to cover his eyes, I took advantage of the situation and rushed at him, tackling him to the ground. We then started to roll on the ground, while I tried to get Eugene's device. It was hard since my flashlight had fallen nearby, giving some faint light to the room, but not enough to make out the guy's features, or see where he had stored the watch. Instead I had to feel my way (not something I enjoyed), and finally pulled something round and familiar in his left pocket.

Device in hand, along with the bonus of his wallet, I stood up victorious. Which was stupid on my part, since he grabbed my arm, the same one holding the device. Somehow my fingers brushed against the watch's surface, pressing some buttons. One moment I was there in the room fighting the intruder, while Eugene cowered in a corner, and the next there was a flash of light and a loud sound. And then I was gone.

**Author's Note**

Thanks for everybody who read the Trouble With Sues and reviewed, I hope you'll enjoy this story just as much.

When I first watched Adam West as Batman and discovered the Luthor meme, I could just imagine Suzy's reactions and couldn't wait to include them. I was also doing some research on where Central City was located, and found that it's more recently has been shown as being close to the Kansas/Missouri border. So I decided to make it the equivalent of our version of Kansas City, Missouri. For anybody from there or goes to the school, I don't mean to be offensive, but thought it would be neat to give Central City a real world equivalent.

Next chapter you'll get to find out what happened to Suzy, and see things from Eugene's POV.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!