Several months after the war against Darkseid and the formation of the league, three months after the league was cemented during the battle for the Atlantian throne when Batman began detecting anomalies in the deep space scanners, thinking it better to investigate before calling in the League he infiltrates one of the labs as the night shift starts.

Sitting in the rafters he watches one of the workers leave, there is a gap of about three seconds before one of the remaining three stood up and spoke to the others in a different language, nothing that Batman recognised so it wasn't likely of Earth. Batman narrowed his eyes as the three of them gathered and the smallest one in appearance lifted a huge computer over his head with relative ease and another clawed a large hole in the wall revealing something that was definitely not of earth.

He followed them up to the top of the satellite dish in time to see them place the device from the wall on top of a vent and watch it melt into the dish. "I don't think that modification is legal," Batman quipped, announcing his presence. A lot of people, especially the Joker, are convinced he doesn't have a sense of humour, they would be wrong. Batman threw a bola at the two men before engaging the woman. It didn't go his way and the two men defied human biology and stretched, slipping out of the tangled bola wires.

A short exchange later and Batman heard someone he both did and didn't want to hear. "Need any help?" came Superman's unsarcastic question.
"I got it," Batman answered back, throwing a batarang and avoiding an attack. He heard Superman mutter something about them not looking that tough and probably moving to help before clutching at his head and crying out before falling out of the sky and landing heavily on the walkway. Batman moved, ignoring the threesome, to help.

Swearing internally when they activated the device, Batman moved to the edge of the dish and deployed his grapple to get them out of there before the satellite exploded, the shockwave sending the two flying, knocking the unconscious Superman out of Batman's grasp. The two of them tumbled down the hill, Batman forcing himself to a halt next to the prone form of Superman. He watched in disbelief as the three mangled beings pulled themselves out of a hole, two of them pulling limbs out of and through each other.

Batman watched them disappear into the tree-line before a groan from Superman drew his attention. "What happened?" asked the Man-of-Steel.
Batman helped him stand, "You tell me," he countered.
Superman still seemed a little disoriented as he answered, "Not sure. Images in my head. So intense," he said in broken sentences, "that's all I remember," he confessed.
Batman looked over to the destroyed and burning satellite lab, Superman followed his gaze, "Obviously they didn't want to leave any evidence behind," he said, the barest hint of sarcasm in his tone.

Superman turned back to Batman, "You want to tell me what's going on now?" he asked, slightly demanding.
"For a few months now I've been detecting security breaches into our deep-space global monitoring network," Batman divulged.
"And you didn't think to tell the League?" Superman asked.
Batman almost shrugged, "I wanted to make sure I had something before bringing it to the League's attention, there is something more here than meets the eye," he confessed.

Superman nodded in agreement remembering that Darkseid's invasion had been precursered by abductions as well as the computer boxes of doom. "I'd help out but I'm due back in Metropolis," he said, reaching around to pull something out of a pocket.
"Another key to the city?" Batman asked sarcastically, which Superman ignored handing him a red faced watch on a brown leather strap.
"Here," he said, glad Batman actually accepted it without a suspicious glare, "It's a signal watch, call if you need any help," he explained, smirking slightly at Batman's dare-he-say-it playful glare.

"Right," Batman said, clearly cocking an eyebrow under the cowl before looking to the exploded building, seemingly calculating something before stowing the watch away in his utility belt. Superman smiled and flew away and Batman left to do his own thing.

Later in a meeting of the World Leaders Superman and the League was officially appointed the 'World's Protectors' and over the next six months Superman worked to deactivate the worlds' nuclear weapons, much to the growing support of the public. The Flash was supportive of the sentiment but pessimistic about the outcome, quoted saying, "I'm the fasted man alive but even I can't be in five places at once."
The Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Aquaman were busy with their own duties, Shazam and Cyborg were on the fence about the whole thing. Shazam really liked the title and Batman continued to investigate, generally seeming to ignore the whole thing.

On the same night that Superman received another vision, Batman was investigating an abandoned Star Laboratory. He found an object similar to the one used to blow up the satellite but ducked into the shadows when he saw two of the three beings coming out of a room. Waiting until they had left Batman slipped into the room, finding three red egg-like pods suspended in the corner of the office. They seemed to hold bodies of the three that Batman encountered before.

Slicing one of the pods open, Batman caught the man as he fell out, gently lowering him to the floor and checking his pulse. The pod seemed to have been keeping the man in a suspended state in a limbo between life and death as the weak and thready pulse that he could feel quickly stopped. Before Batman could really react there was a growling sound. Turning his torch Batman illuminated a large and vicious looking dog. The dog was quick to attack, instantly having Batman at a disadvantage.

Avoiding the teeth snapping at his face, Batman kicked the dog away. Leaping to avoid the dog's return charge Batman used a bit of acrobatics to swing from one pipe and land out of reach on another. Looking down at the growling dog, Batman was surprised when it started walking up the wall to come after him. He was astonished to see it morph into something transparent, slimy with white and red markings and too many teeth.

The thing leapt at him, knocking him off the pipe. Batman hit some boxes on the way down, followed by some empty oil drums before landing hard on the concrete floor. The creature followed him down and sent him flying with a back handed hit as he tried to stand, sending him through a wall, a solid shelving unit and into another one before he dropped to the floor. The shelves followed him down, the only thing saving him from being instantly crushed was the fact the top shelf landed on the other toppled shelving unit.

Superman was splashing his face with water in an attempt to recover from the vision when he heard it, the high pitched beeping of the signal watch he gave Batman. Following the sound Superman quickly found his way to the trashed Star Laboratory, he actually used the door to go inside. Using his X-ray vision to scan the building he almost panicked when he saw Batman trapped underneath the toppled shelving unit. "Batman!" he gasped before lifting the heavy metal shelves quickly but carefully off his friend.