"Evil People have layers too"
In recent months the Justice League had been recovering from a rather chaotic battle with their evil doubles from a parallel universe. They referred to themselves as the "Crime Syndicate" and we're the little polar opposites, or certain aspects of the League's own personalities taken to the furthest extreme. For example Superman is kind, humble and compassionate; Ultraman is cruel, vain and selfish. Batman is blunt, dubious, and extremely logical. Owlman is Batman without Bruce Wayne, and without his strong moral compass, he believed that crime should be controlled, and claimed it was the only way to attain true order in the world. Batman saw a version of himself, without hope, without the values his parents and Alfred had instilled in him as a child. Superwoman is Diana's dark half in every single way; she's manipulative, conniving, and sadistic, the polar opposite of the goddess of truth.
The battle had resulted in good triumphing over evil, unfortunately the two sets of counterparts interacting caused a dimensional rift in the universe, and Batman and Superwoman were pulled in as a result. They both had returned to Earth 1, in only minutes, when in reality it had been weeks. Everyone was shocked to see Batman was mostly unharmed save for a few bruises, and rather minor, injuries he'd received during the previous battle. Superwoman has been detained since. Batman hasn't spoken about what went had happened to him while he was away.
Metro Tower – Holding Facility.
Lois Lane of Earth 2, a.k.a Superwoman was going mad with boredom. The stiffs in the league had kept her here for a month, a damn month, like she was some kind of caged animal, the nerve of them all. She swore she'd hunt them all down and choke them to death with her lasso of submission, especially Wonder Woman. Boy oh boy did Lois hate Wonder Woman. She stopped slouching when she heard someone approaching her cell, if it was the kid in the red suit. She was sure she could use her feminine wiles to convince him to let her out. Instead of Flash, it was Batman who stood outside of her cell. Not exactly who she was hoping to see, but admittedly far more interesting.
"Hey there handsome." She said standing upright, so they were faced to face.
"Here's lunch." He said as a small gap in the wall between the two of them opened, and he passed the tray through it. It was Mac and cheese, and some string beans. This was food for peasants, she should be drinking the finest wine, and eating the greatest cuisine available to the world, instead she was forced to feed on the scraps like some rat.
"Is that micro waved mac and cheese?" She asked staring at the tray in disgust.
Bruce narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"Does it look like I care?"
She gave him a sly expression in response.
"You should, we spent so much time bonding before we returned to your world."
Batman didn't show any visible discomfort, he would give her no satisfaction whatsoever; his emotions were not hers or anybodies to play with.
"Just shut up and eat." He told as her as he turned around and began walking the other direction.
"Heh, I get it, now that you're back with your buddies I'm no longer good enough company for you." She teased.
"I don't associate with sociopaths." He replied still walking away from her.
"Strange, you tend to have a real hard on for bad girls, like me."
She was so damned licentious and blunt.
Batman walked toward the elevator and found Superman in their waiting for him, with a visibly concerned expression.
"I didn't mean to eve's drop, but I couldn't help but overhear your exchange with Superwoman."
Batman remained visibly stoic as usual.
"It's nothing; she's just trying to get under my skin. I've dealt with people like her before."
"If you say so." Clark paused for a moment, and then began speaking once more "I have to admit, it was difficult for me to fight her."
"Why?"
"Despite the malicious grin and the murderous intent, she still looks exactly like Lois. Could you imagine having to fight someone that resembled Dick, Alfred or even Zatanna?"
Batman thought it over and agreed.
"Fair enough, however I'd still be fully aware that it's not them that I'm fighting."
Superman just grinned as if he expected a response like that from Bruce. Batman raised an eyebrow behind his cowl.
"What are you grinning like an idiot for?"
"No reason." Superman replied.
Batman narrowed his eyes, the patented bat-glare had just been engaged.
"That won't work on me Bruce."
"Give it some time, or better yet, try staying in a dimly lit room with me."
"Did you think about that sentence, before it came out of your mouth?"
"Grow up."
They made it to the top floor, where they found J'onn briefing a group of League members for their next mission, the group consisted of Guy Gardner a new Green Lantern, Plastic Man, and Captain Marvel. Definitely a team full of misfits, but Superman and Batman trusted Guy to get the job done, regardless of how much trash talking he'd have to deliver to whatever villain they were facing.
"Alright Boys, I'll be leading us, as leader, I want you both to know that we're going to go out there, and we are going to kick some Royal Flush Gang ass!" Guy Gardner declared.
"Yeah! Let's do it!" Captain Marvel happily cheered.
"Alright,alright, and then after, whattayasay, we go and find some fetching ladies." Plastic Man suggested.
Guy smirked.
"I like the way you think O'Brien."
The trio left the Metro Tower with great haste, as Superman and Batman were walking in to greet J'onn.
"What's happening J'onn?" Superman asked casually.
"Buisiness as usual, I asked Diana to go and attempt to interrogate Superwoman, not even she is a match for the lasso of truth." Martian Man Hunter pointed out.
"Why didn't we think of this sooner?" Clark asked.
"We were too busy cleaning up after our more hedonistic doubles."
"Mine was hedonistic, yours was just downright creepy."
Batman looked at Clark and shrugged in agreement.
Meanwhile, Diana had descended down to the prison bay to interrogate Superwoman. She found her fellow Amazon to be an extremely detestable person. One who deserved far worse than what she was getting.
Superwoman had been standing around in her cell since Batman left, she hadn't touched her food (that's what they claimed it was, but she knew they didn't like her. It could be some sort of fecal matter for all she knows.) She was restless, she wanted out, she wasn't sure what she'd do once she was free(naturally she assumed she'd break out, wouldn't be her first prison break), she planned on finding the most wonderful luxury resort and maybe spending a week there, being waited on hand and foot would feel like a dream come true. She just needed to find her lasso of submission, sure she could force them with her own brute strength, but the lasso made things so much more pleasant.
"Superwoman."
Lois turned to face Diana of the Amazon Island; it appeared that her counterpart was the champion of the amazons. Sounds lame, she thought. Lois felt that the only thing she liked about Wonder Woman was the fact that she looked just like her, of course she admired her own face, she never said she wasn't shallow…
"Wonder Woman." She replied formally.
" I have questions, that need answers. We do this the easy way. Or the hard way." She said clutching her lasso of truth tightly.
"Depends…what kind of questions will you be asking me, you're Royal Highness?"
"Questions regarding your associates."
"Former associates, those bastards left me behind to save their own hides." Superwoman replied.
"Alright then, why had you come here in the first place? And how was it even scientifically possible?" Diana asked.
"Through the use of a strange alien robot we like to call Grid. He did some weird dimension ripping bullshit and we invaded your world."
"Why?"
"Isn't obvious gorgeous? To conquer it." Superwoman replied casually.
"But you'd already conquered your own Earth." Diana pointed out.
"We were bored." Superwoman replied casually.
Diana couldn't believe how callous she was, and she was supposed to be an Amazon?
"You were willing to destroy countless lives-"
Superwoman cut her off.
"-In my defense, we wouldn't have killed anyone who was smart enough not to piss us off."
"How can you call yourself an Amazon? You're an unfeeling, cruel, witch."
"Oh honey, I've been called so much worse, and being an Amazon, kinda over-rated. Which is why I killed them."
Diana's anger began to boil, a volcano was about to erupt inside of her. She was ready to grasp Superwoman by her throat and ring her neck.
"You murdered your own people?" Diana asked in a chilling voice.
Superwoman noticed this, crossed her arms and explained herself.
"Remember how our worlds are opposites? On my world, the Amazons were cruel, and far from compassionate. When I was born, the first words I'd heard as a baby were, either be powerful or die."
Diana's rage subsided, if someone were raised in a society like that, it'd be no surprise that they'd turn out the way this woman who stood before her had. Superwoman noticed the look that Diana was giving her, it was one of sympathy, deep down, and a part of her could appreciate it. On the surface, she felt insulted, maybe it was her pride, who knows, but the last thing she wanted was sympathy. Especially from Wonder Girl over here.
"I'm…almost sorry for you."
Superwoman grinned and raised her left eyebrow.
"Almost Princess?"
"Almost, you still chose to become a criminal, and I can't abide by that."
"Firm in your beliefs regardless of my sob story, I think I may have found something else I like about you. Now that all that crap is out of the way, do you have any more questions?"
"Are your cohorts going to plan a second attack on the Earth? This Earth I mean."
Superwoman chuckled, the chuckle turned into an outright laugh.
"You guys took my team apart, we've never lost, ever. They'll try again, because they're a vindictive bunch of assholes."
Alright, looks like they'll have to have all their members ready for this. She'll have to further discuss this with the main council.
"Also…" Diana had wanted to ask this question for quite some time now. "…what transpired during yours and Batman's disappearance?"
Superwoman's smirk had turned into a smile, not one out of maliciousness, not a blood thirsty one, just one of pure amusement.
"He's here in one piece isn't he?" She asked.
"I can see that, now ditch the flippant remarks, and answer me."
"Why do you care, jealous?"
"He's my friend, witch."
"If he wanted you to know, wouldn't he have told you? Does Superman even know, I hear they have this bro-mance going on." Superwoman replied coyly.
Diana began to draw her lasso. Superwoman's eyes viewed the lasso and then they quickly shot back up to Wonder Woman's face.
"Do that and you may not like the answer." Superwoman told her, still smiling.
Diana was about to use it, when Flash arrived, an urgent look on his face.
"Wonder Woman, we're needed elsewhere, we can deal with psycho Sally later." He said zooming off.
Wonder Woman reattached her lasso to her belt and walked toward the exit, but not before looking back at Superwoman in the corner of her eye. Superwoman waved back in response.
What did happen in that other dimension changed her, it was subtle, but she was nonetheless different than before.
Flashback –
Batman's eyes slowly peered open, he grabbed the bridge of his nose and was immediately alert, his mask was gone. He looked around him, he was trapped in a strange futuristic world, it had a purple sky, and there seemed to be windows throughout the sky. He sat up, and someone placed a hand on his shoulder, he quickly turned and was soon face to face with the Lois Lane of that other universe. Superwoman.
"Wow, you're hot without the mask on."
"You."
"Yes, it's just me and you, for miles, and miles. I checked."
TO BE CONTINUED…
Author's Note:
Welp that's that, this is inspired by Forever Evil. It just came to me as an idea, and I thought, why not?