Summary: While The League is out fighting monsters, who's going to protect the little guy?
Couples that appear in this story are SupermanxLois Lane, Green ArrowxBlack Canary, QuestionxHuntress, and some vague recolections of BatmanxCatwoman, with hints at future BatmanxWonder Woman. I'm messing with the timeline and their ages a bit in this story, but stay with me, okay? This is an Alternate Universe (AU) fic, I guess. Also, the Bizarro in this story is affected by normal kryptonite, and The Shade is the immortal comic version. And if it's not to much trouble, please set aside the fact that Twilight is the name of a romance novel. Twilight herself is far from romantic.
Saving The Little Guy
Chapter One
Waiting.
Oh, bloody hell, how she hated waiting.
Twilight waited on the roof, staring out at Gotham City. It was surprisingly quiet, but some significant members of the scum population had moved out recently, so many gangs were still wondering what to do without their heads bossing them around.
And of course, there was fear.
Ever since the Justice League came into action, most villains were hesitant to pull off anything large scale, but medium and low-level crime thrived. Even in Gotham, where the Bat still patrolled, petty thieves were much bolder and quicker to act.
That was where N.I.G.H.T. came in.
A steady beeping noise interrupted her thoughts. She touched the small electronic transmitter in her ear. "Twilight here. What's up?"
Enigma's voice came as clearly as if she was standing in front of her. "It's Enigma. We have a serious situation in Blüdhaven."
"Elaborate?"
"Shade, Bizarro, Humanite, and Atomic Skull. They were robbing Blüdhaven central bank, but now Black Arrow's out of action and I can't fight them alone."
"The League's still out on that alien threat thing?"
"Yep. They've got absolutely everyone up there."
Twilight paused. If there were any real threat to humanity, she would have known about it months ago, as would Enigma. It had to be a distraction.
Enigma seemed to have come to the same conclusion.
"It's a false alarm."
"Yep. I reckon the League have been duped."
"I'll get them informed of that. Meanwhile, how am I supposed to stop these four?"
Even though the design of the earpiece and transmitters meant she was not meant to hear background noise, Twilight had been hearing crashes throughout the conversation. And of course there was the rare nervous tone in the other girl's voice. Twilight checked a monitor in her contacts and quickly replied.
"Phase and Wolf are close to the area, I'll call them. I presume you already brought in Red?"
"Yeah, he's on his way. Can you come or are you busy?"
"I'm coming. Twilight out."
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It was near midnight in Blüdhaven, as Twilight arrived at the scene of the fight. An angry Red had already subdued Atomic Skull, and Phase was easily taking on Humanite. However, it was taking both Wolf and a revived Black Arrow to hold Bizarro, and that left Enigma struggling with the last villain
Time to try out her new toy. The Shade was the biggest threat, but all great threats were well prepared for by the young vigilante. She removed a small disk from her belt. It was filled with wiring leading from a black stone in the centre. Touching her earpiece, she whispered instructions to Enigma.
"Lead him so he faces away from the left wall. Good. Now grab his staff."
Enigma quickly snatched the villain's black staff, breaking it over her knee and throwing it away. His only protection gone, Twilight flicked the disk expertly onto his back, where is stuck. Then, before he could react, she activated the device. A bright flash of light and Shade fell to the ground, unconscious.
Red and Enigma had joined Wolf and Black Arrow in fighting Bizarro, but there was no need, as Twilight threw a black throwing star at him and he collapsed, drained. Black Arrow quickly clapped her hands on his temples, knocking him out.
"Don't take the star out, or he'll come to." Arrow nodded. Phase had simply dragged Humanite into the ground and left him there, so that seemed like enough. Unfortunately, they had another problem.
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The black haired reporter emerged from the shadows, after taking several pictures. She held out a microphone.
"Look, lady," said one, shifting out of the form a wolf into a black cloaked form, a well-built male with a mask covering his face and hair. "We don't do media, okay?"
The reporter glared. "Nobody can 'not do' media. The world needs to know what's going on. Who are you?"
All of them had dark colour schemes in their costumes. One had no face at all, just plain skin covering her–well, the long black hair and body-shape suggested it was a she– face, while the rest of her body was covered by a navy blue trench coat over a black, fitted shirt and black pants. Black gloves and runners covered her hands and feet. She loosely held a black crossbow.
The other was the wolf-boy, or man, it was hard to tell. He –it was definitely a he– was either in his late teens, the investigative reporter decided, or his early twenties. The only other male looked younger, perhaps fourteen or fifteen. His costume was black and dark red, but that was all the journalist could tell in the poor light. It was harder to see anything of the figure next to him, as only black and dark grey were included in their costume, but when she squinted she saw it was a woman, but the age could have been anything from a tall sixteen-year-old to someone in their twenties.
All this had taken her seconds to note down in the back of her mind, before her thoughts were interrupted.
"Not media-oriented," growled another figure, which she hadn't even noticed, they were so cloaked in darkness. "Now if you'll excuse us."
"So you're not part of the Justice League then?"
"No."
The reporter blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, they were gone.
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J'onn J'onnz studied the small four-pointed throwing star curiously. When Superman had been dispatched to stop the attack on Blüdhaven City Bank (after they realised the alien threat was a hoax, the origin of which was still unknown), he had found all four criminals under lock and key in the Blüdhaven holding cells. They had been subdued, according to a reporter from out of town who had been on the scene, by a group of either heroes or vigilantes who claimed to be "not media oriented". An ingenious if unusual device was stuck to the Shade, some sort of electric field which destroyed his shadow so as to leave him vulnerable. Another curious weapon which had been found was the throwing star, which had been used to subdue Bizarro, and had been laced with kryptonite. This was enough to pique the League's interest. But as J'onn soon discovered, it was high-grade kryptonite. Almost pure, just enough not so that it wasn't reactive. The only reactive kryptonite was found in Smallville. The only kryptonite of this grade was owned by Wayne Enterprises and previously by LexCorp. Either they had managed to salvage some from Luthor's stash or someone had stolen it from Wayne Enterprises. Batman had checked and there had been no recorded thefts in that sector.
"Please," he had said. "I would have alerted the League immediately if so much as a speck of kryptonite had been taken."
Which left very few options. One was that someone had bought the kryptonite under-the-table, or that they had salvaged some of LexCorp's lot before it had been seised. Both were currently being investigated. The weapon was also an impressive work, as binding the kryptonite to the metal would involve heating it just high enough to work the metal without allowing the kryptonite to become reactive. One would have to be a genius, not to mention an expert on kryptonite, to make something like this.
J'onn looked up as Superman entered the room, but stood far away from the kryptonite infused throwing star.
"Any progress?" asked the Kryptonian.
"Very little. As I do not know exceptional amounts of information about either of these substances, I cannot discern any more than the previous investigators," he replied, referring to the nine other of the League's top scientists whom Kal-El had had examine the small weapon.
"Hm," Clark paused and regarded the throwing star. "We only have one option left for this thing."
J'onn, being a telepath, did not need to ask what the Kryptonian meant. "I will bring it to him personally."
Kal nodded, sighing. "If anyone can figure this thing out, it's him," he admitted. "I think I'll go see how Diana and Question are going with the photos."
Turning to go, Clark wondered why he felt reluctant to share this with Batman. He didn't know why, but for some reason, it felt like a personal threat, addressed to him and him alone. Still, now he had gotten over his reluctance, they would be getting some results. Bruce was, of course, a genius, and practically a kryptonite expert.
With these reassuring thoughts, he left the lab.
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"Hey Question," said Diana, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, holding up a photo, an enlarge version of the pictures the Metropolis reporter had given the Blüdhaven police. "This one looks like you. A relation of some sort?"
Vic Sage a.k.a. Charles Victor Szasz a.k.a. The Question looked up from his own pile of photos to the picture of the faceless girl. He rolled his eyes beneath his mask.
"Pseudoderm is quite easy to come across on the black market these days, Wonder Woman," he replied to his co-worker. "You are aware that this is a mask?"
"Uh, yes," she mumbled, returning to the pile. She had intended it as a joke, but it seemed being a detective and having no sense of humour went together.
"Does it strike you as strange that most of these figures have at least the physique of adolescents?" asked Question suddenly. Diana nodded.
"Yes, it did. Isn't there a young hero group connected to the League though?"
"The Teen Titans," agreed the faceless man. "These kids aren't with them though. As well as the fact they claimed not to be with the League, their builds and powers don't match up with any of the Titans. For example, we know one can turn into a wolf. The only titan who can do that is Beast Boy, and he isn't nearly big enough to be our man."
Diana nodded in agreement, and then resumed looking at a certain photo. It was grainier than the others, as the figure it depicted was further away and well hidden in shadows. It was difficult to see where the person ended and the shadows began. She passed Question the picture.
"What gender do you think that one is?" Sage answered almost immediately.
"It's a girl."
She took back the picture and squinted at it. "Are you sure?"
Just then Superman walked into the room. Diana quickly handed him the picture.
"Hello, Clark. Just the person I was looking for. Do you think this figure is a girl or a boy?"
Clark considered it for a minute. "It's almost to grainy to tell. But I'd say a girl, with about sixty per cent certainty."
"It's a girl," repeated Question.
"How do you know?" asked Kal-El.
"The form of the head, the fit of the costume. It's obvious really."
"I'll take your word for it, Question. Though I don't think Huntress would approve of your acute ability to identify females. She might dump you," joked Superman. Question looked indignant behind his mask.
"I'll have you know we are happily married. As you should know since you were there when we, ahem, tied the knot."
"Of course," chuckled the Kryptonian. "Any progress on our mysterious vigilantes?"
"They're teenagers," Diana said quickly. "Most of them at least, probably all. Their not Titans or ex-Titans. They've also got their hands on some Pseudoderm," she added, indicating the faceless girl.
Some of the colour seemed to drain from Superman's face at this. He paused momentarily before replying.
"How hard is it to come across Pseudoderm?" he asked, directing the question at the Question.
"Not very, if you know the right people. As I was saying to Diana earlier, it's relatively easy to find on the black market."
"Well that's a relief," the Kryptonian sighed. "Contact me if you find anything more."
"Are you going home early, Kal?" asked Diana curiously. Clark grinned.
"Yes, actually, I am. There happens to be a very beautiful woman waiting for me at home who I haven't seen for a few weeks and I'm anxious to get back to her."
Diana smiled. "Well, say hello to Lois for me. I haven't seen her in ages. We really must catch up sometime."
"Will do," he answered cheerily as he left. As soon as he was out of sight, he hurried to the teleporter, anxious to check up on not only his beautiful wife Lois, but the one no-one ever mentioned if they knew what was good for them: his step-son Tynan.
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