PART 4: HUNTING SEASON

"What's up guys?" Static asked, landing in front of his teammates.

"We just fought a super-powerful alien princess, a super-resourceful archer trained by me, and Nightwing's successor who died, came back from the dead, and was trained by supernatural guru. It went great," Green Arrow listed sarcastically. "Where were you"?

"Um… all the way across town to give Bat-Girl the INFORMATION WE NEEDED!" Static answered angrily.

"WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST CRACK THE FIREWALLS YOURSELF? YOU'RE A SELF-PROCLAIMED 'GENIUS'," Green Arrow responded back.

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU! THIS YELLING ISN'T PRODUCTIVE!" Nightwing ordered loudly.

"YELLING WILL TOTALLY HELP, NIGHTWING!" Raven shouted.

"YOU WILL ALL TASTE THE MACE IF YOU DO NOT SHUT IT!" Hawk Girl demanded, getting ready to swing at her comrades.

"Wait a minute," Robin whispered, observing the scene from afar and observing a black figure approaching the Justice League. "GUYS, STOP YELLING! IT'S ARES MAKING YOU MAD"!

The Justice League suddenly snapped out of the yelling-match and turned around to see the God of War, dressed in black armor and a cape, his blood-red eyes piercing through everyone's soul.

"What do you want, God of War?" Hawk Girl asked, her mace at the ready.

"I am assuming you are the Wonder Woman of the group," Ares guessed stepping forward. "But I am here for a reason. I wish to warn you that mystical boundaries have been breached".

"What do you mean 'mystical boundaries have been breached'? Do you mean an imprisoned witch or wizard has been set free, a person has used dark magic to create an army, or someone has violated the Laws of Magic-Users?" Raven asked, the only one in the group who seemed to understand.

"None of the above, actually," Ares spoke with his deep and powerful voice. "Someone has violated the dimension-barrier, by either altering or pulling something or someone over from another universe or dimension".

"Why are you telling us?" Raven continued.

"Because, as a God, I cannot interfere with alternate-dimensions, as I will lose all my power and fade completely," Ares explained. "Also, it may involve one of your enemies, and I have much better things to do".

"What 'enemy'?" Nightwing asked. "Luthor"?

"Precisely, young hero," Ares acclaimed. "This 'Lex Luthor' has built some kind of device that may allow him to jump dimensions, allowing him to access weapons that no one of this Earth, including me, can control, detect, or combat".

"Thanks for the help," Nightwing thanked cautiously.

"There is no need, young hero. I am doing this only because I need to rest, and I want to be able to control every weapon of this realm," Ares assured, vanishing in a flash of blood-red light.

"What now?" Green Arrow asked the group.

"It is simple," Hawk Girl proclaimed. "We go to take down Luthor".

METROPOLIS

"Thanks for letting us use your Arrow-Plane, Green Arrow," Static Shock shouted gratefully from his seat in the specially-designed jet.

"Thanks for helping me tune it up, Static," Green Arrow acknowledged back as him and Hawk Girl piloted the jet. "I had no idea you were so educated in engineering".

"I try," Static yelled back, trying to act humble.

"Oliver, an Unidentified Flying Object is approaching us from the right and is gaining speed," Hawk Girl said as she prepped the weapons systems Static Shock, Green Arrow and Nightwing designed.

"So we're fighting aliens?" Green Arrow laughed sarcastically as he hit the speed boost, scaring many pigeons away from their perches on the Metropolis skyline.

"Uh… Dick?" Raven whispered as she pocked Nightwing, who sat next to her reading Homer's Odyssey. "You better look out the window…."

"It's not an alien, Green Arrow," Nightwing shouted with a concerned tone. "It's- EVERY ONE GET DOWN"!

As Nightwing yelled, a large flying beast let out a powerful cry in front of the jet, shattering the windows, causing a brief period of deafness.

Green Arrow used hand-signals to cooperate with Hawk Girl, ordering her to fire 3 missiles at the flying monster. But the "UFO" quickly let out another cry, blowing up the missiles before they reached their target. Green Arrow then accelerated the speed-boost while the monster was stuck in a cloud of smoke from the explosion, hitting the beast head-on, sending the winged-monster flying towards the ground, but the beast caught itself mid-fall, recovered then continued in pursuit of the Arrow-Plane.

As the deafness started to recede, Raven shouted to Green Arrow, "THE LEX CORPORATIONS BUILDING IS AHEAD"!

"I KNOW!" Arrow responded, trying to drown out the sound of the sound of the twin-turbine engines.

Suddenly one of the engines stopped as the flying-beast ripped of the wing, sending the Arrow Plane crashing into the Lex Corp. building.

"WHAT IS THIS THING?" Static Shock shouted, holding on for dear-life.

"MAN-BAT!" Nightwing cried as the Arrow Plane crashed into Lex Corp.

But Hawk Girl quickly broke the panels on the floor of the Arrow Plane on both sides, separating the Justice League into a free-falling section of the once magnificent jet. Raven then grabbed the section of the Plane from the inside along with Static Shocks magnetism powers to stop the League from crashing into downtown Metropolis.

As Raven and Static slowly lifted the section of the jet up the roof of the Lex Corp. building, Man-Bat sped towards the floating debris.

"JUMP!" Nightwing yelled as the group jumped out one of the open sides of the inner-section of the jet, sending the once floating debris plummeting into the streets, and Man-Bat flying into the upper-stories of the Lex Corp. building.

As the Justice League started falling, Nightwing initiated his wings and boot-boosters, flying up into the floor Man-Bat flew into, Hawk Girl and Raven soaring next to him, Static flying on his metal-disc behind him and Green Arrow behind Static, sending a grapple-arrow to the same floor. As the team landed in the broken window, they finally saw the new Man-Bat up close.

This Man-Bat was not Kirk Langstrom or his wife, it was someone new. But he was much bigger than any other Man-Bat Nightwing had seen in his years in serving in Gotham. He was so tall, he had to hunch over to fit in the 8 foot tall room, his wingspan was as big as a pick-up truck, and there was a certain grotesque and terrifying quality to this incarnation of Man-Bat, as if the monster had mutated even further.

As the beast shrieked at the Justice League at a very deep pitch, a familiar figure with pointy ears stood in shadows and spoke, "This Man-Bat was created from scratch. He has no former-human form, so don't bother using a special-formula like you did on Starfire. He also has a mixture of Titan serum and a little bit of Venom".

"Batman?" Static asked cautiously as the Man-Bat stomped forward.

"No, he's not Batman. He's just an imposter," Nightwing spoke angrily, charging his Escrima Sticks.

"You are right, Nightwing. But Static Shock was close. I am Lincoln March. Better known to your adoptive father as Thomas Wayne Jr., and now this worlds Owlman," the ominous figure shouted proudly, stepping out of the shadows, revealing himself, wearing an all-black costume with a full mask and ear-tuffs pointing out in a familiar fashion, mimicking a Horned-Owl. On Owlman's gauntlets, three claws protruded out like a metallic owls talons.

"Wait, Bruce had a brother?" Green Arrow scratched his head in confusion.

"Yes, he did. I was his mother's supposedly unborn child who was killed when the Court of Owls rigged a car-accident to punish my mother. But I was born at the hospital and taken by the Court, but my records said I never survived the night," Owlman started to monologue. "I was trained by the Court and when I grew up, the Court killed me for not fulfilling their orders. But I stole their formula, came back from the dead and-oof!" Owlman continued as Hawk Girl threw her mace at his head like a boomerang.

"Just shut UP!" Hawk Girl yelled angrily as her Nyth mace flew back into her hands.

Man-Bat lept towards the Justice League, but Green Arrow shot an explosive-arrow at Man-Bat's feet, breaking the floor under Man-Bat, sending the massive monster falling all the way to the lobby.

Raven put her cloak around Static and Nightwing teleporting them to the lobby as Hawk Girl and Green Arrow stayed to fight Owlman.

"Nightwing said you are vulnerable to nitrogen. Let's test his theory!" Green Arrow taunted, firing his nitrogen-arrow at Owlman. But the physically enhanced Owlman almost supernaturally dodging the arrow and grabbing Green Arrow and putting his talons to the heroes head, using Arrow as a hostage.

"If you want to defeat me Hawk Girl, you will have to kill him!" Owlman bribed.

"No, she won't," Green Arrow spoke self-assuredly.

"Yes, she will!" Owlman argued.

"Is your suit insulated?" Arrow prolonged.

"Why do you – aargh!" Owlman cried as Green Arrow stuck a 1,000 volt-arrow in Owlman's face, causing the villain to double-over in pain, throwing out the arrow.

"Nice on, Arrow," Hawk Girl approved.

"Pain may hurt me slightly, but my healing-powers will protect me from serious harm," Owlman bragged, his burns healing.

"Can't you use your mace?" Green Arrow asked, nudging Hawk Girl.

"Yes I can," Hawk Girl assured, flying over to Owlman. "You know what this mace can do, right"?

"Not hurt me, yes, I know!" Owlman taunted swing his talons at Hawk Girl, who weaved the attack as Green Arrow shot a rope-arrow, tying Owlman's arms and legs, causing him to fall over. "You think these cheap-confinements can contain me?" Owlman asked, almost disgusted at Green Arrows failed attempt, snapping the rope with his talons.

"They weren't supposed to, idiot," Green Arrow mocked. "It was just buying Hawk Girl time".

"What?" Owlman asked rhetorically in confusion, turning to see Hawk Girl hitting him on the head with her mace fully charged, sending Owlman into a state of immobilization.

"You over-looked that my mace can nullify the powers of the undead and the dead, Owlman," Hawk Girl taunted as Green Arrow fisted bumped her.

"Let's go help the others," Green Arrow ushered as they jumped through the hole made by Man-Bat.

MEANWHILE

"Guy's, but these in your ears," Nightwing suggested, handing Raven and Static specially-designed ear-plugs to suppress Man-Bat's sonic shriek.

As his teammates put in the ear-plugs, the massive Man-Bat lurched forward, being able to stand fully due to the tall lobby ceiling, swing its massive arm, sending tiles flying through the now (almost) abandoned lobby. As debris flew towards the 3 team members, Raven created a force-field of dark energy, rebounding the debris back at Man-Bat.

"I always thought force-fields were awesome," Nightwing complimented.

"LET'S GO, MAN-BAT!" Static Shock yelled, already flying back into the battle, sending a bolt of electricity at Man-Bat's face.

"Well, you heard him," Raven laughed flying in after Static, sending a table at Man-Bat.

The large yet maneuverable Man-Bat flew up over his opponents, dodging all their attacks.

"Raven, use your astral-projection form," Static suggested, forming a plan in his mind.

Raven nodded, sending out a shadow version of herself out of her mind, flying into Man-Bat, temporarily possessing the beast.

The monster shrieked, sending Raven's astral-projection back into her own body, yet causing him to plummet to the ground. When the monster got up, Static sent two powerful bolts of electricity through Man-Bat's wings and arms, handicapping the beast.

Nightwing then jumped onto Man-Bat's back and planted two bombs on the beast face, temporarily blinding and deafening the monster.

Raven then sent a powerful blast of dark-energy at the monster, but it barely harmed Man-Bat. But, Raven knew it would send Man-Bat's adrenaline levels way up, causing the beast to have a faint heart attack, falling unconscious on the tiled floor.

Hawk Girl and Green Arrow then landed down in the lobby and started to observe Man-Bat.

"How did Owlman go down?" Nightwing asked, checking his utility belt to make sure he did not lose anything.

"Easily," Hawk Girl responded briefly, cleaning her mace.

"Can you show me him?" Nightwing asked. "So I can contain him before he regenerates".

"Fine," Hawk Girl spoke glumly, grabbing Nightwing and flying him up to the floor Owlman was on.

Nightwing walked around the room, examining the furniture and walls.

"Looking for evidence?" Hawk Girl guessed, searching the room with him.

"Yep," Nightwing responded, focused on turning the room upside down. "Obviously Luthor wasn't here, or he would have come down and said something".

"Nightwing, I believe I have found something," Hawk Girl suggested, examining the gauntlet on Owlman's arm.

Nightwing rushed over and kneeled down. On Owlman's left gauntlet, coordinates were etched in by a knife. Coincidentally, the rest of the team arrived in the room and started to examine the gauntlet.

"I know where that is," Static revealed with a surprised tone. "It's in the middle of the amazon"!

Nightwing looked over to Green Arrow and put on a fake smile.

"Fine, I'll get another jet," Green Arrow muttered angrily walking out of the room.

"It could be a trap," Raven whispered concernedly.

"It's always a trap," Nightwing joked. "But we will be alright. Luthor's been beaten before. He can be beaten again".

As the Justice League walked out of the room, the same figure who followed Static Shock watched from afar, kneeling atop a stone gargoyle.

"They have fallen for Owlman's bait, Master," the figure spoke into a com-link.

"Good, young one. They will fall into our hands soon enough and they die helplessly at our hands. You will be given the chance to prove yourself," Deathstroke responded back, as the figure vanished once again like smoke.