Disclaimer: I don't own it.
The world ended on a monday.
Surprisingly, the morning began very normally. The sun was shining, birds chirping, and Miss Martian was cooking breakfast for the inhabitants of Mount Justice.
Conner walked into the kitchen and smelled the eggs burning long before he saw the Martian cooking. M'gann looked up and smiled while she threw away her second pan of blackened eggs.
"Good morning Conner!" She chirped. The clone nodded and grunted before he lowered himself into a chair. Although her eggs still needed some work, M'gann was becoming a better cook. In front of him was a spread of breakfast foods that would make anyone drool. He pulled a large plate full of bacon and sausage towards him as M'gann sat down next to him.
"How did you sleep?" She asked. Conner was saved from answering when an emergency signal sounded from the mission room.
M'gann jumped up and flew to the large training area with Conner on her heels. As she activated the holoscreen, Zatanna rushed in. The magicians hair was a tangled mess, and her shirt was rumpled. Obviously she had rushed out of bed to hear the alert.
"Whats up?" She asked, smoothing out her hair as best she could.
"I don't really know," Miss Martian responded, opening a screen in front of her.
"We were about to eat breakfast when we heard the alarm." Explained Superboy. Something on the screen caught his eye, and he pointed to it. "Look it's not just an alarm. There's a message." he noted, and he reached over to the keyboard to open it.
In the message, Robin was standing on a dark rooftop, and he looked like hell. His hair was matted with blood and dirt, his cape was gone, and his red tunic was a shredded mess that showed the dark kevlar beneath.
"Robin!" Miss Martian exclaimed.
"Oh my God!" gasped Zatanna. "What happened to you?"
Robins face hardened and he scowled with none of his signature humor. "Nevermind that now. I need one of you to send a Priority Red Alert from the mountain to all known allies of the Justice League." The team gaped at him, but he ignored it. "Then contact Superman and tell him to gather the Justice League at Mount Justice."
"What? Robin we can't do that!" cried M'gann.
"Why not?" He snapped. Everyone took a shocked step back, he was in a really bad mood if he was snapping at the nicest member on the team. It was Zatanna who moved forward first. She Immediately pulled up a new screen next to her and began typing, a few moments later she stopped.
"We don't have clearance, Rob." she said.
"Damnit!" Robin cursed, and suddenly ducked down to avoid the rocks that flew over his head. Still crouching, he typed something on his wrist computer. "There, Ok you have clearance Zee." Robin said. "Now I need you to- Batman!" The roof he was standing on began shaking. "Gather the League!" Robin yelled. "We'll be there as soon-"
What Robin said was cut off as the line turned into static, and the cave was left in silence.
In 28 minutes, the Justice League were entirely assembled in Mount Justice. While it was not uncommon for them to have large meetings, most of the team had never seen them all together at the same time, and especially so on edge. It was obvious that a red alert must have been a major problem if Superman looked nervous.
Finally someone decided to cut to the chase. "So what's the deal Superman?" asked Captain Marvel, his voice rising above the silent mumblings around the cave.
"We have a Red Alert." said Superman, who was standing in front of the gathering of heroes. "We're waiting to be debriefed on the situation."
Billy scratched his head. "Yeah, what's up with that? Don't we get those, like, every other month?"
Diana shook her head. "Not from Gotham." she said, effectively silencing the room.
It took The Flash a few moments to process this. "Holy shit." his mumbled words echoing around the room. "This is bad. If the Bat's are calling for help..." He trailed off, but the thought alone sent the room into a slight panic.
"How the hell are-"
"-Gotham is insane-"
"-one time! I nearly died-"
"How the-"
Unbeknownst to the most powerful people on earth, the zeta beams suddenly activated, and two figures appeared. The pair shared a look before stepping out.
"Silence." Batman commanded.
The heroes stopped talking and faced the two. They were both intimidating in their own way, but seeing them look like this was downright terrifying. While Robin didn't look much better than before, Batman looked worse. His cape and gloves were gone, and his bare hands were covered in deep scratches like he had torn his arm out of a barrel of glass. Both of them were covered in massive amounts of dirt that it looked like a building had fallen on them. Considering how Robin had ended the message, it was a very likely possibility.
The Bat's looked human, and no one was prepared for that.
Batman nodded once to his partner, and Robin quickly ran out of the room. The Dark Knight then turned to his shocked colleagues.
"Early last night, Robin and I were investigating a disturbance at the Southern Gotham Docks. "he began. "It looked like a gang war and we intervened, but we soon realized that it was a trap." Batman pulled up a screen in front of him, and a symbol appeared. "The thugs were actually highly trained assassins for the League of Shadows. " Artemis tensed, but he tactfully ignored it.
"What does this have to do with us?" growled Hawkwoman. "I take it they were no match for you."
"Obviously." Batman growled back. "But while we were distracted, the League brought an atomic bomb into Gotham."
The league choked on air, but Batman decided it wasn't worth his time, and he pulled up a map of Gotham. "It took us three hours to locate the bomb here." he said, pointing to a red dot at the center of the map.
"Hold up!" yelled Green Arrow, "You have a nuclear bomb in your city, and it takes you three hours for you to contact us?"
"We should have met in Gotham." agreed Artemis. She had just come from there, she could have helped sooner.
"We wouldn't have contacted you at all, had the situation not escalated." Batman said, meeting their eyes.
"Escalated! How could it have possibly-"
"Focus, Arrow. I'll tell you." interrupted Batman, "We found the bomb, and with it, the leader of the League of Shadows, Ra's al Ghul. We fought, and discovered that he does not want to detonate the bomb in Gotham, rather very, very far above it."
"Why would they want to do that?" inquired Hal Jordan.
"The EMP wave." guessed Barry, rubbing his chin. "High enough, it could devastate the entire North American power grid."
"Like what happened to the Reds, but so much worse." added Wally.
Batman nodded. "Exactly." he said. "So our main priority is to disarm the bomb."
At that moment, Robin walked back into the room. He looked completely refreshed. He was in a new uniform, and he had a bandage around his head to stop the cut over his eyebrow from bleeding. Batman nodded. "Robin will continue to debrief you." he said, and he strode out of the room.
Robin walked up to the active monitor and gestured to the map. "Yeah, Ok. So, me and Bats would usually handle this, but this time it's different."
"Of course it gets more dangerous!" Green arrow exclaimed.
"Would an army of magically reanimated corpses qualify as more dangerous, Arrow?" Robin replied sarcastically
"..."
"That's what Batman calls them, honestly they're more like glowing zombies."
"...what..."
"Somehow, Ra's had this great idea to modify the chemicals from the Lazarus Pit to create his army of undead. He controls them, and they've infested Gotham to protect the bomb."
"What."
"The serum was diluted, so not everyone who came back was whole. Thankfully,The disease only spreads into corpses, so things that are currently living things don't get infected-"
"WHAT."
"-which is a good thing, or we'd have to deal with an epidemic problem as well as a bomb problem- Wally are you Ok?"
The entire league had turned paler from Robin's explanation, but Wally was acctually vibrating so fast that the soles of his feet were starting to burn. He yelped and jumped up to stomp out the smoke coming from his boots. As Flash helped his partner, Diana turned to Robin.
"Why would Ra's Al Ghul want this?"
Robin pulled up the Al Ghul files up on the screen. "Ra's and his daughter, Talia, believe that the world is sick, and that all of it needs to be burned away so they start fresh. They always want to start with Gotham, they see it as the sickest part of the world, and if they can destroy Gotham, the rest will follow."
Hal Jordan walked forward cockily. "So you need our help to take out some Zombies while you Bats disarm the bomb. Got it."
"Don't underestimate Ra's," said Batman, walking back into the room with a new suit on. "He's a dangerous psychopath, holding an entire city hostage. One wrong move, everyone dies." He walked over to stand next to his partner. "The Gotham Zeta-beam is offline, We're going to have to fly. Rendezvous in the City Square. "
"And what about Us Non-Metas?" Artemis asked.
The Bats smirked.
Below them, Gotham burned.
Had Artemis not been so distracted by seeing her city slowly get infected and destroyed, she would have been freaking out about how she was in the Batwing with half the League. She would have also noted that this was a larger version of the craft that she had seen before, and she would have concluded that Batman must have multiple versions of this totally badass plane. She might have also noticed the rest of the league flying next to the plane.
But Gotham took up all her attention, so she did not.
"City Square is right Below us." Said Robin, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat next to Batman. "Deploying countermeasures now."
Suddenly, she could hear explosions and inhuman screams below her. A few moments later and the plane landed, and the back hangar door opened. Everyone stepped out, and the others landed beside them and looked to Batman for instruction.
"Robin, Aqualad, go into stealth mode and take the team up on the rooftops to find the bomb." He barked, "The League will work on fighting the reanimated, and evacuating citizens. When the team finds Ra's or the bomb, contact us and we'll converge on your location."
The team all noded and sprinted away, while the Justice League sprung into action.
After two hours of fighting, the Team had found Ra's on top of the GCPD building.
Immediately calling the League, they had begun to fight through the hordes, trying to get closer to the madman. The fighting had gotten easier once the League joined them, but Ra's had apparently recalled all of his minions, and new zombies were popping up everywhere. It didn't help that the corpses kept getting back up after a few minutes after being knocked out, but every time they got up, they would come back stronger.
Everyone was tired and dirty, when all of a sudden, everything stopped.
The rotting bodies encircled the battered heroes, but none of them made a move against the other. Then they heard slow clapping coming from the rooftop above them.
"Well done," Drawled an accented voice. "I didn't think you had it in you Detective, to call your colleagues for help."
Batman glared up at the rooftop where Ra's was standing. "Where's the bomb?" He growled.
"All in good time, Detective." He raised his hand, and made sure everyone could see the trigger in his hand. "Now, I suggest you listen, or my finger might just slip-"
"What do you want?" questioned Batman.
"Two thing's really." Said Ra's. "The one I suppose you told your colleagues is my desire to purge the world of the vile filth that inhabits it. " He gestured to the trigger in his hand. "This bomb will fulfill that wish perfectly. The second, However, is for you, Detective, to give up your misguided ways and join me."
"What is he talking about?" Superman asked, but Batman continued to glare at Ra's.
"Is that what this is all about?" He shouted.
"This is what it is always been about Detective!" Ra's replied." Join me, become my right hand in the League of Shadows, and Gotham will be spared. Join me, and rule the world with my daughter at your side. Join me, and I may even let you keep your son, we both know he would make a good assassin."
The league stared in shock at Batman, but he remained stoic as he subconsciously stepped forward in front of Robin. "My answer hasn't changed. My answer will never change." He growled.
"That is your final answer?"
"I will not kill."
"Very well then," Ra's sighed and motioned to someone behind him. "I suppose I have no choice but to show you how easily you can break."
Behind him, his servant Ubu was pulling two docile zombies behind him. While the men on the rooftop were slightly distracted, Batman gave the signal to Flash to get ready to grab the trigger from Ra's. Then Ra's pulled the hoods off of the Zombies beside him, and everyone went still.
The zombies next to Ra's were a man and a woman. Their face was covered in shadow, but there was no mistaking the pearls around the woman's neck, or the costume that the man wore.
"I have always hated guns." said Ra's, pulling a small pistol out from behind him, "Too quick. Too sloppy." He continued, obviously enjoying the tension he had caused. "No, I much prefer it when it takes time for the victims to fall." Ra's then raised his hand, and pointed the gun at the couple.
.
BANG.
.
BANG.
.
Then the couple fell off the roof, and into open air.
.
.
.
SPLAT
CRUNCH
.
.
Nobody dared breath.
.
.
"Flash. Go." Batman said in a deadly whisper that was more terrifying than any shout or growl could ever be.
Flash zoomed straight up the side of the building and knocked the trigger out of Ra's hands before he could blink.
Still speaking terrifyingly softly Batman gave orders. "Manhunter, read his mind to find where the bomb is. Once you've found it, tell Flash and get it out of my city. Superman, Take him down before I do." Nobody had to ask to know that he was talking about Ra's.
Robin was now shaking, from fear or rage nobody knew. "They're already dead, right?" he asked, his voice scarily similar to Batman's.
Batman nodded. "The rest of you," He growled without taking his eyes off of the two corpses on the ground. "No mercy."
The battlefield exploded into chaos again, and the fight seemed to be going better this time, but then they realized why.
The Bats were not holding back.
Their moves, usually perfectly calculated to deal the most damage, but never kill, were now deadly with every strike. Batman shattered ribcages with his bare hands, Robin slit their throats with birdarangs, Batman broke their spines with a kick, Robin landed on someone's shoulder and broke necks with a twist. Zombies fell left and right. And this time, they stayed down.
Batman and Robin didn't look like they existed anymore, instead they were vengeful wraiths, destroying anything in their path.
Frighteningly soon, the fight was over.
Robin was standing far away, but his eyes were locked onto his mentor as he stalked over to the two reanimated bodies Ra's had killed. No one relaxed as Batman bent down to study the corpses
"It's not them." He breathed.
"Batman, come in Batman." Said Flash through the comlink.
"Report." Batman barked.
"The bomb is out of Gotham, and completely deactivated."
Robin stared down at his gloves, now stained the greenish color of zombie blood.
"Good." He growled. Diana tried to approach him. But he stormed past her, and crouched down so he was eye level with Robin. "It's OK, Robin, it's OK."
Robin continued to stare at his now shaking hands. He replied with the same whisper as before. "No, It's not."
Batman placed a comforting hand on Robins shoulder. "Let's go home." he said.
The rest of the league didn't know how to deal with this. The Batman was being obviously paternal, and he was comforted his son while they were both covered in blood and surrounded by corpses.
They didn't know what to do. Thankfully, Batman turned to them and helped them answer that question with six words. "Now get out of my city."
No one needed to be told twice.
There were some secrets of the Bat-family that nobody wanted to know.
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