The Mortal Gods

Chapter 4: Round 1

Everyone beamed up onto the watchtower, Batman wasn't with them, all the heroes suddenly heard him through the sound system, "Go to the training rooms, I'll be there soon, I need to get some things and suit up.

In the Batcave Bruce hit the code on the computer panel and a chunk of the wall slid open revealing his Batsuit. Wow, Bruce had to admit, his suits had really evolved since those first days with leather pads and the cheap cloth. He had designed hundreds of suits in the years and he had really outdone himself as he looked at the brand new BatEXC5, it was the most advanced suit he had ever designed, with thick Kevlar treated to be as flexible and manipulative as real muscle, Cybernetics lined the entire suit and made him faster, stronger, and more agile by about 65%. The mix of Kevlar and Leather covered the entire suit making a strong exoskeleton to protect him along with a light metal armor coating in his most vital areas. His cowl was a full HUD helmet now telling him and informing him of everything around him as well as being able to see in different visions and hack into systems and areas with ease. His belt was bigger but lighter than before holding more equipment and weapons, some he hadn't even tested yet.

"I might be up there for a while trying to train them and figure this out," he thought, "I guess it's time to wear this suit and try her out." All suited up and all set with what he was bringing Batman teleported up to the tower.

He arrived; everyone looked up at him, "Finally!" Superman stated. Batman ignored him, "First and foremost you all need training. All of you go and get changed in some workout and fighting gear, do some stretches and warmups, I'll join you all once I've stowed away my suit and changed as well."

Ten minutes later, "Ok, I'll be facing all of you; this will be a fight to determine all of your guys' abilities and what I'll have to teach you after." Bruce got them all in a circle surrounding him. He got into a stance; "Go!" he shouted.

All at once everyone rushed him; there was basically no threat to Bruce's body now that they were all regular and so they all charged at him without a second thought. Bruce waited until the first row reached him, he did an underneath sweep kick, toppling most of them over. They were now too close for any comfort so Bruce flipped over everyone as they tripped over each other, as he rolled he came up into a defensive stance. Diana may have been distraught before but during this her Amazon came out, she was the first to reach Bruce. Diana had spent countless years perfecting her hand to hand fighting and technique on Themyscira, she went with a fake to his face and punch to his ribs, he easily blocked but she was fast enough to land a little kick to his outside calf. Batman heard someone running from behind and he leaned forward as the person punched from behind, he grabbed their arm, and flipped the person into Diana.

All of the heroes were up now except for Diana and whoever was on top of her. "Note to self, Diana is so far the best in terms of technique and style." Bruce mentally recorded. He then judo threw a person from behind him, he kicked someone's leg out and was tempted to break the arm of another person he grabbed as it was one of his favorite moves and it was perfectly lined up…but instead he slammed them to the floor. He then turned face to face to Black Canary and Diana. "Ok they will work together good they've trained as a pair." He changed his fighting style to a mix of aikido and ju-jitsu to better take on both of their fighting styles. "Block, Parry. Diana exposes her ribs when she does that side kick. Retreat, block, advance." Bruce mentally watched and looked at all their strengths and weaknesses. "Back kick, punch, jab. Canary is slow with her right arm and always goes low." Bruce decided to end this little fight and get back to the other heroes; with one solid spin kick he struck Dinah into Diana.

Clark and John Stewart weren't that bad. John was tough and definitely knew how to throw a punch as he landed a solid one to Bruce's shoulder. Clark was very strong despite losing his powers because of his farm work growing up but he wasn't a fighter, he was too slow and his punches (that would easily punch through building with ease) were sometimes sloppy and if he'd landed them on Bruce it would have ultimately hurt him more than Bruce.

About 5 minutes later every hero was basically sleeping on the mat, even Bruce was feeling fatigued. He had a mental list already compiled in his head of who was ranked as best to worst and what each person needed to work on. Bruce went over it once more, "Diana- at the top but she needs to broaden her knowledge of other fighting forms, that's her weakness. Next John- he's good but needs to be taught some fighting styles and forms. After that, Dinah- Very good, only problem is she needs to be more aggressive and work more on perfecting her currently known styles." The list went on and on.

"Ok then let's take a break, get some food, rest, whatever, I'll be working on trying to figure this out and fix it but know this, you all have work to do." Bruce calmly spoke.

Everyone started exiting the room, Bruce saw Diana at the back, and the Amazon fire in her eyes from before was gone replaced by that distraught, distant look again. "Hey," Bruce said, "Diana." Diana turned and Bruce let one of his rare grins show, "You were good, I was impressed." Diana smiled at him, the first one out of all those heroes to show any form of happiness, "Thank you Bruce."

She turned and walked out to get herself an iced mocha coffee that she desperately needed.

Well Guys 4th Chapter. Hope you liked it, remember to review and leave your comments and thoughts. Thanks for all the reviews already, some of your ideas have even made it into my story.