Chapter four, everyone! Once again, I'm appreciative of the positive feedback. I stand by my decision to not bring any major teams like the GLs into the fray, but I'll provide an explanation for that in-universe. Oh, and a little tip – connect the country dots, and you'll get a little teaser of the next few chapters!
"I'm sorry Barry, I must be mistaken. Are you saying I killed Crimson Avenger?"
"Don't try to hide it, Batman. I know you did it. I watched you give Lee a brooch five days ago, which he wore to Skyman's funeral! I then watched you activate a signal, and Crimson Avenger just collapsed and died!"
"That's ridiculous, Barry. I don't have that kind of technology. Black Lightning and Air Wave didn't pick up any type of electromagnetic energy at all, how could I possibly have done that?"
"You're Batman. You always have a card up your sleeve."
Barry looked around, gesturing at the Justice League.
"Don't you remember? He has the ability to thwart us, he develops tech to counter us without us knowing! The Kryptonite weaponry he developed in secret? How about when his contingencies blinded Kyle? The nanites that burned J'onn? Inducing aquaphobia in Arthur? He has the capability to defeat any of us without us knowing!"
Superman and the rest of the League looked suspiciously at Batman, but also at Flash. Green Lantern finally decided to speak up, filling the awkward void of silence, though not exactly with what everyone was expecting.
"Hey Barry, why are you still vibrating? I know you think it looks cool and all, but it's been minutes already. We know what your suit looks like."
"Can't, Hal. This renders me intangible, and if you don't remember, last time Wally was struck by a bullet that gave him seizures. And Batman doesn't exactly look ecstatic right now."
"Oh, come on, Barry, don't you think that's a little bit par-"
BOOM. A massive explosion shook the ground, sending massive shockwaves towards the small city of Bayboro, North Carolina, which was where the League was gathered. Batman quickly dismissed the ongoing dispute, and started barking out orders.
"Aquaman, control those waves! Hurry up, there isn't much time! Green Lantern, create a barricade! Superman, use your heat vision to evaporate as much water as you possibly can! Wonder Woman, Cyborg, you're on civilian protection duty. Round the citizens up, and Cyborg, prepare to boom everyone out of here if things go south. Flash – wait a second, where is Flash?"
But the League hadn't heard him – they were too busy rushing to perform their respective tasks. The shockwaves weren't as extreme as expected, and Aquaman managed to quell the seas without any property damage or civilian casualties. Batman tried to track Flash, but Flash's signal wasn't responding. "OK everyone, Flash has vanished. There's a good chance he's doing recon, but we need to be careful. Wait a minute, he's showing up on my tracker again in… wait a minute… Iran… Nepal… Japan… Uruguay… Somalia… Turkmenistan… Indonesia… Egypt… Lesotho… Eritrea… Andorra…Guinea… Uzbekistan… Estonia… Is he just running randomly across the world? What is he doing? Wait a minute… he's suddenly disappeared…"
"What is it, Batman?"
"Nothing, Cyborg. Nothing yet. But we're distracted. Come on, we need to find the source of that explosion. Let's head down to Luthor's underwater base. Who knows what he's planning down there. Hope we're not too late, that sounded like a cover for an escape."
Meanwhile, in Luthor's underwater base…
"Of course, President Xi. Yes, I would love to meet to discuss the terms of Lexcorp partnering with Baidu. No tech stealing this time? Good, I'll take your word for it. Bye now."
Lex Luthor smiled, and absently tapped a few numbers into his hidden holographic keypad. The door sprung open, revealing an assembled group of supervillains, who were exhibiting a range of facial emotions from wariness to confusion to anger.
"Hello, everyone, and welcome to my new Injustice League. I see we've got quite the lineup here – The Joker, Cheetah, Captain Cold, Sinestro, Black Manta, Malefic, and Anomaly. Malefic and Anomaly, you two are new to the lineup. Archenemies of Martian Manhunter and Cyborg, am I correct? Of course I am. Everyone, I have assembled you here today to declare my new world-dominating plan – the Crime Union! You will each be the crime overlords of your respective cities – or, specifically, your nemesis' respective cities. Black Manta, I realize that isn't super fair to you, so you get Atlantis as well as Amnesty Bay. Any more questions? Yes, Captain Cold."
"So, I couldn't help but wonder who the other Crime Lords are – there are only eight of us, after all. And there are a few more cities in the world than that."
"Ah, yes. Don't worry, I have Crime Lords in most other cities. For example, Dark Archer is on his way to Star City right now. Brother Blood has assumed control of Jump City. But you guys are the main Injustice."
"Sounds like a proper bureaucracy right here. Hope you can keep it together."
"I will, Cold. I will. I have… contingencies for if they betray me. Remember Jewel and Punch? The Ventriloquist? Harlequin? Ever noticed that they've dropped off the grid? Yeah. Them, and many others more."
Captain Cold said nothing, but gave an icy smirk. Luthor ignored him and proceeded to talk.
"Now, each of your nemesis' have substantial rogues galleries. Some more than others, but each quite a few. You can pick and choose supervillains, and apply them wherever you see fit. But be wary of making them too mad – they're still fully capable of taking you out with enough anger and time. Chronos has taken his batch already, but don't feel rushed. Take all the time you want. Oh, and the few criminals that don't belong to a rogues gallery will be free for any of you to pick from. Some might need coaxing, so be patient."
Right as he finished his sentence, shrill alarms started to sound all over the secret base.
"Ah, I see our friends are here. Don't worry, our boom tubes – courtesy of Darkseid himself – will transport us to our moon base. Don't worry about your underlings, they have individual transporters that will drag them there whether they like it or not."
The boom tube then activated, and the villains piled through. A few seconds after the boom tube closed, the heroes came storming into Lex's office.
"Where are they? I could have sworn they would be here… How could they be gone? It looks like they've been here recently…"
"They have, Superman. Very recently. And they appear to have left a few clues."
Batman pointed to the wall. On a tack board were small polaroid pictures of each of the fallen heroes in what seemed like a hitlist. There were pictures of Skyman and Crimson Avenger, both with red "X"s through the middle, but Batman also noticed a few other pictures tacked onto the board. The Atom had a red check through his picture, and there were red question marks through a few heroes – Crimson Fox, Freedom Beast, Tasmanian Devil, The Flash…
Batman squinted at the board, but Cyborg distracted him.
"Batman, I'm picking up an energy signature. Someone boomed out of here a minute or two ago. It explains how they escaped, but how did they get access to New God technology? They must have Darkseid on their side. This just got really complicated. And don't worry about those pictures – I'll send The Streak over to warn the heroes in those pictures."
Green Lantern suddenly chimed in from over at Luthor's desk: "Wait, who's The Streak?"
"You don't know? Oh, you were on Ysmault, huh… The Streak is Wally's alter ego now. He changed it because it's confusing having two Flashes. Wallace is still Kid Flash."
"Ugh, and I thought Batman's family was confusing – hey!"
Aquaman accidentally shoved Green Lantern, which caused Green Lantern to slip and hit a hidden… button? A holographic display popped up, with the profile of a supervillain open. Batman rushed over and shoved Green Lantern aside, staring at the display.
"Dwarfstar, AKA Sylbert Rundine… enemy of The Atom… currently affiliated with Chronos."
Batman quickly exited out of the file, finding a huge number of files on supervillains.
"Goldface, AKA Keith Kenyon… enemy of Green Lantern… currently affiliated with Sinestro."
"Plastique, AKA Bette Sans Souci… enemy of Captain Atom… currently affiliated with Major Force."
"Electrocutioner, AKA Lester Buchinsky… enemy of Batman… currently affiliated with The Joker."
Batman scrolled through more and more, finding thousands upon thousands of files within the system.
"These are all the supervillains we've ever known. Some appear to have been killed, but they're all working together. The smaller villains are working for a very small number of villains, each the archnemesis of a major hero. It's a full-on crime society."
Batman quickly called J'onn through his mental connection.
"J'onn, this is a code red. I want every hero that has ever existed in the Watchtower. ALL of them. This is not a drill – this is war."