Turn 6: Unexpected Turn-About
"Watch what you're saying, you doofus! This is Deathstroke we're talking about, not Suzaku!"
"Haven't you seen Suzaku's spinzaku or his martial arts capabilities? I don't know who's Deathstroke but you gotta admit he will be nothing compared to Suzaku the Traitor!"
"Deathstroke is a trained assassin and knows impressive number of fighting skills that can put Suzaku to shame. Add to the fact that Hephaestus gave him a sword that can kill gods."
"Oh. Then, Suzaku's beaten to a pulp."
-Lelouch Lamperouge and Shinichiro Tamaki (The Aftermath)
Watchtower
August 6, 2018 (10:30)
"Lex is on the move." Batman said as soon as he entered the meeting room in the Watchtower. He just returned from having his nightly runs in Lex's territory in Metropolis.
"He's recruited several of our archenemies—first was the Joker, next was the Reverse Flash and the latest was Bane and Death Stroke. He's making his own Suicide Squad."
He went to the supercomputer located in front of the meeting room. After a few seconds of waiting, the monitor revealed the faces of Lex's Suicide Squad. There was several information on the bottom of it and the rest was all about their status and their powers.
"However, there's still several others that he recruited that we failed to identify. We have a hunch that he'll use them for gathering information."
"Intel said that Lelouch's Suicide Squad has finally secured Lelouch in the Ikaruga… but there is a problem." He stopped for a deep breath and continued, "Several of the Black Knights were having doubts about his agenda. Asahina, for example,"
A picture of a Japanese man with a scar on face and round glasses was revealed on the monitor. Like previously, several information was on the side of the picture. "He's been eyeing Lelouch for several days and suspects something fishy on him. I think he plans to bust him out and tell it to his comrades."
"Aside from Asahina, Chiba and Ohgi were also having their doubts on Lelouch. Those three were the most important in the Black Knights, aside from Lelouch."
"Any word against Lelouch that was from the core members will turn those below them against Lelouch." Wonder Woman piped in. She and the rest of the Justice League has been planning their move to assist Lelouch in his rebellion. They will only assist him in the background and leave all of the work to the Suicide Squad to reduce the fear that the war will instill to the people. If they found out that there are humans that can erase them in the face of the earth, fear will definitely rule them. Charles may use that as a leverage to create chaos upon that world.
Diana, who was silent throughout the whole ordeal, said. She understands the problem Lelouch was currently facing but she can't help but to blame Bruce. This whole mess wouldn't happen if not for him.
'If he just gave us permission… that battle's going to last for just a minute.' She thought.
"Anyways," Barry started. "I've been thinking about what Lelouch has done in that world and I know it's for the best… but, man! It's like he's doing a genocide there!"
Batman's face twitched and a smile broke out of his half-covered face. He understands his concerns but he must know that in a war, people are really going to die to fight for what they knew was right.
"I understand your concern, Barry. Lelouch's plans was for the annihilation of the corrupts and evils through his unconventional actions and you must know that I am the one who taught that principle."
Superman was not at all surprised at what Batman said, "Figures, Bruce. After all, you were the Dark Knight. You have been on the act of deceiving since you were a child."
"The boy's got potential. It is my duty as his guardian to hone it further. He has no problem with it back then." Batman replied. He took a seat and fumbled with a laptop in front of him. On the large monitor in front of them, an image of Lelouch's biological father and his half-sibling, Schneizel, appeared.
"Seems like this Schneizel guy has been eyeing the throne for quite some time now." Superman said. The folder in front of him showed all of the information they knew about the two. "And I have a hunch that he'll be the one who might turn the Black Knights against Lelouch."
"That might be. Although this Schneizel has an edge, he still can't touch Lelouch without a permission from Charles. He might be the prime minister but Charles is still the emperor, a title that was much larger than being a prime minister." Aquaman spoke for the first time since the beginning of the meeting.
They all nodded at what Aquaman had said, except for Batman.
"I made contact with Flag earlier and he said that Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang will be joining in annihilating the Geass Order and the rest will spy upon the Black Knights and mess their operations. The three will not use Akatsukis but will stay hidden on the prying eyes of the Black Knights."
Superman rubbed his chin in thought. He has an idea for the upcoming battle that they would surely miss but he knows that it might pose a great risk to transport it especially know that they know that Lex was guarding them like a hawk. "Do you think we can send the prototype?"
"The Merlin? Good heavens, we can't!" Green Lantern exclaimed. "It was large enough to be concealed much less transport it to another dimension without detection from Lex!"
"Green Lantern's right." Batman remarked. "The Merlin's large enough and it will consume great energy to transfer it. Lex can easily detect it and block the transfer, even possibly take it from us."
Wonder Woman looked up from the file she was reading and retorted, "I think it might be a good idea to transport the Merlin if Lex managed to locate Lelouch's dimension. He hasn't known of this prototype and possibly surprise him."
"I agree with that," Flash said, "Lex won't be expecting us to make a mecha for Lelouch for he knows that Lelouch will not allow us. Additionally, it will be the most powerful mecha in Lelouch's dimension, if we finally transport it, giving Lelouch the upper hand against Britannia's Lancelot, Mordred and Galahad and even his Black Knight's Zangetsu, Shen Hu, Guren and Shinkiro."
"Furthermore, its own nuclear capabilities can wipe out the size of two football fields even though it's only mini nuclear that were installed in the prototype. Britannia might be planning to deploy their FLEIJAs sooner but we still get the last laugh because even though it was almost in par with nuclear, it was still not strong enough to level it nor surpass it." Aquaman stated.
"Hm. We might be getting a little too 'trusty' with this prototype but I knew for sure that it can finish several troops at once when we deploy it. I, however, won't allow to transport it later than we should. If Lex finds out Lelouch's location, we will immediately transport it and prep it for Lelouch's use." Batman answered. Even though he was one of the developers of the prototype, he can't allow himself to trust the metaled armor to defend his adopted son from various attacks—both from Britannia, Lex and possibly the Black Knights. He, himself, knows that a true fighter cannot trust a metal to finish his own battles.
Naval Shipyard, Gotham City
13:39
Batman jumped from the roof of the abandoned shipyard and landed on its cracked cement floor with ease. He cautiously observed his surroundings as he searched for potential threats that was lurking on the dark shadows of the shipyard. When he deemed it safe, he reached for his utility belt and took out a flash.
"HAHAHA!"
He swiftly turned around with a batarang on his hand when he heard an eerie laugh echoing on the walls of the dark shipyard. A figure ran to his right and he immediately acted by throwing the batarang. When he flashes the flashlight to the direction it went, he saw it attached to the wooden post, missing the figure.
Another figure ran to his left and he, again, threw a batarang which also missed the figure. It went on like that for two minutes until Batman hit a stretched rope with his batarang. Nothing happened for a few seconds until a large log appeared and came towards him like a wrecking ball. His reflexes reacted quickly, enabling him to dodge it quickly but he was hit by another log when he jumped off to his left. He crashed to a large wooden post before he crashed on the cement floor, instantly knocking him out in the process.
A figure approached the knocked-out Batman with a rope on its hands. He crouched down and quickly ties Batman against the wooden post before standing and reaching his phone on his pocket.
"You have the green light, Joker."
A loud laugh blasted on the phone's speaker, "Good job, Two-Face! I was worried you can't pull it off but that was at first."
Two-Face grunted and replied, "You clearly don't know me well, Joker, if that's what you can say."
"Anyways," he cleared his throat and glanced at Batman, "should I kill him?"
"Nah, just leave him there. If you kill him, I won't have a playmate anymore." Joker whined.
Two-Face's frowned (as far as his burnt half face can go). "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, now, get out of there before he wakes up!" And with a click, the connection was cut.
Batcave
14:30
Batman revved his Batmobile as he entered the Batcave where he instantly saw Alfred, his trusted butler, waiting for him.
"Mr. Wayne." He greeted and offered the cup of coffee to Batman which he gladly took. After he donned the cup full of coffee, Alfred handed him some pills for headache which he also gladly took.
"Another mission gave you a headache, sir?" The butler politely asked as he put aside the empty cup of coffee. He returned to take a look at the partially destroyed Batmobile.
"This is the fourth time this week that you brought home the Batmobile destroyed. If not destroyed, partially destroyed." Alfred glanced at his liege to observe his face, "And it is only Wednesday."
"I have many criminals on my tail, Alfred. They always want to kill me." Batman took of his cowl, revealing the face of Bruce Wayne.
"Are you always on the mobile that they have the need to destroy it?" Instead of answering him, Bruce turned around and started working on his supercomputer.
"What of Lex Luthor? I know he has been collecting his group to retrieve Master Lelouch."
Bruce stopped working on his supercomputer for a while before going back to where he stopped. He took out a flashdrive and inserted it to the USB port.
"What are you doing, sir?" Alfred approached Bruce and glanced at what he was working. He squinted his eyes in suspicion when he saw what he was doing.
Bruce continued to transfer files on to the flash drive but addressed Alfred, "I am going to make a dimensional travel device in order to go to Lelouch's dimension. However, I—"
"…You need the coordinates?" Bruce turned around and found himself facing the barrel of a shotgun that Alfred was holding. Alfred's index finger was hovering on the trigger.
'You think you can fool me, impostor?' Alfred thought.
"Who are you?" He watched as the impostor abandoned his work to face him. His face started to morphed into clay and Alfred can only think of one person who has an ability to shape-shift using its clay body.
"Clayface!"
Alfred fired successful shots at Clayface which he only absorbed it but it was enough time for Alfred to hide behind the Batmobile. Clayface fired the bullets back to where Alfred hides but the Batmobile took the grunt of it. Alfred knew his shotgun can't do any damage to the creature so he tossed it away and decided to rummage the back compartment of the Batmobile for weapons that he can use. He fortunately found the Remote Electrical Charge gun and proceeded to load it.
While Alfred was loading the REC gun, Clayface took the opportunity to finish the transferring of files into a flashdrive which he successfully finished. He now only needs to buy time so that he can escape before Alfred manages to stun him. He found the opportunity when he saw a smoke grenade laying a couple of meters away from him. He quickly took it and took off its safety pin.
Alfred, having finished the loading of the gun, stepped out from his hiding spot to charge at the creature but halted when he saw Clayface threw a smoke grenade. The smoke instantly clouded his sight the second it detonated near his feet. His irritated eyes and roughed coughs became hindrance to his mission but he still continued to search for Clayface.
While the butler was having trouble with the smoke, Clayface took the opportunity to escape using the Batmobile. He revved it and sped away with the flashdrive on his hand, clutching it tightly as if his whole life depends on it.
As a last effort to prevent Clayface from escaping, Alfred hurried towards the supercomputer and closed off all of the possible exits that Clayface might use. It will be his last resort to prevent him from delivering the flashdrive containing the files and coordinates of Lelouch's dimension to Luthor but he knew that the method will fail because the exit gates were too slow to close. He helplessly watched as the Batmobile passed the closing gates and head out towards Luthor.
The GPS installed on the Batmobile showed that Clayface was headed to the city but it disappeared before it can arrive. He guessed that Clayface left the Batmobile and hitched another car or there is a get-away vehicle that awaits him.
Alfred decided to contact Bruce to inform him about what happened in the Batcave and to make sure that he's not dead.
"Master Bruce? Are you receiving me?" He called for almost three minutes until he finally got a response from Bruce.
"Alfred?" Alfred heard Bruce groaned.
"Where are you?"
He heard a light scuffle in the background as he awaited Bruce's reply. "I'm at an abandoned naval shipyard. I got an intel that there's a drug cartel here." He decided to leave out the fact that he was out for a few hours.
"Why?"
Alfred inhaled deeply before telling his liege about the bad news. "We have been infiltrated, sir."
"What?!"
Unknown location
30 minutes after the infiltration in the Glass House
Clayface dropped the flashdrive on Luthor's palm and moved back to where he was standing before. Luthor, on the other hand, eyed the flashdrive with an evil smirk on his face.
"Good job, Clayface!" He praised the clay creature. "I was not sure you'll be able to carry out the mission but you just showed that you can be trusted. I'm impressed!"
Clayface smirked and arrogantly replied, "It was not hard, really."
"Oh?" Luthor raised one of his eyebrows in question. "Then I am sure you can carry yourself out in your next mission."
He put the flash drive inside his pocket before proceeding to give the details to Clayface.
"I want you and the others to get Lelouch Wayne for me. I'll send you to his dimension with the help of this files and coordinates… and this." He pointed to a large machine linked to numerous computers.
"This machine will bring you to Lelouch's dimension. Your group will be divided into two: one will draw the attention of the enemies and the second will move quietly. You are all allowed to cause massive attacks against civilians and military alike."
Clayface looked at the machine for a minute before looking back to Luthor, uncertainty was showing on his face. "And what will we get from this?"
Luthor spread his arms wide, "This world, of course!"
Clayface thought about it for a minute before smile laced his clay lips. "I like the idea. Count me in!"
Oa
"It's been a week since we saw you, Hal. What's up?" Kilowog, one of Hal's friends in Green Lantern Corps, said to him before hitting him on his back as a sign of greeting.
Hal grunted in pain but never retaliated. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. The League's been busy and I can't leave the work behind."
"Why? The League's got a new enemy or somethin'?" Kilowog sat in front of Hal.
"No. It's about Lelouch."
Hal watched as Kilowog's eyes lit up in excitement, a rare event for him. He knew of Kilowog's friendship with Lelouch and his fascination to Lelouch's anti-hero attitude. Add to the fact that Kilowog sees Lelouch as a boy who has potential to lead.
"What about him? He's back? I wanna see how the boy's doing!"
Hal rubbed the back of his head and sheepishly answered, "Well, no. He's still in his world."
"Then what is it?" Kilowog inquired.
"Remember when I told you about his rebellion?" Kilowog nodded in affirmation. "The League decided to finally go to help him."
"Let me guess," Kilowog leaned in closer and whispered, "his power's coming back?"
"Wait, how did you…?" Hal asked his friend. Kilowog smiled but never answered Hal's question. Instead, he said, "Can I tag along?"
"I don't know. Batman said that several of the core members have to remain and I'm included. It sucks, you know?"
"Well, I'm not a core member so…" Kilowog drawled the last word before exploding into laughter which irritated Hal to the fact that Kilowog might tag along.
"Don't worry. I won't tell to anyone about it since I reckon it would be a sensitive subject for the others." He continued to laugh after that, clearly enjoying the fact that Hal won't be coming with the rest of the League to fight.
Hal looked around in embarrassment and saw John Stewart entering the room. Delighted to his other friend, he called him to talk.
"Hey, John!"
John's head snapped towards Hal and was shocked to see Hal in Oa considering that the Justice League was busy from what he heard.
"Hal, I thought the Justice League's busy?" He sat beside Kilowog. "What brought you here?"
"Apparently, the League's preparing to go to Lelouch's dimension but he," Kilowog pointed to Hal, "won't be coming with them. He's staying here with the rest."
"Batman said I can go." John blurted out. "He said, 'Since you're not a core member, you can go.'"
"Aww, man! It sucks to be left behind!" Hal complained.
"Anyways," John changed the subject, "how's the rookie?"
Kilowog was the one first one to answer since he was the one handling the rookie's training, or poozer's training.
"The poozer's got a lot of will. She's headstrong, I can guarantee you that."
"Am I the only one that thinks that she's not suited to become a Green Lantern?" Kilowog and John's head snapped towards Hal with questionable looks on their face.
"I mean… she's a gentle soul. She's seen enough destruction and being a Green Lantern means that she'll see more destruction."
Batcave
15:27
Superman surveyed the minimal destruction in Batcave in disdain. He was upset that the files and location regarding Lelouch's dimension was stolen by none other than Clayface.
"Do you know who set you up in the shipyard?" He turned to Batman who was working on his supercomputer and assessing the files that was stolen.
"It's Two-Face." He said and played a video clip he took from the video recorder that was attached to his suit. It showed Two-Face tying up Batman against a wooden post after he lost consciousness due to his impact on both the wooden post and the cement floor and him talking to Joker on the phone.
"Two-Face and Clayface were some of Luthor's unknown recruits," he clicked another file on the supercomputer, "and Scarecrow finally joining in on the fun."
"It's bad enough that the Joker, Deathstroke and the Reversed Flash was in Luthor's team and now, even Scarecrow and Clayface was now included."
"I'm now preparing the machine that will send us to Lelouch's dimension," Superman can hear the 'but' and he was not wrong when Batman continued, "but it will take time because I have to collect great amounts of energy."
"Why not use the government's machine? They were successful, as I recall." Superman asked.
It took a minute before Batman answered. "Because it can only hold limited energy to transport close to fifteen hundred men and their equipment, weaponries and fighter crafts."
"Aside from us, I plan to bring the additional troops, equipment, fighter crafts and the Merlin with us. The Merlin alone can consume great energy that's why I have to plan this carefully," he stopped for a second and then continued, "or else we'll not reach our destination."
"The enemy of my enemy…"
"I won't be your friend… if that's what you're implying."
"You didn't even let me finish."
-The Joker and Kururugi Suzaku (The Aftermath)
NOTES:
1. The Watchtower that I will be using in this story is the one that Superboy Prime destroyed. As much as I wanted to use Tower of Justice in Justice League: Gods and Monster, it will not suit as the Justice League's base of operations in this story.
2. Schneizel cannot touch Lelouch without Charles' permission. I know it sounds unbelievable but Charles did love his children but he has a unique way of showing it. Proofs of it are the banishment of Lelouch and Nunnally from Pendragon to Japan to escape V.V.'s sight and Charles' disdain in regards of V.V. sending an assassin after Lelouch. (This nothing compared to the atrocities he committed against the world and his children.)
3. Yes, The Merlin is a knightmare frame of Lelouch. Developed by Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Silas and Victor Stone, and J'onzz J'onzz, this knightmare frame would serve as Lelouch's personal knightmare frame after the Gawain was destroyed. Due to its size, the decision to transport the machine to Lelouch's dimension was on hold until they can find steady source of energy (which they did).
4. Joker was insane (he really is, anyway) not to kill Batman given the times that he had a chance… but he chose not to since he knew that he (his character as The Joker) would vanish and he'll go back to his old, normal life… as normal as it can get. (It has happened before!)
5. It was not impossible for Alfred to know right away that Bruce (Clayface) is not really the real Bruce given that he was already under the Waynes when Bruce was born and he became Bruce's guardian and parental figure all throughout his life. Add to the fact that Clayface was a horrible actor.
6. Clayface's weakness focused mostly on liquids (specially the solvents) and anything that can harden his clay body (just to name a few). It is also said that electricity can knock out Clayface for a while.
7. About the whole energy thing… I based that on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. I only based on the concept, not literally the whole since they used Johnny Quick's speed to travel.
Who do you think is the rookie? Anyways, as like what I have said in the last chapter, those who will give their review will get a sneak peek! This time, the sneak peek will about the possible characters (heroes and enemies alike) that will travel to Lelouch's dimension. I will only give a clue, though.
Cheers!