DISCLAIMERS/NOTES
1. This is a fan fiction based on characters owned by DC Comics. I DO NOT OWN THEM. This is just for fun.
2. My continuity branches off after the end of Season 1. So the last episode to occur was the two-part "The Savage Time". No Season 2. No JL Unlimited.
PART 9
"I'll repeat… put him down."
Batman looked at the caped, armoured figure standing infront of him. He had called himself Prometheus, and claimed that he was going to destroy the Justice League. He held out Robin as if he was using him as an example.
"You know what?" Prometheus said. "You're right. Let's get to it." He then threw the Boy Wonder forward, and Batman caught him. As Batman settled his sidekick to the ground, the other Leaguers stepped out of the Javelin-7 and advanced on Prometheus.
"Right," Prometheus said, "It's time to get down to business. Do you want me to choose who goes out first, or are you just going to throw yourselves at me?"
J'onn stepped forward. "Your arrogance will not help you," he said. "We will defeat you."
"Uh-huh…" Prometheus grunted. He quickly raised his arm and, before J'onn could react, shot several tiny darts at the Martian. J'onn stood there for a moment, looking at the darts imbedded in his chest…
Then J'onn's form began to crumble…
The other Leaguers watched open-jawed as J'onn began to disintegrate. His physical form lost all its consistency, and he melted into a pool of green goo on the ground.
Diana knelt down at the puddle that was now J'onn. "Hera…" she whispered. "What have you done?"
"I just gave him a dose of toxin," Prometheus calmly responded. "It's attacked his morphoplastic nervous system. Basically, I've just paralysed his ability to morph. He no longer has any control over his physical structure. So, that's one down."
Diana looked at what remained of J'onn, and noticed the Martian trying to reform his body. However, the crude hands and head quickly degenerated and melted back into the puddle.
Hawkgirl gripped her mace tightly. "You monster!" She flew up, and dived down towards Prometheus, mace crackling with electricity…
Suddenly, Prometheus shot out a large metal staff, and blocked Hawkgirl's mace with it. The electricity discharge backfired, and Hawkgirl was sent back by the impact. She fell down to the floor, hard.
Prometheus looked down at her. "My staff is designed to absorb energy and send it back the way it came. I meant to mention that. And that's two down"
Flash held Hawkgirl in his arms. "Hawkgirl… talk to me…"
Hawkgirl could barely whisper. "Flash… I… help…"
Green Lantern grabbed Flash by the shoulder. "Come on, stay with the… the…"
Flash noticed Lantern was slurring, but was more worried about Hawkgirl. "I've got to get her out of here."
"No…" Lantern said slowly. "Stop acting like a kid, and… help us…"
"Oh, so it's childish to worry about the welfare of a teammate?" Flash snapped. "You're colder than Bats, you know that?"
Lantern looked angry, but his concentration was going. "You… never can shut up… you're just an arrogant punk…"
"How long is this going to take?"
Lantern and Flash looked at Prometheus.
"Just that there's something I want to watch on TV in a few hours, so do you think you can speed up your little name-calling?" Prometheus stood there, arms folded. "I'm on a tight schedule."
"You piece of trash…" Lantern shot his arm out and powered up his ring… and nothing happened. He tried again, but the energy he emitted quickly degenerated. "What's… what's happening? Can't… concentrate…"
"That's because I've been sending out a neural pulse wave, interfering with your thought processes," said Prometheus. "I reckon the worst you could now would only tickle mosquitoes."
Flash rushed towards Prometheus and grabbed him by the collar. "Why are you doing this?"
"Erm, this might not be the best time to mention it," Prometheus said, "but you've just set off a bomb."
Flash's eyes widened. "What?"
"Yeah, you see, before you arrived, I planted bombs in this street. As soon as you touched my armour, you triggered the detonation mechinism."
Flash stood still. "You're bluffing…"
"You know what?" said Prometheus. "I am." Suddenly, Prometheus grabbed Flash's arm and hit him with hundreds of volts of electricity.
"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!" Flash screamed, then collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Prometheus fixed his creased collar. "Three down."
Batman picked Robin up and moved back to the Javelin. "I'm going to get him to safety."
"Fine," Diana said. "I don't need you."
Batman flinched at the remark, and closed his eyes. However, he quickly recovered and strode back up the Javelin's ramp into the ship.
Diana unhooked her lasso from her hip and spun it round. She then quickly flung it at Prometheus, and it wrapped around him. However, he quickly fired off another shot of electricity, and it travelled down the lasso, and hit Diana with hundreds of volts. Diana screamed out, and Prometheus grabbed his end of the lasso and yanked hard, in a twirl, sending Diana flying through the air. She then slammed a hole through the side of a building, and disappeared amongst the debris.
Prometheus turned to look at Lantern, who was walking slowly toward him. "I don't… need my ring… to take you down…" he said.
"Maybe," Prometheus said, "if I hadn't been increasing the frequency of the neural pulse wave steadily since you arrived." Lantern stood a foot away from him, and looked like he was about to collapse. Prometheus suddenly hit him with a right hand, knocking him out and sending him to the ground. Prometheus cracked his knuckles. "Four down."
Meanwhile, Batman set Robin down on a restbed at the rear of the Javeline. "He caught me by surprise…" Robin murmured.
"It's OK," Batman said. "We'll take care of it." With that, Batman turned and stepped out of the Javelin.
Once back on the street, Batman blinked at what he saw.
His teammates… all taken out. Diana… missing.
And Prometheus standing a few yards away, as if waiting for him.
"I should let you know," Prometheus said, "that my costume is far more armoured than yours. Also, my helmet lights will be producing a strobe effect. And I've been training to fight since I was a child. If you think I can't beat you… you've made a big mistake."
Batman remained unfazed. He then spoke, slowly and clearly. "You turn up out of nowhere. You wreak havoc on my city. You kill innocent people. You attack my partner. You defeat my colleagues. You claim to be unbeatable. You're the one who's made a mistake. You've made me angry."
Prometheus appeared equally unfazed. "If you think you can bore me to death, you're wrong. Let's just get this done. I wasn't lying about that TV show I want to watch."
Prometheus swung his staff, then ran towards Batman. Batman stood in a defensive stance, ready for the fight of his life…
/
The dark building was smoking everywhere. Debris was scattered all around. What limited light there was outside shone in through the recently-made hole in the wall.
A few feet from the hole was a large pile of rubble. It piled a few feet high, and was unmoving. Then, slowly, the bottom of the pile began to shuffle.
Slowly, the rubble moved more and more. Tiny dirt and chips began to scatter from the top of the pile to the ground as something moved within the build-up. Then, gradually, a piece of brick at the very top began to wobble, and something pushed it aside…
A delicate hand peeked from the top of the rubble.
The hand began to claw its way upwards, until it was followed by a thin yet strong arm. The bracelet that was wrapped around the wrist was dirty, but otherwise unscathed. The hand began to push down on the brick, as it hauled something free of the rubble.
Suddenly, a large chunk of wall fell to the ground with a thud. Diana rose from the rubble, shaken.
She held her head as she tried to regain her senses. "Uuuuuuh…" she moaned as her vision cleared. She remembered what had happened.
The villain the Justice League was facing, Prometheus, had sent electricity down her lasso and knocked the wind out of her with the shock, then threw her into the side of a building… where she had ended up buried in rubble.
Diana looked around. The room was dark; obviously this was some kind of warehouse.
But she did not have time to sight see. She had to help stop Prometheus.
She let out a sigh, then began to step out through the hole in the wall…
"He'll only knock you down again."
Diana spun around at the sound of the voice. She looked into the dark room, and a figure slowly began to step into the light.
Diana's eyes widened as she recognised the person.
Catwoman.
Diana remembered the picture she had received, and her temper rose. "You!" Suddenly, she flew into Catwoman, and sent her slamming into the other side of the room. She then grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and held her a clear two feet off the ground. "What did you think you were doing with Batman?" she demanded.
Catwoman seemed surprised, but quickly recovered. "Calm down girl, what are you talking about?"
"The picture," Diana growled. "Tell me what you were doing!"
Catwoman looked confused, then realisation seemed to hit her. "Ah, so he took a photo of it… that's what he was doing…"
Diana was losing her patience. "Who? Who are you talking about?"
"Prometheus," Catwoman replied. "He recruited me to work with him."
Diana pulled Catwoman close to her, until their faces were only two inches apart. "What have you got to do with him? Why did he hire you?"
Catwoman frowned. "Can you put me down please? I don't like to be interrogated."
Diana had had enough. She slammed Catwoman back into the wall, then yanked her back to her. "TELL ME WHAT YOU WERE DOING WITH THE MAN I LOVE!"
Catwoman blinked. "What…? What are you…" Then her eyes widened. "Oh my God… you and… HIM… ?"
Diana could hardly control her anger. "Maybe if I rearrange your face you'll be willing to tell me…"
Catwoman suddenly looked worried, and held up her hand. "OK, OK, just calm down. Prometheus asked me to create dissension in the Justice League. He told me to kiss Batman… I had no idea how that would do anything, but if your little gang was out of the way, that would be one less police force after me."
Diana's eyes widened. "You… were TOLD… to… ?"
"But the double-crossing jerk reneged on our agreement. Turns out Green Lantern and Flash were already at loggerheads. So he shot me through his window. If it wasn't for my bullwhip, I'd be kitty litter now."
Diana was stunned. Everything that had happened… was a trick. Batman had not been unfaithful. It was all a plot by Prometheus… thank Hera…
Diana flinched. She suddenly remembered the things she had said to Batman…
No…
She had ruined it all…
She slowly, unknowingly, lowered Catwoman to the ground, then turned around and slowly walked a few feet away. She then stopped and just stood there. She tried to think, but her thoughts were a blur. She was filled with relief, but also with pain and dread.
She had ruined it all…
"So... you and him. I never would have thought."
Diana turned blankly at Catwoman. "What are you going to do?"
"Regarding you two?" Catwoman was silent for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing. Whatever our differences are, I've always cared for him. That night, I knew something was different about him. The way he wasn't as vulnerable to me than he was. He used to always let me get too close. But not that night. It was as if… he had changed. He had… moved on. And when we kissed… even in our worst moments, there's something between us. But not then. He didn't return the kiss at all. Not one bit."
Diana listened open-mouthed, unable to comprehend what Catwoman was saying.
"And now I know why," Catwoman continued. "You two are together. He HAS moved on. And I know him intimately. I know how he feels. He obviously cares a great deal about you."
Diana's eyes widened. "How… ?"
"Call it intuition," Catwoman answered. "I can read him like a book. I reckon he's crazy about you. And trust me, Batman doesn't enter into relationships on a whim. If he's with you, he loves you."
Diana stared at Catwoman. She noticed how the feline felon had relaxed her manner. The way she spoke… Diana could tell it was deeply personal for her as well.
"I hope you know what you have," Catwoman whispered. She looked down, then up again, and sighed. "Now," she said, strength returning to her tone, "what say we kick some Prometheus butt?"
Diana blinked. "Prometheus!" She had completely forgotten.
She ran out of the building, with Catwoman closely behind her. They dashed to the battle scene… and stopped dead at what they saw.
Batman lay on the ground, bleeding and beaten.
Prometheus stood over him, his staff stained with blood.
Diana and Catwoman's eyes widened.
"That's five…" Prometheus said…
TO BE CONTINUED
