This chapter goes out to everyone who told me that I needed to explain the differences between my AU world and the JL cartoon, I did it just for you. Therefore there are references to Starcrossed and Maid of Honor, I'm not filling in every single hole because I'm a big fan of reader imagination but hopefully this will get us all on the same relative page.
It was the first time that Batman had been back in the company of the League since their unfortunate argument a few days previous but he was too distracted by the situation at hand to bother with their quick looks of anger.
Lex Luthor was running for president.
Batman kept a running list of things that could go wrong on the Batcave computer, it self-updated twice daily based on current events in the news and the reports he entered nightly. It included everything from an army of rogue Supermen to tiny pirates riding on the backs of ferrets to every Time Travel quandary he could think of. This scenario always made the top ten when organized by 'worst case scenario'.
Skirting the rubble that was the former League conference table Batman ran a search through all the major news sites and came up with a quick tally of events. Luthor was apparently running for president based on the current administrations' ineffectiveness at working properly with metas. Batman spared a short moment for the irony then continued. Unfortunately Luthor was running his campaign on an 'anyone can turn around, we can all rise from the ashes of our past mistakes' kind of platform which Batman suspected would actually appeal to quite a portion of the American population. Worst of all though was that Luthor was funding his campaign almost entirely on his own fortune, Batman couldn't cut Luthor off from his own funds quite as easily as he could have persuaded others not to fund him.
Superman was literally shaking in his bright red boots with anger, "How does he think that he has any chance of making this work? The man is a menace who's gotten off on more than a few technicalities. I should go out there right now and expose what he is to the people."
Batman thought about commenting but J'onn spoke up, "I'm afraid you cannot do that Superman."
"It would be simple," Superman plotted, "save a man falling off a building, bring him down, happen to mention to the press that Lex Luthor tried to kill me multiple times. Problem solved."
"The League doesn't get involved in matters of politics," J'onn reminded him, "we need to stay neutral."
"But its Luthor," Superman yelled, "the man is unfit for presidency."
Batman turned from the monitors and folded his cape around him, eyeing Superman, "You'll be kicked out of the League."
The others looked shocked, "We'd never do that!" Flash objected.
"It doesn't matter what you want to do," Batman said coldly, "the paperwork clearly states the punishment for choosing to back a politic figure in an election. The League cannot afford to make political enemies, the League cannot be trusted to maintain its neutrality otherwise. We need to be able to work with whoever is in power, wherever they are in the world if we want to do our jobs."
His words silenced their objections, of course they all wanted to do their jobs.
Flash tried again, "Yeah but, who'd know about the paperwork?"
"We would," Diana sighed, "we can't claim to stand for truth and justice while we're lying and breaking our own, unfortunately important rules."
"But we can't sit around and do nothing," Superman said, "Luthor must be dealt with."
"Agreed," Batman surprised them. Then he did something that they rarely saw him do, putting a hand to his ear, Batman flinched in pain. Surprisingly the red and blue superhearing duo did the same.
"What was that?" Diana asked emphatically.
Batman turned quickly, "I have to go."
"But Luthor…" Superman protested.
"I'll deal with it," Batman snapped, "like I always do." He swept out the door calling behind him, "and stay out of Gotham."
Bruce barely managed to keep himself from running out of the conference room to the teleporter when the Batcave's alarm went off, but he still made it faster than a human should have. Entering his emergency bypass code into the teleporter he appeared in a dark corner of the cave specifically designed for sneak entrances such as this. The Cave appeared quiet but Batman knew that meant nothing, anyone who had gotten in here would be a professional. Bat-a-rangs in hand he rounded the Cave's corners so silently even a ninja would have been jealous.
He caught a noise by the BatComputer and crept forward with the intention of knocking the intruder unconscious then stopped abruptly at the scene in front of him. There was a Bat-a-rang embedded in one of his computer screens, one of the more expensive ones part of his brain noted, and standing on his chair trying to remove it was one Kayla Wayne.
"What," Batman growled, "Is going on here?"
Kayla didn't jump but remained focused on the shattered screen in front of her, "There may have been a small incident involving boredom, bat-a-rangs, curiosity and pride."
"You're standing on my chair," the growl said.
Sarcasm dripped out of the girl's tone, "I'm sorry you're right, I should have stood on the computer keyboard." Without waiting for a reply she continued, "Tim's at school, Alfred's been out all day doing errands, you'll edit the camera sound feed so don't tell me that I broke character, you have no idea how sick I am of using the word 'like' and giggling. It's fine in moderation but you seriously have no idea what it's like to be forced to be an idiot." She gave up on the bat-a-rang and dropped into the chair with a plop, "at least you choose to act like a fop and it only has to be for 10% of the time. Imagine doing it all day, with everyone."
Batman pulled back the cowl and finally allowed himself to sigh, "You set off the silent alarm."
"Did I?" She shrugged, "I'll let Barbara know that she was wrong about the code."
Bruce raised an eyebrow and she explained, "She's been teaching me how to hack." At the look on her father's face she continued, "I'm bored! Bored out of my brain! You and Barbara are the only ones I can actually talk to and you're both always working so it's either learn about what you're doing or sit around and memorize fashion magazines for the fifth time."
Bruce observed his daughter and a small smile quirked at the corner of his mouth, "How's that going?"
Kayla smirked back, "I can now name any big name designer on site, I can safely tell you that your Batsuit isn't grey it's called 'Bleached Shadow' and I know other various, pointless facts about fashion, partying and manners. Everything a good little rich girl should know." Then the grin turned dangerous, "not that I intend on being the good little rich girl often."
"Duly noted," Batman said with less fear than he felt, "Care to explain why there's a bat-a-rang in the computer now?"
"Not particularly," she said innocently.
His eyes narrowed, "too bad, out of my chair."
She hopped out of the way while he brushed past her, "Ok fine, there's a slight chance that I wanted to see if I could throw one of those properly."
"Clearly you can't."
"Obviously," she sighed, "I thought it would be easy too, I mean I mastered the grappling hook in twenty minutes."
The Bat voice came back, "You've been touching the grapples?"
The blue eyes widened, "Noooooooooooo."
"And just how long were you 'practicing' with the bat-a-rangs."
The blue eyes dropped to the floor, "An hour and a half," she flashed him her best Wayne smile, "the batmobile needs a new tire, I cracked two of the costume cases, severed the rope on the trapeze and lost a dozen to the roof and walls of the cave."
The glare that caused the Justice League to quake hardly dazed the eighteen year old before him as she tried to look repentant but obviously found the whole thing funny.
"You're cleaning the cave tonight, top to bottom, with a toothbrush."
"Slightly harsh," Kayla complained.
He gave her his best 'I am your father and you will listen to me' glare, "I warned you about touching this stuff. You cannot under any circumstances get involved in the life of Batman."
She bite her lip and thought about it, the look was so reminiscent of her mother that for a moment Bruce ached, she broke his train of thought by saying, "I'll stop touching this stuff if you'll promise to always answer me truthfully with more than two words when I ask a question."
"Deal," he said knowing that it was simple matter to turn everything into three word answers.
Her eyes gleamed and he sensed that perhaps she'd anticipated his strategy, "Why was the League really here for the party?"
"My secret identity." He turned towards the computer, examining the remaining screens.
"They don't know it?"
"No, they don't."
"Do you know there civilian ids? No don't answer that, of course you do. Why won't you tell them your identity?" Kayla queried.
He said it like it should be obvious, "Keeps us safe."
"But they're your friends," she screeched slightly, "the Justice League, they're not about to sell you out or anything. You've known them way longer than you've me or even Tim I bet."
Batman didn't say anything as he ordered a new table for the League conference room. So Kayla rephrased as a question, "Do you want to tell them?"
There was a small hitch in the typing, "Irrelevant, I can't."
"Okay, so you want to tell them." Kayla grinned at his side profile, "but you haven't. Have you ever come close?"
"The Thanagarian Invasion."
She threw herself into his line of vision, eyes determined, "There's a story there. Look just tell me this one with more than three words, I promise that I'll go back upstairs right after."
He considered her for a moment then began, "A day after the Thanagarian army first landed on Earth and announced their 'peaceful intensions' Shayara came to the League privately and told us the truth about what they were doing. We then prepared a plan to take the Thanagarians down from the inside. Unfortunately the Commander became wise to her betrayal, captured her and set his army against us. We were forced to make a run for it. In order to escape a there was a plan proposed to pass ourselves off as ordinary civilians. Before we could implement I the Thanagarian army burst into our hiding place, we were forced to fight them off. Flash, J'onn and I stole a plane and eventually dropped the Watchtower on their base."
"And people blame Shayara?" Kayla was outraged, "she betrayed her own people to save us!"
"People see what they want to see," Batman went back to his typing, "You know that as well as anyone."
She quieted immediately, "Ok, I guess I'll go up as promised. But I was like totally hoping that your story would be more cute and like less military." Her voice rose progressively as she said the words.
Batman listened to her go, then just before she got to the stairs Bruce said, "There was one other time." The footsteps stopped, "I was in Paris checking on a Kasnia operation using a Bruce Wayne party as a cover. About half an hour in Wonder Woman showed up despite not being on any of the guest lists. She walked into the room and was immediately accosted by the crowds. I almost went over to rescue her, to ask her to dance, but I held back. Later that night I was forced to meet her in her hotel room as Batman to discuss the case I was working on."
"A dance is hardly telling your secret," Kayla said softly.
Bruce stared at the screen, "She would have figured it out, I wasn't, I wasn't my usual playboy that night and seeing two prominent Gotham figures in such short succession." Batman shook his head to clear it, "she's smart enough to figure it out given that scenario."
The cave rang with silence.
"Now go upstairs," came the curt order.
She paused on the last step, "Goodnight Bruce, stay safe."
Diana was having an interesting evening, she was about to meet 'Clark Kent' for the first time. In an effort to calm Superman down from his current bout of 'Luthor-rage' as Flash called it, Diana had asked Superman how she was going to get the requested date with Steven Walters. He in turn had suggested that she meet him in Metropolis as he 'had an idea about that'. Perhaps in light of current events determining Batman's identity should have fallen by the wayside but Diana found it a useful distraction, and she was hardly going to back away from a true challenge. She sipped her iced mocha and ran a hand over the new pair of blue jeans, unused to the feeling.
"Diana," a friendly voice called. She searched for the source and then proceeded to almost bust a gut laughing at it.
The man in question tried to look offended but his natural congenial nature shone through, "It's not that funny."
Diana glanced over him again, noting everything from the slouch to the clothes to the glasses. The frames were large and outdated, the suit was one size too big and the man who usually towered above everyone was now at eye level. "It most certainly is funny. How does that fool anyone?"
"They're not looking for anything," he shrugged, "besides when I'm standing next to Lois no-one notices me."
"The Man of Steel is a mild mannered reporter," Diana chuckled, "who would have guessed. Maybe I should get myself a pair of glasses and walk onto the Watchtower," she teased, "I bet everyone would sound the intruder alert, Kal."
"Clark," he reminded her, "Clark Kent, you can't slip that up when we get there."
She gamely followed him down the road, "So tell me Clark," she emphasized, "how do you know Steven Walters?"
"I don't," he admitted, "I typically stay far away from Gotham city but Lois did the beat over there back in her early days. She may have a contact we can use. Fair warning," he winced, "she's a little intense. She's been on my case since she told me that she knew about the whole Clark Kent/ Superman thing."
Diana thought about it for a moment, "You probably deserve it."
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