I do not own Dragonball Z, Batman Beyond, Justice League, or X-Men Evolution

Chapter 17: Invitation

The Justice League Watch Tower lay in ruins around the teleporter pads as the familiar blue and speckled lines of light delivered the dark and imposing figure of Batman onto it. Even as the blue light faded from around him, Terry immediately switched his visor's vision over to night. As would be expected aboard a doomed structure, every one of the overhead lights was out leaving the place just shy of pitch black. Even the standard flashing red emergency lighting was nonfunctional here which made navigating in the collapsing place a far more difficult task.

"We need to make this quick," Bruce said into Terry's comm as Terry climbed and slid through all the rubble that made up the teleportation bay. Unlike the teleportation bay on Metro Tower, the new Watch Tower, which had been rebuilt after the nearly cataclysmic alien invasion, had been built with the teleport bay in a side room not far from the bridge which helped with added security and lockdown options if invaded. Of course, there had been a few other major changes to the Watch Tower as well.

"What life support systems are left are failing rapidly," Bruce continued. "As is the artificial gravity. You have maybe twenty minutes before they fail entirely and you are left without air. Maybe a few minutes more with your suits own life support but that's not designed for complete vacuum."

"And that won't help Micron when I find him," Terry agreed as he slide through one final opening in the mayhem and to the partially closed door.

"If he is still alive," Bruce added darkly.

Terry didn't answer but he could feel a grimace crease his face. With both hands, Terry forced the door open and stepped into the short hallway and, after only a few steps, into the immense bridge. It was vast compared to its predecessor, scaling easily ten stories high and just over 160 meters at its widest point Terry knew. Like the original Watch Tower, it had been crewed by hundreds of technicians and engineers to maintain the base as well as monitor all potential threats on Earth and beyond. Of course, the vastness of the bridge was distorted somewhat with all of the fallen supports and ceiling chunks that had made an equal disastrous look as the teleport room.

Despite the mess, Terry was drawn to look at the enormous windows that ringed the outer edge of the Watch Tower from the second story up and the view beyond it. A landscape of light grey spread out all the way to the seemingly far-too-distant horizon. Black with sparkling starlight met the moon's landscape that always mesmerized Terry. He looked up to the single window that lay directly atop the bridge, designed to give the crew a perfect, unfiltered look upon the Earth. To Terry, it seemed like such a tiny, fragile thing. But at the same time, the sense of responsibility to it was nearly overwhelming.

His revere was interrupted as his gaze drifted just past the window to the wall that stretched down behind the command bridge. Micron hung limply from the wall, bathed in the Earth light from above. Blood drenched the man and stained the wall from where he hung to the bottom of the command bridge. A square box was bolted to the wall just above Micron that Terry didn't take the time to zoom in on. With a flare of his boots, Terry rocketed upward.

"Be careful, Terry," Bruce cautioned. "Ra's will have set a trap."

"I can't just let him hang there like that," Terry snarled as he approached.

"All I mean is to be mindful," Bruce shot back. "Get him down and get him and yourself out of there."

Terry came a sliding halt in the air in front of Micron. His head hung limply to his chest, either unconscious or dead. His hero's mask that remained attached to the rest of his costume like a hood had been pulled off his head, stretched upwards, and stabbed with a sword that was all too recognizable from which Micron hung. Quickly and without thinking, Terry yanked out the sword and caught Micron before he fell and as he did so, the box above them gave a soft beep and began counting down from thirty.

"There's no surprise," Terry snarled and began to haul it back to the teleporter room.

"No surprise, indeed," Bruce said back. "This is an invitation, as I suspected."

"Some invitation," Terry said back.

"If he were trying to kill you now," Bruce said patiently, "he would have blown the Watch Tower as soon as you pulled down Micron. Not give you thirty seconds and a clock to warn you about it."

"Point," Terry said as he hit the floor and ran through the door into the small hall. "He could have cleared some of this crap out of my way first, though." With the acrobatic skill that Batman was known for, Terry swung, ducked, and leaped through the tangled mess with Micron and landed neatly on the teleporter pad.

"I've got you," Bruce said calmly. "Metro Tower has much better medical resources. Get back to the cave as soon as you can."

Mary Marvel gave a big sigh, leaning forward onto her hands and knees and doing the best she could to catch her breath. A new pile of League of Shadow ninja lay silently on the ground around her. With one hand, she drew back her long sweaty brown hair out of her face. She may be the World's Mightiest Girl but even her endurance had its limits, regardless of what they said about Atlas.

Mary glanced back down at the unconscious Shadows. A long time ago, when she had briefly lost her powers, she had found her older brother's predecessor Black Adam who had granted her his own tainted powers. Like the man who had given her them, the powers she wielded were evil and had lead her into, well there was no need to mince words, a very evil arc of her life. Ever since then, she always had something of an evil angel on her shoulder that whispered evil thoughts into her ear. Now, that evil voice purred at her to kill these ninja and reasoned that many of them were the same ones she had taken out earlier, having regained consciousness and continued on. With a shake of her head, she banished the thoughts.

Behind her, eight men and women huddled close together and doing, what it seemed to Mary, their absolute best to shrink into the darkening night. It struck Mary as slightly ironic to see these heads of state, so often at odds with each other, even at war, holding onto one another this way. Regardless, she had been around long enough by now to know that this kindled friendship was born out of need and as soon as she got them all safe and the crisis was over, they would inevitably go right back into the same routine. Allies of convenience, she supposed.

Long shadows stretched from the distant mountains like clawed fingers reaching for them. Mary knew of course that they were shadows but even still, the imagery was starting to get to her. It was all she could do to keep the eight world leaders from scurrying into the small village a mile or so away that she had not yet been able to verify as trap free.

There were, of course, very few options left at this point. Captain Marvel had given them all assignments after Superman had given him command and teams had been assigned and deployed. Of course, as things had become clearer and clearer as to how wide spread the attack really was, they had been forced to separate into smaller and smaller teams until teams had been abandoned completely. Now it was up to her to keep her party safe from the League of Shadows until she could figure out where the jamming was coming from that would allow her to contact the League's Metro Tower and get them all beamed home.

She eyed the town once more, knowing that they had little choice at this time of day. They would need to make camp and get some sleep, especially since these political types were not use to walking across desert like this. It was a pity that she had not been given the power of X-Ray vision like Superman. Clearing the town would be a much harder to do. With another sigh, she stood straight and turned back to the group.

"We will spend the night in the town," she said. She had found out early on to her embarrassment when she had first shown up to protect them that they understood English when she had tried to quickly teach them commands such as 'stop', 'forward', and 'hide'.

"Night is coming but I have no way to search the town without exposing you all to danger." Her eyes scanned the mountains in the back drop as the sun set behind them, leaving long shadows stretching out toward them like giant claws of some vicious beast. She eyed them suspiciously for a moment before turning her attention to her charges. "Thoughts?"

"Lead," one of them said, stepping forward. "We will follow."

Mary nodded and reluctantly turned to back to the small town. With a deep sigh, she led them down. It was a walk of no more than twenty minutes but even in that short amount of time, the sun hid half of itself behind the mountains, casting the all but a few strips into relatively deep shadow.

They passed under a large stone archway bordered by low stone walls on either side and entered the town. Mary's ears were straining to hear anything that was suspicious. Of course, it was hard to hear anything with the eight other sets of feet sliding and kicking up dirt with each step. They passed several hut like buildings before they came upon a large open area with a single well in the center.

Mary raised a hand to halt the party and then stepped forward into the open area and looked around suspiciously. There was nothing that she could see down any of the other pathways between the buildings. She eyed the well itself suspiciously and slowly walked over to it. The well was held in even deeper shadow than the town itself but even still she could see plainly that there were no enemies hiding in it and hanging on the edge.

She let out a breath she hadn't even known she was holding and looked around the area once more. That was when she heard a scream. Mary whirled around to see one of her charges fall to the ground and grasping at an arrow that now stuck out from his chest.

"Back to the entrance!" Mary shouted and the seven leaders ran for it. Mary spun back around to cover their escape and was just in time to see a veritable wall of League of Shadows threatening to overwhelm them. Mary bit back a curse, knowing that her only real option was a very dangerous one. She shot a glance back at the fleeing men and women. They were nearly out of the town now, racing past the stone archway and beyond. Mary turned back and bit her lip, waiting for the right moment. Just as the first wave of ninja raced past her after their real target, Mary Marvel took in a deep breath.

"SHAZAM!"

A bolt of magical lightning lanced down from the heavens and struck Mary dead center. She flung her arms wide as the bolt hit, a trick she had learned from Black Adam, and sent an enormous magically charged shockwave blasting in all directions. The ninja took the blast full force, completely unprepared for an attack quite like it and were blown hundreds of feet back. The town itself rocked as if a bomb had gone off nearby. Building collapsed under its force all around her and blowing enough dust and rubble outward to block the view of anything else.

Slowly, the dust began to fade from the area. Where the twenty-something Mary Marvel had previously stood, a woman in her fifties now occupied the spot kneeling down and coughing from the dust. Slowly, the older woman stood up and brushed back her graying hair and grimaced.

Unlike her brother Billy, who when he was young always transformed into the adult Captain Marvel, Mary had never grown into an older body when she transformed herself. Instead, as she grew older through time, her body would return to its prime. That meant that when she banished her powers for one reason or another, she would return to the aging woman she had become in the near thirty years. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Mary glanced over her shoulder and was relieved to see the heads of the seven remaining leaders peering over the edge of the stone wall that flanked the archway and looking around furtively. She opened her mouth to call upon her powers once more but a ninja leaped at her from behind and, with a piece of torn off clothing, pulled a gag through her open mouth and choked her silent. Before she could do any more than panic, another ninja raced toward her with a dagger and stabbed her in the stomach.

Mary screamed out in pain, the sound choked by the gag. Her eyes slammed shut and squeezed out tears that she would never feel. Distantly, she could hear the screams of the others and sharp scuffling noises near her head to which she paid no attention too. It felt as though an icy chill was spreading across her stomach but at the same time she could feel the warmth of her own blood oozing out of the wound. She coughed, feeling the warm spatter of blood falling back down onto her face from the act.

Abruptly, someone was kneeling down next to her, speaking words urgently but Mary couldn't understand. In the back of her mind, she wondered curiously who was talking. She could never remember a Shadow that spoke. She opened her eyes slowly and tried her best to blink away the tears. Slowly, the young face of Mareena came into view. The sudden shock of it focused Mary enough to hear the words she was trying to say.

"It's alright, Mary," Mareena was saying. "We have you. You will be find. Just hold on."

"Alright, Ra's," Terry said into the silence of the empty factory, turning a slow circle as he walked to keep an eye all around him. "Your little distraction with your assassin's failed and even as we speak the Justice League is regrouping to come looking for you. I would rather you and I bring this to a conclusion face to face before that happens."

Terry continued on through the darkened building. He knew Ra's was here, or rather, trusted in Bruce's detective work and instincts enough that he accepted it as truth. He adjusted his path slightly to avoid a ladder that connected the main floor to the walkway that circled the largest of the work rooms. Even in the dark, Terry could see the many scrap marks on the old fashioned wood floor from where the large printing machines that usually occupied the space had been slid aside. Looking to either side, Terry could see the machines themselves up against the walls.

"Come on, Ra's," Terry said. "Please don't make me break out the cliché's."

In front of Terry, a soft chuckle broke the silence. "I do have to say, you continue to impress," Ra's said. Terry scanned the darkness in front of him and finally caught sight of Ra's as he dropped down from the walkway to the floor in a plume of dust and woodchips that brought a slight haze to his form. Terry narrowed his eyes, not impressed.

"You show so much promise," Ra's continued, removing his shirt and drawing his signature blade. "I would say you live up to the original detective and almost every way, indeed."

"I am so glad you approve," Terry responded sarcastically. "You really have this way with your monologues."

"So allow me to get to the point, then," Ra's said and snapped his fingers. Light flickered on all around the warehouse; dull, diffuse, and turned on one at a time with the echoing clanking sound that seemed well suited to the situation.

Terry glanced around slightly as the light began to illuminate his area but never letting Ra's out of his peripheral vision. Black clad ninja ringed the area, arms folded across their chests. More stood on the walkway overhead that Ra's had jumped down from. They too stood unthreatening, yet their mere presence was threat enough for Terry. As the final light flickered on, Terry could see three bags hanging in the background behind. Terry narrowed his eyes, allowing his mask to zoom in them and even in the darkness that still shadowed that area Terry could easily recognize the red hair of his mother, Mary McGinnis, the black hair of his brother Matt, and Dana's own black hair. Each were bound like mummies, each with a gag in place but he could just as clearly see the terror in each's eyes.

"I will KILL you!" Terry roared. "You brought my fa-"

"Uh-uh-uh," Ra's cut him off before he could reveal his identity to his mother and brother without thinking. "This is how this works, my friend. I have brought these three citizens of Gotham here for one purpose. You showed me that you would do anything to save the lives of people you care about. Even transcend your own limitations that you imposed onto yourself. You must learn to live without those restrictions and I will kill these three if I must in order for you to realize it."

From where they hung, they all made crying sounds, muffled though they were by their gags. Terry glanced up at them, met Dana's terrified eyes, and felt his heart stop. He returned his eyes to Ra's who was watching him coolly.

"So all I have to do is beat you again and you will let them go?" Terry asked, his tone saying clearly that he wouldn't believe it.

"Kill me," Ra's corrected. "You have the power to do it. All you must grasp now is the resolve. Take over my League of Shadows; they will follow your orders if you do. Think of all the good you will accomplish. However, if you fail, then these Gothamites will die alongside you."

Terry ground his teeth together so hard he could actually feel some of them starting to break apart. His mind scrabbled desperately to find another way out of this problem but despite his brief dip in the Lazarus Pit, he was exhausted both mentally and physically.

"It doesn't have to go like this, Ra's," Terry said, trying to buy a little time.

"Yes, it does," Ra's answered definitively.

Ra's raised a hand and every one of his ninja stiffened just noticeably. "Of course, we can do this another way," Ra's said and his ninja closed ranks around them. Terry's eyes darted around in panic, noting that the ring of ninja on the upper level had all pulled out bows from somewhere and were aiming them down at him. There was nowhere out. Terry backed up a step, futile though it was, as they drew ever closer and drew weapons.

Ra's smiled over at Terry. That was when an arm wrapped over Ra's left shoulder and stabbed a dagger into the right side of his chest. Everything in the room came to a sudden stop as they looked over to their master. To his credit, Ra's did not allow the look of shock and pain to remain on his face for long before he turned his head to his right and looked at the person who had betrayed him.

"Who are you?" he asked calmly. "You are not one of mine."

"No," said a cool and dry voice from behind the ninja mask. "But I do thank you for explaining the rules of the League of Shadows to me. I am pleased to know that they will obey me without question once you are dead."

"I see," Ra's said, turning his head forward again to look at Terry. "Someone ambitious then. And what will you do with my League?"

"End all wars," Slade said as he removed the black mask to reveal the one he had made famous underneath it. "The same as you."

"And you intend to do this how, exactly?" Ra's asked.

"Ninja are assassins," Slade said. "I am an assassin. We will make our mark in the world, not from the shadows but from the light. The dawn is coming and we shall rise."

"Don't do this," Terry pleaded. "What you want is nothing more than dictatorship."

"I want a throne," Slade corrected. "I will burn this world down to ashes and what will rise will be a new empire."

"With the help of the Lazarus Pit, no doubt," Ra's said. Even to Terry's ears, he could tell that Ra's was beginning to strain to keep his voice level. Apparently, all of his wounds were beginning to take their toll.

"I have no need for such a tool," Slade said. "I gained longevity another way. I can thank Trigon for that."

Ra's let out a quiet sigh and turned his attention fully onto Terry once more. "This could have all been avoided if you had killed me yourself, Detective. Now, only time will reveal what is in store for this world's future." And with that, Slade slide his katana slowly through Ra's' heart.

Slade's eye focused on the gapping Terry. "And now," he said, "the real story begins."

To be continued…

Dear fans

This has been a really crazy and tough six months for me and I deeply thank you for your continued support and patience as this story continues to develop.

As I continue to recover, I will be doing my best to keep up with the writing. I cannot say that is my best chapter ever, but now I am starting to get back into the swing of things. I am changing a few things up from my overall layout so expect some real action to follow.

Look for an update soon (considerably sooner than this one was :-P)

The Dark Prince