I OWN NOTHING

The six remaining League members watched Hal put Flash in a green ring bubble and fall off the staircase, freefalling several thousand feet before rocketing east. The sleek, black Batjet smoothly stopped in front of the six and the top hatch opened, allowing the six to climb inside. "Shotgun," Oliver and Clark exclaimed, taking the seats on either side of Batman. Oliver marveled at the massive number of buttons and controls in front of him, all of which he knew better not to touch. Something he did want to get his hands on was the Ultra Divine Water, or whatever the Saiyan had called it. Anything he could do to have a hope in hell of keeping up with the other seven was worth doing. Despite what they told him, he felt like the weakest link in the group. Trunks sat behind Oliver and Diana sat next to him. Karen sat on the opposite diagonal side, as far away from him as possible. "Strap in," Bruce said bluntly, slamming the gas and blowing the Saiyan into Diana's lap.

Trunks twiddled his fingers on one hand at her with a blush. "Hi."

Diana rolled her eyes and pushed the Saiyan back into his seat. "Bruce, anything we need to know about Chu Chin Li and his school?"

"Yes," Bruce said, "this was the school that taught me all the zodiac styles, ninjitsu, and Wudangquan; it's hidden pretty low in the Mount Wudang valley nestled in the center of the whole Hubei range and its provinces. The students there are headstrong and are itching to test their abilities, and don't underestimate them. They're good, but they can't withstand half the damage we can dish out. If you absolutely must, go easy on them. Stay respectful, and above all else stay quiet. You have no idea how many things I said to the older students that were taken 'the wrong way' from them."

"How long will it take us to get there?" Karen asked.

"Two hours," Clark said, reading the ETA indicator on the GPS panel on the dashboard. "Say, Trunks, would you mind tossing us a few Dynami Beans?"

"I think they're called Senzu Beans," Oliver said.

Clark chuckled. "No, no, we're not starting this."

"Then you should be fine with Oliver saying 'Senzu' instead, cousin," Karen said, leaning forward to kick Clark's chair.

Batman held one hand back and Trunks placed a bean on it. He passed out beans to the rest of the group. "Bon appetit," Trunks said, chucking the bean into his mouth. They were all surprised at how full they all felt within five minutes as well as feeling they had caught up on their sleep. Trunks looked at the board and at Diana. "Diana, do you wish to settle that score?"

"Not now," Karen said, starting a game of solitaire. "Can't your Scouter do that?"

"Actually," Trunks smirked, projecting a cute chessboard with doll-like chess pieces on the wall of the jet.

Karen looked at the Scouter and back at the Saiyan. "You know what? I might actually get one when it comes-"

Trunks tossed her a blue Scouter.

"Just stop it!" Karen exclaimed. "And you already gave me and Diana one! You even built a yellow one for Bruce!"

"He wears it," Trunks said, looking down, "sometimes."

"I'll take it," Clark said, fastening the blue piece of equipment on his face. "Thanks, Trunks; even with the Kryptonian technology Karen showed me when she arrived on Earth, this is pretty cutting edge."

"That is a dull edge," Trunks' Scouter said, "master Kent."

"Alright," Karen said with a grin. "Now I really want to wear it."

The group shared a laugh and fell into silence with the occasional grunt or scoff from the battle of wits being played on a red holographic chessboard. "Hey!" Oliver said, turning around in his seat and waving his smartphone at them. "The latest episode of It's Always Rainy in Boston just dropped, and the Batjet has wifi, so-"

"Well what are you waiting for?" Diana said excitedly. "Trunks, a draw?"

Trunks quickly went over the board. She would have won this time. He also had no idea what 'Always Rainy in Boston' was, but the League wasn't wrong about shows before. "No, you win. I pigeonholed myself. Netflicks, It's Always Rainy in Boston, latest, watch."

"Before you start that," Bruce said, "we're going to drop on the peak of the western mountain of the range, Mount Jiquan. We need to get clearance to enter the valley by the warrior guards. There won't be any time drains or anything like that, unless Sifu upgraded his security."

"Why would a school be so secretive?" Trunks asked. "I'd get it if you were a turtle-themed hermit living on an island, but a big school?"

Bruce's eyes narrowed and his glare could be seen from the reflection on the window, making the Saiyan and all who looked upon it shiver. "It's because that school is targeted."

"By who?" Trunks asked.

"The League of Assassins," Batman said, "my old mentor, Ra's al Ghul, runs the organization and it's estimated by Robin that they kill one hundred people every month. You've already defeated one of their members with Oliver."

"Yeah, remember Merlyn? That archer dork? When you blew our cover because you're such a damn nerd?" Oliver said.

"I remember a stormtrooper archer, yes," Trunks said. "He's an assassin when you're a Super Saiyan."

"I'm already blond, pretty boy," Oliver said, laughing at the scowl he slapped on the Saiyan's face.

Karen laughed. "Nice one. Finally."

"According to Richard Dragon and again by Bronze Tiger-they were both fellow students of Chu's and they teach whenever they visit from the States-there was an attack by ninjas in black and gold upon the compound. Needless to say, with the three of us there," Batman smirked, "you can guess how that turned out."

"Do you think we'll be attacked upon landing?" Diana asked.

"Possibly," Bruce said, "but unless they send in the black or red belts, it's nothing we can't handle. Some of these assassins are metahuman or masters of stealth, and with a suspected man whose name rhymes with Tex Muthor giving them Kryptonite and weapons specifically designed to take out the likes of us, we need to take a confrontation with them the with the same level of caution when handling any supervillain."

"Lex Luthor is funding an assassin group?!" Trunks said. "When I met the guy at that tech expo, he seemed like a shady guy, but enough to fund 1200 deaths a year?"

Karen and Clark groaned. "You don't know the half of it," Karen said, "he's made it his life's goal to kill my cousins and I because he's jealous over having no powers; he thinks everything was given to us because of it and he resents us for it."

"Don't forget the part where he thinks the League is more of a danger than a help," Clark said, "Darkseid would have come here with or without us, and if I remember correctly, Luthor was hiding in his compound waiting for everything to blow over."

"He's a fool blinded by envy," Diana said, "no one here ever engages in business with LexCorp. The League is on an official boycott of all their products."

Karen shrugged. "Someone would have to buy them first, other than the militaries."

"Militaries?" Trunks said.

"His dad was part of Reagan's cabinet during the Iran-Contra affair; since then, LexCorp and WMD's have become one and the same," Karen said, "Lex told me that his daddy sold millions of firearms to the Soviets and their middle-eastern comrades, and that he funded Bin Laden until his death due to alcoholism. Right now, he's setting up a working nuclear program for the North Koreans. That giant robot thing you and Kara fought? That was LexCorp."

"Damn, really?" Oliver said, turning in his chair. "Karen, how'd you get that out of him?"

Karen giggled. "He's always flirting with me at these expos, so one day I told him I was into bad boys to get details on his next plot to destroy me. As you can see, I'm still here, so I got a bit more than expected and stopped him on a 'hunch' next time Power Girl saw him."

"He'll try to bed anything that moves," Diana said, "you all have no idea how many times he's given me his phone number even after I send him to jail, Kara, Dinah, and Zatanna too."

Clark snorted. "He tried to take advantage of Kara and Jimmy's arguments during an interview with the Daily Planet. Disgusting."

"I'm getting sick just thinking about it," Oliver said, "so let's stop thinking about it."

The rest of the heroes nodded in agreement.

"But, hold on," Trunks said, "how does he keep getting out of jail if-"

"Money," Karen said. "He's almost as rich as Bruce Wayne," she said, "whose office you have to be in on the fourth for final negotiations and launch day of your products. You probably forgot. I'm a CEO of a different company so don't think I'll be constantly reminding you of what you have to do." She took out more business papers from the dashboard she had left and walked back to her seat.

He did forget. He looked down again in self-disappointment. "Sorry; things have spiraled out of control lately."

"Don't apologize, that means death," Karen warned, crossing her legs to support the pile of work.

"So are we gonna watch the show or…" Oliver said.

"Karen's working, so not out loud," Trunks said. "Tap the black button on the side of your Scouter."

Oliver fastened his Scouter to his face and clicked the black button. A small latch in the top of the earpiece opened and a padded, cushioned earphone popped out on a retractable headset, attaching itself to Oliver's other ear. "And you didn't tell me about this… why?"

"It ruins the self discovery," Diana said.

"It's actually one of the easter eggs," Trunks said.

"I prefer chocolate bunnies," his Scouter said.

"Nobody asked you what you prefer!" Trunks snapped. He turned to Diana. "I want another rematch."

Diana shrugged. "You live to lose, I guess."

The rest of the jet ride was spent in an intense collision of a mind sculpted by the gods and a mind forged of the will of man, each win or loss on either party begging the question of the use of a different strategy producing the same outcome. The dip of the jet downward indicated that playtime was over, so they settled for another Amazonian victory. It tied up the total score yet again. They looked out the windows and the Saiyan felt a tad nostalgic seeing the tall, skinny, misty mountains covered in jungle terrain stretching far past the horizon. Trunks saw the familiar gray skies the generally meant a quiet drizzle was approaching; it had been raining a lot lately, but this would be the most calm. They passed mountain after mountain until they reached a square of four peaks of fatter mountains, and in the center was a valley. Connecting the peaks together were four tall, white brick walls, like on a Ming Dynasty castle, with red columns at each corner peak and square tower spires. As they passed overhead, they looked down upon a lush, beautiful jungle valley surrounding a large, square temple also protected by four white walls and red corner spires. In the center toward the back was the dojo building itself standing at six stories tall with the same design as the outer walls, each level shrinking to form a concave trapezoid. The grounds outside it were split into three parts: the left was dedicated to physical training as line after line of students let out their battle cries with each kick, the right was filled with weapon-wielding students in orange and red training Saams, kung fu uniforms as American students might call them, and traditional black and white running shoes, and the center was one long obstacle course split into two lines for racing. The plane touched down on a dry rock clearing halfway up one of the mountains facing the front of the dojo and the group of six hopped out.

"Could you have parked any farther?" Oliver asked.

"Let's get moving," Bruce said, pulling out a foot and a half long stick and flicking it once. It dropped onto the rock and rolled out into a paper thin but sturdy black hoverboard big enough for two people with no rocket engines. "Oliver, hop on."

"Magnets?" Trunks guessed. "That must pretty powerful."

"Didn't China do that already?" Oliver asked, climbing on the back of the hoverboard with Bruce in front.

"It's laced with Kryptonite; it's highly propulsive to iron-metalloid compounds which comprise most of the Earth's crust, but I bet you already knew the latter part of that," Superman said, "this was the project Batman and I worked on together. I wore a hazmat suit during the engine installation part, of course."

"You're into mechanical engineering stuff?" the Saiyan said. He was pretty surprised and happy about it too; besides for his mom and Gohan, there weren't too many people from back home that appreciated a good garage session with tools and fire as a way to destress.

"One day, I'll show you the inside of the Fortress of Solitude and let you answer your own question," Clark said. "Maybe if we have time, we could craft something cool for the Watchtower."

"Definitely!" Trunks said.

"Follow me," Batman said before zipping up the jungly mountainside. The four flyers trailed behind him through lush rainforests, passing a myriad of animal and plant species that gave the jungles life.

They stopped about sixty meters away from a red spire that looked much higher up close. Two walls of muscle with bladed bo staffs guarded a bamboo drawbridge, standing perfectly straight at attention. Bruce noticed the flag of the dojo, an orange flag with two red swords crossing a shield, was at half mast on the top of the spire. "Why are the flags like that?" Diana asked.

"It means that a member of the dojo has died," Bruce said grimly, remembering the times he had to help dig the graves of his schoolmates. Bruce concealed his hoverboard and started walking toward the gate. "Zhang, Kuan," Bruce shouted, getting the guards' attention.

The guards spun their staffs and fell into a thrusting stance with their blade. "Guolai," they said, beckoning them over.

The six League members walked up a narrow passage to the drawbridge. The jungle became eerily quiet during their passage, and at the bottom of his gut, something told the Saiyan he was being watched. The Scouter wasn't beeping, he didn't sense any human energy in the forest surrounding him either. Maybe it was this style of training that allowed Batman to escape all of his sensory abilities. The real question was if the hidden eyes belonged to the students here, or if they were being tracked by assassins waiting for their next move. Bruce walked up to the guards. "Wo shi Bianfu," he said, which Trunks translated it to "I am the Bat."

Zhang and Kuan looked at each other shiftily and looked upward toward the top of the wall, nodding once. The drawbridge fell with a loud thud and they waved the League inside.

"One second," Batman said, suddenly whipping a volley of black and red Batarangs over his shoulder into the jungle on either side of the path followed by nine thuds. Holy shit, the Saiyan thought; he no longer felt watched. "Alright. Come on."

"Whoa," the Saiyan said with a chuckle, following him inside. They climbed up a spiral staircase and onto the wall, watching sentinels built like Zhang and Kuan march from wall to wall. Some of the guards stopped as Bruce walked onto the wall and bowed out of respect.

"Bianfu," they said, stepping out of his way before continuing with their duties.

Bruce stopped in the center of the wall where a zipline with several twists and turns around the compound waited for them to use. It was built like a loop with a fast end taking riders down and a slow end returning the handles up. "Chu should be inside his temple," Bruce said, ignoring the zipline altogether and using his sturdy cape as a gliding device that carried him safely to the ground several hundred feet below. Oliver used the zipline while the other four just jumped, landing with shockwaves as their feet hit the ground. They continued following Bruce to the bamboo gate blocked by four black belt sentinels. "I'm here to see Sifu Chu," Bruce said.

The sentinels pointed their staffs at his partners.

"Zhèngyì Liánméng," Bruce said, roughly translating to "League of Justice" according to Diana.

The guards nodded and pulled open the gates and the six walked in, traveling between the two obstacle courses. Bruce took them to the weapon group, walking through the lines of students to a tall, bronze-skinned muscular man in a steel orange and black tiger helmet with glowing, yellow eyes. He wore black pants and a red belt with Chinese running shoes and carried a copper-hilted jian with a silver blade with a bronze flat end. "Bronze Tiger," Bruce said, stopping the shouting instructor as he appeared from the front line of students. "Long time no see. I didn't know you would be up here so early this year."

Bronze Tiger raised his sword, silencing the students after a loud "Shi, Sifu!" in unison. "Hello, Black Bat," he said bitterly in a deep, slightly raspy voice, with his fists clenched and his breaths quick and shallow. "It was a special occasion, something you and Richard were invited to this morning. You would think Master Chu's pet wouldn't blow it off."

"Special occasion?" Bruce said. "Where's Red Dragon?"

"Richard went home after the event," Bronze Tiger said, turning to his students again, "and since you're here now: you missed it, so you can go home."

Bruce stepped in front of him and looked up at his former classmate. "I was in a position this morning that prevented nearly all forms of communication." His eyes narrowed and his face hardened into his eerie glare. "Where is Master Chu?"

Bronze Tiger looked down at Bruce. "You had your chance to see him. Go home."

"I'm going to ask this one more time," Bruce said, staying calm and collected as always. "Where is Master Chu so I may speak with him?"

"You wanna see him?" he said, quickly shouting orders to his students to practice thrusts and slashes. "Come with me. In fact, bring the rest of your club of clowns to see him too. Just warning you, he isn't going to talk much!"

Bruce opened his mouth to inquire what his classmate's problem was, and then shock and the answer slapped him in his face. He looked up at the flag at half-mast in the light rain and took off toward the dojo. The rest of the League and Bronze Tiger followed Bruce inside the creaky, quiet first floor of the dojo, dim and burning with incense, and stomped their way up the stairs at the side of the doorway on the inside. Batman ran as fast as he could up the flights until hitting a sliding wooden door.

"Black Bat!" Bronze Tiger said. "Wait! It's better if I-"

"You've said enough," Batman snapped, whipping open the door. It was the first time the Saiyan and Oliver had seen the stoic Dark Knight so emotional, and it scared them. He went completely silent and slowly stepped forward into the small bedroom Chu lived in. It wasn't an extravagant setup: a bed near the back of the room with a small bedside table, a black teapot and cup set on a cluttered bamboo desk with a rickety chair and candle, and a small, oval rug in the center of the room made the room cozy and welcoming, but the sight on the bed was anything but. It was a white casket with the top closed and pink roses resting on the top with pictures of an elegant man with a thin face, onyx eyes and a long, flowing white beard surrounding it.

Diana gasped and held her breath, backing out of the room with the rest of the League.

"Batman," Bronze Tiger said, grabbing Bruce's arm as he headed toward the casket.

"I have to see!" Bruce whipped his arm back, throwing his classmate out of the room. He rushed to the bed and slid the top of the casket down, seeing the pale, blue-lipped, cold face of his late master. He quickly examined the body, seeing no signs of struggle or murder. He cradled Chu's head in one hand and tilted the head back, tapping Chu's lymph nodes and shining a flashlight in Chu's eyes feverishly like a surgeon operating on his own father. "Wait," Bruce said under his breath, shining the light at his forehead. He wiped his thumb across Chu's forehead, revealing a distorted X in gray marker on his forehead. He remembered that sign, and two certain al Ghul's would have to answer for it. "Saiyan, do you still have that compound analyzer in your Capsule? I need you to take his blood sample and confirm what type of poisoning this is. Someone poisoned his tea with batrachotoxins, by my hypothesis."

Trunks silently walked over to Bruce's master. "The ceremony was this morning," Bronze Tiger said, "his granddaughter went to check on him late last night and noticed he wasn't breathing. Are you thinking it was one of Ra's' bastards?"

"I do," Bruce said, his voice beginning to rise in anger, "and I know exactly where to go and what to do to draw the big man himself out. I'm going to make him pay for this, and I think it's only fair if you and Richard join me in dishing out as much pain to them as inhumanly possible."

When Bruce got like this, which he rarely ever did, people ended up hurt. It wasn't the good guys, but Clark was worried that this might take him down an all too familiar path. "Batman-"

"It's a worthy investigation to disprove the League of Assassin's involvement with Darkseid," Bruce justified. "If you don't want to go, that's fine. Robin and I will go with Tiger and Richard."

Bronze Tiger put a hand on Bruce's shoulder. "I'm ready. When are we leaving?"

"In two weeks," Bruce said, standing up and taking the analyzer syringe from the Saiyan's hands. He read the results and handed it back to Trunks. "Right now, I need to know where Chu kept his prized possessions."

Bronze Tiger surveyed Bruce's guests. "Justice League business?"

Bruce nodded and put the top of the casket back on his master. He bowed to Chu one last time. "The fate of the world depends on it. You know, if you tried out for the League, you would probably get in."

"I'm thinking about it," Bronze Tiger said, "same with Richard. Don't think we've forgotten your proposals." He walked to Chu's desk and pulled out a small notepad, scribbling coordinates on it. "Take this. Go there, and don't get followed."

"What will happen to the dojo now?" Bruce asked.

"Chu's son, Li Wang, will take over," Tiger said. "Besides for us, he's the only one who could possibly match Chu in combat."

"I will be there for Li's indoctrination," Bruce said. The two old classmates bowed to each other and Bruce turned to his teammates. "The jet is waiting outside. This next trip won't take more than an hour." He led them outside and back inside the Batjet.

"Look, Bruce," Diana said, "if you ever want to talk about it-"

"I don't," Bruce said, making himself even more cold and distant. No one could blame him. They had all experienced pain that was at least similar, they guessed, but his relationship with Chu was something never talked about, not because it was forbidden, but that it was never brought up. Bruce hit the gas and pulled the jet upward, throwing them into the rainy sky. The rain had picked up while they were inside the dojo, filling the silence with hard drops of rain.

"So," Oliver said, "where to next?"

Bruce here. Rest in Peace, Chu. I'll avenge your death and prevent the deaths of billions.