Hey guys,
I've had this idea in my head for a while and I was never sure how to develop it, so I'm just kinda gonna see where it ends up. I'm not a writing person but I just needed to see this down on paper so if anyone wants to do something similar to this, please do because I would love to read it!
I don't own anything
Bruce always had trouble trusting others, or more importantly accepting help from others. He always tended to rely on himself and himself alone when it came to his night life activities. Alfred had always been a backbone for him, but he knew that this isn't what Alfred had in mind when he set out to make Gotham a better place. Maybe he could have been a doctor like his dad or join the police force and try to catch the criminals out in the open, in the daylight.
While his methods and devotion to being the Dark knight can sometimes make him seem scary, violent and even mad, he could clearly see the impact he was having on the people. Many still saw he as a nothing but a legend or a myth, something to tell your children so they would behave. He didn't mind that. In fact, it was probably for the best. Only the people who needed to be scared of him should know he was real, to either scare them straight or lock them up. Probably with a few bruises.
Gotham had seemed to be a place that lost its last string of hope many years ago and all them who grow up and lived within its cemented boundaries all but expect it. Knew when to look away or pay no mind. Not caring, as bad as it sounds, could be the difference between a bad day and your last day. Everyone that moved to Gotham with bright eyes and high hopes always seemed to fall for its traps. Quickly learning its unspoken rules and crushing the dreams they might have once possessed.
But then a darkness embedded itself in the once thought unreformable city and gained the name of Batman. People were not sure of what it was, thinking that 'it can't possibly be human' but this darkness was nothing to fear unless your actions deemed otherwise and put you on his radar, then it was the most terrifying, monstrous thing to ever stare upon (if you ever saw it coming that is). To everyone else Batman was a godsend and the slither of hope started appearing in the hearts of people again and that's all Batman could ask for.
Gotham was the farthest thing from perfect but the people found comfort in knowing that a least someone was standing up for them and looking out for them. Just the thought of it made people want to try and stand up on their feet again for one last go. Batman or Bruce Wayne, felt he was making a different kind of impact to his city in a way a cop or doctor just can't.
He's been the caped crusader for just over four years now and the job just keeps getting harder and more intense. Two years ago he started working with commissioner James Gordon personally. Accounting to Batman's sources and research it seems James never turned his back on the city and worked harder than most in his job, even with the high corruption rate of his fellow officers, James never caved. Batman was finding it hard to work around and avoid the police when trying to lock criminals away, so working with the commissioner was his ticket in.
Batman, even as Bruce Wayne never had many friends but in the two years of meeting on rooftops and discussing cases, he wouldn't call James a friend per say but someone he deeply trusts and respects, but that in itself is the closest thing his had to a friend in years. He also started working with the Justice League Just over a year ago now. The people in the league were not the people he would normally surround himself with. Some he would admit were quite talented in many different fields but others tended to get on his nerves a lot. Most were also some type of meta or alien or something that gave the impression of super, and while he did not allow meta's in his city he couldn't deny their usefulness in high threat situations, even if many of them were still frightened of him. This is where we find Batman sitting in a large meeting room aboard the newly build Watchtower stationed high above the earth's atmosphere.
Batman, Superman, Wonder Women and The Flash sit around the table staring at the monitor in front of them with bits of paper and photos scattered around the bench.
"This has just gotten serious on a catastrophic level" Flash whines with his head between his elbows, face slammed into the table.
Diana sighed, "the simplest way I can see to resolve this, is to physically chase him and drag him back here and into prison. Batman didn't you say Bat-mite owns you a favour?"
Bruce hummed in acknowledgment, but kept his eyes fixed on the papers in front of him. They have been monitoring strange, but small waves of some type of mystic energy coming from an old warehouse on the west coast. They're still not sure if it's meta, magic, electricity or a mixer of the lot, but according to initial scans there was nothing too out of the ordinary and other things had their immediate attention at the time.
What finally drew them to this area was when this energy tripled in power and intensiveness causing the four leagues to scramble to the location to check it out. The only things they found in the building was a portable, square, cell like room connected to hundreds of wires that led to a collection of computers that seemed to be completely burnt out. They were able to pull enough information from the computers to piece together the individual's plan. As far as they were able to recover, the plan was basically to travel into the future and retrieve machinery, possibly weaponry, in which they have no deference against. Barry had gracefully dubbed the man Buck, for they discovered that he was a paid contractor to help his mysterious employer gain their weaponry in exchange for the 'big bucks'.
They needed to deal with this fast, like now fast. It took weeks to get the machine to charge up, but they didn't know when he could pop back up again. Currently, Barry, Diana and Clark were discussing the multiply ways in which to transport themselves into the future at the same time as Buck to optimise the time to catch him as they know for sure it would take him at least two weeks of preparation to travel back. Using the speed force was one of the first ideas to come up but Barry was highly against it as he wasn't well versed in that area at all at the moment and couldn't predict what would actually happen.
Other methods came into the discussion. Magic? Too unpredictable. Somehow build a time machine? Takes too long and no one actually knows how to do that. Which made Diana come back to her original point.
"I still think we should use that favour Bat-mite owes Batman. It would be the simplest option". At this Bruce rose from his seat.
"No, I refuse to use a favour from a being that's too unpredictable and has no regard for anyone or anything other than himself and his entertainment. Do not forget the chaos he and Mister Mxyzptlk has cause us in the past"
"Well yes, while that may be the truth, Bat-mite owes you a favour. And it also means that we can tell him exact instructions so we know where we're going"
"But he is unpredictable, we can't trust that ty-"
"You don't trust anyone and he's the best option we have in this at the limited time frame. He may like to cause chaos but he will keep his word".
What Diana said is the truth and he can't deny that. He points a low level bat stare in her direction, but she doesn't falter. Clark steps in at this and proposes a vote whether or not to use Bat-mite. Diana's hand shots up in favor of Bat-mite and so does Clark's with his signature boy scout smile. Flash also reluctantly puts his hand up sliding slightly behind Diana for some sort of protection from the Dark knight's glare.
Batman lets out a small grumble "fine, but it's not my fault when everything doesn't go to plan".
The four of them leave to collect what they might need for the possible weeks away, which includes gear, gadgets and even money. They just hope whenever they're going the same currency can still be used. At first they were all pretty worried about leaving their cities and the Earth for that matter without four major hard-hitters, but they're sure they can ask to be transported back to either the same time as they left or relatively close to it.
10 minutes later they all met up in the same meeting room ready to call Bat-mite forth.
"um, so how are we meant to do this actually?" questioned Barry
"I think Batman just has to call out to him saying that his ready to cash in the favour" answer Clark, a little unsure.
Bruce choose this time to have his input.
"Yes, but we need to be aware that there is a high possibility that he won't just do everything we request and we need to make sure to ask important questions about his ability to do this and as many as we can, so we know 100% of what we're getting into... or 100% of what his willing to tell us".
"Okay, yup that's for the best but i think we should do this sooner rather than later with our time constraints" said Barry
Batman grumbles once again before stepping forward and announcing
"Bat-mite I need that favour...NOW" he spits out.
In a bright blink the Bat themed imp appears before them, floating just too close to Batman's face. He lets out a low warning growl and the imp flurries back, the amusing smile never leaving his face.
"Ah Batman, the dark knight, the caped crusader, I knew you'd use that favour and I am most happy to oblige"
"What are your abilities in time travel and tracking" Batman asks
You can see Bat-mites interest peek at the mention of time travel. The corners of his mouth twitching even higher and eyes starting to cloud with mischief.
"And here I thought you wanted my help solving a case you just couldn't do without, solve a murder, track down and defeat a bad guy" he starts flying around demonstrating his punches and kicks and bringing his cape above his nose to hide behind it in a classic vampire move. "But you just wanted me for time travel, easy! When you want to go?"
At this Superman steps in
"We need you to transport us to the same time as a man who used this machine.." Superman pulls up a screen containing all the information "and once we have him in our custody, bring us back here, to this time so that not much time has passed here, while we might spend over a week in the future"
"Yup, yup can be done. Finding a time anomaly isn't difficult at all for me! I can even bring you back to this exact time"
"Great" said Clark, satisfied with that answer "well are we ready to go?"
"wait" Bruce called out. "You guys are jumping into this too quickly" he pointed a stare at Superman. "What time period are going to?"
"From what I can tell, only about 20 years in the future" replied Bat-mite, his smile growing at Batman's behaviour.
"Where are we landing?"
"Well, Gotham of course"
"Will the target be close by?"
"Around the same area, yes"
"What do we need to get back here?"
"Ah, just call me like today"
"What will be our conditions be in the future?"
At this Bat-mite stopped and his eyes flicked to the side before answering "maybe a bit of a headache but it shouldn't last long"
"...but? What else aren't you telling us?" Batman pressed. His glare only intensifying at Bat-mites reluctantly to answer.
"Ah you got me Batman! Truly the world's greatest detective!" He did a loop in the air, his smile wide. "I'm not going to be able to transport your bodies into the future, but no worries! I'll just put your mind and souls into people already living in the future" He said with a huge evil looking grin on his face.
"WHAT! Were you not going to release this information to us" Diana rightly shouted
"Unimportant information, don't you think?" bat-mite replied
"No that's really important" Barry called out
"What happens to the citizens?" Batman questions
"BRUCE! you can't be serious" Wonder Women then moves her focus to her brooding colleague.
"Well Wonder Woman if this is the only option shouldn't we take it? This was your idea in the first place" Batman spits emphasizing Diana's hero name, silently calling her out for using names while in the field.
Diana bit her lip in frustration and willed herself to listen to the imp's explanation
"Don't worry, it'll be like they just fell asleep and once you guys return to this time, they'll wake up and forget anything that happened while you were in their bodies"
"Who's bodies are we going into?" Batman further questions
"Ummm I don't really know. Luck of the draw I guess" Bat-mite shrugs his shoulders but his mischievous eyes betray him.
Finally, Batman asks:
"And why can't you take us as well as are bodies?"
" Ah I don't know. Maybe I can't put more physical things from the past in the future or maybe I'm just too lazy or maybe I just don't want to" his grin still plastered in his face.
At that Barry, Diana and Clark began to protest about the stupid reasons for this serious mission. Batman cuts them off explaining they need some time to discuss it.
"Fine but times a ticking, I'll just be over here for when you need me" he winks and floats to a corner of the room, while the four Justice league members move around the table.
"He can't be serious; we would be putting the lives of innocents at danger if this happens" Superman points out.
"Yes and we won't have any of our gear of powers. I don't know how much use we would be " said Wonder Women ignoring the grumble coming from the seat across from her, where Batman sits.
"Plus I don't like the idea of being in someone else's body. Gives me the creeps" Flash shudders at what he just said and stuffs a handful of chips in his month in which his pulled seamlessly out of nowhere.
Batman sits there with his elbows on the table and fingers intertwined with each other as he hums in acknowledgment of their points.
"While I agree this mission is going south very quickly, there are some things we aren't considering. 1, he won't budge on this. Hell he was going to do it without our knowledge. 2, we are running out of time and 3, even if you don't think we can get through this without powers then you shouldn't even be here. Replying too heavily on powers or gadgets will eventually make you weak". They all stared at him. Then the arguing continued.
5 minutes later they walked back over to Bat-mite and agreed to go through with it. The look on Bat-mites face was nothing but pure joy, which didn't make them feel any better. They also agreed to meet at the clock tower site where ever in Gotham they ended up at the next complete hour (since they didn't know what time they would actually be there). They didn't have much time to discuss their plans in detail, but just hoped to track the guy down with whatever resources they had available to them and bring him back before they impacted the lives of the citizens bodies they would be borrowing too much.
"Well then let's get started!" Bat-mite exclaimed. He snapped his fingers and everything went white as the four leagues bodies fell gently to the floor.
I think I went too serious at the start, but we'll see how it turns out. Also, I'm not sticking to any type of timeline so the ages and characters might seem a little out of whack.
Thanks