"Something's up"
Wallace 'Wally' West, known in select circles to be The Flash, jumped a foot in the air and spilled his fourth milkshake. He gathered it back into the cup it had been propelled from just as it began to fall and was back in his seat with a hand to his chest before his surprise companion could tell he'd even moved.
"Jeez Shay, give me a heart attack!"
The Thanagarian across from him didn't apologise nor did she wait for any more input from Wally before taking a seat and continuing;
"The day before yesterday Diana requested an emergency transport and didn't return to the Watchtower for nearly 24 hours"
"So?" In the blink of an eye Wally finished off his sixteenth sandwich, zipped to the cafeteria cabinet and returned to the table with his seventeenth. Shayera long used to his comings and goings continued as though he hadn't moved.
"She then returned yesterday morning only to leave again carrying a bag and accompanied by J'onn"
"Uh OK, and?"
"And don't you want to know where they went?"
"What I want is to finish my lunch before I have to be back at the lab"
Even though it kinda felt like stealing the office printer cartridges Wally made it a habit to eat on the Watchtower as often as he could. For one thing Batman footing the catering bill had seen a sharp uptake in his disposable income, namely he actually had one now. But mostly because, although he doubted anyone would realise or even think of it, the most difficult aspect of maintaining his secret identity was pretending to consume a normal amount of calories.
So in the half hour the Central City Police Dept allotted for lunch, practically a day in speed force time Wally liked to pack in as much as he could in the one place no one really stared at the guy downing fifty-seven burgers.
"Besides" He continued "if you're so worried, check the transport logs"
"I did" Said Shayera
"And?" Wally prompted
"Wiped no record of Diana leaving or returning"
"Well that could be for lots of reasons" Wally offered admittedly a little half heartedly. Shayera for her part looked at him like he was stupid or worse, slow.
"You and I both know there's only one place that's off the record"
"Well yeah but that doesn't mean anything"
"What doesn't mean anything?" Another tray was placed on the table as John took a seat.
"Shayera here thinks there's some conspiracy with Bats and Wondy" Wally waved a hand in her direction
"I didn't say it's a conspiracy" She hissed in response.
"Conspiracy?" Asked John
"It's not a conspiracy" Shayera reiterated
"Well Diana was a little off yesterday" John offered "I ran into her in the halls, said good morning but she was a million miles away"
"Maybe her and Bats went on a mission and that's why she was gone and she was tired yesterday" Said Wally putting forward the most straightforward and logical reason before making another trip to the cabinet to snag the last blueberry muffin. An 'Oh come on!' from Booster Gold followed him back to the table.
"There's no record of either of them in the field" Countered Shayera.
"So? I don't log all my Flash stuff, there's no way Bats logs all his bat stuff. When he's prowling around rooftops or whatever"
"And how do you explain Diana leaving again with a bag and J'onn? Something's going on here and we're out of the loop" Shayera said.
"Well we could just ask them, there's a meeting in two days" John said offering the most practical solution. Wally nodded in agreement and started on his ice cream. Something experience had told him could not be consumed at light speed; so he had only just taken his first mouthful when Shayera pushed up from the table and announced.
"I'm getting to the bottom of this now"
She managed to make it all the way across the cafeteria before either John or Wally fully absorbed and registered her words. When they finally did however Shayera found her path blocked. First by the wall of green light that had taken up residence in the cafeteria's doorway and then by Wally who seemingly appeared from nowhere in front of her, hands outstretched.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa" He said, "You can't just go sniffing around"
"Who said anything about sniffing? I'm going straight to the source"
"You mean?" Wally's eyes went wide and Shayera nodded.
"You wanna take this wall down John?" She asked fingering her mace, "Or should I?"
"You wanna try thinking straight before running off to earth with some half cocked theory?" John asked floating over.
"Especially if the place you're running to is there"
"Yeah you are acting kinda crazy" Aware that Shayera was in contact with her mace and could wield it against him at any moment Wally took the opportunity as he spoke to zip behind John. The hand at her mace did twitch but Shayera refrained from curling it around the handle no matter how tempting.
"You two aren't looking at the big picture here" She said instead.
"Which is?" John asked
"Something is being kept from us and" Shayera took a deep breath to get through what needed to be said next, "I think that if anyone knows the damage that could cause, it's me"
"What you think Wondy's getting the Amazon's to invade and J'onn and Bats are helping?"
Shayera didn't let Wally's remark get to her; his mouth had been known to act before his brain also the elbow to the ribs he received from John was enough.
"So you think Batman, Diana and J'onn are all hiding something from us and whatever that is could damage the League" John surmised. Shayera opened her mouth to try and explain that she felt the hiding itself was what was damaging when Wally stepped out from behind John with a wide-eyed
"Hey you know something?"
He vanished but before either Shayera or John could wonder where he went he was back explaining,
"It's not just them, it's the big guy too! Day before yesterday I ran into him on my way to the transporters and he seemed happy? But not like regular happy, like just got the best news happy, like Lois figured it out and wasn't mad happy. Well I just checked the log and there's no record of him coming aboard the Watchtower, only leaving"
"So that's everyone going to a certain Manor except us" Shayera said.
"Yeah I'm starting to feel a little left out, John?" Wally turned to their groups final member
John looked between his two team mates, both good friends and one a solid 'It's complicated' and tried to think of how to be the voice of reason when his own was telling him they were on to something. Secrets were dangerous things, the League had been torn apart by them once. Even though he did trust Superman, Batman, Diana and J'onn he sighed.
"Alright we'll get some answers but we're not going flying in guns blazing" He said
"Then how are we going in?" Shayera asked her hand once more twitching at her mace.
"As civilians and you're leaving that behind"
"What!?" She did grasp the handle at that, barely suppressing the urge to cradle it.
"We're not ambushing Batman in his own lair like an inquisition squad. We are walking up to the front door like three concerned friends" John explained.
"The personal touch, that's what I like about us" Wally grinned. John nodded; it wasn't a strong offensive but it had the advantage of maybe not immediately putting Batman into a defensive position.
"Well it's great that you two can stroll up to the front door of one of the richest men in the world without a care but I don't think a certain pointy eared someone would take too kindly to an easily identifiable alien doing the same" Shayera scowled.
"I'll lend you a coat for your wings. We can get it after you drop your mace off" John said.
So that was how ten minutes later Shayera found herself consciously struggling to not take deep sniffs as she John and Wally entered main ops. The coat John had leant her was black leather, it probably fit him snugly but even with her wings bulking out the back she fairly swam in it.
But more pressing and difficult to deal with was swimming in John's scent. There were a million adjectives even the famously straightforward and explicitly non poetic Thanagarian could use to describe it but they all paled and scattered like leaves in the wind when compared to the main issue. Which was that she still had it bad.
Shayera didn't think she'd ever be truly over John but she had wanted to believe she was a whole lot more over him than she apparently was. Was it wrong of her to hope Batman and Diana actually were up to something nefarious? She really felt like hitting something all of a sudden. Without her mace her hands felt incredibly empty, she shoved them in her pockets before anyone could notice them twitching from the lack of weaponry.
"There a mission I don't know about?" Mr Terrific asked as they approached the transporter. His tone was light but there was no denying it was a genuine inquiry. Shayera supposed he was right to be curious; three founders all going somewhere unscheduled was noteworthy. Especially given there would be none aboard in their absence; it wasn't a hard and fast rule but in general there was always at least one founding member aboard the Watchtower at any given time. Without them Mr Terrific as coordinator would hold the most senior position until they either returned or another Founder arrived.
"Just some business planet side" John said giving the coordinates.
"In Gotham?" Of course Mr Terrific would recognise them.
"Well that's not technically Gotham, it's y'know the outskirts. But not those outskirts, other non batty outskirts." Wally said quickly earning him glares from both John and Shayera.
"Am I missing something?" Mr Terrific looked between them.
"We'll let you know depending on how our business goes" John told him.
"Noted" Michael Holt wasn't a genius for nothing and if his time in the League had taught him anything it was sometimes it was best to just put the coordinates in and let other people deal with what was at them.
Which was exactly what he did and moments later Wally, John and Shayera found themselves standing in the snow on the side of the road. They could have been next to any abandoned stretch of motorway, the ever greens hemming it on one side and the sharp drop to the sea beyond the barrier on the other leant themselves to many a coastal road. But John and Wally were able to orient themselves immediately; they had made a harrowing trip up this road ducking overhead patrols during the Thanagarian invasion. A trip that was not easily forgotten.
Just why the Wayne's of yesteryear had decided to build their house at the very end of perhaps the windiest, cliffiest road on the east coast Wally couldn't say. Obviously they'd never heard of erosion or envisioned a world of delivery zones. All he knew was there was no way Bats was getting Doordash and he couldn't make the trek up to the house in costume.
The route had to be under surveillance at some point because he couldn't think of a single reason why it wouldn't be and John was right. Things would not go well if they turned up in full costume. So in what looked to everyone outside the speed force like a miniature hurricane Wally stripped off his costume, retrieved his civilian clothes from his ring and shoved his costume back inside.
The ability to move between molecules really made folding things a breeze but he had yet to figure out a method that didn't result in thousands of tiny creases. So he ended up looking incredibly rumpled. John had the easier option of just using his ring and well Shayera looked like she had thrown a coat on over work out gear.
Nothing weird here at all, Wally thought as they started off, just three regular, if a little weirdly dressed, people walking up wind-ey, snowy road. If it were night it would almost qualify as a horror movie, especially considering where they were going.
Wally tried to think of something to say to lighten the mood, a particular skill of his that had never failed before but nothing came to mind. So the trek continued in silence. The trio was greeted at the top of the road not so much by the grandeur of Wayne Manor but the large cast iron gates that separated it from the rest of the world. Bats had left them open during the invasion and Wally hadn't even thought about them during the walk; did they always look so loomy?
"Hey so I know we're not like on the attack but we still do have a plan of attack right?" Wally felt compelled to ask. The looks he received from John and Shayera as a platform sprouted from John's ring to carry them over the gate were not particularly encouraging. Wally resumed silence as they made their way up the drive.
By and by the Manor came into view, equal parts castle and master class on art deco. Definitely horror movie-esque.
Shayera and Wally, through what he liked to consider redhead to redhead telepathy fell back forcing John to take point at the front door. They similarly adopted butter wouldn't melt expressions at the glare he gave them before ringing the doorbell.
Wally began to shift back and forth, a nervous habit that might have gone unnoticed if he hadn't done it so fast the friction caused the snow he was standing on to melt into a cloud of steam at his feet.
"Stop that" Shayera hissed.
"I can't help it, this place is creepy" Wally shot back.
As if to prove him right the door opened at that moment and for the second time that day Wally had the luxury of getting over his shock on a timescale no one else experienced. As far as everyone assembled was concerned he had remained as calm, collected and cool looking as John and Shayera as Alfred opened the door with a formal;
"Mr Stewart, Mr West, Ms Hol what a pleasant surprise"
Neither his expression nor his tone suggested he found the three superheroes currently on his doorstep to be anything other than what he'd said but this was the man who'd taught Batman how to act. The said superheroes were spared having to offer an explanation for their presence on said doorstep by Alfred taking a smooth step to the side with a;
"Won't you come in?"
Clinging to the hope of safety in numbers because no matter how good the front door approach had sounded on the Watchtower it still very much felt like they were invading the lair of the Bat; John, Shayera and Wally shuffled into the foyer.
"Allow me to take your coats" Alfred offered closing the door behind them. Shayera shrunk ever so slightly back into her borrowed one eager to not be parted from it quite so soon but equally eager to brain herself with her own mace for feeling that way about it.
"Uh that's alright Alfred, we were actually hoping to talk to Batm...Bruce. Is he available?" John said. Mainly to save himself from explaining that he wasn't actually wearing a coat. Not even the guardians had an adequate explanation for how their rings could generate clothing and why it wasn't green and glowing. And he had asked.
"Might I inquire into the nature of your visit?" Alfred's tone was polite as always but John, Shayera and Wally were all very much aware that they had triggered the first line of defence. As John, their unofficially elected speaker thought of what to say Shayera dived in with the truth.
"We know the others have been coming here and we want to know why."
When this was met with very little Wally was quick to add;
"We're worried"
"I see" Alfred looked between each of them his face as unreadable as his charge's had ever been.
"If you would follow me" He eventually said, primly turning on his heel and making his way to the grand staircase.
The trio did as instructed and found themselves led up it and down a corridor. The Manor's period features and stately decor, grand though they were, were not enough to distract the thoughts of the three who walked her halls from just where they were being led and what awaited them there. Just as Wally was sure he couldn't keep a stupid quip about something, anything, to break the tension that was building down Alfred stopped short at a door.
"It wasn't a particularity noteworthy door in any regard. It could have been swapped with any of the others they had passed but Wally still put it firmly in the top ten ominous doors he had encountered. Alfred didn't knock, he merely grasped the handle and turned. The door only made it a couple of centimetres before it hit something and Diana's voice sounded from within;
"Hang on Alfred, we had to move the dresser" There was the sound of something scraping.
"Try it now" Diana's voice came again.
This time the door opened fully and what it opened up on to was the last thing John, Wally and Shayera had expected to see.
It was hard to pick any one thing to zero in on first; they were all in their own ways trained professionals who could analyze situations like this but this was something else entirely.
It was a bedroom, a large bedroom, a nice bedroom; well the parts that weren't covered in sheets and newspapers were nice.
The sheets and newspapers were there to protect the furniture and floors from the paint.
Two parallel columns of perfectly square test swatches encompassing the entire rainbow ran up the far wall. A young boy was balanced on the frame of a sheet covered bed having been caught in adding a square of sage green to left column. While a young man who didn't need the height boost had just finished with a square of robin's egg blue on the right.
Diana floated by the door holding the dresser she had claimed had been blocking it and Bruce stood by the window a measuring tape in one hand and a carpenters pencil in the other.
But most important sitting on a patterned blanket in the middle of the room and hitting test pottles with an unused paintbrush was the baby. She hadn't seemed to figure out that more noise and therefore more fun could be had by using the wooden end over the bristles but was happy to continue blissfully unaware of the conniptions she was causing.
"Well didn't see that coming" Wally spoke first. He expected an elbow to the ribs or at the very least an eye roll in response but received nothing from either John or Shayera. A sidelong glance showed both of their attentions were fully on the baby, their expressions unreadable.
"You're not the only one" Bruce said looking at Alfred his voice and expression tight.
"Mr's Stewart and West and Ms Hol to see you Sir" He announced before ushering the young boy and man from the room and taking his own leave.
"What are you doing here?" Bruce approached the door. Wally tried not to think of all the ways he could turn the measuring tape and pencil he held into deadly weapons.
"Everyone else has been here, we were starting to feel a little left out" Shayera managed to pull her attention from the baby long enough to be belligerent.
"You honestly thought we wouldn't notice all the blank spots in the transport log and figure out something was going on?"
"What is going on?" John asked before Shayera got them into a fight. He knew first hand the talent she had for it.
"We were going to tell you" Diana said putting the dresser down. "At the next founders meeting. We weren't trying to hide, we just didn't know how to explain. It's been a lot to process" She approached the blanket and took the baby from it before joining Bruce at the door.
"What's a lot to process? Those chubby cheeks?" The baby giggled as Wally unable to resist leant over her. "Her little fingers? Those curls? Hey she kinda looks like you Dianaaaa"
Something clicked and Wally's head whipped up and down between the baby and the woman holding her proving he wasn't imagining things. He turned to John and Shayera to see if they had made the connection. Their expressions told him they not only had, they thought he had as well.
"Did you have a baby? How? When? Was it time travel? It was time travel right?" Wally's eyes flittered between Bruce, Diana and the baby rapidly. Normally the lenses of his mask hid his accelerated eye movement but without them it wasn't pretty and the baby's face crumpled as she began to cry at the sight.
"Awww hey no need for that! I'm your Uncle Wally" Wally scooped the baby from Diana too quickly for her to react. "I'm the funnest uncle you're gonna have" He told her grinning widely.
"It's not time travel" Said John sounding bitter.
"No" Agreed Bruce.
"Did Mommy make you outta clay?" Wally cooed down at the baby who was starting to warm to his antics. "You're pretty squirmy for a statue. Yes you are, yes you are"
"Wally shut up" Shayera ordered her voice just as hard as John's and Bruce's had been and Wally spun to face them.
"Jeez you guys are being way too serious, it's just a baby. Aren't you? Yeah you're just a squirmy baby. Nothing nefarious about you"
"She's the daughter of the Lord's Batman and WonderWoman" Bruce said. Wally stopped mid bob.
"Come again?"
"She arrived from their dimension two days ago" Bruce said.
"And you're what?" Shayera demanded facing off against him "Playing happy families now? How can you trust anything they told you? She could be from anywhere and Mommy and Daddy could be right behind" She seethed.
"She has a name, it's Essie. We're her Mother and Father now. And just because you were an advance scout doesn't mean the same is true of my daughter" Diana pulled herself to her full height and spoke in the most regal tone she could muster. She wasn't picking so much as clawing at a barely healed scab but there was nothing in her that would allow such an insult to her child go unchallenged. Shayera's eyes flashed dangerously and her hand once more twitched at her side where her mace should have been.
"Uh Bats is right" Wally broke in quickly before things could come to blows. The room they were in was clearly going through a renovation but he doubted a meta powered cat fight breaking out in it would be appreciated.
"She's definitely from the Lord's dimension"
"And you know that how?" John asked.
"Dimensional frequencies man, like how we got sucked unto the Justice Guild's world. It's like our molecules all zig but hers zag. It kinda tingles" Wally glanced back down at Essie and once more adopted a soft high tone.
"Yes it does, yes it does"
"So you've been harbouring an interdimensional fugitive for two days and didn't see fit to inform the League" John said.
"Harbouring? Fugitive? John she's a baby!" Diana protested.
"Does that look like the face of a fugitive to you?" Wally held Essie, who looked nigh cherubic up.
"As far as I'm aware the Lantern Corps jurisdiction only extends to this universe. You can't pull the space police act here" Bruce's voice was ice.
"This concerns the safety of the League, Shayera's right we can't trust anything the Lord's say or do"
"Uncle John and Auntie Shayera are being meanies" Wally told Essie.
"No we're being practical. Something I expected from you" John crossed his arms and turned to Bruce.
The temperature dropped 20 degrees. Wally had seen Bruce move like liquid before but all those times he had had his cape to aid the illusion. Seeing him swell like a wave to stand toe to tow with John without the cover of darkness concealing his movements was something else. Something that had Wally been asked he would have sworn humans weren't capable of. John to his credit didn't back down.
"Don't think for one second that I'm entering this blindly. I've run tests you don't even know exist verifying her story" Bruce hissed before leaning in and speaking so lowly only John could hear;
"Besides we both know that if the shoe were on the other foot we wouldn't even be having this conversation"
"That's low" John bit back
"Is it? At this rate being from another dimension might be Rex's only shot since you're so damn determined to keep the three of you miserable. So don't come to me crying about the League's well-being when you're playing chicken with destiny and two women's lives"
"You wanna talk destiny? Near as I could tell there wasn't any of this in the future. It was just you. Alone. I think you're scared and you're letting it cloud your judgement"
"I'm the one who's scared? It could've been you picking out nursery colours but you're too much of a coward to let it and the worst part is you're wasting Shayera and Vixen's time"
John reared back as though he'd been physically struck.
"What did you do?" Shayera was at his side glaring at Bruce and if she thought her territorial like concern went uncatalogued she was wrong. John however kept his back straight, his face blank and his tone hard.
"I'm entering this into the agenda of the next meeting"
"We were already going to, we really weren't trying to hide her. You have to understand" Diana implored.
"And I'm going to call for a vote on whether, given the actions of her parents, she should be allowed to remain"
"John!" Diana snatched Essie back from Wally to cradle her. Aware something was going on she was quiet, looking from adult to adult with big blue eyes.
"You can't be serious!" Protested Wally. When he got no response from the wall like John he immediately rallied.
"Well I'll tell you how my vote's gonna go right now; she stays"
"I'll see you in two days. Mr Terrific three for transport" John said putting a hand to his communicator.
"Three? Hey wait a minute, I don't want to go any..." Not even the Flash was fast enough to get a full sentence out before the transport bean whisked him away. Leaving Bruce, Diana and Essie alone in the unfinished nursery.
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Oh man that was a ride! Who saw that coming? Because I sure didn't! I may have written myself into a corner and solving the Shayera/John/Mari triangle is the only way out. Are we going to see Rex in this fic? Hell if I know, this wasn't even meant to happen. I just hope you're all still enjoying being on this roller-coaster with me.
Story Notes
Cozy and Coatsy: John gets a couple of coats throughout the cartoon, most notably in 'Blackest Night' which is the one Shayera's borrowed and may or may not give back and 'Hereafter'. I was originally going to have Wally in his labcoat for a joke but safety procedures state they shouldn't be worn outside the lab. Be like Wally and always observe lab safety.
Clothes Beam; Easily Piccolo's most Metro Attack: How do Green Lantern rings create the illusion of clothing? Seriously how do they? Did they just make it up for a throwaway line in 'The Once and Future Thing pt 1'? Because if they did I ran with it and it's a thing now.
Dimensional frequencies: A throwback to chapter 1 that I knew I wasn't pulling out of thin air! In the episode 'Legends' where J'onn, Shayera, John and Wally get pulled into a world that's right out of the Golden Age it's stated that dimensions all exist on top of eachother but on their own frequencies and that Wally has the ability to match the vibration rate of other dimensions.
Alright that's all for now folks, I hope you enjoyed it! I'd love to hear your thoughts; are John and Shayera being unreasonable? Are they gonna stop? When will the cuteness return and the romance actually show up? Address any and all concerns and questions to me in your reviews and I'll get back to you. Or just wait to be surprised in the next chapter. Criticism is welcome provided it's constructive.
Ari Out!