Wolves With Spears by Jasontodd908
Chapter 1
Haifa Israel, 2021 A.D.
Rocks shattered from the blast of some sort of Atlantean energy weapon, sending pebbles and dust
flying everywhere and Batman himself throwing his body down to avoid being caught in the field
of deadly shrapnel. He was smart enough to know that no Atlantean was wielding that weapon, and
if he was right, then another attack would quickly follow.
He brings himself to his feet and looks ahead at the alleyway that stretches before him. It wasn't
his best option, but with Silver Swan soaring through the air above, it was the only option. He
takes a deep breath and begins to rush forward, finding that more and more blasts were being
thrown at him, shattering the walls to his side.
He was being targeted.
He keeps his head low and keeps moving, trying to bring up the communications in his cowl at the
same time. "Vixen this is Batman. I am pinned down somewhere in the market district". He knew
it had to be the market district. After all, there were fruit stalls everywhere and abandoned stores
that had emptied when combat had first begun.
"I believe I'm being targeted by Black Manta, but I can't get a read on his location. Can you
assist?" Another blast rockets through the wall, and Bruce is thrown to the side by the force of it,
his back slamming into the opposite corner. He was sure that if it hadn't been for his kevlar armor
inserts, his back would be broken.
Still, he was on the ground once more, which was never good when you were being hunted.
A hole had been opened in the wall through which the blast had come, and through it stepped the
black armored and helmeted man, the lens of which gleamed ominously, letting his opponent
know that he was more than ready to fire again. "Well, well, well" he calls out ominously, Bruce
groaning as he gets to his feet. "It seems I've finally managed to capture a bat".
They were at the end of an alleyway, and the Gotham based vigilante knew that his options were
limited. 'Manta is fast' he reminds himself, seeing that the man already had a bead on him. 'Not as
good as Deadshot but...at this range, he won't miss'. A grapple gun was out of the question. Manta
would incinerate him before he even had a chance to deploy it.
"You're seeing that there's no way out aren't you. How does that feel? I'm curious" he asks."Knowing that there's no way out? That you're finally at the end of your rope?"
Batman throws his hands up, making it clear that he wanted a more traditional fight, and laying
down the challenge at the same time. "Fight me like a man Manta". This makes the villain laugh,
clearly finding such a thought comical.
"So you can beat me like the last two times? Afraid not".
The eyes begin to gleam, and Bruce could only think of slipping a batarang out of his hand and
getting ready to rush forward. 'Break the lens. Jam the batarang in deep' he strategizes, unable to
stop planning, even now. He'd faced death too many times to be afraid.
"Batman! Are you still there? If so, get out of the way!"
Before he could make sense of the woman's message through the other end of the comm link, she
appeared, jumping out over the top of the building and sailing down into the alleyway. It wasn't an
immense drop, but for a woman who had access to the powers of the Savannah? It was even easier.
She screams out, drawing Manta's attention away from Batman and up towards the attacker who
had gotten the drop upon him. He lets loose with another beam, though it cuts through brick and
rock and not flesh. Vixen was too quick for him, and soon she is on him, slashing across his face
with her clawed hands.
"Ahhh!"
Manta pulls back, trying to fight off the hellcat who was now pummeling his midsection with her
fists, but the tight space hinders him. The tide further turns when Batman rushes forward, joining
the woman who was much more nimble due to her totem.
She drops down and sweeps her leg, taking the bulky man off his feet. His armor may have
protected him from a myriad of different attacks, but once he was on the ground? It was over, and
this fact was emphasized as Batman kneels down, pulls his fist back and slams it into the man's
face. Cartilage and teeth break and crack, further damage being done by the remnants of the
helmet that is shattered.
David Hyde moans in agony as he slips from consciousness and lays there on the ground. Vixen
was panting heavily from the quick exertion, but the black woman straightens herself up and
smiles, running her hands up and down the sides of her suit, brushing the dust away. "Well, that
was fun. After all, it's not everyday you save Batman is it?"
Her smile was infectious, and despite himself Bruce could feel the corner of his mouth tilt upward.
As quickly as it appeared though, it was gone, and the black caped vigilante stands, moving out of
the alley with Vixen hot on his tail.
"What's the situation across the city?" he asks.
"You're welcome you know" she huffs before deciding to just answer his question. "Not great, not
terrible" she explains. "Fire and Ice are just managing to keep Sinestro at bay, and Question is
trying to make his way through the downtown section".
Batman had studied the schematics of this city from top to bottom before coming here, something
that he just naturally did whenever he went on a mission. As a result of that, he knew that they
weren't very far from the downtown section. "Do we know what Luthor is planning?"
"Nothing concrete" Vixen says, watching and reacting in time with Batman who ducks behind a
car as a hail of bullets erupt from a second story balcony. Vixen herself took cover behind a
newsstand, and she watched as Bruce retracted a batarang and tossed it out at an angle. The metal
disk swept through the air in a boomerang motion before returning, heading straight into the back
of their would-be assassin's head.
Deadshot hadn't been expecting them, and as a result, was taken off guard.
The batarang didn't knock him out, but the fall that followed as he was pushed over the balcony
did. He landed right on top of a parked car below, his weight, added to by the armor he wore,
crushing it in. He moans loudly, and Bruce steps out from behind the car on the opposite end of the
street while Vixen moves out to the side, rejoining her comrade in the middle of the street.
"Whatever he's planning, he chose this specific spot to do it. Why?"
Batman seemed completely unbothered by the attempt on his life, and Mari would be lying to
herself if she said that she didn't find this to be an extremely attractive trait.
"I don't know but…".
The sound of aerial combat above interrupts them, and they stop, with Bruce placing his arm out to
the side to prevent the woman from going any further.
They watched as Silver Swan went flying across the air, though it wasn't under her own power.
She was bleeding from the mouth, having been hit quite hard. Hard enough that she slammed into a
building. She wasn't down for the count though, and the two watch as she reemerges through the
hole her impact had created.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Her shout wasn't directed at the two of them though, and instead upon the winged figure that was
on the opposite side of the street. Hawkgirl simply tosses her mace up into the air and catches it,
her wings flapping to keep her up.
"So you've said".
The women charge at each other once more, resuming their own personal dogfight, bobbing and
weaving through the air as they try to get a fix on the other. Silver Swan gets the worst of the fight
though for certain, and with another swing of her mace, Hawkgirl sends the woman careening
through the air again.
This time, she soared out of the view of the heroes who were still standing upon the street, and
Hawkgirl makes to go after her, flashing the others a quick salute and a smile as she goes. Bruce
removes his hand and signals for them both to continue on, though Mari's mind was still on what
she had just witnessed.
"That girl has some anger issues".
Bruce ignores her comment and brings up his wrist, trying to make contact with the Question,
which was easily done as the man's face appears in the holographic deck within seconds.
"Batman" he says, seemingly as nonplussed as he could be. The faceless conspiracy theorist was
moving though, ducking and crawling while explosions went off all around him, making his zen
like demeanor even more humorous.
"Question, have you found Luthor and his device yet?"
"Yes".
More explosions ring out around the man, but he doesn't elaborate further, something that
somehow angers Vixen. She steps forward and pushes her face into view.
"And? What's he doing?
And are you stopping whatever he's doing?"
The man answers instantly, now elaborating upon the
situation as he had been asked.
"He has some sort of power source hooked up to a strange looking
device. It's like a pad with a giant antenna powered by a large generator. In fact, it should be
emitting an energy discharge right about…".
At that moment a sound that could only be described as being like a laser, rips through the air, and
Bruce and Mari both turn to see a blue beam of light shooting straight up into the sky. Whatever it
was, it was obviously the result of the device that Question was talking about.
"Now".
"Can you stop it?" Batman asks, wanting to get to the crux of the matter.
"Not on my own. I'm going to need…".
A large shadow descends over the man, and he is forced to
look up at whatever was causing it. Abruptly, the image cuts out and comm links are severed,
leaving Batman and Vixen in the dark as to what was happening.
"Dammit...that's not good is it?"
Bruce was already too busy trying to raise another League member to answer, and Diana was soon
on the line, though only on audio that Bruce could hear. "Diana. Question found Luthor and the
device but we've lost contact with him. Can you…".
"MREEOOOW!"
Cheetah's horrifying war cry could be heard on the other end, quickly followed by the clanging of
steel, no doubt from the woman's claws impacting Diana's gauntlets.
"Sorry Bruce. Busy!"
The comm goes dead, and Bruce is left without an idea of how to proceed...for exactly one moment. He
returns to his wrist, putting in a bunch of necessary information to pull up a remote control panel.
"Alright, so what's the plan Bats?"
"Plastic Man and Firestorm are busy with Grodd at the other end of the city. Superman is...somewhere".
Bruce grimaces, hating that his ability to keep tabs on every member of the
Justice League wasn't immutable.
"Ahh, I heard he and Stewart were going after Kanjar Roe last I heard".
She barely had time to get the man's name between her lips before wincing, her mind instantly going back to the breakup between her and the former marine. Bruce notices of course, and part of him wants to say something. But he knew he wasn't good at comforting people, especially when it came to failed relationships. 'Although, I guess with all the
experience I have in that field…'.
He tosses that thought from his mind and fixates on what he usually did when he needed to get his
mind off of personal trauma. He focused on his mission first and foremost.
"Well umm...what are you doing then?" she asks curiously.
"You'll see".
Over the roar of the battle that was going on all about them, the sound of revving engines can be heard and the entire street seems to shake. In front of them, a brick wall that made up the facade of a cafe explodes, and the batmobile comes screaming out. It makes its way directly towards the
duo, crushing everything before it including the tables and chairs of the cafe, and then other cars in the street.
Normally he'd try and minimize the damage done to the surrounding area, but he had much larger
things to worry about than simple property damage. As the black vehicle that was only a few
inches of armor away from being a tank rolled forward. Vixen felt fear jump up into her throat.
Reflexively she turns towards Batman, hugging him tight, escaping not even entering into her
mind. Bruce just stands there, letting the corner of his mouth tip up once more into a smile. The car
turns, slides and then comes to a stop a mere three feet in front of them, after which the canopy
slides open with an airy hiss.
"Ladies first".
Vixen opens her eyes and looks, seeing that the vehicle had indeed stopped and was no longer
barreling towards them. As she separates from Batman's grasp, she turns to him and pointedly lets
go of his arm.
"If you tell anyone about that...I'll kill you".
"Many have tried".
He moves off towards the batmobile and jumps into the driver's seat, letting the vehicle security
systems identify him through his thumb print. As soon as he was given clearance, he turned to look
at Vixen, revving the engine.
"Ohh, wait…" she says, a little surprised. "You want me to come
with you?"
"...Yes".
He seemed to be perplexed that she would even have to ask, him having thought that it was rather
obvious.
"Ohh, okay, sorry yeah!" She rushes forward, quickly pressing her totem to her chest to tap into the speed of a cheetah. Within a second she is at the passenger side, and she hops into the
vehicle as well, not seated next to Batman.
"Sorry, just thought...well, thought you'd want a more senior member in on this with you".
He reaches forward and pressed the button that sends the canopy downwards, closing the two
heroes in. He grips the steering wheel and puts his foot on the pedal, sending the batmobile
forward at such a quick speed that she thought it must've had a rocket attached to it. As Mari is thrown back into the seat, watching through the windshield as the man navigates
through the detritus-filled street that was serving as a battlefield between the Legion of Doom and the Justice League.
"Ohh my god! Ohh my god!" she shouts out, completely horrified.
"To answer your question, you are a senior leaguer" he says, turning the wheel abruptly to make a
particularly dangerous looking turn.
"What?!" she shouts, not putting his words together as her
mind was on anything other than what she said to the man before.
"The League" he explains, shifting gears as the batmobile launches itself through a fountain, sending bricks and mortar scattering everywhere. "You are a valued member of the League. You
shouldn't let your failed relationship with Stewart cloud over that".
That was the best Vixen could expect from him, at least when it came to the realm of comforting. But, as far as comforting went? That seemed like it was enough and she would admit to herself that she already felt a little bit better. After all, their fight had been rather...public. 'Couldn't get more public than the Watchtower
atrium Mari'. She grimaces at the memory, pretty sure that Booster Gold had filmed the whole
thing to cement her eternal shame. Everyone walked on eggshells when it came to her now, and
even her friends in the Watchtower seemed to be reluctant to bring it up.
It felt good that someone wasn't pretending that what happened didn't happen.
'Figures that it would be Batman'.
The smile she had at that thought is brushed away as the batmobile continues on, heading towards
the beacon of light that was intermittently guiding their way. Question needed their help.
City Center, Haifa
"Ohh...stop struggling!"
Giganta whispers harshly, having to remain relatively speaking a little
smaller to accommodate the buildings around them. If she went up to her massive size as was her
usual, she'd most likely step on the machine, and the last thing she needed was to be yelled at by
Luthor again. 'Why does he have to wriggle...so...damn...much?'
She was holding the Question in a bearhug, flush against her chest and practically pressed in
between her boobs. Still he was trying to get out of her hold. Not that she didn't expect him too, she
did realize that escape was the sacred duty of every prisoner. 'Or is that just soldiers?' the large
redhead ponders.
"Let...me...go" Question winces, trying to shuffle his weight around as to break through, but Giganta was just too strong.
"Relax!" the ten foot tall woman says, trying to force him to comply.
"This is a fetish for some guys you know?" she teases, deciding on a different approach. She didn't
mind being flirty, especially if she found the guy genuinely cute. Even without a face, Question fit
the bill. 'Something about men of mystery' she thinks to herself, watching as Luthor was busily
engaged in pulling out what looked like fuel rods from the side of a generator.
"Not...mine…".
"Then what is yours?" she asks with genuine innocent curiosity. Giganta wasn't like the other villains, not really. She had once just been a normal gorilla believe it or not. But when she was merely a baby, she was taken away from her family and experimented on by a mean woman named Doctor Doris Zool. She didn't know the particulars, and part of her didn't want to. If she thought back to those days, strapped down and experimented on, she could almost shiver and cry. What she did know was that Zool was trying to play around with DNA. It was a little known fact that the Gorilla beringei , the scientific name for a gorilla, shared about ninety eight percent of
its DNA with Homo sapien .
Doris Zool wanted to unlock the secrets of what this meant, and in doing so began to fiddle around
with those last two percentage points. Not too much longer and voila! The gorilla known as
Giganta was now one hundred percent human! There was a catch though. Nobody had accounted for what might happen if there was a latent metahuman gene hidden within the already existing genetic code. Genes are a bit like Tetris. They all fit together somehow, but
when something is changed or removed? Something new forms, sometimes with...explosive results.
She didn't much remember what happened next. The lab was destroyed and there she was, the size
of a small building in the air, walking over the land. She wandered for a bit, learning things much faster than she had as a gorilla. It had been lonely though, which was what eventually led Giganta to a little pest of a man named Doctor Psycho who promised her that he could help her. He hadn't been able to, and he probably never intended too. Luckily though, she was introduced to the Legion of Doom, and in an even greater stroke of luck
Psycho was booted out after one of the myriad of civil wars that randomly overtook the Legion from time to time. So, Giganta was left alone, a generally harmless but still sometimes useful oaf.
'They'll respect me soon! And after that? Well, maybe they'll even be nice to me!'. She was a grown woman, but in many ways, she had the simplistic heart of a child, or rather...a gorilla.
"None of your business…".
"Well fine then" she snaps.
"Be like that, I was just curious". She didn't know why she even
wanted to talk to him. He was just a puny Justice League member. A nobody.
"Umm...sorry". He didn't know why he said that either, but there was something about the genuine sadness and anger in the woman's voice that moved him, which was odd considering that she was part of the group that were tearing this city apart in some bizarre manner that had to do with this machine. Giganta just grunts, not wanting to speak to the man she kept within her grasp any longer. This was presenting an opportunity though.
"What...umm..what is he doing?"
Vic had stopped struggling
and was trying to think of ways in which he could use his brain to escape, and apparently, getting
on Giganta's good side was the first step.
"I don't know".
She was still trying to be cold, but she was thawing, and with a little more effort Vic could definitely convince her that he was a friend.
"Ohh...he didn't tell you?".
The giant redhead looks towards her leader who was busily working on turning a wrench, tightening the bolts upon the machine up.
"No...he uhh...well, he said...he said I wouldn't get it".
"Why is that?"
Something goes wrong, and another blast of energy goes off, knocking Lex across the platform where he skids to a stop.
"Ahhh fuck!"
He had apparently burnt his hand, being too close to some aspect of the machine that had scalded him. His glove was ripped open, and the flesh seared.
"Dammit Giganta!" he snaps, standing and turning on his underling.
"Shut the fuck up! You're distracting me! Just kill the nuisance and help me!"
She blanched at that idea, never quite liking the thought of killing someone, or liking how easily the Legion seemed to revert to that as a problem solver. Before she could ask anything, or even voice her protest, Lex had turned his back upon her once more and returned to tinkering with the machine.
"Almost...there...almost".
He was speaking to himself clearly, as he hadn't trusted anyone else to assist him. In fact, he'd purposefully sent the entire legion out to fight whoever showed up, giving him time to finish his work.
"Kind of rude to you..isn't he?"
Giganta didn't know how to respond to that question from the man, and she opens her mouth and then closes it a few times, not finding anything that was satisfactory.
"Well...he's just...he's just aggravated" she says, grateful that Lex had forgotten her, and thus his order to have her kill their captive.
"Really? Doesn't seem like he should take it out on you".
She looks away, her instincts warring within her mind. On one hand, Lex was the alpha of their group. He commanded respect just by existing, and he wasn't to be questioned within the lexicon of gorilla behavior, not unless you wanted to vie for the position yourself. And as a female? Giganta was out.
But on the other hand, her humanity was telling her that she deserved respect and that she shouldn't just have to kowtow because Lex pretended that he was big and bad.
"Well...he shouldn't…".
"Then why do you put up with it?" Vic asks, beginning to feel a little badly about playing mind games. 'Come on...she's with the Legion of Doom. If any time is okay to mess with your opponents, it's right in the middle of them building some sort of death trap.
"I….I guess I don't know" she says with a shrug. "Nobody else accepted me into their group. I'm just a freak to them".
"You shouldn't settle for being a tool for someone else" Vic says, already making up his mind to try and sway the not quite a villainess over to the Justice League. 'Little bit of rehabilitation, little bit of public service and I'm sure she'll fit right in'.
"I...I…".
"He's probably going to hurt a lot of people," he says suddenly, pressing his advantage. "I don't think you're someone who wants to see a lot of people hurt, are you?" he asks.
"No…" she admits, looking back towards the machine with a worried expression. "But...but...if…".
"Doing the right thing is hard sometimes, but it's easier if you have a friend to do it with". That word. Friend. Its meaning was so elusive to her, but soooooo desired.
"Friend? Like, a real friend?" she asks, feeling like she was having the wool pulled over her eyes again, and worried that he was lying. Despite not having eyes, the man tries to look her directly in the face. At least he knew he would be telling the full truth on this part. 'Doubt I'll make much of a friend though'.
"Yeah. Would you like to be friends?"
She was unsure, but eventually, the woman decided to trust her instincts, which hadn't led her wrong! Well, mostly hadn't led her wrong. She was in the Legion after all. She nods and smiles, hugging the man tighter to her chest which chokes him a bit. He taps her arm lightly, trying to get her attention.
"Giganta...breathe...need air…".
"Ohh" she says, loosening up. "Sorry!".
She moves down and puts him on the ground, looking back towards Luthor who was now most certainly on the outs with her. "Okay, so what do we do now?" she asks, the man having not noticed them, or Giganta's changed allegiance. Question was looking at the machine and the man
finicking with it, and soon enough he settled on just attacking Luthor and then finding a way to stop him.
'Simplest solution…'. He turns, getting ready to avail Giganta of his plan when a very familiar roar fills the air. The entire group within this small square turns their head to watch as the batmobile bursts onto the street, skidding ferociously as Bruce makes to turn the car around the circle, preparing
countermeasures for any possible attack.
"Ohh for fuck's sake!" Lex says, drawing his pistol and opening fire upon the batmobile, though the rounds just bounce off of the reinforced steel.
"Giganta take…!"
He doesn't get to finish his order as the woman increases her height and moves up, now towering over all the buildings in the area. For a moment, Lex thinks she's about to move on the batmobile, but soon enough, he realizes that she's moving right towards him and the machine.
"No! No! You idiot! You'll break it!" he warns, waving his arms.
"That's the plan!"
Question was rushing up as well, moving in between Giganta's legs as she reaches out for the antenna and grips it in her fist, beginning to shake it back and forth slowly, not wanting to just go off and break it right then.
"No you fool! You'll ruin everything!"
Lex raises his arm and points the pistol directly at the woman, getting ready to pull the trigger. Now, at her current size, Giganta most likely wouldn't have been affected at all by the tiny bullets which would've registered as nothing more than a sting. The issue was when she shrunk down. The bullets that would lodge in her now wouldn't shrink with her, and thus the bits of lead would create a problem later. There was also the fact that Giganta would need to be able to count on the friendship check she just cashed, so he throws himself forward and manages to slap away the man's wrist just in time. The trigger is pulled and a round expelled, though it hits harmlessly into the concrete. Now, Question and Luthor descend into a fist fight, with Lex swinging his arm out, hoping to catch the man on the temple.
But Vic was trained by Richard Dragon, and he was much too quick for the man. He ducks and then punches outwards, catching Luthor in the chest. Luthor was a genius, and he wasn't a slouch when it came to building death rays or super suits made of kryptonite. But when it came to fighting? He simply couldn't keep up with what the League had to offer. He backs up, grasping his chest and groaning, but looks back up just in time to see Vic's fist crash right into his face, knocking him back off of the platform and sliding across the stone walkway. He comes to a rest when the back of his bald head hits against a concrete wall. Luthor was down for the count, but his machine was unfortunately still in play.
A machine that Giganta was working hard at bending.
"Giganta!"
Vic shouts out over the whirring electricity that was unleashed by the twisting metal.
"Are you sure we should be doing that?" he asks.
"I...I don't know!" the woman shouts back, some of the bolts finally making their way onto her body.
"Oww!" she shouts, stepping back as she is hit with some shocks from the high voltage device. At this point, Bruce and Vixen join the other two upon the platform, Batman instantly moving towards the controls that the bald billionaire had been working on.
"What's going on?"
Vixen asks, standing next to the Question and casting a wary glance up at
Giganta, who quickly mitigates the height discrepancy by shrinking down. She moves towards Vic, suckling upon her finger which was still tingling with the latent charge.
"It hurt me!" she says, pointing childishly up at the device.
"Ohh...I'm...sorry Giganta".
He didn't know what to say to that, even less of what to say when the woman pushed her hand into his own, forcing him to caress it.
"You're my friend. Make it better".
That kind of logic couldn't be fought and the man didn't have the extra brain power at the moment to think it over. He begins to rub her digits between his own and continues his conversation with Vixen while Batman still fiddles with the device which is now emitting much more continuous streams of energy. The machine was also humming with unspent energy.
"She's on the up and up?"
"Yeah" he says, trying to assuage the suspicious black woman while still rubbing Giganta's hand.
"She uhh...she just wants some friends. Friends that wont call her stupid and...yeah". He really, really wasn't good at this, though Giganta apparently thought he was as the pain in her hand was dissipating.
"Well...I guess...I guess we can all be friends".
The redheaded woman smiles at Vixen, whom she'd tried to crush a few times before in the heat of battle. She was happy about that, beyond happy. Batman was continuing on with his work for the moment though, and he didn't have time to waste on the changing of loyalties being witnessed at
the moment. The machine was going to blow. He didn't know what was powering it. All he could really think of it being was some sort of Kryptonite derivative, which would make sense due to who had built it. What he did know for certain was that the mass heating of the cores wasn't a good sign. He turns, getting ready to warn the others off of the platform when the explosion happens. He didn't even manage to get a single word out before a ball of white hot light engulfs the panel, enveloping out like a thing of jiffy pop that had gotten full. When the ball expands to fully engulf the entire platform, electricity jumps over the outskirts of the ball, moving like mini sea serpents
over a globe.
A sound fills the air, like the charging of an engine, but in one second, the entire ensemble explodes, sending the energy outward in one long wave that crashes against all in its wake. The sound of an explosion goes off as well, although nothing in and of itself was destroyed. The platform was empty now, devoid of all life, but the machine itself was still there, though no
longer functional. Part of the steel had melted away due to the intensity of the heat that had been contained within it, and the cores that powered the device were now empty.
A lull settled over the square, the sounds of battle still far off as the Legion was slowly but sure routed by the Justice League. Only Lex Luthor remained there, unconscious and unaware of what had happened.
Soon, questions would have to be asked, and the only man who could answer them had just taken a severe blow to the head. The batmobile lay off in the distance, still idling in the road with the canopy open. Its owner was too far away to worry about it though. This whole incident would spark books and theories, films and documentaries in the future. The greatest minds would ponder over this event, and the events that it would cause, for like a pebble dropped within a lake, waves will emanate out. Something thinkers would reflect on this, or the situations that were attached to it, and not even
know. But for now, all that could be known directly was that there was a platform upon which four people had stood not more than a minute ago, and now?
It was empty.
46,000 B.C.E, Modern Day Haifa
The light had been bright. Perhaps too bright, but slowly they were recovering.
"Owww…." Vixen hroans, already feeling a headache coming on as she rubs either side of her head, trying to massage her temples.
"What...what was that?"
Giganta asks, stumbling forward, her feet falling upon something soft
instead of the stone she expected. "What...what happened?"
"I don't know" Vic says, having recovered the quickest due to his mask which kept his eyes shielded from all manner of lights and flashes. He was looking around at that moment, and part of him was wondering if he couldn't be affected, and thus be seeing things that weren't there. They were on a beach, which wasn't too strange considering that Haifa was on the water. The
sound of gulls and other sea birds could be heard as they let out their sonorous cries above the lapping of the ocean, which crashed onto the shore, completely unobstructed. The conspiracy theorist looks up and down the beach as well, but he sees nothing out of the ordinary. It just looked like a normal beach.
"Where...where are we?" Giganta asks, coming to after many minutes spent rubbing her eyes to try and push the lingering glare away.
"I don't know," Vic says, legitimately not having an answer for the redheaded woman. Batman was looking out as well, his keen eye scanning everything and taking it in for his brain to analyze.
"Where the hell did the city go? Did that thing send us somewhere else?"
Mari asks, stumbling about on the sand and almost falling until Bruce rushes forward and grabs her elbow, steadying her.
"No. We're still right where we were last".
"What? Then where did all the buildings go?" she asks further, not seeing anything that would indicate that the blast had destroyed them. If it had, there would be rubble and debris, but right now there was nothing. The entire area looked pristine, completely undisturbed.
Batman was quiet, double and triple checking his thoughts against the terrain, praying that he was wrong. 'The coast…' he thinks. 'It's exactly the same'. At this point, Vic and Giganta walk back towards the other two, wanting to hear what the man obviously had to say. It was then that a chill
overtook the land, the wind coming off of the sea and cutting right to their bones.
"Whoah, is it just me…" Vixen asks, shivering lightly as she rubs her bare arms fiercely, hoping to warm herself up. "Or is it chillier here?"
"It's colder," Giganta says, shivering as well due to how thin her one piece suit was. It had been a good choice when she had first been told that she was coming to the Middle East, but now? She was regretting it. Without thinking, and in tandem, the two men act chivalrously, with Batman removing his cape to hand off to Vixen, and Question removing his coat, placing it around
Giganta's shoulders. She smiles appreciatively at the man, who was now cold himself though much better equipped to handle it.
"Thanks" the redhead says, smiling at the man. It was like all was right in her world once more, and her worry had disappeared.
"You're welcome".
Mari smirks at Batman while wrapping the heavy garment around her. She was surprised at its weight, but pleased by how it was already warming her up.
"Thanks Bats. How do you run around with this thing all the time? It's gotta be what? Ten extra pounds?"
"Fifteen" the man corrects. "Combat polymer inserts are inside".
"Ahh, so it's good at defending your rear, and keeping you in shape" she muses, figuring that that would be the basic answer.
"Alright" Question says, turning back to the matter at hand as he knew that it was going to be discomforting to hear. "I'm guessing you have a theory".
"I do".
Silence reigns for another second, and Mari wants to growl in frustration. "Alright, don't leave us in a lurch. What's going on, or at least what do you think is going on?"
"We're still in Haifa".
"That's impossible" she says, shaking her head, refusing to believe that. "Look around. You see a city here? No? Yeah, because it's gone. There's no city. Or maybe it's shrunk. Should we start checking under rocks?".
She was normally calm and collected, but something was wrong. Deadly wrong, and she wasn't able to make any easy sense of it. Bruce was not bothered by her outburst, and in fact, he even lets it go on, guessing that it was better to let the woman vent.
"Look at the coast".
"What about it?" the black woman snaps.
"It's exactly the same. I remember you commenting upon how beautiful it was from the Javelin. Look at it now". She wants to snap again, but something in his voice told her that it would be in her best interest to look, so she angrily turns away and scans her eyes over the windswept and rocky
coast. It looked like Haifa's beaches of course, but then again, how hard was it to look like some other beach? There was hundreds of thousands of miles of coastline in the world, so she was sure that some were just bound to look alike. She was getting ready to voice this sentiment when she took a good hard look, not at the look of the beach, but how it was formed. She remembers the square that the batmobile had thundered into prior to them coming face to face with Luthor and the explosion of the machine. She also remembered that there was a dock built atop a natural jetty that expanded out into the sea. The dock naturally wasn't there, but the rock outcropping? That was. Something about it just screamed that it was the same to her. Maybe the form or how it seemed to sit in the water, but it was also much longer, extending outwards at least twice or three times the distance as before. She casts her gaze out to the sea and sees a group of rocks, something that she'd also made note of upon their first approach into Haifa. Before, they were just under the water, exposed only when the trough of a wave passed over them. She remembered having the thought that they would pose quite the danger to an inexperienced sailor, or someone who didn't know these waters.
Now, in the general location of where she had seen those rocks, were tall obelisks, naturally formed of course, of stone that stretched at least forty feet into the air. They were jagged, and had numerous different crags and nooks in which sea birds nested. She takes a closer look at these birds, which would've been recognizable at a distance to anyone else as the common seagull. Her eyes widen in shock as she realizes that they are different. The bills were longer and wider, no doubt to accommodate for larger fish. Their feathers were much different as well. They were all very small differences, ones that might go unnoticed to someone not in tune with nature to the
degree she was, but to Vixen? She knew.
"Ohh god...we're...we're in the past".
It was something she needed to say out loud. Get it out into the open air as if that would make it easier to digest. It wasn't working, and panic was setting in. She knew it was stupid, but she also knew that she was a bit of a diva.
"Comes with the territory of being a model babe" she'd say to her ex, usually before one of their massive fights over something small or stupid like a scheduling mixup or...well, she'd admit that she was high maintenance.
She didn't mind roughing it in the field sometimes. She could go weeks without her hair being done, or without her scented soaps and candles, but they were so far back in time that there wasn't even a city here. She quickly counts back, or at least tries to count back through her panic, and remembers reading about how Haifa's earliest settlement was somewhere in the Bronze Age.
"The Bronze Age is before the Romans right?" she asks, turning to Batman who would undoubtedly have an answer. He nods solemnly.
"A full nine hundred years before'' Question supplies, drawing a worried look from Giganta.
"The Romans...those were the guys in that weird number movie right? 300?"
"No" Question corrects her gently, himself having already come to his conclusions and come to terms with them. "Those were Spartans. The Romans are from Italy. The Spartans are from Greece". He didn't want to offend her, so he just explains it simply and calmly.
"Ahh...okay".
"Jesus Christ!" Vixen shouts, hunkering down against another gust of wind.
"We don't have time for a goddamn history lesson!"
"Be quiet".
She whirls around, turning on Batman with anger in her eyes. She wasn't angry at him. How could she be? This wasn't his fault. But she was angry at the situation, and she didn't have any qualms about taking her anger out on him.
"Don't tell me what to do!" she hisses.
Batman's lip curls in anger himself, but he keeps it corralled, a master of his own emotions, if not dealing with them. "Someone is watching us".
"How the hell would you even…".
"Because of their rustling in the treeline".
Vixen stops at that, seeming to think for the first time since they'd been thrown into this situation that her powers might help them. She begins to turn, wanting to look over Bruce's shoulder at the forest behind them, something else that hadn't been there, when he stops her, reaching out to grasp her waist as to prevent any further movement.
"Don't move" he warns, issuing the warning not only to Vixen but also to Question and Giganta, who heed him as well.
"See if you can sniff them out. Get a sense of what's watching us. Is it an
animal?"
Vixen calms down and lets her anger go just long enough to begin to feel guilt instead. 'I've gotta apologize to him...later. Right now? It's hero time. We've gotta get out of this'. She holds her totem close to her skin and closes her eyes, relying on her animal senses to suss out who it was. At first, she gets nothing, until the wind shifts and brings with her a scent. It was an awful scent, seeming to carry with it immense body odor and dried blood. It was foreign but...also familiar. 'Like the cab driver back in Star City that one time' she thinks, finding it a close, but still not close enough, match.
"It's...definitely someone...no" she corrects, sensing a few distinct odors. "More than one. A small group. Can't tell exactly how many but...they're hiding in the trees" she says.
"Animals?" Question asks, wanting further clarification. Vixen just shakes her head, but then stops, grimacing as she looks back at the man.
"Kind of...but...they also…". She was holding back, fearful of what such a statement might mean.
"Also what?" Giganta prods further, beyond curious now.
"Also...human like".
In the trees themselves, multiple pairs of eyes watch them, waiting, and devising a plan. These shapes move back and forth from tree to tree, using the cover to prevent them from being spotted. They wouldn't expose themselves. Not now, not when they were at a disadvantage.
But when night came? Then, they would move forward. For now, they would simply follow and observe, make sense of these recognizable creatures. They were only oddly dressed, wearing strange furs as their kind was
wont to do. One pair of eyes watches this group with a particular hunger, his slit pupils burning with rage at seeing the males, and undisguised lust when he sees the females.
"Grrrrmmmm…".
It was a low growl, carried by a very low tone. He was thinking, and that made him a deadly predator in this world.
Haifa, City Square, Modern Day
"So he can tell us nothing?"
Diana asks, her hand going to the hilt of her sword that was sheathed upon her waist. Mr. Terrific just shakes his head in the negative, knowing for a fact that they wouldn't get anything out of the bald mastermind of this plot.
"No. He's out cold. Pretty sure he has brain damage too".
This was troubling news, though Diana found that she only cared about the scope of the man's injuries insofar as they meant that her comrades were still lost.
"What does this machine even do?" She asks, looking at the mangled piece of steel that lay before her.
"No idea on that either" Terrific grimaces. His own eyes were traveling back to the abandoned batmobile, off of which he'd nicked the footage of the four heroes, well, three heroes and one villainess, disappearing. Lex Luthor was being placed onto a gurney by Booster Gold and Fire, a sheet placed over his body up to his neck while his bandaged head was exposed. They begin to wheel the man away, heading towards a medical Javelin that would bring the man up to the Watchtower where he would be treated and hopefully interrogated before being turned over to the proper authorities.
Soldiers of the IDF and Justice League personnel were mingling, all confused as to what had happened. Whatever Luthor's plan had been, it had failed or...had it? Diana frowns at that, ruminating over what he possibly could have wished to accomplish and finding no easy answers.
"We need to find them Terrific!" The woman says, guilt seeping in as she remembers Batman's final call to her. She'd been too busy fighting Cheetah. 'If you'd have been here…'. 'No' she thinks firmly, wiping that thought away. 'Then you'd be gone too. Right now, you are here. You can find him'.
"We're trying Diana but…" the man stops, looking around at the strange land that held so much history and an equal amount of mystery around him.
"We'll find them. We will".
"I hope so" Diana says, her wind blowing in the air as she looks out at the sea.
"I hope so".
A/N: This story is not mine. It belongs to Jasontodd908 and I found it looking for another one in Google. But after I read this story I can't believe that it was never posted in this site...now as I couldn't find the original author to take his or her permission, it is very possible that it will be removed from the site at some time...if anyone else wants to read this story send it a PM with your email address and I will send the PDF file in return.