3.
Watchtower
September 7
09:52 UTC
"And with that, another criminal has been taken off the streets of Gotham thanks to our Batman who without the help of, our fine men and women in blue, would have had a crisis to recover from. Here you can see the woman known as Baby Doll being escorted out by officers after passing herself off as a child in the attempted kidnapping of the mayor's three year old daughter. Her gang has also been rounded up and..."
"...because of Superman, all oil rig workers aboard the Blue Reef rig in the Gulf were saved with barely any injuries. They have been reunited with their families but the platform is considered a total loss. It is unclear if the cause is accidental or was carried out by the terrorist group once belonging to Greenpeace but has since parted ways with the law abiding group. Cleanup will begin shortly with a new bacteria designed to break down petroleum products and..."
"She was a green angel! She saved my family from that madman!"
"Yeah, you just don't mess with Wonder Woman. Now we just have to figure out how to get those bank thieves off the tower."
"That woman just, like, BOOM, out of nowhere, you know? And, like, these pipes came up and wrapped around that Cinderblock dude..."
"Thank you, Blue Beetle! That mudslide from the heavy rains would have wiped out the town without your help."
With his eyes carefully scanning the monitors before him, Batman studied what the members of both the Justice League and the Titan team had done. In the years since the last League member retired, those making up the original black ops team had taken their place. Members from the Titan team were also called up and all brought something different to the new team, good and bad, with the concept of having a black ops team brought to an end.
Years of dedicating himself to the vigilante lifestyle had began to take its toll on Bruce Wayne, the original Batman. He was not as fast or combat proficient as he wanted to be, although by anyone else's standards he still moves like a man in his prime. It was during his last battle with his nemesis, The Joker that forced him to call his nightlife semi-over.
With the death of the Clown Prince of Crime, Batman found himself at a junction. He could continue his nightly escapades at his current level after taking time off to heal from the injuries he sustained, stabbings, multiple gunshots, ruptured liver, and shattered right knee. Or, he could turn the cape and cowl over to his successor.
Blood dictated he pass the mantle of the bat over to his son, Damian. But his aggressive nature and 'extreme' ways of handling criminals was not what Bruce wanted. Tim Drake, he had disappeared shortly before the last battle with Joker and was later found to have been tortured and brain washed by him to carry on the Clown Prince of Crime's legacy. He was still undergoing treatment with Bruce keeping a close eye on his former protege and is currently living with his wife, Stephanie.
And then there was the first Robin, Dick Grayson. As a solo vigilante known as Nightwing, he quickly made a name for himself and greatly cleaned up Gotham's sister city, Bludhaven. While hesitant to ask him, as he had become his own man, Bruce saw no one else worthy enough to continue the fight in his stead.
Which is why Dick is the current Batman.
Having extensively redesigning the Batsuit, it was now more sleek and nimble. Predominantly black, it was without the gray areas of Bruce's and instead used the Nightwing color scheme of black with a large, blue bat design covering his chest and wrapped around his capeless back. The gauntlets on his forearms were a dark gunmetal color and were designed to fire bat-shaped disks on the right and a bola on the left. A utility belt housed the rest of his chosen gadgets while twin Eskirma sticks were housed in a thigh mounted holster. Even the iconic cowl was redesigned with slightly thicker ears and enhanced vision modes with the mouth part left open unless a filter needed to be used, in which case one would automatically form from the sides of the opening.
"I see you are still here." Coming up behind the newer Batman, Red Tornado, who had slight modifications to his appearance to appear slimmer, watched the monitors the veteran hero had active.
"Needed to check on how those in the field are doing," Batman responded. "No better time than the present and no better place than now."
Giving off a light beep, the computer displayed a neon blue hollow-screen with three bio-signatures indicating they were on their way to Watchtower.
"Wonder Woman, Impulse, and Green Lantern," Batman muttered, "the rest need to report back immediately." Pulling up the other fielded League members, a frown developed on his normally emotionless face.
"Great. Zatanna's gone. Beetle's heading home by the looks of it, and the other two-"
"Superman and Mrs. Martian," Red Tornado said.
"The other two are heading to Metropolis." The annoyance in Batman's words were extremely audible, more so when he got the comlink online with the Kryptonian and Martian.
"Superman, report in." A moment passed as the Dark Knight waited for a response. "Mrs. Martian, report." Another moment passed with no answer. "Conner, M'gann, answer me now!"
"It is in my opinion they are still sore from what you have done," Red Tornado mentioned to the ticked Batman.
"Well they need to get over it."
"Invasion of privacy is a-"
"No offense, but I don't need to hear it from you too, Red."
Putting a few notes into the computer, Batman ignored the announcement of the Watchtower's computer as the Zeta/Boom Tube platform activated with Wonder Woman, Impulse, and Cyborg entering the large gathering/mission room. The group was scanned as the security camera followed them from the platforms to the meeting room with Green Lantern, Kyle heading to the facilities.
"If you wish," Red Tornado said, "I can take over watch duty as you perform the debriefing."
"Thanks." Standing, Batman stretched before heading out of the monitor room as Red Tornado plugged his fingers into the computer terminal to take over. Everything in the tower was now at the robot's control. He could see, hear, and control virtually everything in the station and was aware at the ongoing news broadcasts from Earth. He was the perfect candidate for watch duty and was seen as the primary mission coordinator at times with Barbara, Oracle, acting as the League's mission intelligence.
It did not take long for Batman to reach the meeting room where the three League members were. Ignoring the lush artificial forest and memorial garden far below the second floor, he stifled a yawn before entering the large room meant for vital discussions among League members. His last forty-eight hours were lacking in the slightest of sleep, even naps were unwanted as he pushed himself to his physical limits to keep up with the criminals of Gotham and the super villains of the world. He had already heard it form Barbara about him needing sleep and how he has to ease up on the nightlife for his day job and his family's sake.
With all that shoved to the back of his mind, he entered the room and saw Cyborg sitting at the table with a holo-screen emanating from his forearm. The dark skinned machine man quietly spoke, to who Batman thought was Changeling, about certain measures needed to take to ensure the peace on the capes and tights front would resume.
"Report," Batman said flatly.
"Took out that pirate psycho guy," Impulse quickly said. "Never saw me coming, even from a mile away and I made sure his mask was separated and it's now in the evidence room. Police picked him up and carted him away after I left the scene. No big."
"Cyborg?"
Closing out his holo-screen, Cyborg turned to face the new guardian of Gotham. "Third time North Korea has attempted to hack into the Pentagon with nothing to show for it. I managed to place over one thousand encrypted firewalls to prevent them from doing so again but they seem to be only a nuisance and not actually trying to get into the critical files."
"Any idea where they're from?" Batman asked.
"They've tried to blame China and Russia but my systems always point to the same palace in North Korea. I've uploaded the specs into the League computer systems. It's not entirely a palace, it's a cyber military base where they're launching the attacks from."
"I'll see about deploying a team to go in to check it out later." Turning his attention to the blonde, armor wearing woman staring out into space, Batman cleared his throat. "And what about your escapade?"
"The usual," Wonder Woman flatly said. "Guys tried to rob a bank, kept police at bay with heavy ordinance, I arrived on scene, we fought, they lost, and I left."
"But you put them on top of a tower."
"I know."
Noticing Wonder Woman had yet to look at him, Batman approached her. "Wonder Woman, I need-"
"You got my report, Dick," Cassie responded. "It's all you need to know."
"It's Batman while on duty and I need more than the cliff notes."
"Then look at one of your cameras. I'm sure you had one follow me everywhere I went."
Narrowing his eyes, Batman watched as Wonder Woman did the same. "This is not up for discussion. I need to have a full report from you by the time you leave."
"As one third of the leadership around here," Wonder Woman reminded him, "I decide when enough is enough and leave on my own time when I want. You don't order us the way you want to without agreement from Superman and I. That's why we have three leaders, or have you forgotten?"
Turning his back to her, after a stare own, as his cowl's communicator went off, Batman left the room. "You heard me. I want the report before you leave."
"You already got it, jerk." Taking off her golden tiara, Wonder Woman shook her hair out and took a seat at the table. Unlike her retired mentor, she was dressed in battle armor consisting of a red corset and blue skirt made of Amazonian leather with golden plates and accents for added protection. It was the outfit she was gifted with upon taking over the Wonder Woman mantle along with her tiara and combat sword.
"You're not gonna do your report, are you?" Impulse asked with his mask now down around his neck. He still wore the same patterned costume he first donned when arriving to this current time, only the outfit was larger to accommodate his adult form.
"Nope," Cassie answered. "Fool needs to climb off his high horse. Bat's gone to his head."
"I understand why Conner and M'gann are upset at him still, but why you?" Cyborg asked. "What did he do to you?"
"Tried to sneak onto Thermysceria under the guise of keeping tabs on potential threats for starters. Only women are allowed with the occasional male, which he is not one."
"And Jaime?"
"Got caught attempting to hack into the Scarab. Almost got Himself killed with Jaime not being able to control what was happening. That machine does not liked to be messed with. And now the Scarab wants to vaporize him when he's in sight."
"Why would he do that?" Bart asked as he took out a powerbar from a compartment on a gantlet.
"Didn't trust it. After all these years, you would think he would actually trust someone other than old man bats."
"Just be glad he only did that to you and not what he did to Conner and M'gann," Victor, Cyborg, said. "Puts 'peeping tom' in a whole new perspective."
"Just plain sick." As Cassie took a breather, she and the others were unaware they were being monitored by Batman as he headed to the platforms to take a Boom a Tube back to Gotham.
Or maybe she did know and just did not care in the slightest. Either way, Batman continued to watch, angered by her defiance. As far as he saw it, this was his team, his League and no one wanted to see it that way. He was the former protege of The Batman, a born leader who passed everything he knew to him once he took his place. He needed the others to fall in line and understand that. The sooner the better as his job, aside from protecting the public and running the League, was to make sure everyone was on the same page and make sure no secrets would cause trouble, something he learned the hard way from his past.