Chapter 3: Doom

(Gotham City, 10:00pm)

Batman was on the ground inspecting the body of a security guard who was lying face down. Batman flipped the man's body over to reveal that he had poker card buried deep in his heart signifying that he was dead.

knowing exactly who's work this was the world's greatest detective began to search the area until he stumbled across a heavily built machine that was projecting light into a wall that led into a bank. Batman touched the causing his hand to slip inside the wall, without wasting any time Batman used his comlink and said. " This is Batman, I've found them and tell J'onn that he was right about how they've been breaking into these places."

" Copy that." A male staff member of the newly rebuilt Watchtower replied. " Hold your position help is on the way."

Batman ignored his employe and simply walked past the wall and entered the jewelry store.

Inside the bank the super villain group known as the royal flush gang was robbing the jewelry store blind taking as many diamonds as they could possibly carry. One of their members codenamed Jack began to walk away from his allies.

"Jack what are you doing? We're on a time table!" King asked.

As Jack walked into a large room filled with all sorts of valuables, his robotic eye began to scan the room until he finally noticed the dark night lurking in the ceiling being hidden by the shadows. "Peek a boo, I see you."

Jack's robotic eye glowed red as it shot a laser at the vigilante, Batman managed to narrowly avoid the fatal blow by jumping off the ceiling and using a grappling hook to swing himself towards Jack kicking him in the chest. Batman swung around to take another pass at Jack only for Queen to enter the room.

" Pick a card, any card." Queen threw a barrage of playing cards at the Dark knight leaving small cuts all around his body and even severing the grapple line he was using to keep himself in the air causing him to fall and crash down into a glass container.

Ten another member of the Royal flush gang appeared energy sparkling off her hand as she got ready to finish off the Batman once and for all but Batman was quicker on the draw and kicked her feet out from under her causing the energy beam to hit the ceiling instead. Batman took cover in the dust and smoke kicked up by the blast while ten had to dodge a piece of debris that almost fell on top of her.

Jack on the other hand locked on to the Dark Knight and shot a laser at him from his eye ball. Batman scrambled to get a piece of broken glass and used it to reflect the laser.

" Cute." Jack remarked with a sadistic smile on his face. " I can do this all day, what about you."

The piece of glass Batman was holding onto began to turn bright orange from the heat it had to endure.

" Forget it Jack." King cut in as he and the rest of the gang entered the room. " We need to get out of here there's no way Batman came in here alone."

" What? Am I supposed to be afraid of Robin." Jack scoffed while Batman took the opportunity to grab some diamonds that had fallen unto the floor during the chaos and tossed them into the laser causing it to split of into multiple beams hitting the ceiling and causing more debris to fall into the room almost crushing Jack.

" I'll leave as soon as I've killed the Batman." Jack declared, the rest of the Royal flush gang began brandishing their weapons to crush the vigilante as soon as possible. Ace grabbed a large piece of debris held it over his head and prepared to throw it at the human in front of him but when he tried to actually toss it he found that he couldn't even move it.

" You ready to give up." A cocky voice asked the rest of the Royal flush gang looked up to see Ben transformed as Solarstorm holding the large piece of Debirs keeping it in place. Solarstorm stole the large piece of rubbled from Ace's hands and then swung it at the robot sending both Ace and the rubble crashing through the wall.

The Royal flush gang quickly realized that Ben ten didn't come alone. " Crap it's the Justice League!"

Just behind the super villain group stood the rest of the founding members of the Justice League ready for action. Ten fired a beam of purple energy at the heroes which was blocked by a green shield made by Green Lantern, Ten flew off using a hovercraft made in the shape of a card but she was quickly pursued by Green Lantern.

As the two were dog fighting Solarstorm and Flash moved close to Batman. " You okay"

" I'll live." He responded gruffly. Ace began to walk out of the crater that Solarstorm had put him in.

" I'll handle this." Superman said as he began to walk towards the robot.

" Are you still embarrassed from last time?" J'onn joked though it was to hard to tell thanks to his serious tone.

Superman smirked. " He sucker punched me."

While the pair bantered King and Queen hopped on two separate hovercraft made in the shape of a poker card J'onn quickly flew off in pursuit of king.

" I've got Queen." Wonder Woman declared as she speed of to confront the villain.

" That leaves Jack I haven't seen him in a while it looks like he slipped away while we were fighting. Solarstorm, Flash you're with me." Batman ordered.

The trio made their way through the bank or rather Solarstorm and Flash speed all around the building while Batman calmly walked to the vault room. As the detective reached the vault room Solarstorm and Flash landed right in front of him.

" We didn't find him, he has to be here." Solarstorm stated confidently Flash speed around the room and began looking into the vaults.

" Don't bother looking, he's not there."

" Did you check everywhere?" Batman asked.

" Everywhere except that last vault over there."

" After you."

" Huh, like you've got a choice." Flash quipped as he entered the last vault room only to be forced to duck as a laser almost took his head, Flash dodged three more laser blast before returning to Batman.

" Solarstorm take him down."

Ben who was trying to shake off the ringing in his ears replied with. " Do I have to? Cuz that was pretty loud."

Batman glared at him. " Yes, and remember your training exercise."

Ben sighed in annoyance. " Yeah I know, no switching out of Solarstorm until I'm comfortable with him." Solarstorm simply walked into the vault room and as Jack uselessly shot lasers at him Solarstorm closed the distance between them and pimp slapped Jack knocking him out.

Ben held his head in pain as he tried to shut off the rest of the world from his senses. " You guys are killing me here."

After a few seconds Solarstorm floated out of the room where Flash and Batman were waiting for him.

" Did you get him."

" Was there ever any doubt."

Before the two could continue with their banter Martian Manhunter fell to the ground making a crater.

" J'onn!" Batman shouted as he ran to his friends aid, kneeling down he began to inspect the martian looking for any lethal wounds.

" I am unharmed, but King has escaped me."

"Not on my watch!" Solarstorm flew away to confront the criminal.

King had just gotten outside the jewelry store when a blur easily outpaced his hovercraft. Solarstorm held his arm out and allowed King's momentum to send him into his outstretched limb causing the villain to fall from his hovercraft as well as lose consciousness.

The rest of the Justice League soon caught up with Solarstorm each carrying an unconscious member of the Royal flush gang who were restrained using rope made by Green Lantern.

Batman inspected the machine that had allowed him and the Royal flush gang to easily enter the jewelry store. " Extra dimensional tech. It's just as I suspected, Diana use your lasso we need to know how he got this type of technology."

Diana complied and wrapped her lasso around King. " Where did you get this technology."

" I don't know." King replied.

" The lasso compells you to tell the truth."

" I don't know." Diana gasped, how could this man resist the lasso of truth?

" J'onn, read his mind." Martian Manhunter's eyes glowed read as he quickly began reading the minds of every member of the Royal flush gang only to find...nothing.

" I have read their minds. None of them know the origins of the device."

" Then we haven't found the end of this thread." Batman said as he began to contemplate the possibilities of this new discovery, was this the beginning of a new alien invasion or something else entirely.

" I'll take these guys to booking, the rest of you can sleep on what we've learned tonight." This caused Ben to sigh in relief and change back to his human form.

" I don't need sleep, I need answers."

" You're wounded, you need to rest." Wonder Woman said with a look of concern.

" I will investigate if it will ease your concern." J'onn volunteered as a Martian he needed less sleep then a human and unlike Batman he was relatively uninjured.

Batman walked away from the group and limped back to the batmobile and proceeded to drive back to the Batcave where he was met with an angry Alfred.

" Your not going to let me work are you?" It was a statement more than a question.

" Not until you've had proper medical attention, as well as 8 hours of sleep and food."

" Fine." Bruce conceded. " Let's get this over with." Alfred began to escort Bruce over to the mansion where he would personally patch up his foster son.

When the two were gone a flash light went off inside the batmobile and from it the super villain known as mirror master materialized inside the car dressed in a orange and green jumpsuit.

" I'm in." Mirror Master said over his com.

" Then get to work, this is the most delicate part of the plan."

Mirror Master quickly made his way to Batman's computer and placed a device on it in just a few seconds the device began to hack into the bat computer and search for a very specific file.

" I didn't get a look at Batman's face, should I stick around longer and see if I can get his secret identity?" Mirror Master asked.

" No the information in that computer is far more important than Batman's secret identity besides I already know who he is."


(8 hours later, Wayne Manor.)

Bruce was looking at files detailing everything the League knew about the Royal flush gang when Alfred walked into the cave looking horrified and grief stricken.

" Sir I'm afraid I've have terrible news to share."

" What is it."

After hearing what Alfred had to say Bruce rushed outside and drove to Gotham cemetery he found that the graves of his parents had been dug up and their caskets were nowhere to be found.

" No. Who did this!?"

" I don't know sir." A stranger dress in a hat and a oversized trench coat said. " I found the graves like this and called you right away."

" Who ever did this is going to pay." Bruce swore.

" I can help with that." The stranger said as tubes connected his body started pumping venom into his body causing him to grow in size his weak and withered body grew strong, as his trench coat was ripped from the transformation Bruce looked up and saw Bane in his Black combat pants and tank top.

Bane delivered a strong punch to Bruce's knocking him out and sending him falling right into his father's grave.


Flash was working at his day job investigating a crime scene and realizing that the accident was not an accident at all but a homicide.

" Come on Wally I've got a date tonight, this was clearly an accident case closed."

" I don't think so." Wally denied. " The facts don't match the scenario."

" Did you hear, mirror master is robbing the new maglav train in keystone city." One of Wally's coworkers said.

" Bag and tag everything, be thorough this a murder not an accident." Wally began to leave the crime scene.

" Hey where are you going!?"

" Off to the Maglav train station."

" That's a crime in progress not a crime scene."

" If Mirror Master is there then it won't be long before it becomes a crime scene." With that Wally ran off to nearest ally he could find and put on his Superhero suit.

In a Flash Wally caught up with the train entered it and freed a trio of cops that had been tied up. After he freed them they frantically tried to explain the situation to him.

" Hey one at a time, I have super speed not super hearing."

An aged cop the oldest in the trio step upped to explain the situation. " We were transporting old cash to the federal reserve."

" Old cash?" He questioned.

" It's being taken out of circulation it'll be destroyed and replaced by new bills." The youngest of the trio explained.

" Unless Mirror Master steals it first, which ain't happening on my watch." The aged cop began loading his gun fully intending on confronting Mirror Master.

" Yeah I just untied you. You're lucky he let you live just leave it to me." With that Flash sped to the next cart where all the money and Mirror Master were waiting for him. Mirror Master opened fire on him using guns that shot light based laser at him, Flash took cover behind some of the money which was covered by a tarp.

A laser started to destroy his cover. " I thought this was a robbery, your just doing the feds job for them." Flash rushed at Mirror Master but when tackled him he disappeared in a flash of light.

" A hologram? figures." Flash turned around only to find a dozen more holograms filling the room.

" Which one of us is real!?" All the holograms mocked.

"I don't care." Flash said flatly as quickly blitzed all of them only to find that none of them were real. Flash moved on to the next train cart where he found Mirror Master behind him was a box covered with a blue blanket.

" What's in the box." Flash asked already knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

" A dead grandma." The villain said cheerfully.

Flash scowled. " What kinda sick joke is that supposed to be?"

" Relax. I got a little ahead of myself but can you blame me? I am trying to keep up with you." Mirror Master uncovered the box to reveal a box made of tempered glass inside of it was an elderly woman who was unconscious. " She's still alive."

Mirror Master then pressed a button on the side of the box which caused to begin blinkin red. Flash scowled he got ready to tackle the villain in front of him but Mirror held a hand up to dissuade Flash.

" Don't move, trust me you're gonna want to hear all of this." Mirror Master gestured towards the box. " This is my hostage box at the end of the countdown this box will instantly kill the woman unless you're fast enough to get her out of there."

" It's a trap."

" Certainly but you can't take that risk or pass up the challenge." Without another word Flash speed past Mirror Master slipped his hand inside a hole in the box and began undoing the lock rapidly trying to guess the combination that would undo it. That's when flash felt something pierce through his wrist causing to fall to his knees from the sudden and intense pain.

" Careful now." Mirror Master mocked. " It's bolted through your wrist."

" What?"

" It's a bomb with a 3 mile blast radius, if you remove then it explodes if you do nothing then it will also explode. One last thing before you heroically jump out of the train to protect the passengers, once you start running if you decelerate then..."

" It explodes." Flash guessed his voice pained and laced with anger.

" You've got twelve seconds to decide, I don't really care what you do because I'm not really there." Mirror Master vanished in a flash of light signifying that he was just another hologram.

" Fuck." Flash swore as he kicked open one of the train doors jumped out of the train and began running as far as he could.


In a boat Wonder Woman was brawling against cheetah but the feline villain was expertly dodging all of the amazons blows. After dodging a jab with a back flip cheetah landed on the mast of the ship.

" What do you want cheetah?"

" To hurt you diana." with that Cheetah leapt in the air and began to claw away at Wonder Woman only for the Amazon to block all the blows directed at her all except one. Diana retaliated by punching her foe in the face the strength of the blow was enough to force Cheetah into the air.

Cheetah wiped a drop of blood away from her bottom lip. " That bracelet trick always impresses me but at least I got you once." Cheetah leapt away from the boat knowing that soon the Amazon would die.


When Bruce Wayne regained consciousness the first thing he noticed was the bones of his father which had unceremoniously been placed atop of him. Damn it all! Bruce quickly began to scan his surroundings and deduced that Bane had buried him alive locking him inside with his father's remains as a way to mock him.

Bruce pulled out his keys from his pockets and using them as a pseudo knuckle dusters he began punching through the casket frantically blood coming from his hand as he started to get injured from punching solid wood.


(Metropolis)

Atop of a skyscraper an overweight man was seemingly getting ready to take his life when Superman flew to the top of the skyscraper. "Mr. Ackerdson?May I call you Henry?"

"Call me whatever you want.

It doesn't matter." Henry said dejectedly."Nothing does."

"I'm going to have to disagree with you, sir. Everything matters. Everybody matters." Superman said passionately slowly getting closer to the doomed man.

"Don't come any closer. I'll do it!" Henry pulled out a gun from his coat and pointed at his own head.

"I'm staying right here." This was a precarious situation but Superman had dealt with this type of thing before and usually it was best not to smother someone who felt like their lives meant nothing.

"You don't understand, I've been a newspaper man for 40 years.

I started as a copy boy when I was 16Always thought I'd be doing it until the day I died." Henry ranted

"Heh,guessI got that part right." He said with a bitter smile.

"There are other jobs." Superman reassured.

"Newspapers are dying. I spent my life fighting for the little guy, fighting for truth and justice.

It isn't relevant anymore."

"That's what some people say." Superman flew closer to Henry slowly so as to not startle him.

"But I've fought for the same things,even when they don't seem fashionable."

"It's a never-ending battle," Superman admitted. "but we can't quit."

"I'm not the man you think I am. I'm too weak to fight anymore."

"You're stronger than you know," Superman got a little closer at this distance now he was certain he could stop the bullet if it came down to it but still Superman would rather talk Henry out of this course of action.

Suddenly Henry pointed the gun at Superman's chest and fired.

Kryptonite!?

No!

The last thing Superman saw was the synthesized skin of made to look like Henry Ackerdson rip and tear to reveal Metalo underneath it.


(Batcave)

Batman was sitting in front of his computer typing furiously in using every security camera in Gotham to try and find Bane when Alfred walked into the cave.

" Master Bruce."

" What!?" Bruce snapped he had been through a lot in the past few hours the last thing he wanted was to waste time.

" Master Kent has been shot." Alfred informed him.

Bruce quickly pulled up a news station from Metropolis where sure enough there was footage of Superman on the ground bleeding profusely the news reporter claimed he had been shot by kryptonite and that his invulnerable skin was preventing the ambulance from removing the bullet.

Quickly Bruce called Flash using his monitor. " Flash I need you to run to Star labs and get me a kryptonite scalpel, quickly."

" I can't." The tired voice of the Flash rang out. " I've got a bomb bolted to my wrist and if I stop running it-"

" It will explode." Batman finished softly as he realized what was happening. His eyes widened in horror he quickly called Ben's Omnitrix. " Ben? Ben!? BEN!?"

" Hey Bats I'm a little busy over here." Bruce calmed down somewhat hearing that Ben didn't sound particularly injured.

" What's happening!?" Bruce demanded.

" There was this guy he was holding a woman hostage, he didn't kill her but he somehow deactivated my Omnitrix for a few seconds and almost killed me, luckily the Omnitrix's failsafe kicked in and saved me. I managed to destroy the device but the guy got away from me and even worse people took pictures of me when my Omnitrix was shut off." Ben explained tiredly.

Bruce cut off the call and stood up from his chair. " Alfred get the Batwing ready I need to leave!"

" What's going on sir?"

" The Justice League is under attack."

" By who?"

" By me!"

End of Chapter

Tell me what you thought of that cliffhanger also sorry this took so long but I had exams to take and an internship to go to. So I haven't had a lot of time lately to right.