Of Bats and Men


The time has come the walrus said,

to talk of many things, of shoes, of ships,

of sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.

Of why the sea is boiling hot,

and wether bats have wings.



I remember what Bats was like after Robin the second was killed by the Joker. Of course, at the time who would have guessed 'Mr. Personality' cared so much for a kid?

No offence, I miss the kid as much as the next person I suppose, though, it is a bit hard to know any of them. But, Batman? I think that everyone learned one of those life lessons from it, the hard way. The Bat may act like a cold fish and some human robot dude, but, no one better mess with his little family.

I have seen the guy get shot and be no more disturbed than if someone had hit him with a snow ball or something. No, he would probably be more furious if you had dared throw a snowball at him. But, God protect you if you presume to harm one of the Bat clan, because we sure can't.

No one even dared to go into his city during that time. Including my man Flash, and he could have been in and out of there before HE had time to blink. Wally totally detoured the whole thing a lot more widely than usual.

Even Supes stayed away for the longest. Until he somehow talked some semblance of sanity back into the man. Sure it's tough losing someone, but that's still no reason to go ballistic on the world. Right? Maybe it's totally different in his eyes. I mean losing your parents when your little is bad enough, seen' them go right in front of you must be a heck of a lot worse. Of course we didn't know that he was also Bruce Wayne at the time.

I guess that's why he's so oober protective of those he lets get close to him. Could be why he came to us for help. Yeah, I know, Batman and needing help do not belong in the same language. When it comes right down to it, I' proud he even considered us for help in this. It was one of his own on the line this time. To bad we screwed up.

Superman had probably had a really crummy meeting with Luthor alright. Must have been a doozy the way we felt like walking egg shells around him. S'funny, I thought Batman had a monopoly on that department or at least shared it with Aquaman or something. Wish we had found out some other time that Superman had a claim on that department too.

He was really only about 15 minutes or so late. Somehow I wish it was me that it had been me that day. I know I usually am , so why not this time too? Anyway, I think the S-man way overreacted. Batman always has a good reason for being late. Always. He never chews me out like that and I never (almost) have a good excuse.

I don't even know how long he yelled for. Something about Batman seemed wrong but I was so surprised by Superman's tirade that I never did figure it out until later. I wonder if the others noticed at the time? Or were they in shock too?

Afterwards he just threw that folder on the table without saying a word from where he stood and left. All hell broke loose. Some of us were defending Batman, some Superman. He is the current Chairman they say. It is his call to discipline a member for tardiness. The others are saying Batman never was one to waste their time, he probably had a good reason for being late to boot.

For once I seem to be the only one who keeps something that resembles my temper in check. I swear it's probably a few hours later that we even remember his folder. Superman was still pretty pissed off at him so J'onn was the one to open it.

I hope to my place as a Green Lantern that I never see that look one his face again, for so long as I may live. It just got worse the longer he read and it was a pretty thick folder at that.


Come to find out, Batman really, really needed our help. All those missing people were connected after all. Some nasty-bad dinosaurs from outer space were gathering supplies for there ongoing mission. Mega-sickness being that those supplies were people. Seems we are mighty tasty that way.


The scary thing? Robin had been harvested.....


..............................


The Batman, our ally, had come seeking our aid to rescue one of his children. Thanks to a ignorant little misunderstanding he left without it. After reading the information he left us hours ago we finally understand just how big a mistake we had made. If his Robin dies I will never forgive myself.

I have no great love for the man personally, but he is a distinguished warrior and an ally after all. I also know what it is to lose a child, I would never want any one to suffer that again as he would.

Unfortunately, just as we were setting out it seems that the alien scum decided it was time "up the ante" as Wally would say. They were trying to kidnap larger groups of people now via probes maned with some of their crew. It seems that those hours had been put to good use by Batman. He surely must have found their head-quarters and 'stormed the castle' as it. By Poseidon's beard, the man is more stubborn then I ever was!

As we break off into groups no one mentions the blood smeared wall.....


..............................



Since me an' Superman were the fastest, more fun for us. Thank heaven there weren't that many probes, 'cause after the fifth one, let me tell you, even I was getting tired.

He must have been feeling pretty bad about the whole 'blowing up at Batman' thing. The big S-man doesn't do the dark and grim very much, but still, it's pretty scary. None of the others have found the baddies HQ yet. Everyone is sure that's where dear old Batty was heading. It seems like the one nearest Gotham might end up being the hornets nest. Figures somehow.

Must be where the new Boy Wonder is . Hope he's alright. From what I've heard of him, he's a really good kid. I surely would hate to lose him. Bart even slowed down enough to tell me all about him without using just key words! I have only met the runt a few times, but I'm sure the Batman is very proud of him. Keeps the good old Bat Clan's tradition of secrecy well enough and all that Jazz.


Oh God! What if we lose him??? Batman will kill us!


Thankfully just as that thought strikes me we finish up the last of the probe posts. J'onn and the others are heading to the last at Gotham. I was right, it did end up being the head quarters. Well, they never said this was going to be a attractive (or safe) job at the Super Hero School.

Most of the people are clueless, thought they were being held hostage or something. The few who figured it out look to be in shock or worse. Unfortunately we just don't have time for them right now, we have to figure out how they got out in the first place. Superman is the one who spots Robin in the crowd. I can feel us all give a collective sigh of relief, we can all breath again. He seems to be the one who lead the people to safety to boot. All is right in the world until we get a closer look at the lad.

Someone up there really must not like us. That must be it.


He's about to collapse on us. This is way bad. J'onn is the first to figure it out, I mean, he is the telepathy major. The stoopid aliens had enough supplies on landing to hold off on this new source for a bit. They had even gathered enough that they could leave and be fine for a good while. Seems they were even wondering about letting the gathering up of new meat slack and just keep the ones they had left for live stock purposes. By that time though, the head pooh-bahs or whatever they call themselves, had had their first taste.

Urg. Nastiness. *shiver* Like some freakin' candy addicts they couldn't get enough, hence the step-up in processing. In steps the Justice League. Bad guy booties are toast on a stick. Cut, print, and go directly to jail. Time to ride of into the sunset. Lots of people dying while we waste time arguing before getting there to save the day.

Batman had other ideas of course. Thank heavens. All the bloody, unconscious bodies laying around being testament to that fact. In the process of all the righteous bootie whooping, he apparently came up just a tad short. He did make it to the hostages, but for some reason couldn't pull off that last little detail.

Oh, the prisoners were released but Bats had to surrender to get it done. He had the aliens full attention (that's a real surprise alright), what hey didn't know was that he could not have freed those people if they had not agreed to let them go in exchange for his surrender. I t had been a long time since a warrior such as the Batman had challenged them in their journeys.

He must have known that we would have made it in time, he had to....


..............................



Bruce Wayne. Millionaire, playboy, social elite, the Batman. Most of the others believe he is a maniac. An apparently rich, pampered nut-case. Sure, his parents were killed when he was little, but, really. What a big deal. Lots of kids lose their parents everyday. To divorce, abandonment, and yes, even death. Even though they would never say such things out loud.

I'm sure his family understands. His family. For all the years I have known him, he has possibly been more of a loner than I ever was. In time I hoped that he would find the family he had lost. If not in the form of the Justice League as myself, then perhaps somewhere else.

At the best of times, in almost every incarnation of the League, people have made jokes to me at how ugly it must be inside the Bat's head. I have never thought that particular joke very funny. Superman is plausibly the only one among the rest that actually understands him, or so I thought.

Most people are easy to read. Their thoughts running so smoothly in the background of my mind that it requires almost no effort on my part to forget they are even there. As a telepath, perhaps Arthur would understand best, but I hate going into or reading another's mind without consent. It is like reading a person's journal, only on a vastly more personal level.

The Batman is different. The rest of them see him as some cold, impersonal robot, which is exactly what he wants them to see. But inside his head, it is whole other world.

Whenever he is around I see red. Red with the sound of gunshots, as if they were echoing forever off the walls of an alleyway. Pearls flying through the air to land, to land dully around the still figures of a man and women. A little boy's cry of helplessness and rage mingle with the shots. Blending until they both become so loud, all else is drowned, all but the need for revenge and justice. They tell me how ugly it must be, I find it to be sad.

Today I fear he will go through it all again. As he left the Watch tower I sensed something very wrong. The little boy in Bruce wasn't crying out in horror and helplessness. He was crying in rage. Just as he was when Jason died, as he did after that day.

I blame myself for not realizing it at first. Being surprised by the true venom in Superman's outburst was no excuse at all. When we finally remembered his folder and looked at it, I thought I would be physically sick. He knew what was responsible for the sudden rash of disappearances. Aliens, it always has to be 'aliens'. They were hungry, it was all there. Unfortunately he couldn't be sure which one was their main base of operations.

I understood it really didn't matter. He knew which one Tim was in, after all.....


..............................



The others gather around as I try to get some sense from Robin. We knew Batman was inside, but not for how long or where exactly. We are also ignorant as to his situation. Timothy is a strong lad, it would take something very extreme to affect him this way. Superman, Flash, and Wonder Women do a quick reconnaissance as Aquaman and Green Lantern try to evacuate the area.

As they arrive back at our location, Robin does the unexpected.


"It's all your faults! He must have come to you for help! Hurt as he was it would have been stoopid suicide to come here alone, not to mention the unacceptable risk to innocents if he screwed up! He would never leave anything like this to chance! Batman's good, but he ain't God, even he's not so arrogant to think that. Why couldn't Nightwing been around, surely he was back from that stoopid mission with Arsenal. This wouldn't have happened if he had at least a little help!!!"


I don't think that I have ever felt more ashamed than at that moment, I know the others fell the same also. Especially Superman. But he still wasn't making any sense, what had happened?

I eared the worst. From the first reading of his folder I had been trying to contact him, but for some reason all I received that whole time was a burst of pain, then nothing. I was really beginning to worry. I don't, can't think of him as even being dead. At about that time Clark had decided to try and talk to the boy.

Clearly that was a bad idea. Before I do anything that can stop him he already started speaking. Telling the boy that everything will turn out right in the end, we'll all laugh at this misunderstanding and the Justice League would fix it was obviously not one of his better moments.

With a strangled sob, he pointed out the true horror of our folly.....


" Yeah, Superman, just how are you going to fix that? Huh, Heroes? Maybe you can mistake him to death and wash your hand clean of his arrogant self-centered sacrifice!"

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Note: I do not own any of the characters portrayed in this short story. I wish that wasn't true though..... If you sue me all you'll get is a 3,000 dollar debt every year until I get out of collage soooo.......Wait, come to think of that, go right ahead!



Note II: I would like to thank the following people for reviewing my story and would also like to ask that if something I write doesn't make sense, please, will someone let me know? It's just not cool when you sound like a lunatic (Also please note I didn't say that I am not a lunatic, just that I wish not to sound like one..... 0_0).


Batbabe

Stephanie Jeansonne

Madpostman

MrManiac

MC