JLU SPIDER-FRIENDS VOL 1: THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Chapter 20: Anti-Justice Part 2

Here I am, it's me again, you favorite author, 7-Eleventh!

(Audience applauds)

Now, I apologize for taking so long, but I'm pretty sure that all of you out there have been wondering what's been keeping me, or what could possibly take so long. But nevertheless, I can assure you all that you don't have anything to worry about. Still, I only hope that this will savor our family-like bond and bring us all much closer together. After all, who would you all be without my source of incredible entertainment, if I hadn't come up with all of this?

Just to be clear and thorough, the only reason I've taken THIS long to get this chapter posted is really quite simple; I've been making plans to write down NEW stories. But I won't go into any details right now, it might take too long to explain all of it.

Now, with all of that said and done, let's get down to business.

The last time we left off, Deathstroke and Terra had joined up with the Anti-Justice League, promising to deliver. Nightwing and Batgirl went looking for the lair of Vandal Savage and his crew, but they both ended up getting captured, right after they were knocked out by Deathstroke and his little apprentice. Now then, everybody get ready to rock and roll, because the next chapter is about to begin. Rrr-Rolling!


Previously on JLU Spider-Friends…..

The Justice League and their young friends had discovered that Vandal Savage and his vile daughter had been staging operations in Germany. The heroes went to confront and capture them. At first, Vandal offered resistance, but then he started to show signs of aging and having cancer. Then he and his daughter Scandal were imprisoned at Strykers.

Later on, Dr. Samuel Sterns, alias the Leader, showed up at Strykers and, with help from Bane, Dr. Octopus, and the Juggernaut, freed Vandal and Scandal from their prison cells. Then, after finding a place to hide in Bermuda, Vandal, Sterns and Octavius agreed to form a band of criminals, with the intent of making the Justice League pay for what they did. Soon enough, the band criminals become known as the Anti-Justice League, and had their first fight with the Prime Avengers.

The heroes managed to put up a good fight until the villains decided to retreat. But, it came at a terrible price. Even though the team succeeded in capturing MacDonald Gargan alias the Scorpion, and John Doe alias Copperhead, two of their own, Nightwing and Batgirl were seriously injured. However, despite their injuries, Nightwing persistently went off to find the villains' lair, with Batgirl coming along to assist him. But most unfortunate, just as they were spying on Vandal Savage and his cohorts, they were suddenly attacked from behind by none other than Slade Wilson, alias Deathstroke and his young apprentice named Terra.


Present time; next morning in Bermuda

Batgirl and Nightwing were still knocked out, even when they were now confined in some very strange bindings. They were still barely awake when a familiar voice suddenly spoke up:

"Time to wake up, bird boy." Right at that last word, a hand unexpectedly slapped Nightwing across the face, thus doing the exact same thing to Batgirl, both of them were very annoyed at the rude awakening. But just as both of them finally aligned their eyes, they were very shocked at seeing the person who had woke them up just now. Nightwing's expression quickly changed from shock to anger.

"Deathstroke," he growled, "I should've known that you'd be in on this."

"Is that so?" asked the armored mercenary, "Then I must be out of my goddamn mind." Deathstroke then turned to Vandal Savage and the entirety of the whole Anti-Justice League, who had also gathered there, in what appeared to be an underground basement. "So tell me, how long do you plan on keeping them like this?" he demanded of Vandal.

"Until I say that we no longer need them," Vandal replied, "Now unless you have a problem with my methods, I suggest you leave." The mercenary huffed and said nothing else. Vandal then turned to the rest of his cohorts and addressed his most recent associate, "Now, what kind of metals did you say that those restraints were made of exactly, Doctor? Care to explain?"

"It's very quite simple," Dr. Octopus replied, "The restraints are comprised of two different metals. One is called vibranium, which can absorb any kind of impact. The other is called adamantium, which is completely indestructible and very unbreakable. Both said metals are resistant to any possible damage."

"Most impressive," Vandal remarked, before turning to look at the strange light that surrounded the two young heroes. "Now, what about the light that surrounds them?"

"Why, that is a stasis field that simply prevents any telepaths from figuring out their current location." Octavius explained.

"Makes perfect sense," Vandal then turned to the Gothamites, "So, Nightwing and Batgirl, isn't it? I believe you know how to enter the new headquarters that was recently set up in New York, isn't that right?"

"What's it to you?" Batgirl demanded getting impatient, she didn't like the way this cruel old man was speaking to her Dick. But nevertheless, Vandal Savage didn't seem to care about that, he only wanted information out of them.

"It does not matter what you say, or even try to say," he told them both, "The only thing that remains is get the information from you, one or another." As he spoke, he held up the utility belts that the vigilantes from Gotham and Bludhaven had always worn. Dick and Barbara were both surprised, how did this maniac get his hands on their belts? Could he have possibly gotten them while they were still knocked out? If that were the case, then the immortal tyrant would be looking for a way to still take out the whole Justice League, along with their young protégés and compatriots.

"Octavius, take these belts upstairs and break them open as best you can," Vandal instructed his multi-armed associate, Octavius gladly complied and took both the utility belts upstairs to his private laboratory. The rest of the Anti-Justice League also followed their leader, along with Octavius, Deathstroke and little Terra. But before he left the basement, Deathstroke turned to look at his worst enemy.

"Never forget, this is far from over, bird boy," the armored mercenary growled in warning, his young female apprentice stood by his side, a look of grave concern on her face. "I've got plenty of time to dispose of you, as soon as those high and mighty braggarts figure out a way to destroy all of your friends, then I will destroy you."

After having said his piece, Deathstroke turned on his heel and left the room. The young geo-kinetic girl following not far behind him, she cast one final look at the captive heroes and then followed her mentor upstairs.


Meanwhile at Strykers

While Batgirl and Nightwing were in the middle of their own predicament, something else was happening. Spider-Man and Firestorm had gone with Batman and Superman to Strykers just so they could see Scorpion and Copperhead for questioning. Now, the four of them were waiting in the interrogation room for the two prisoners to be brought in.

"How long is this gonna take?" demanded Firestorm for the twentieth time, he was getting really impatient and couldn't stand waiting around for anything.

"Just give it a rest already, will ya Stormy?" asked Spider-Man in a calm demeaner.

'He's quite right, Ronald,' the voice of Professor Stein echoed inside Ronnie's head. 'If you can just be patient, we might get some possible results.'

Ronnie grumbled and groaned to himself, but deep down, he knew that the Professor and Spider-Man were right. Before he could make another complaint, the door opened up, and in came the prison guards escorting the two convicts that the Leaguers were wanting to see; Copperhead and the Scorpion.

"Well, well, well," drawled Scorpion with complete sarcasm, "If it isn't the bunch of losers from the Justice League."

"Cut the act," Batman growled at him. "It's all because of you two that my wards were injured in the first place."

"Is that so?" asked Copperhead curiously, even with a retort. "As I seem to recall, those two brought it on themselves." The Dark Knight was seething, no one ever said things like that to his face without dire consequences, he had no tolerance for it whatsoever. Superman, on the other hand, wanted to get on with the whole interrogation.

"You know, the last time I saw you in this very same room, it was right after you bite Batman in the shoulder!" the Kryptonian angrily told the reptilian-themed criminal.

"Aww, chill out, boy scout." Copperhead taunted the Man of Steel. "At that time, I only pounced on the dork knight as he wasn't looking, which was so perfect by…"

Superman immediately cut off what Copperhead was saying by snatching him up by his neck and pressing him against the wall, both of which was very hard. Now Spider-Man and Firestorm were really concerned for the fact that Superman might go out of control, if that ever happened, it would be very awful.

"Alright, that's enough," Batman intervened and pulled Copperhead away from Superman. "I'll take it from here." Then, turning his attention to the snake-themed villain, he begin whispering some serious threats, possibly enough to unsettle Copperhead. While this was occurring, Spider-Man and Firestorm then turned their attention to the Scorpion, "Don't expect to get anything out of me, because that ain't gonna happen," retorted the arachnid-themed villain.

"Oh, we're just getting started, Gargan," Spider-Man told his old adversary, "For example, I'm about to let you in the fact why my flaming friend here is called Firestorm for a real, good reason." As soon as the webslinger had said that, the nuclear man stepped forward and began using his powers on the chair that Mac Gargan was using.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Gargan cried out with a shout of shock and surprise, he couldn't believe what the heroes were doing to him at this moment.

"Oh relax, man," Firestorm chastised. "I'll be done in just a minute." As soon as he said that, the chair that Scorpion was sitting in began to change, the back of the seat divided in half and each half wrapped around the arachnid-themed criminal, constricting his entire waist.

"Hey! Cut it out! Please!" Scorpion cried out in immense pain, the bindings were really starting to burn him and by this time, Firestorm was beginning to heat things up for him. "No, please! Stop!"

"Not until you tell us everything we want to know," Spider-Man told him, now the Scorpion was really feeling how intense the heat really was. However, the nuclear man managed to keep it up until the green-suited criminal couldn't take it any more. "Alright, alright! I'll tell you everything!"

"Damn it, will you keep your mouth shut?!" demanded Copperhead angrily, but Batman just smacked him upside the head, shutting him up effectively. Then, the Scorpion finally began to crack under the stress of so much exposure to the heat.

"The Anti-Justice League is holding their base in Bermuda!" he cried out in complete anxiety. The four heroes looked at each other in surprise, the Scorpion was surely one of the lamest criminals in the history of the world. Even Batman could hardly believe it, yet he was also impressed with the method that used by Firestorm to force the truth out of Gargan.

"Not bad," remarked the Dark Knight just before the prison guards came in to collect the prisoners, "Not bad at all."

"Okay, are you guys almost done with these two goons?" asked one of the guards.

"Yes, we were just getting done with them," Superman answered, "As a matter of a fact, we had just gotten them to tell us what we wanted to know." As he was still speaking, Firestorm used his atomic energy to remold the chair back to normal.

"Well, that's good to know," said the other guard as he and his partner took the two rogues away, with Copperhead berating Scorpion. As soon as they were out of sight, the four Leaguers turned to converse with each other. "Well, now that that's out of the way, we now know where to find Vandal Savage and his gang," Firestorm remarked, "But what did Scorpion mean by 'Anti-Justice League'?"

"For one thing, that must be the name that Vandal must have come up for his own group," Batman answered, "But for another thing, while Scorpion gave in and told us where Vandal was holding his headquarters, he still didn't disclose where to find them. So, that in itself remains to be seen."

Superman and Spider-Man both nodded their heads in unison and agreement. "Now that that's settled, I suggest we get down to business and attempt to locate the hideout of Vandal Savage." Superman added.

"I agree," Spider-Man put in eagerly. "But until then, we'd better rejoin the rest of our group and start planning ahead."


Meanwhile; Back in Bermuda

All the members of the Anti-Justice League were gathered around the table in Dr. Octopus' laboratory, watching as the maniacal six-armed man was operating on the utility belts that belonged to Nightwing and Batgirl.

"Seriously?! How long is this going to take?" Electro demanded impatiently as he crossed his arms, the other villains didn't answer him, but Livewire went up to him and linked her arm in his. "Don't worry, Maxie. I'm pretty sure that the good old doc will have those two belts opened up in no time." Now, Electro would usually lash out at anyone for calling by his real name, but at this point, he decided to let it go. Especially since he had recently took a liking to Livewire.

"Stay calm, all of you, the doctor will be finished before you know it," Vandal reminded his crew. The others knew better than to question their leader's knowledge, but Electro was feeling about running away with Livewire when the whole ordeal was over, just so the two of them could continue having a life of crime without any interference from anyone else.

While this was still happening, Bane and the Juggernaut were busy guarding the prisoners, along with Multiplex and the Leader. From where they were still strapped in, Nightwing and Batgirl could tell that Bane and the Leader were engrossed in reading newspapers while Multiplex and Juggernaut were just discussing what they'd like to do for after eliminating the entire Justice League.

"Do you have any idea on how to get out of this predicament?" asked Batgirl in a whisper, she was getting really impatient and she wanted to figure out a way to escape.

"I think I have an idea that just might work," Nightwing answered. "Batman told me about this trick he once pulled to turn one bad guy against another, so I'd like to see if it works on two." Turning to two of the villains who were busy conversing with each other, Dick quickly took advantage of the situation by talking to the two rogues. "Hey guys, what are you even talking about?"

Multiplex and Juggernaut turned to look at the costumed vigilante with cross looks on their faces, even Barbara could hardly believe that Dick would get their attention the way he did just now. "What's it to you, pretty boy?" growled the Juggernaut.

"Ah, nothing much," Nightwing answered. The only thing on his mind was getting the best of these goons. "Just curious about what you and Multiplex are currently discussing."

Deciding to humor the young man, Multiplex stepped forward.

"Well, if you'd really like to know, it's all like this…" he began. "We've all got our own different goals in mind, so never mind all the details, thank you. I, for one, would like to set up my own base of operations in Pittsburgh and make all the people pay up all their money."

"You've got that right," Juggernaut put in before adding on. "I just like to rob banks to my heart's content until I've built my own place to live, that's all. Then I think I'll go back to Earth-616 and settle a score with my stepbrother, Charles Xavier."

"Patience, Juggernaut," the Leader interjected. "That last part must be put on hold until we've succeeded in yet destroying the whole Justice League. But Multiplex on the other hand, his ideas sound very much preposterous."

"I certainly agree," Bane added. "Except that it is the other way around."

Now the muscular, helmet-wearing mutant and the self-duplicating metahuman were slightly offended when they both heard that. Even worse, they couldn't stand the thought of someone else insulting them directly, even if it was about fulfilling their own dreams and desires. Batgirl and Nightwing quickly managed to take advantage of this situation to manipulate Multiplex and Juggernaut by saying to them:

"Surely, you're not really going to let those two get away with what they just said, are you?" asked Nightwing.

"Yeah, that is just so unfair and unnatural," Batgirl added on.

Multiplex turned and exchanged glances with his hulking colleague, and they immediately realized that the captives were right. Together, they walked over to Bane and the Leader to confront them, Multiplex went up to the Leader and put a hand on his shoulder while Juggernaut forced Bane to turn around.

"I want you to take back what you just said," Multiplex told the Leader.

"Yeah, same here," said Juggernaut.

"I will do no such thing," retorted the Leader angrily.

"Neither will I," Bane added. That refusal proved to be the last straw, prompting both Juggernaut and Multiplex to grab their offenders and threw them to the ground. Then, just as suddenly, Bane scrambled to his feet and rapidly increased his strength with his venom formula before engaging the Juggernaut in an all-out brawl that went all over the place. Furious, the Leader got back up on his feet and was just about to use his telepathy on his assailant, who managed to copy himself into five duplicates and proceeded to surround the Leader on all sides before closing in on him and began to beat him to pieces. Bane and the Juggernaut were now wrestling each other and rolling all over the place, even crashing into the walls in the process. This caused a tremendous series of tremors to shake up the whole place as Juggernaut punched Bane over and over again.

"TAKE IT BACK! TAKE IT BACK! TAKE IT BACK!" roared Cain Marko, his cries filled the whole room like the sound of thunder. His constant punching on Bane shook up the basement so much, that it even felt like an earthquake. Just then back upstairs, Vandal Savage and the rest of the Anti-Justice League heard and felt the whole commotion coming from downstairs.

"What in the world is going on down there?!" demanded Vandal angrily, the rest of the villains were greatly concerned by the sudden development. So before the noise could continue any further, the immortal tyrant stalked towards the elevator that led to the basement, the entire group following him in afterwards. Then, as soon as they reached the lower levels, the elevator opened up and the entirety of the Anti-Justice League was astonished to find that Multiplex and all his clones were beating up on Dr. Sterns, while Bane and the Juggernaut were rolling all over the place, wrestling and beating each other up.

"STOP THIS AT ONCE!" Vandal thundered, loud enough for the four combatants to hear him. Then, just as suddenly, Bane and Juggernaut stopped brawling while at the same time, Multiplex and his duplicates stopped beating on the Leader.

"Now, would either of you care to explain what this is all about?" asked Vandal sternly, but when neither of the persons in the room made no move or no sound, he then stepped forward and shouted at them: "I DEMAND AN EXPLAINATION!"

"They started it!" both Multiplex and the Juggernaut blurted out, pointing at Bane and the Leader, both of which had dumbfounded looks on their faces. Vandal and his daughter stared at the former two before looking at the latter two, "Is that true?"
"That's preposterous!" the Leader burst out. "I was simply minding my own business until Multiplex attacked me, for lack of a better term."

"The same goes for me," Bane put in. "However, I clearly suspect the two prisoners manipulated them into doing so."

Vandal's eyes narrowed when he heard that, turning to the prisoners, he went up to their stasis fields and looked straight at them. "If there is ever another unusual occurrence just like this one, then I swear I will personally make your lives very miserable. Do I make myself clear?"

Nightwing and Batgirl looked straight back at their captors and gave no answer, but that proved to be a mistake as Vandal Savage struck them both across the faces, which provided a great sting to them both. "Perhaps that will serve as a reminder of what happens to anyone who dares to cross Vandal Savage," the immortal caveman chastised the captives before turning to walk back the way he just came in. But before he left the basement, Vandal turned to the rest of his comrades. "As for the rest of you, I want you all to start taking turns guarding the prisoners. Just make it one at a time, for each of you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Most definitely, your greatness." The villains chorused before turning to leave, all except the Cheetah and the girl called Terra, the latter of which wasn't so sure about this whole ordeal as both of them were left to stand guard over the prisoners. As soon as Vandal and the rest of his team had left, the two villainesses were then left alone with the prisoners.

"What's your deal, Cheetah? Why are you working with Vandal Savage?" asked Batgirl, wanting a right to know.

"What's it to you, brat-girl?!" snapped the cat-lady indignantly, it was pretty obvious that she didn't like being asked about anything. "If you'd REALLY like to know, then let me put it this way," she paused for a minute before taking a quick breath and continuing. "Vandal has promised that if I follow through with his plans for destroying the whole Justice League, he'd officially help me find a cure for my current condition, just so I can finally get back to my normal self."

"Is that so?" asked Nightwing solemnly, he clearly didn't like the way Cheetah spoke to his ex-girlfriend. "Well how do you know that he'll keep his word?"

"I don't know!" snapped Cheetah angrily, "But I DO know that I have to keep my word in helping destroy the Justice League, then perhaps he will keep his word. Now don't EVER speak to me about this again!" with that said and done, the person was once called Barbara Ann Minerva turned away from the prisoners and went off in a different direction. Terra, on the other hand, just sat down and looked at the captives with the saddest look on her face.

Meanwhile back upstairs, Dr. Octopus was continuing to work on the utility belts that belonged to the prisoners. With Vandal and the entirety of the Anti-Justice League standing and watching in the background, Octavius managed to disable the locks on the belt compartments and dumped out the contents.

"Well, it's about time," Vandal sighed in comprehension, the others were just as relieved to see the work finally finished. Vandal moved over to the table and began to move things around on the table, Deathstroke also stepped forward and checked out all the contents of Nightwing and Batgirl's utility belts, until he saw something in particular.

"Hey, what's this?" the mercenary picked up something that looked just like a remote control. Vandal also saw it and took the object from Deathstroke's hands.

"Well now, what do you suppose that is?" inquired Octavius out of curiosity.

"I believe it is something that our captives refused to tell us," Vandal replied as he held up the one particular item that was now identified as a key fab, which could automatically open and close the gate to the Prime Avengers' HQ. "Gentlemen, this is…the key to our victory."


Prime Avengers HQ

While the Anti-Justice League was still in the middle of their nefarious scheming, the young heroes from the Justice League were in their private headquarters and seated at the round table discussing further plans to rescue their missing friends, in addition to stopping Vandal Savage. However, it was just ten out of twelve who were seated at the table and furthermore, Victor Stone AKA Cyborg was feeling very sorry for himself. On account of the fact that he wasn't able to stop Dick or Barbara from leaving to do their own investigation. Spider-Man and Supergirl were sitting right next to him.

"Oh come on, Victor, it wasn't your fault." Supergirl consoled her cybernetic friend.

"I still kinda feel like it is." Victor responded gloomily. "Somehow, if I had tried harder to convince Dick not to leave, then maybe this situation could have been avoided."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Spider-Man assured him. "I promise you, we'll find a way to rescue Batgirl and Nightwing. But for right now, let's focus on locating the hideout of the Anti-Justice League. Now's not the time to get carried away with self-pity."

Cyborg nodded his head in understanding, but he was still feeling a way bit unhappy about the whole thing being unable to stop Nightwing from ever leaving. The team turned back to their discussion on locating the Anti-Justice League and capturing them before sending them to jail where they belonged. Kyle Rayner's suggestion was circle the globe and search in places that they haven't searched before, Donna Troy couldn't help agreeing with him. A-Bomb, Firestorm, Jessie Quick and Aqualad each threw out their own suggestions about how to find and capture Vandal Savage, then rescue their missing comrades. Just the group had finally reached a certain point in their planning of strategy, Miss Martian stood up and addressed the whole team:

"If all of you don't mind, I'd like to suggest a better option."

"Well, what is this option of yours?" asked Donna, "Let's hear it."

But just as M'gann was about to voice her option, she suddenly felt an unnatural disturbance through her telepathy. Right at the same time, Peter felt his spider sense kick in. The rest of the team was gravely concerned as they could see that both Spider-Man and Miss Martian had perplexed looks on their faces.

"Guys, what is it?" asked Kara, feeling gravely concerned for her teammates.

"My spider sense is tingling." Peter answered.

"Someone's outside headquarters." M'gann also answered. No sooner had either of them said that, the alarm suddenly flared to life. With accurate thinking, Victor switched on the holographic screen that appeared in the middle of the table.

"Well, look what we have here." Green Lantern II remarked as he stared at the holo-screen in wonder, sure enough, the whole team was greeted with the sight of four familiar characters: Bane, Star Sapphire, Multiplex, and the Weather Witch. What was most certain was the fact that the four rogues were heading straight for the Prime Avengers HQ, for reasons unknown.

"Quickly, we must stop them before it's too late!" urged Aqualad, with that said, the entire team made a mad rush down towards the HQ's hanger. But as they were all about halfway there, a great gust of wind blew right in their faces, it blew so hard that A-Bomb had to step in front of them to shield them all from the gust with M'gann being the closest to him, as she grabbed a hold of his left arm. Spider-Man shot out a web-line, sticking it to the wall and clung to it very tightly with his left hand, just then Aqualad came sailing past and would have kept on flying with the wind, had the wallcrawler not reached out and grabbed him, using his right hand. Green Lantern II managed to form a few constructs with his ring and used them to cling to the floor, any additional constructs that he could think of, he used to catch any teammates who came flying past while Troia was more than capable of grabbing onto Kyle before she could blow past him.

"Hang on, Kaldur! I've got you!" Spider-Man called out to his Atlantean comrade.

"Thank you so much, Spider-Man." Aqualad told the webslinger in appreciation.

While this was still happening, the four villains, who had been seen on the surveillance cameras, were now accomplishing what they came for. As the Weather Witch was manipulating the strong gust of wind that was blowing back the heroes, Bane had managed to tear open part of a wall so Multiplex could put a strange suitcase inside. Once they were done, Star Sapphire used her power jewel to seal the wall up.

"There, we've done what we came here to do. Let us depart while there's still time." Bane said to his comrades, the other villains nodded their heads in unison even as Weather Witch stopped her wind-blowing assault on the heroes and Star Sapphire conjured up a pink bubble to carry her compatriots inside. By the time the heroes all picked themselves up off the floor and went into the hanger, the villains were already long gone.

"That's odd. What do you all think happened in here?" asked Cyborg.

"Honestly, I wish we knew, Victor," Spider-Man answered as he looked around searching the entire hanger for clues that would give a hint as to what went down in there. Even as he kept his spider sense alert the whole time. Miss Martian, on the other hand, did a sweep of the entire area using her telepathy while Cyborg used his cybernetic scanners to search. Just then, one of the team's comm links went off, Troia was the first to answer.

"Hello, who is this?" she asked solemnly. Then the Amazon princess was answered by a voice she had never even heard before.

"Listen to me, there's not much time to explain," the voice replied, "I'm just calling to let you know that you, all your teammates, and your headquarters is in danger of being destroyed from the inside." Donna's eyes widened in utter disbelief, even as she transferred the call to the monitor for all to hear. "Someone just called to tell us that our headquarters is going to be destroyed," she told the others, whose eyes all widened from hearing this information. Spider-Man, Cyborg and Aqualad exchanged perplexed glances of alarm before they each turned to the monitor in unison.

"What makes….whoever you are, say that our headquarters is about to be destroyed?" demanded Aqualad seriously, Cyborg and Spider-Man both stared at the monitor intently while Troia and the others all waited for an answer.

"I know that Vandal Savage sent four of his cohorts to place, not one, but three bombs in different parts of your headquarters," the voice explained carefully. "But you have to hurry, those bombs are about to go off any minute, and Vandal Savage will be given a satisfactory victory. Good luck to you, Prime Avengers, you're going to need it."

With that said and done, the transmission ended and the heroes all stared at each other for a minute. Each one wondering what had just transpired at that very instant. "What do each of you think this means?" asked Jesse Quick, feeling a bit concerned for their current situation. The rest of her teammates all looked at each other, not really sure what to make of the situation, then Cyborg took upon himself to speak up. "As far as I'm concerned, whoever called to tell us that the HQ is about to be destroyed, must have known that Bane, Multiplex, Star Sapphire and the Weather Witch were coming here, and then decided to inform us soon after, just so we'd be alerted to what they were planning."

"You mean, what Vandal Savage is planning, don't you?" Supergirl asked him, but the cybernetic teen just rolled his eyes, or rather his only remaining eye since he also had an artificial eyeball in the left side of his face. But before he could offer any kind of retort, Spider-Man cut in and said to them: "Alright, that's enough. Let's concentrate on searching the entire headquarters from top to bottom, in order to keep it from ever blowing up." Turning to the rest of the team, he continued. "Furthermore, if we search the entire base, we might have a better chance by splitting up into three groups. Kaldur, you're with me and Victor, so we'll search the upper levels. Donna, you and M'gann are with Kara to search the middle levels. A-Bomb, Firestorm, both of you get to go with Jesse and Lantern to investigate the lower levels, which includes the basement." He paused for a second before going on, "We'll regroup back here in the meeting room in about ten minutes, hopefully before those bombs go off and explode. While we're at it, we've got to be extra careful with what we're doing and plan ahead with getting rid of the bombs, in a way that no one could ever suspect."

"Agreed." The whole team voiced their enthusiasm in unison. Then, with that said and done, they all went off to take of their assigned tasks, hoping to save their beloved headquarters before it was too late.


Meanwhile, at this exact moment….

Back in Bermuda, right at the hideout of Vandal Savage, Batgirl and Nightwing were getting all the more frustrated by the minute, due to the confines of their own predicament. Furthermore, it couldn't be helped with the fact that they wouldn't be able to go anywhere or get back to the rest of their team in New York and report on Vandal's current status. But also, they weren't able to escape anyway, partly because Bane and Dr. Sterns were currently watching them both.

"Still think that you should've waited until the others got back from Stryker's?" asked Batgirl, she was only asking him that because he clearly wasn't thinking when he decided to take off on this escapade.

"Oh, I know that I wish we could've waited, but that couldn't be helped." Dick insisted strongly, he drew in a deep breath before continuing, "Even at this point, I think it would've helped our case a bit if you were the one who escaped and told the others where I was, instead of getting captured as I was."

Now, Barbara was really touched by the last thing he said to her. Right at that point, she was really starting to feel butterflies in her stomach and was clearly unable to speak. But before she could say something in response to that, the door to the elevator suddenly opened and someone came walking into the basement. The two heroes looked up and grew very tense, seeing that it was Deathstroke, who was pushing a TV set on a short file cabinet and followed by his young pupil. Terra could only look at the captives with a sad look on her face while her mentor set up the TV in front of Nightwing and Batgirl.

"What do you want, Slade?" demanded Nightwing. "Why have you come down here in the first place?"

"Why?" asked Deathstroke in a mocking tone before walking closer to his young enemy. "I'm here, because I want to show you AND your little girlfriend a little something. I think you'll find it most interesting." As soon as the mercenary had finished saying that, he switched on the TV to reveal a clear image of what turned out to be none other than the Triskillion. Batgirl and Nightwing were very much confused as to what this was all about, their concerns only grew deeper even as Deathstroke revealed what was actually happening. Terra, on the other hand, she was just not so sure about the whole thing, even with keeping people prisoner or treating them like dirt, or so much worse. But furthermore, the young meta was considering whether or not she should change sides, or just find a better way to live out the rest of her life in peace, without anyone interfering in it.

"What is all this?" Batgirl asked, a growing suspicion was already starting to gnaw away at her on the inside, while Nightwing just glared at his worst enemy.

"Oh, this is just some footage of your little clubhouse that's being recorded, even as we speak." Deathstroke acknowledged before leaning in to continue his rather insane explanation. "You both should know, Vandal Savage has planned to blow up your little clubhouse. Once he has done that, he'll then move on to destroy the entire Justice League and once that's been accomplished, I'll deal with both of you and it'll be so severe, that you'll wish you'd never been born in the first place."

As soon as the mercenary finished saying his piece, he chuckled darkly. The two Gothamites were now very much irritated with his unruly behavior. Not far behind, young Terra was still a bit unsure what to make of their current situation.


Back at the Triskillion

No one ever said that searching for and trying to a bomb that could level the whole place would be an easy task. Especially, when you have your entire team split up into three groups. The first group, consisting of Spider-Man, Cyborg and Aqualad, continued to search the upper levels until finally, Cyborg detected an object hidden inside the wall. The second group, which consisted of Troia, Miss Martian and Supergirl, managed to search the middle levels until Kara found something hidden in the storage closet. Finally, the third group that consisted of A-Bomb, Green Lantern II, Firestorm and Jesse Quick, kept on searching the entirety of the lower levels until Kyle detected something with his ring, that was well buried in the hard floor. Luckily, A-Bomb raised one fist and smashed right through and pulled out the bomb. As soon as the heroes found the separate bombs, they all regrouped in the hanger where Cyborg examined each of the bombs really carefully.

"Well, Victor, what have we got?" asked Spidey in a serious tone, he was really determined to find out why there were bombs in the base to begin with.

"According to my findings, the energy outputs on these bombs indicates that they were designed specifically for demolishing our entire base from top to bottom." Cyborg confirmed, just as he finished scanning the explosives. "They're also set go off in eight mintutes."

The others were very much shocked to learn that Vandal Savage was actually planning on blowing them all up. Kyle, Donna and the A-Bomb were all very much pissed off at learning about this whole thing, Spider-Man, Supergirl, Miss Martian and Aqualad were pretty much displeased about learning why the bombs were ever placed in their headquarters in the first place. Jesse and Firestorm were also very upset about the whole 'Destroy the HQ' ploy, even with Vandal Savage and his daughter involved, it did not help matters get any better. But the one who seemed to remain absolutely calm was Cyborg, he knew that they all needed to find a way to get of those bombs.

"Well, any ideas?" he asked his teammates, "I'm open to suggestions."

"Maybe if I just rearrange the molecular structure of all three bombs, then perhaps I might be able to keep them from ever….exploding?" Firestorm suggested, but his friends all stared at him in disbelief.

"Somehow, I don't think they seem to be on board with that idea, Ronald," Professor Stein's voice echoed inside Ronnie's head. Poor Ronnie was very much deflated at the sudden rejection. Just then, Jesse raised her hand as if she were in class, "I think I've got a better idea!" she exclaimed. "What if Supergirl and I were to combine both our super speed to build up a really, huge whirlwind to pick up a makeshift tornado. Then, the rest of you can throw the bombs directly into the tornado, and the headquarters will be saved."

The rest of the team looked at the young, female speedster for a minute before they all exchanged glances, each one agreeing with Jesse's proposed method.

"That sounds like an excellent idea!" Spider-Man exclaimed, the enthusiasm in his voice was clear enough to show that he was definitely on board with that idea.

"I agree," Aqualad added before turning to the others. "Now, this is what's going to happen; Supergirl will fly up into the clouds and proceed to create one make-shift funnel of a cyclone with her super speed, then once that is being taken care of, Jesse will join in and add her own speed to the momentum, right at the bottom. As soon as they both have moved the artificial tornado directly in front of the headquarters, that's when Troia, Lantern, and A-Bomb will each toss a bomb straight into it. I can only assume that even now, Vandal Savage and his cohorts are watching our headquarters through some kind of surveillance footage. Wouldn't you think so, Victor?"

The cybernetic teenager could only nod his head even as he scanned the entire HQ for any sort of device that resembled a surveillance security camera while Kara did the same by doing a sweep of the place with her X-Ray vision. After a while, they both turned back to the group, "Nothing in here that resembles a security camera," they stated.

Spider-Man and Aqualad exchanged glances and then back at the rest of their teammates. "Then there is no reason to doubt, that Vandal could actually be spying on our headquarters," stated the young Atlantean, the rest of the team all nodded in unison.

"Well, what are we all standing around for?" asked Spider-Man in a serious, yet urgent manner. "The clock's ticking, and we've got to get rid of these bombs right now!" The entire team looked at each other and then back at their leader and they all nodded in agreement with complete unison. Then, Supergirl and Jesse Quick both set to do they intended to do, the rest of the team got into position to throw the bombs out. Kara flew up into the clouds and proceeded to vroom around in a great big circle, big enough to form a very long funnel that stretched down from the sky. As soon as Jesse saw that it was her turn, she then zipped out across the water and managed run around in a circle, in order to match the exact same speed that Kara was going at. Sure enough, the two young women were in sync with a makeshift tornado that was completely huge enough to cover the entire headquarters. Once that was done, Spider-Man gave the signal to the team members who were in position.

"Okay, guys. Now's your chance!" he shouted, "Ready…set…GO!"

At that given command, Kyle, Donna, and the A-Bomb instantly hurled all three bombs into the giant whirlwind, far away from the headquarters. At the same instant, Kara and Jesse broke off what they were doing and sped back to the HQ just before the bombs literally exploded. As soon as the air cleared, the young heroes could finally exhale as the danger had finally passed and was gone.

"Phew…that was a close one," Jesse sighed with relief.

"I think the more accurate term is…a really close call," Victor reminded her.

"Actually, we should all be glad the danger has passed," Aqualad told his teammates in an very adequate tone of voice. "What must happen next is a chance to find Vandal Savage, so we can finally make our move against him."

No sooner had he finished the sentence, they were all broken out of their own musings when Miss Martian suddenly cried out and clutched her head as if she was in severe pain. "Guys! I know where Batgirl and Nightwing are at right now!" she exclaimed, shocking the others into absolute disbelief. Both Spider-Man and Aqualad were extremely stunned beyond belief as they both stared at the young female martian.

"Are you certain?" asked the Atlantean seriously.

"Yes," answered M'gann with genuine sincerity in her voice, the rest of the team all exchanged glances before looking back at their green-skinned compatriot. "Are you absolutely sure?" asked Spider-Man.

"Yes, I am." M'gann informed the webhead. "They just spoke out with their thoughts just now. Their current location just happens to be in…Bermuda."


Secret Hideout of Anti-Justice League; Bermuda

While the whole spectacle of saving the HQ from being blown up was taking place, Vandal Savage and his entire group of dastardly, wicked cohorts were all seated in a certain part of their own secret base, watching a viewscreen in the monitor room. As Aqualad suspected, the Anti-Justice League were indeed spying on their young foes, hoping to watch them all die before setting out to destroy the entire Justice League. Ever since he had sent Bane, Multiplex, Weather Witch and Star Sapphire to the Triskillion in New York, Vandal had really been looking forward to getting rid of the young heroes who were a thorn in his side, just so he could move on to eliminate the Justice League. But little did he ever know that he would be proven wrong. However, the strangest thing happened; a dark, grey tornado appeared on the monitor, right in front of the Prime Avengers' HQ. Now that is exactly what Vandal found to be very extremely odd, there was nothing said in the weather forecast about tornadoes being in New York City, none whatsoever. But then, the strangeness would eventually come to an end when all of a sudden, the explosion that all the villains were waiting for, finally happened. As it did, it expanded so widely and abruptly that the headquarters of the young heroes could no longer be seen in plain view. At first, the entire Anti-Justice League was very, very glad to see it all happen, and were quick to assume that the young heroes were gone for good. But just as Vandal was in the process of beginning to celebrate, his mood suddenly changed when he saw the explosion clearing up, revealing that the Triskillion was still in one piece. Vandal Savage was very, yet absolutely furious.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" he shouted, "HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!"

The rest of the villains flinched in fear from the reaction of their leader, who was apparently not in his right mind, due to the fact that the Triskillion had not been destroyed. Scandal went up to try and placate her father, hoping to help him calm down, but he turned away from her in anger.

"How on earth could this plan not have worked at all?!" he exclaimed, "I was so certain that it would fall through before we moved on to eliminate the entire Justice League." Turning to his cohorts, the immortal caveman furrowed his eyebrows and gave each and every one of them a deadly glare that showed that he meant business, he looked rather wild. "Did any of you gave away my plans before they could reach fruition?" he demanded sternly, the members of the whole Anti-Justice League were shocked to hear that their leader would ever accuse any of them of such a thing. When he received no answer, Vandal then went over to the monitor and checked for security footage. Once he had gotten to the right footage, Vandal examined it very closely and was stunned by what he saw; there, on the monitor was a video of what took place in the basement about several hours earlier, Cheetah was interacting with the prisoners. But what really stunned him the most was the fact that Cheetah was talking sweetly to Nightwing and then, kissing the young man right on the lips. After staring at the screen for a while, Vandal turned, and narrowed his eyes with a fierce glare at the feline woman, along with the rest of his cohorts.

"Cheetah? Are you the one who gave away our plans to the young heroes?" the immortal sociopath demanded angrily, Cheetah was shocked beyond belief that Vandal would accuse her of any such thing, but before she even had time to give an answer, a huge hand grabbed a hold of her and tried to keep her in place. The hand belonged to the Juggernaut, who was also getting suspicious of his own teammate. "Just answer the question, bitch!" he growled impatiently, pinching her shoulder in the process. Agitated by how the huge man was treating her just now, the cat lady wrenched herself out of his solid grip and summersaulted over his head in a backwards fashion. "How could you or anyone else accuse me of any such thing?!" she cried out while dodging any attempts made by her own team-mates to grab her. Despite how badly the others tried to catch her, Cheetah proved quickly that she was way too fast and agile for them to keep up with, but just as she reached the elevator, someone else stepped out to intercept her.

"Hello there, Miss Kitty Cat," sneered Deathstroke as he moved a hand from behind his back, and rammed a taser right into her stomach.

"AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!" Cheetah screamed aloud before she collapsed on the floor and passed out. The masked mercenary then put away his taser and turned to look at Vandal, "Despite how you've never trusted me in the first place, I still hope that we can overcome our differences."

"Oh, we shall see about that," Vandal retorted before turning to the rest of his cohorts, "Take the traitor to another part of the base, I'll deal with her later." Two of the villains, Bane and Weather Witch, picked up the feline villainess and carried her away. Vandal then turned to his daughter, Scandal, and said impassively, "We had better hope that Multiplex fares better than we are, because it would be most unfortunate if our two prisoners were to come up with some kind of plan to escape from here."


Meanwhile in the basement

It was quite a boring time for Multiplex, he had been watching over the two prisoners for the last three hours, especially since Vandal Savage didn't want to leave Deathstroke alone with them. Now, he was just having to clean up the floor by sweeping and mopping, while changing out the light bulbs, through use of his duplicates, not that anybody was complaining just yet. Batgirl and Nightwing were still having to brainstorm every certain idea that they could think of, in order to plan a way to escape. Right when they were still thinking about it, they saw their chance, just as one of Multiplex's duplicates was filling a cup of water from the water dispenser and getting a drink. That was the signal they needed to give them the basic idea to find a certain way out.

"Hey, just a minute, Multiplex," Nightwing spoke up, instantly getting the self-duplicating criminal's attention. "Would you mind sparing us a couple cups of water? I think our throats are starting to feel dry.

"Yeah, same here," Batgirl added on.

Multiplex thought for a moment, if these two were trying to play some kind of trick on him, then it would certainly cost him his place on the Anti-Justice League. But, on the other hand, if they certainly were getting thirsty, then it wouldn't make any sense to let both the prisoners dehydrate. So in the end, he choose the latter, and had two of his duplicates fill two cups with water for the prisoners.

"There you go, both of you. And no funny business."

"Oh, we wouldn't dream of it," Batgirl assured him before she and Nightwing each took a long sip from each of the cups. But right when Multiplex least expected it, the most unexpected thing happened; just as the duplicates gave the captives the drink they wanted, the two Gotham vigilantes suddenly spewed the water right into the overhanging headlights that formed the stasis field. All at once, the lights flickered and blinked until they finally went out for good. Multiplex was very much perplexed and frustrated, then he rushed out of the room towards the elevator and went upstairs. As soon as he was out of sight, the unlikely pair then concentrated their focus on communicating their thoughts with a very certain someone.

"M'gann! M'gann! Can you hear us?"


Back in New York City

Shortly after learning that M'gann had come into telepathic contact with their missing friends, the young heroes went and contacted the senior members of the Justice League and reported what they had learned so far. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter were very pleased to hear that Miss Martian had found out where Nightwing and Batgirl were at. Batman made a mental note to give Nightwing a lecture later about going off to handle things on his own, the dark knight himself had made a similar mistake in the past, which led to him being captured by the Injustice Gang. Such a thing would only serve as a reminder to never go off alone, especially when you're part of a team nowadays. Even though, Batman still preferred to working alone and safeguarding Gotham City while he was still the only founding League member that was a part-timer.

"Now, aside from finally learning where Batgirl and Nightwing are at in Bermuda, there's also the subject of whoever it was, that alerted you all to the fact that Vandal and his gang were planning on blowing up your headquarters," Superman told the young heroes as well as his younger cousin.

"Yeah, it was so weird, the person who warned us must've known ahead of time that Vandal Savage was sending three cohorts to blow up the HQ," Supergirl commented, earning nods of agreement from her teammates.

"Then it will be something that we all shall find out, once we have reached Bermuda and freed your missing friends," J'onn J'onzz reminded the young heroes, as well as his young niece. "But in the meantime, we must also find and capture Vandal Savage and the entire Anti-Justice League."

"Agreed," Wonder Woman put in before turning her attention to the young heroes "You have all been absolutely diligent, and I hope that you will continue to do so. Somehow, you all just might become full-time members of the Justice League in no time."

"You really think so?" Cyborg asked with utmost curiosity. The others were also just as surprised by the concept, if not for the fact that Wonder Woman had just brought up such a topic, even when they were currently in the middle of a really, very important matter. Of course, Superman was quick to add his own input on the matter.

"No, she actually means it," he stated calmly addressing the group of young, valiant adventurers. "She meant that someday, you all will earn the right to join the League. Even at full-time status."

"I believe that we'll have plenty of time to this topic, only at a later time," Batman reminded them all, hoping to them back on track for what they needed to be doing. Of course, the three other senior JL members and the Prime Avengers who were still there with the dark knight, couldn't agree anymore than that. So with that said and done, they all set out for Bemuda, hoping to rescue their missing friends from the clutches of Vandal Savage.


Later on, right in Bemuda

Soon after Multiplex left the basement, he went straight up to where the rest of the villains had gathered with Vandal, he then proceeded to tell his leader of how the two Gothamites tricked him into giving them both a drink of water, leading to the part where they disabled the stasis field by spewing into it. To say that Vandal Savage was not really happy to hear about it, was truly an understatement. The immortal being just waved it off, stating that it was only a matter of time before all the heroes showed up. "By the time some of the League founders and all the Prime Avengers arrive," Vandal explained, "It will be much too late for them, since we be ready when that happens."

The whole Anti-Justice League looked at each other and then back at their leader in devious delight. However, what they didn't know was that a certain someone was just about to ruin everything they worked so hard to achieve.

While all the villains were busy plotting to trap their hated enemies, the JL senior members and the rest of the Prime Avengers had arrived in Bemuda, right outside the building where both J'onn and M'gann could sense with their telepathy that Batgirl and Nightwing were being held prisoner inside. The last time something like this had happened, that was when Batman had decided to investigate on his own just to find out where the original variation of the Injustice Gang was hiding out at. But now, the dark knight's two older protégés had foolishly gone and done the exact same thing, and they were now being held hostage by Vandal Savage and his cohorts. However, no one was ever willing to have a repeat of what had happened last time; by the time the rest of the founding Leaguers had finally found the Injustice Gang's hideout, J'onn had phased inside to free Batman, but then he ended up being knocked out by the Ultra Humanite, who was also then revealed to be a mole within Luthor's gang at the time. All this made the Leaguers wonder who could have possibly tipped off the Prime Avengers about the Vandal's attempts to blow up the Triskillion, which would have also killed the young heroes as well. Whoever that was, it must been someone who was also a mole by infiltrating the Anti-Justice League's secret hideout and finding out what Vandal Savage was planning. All that would be something that the heroes would probably find later, since it had to be put on hold for the sake of stopping the Anti-Justice League and rescuing two missing teammates.

"I think I know what I have to do," Miss Martian put in quickly just before she sunk into the ground by turning intangible, indicating that she was going to phase inside the building.

"M'gann, wait!" her teammates called out to her, but it was too late. Soon after the Martian girl had started phasing inside the building, her uncle followed in after her, leaving the others behind. While they going inside, J'onn reminded his niece via telepathically, that it wasn't polite to rush in without a proper plan ahead of time. M'gann was about to argue that there wasn't much time to wait for a plan when all attempts to argue was put on hold, they had finally reached the basement where Batgirl and Nightwing were being held hostage. Standing guard over them was none than the same green man with a very large cranium, along with a young girl whom they had never even seen before. Now, don't me get wrong, J'onn and Miss Martian were familiar with the Leader, based on what Spider-Man had told them previously. But they had no who the girl was, since she was still relatively new.

"Okay, I'm taking them now," Miss Martian told her uncle, and before he could stop her, she flew out of the wall and right towards their adversaries.

"Miss M, no!" Nightwing cried out in warning, but it was too late. The Martian girl had already attacked the Leader and engaged him in an arm-wrestling hold, she tried everything to overpower him but that didn't stop Terra from sending a huge rock flying in her direction, knocking her out flat. "Well, well, this is truly a most unexpected turn of events," remarked the Leader as he took out a Gamma gun to finish off the poor young Martian, but then the gun was suddenly knocked out of his hands by the Martian Manhunter who just managed to get the jump on him.

"I won't allow you to do that!" cried J'onn in anger before grabbing a hold of Samuel Sterns and placing his hands either side of the madman's huge head. The green megalomaniac let out a shrill scream that was so alarming and very much excruciating, even to Nightwing and Batgirl, as the older Martian used the full force of his telepathic abilities to give Sterns a splitting headache until the villain finally passed out. Upon witnessing this scenario, Terra fled from the scene and went back upstairs. Therefore, the whole thing had been viewed through the footage of a security camera by the rest of the Anti-Justice League, especially Vandal who was now exceedingly furious at seeing one of his own get taken out, only this time, it was completely different from the first two times; First, the Scorpion and Copperhead were captured, then Cheetah had supposedly sold out his plans to blow up the Triskillion, and now Sterns had just been rendered unconscious by the Martian Manhunter. Turing to his daughter and his other cohorts, the immortal sociopath issued a new command: "Prepare for battle! It seems to me, the Justice League and their young prodigies have arrived."

"As you wish, Vandal Savage!" the rest of the villains chorused, save for Scandal Savage, who was very much determined to see this through to the end, even if it meant helping her father find a way to continue living forever as long as he would like. And hopefully, a way that would allow him to rule the entire world as well.

Back outside, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman along with the rest of the team were now really concerned about what was really going on inside the huge building, and now they knew what had to be done. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I am through with waiting around!" Donna declared firmly, even as she drew out her lasso.

"Hold on there, little sister," cautioned Diana, "We don't want to do anything so foolish and reckless, we need to be very careful as we go in. Follow my lead." As she was still speaking, the Wonder Woman turned back towards the building that their companions were being held captive, went straight up to the front entrance and kicked down the door. Donna followed soo after, and the rest of the heroes finally charged in without hesitation. Sure enough, the Anti-Justice League, with the exception of Vandal Savage, were standing out in the lobby of the museum and they were all waiting for their enemies. Superman struck the first blow by flying straight at Juggernaut and knocking him back into an escalator, it didn't take much for the huge, muscular villain to get back up on his feet and go head to head with the man of steel. Just as that was still happening, Spider-Man and AquaLad immediately went up against Doc Ock, each matching the insane scientist blow for blow and each one blocking his attacks all the while driving him back into a more secluded part of the building. Wonder Woman, Troia and Green Lantern II took on Star Sapphire by taking to the air, A-Bomb joined the battle by tackling Juggernaut and grabbing him in a choke hold, which in turn held him in place long for Superman break apart his helmet.

"Hey! Do you have any idea how much it cost to design that helmet?!" the Juggernaut demanded angrily, glaring at his two opponents.

"As far as I'm concerned, you don't need a helmet to be in a fight," Superman retorted before socking the mutant villain across the face and the A-Bomb then hurled Cain Marko across the room into a piller. While this particular titanic brawl was still taking place, Firestorm was going up against his old adversary Multiplex, and Jesse Quick was busy dealing with the Weather Witch. Neither combatants were letting up that easily, especially in the case of Scandal Savage who was very much determined to kill each and every one of these heroes, to keep them from taking her father prisoner. Bane on the other hand, lunged forward and tried to tackle both Spider-Man and Aqualad, but missed them both and got Dr. Octopus instead, crashing into a wall and carelessly rendering the mad scientist out cold and unconscious. "Forgive me, doctor, I never meant to harm you. Just keep out of my way, from now on," Bane told the unconscious scientist before turning back to the battle. Electro and Livewire were also involved as they both attacked Spider-Man and Supergirl, all the while trying their best to kill them.

"Doesn't look like violence will get you anywhere, Maxie!" Spidey taunted his old foe.

"You did NOT just call him that, did you?!" Supergirl asked in bewilderment.

"HEY!" Livewire cried out in anger, "Nobody gets to call him Maxie! Except me!" As soon as the words left her mouth, the electrical woman let loose a vast barrage of lightning strikes that flew all over the place. Electro also joined in as he started to do the same, throwing one blast after the other, but not once did he land a single beat on either his most hated enemy or these other heroes that were there as well. "Hey, hold still…Darn it!"

That was just as far as they got, because right after Electro hurled a lightning bolt at Spider-Man on the ceiling, the wallcrawler dodged just in time and the bolt hit the sprinkler system instead. This caused the sprinklers to go off, splashing both Livewire and Electro in the process and short-circuiting their powers, causing both of them to fall over unconscious. In a different part of the building, Juggernaut had grabbed a hold of A-Bomb and threw him off before picking up a clay statue and throwing it at Superman, who just simply broke it into two halves; one half went tumbling into the lower levels where Jesse Quick was battling with the Weather Witch, the other half went sailing through the air right into Star Sapphire's aerial dog fight with Kyle, Donna, and Diana.

"Move out of the way!" Kyle called out, but Sapphire thought he was trying to pull a bluff on her, but then it was much too late to move away when the other half of the statue rammed right into her, forcing the other combatants to dodge and get clear. Just as the renegade Lantern crashed into the floor, Kyle couldn't help but wince at the sight of Sapphire's misfortune before commenting, "I tried to warn her." Back with Jesse's part of the battle, she was having a really hard time trying to knock down Weather Witch, due to the latter's constant weather-based attacks. Luckily, the tide was turned in the form of Troia roping and pulling the Weather Witch's wand away with her lasso, making it easier for the young female speedster to zip right over and knock out the feminine criminal with one singular punch, "Lights out for you, Weather bitch."

In the other side of the museum, Firestorm was consistently blasting the duplicates of his enemy Multiplex, who did not hesitate to keep on attacking the Nuclear Man with everything he had. Of course, this did not deter Firestorm from countering every attack from his adversary, so he managed to turn up the heat as much as he could, forcing Multiplex to go on the defensive. Until finally, the young fiery hero managed to get the upper hand on his opponent and knocked him out, "It's over for you, Multiplex!"

Seeing that her father's team was losing, Scandal lunged forward and tried her best to keep the heroes from ever winning, even as she let a scream that sounded just like bloody murder. But that alone was not enough, she was hopelessly out-matched and outnumbered, though not because of sheer numbers, but mostly because she was truly underestimating the entire Justice League and all their protégées. That is what led to Jesse Quick tackling the feminine villainess down to the ground and knocking her weapon out of her hand. "Wha…this isn't fair!" she cried out in anguish.

"From where we're all standing, you've just lost," Jesse reminded Scandal, even as she tied her up with wire cables. Upon seeing Scandal being beaten and subdued, Bane leaped forward to liberate her, but then he was intercepted and thrown into a pillar by none other than Superman. Furious at having been so humiliated, the Hispanic mercenary picked himself up and proceeded to trade blows with the Man of Steel, even going as far as to grab the Kryptonian's cape and begin throwing him around until Superman righted himself up and grabbed a hold of Bane's arm and tossed through a wall. While this was still occurring, Spider-Man was still dishing it out with Doc Ock, ducking and dodging the insane scientist's metal tentacles and whenever Octavius threw heavy objects at his sworn enemy, the webslinger would just snag it with his webs and throw straight back at Ock, knocking him over in the process. J'onn and Miss Martian finally came and rejoined the battle, after having a brief recovery downstairs. When the Juggernaut caught sight of them, he immediately broke off his fight with the A-Bomb and charged them both. "Now you both die!" he bellowed loudly as he rushed towards them.

"Somehow, I doubt that," J'onn retorted before he and his niece turned intangible and then Juggernaut went right through them, plowing through a different wall instead. Before the musclebound mutant could get up again, the Martian came right up behind him and used his telepathy to render him unconscious as he had done before. Now that was during the time when Cain Marko had gone on a wild rampage and robbed a bank, while Superman had taken most of the young heroes to visit the Kent farm for the very first time. But this time was completely different, Juggernaut had made his worst mistake by trying to kill two aliens who were both telepaths and shapeshifters. In other words, he had truly gone and underestimated the true values of family, friendship and teamwork, which was why he was now lying on the floor in a comatose-like state. By now, the heroes had finally beaten the entirety of the Anti-Justice League, even as Spidey had just disabled Octavius by ripping apart his tentacles. But Vandal was still nowhere to be found. So Superman and Spider-Man both picked up Bane and Dr. Octopus, so they could interrogate them, "Alright, tell us. Where is Savage?"

"If you honestly think we'll tell you anything, then you are mistaken," Bane stated, prompting the Kryptonian to tighten his grip on the burly brawler.

"Don't make me ask again. Where. Is. He?"

"Right behind you, Superman," replied a familiar voice, and before the last son of Krypton could respond, he received a powerful blast from behind him, knocking him into some rubble. By the time he managed to dig himself out, a fist suddenly enclosed itself around his neck and began to choke him, and gave him a real, heavy exposure to Kryptonite. Spider-Man saw what was happening and swung on over to help his friend, but then he too was grabbed by another fist and was now in the midst of being choked. As a matter of fact, both heroes were now being strangled by none other than Vandal Savage himself, who had now been outfitted with a new set of battle armor, which got the wallcrawler to thinking of the way that Tony Stark's Iron Man armors worked. But this suit of armor was way different from any suit that was made before it, Savage had made sure to give the suit some very serious upgrades and any kind of energy-charged batteries that were filled with green Kryptonite. As the two heroes were trying their best to get free, the immortal caveman began to taunt them.

"Feeling uncomfortable? Good. Then I will gladly make both your deaths swift and brief. However, it's unfortunate that neither of you will be able to see the light of another day."

"Neither will you, Savage," stated another voice, this one sounding more young and feminine. Now, before Vandal could say anything in response to whoever had just addressed him, he felt something hard and thick strike him from behind, disabling his armor in the process and sending him flying into the other side of the room. But just as he was about to get back up, a huge rock landed on his back and when he looked up, he was very much dismayed to see that Terra was the one who assaulted him just now.

"Terra?..." he gasped out in shock, barely having the strength to stand up, "Why? How could…" before he could finish anymore, the immortal tyrant, Vandal Savage collapsed in exhaustion and was defeated at last. Spider-Man and Superman were completely surprised at the sudden outcome, and so were the rest of the League as they all gathered around to see what this was all about. Terra, on the other hand, just smiled at them and spoke up for the first time.

"What are you all staring at? All I did was stop him from killing these guys. So, it wouldn't have been right to them die."

The whole group exchanged glances with one and another, then looked back at the young geomancer, obviously proud of what she just did. But unknown to either of them, another figure was also watching the whole thing not far off, and he wasn't very happy to see that his former pupil had gone against everything that he and Savage had worked so hard to achieve.

"Terra, you disappoint me," Deathstroke muttered quietly before he turned to leave. But before he left, he reconsidered another option. "First, I will go and take care of some unfinished business."

With that firmly decided, the armored mercenary went towards the elevator that would take him directly downstairs. As soon as he had stepped inside, he drew his weapons while the elevator was still descending. Once he had reached the basement and the elevator doors opened, Slade Wilson stepped out and was fully prepared to finish off both Nightwing and Batgirl, when his eyes were suddenly met with an absolute surprise.

"What?!" he shouted in utter disbelief, he could hardly believe what he was seeing: Batgirl and Nightwing were gone! Disappeared! The restraints that held them were completely empty, and neither of the two were anywhere to be seen, whether or not they were still here, he had no idea. Just then, he heard a slight noise that sounded like someone was moving around without being seen. Quickly, the enraged mercenary pointed his sword around in different directions and saw no one, he also cocked his gun and did the same thing but still didn't see anyone. "What's going on here?!" he demanded angrily, "Just to be clear, I'm in no mood for any kind of games!"

"Who's playing games, Slade?" asked a familiar voice, prompting Deathstroke to spin on his feet and he was just in time to see two fists hit his face, bowling him over onto the floor. By the time he managed to get back up, he was very much furious to see who had attacked him just now.

"How did you two get loose?" he demanded.

"We have our secrets," Batgirl answered as she and her partner got ready to fight, with Deathstroke proceeding to do the same. "Besides, we both decided to hang around here for a bit in case you EVER came back."

"Like she said," Nightwing added as all three combatants then charged at each other and began dishing out. Deathstroke thought that he would have the upper hand by throwing a taser disk at Batgirl, just too get her out of the fight, but he was terribly mistaken when Nightwing destroyed the disk with one of his batons. So, while Batgirl went higher up, Nightwing was lower down, but that had nothing to do with the opposite sex or the fact that one weighed more or less than the other. At first, Deathstroke didn't have any problems with fighting two opponents at the same time since he was still slashing out with his swords or firing both his guns, forcing both Gotham vigilantes to either block the strikes or keep dodging the gunfire. But then, the unlikely pair managed to prove how wrong the armed assassin really was. First, Batgirl tossed a couple of Batarangs to knock both of Deathstroke's guns out of his hands. Then, Nightwing charged up both his batons to electrocute his old nemesis, causing him to drop his swords, shortly before both heroes succeeded in thoroughly humiliating their opponent and completely defeating him. Even as Deathstroke struggled to stay standing, he still managed to get a few more words out of his mouth before collapsing to the floor.

"You are….most….exasperating!" he gasped out, then before Batgirl or Nightwing could do anything, Deathstroke the Terminator fell down flat on his armored face, not that they wouldn't do anything for him in particular.

"Well now, I'm really glad that's over," Batgirl sighed in utmost relief.

"Same here," Nightwing added before he finally contacted the League upstairs to come and pick up Deathstroke.


Sometime later

In the hours that soon followed, the Bemuda Police Force arrived to arrest the entire Anti-Justice League and take them all away. During that time, Vandal was then revealed to be paralyzed, since the rock that landed on his back had not only hurt him, but it had literally broken his spinal cord. Also, young Terra had been given only a few years in prison in order to shorten her own sentence, since she was the one who had actually warned the heroes ahead of time that their own headquarters would be destroyed. All the next day, the heroes were shocked to hear the news that Vandal Savage had just died of cancer in prison. From the senior members to the younger members, the reports on Vandal's death left a very huge impact on just about everyone, while some members were just glad that Savage was finally out of the picture, there were quite a few others who felt that perhaps the immortal tyrant should have been given a proper trial before he passed away. It was pretty obvious that it just didn't make sense for such a man to die before he could ever repent of all his sins. Spider-Man and his team had already discussed the matter with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, but the trio then told the group that it would be better if they could just put it all behind them and leave it in the past. Of course, the team eventually agreed to drop the issues and let all sleeping dogs lie.

Little did they know that elsewhere, something different was now occurring. In a prison cell just inside the South wing of Strykers, Scandal Savage was brooding in silence over what had happened just the previous night. She could hardly believe that her father's plan to eliminate the Justice League had fallen through, she also had a hard time believing that Terra sold them out before Vandal's plans for revenge could reach fruition. And by this time, she was very devastated by the death of her father and began forming a plan of her own.

"I swear I will avenge you, Father," she whispered before looking up at the bars of the window to her cell. "One day, I'll escape from here and when I do, every last one of those so-called heroes will pay dearly for what they did to you. And as for Terra, I'll make her suffer for selling us out before your plans could ever reach fruition. I won't rest until the Justice League and the Prime Avengers have been beaten and destroyed." Then Scandal glared harshly out the window and let out a loud scream, "THIS, I SWEAR!"


And done! Another chapter completed! Once again, I apologize for taking soooo long to get this finished, I would've finished it last year in time for doing some chapters for my other stories, IF it hadn't been for the fact that my computer ended up getting an update that caused this chapter to be restarted. So I can only promise all you readers out there, that this'll be the only chapter that ends up getting done all over again. Yet, it's the longest chapter that I've EVER had to do. However, I need to be even more diligent when it comes to writing down and posting chapters. So, I plan on updating my OTHER stories with new chapters such as: Totally Spider-Man!, Beauty and the Man-Spider, and The Dragon's Flame and the Enigma Force. Especially in the case of the last mentioned one, which I had just recently started a second chapter for, while I was still in the process of writing down the ending for Chapter 20 in this story, just to let you in on a few things that I'm planning to do. Also, I am also looking forward to when I can start my very own, but first Marvel crossover with the Transformers, and it shall be called; Meet the Witwickys. Trust me, it's gonna be called that for a very good reason, that's for sure!

Now, in regards to Totally Spider-Man!, it hasn't been entirely decided on how many chapters I should keep posting for that story. Until then, it's currently up in the air. At least I should take the time to focus on finishing up JLU Spider-Friends Vol. 1, whether it's by the end of this year, or the start of next year. Of course, when I attempted to do a Spider-Man & Winx Club crossover 3 years ago, just to make it completely similar to the Disney classic, Aladdin. But then, some random, particular reader posted a review, claiming that I should either finish Totally Spider-Man! first, or just delete it. I can assure you all, whenever I start to do a rewrite for Winx Spidey, it'll be called: Spider-Winx. But it won't be started until after I've finally finished up with Totally Spider-Man!.

By the way, I'd like to mention something extra, which concerns some facts about celebrities who recently passed away. I've never gotten the chance to do this, but now would be a good time to do so. On October 11th 2022, Angela Lansbury died, which was quite unexpected, she was such a good actress while she lived. In the last couple of months or so, several other actors had also passed away; David Warner, Pat Carrell, Gilbert Gottfried, and Nichelle Nichols. If anyone doesn't understand what I'm referring to, then please look it up. After all, such good actors will be missed indeed.

Spider-Man: I'm pretty sure they will, dude.

AN: Well, I'm so glad that you agree, Spidey. Now, allow me to present a special sneak preview for the next chapter, which I'm pretty sure will most original in my book. Of course, it's suppose to more original, basically because it'll be so much similar to what some other Fanfiction authors have done. As a matter of fact, it'll have a similarity to the way lyokoMARVELanime has done it, only it goes as Onto the Preview!. But this time, my own way is going to include a way that's totally different, this time, it will go like this:

And now, a little preview of…What Happens Next!:

In the aftermath of finally defeating the Anti-Justice League, the heroes become involved in different things, but then after sending an alien warrior straight back to Apokolips, Captain Atom gets re-enlisted back into the U.S. Air Force; Then, later on, both Batgirl and Nightwing start to feel disillusioned about mending their estranged relationship; All this gets followed by Project Cadmus starting to move forward with their plans against the Justice League, with figures that were cloned from the Prime Avengers to lead a squadron of clones that resemble the original Ultimen; Afterwards, Huntress requires Superman and Spider-Man's assistance with tracking down the Question, who's disappeared while chasing down a mysterious lead, even going as far as to discovering that Lex Luthor's so-called 'Presidential Campaign' is not what it seems; What could Doctor Doom and his allies from Cadmus possibly be planning? What will Superman, Spider-Man and the Huntress find when they set out to rescue Question? To find out, tune in next time as the plot thickens inChapter 21: Disaster Strikes Part 1

So, there you all have it! Feel free to leave your comments in the reviews down below, and just whatever you do…DON'T push this button. Just kidding! Once again, I'm going to work on two or three other stories while attempting to post or publish a couple of new stories before the year is over. While I'm doing that, you all can look forward to what comes next, and as He-Man used to say at the end of every episode on his titular show….until next time!