Author's Note: Yes, I know it's been an age since I updated this story. Sorry about that, but my muse is a fickle thing. I worked on this chapter on and off for at least a month now. The next chapter will hopefully be a little easier, as we finally get some super-action around here. I hope to get it done a little faster this time.

Enjoy and take care!

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Part 12: Confrontations

#

Helena Wayne was lurking in the shadows of Bruce Wayne's underground cave (it felt wrong to call it the Batcave, seeing as this Bruce Wayne had never been Batman) and watched the man sitting at the large computer type away on his keyboard. Bruce Wayne, the man who, in another world, was her father.

During the last few days she had pieced something together. This Bruce Wayne knew who they were, where they came from. He knew thanks to the telepathic powers of the Martian J'Onn J'Onnz. After this initial revelation Helena had first assumed that he also knew who Helena was. Who she had been to his doppelganger on Earth-2. But over the last few days it had become apparent that he did not know.

Apparently J'Onn had respected some boundaries of privacy when deciding what information to share with Bruce and what not. Either that or he hadn't read her deep enough to find out who her father had been. Whatever the reason, Bruce clearly did not know.

After they had given their commitment to help him bring down the Four Bruce had been very open with them. Clearly not so much because of his open and sharing personality, but rather because he knew that he had just been handed his greatest chance of taking down the people he regarded as the greatest evil in the world. For better or worse he had cast his lot in with them and the only way they had a decent chance of succeeding was by working together without any holding back.

Which had led Helena to a decision. The first time she had met the Batman of Earth-1 during one of the annual JLA-JSA team-ups she had been distracted all the time, nearly to the point of messing up an important mission and getting a few good people killed. Only after talking with this new Bruce, sharing who she was and how his presence made her feel, had things improved. It had gotten worse again after her father had died, but eventually she had overcome that, too.

They were stuck on an unfamiliar Earth and due to fight a group of superbeings who had secretly ruled this world for the better part of forty years. They couldn't afford any sort of distraction. She needed to have a clear head for the upcoming battle, which meant she had to talk to this version of Bruce Wayne.

Had to talk to him and tell him exactly who she was, who they had been in another world.

Deciding to get it over with she slipped out of the shadows and approached him. She saw the slightest tensing of his shoulders the moment he noticed her approach, but nothing else. This man was not quite as good as her father had been, but he was still one of the best.

"We need to talk about something," she told him.

#

Several hundred meters above the cave Kara was faced with a somewhat similar situation. Shortly after their first meeting J'Onn they had been introduced to another of Bruce Wayne's close associates in his secret war against the Four. And yet again it was someone who, in another world, had been close to the exiled superheroes. Specifically to Kara.

"Are you okay?" Barbara Gordon asked, seeing the thoughtful look on Kara's face.

"Just thinking," she answered, not quite knowing what she was to say instead. Hey, Barbara! We've never met before three days ago, but in another world you and I were best friends. Want to do a little female bonding?

She shook her head. How had Kal handled it? Travelling to parallel worlds, meeting people who were so familiar yet at the same time complete strangers.

"This is really amazing," Barbara said, oblivious to her thoughts. "I mean, I read a lot about what the Four can do, what powers they have, but you I actually saw on national TV. Flying, lifting an airplane above your head ..."

"I tend to forget sometimes," Kara answered. It had always been easy to talk to Barbara, maybe she could recapture some of that here. "When you do this sort of stuff everyday it's easy to overlook how it must seem to other people. Plus, on our world there are quite a few people who can do the same."

"So J'Onn told me. I'm still having a bit of trouble believing it, to be honest. Another world. Probably another me running around." She looked down at her legs and a look of sadness came onto her face.

Almost as big a shock as meeting this parallel version of her best friend had been learning that she was paralysed from the waist down. When Kara had researched the doppelgangers of her friends on this world she had learned that Barbara had worked for the FBI, only to become involved in some kind of mission gone sour that left her crippled. No details, though.

Now she saw what had happened, had been told how it came about. A serial killer called Jack Napier, originally a small-time hood who flipped out one day and started killing people left and right. The task force Barbara belonged to tracked him down, but he surprised them and put a bullet through her spine before being shot himself. Napier died, Barbara was left like this.

Instead of surrendering to misery, though, Barbara had decided to recreate herself. No longer able to go after the bad guys in the field, she became the FBI's premier researcher and computer specialist. A few years later she was approached and recruited by Bruce for his crusade against the Four. Both still worked for the FBI, but now spent most of their time pursuing something their employers never learned about.

She had told Kara of her nickname among the hacker-crowd. They called her Oracle.

"You didn't happen to know me in that other world, did you?" Barbara asked, clearly not expecting a positive answer.

Kara thought about it for just a minute, then nodded.

"Yeah. I did know you, Babs."

#

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

Diana looked up, seeing Dick enter the room. Since they had taken up residence in Bruce Wayne's apartment tower they had barely seen each other. All of them had been busy reading up on the enormous pile of information Bruce had assembled on the Four, familiarizing themselves with their enemies.

"What is it?" she asked, inviting him to sit down.

There was a look of worry on Dick's face, one barely disguised by what Diana had always thought of as 'Bat-Face'. A peculiar talent all those associated with Batman seemed to have, projecting a grim and gritty façade that managed to fool most of the people looking at them into thinking they were cold, hard, and emotionless. Diana had seen it a few times too often to be fooled, though.

"I've spent quite a few hours talking with Bruce," he began. "It was weird, and not just because of who he is."

"What do you mean?"

A humourless smile appeared on his face. "I used to say that Bruce, my Bruce, always had a plan, even when it came to going to the john. He was never without a plan. Always had contingency strategies, back-ups, everything. After looking at the information the Bruce here has assembled on the Four I asked him what his plans were for afterwards."

"Afterwards? You mean after we take down the Four."

"Yes. From everything I've read it seems they assembled quite a collection of alien and exotic technology, used their influence to prevent quite a few technological and medical advancements from becoming public. If ... when we take them down, all that stuff will be there and we'll have to decide what to do with it."

Diana nodded. She hadn't really thought that far ahead, the need to see justice done for her sisters' murder clouding all else. The warrior-part of herself had some chiding remarks for that. Thinking ahead was always crucial.

"What does Bruce have in mind?" she asked.

"I shouldn't have been surprised," he said, rubbing his chin where greying beard-stubble was growing. "Bruce, in any world, is a control freak. He wants to keep everything under wraps. Release it slowly, if at all."

Diana nodded. She had expected as much.

"And you have a problem with that?"

"I ... I'm not sure. This world has suffered quite a lot thanks to the Four's keeping so much from the public, but ... I keep thinking that we, both the Justice Society and your own Justice League, we have withheld quite a bit from the world as well, haven't we? Advanced alien technology we got our hands on, things that could have improved life for everyone, and we withheld it."

He looked up at her. "Why do we do that, Diana? Is what we have done so different from what the Four did to this world? Why do we treat the people like children who are not ready for ..."

"Because they aren't ready," Diana interrupted him. "You are right. There are a lot of things we could have shared with the world. Technologies that would have made life easier, better. But ... Dick, I'm a lot older than you. And though I've spent most of my life cooped up on a secluded island, I've seen quite a bit of human history. Every single technological advancement was immediately corrupted, used to make better weaponry, used for violence. Mankind's technology has matured a lot faster than their common sense, their compassion, their moral responsibility.

"No matter what most people might think, Dick, the advancement of a society isn't measured by the size of their guns or the amount of people they can kill in one fell swoop. Mankind is not ready for the things we could have given them. It would be as irresponsible for us to share the technologies we have acquired over the years with them as giving a loaded gun to a three-year-old."

Dick was still looking at her, seeming old and tired.

"You don't have a high opinion of mankind, do you?"

"I think there are brilliant and compassionate men and women out there, Richard. People like you, people like the members of the Society and the League. I know, though, that they are few and far between. I know that most people in your culture celebrate democracy as the ultimate form of society, but I don't. Because when the majority of the people make the decisions, the decisions will always be influenced by ignorance and fear."

Dick shook his head. "I can't accept that. There is more to humanity than ignorance and fear, Diana."

"So what do you want to do, Dick? Give everything we find to ... whom? The US President? The United Nations? The European Union? The dictator of some African country? Do we give it to everyone or just those we consider worthy? Whom?"

Looking down, Dick sighed deeply.

"So what? We're going to continue to keep it all hidden? Leave the world in the dark just like the Four did?"

"Maybe. What we won't do is kill innocent people in the process, Richard. We are nothing like them."

Dick rose from his chair, seeming ten years older than before.

"I hope you are right about that, Diana. I hope you are right."

#

Bruce Wayne was sitting in his chair, brushing a hand through his hair as he was obviously searching for words. Helena just looked at him, waiting for his reaction.

"I thought there was something familiar about you," he finally said. "You did call yourself Wayne, I knew that, but I didn't expect ..."

When he looked up at her his eyes were filled with undeniable curiosity.

"Who is your mother?"

Helena clamped down on the feelings of sadness welling up inside her. Her mother had been dead for years now. Talking about her shouldn't be hurting so much.

"Selina Kyle."

If she had been hoping for recognition from Bruce she was disappointed.

"Sorry, never heard of a woman by that name."

It figured, Helena thought. He and Selina had met through their costumed alter egos, Batman and Catwoman. Since neither of them seemed to have taken up the costumed lifestyle in this world there was little reason for them to ever have encountered the other. During their initial research into this world Helena had looked up the name of her mother, but came up empty. Either she had never existed here in the first place or lived somewhere beyond the reach of American bureaucracy.

"I'd say it's a safe bet you would have liked her," Helena said, looking to lighten the mood. "The Bruce Waynes of two different worlds both fell for her."

A small smile graced Bruce's lips. "She must be a beautiful women. I can't see you getting your looks from me."

Helena gave him a smile in turn. She was somewhat surprised at how good it felt to see him smile. Her father had learned to smile only late in life. The murder of his parents and his grim existence as Batman had not left much room for happiness. Only when marrying her mother had he acquired the skill of allowing himself to be happy. It was a skill he had almost forgotten again after her death and only having Helena in his life had prevented him from sliding down into despair.

From all she could tell this Bruce Wayne had been alone ever since that night when he was eight years old.

"I imagine this is a little less weird for you," Bruce said. "I'm what? The third Bruce Wayne you have met?"

"The fourth, actually," she answered, thinking of Owlman of Earth-3. That man had had absolutely nothing in common with her father, but he had still carried the name. "It's still weird, though. Every single time."

He nodded, having little trouble imagining the weirdness right now.

#

"Okay, now you're just having fun with me," Barbara laughed. "You and I fought against Cleopatra?"

"Not Cleopatra," Kara told her, laughing as well. "A woman who'd accidentally been taken over by the sceptre of Ra, a magical artefact that the original Cleopatra had used to mind-control her subjects."

Barbara shook her head, trying to get her laughing under control. "I can't believe another me ran around dressed as a bat. Riding a bat-cycle. Using bat-arangs. Where did she get the idea?"

"From Bruce, actually. He was Batman."

A new fit of laughter erupted from Barbara. This one, though, was cut short when the monitors around her suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree, displaying some kind of alarm message.

"What's going on?" Kara asked, on her feet in a second.

"Some kind of disturbance in Metropolis. I'm picking up police transmission, news reports, even military calls. Something ... no, someone is tearing up the city. I'll try and get some kind of broadcast."

Moments later the large screen in front of them lit up and showed a picture of downtown Metropolis. The city was in chaos. Dark pillars of smoke rose from ruined buildings; fires were burning in at least a dozen locations. Kara could hear screams, both from the screen and her own super-hearing, now that she was focusing.

Kara could immediately think of half a dozen supervillains who might be causing this, but then reminded herself that this world didn't have any supervillains except the Four, and they didn't do public appearances. So who ...?

"The police scanners have a visual of the attacker," Barbara said. "I'm trying to get the picture."

Moments later they saw the attacker and Kara was certain she felt her heart stop. It was a man in his mid- to late thirties, dressed in casual street clothing, and lifting a car over his head as if it was nothing but a toy. Moments later he sent it flying into the nearest skyscraper, causing the building to shake.

Her eyes were fixed on his face. A face so familiar.

A moment later she was gone, heading towards Metropolis at best speed. The only thing Barbara heard from her before she seemingly disappeared into thin air was one word.

"Kal!"

TO BE CONTINUED