Hashirama Senju awoke to the sound of birds chirping around him. Mildly uncomfortable, as he was laying on his side with his arm left arm experiencing pins and needles from lack of circulation, he chose to quickly sit upright.
'Wait...pins and needles?' Hashirama thought to himself. 'I'm a walking corpse, it doesn't work that way!'
Hashirama rought his hand up to eye level and observed it. 'No cracks, its flawless! Has someone improved Tobirama's jutsu to form a more complete body?'
the raven-haired shinobi then brought his hand to his face and felt along its surface, looking for any craters, cracks or imperfects, and found none.
'What has happened to me? Where am I?' Hashirama thought frantically.
"I see you've noticed as well," A familiar voice spoke.
Hashirama turned his head to see Tobirama kneeling beside him.
"Tobirama? You are here as well?"
"Yes older brother, it seems that we have found ourselves back in the land of the living," Tobirama replied as he looked over himself.
"How is that even possible?" Hashirama questioned.
"I'm not sure."
Now done inspecting himself, the Senju then began to observe his immediate surroundings. The First Hokage then suddenly noticed that he and his brother where in a remote desert of some sort. Then it hit the shinobi.
"What the hell?! How did we get here?" Hashirama demanded.
"Apparently when I woke up we were falling hundred of feet per minute toward the ground. It was thanks to my quick thinking that we didn't end up dead again.
"So it means that we're all alone in potentially hostile territory, with only finite weapons at our disposal," Hashirama stated, "We need to get our barrings, and quickly, we need to find civilization and find out what country we're in and what the shortest route to the Hidden Leaf Village is."
"Undead shinobi or not, I will still protect the village as long as I have free will." The First and Second Hokage both worked all this out in their minds in about a minute, they had made their decision.
The Senju brothers glanced around the desert, deciding which direction they should scout first. 'We need to keep moving,' Tobirama thought, 'the longer we stay in one place, the greater the risk of being discovered by hostiles.'
For the next three days, the two Hokage wandered the desolate landscape helping where they could. Still, a feeling of longing overcame them when they one day spotted a crumbled a scrap of paper called the Daily Planet. Somehow they knew without being sure how they knew that they belonged where more people were. An expression of determination on the two shinobi's faces, they sped towards the direction they sensed the newspaper originated from a city called Metropolis. They managed to move throughout this rather strange looking without without being seen or heard.
'I suppose this is a good thing, we can observe these local villagers and based on the way they speak, maybe we can figure out where we. It's not like they'll be able to detect a ninja of my and Tobirama's caliber.' Hashirama thought to himself, nodding.
As the two siblings leapt from building to building, closing in on their target. To the untrained eye, they would've appeared as black and white blurs, their speed was considered legendary after all.
While concentrating on keeping up his speed, Hashirama thought he heard a someone else for a moment. Then he screamed as his mind was assaulted with strange images.
"Help…" a male voice cries out as it echoes through the darkness.
"Who are you?!" Hashirama found himself asking.
"You must...They are coming! You must...resist! You must...fight!"
"Fight who! Who is coming?!" he demanded with frustration evident.
Suddenly a barrage of images begins flowing through, death, destruction, chaos, fire, screams of pain, of terror, of sadness, sounds of death, of blasters, of explosions.
"They are coming!"
A flash of bright white light erupts.
"Ah!" The First Hokage screamed as he came back to his senses, 'What was that just now? Some sort of premonition or a call for help?'
"Brother! What's wrong? Are you alright?" Tobirama exclaimed with a concerned look on his face.
"Yes, I'm fine. We need to keep moving," Hashirama answered before the two brothers continued on their journey. But he just couldn't shake this sense of foreboding he had.
For the next few hours, the two shinobi had patrolled the outer parts of the city and found nothing out of the ordinary, so they started to narrow their pattern. But then, Tobirama spotted something out of the corner of his eye.
"Hey what's that over there?" Hashirama asked as he zoomed in on an area near an abandoned industrial district.
They both noticed a small dot of movement far off in the distance on one of the rooftops. Their interest now peaked, the two Hokage both began scanning around the nearby rooftops, until finally they were able to catch sight of something, or more precisely, someone. What Hashirama and Tobirama saw stunned them. The Second Hokage was the first to express his thoughts
'Is that man...dressed like a bat? What sort of outfit is that? ...What is his business here in this city?'
"…Let's check it out, we may be able to find some answers as to where we are," Hashirama spoke as he and his younger sibling maneuvered to land a block away so as not to alert the figure.
At an abandoned warehouse…
The figure hiding in the rafters turned out to be the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman who had dropped through the skylight into an abandoned looking warehouse, nothing around but dust covered crates and old computer equipment, at least, at first glance. Standing up Batman walked over to the nearby computer desk, where he found a strange looking black, gray, and red device of some kind. Before he could get the chance to further examine it, the sound of a commotion from behind caught his attention, as he turned to see a well-lit room from which two of the three researchers that he had been hunting for the past few weeks emerged, an elderly man with a bald head and white hair around save for a few strands on top, and a mustache, and an overweight black woman with long dark hair.
Batman had encountered these two, as well as a young Asian male during his investigation into the deep space satellite sabotages where they not only bested him, but seemed to be speaking a strange language almost not of this world, and had even survived a massive explosion that left their bodies seriously disfigured. And yet with a few snaps they were suddenly back to normal and leaving the scene of the crime like it was nothing. Not knowing what to make of them, and having not known where they went, once he discovered they had been sighted in Metropolis he couldn't help but go after them where he followed them to this abandoned warehouse, though it appeared it wasn't so abandoned anymore.
The elderly man spoke to the woman, once again in a very strange language, as the woman turned the lights off and closed the door before the two made their way to another door. Once they were gone Batman made his way over to the room and taking out a flashlight, opened the door. Activating and shining the flashlight into the room, Batman scans through the place as it looked like just a normal office, that is, until he shined the flashlight over to his right where a very strange sight appeared before him. Shining the light up, Batman found himself looking upon three, what looked like pods of some kind. Glowing crimson red with gray vines of some kind of unknown material holding them in place, and see-through as inside these pods were the researchers that he had been chasing. All of them in their undergarments.
Making his way over to the pod containing the old man, Batman took out one of his batarangs and with ease cut the pod right open. The liquid material pulling apart with strange white, yellow, goo oozing out as the elderly man fell through. Batman caught him and put him on the ground carefully, Batman began to check for a pulse but almost immediately the man let out a groan signaling that he was alive but unconscious. All of a sudden, a loud growl comes from Batman's right, shining his flashlight over to the opened door a ferocious looking dog walks into view growling at the Caped Crusader. Just then within a split second, the dog pounces, tackling into Batman with immense speed and strength catching Batman off guard as he now finds the dog on top of him. The dog begins going for his face with its teeth forcing Batman to crawl back until he finds himself right up against the wall, grunting as he struggles to keep the dog back Batman eventually manages to kick the dog off him.
The dog slams into the desk knocking it over but doesn't seem fazed by this as it charged right back at Batman barking away. Batman leaped up causing the dog to slam headfirst into the wall, again not affected or even dazed by the impact as Batman leaped up towards a pipe and used it to swing around and up onto a bigger pipe on the ceiling. Batman looked down at the dog as it puts its front paws on the wall, and suddenly began scaling up it like it was a spider; before his eyes the dog suddenly shifts into a white, black, and red, slimy-looking creature with a translucent sharp tongue sticking out of its opened mouth.
His mouth dropped open in complete shock, Batman is taken off guard allowing the creature to lunge at him knocking him off the pipe into a massive machine before falling into some metal barrels knocking them away. Groaning in pain Batman struggles to get up as the slime creature jumps on a stack of crates behind him before dropping onto the floor. Batman manages to turn around just in time to see the creature coming towards him as it swings its left claw at him, Batman just barely manages to dodge it as the creature then picks him up with both of its front claws and then backhands him. Sending Batman through a window and crashing through a small shelf before hitting another bigger shelf with a lot of items on it as the impact caused the bigger shelf to come crashing down with all of its items on top of him. The small shelf luckily stopping it from crushing him.
Outside the room, the dog-like creature begins moving towards the window with the intent to finish off the Dark Knight, sadly for it that was not going to happen today.
"SHUNK!"
The creature jumped when it felt something pierce its hide, a knife that had a scrap of paper attached to it for some reason. The creature was alert now, it searched the darkness but found no sign of its attacker.
"BOOM!" "YIPE!"
Was the sudden reaction to having been knocked back due to the knife suddenly detonating through unknown means causing an explosion that made the creature sail through the air until it impacted against the wall, it was seriously injured now, but still found no sign of the attacker, if this were a more intelligent creature it would have fled by now, unfortunately it was bred to follow orders and those orders commanded it to stay and defend the warehouse, it then made the mistake of trying to finish off the first intruder.
It ran as fast as its legs could carry it and lunged, only to be tackled into wall and held there, it struggled and gave a swipe to bat away the assailant but instead from the shadows emerged a tall figure which was finally revealed to be a man with long black hair wearing dark red samurai armor, his left hand held the creature in place by the neck.
"Bad dog." He spoke sternly before he made a fist with his right hand as blue energy started to form around it. It was the last thing the creature saw before this man rammed his fist into its abdomen.
The creature gave off a high scream as it felt its chest being caved in from the force of the blow; thankfully the process killed it in less than a minute.
"What manner of creature was that?" Tobirama spoke as he joined Hashirama in inspecting the remains of the animal.
"I'm not sure, a demon perhaps; the real question is what is it doing here? And what was it guarding?" The First Hokage asked his brother
"Maybe the person who was attacked by this creature knows?" The Second Hokage suggested.
Hashirama had almost forgotten about the man who was now currently unconscious; he went to him and easily lifted the furniture of him.
"Well it seems whoever this "batman" is wasn't some sort of demon himself, wait a minute, what is that in his hand?" Hashirama asked as he bent down and picked up the watch,"Why would he pull out this?" He thought.
Tobirama's suddenly felt his senses perk up as he looked towards the opposite direction, "Brother, I hear someone coming here at a very accelerated pace, we must leave quickly now."
Hashirama nodded before both Hokage disappeared as if they were never there to begin with.
Several minutes earlier...
Superman, or more precisely Clark Kent was in his bathroom splashing his face as another bout of terrible images plagued him, he looked himself in the mirror when he heard the signal one of his watches emitted.
As fast as any plane but more nimble he rocketed towards the source, he stopped in front of an abandoned warehouse.
He in went in carefully, no need to just walk into what could be a trap or something else, he was calm until he saw the signs of a struggle, he checked the area where the most damage was and entered the small room there he found Batman unconscious.
He picked him up easily enough, and then saw the remains of the "guard dog" in the corner.
"What is going on here?" He said to no one in particular, however before he could think anymore on the situation something happen that no one expected, a meteor came blazing through the sky, carving a path through the park and ending up in the intersection.
Superman flew to the scene with Batman in his arms, he let off a groan as the Man of Steel quickly spotted police, SCU, firefighters, and paramedics already on the scene as he spotted one black female paramedic taking her gurney out of her vehicle. He floated down towards her and called out "Medic! He needs help!"
He landed in front of her and placed Batman on the gurney "What happened?" the young woman asks.
"I'm not sure." Superman replies turning his attention back to the meteorite as he took off towards it.
The paramedic looked down at Batman, she could see he was unconscious so he must have been hurt real bad. Getting curious, as well as needing to see if he had any kind of head trauma she slowly reaches for his cowl, just as she is about to grab it Batman suddenly shot awake and grabbed her wrist. She gasps "Don't even think about it." he says in an annoyed tone.
Meanwhile…
The two Hokage took in the scene before them and grimaced, memories of countless battlefields went through both of his their minds when they saw that meteor hit, or at least what everyone thought was a meteor.
"This does not bode well," Hashirama pointed out with a serious look on face.
He was right as the meteor gave a hiss as it released steam, then a slime cover insect like leg burst out of its rocky cocoon, then another and another until a bulbous mass came out, it was the same coloration as the creature he killed.
"Brother, it's an invasion!" Tobirama spoke with alarm.
"So it seems, I can already tell that this is just the beginning, I just know it," Hashirama stated.
"What are we going to do?" His younger sibling asked.
"What we all trained to do." He said to him as he activated dash onward towards the battle.
Superman in the mean time was battling the invader with his fists, the only weapon it seem to have was a concentrated laser blast from its eye, and it was powerful enough for him to actually feel it.
Batman had regain consciousness and using his grapple gun, he climbed on board his jet, he fired two missiles at the alien walker but did not even phase it, worse yet two more came out of the rock and began to attack as well.
"This is madness, my missiles are useless against them and Superman is barely managing to take down ONE of them, what are they?" The Caped Crusader thought as he evaded another laser from the walker.
Superman had managed to back one into a corner and cracked its eye before he was blasted back and buried under some rubble.
The two shinobi however, were both having a much easier time as they didn't hold in back in unleashing their fury on the unsuspecting invaders.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Hashirama shouted out as he evaded another blast and reached into his pouch and pulled out a large shuriken, he chose the closest Walker and threw the shuriken towards its head using his chakra to duplicate it into over a thousand copies instantly as they all surrounded their target.
"EVERYONE GET AWAY NOW!" The God of Shinobi yelled to all those who were close, who didn't need to be told twice, and soon they found out why as the Walker was attacked from every direction as the multitude of shuriken sliced it to bloody pieces, soon it fell apart into a mass of gore.
"Water Style: Water Shockwave!" With a single hand sign, Tobirama created a giant wave of water out of thin air, hurtling with frightening ferocity towards another Alien Walker, knocking it back but it was still able to remain standing. Keeping the hand sign, Tobirama called out a new jutsu.
"Water Style: Severing Wave!"
A highly pressurized beam of water shot out of his mouth and cut through the Walker, splitting it in half which effectively killed it.
All of this drew the attention of several eyewitnesses and Batman who witnessed the events that unfolded.
"What in the world was that!?" The Dark Knight thought furiously though his face did not show it.
Both shinobi now had a new problem as the other walkers were now targeting the bigger threat, in this case them.
"Time to end this." Hashirama spoke as he slammed his palms together, roaring with all the intensity of a caveman, "Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!" From every side of him, multiple roots grew instantaneously, slithering out of the ground in waves already constricting the unsuspecting Walker. Hashirama did not intend to leave it intact, as the roots kept squeezing until finally…
"BOOOM!"
It did not even stand a chance as the roots tore the Walker to piece before exploding in a mass of blood and gore.
However before Hashirama could take a breather…
"Brother, behind you!"
"Summoning: Rashomon!"
He turned just in time to summon a demonic looking gate before it received a blast of red energy that caused a rather large explosion.
Superman in the meantime got out from under the rubble; he saw that several of the Walkers were down, the Bat Jet fighting alongside the Air Force, he was about to return to the battle when he once more hit with the images he had seen before, only this time he finally understood their significance, as if in a trance he flew away, leaving many questioning where he was going, Batman decided to follow.
With The First and Second Hokage…
"You must come warrior, time is of the essence and humanity will need you." A voice much like the one in his visions spoke, only it was clear this time.
"Are you alright, Hashirama?" Tobirama asked his elder sibling.
"Yes...what hit me?" he asked out loud now realizing that Rashomon was able to withstand the Walker's blast with only a few scorch marks on the front gate.
Suddenly Hashirama grunted, his eyes widening as images one more flashed through his mind "You are a savior! The world needs you!"
That voice, that same voice from before…
"I see." The Senju quietly says.
Overhead both Hokage noticed Batman flying away just as the US Military began to arrive to try and handle the situation themselves. Jets and tanks flying and rolling in as they fired everything they got at the walkers, but had just about the same amount of effect that Superman and Batman had. "We'll need to hold these things off for a little while longer, give the civilians nearby time to find safety. Besides, brother you can always use the Flying Raijin Jutsu to get us where those two are going and save some time." Hashirama said before he and Tobirama both pressed forward with their weapons in hand.
A few hours later…
Much of the heart of Metropolis lies in ruin, buildings destroyed and set aflame, pillars of smoke rising in the air, and civilians hiding wherever they can from the invading walkers. Amongst the ruins is the reporter Snapper Carr as he continues to report the situation "After hours of intense battle, the heart of the city lies in ruins. As the devastation continues, the question on everyone's lips is, where is Superman?"
To make matters even more worse, Metropolis wasn't the only city under attack by these invaders. "Meanwhile, we are getting reports that similar objects have landed all around the world. In Paris, Cairo, Malaysia, and more are arriving by the hour."
Meanwhile…somewhere in the mountains…
"Well this day just gets better and better." Batman thought as laser blasts pelted the turned over tank he and the strange alien known as J´onn J´onzz were using as cover.
He had followed Clark to a military base, the signs of a struggle evident, he went in and heard metal being pounded on, and sure enough Superman was beating his fists on it, bending it, he thought he had gone mad.
Turns out the reason he blacked out was behind that door as well as a possible solution to this attack.
He was surprised to see another alien there, this one tall with a crested head, and orange eyes, and green skin.
Superman explained that he was calling out for help, warning him, however the machines prevented this, he wondered how until it spoke directly into his mind, an experience he did not like to say the least, when he took notice of his apprehension to his looks and morphed into a more humanoid form, still tall but no longer having a crest but a large brow, he wore a blue cape, criss crossing red belts on its torso, blue shorts and boots.
They headed out only to find a large group of soldiers waiting for them, turns out they were not human as J´onn quickly alerted them, making them change into their true shape and began firing upon them.
"Look out!" The Martian yelled as it phase through his body, much to his shock, tackled the white aliens that made an attempt to their rear, however this cost him as he was blasted repeatedly, weakening him.
"Get him out of here, I'll cover you." He said over the sounds of laser and explosions as he lifted a tank as a shield.
Batman didn't need to be told twice as grabbed the "man" and made a dash for his plane.
He made it inside and strapped J´onn in; he did the same for himself pushed the engine full throttle just as the Kryptonian launched the tank at the white aliens, making the ordinance give off a great explosion.
Both the plane and the hero were leaving it behind when they were intercepted by alien fighters, arm with the same blaster as the ground ones, one knock Superman back leaving Batman to maneuver through the narrow canyons, several fighters were destroyed by the dangerous maneuver, however one of them finally got lucky and blasted the right wing off, things looked bleak until…
"What the…?" Batman asked as the plane was encompassed in a green glow.
"Help has arrived." J'onn said calmly.
"Sorry I'm had to quell a rebellion on Rigel 9." John Stewart assigned Green Lantern of sector 2814 arrived, wearing a mostly black body suit, a green v shape that reached mid chest, in the center of which was a the Lantern insignia, green forearms and boots.
Another ally came in the form of a woman with a hawk face mask, and wings on her back, wearing green pants and yellow shirt that left her shoulders free, she wielded a mace covered in electricity, giving a war cry as she beat the fighters to death.
"Hawkgirl? What is she doing here?" Batman asked.
"I called her." J'onn said before he phased out of the plane to engage the fighter using intangibility to make them destroy one another
The Lantern placed the plane down and fought with blasts of green energy.
Superman came back with a vengeance and fought using strength and heat vision.
Hawkgirl managed to dodge many blast but one strayed in front of her and loosed shrapnel at her, with a cry she fell and was in long for a death blow, fate intervened then as a woman like no other appeared.
"Allow me." She said before she deflected every shot fired with her bracers back at the ship.
The woman was tall, with raven hair and quite beautiful to the eye, wearing red boots, golden belt, a one piece suit of red, yellow, blue and white stars, a golden lasso was on her waist, and a golden tiara on her head with a red star, here be Wonder Woman.
"Who's the rookie with the tiara?" Stewart asked.
"I'm not sure." Superman replied as he hefted a fighter and threw it towards a canyon wall.
Looking up Hawkgirl then notices something "There's one more!" she says pointing past Green Lantern and Superman who turn around to see one last alien fighter.
"I got him." Green Lantern says as he is about to blast it with his Power Ring, when something strange catches his eyes "What?"
A giant dragon made entirely of water that had electricity channeling through it was following after the fighter continuously, forming again and again just a few feet behind it as the fighter appears to be trying to escape from them "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
The water dragon accelerated forward catching up to the fighter impacting into it and destroying it. The fiery remains of the last alien fighter goes crashing to the ground as on a nearby ledge Tobirama Senju lands safely on it with the four heroes looking at him, Lantern, Hawkgirl, and the strange woman in utter confusion.
The Second Hokage continued to stare at them for a moment before a he disappeared in a flash.
Hawkgirl and the strange woman look at each other "Who, or what, was that?" Green Lantern questions.
"Honestly, not so sure myself." Superman replies.
With the last of the alien fighters dealt with, the heroes decide to regroup as they all fly towards Batman's batwing, On the bottom floor a red streak could be seen heading towards the Dark Knight.
"Lose something Bats?" Said a man in a crimson red body suit, a yellow thunderbolt on his chest, and on the sides of his mask, yellow boots completed the ensemble, the Flash had arrived.
Wonder Woman landed before them.
"Whoa! Where have you been all my life?" The Flash asked with a huge grin on his face.
"Themyscira." She replied not getting the joke.
"The Home of the Amazons? I thought that was just a legend?" Hawkgirl said as she and the other landed.
"Well considering who's standing in front of us." the voice of Hashirama Senju spoke out as he and his brother Tobirama suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Flash, Hawkgirl, and the strange woman were confused by this while Lantern appeared to be on edge, "That would mean she's either telling the truth thus meaning the place is real, or that she's making the whole thing up and could be insane. Which I highly doubt the latter given how she seems to be a capable warrior."
"Um, okay. Who are you guys, and how did you both do that?" Flash questions caught completely off guard by what just happened.
"That doesn't matter right now," Tobirama spoke up next, "We still have a mission to carry out."
"The red armored man is correct, I can assure you it is as real as the ground on which we stand. I am Diana, Princess of the Amazons." Diana explains.
"Pinch me I must be dreaming." Flash says, garnering an elbow from Superman which, well one from him would definitely hurt quite a bit more than a normal one.
"Themyscira is protected by the gods. But I could not idly stand by while the rest of the world was in danger." Diana says.
"It was lucky you showed up when you did." Superman says.
"No, not luck. I telepathically summoned them." J'onn speaks up stepping forward.
"Look I'm usually pretty quick on the uptake. But will someone please tell me what the heck is going on here?" Flash asks.
"Hold on a second, before we do that, we know the Princess over here. But now who are those guys in the samurai armor supposed to be?" John says pointing at the First and Second Hokage.
"We are known simply as shinobi. We just happened to be passing through when this whole crisis started. We obviously couldn't let innocent people get hurt so we both joined the fight. someone had also been trying to contact me for the past few days, so it's obvious he knows that we are allies you can depend on." Hashirama explained.
"It is true, do not worry we can trust the both of them." The Martian said to break the stalemate.
"So it was you who sent those visions?" Hashirama said more than asked.
"Yes, I sensed you could be of help, so I telepathically called you." The Martian said.
That did not sit well with the elder Senju as his mind contained secrets that could not be allowed into the public, J´onn sensed this though.
"Fear not, it is forbidden for my people to enter unwilling minds, I only glimpsed your intentions and the kind of man you were, nothing more."
That eased him a little.
"Thank you for that, you may call me Hashirama." He said, "And this is my brother, Tobirama."
"Greetings," Tobirama stated.
"Judging by your outfits, I assume the both of you are both apart of some sort of military?" Hawkgirl asked as she eyed their headbands and armor.
"In a manner of speaking, but that is all I will divulge for now, once the crisis is over we shall see how much you need to learn," Tobirama replied
This does make most of the heroes ease up. "There, now that you know who we are, perhaps we should now listen to what this J'onn has to say. Since its obvious he knows what's going on." Hashirama said, making everyone turn their attention towards him.
Sometime later, Superman finishes fixing the batwing reattaching its destroyed wing using his heat vision. Once finished he rejoined the others as J'onn finished explaining part of his story "So J'onn J'onzz, you came from Mars to warn us?" Diana asks.
"This is just too weird." Flash says.
"I've seen stranger things." John says.
"And I have indeed seen a lot of things in my lifetime, both strange and amazing." Hashirama added in.
The Martian paused to prepare them for his tragic tale.
Tobirama paid close attention to every detail.
"We first encountered them a thousand of your Earth years ago. It was a golden age, our Martian civilization was at the height of its peace and prosperity. And then, they arrived. Where they came from no one knew, but they were determined to make our planet their own. We Martians were peaceful people, and the taking of any life was abhorrent to us. But we quickly learned the ways of war. For centuries, the battles waged on. Every trace of our once great civilization was obliterated. We fought valiantly, but the invaders were parasites who fed on our psychic energy. As we grew weaker, they grew stronger. They even absorbed our shape changing abilities. Finally, a small group of Martian survivors planned one, final, desperate attack. Inside their underground stronghold we unleashed a powerful nerve gas which paralyzed them. The attack was successful, but the cost was dear. I was the only survivor. The last of my kind. I sealed up their citadel to keep them in a constant state of suspended animation, for over five hundred years I stood guard over them. But then, while I was in a hibernation cycle astronauts from Earth unsealed the stronghold and accidentally revived the invaders." J'onn explains.
"Wait, those astronauts never said anything about finding life on Mars." Flash speaks up.
"Hmph, some pencil pusher in Washington probably decided it should be classified information." Lantern said.
"No, I don't think that happened." Tobirama said suddenly.
"What do you mean Tobirama?" Batman asked wondering what he saw that no one else did.
"Think this all through first, these space explorers on Mars find what you call the find of the century, only to discover that it's the biggest threat the world had ever seen. And they did not bother to report it when they had a chance? No, I think the reason no one knew about it is that when they awakened, the Imperium already made their move. An army of invaders intent on conquering a world would never reveal themselves accidently to anyone until they had the right moment. J'onn…you said the Imperium managed to take your people's ability to shape shift after they invaded your world of Mars right?"
J'onn nodded.
"Then they would have the ability to shape shift now to any form they want, and if what I and Batman saw that was done to those three human scientist is any indication. Then it's safe to assume that what happened to the group on Mars is the same. Their infiltration team came here and started doing what they could to weaken Earth's defenses. Those stations owned by Bruce were naturally the first to avoid early detection and then."
Superman paled as he quickly understood it.
"The nukes, the same ones I decommissioned by Senator Carter's requests."
Tobirama nodded.
"Exactly, this Carter never came back to Earth at all, no doubt he's either being held in a pod like the three scientists or dead already. The one we all saw on TV is no doubt head of the Imperium's infiltration team. Clever if you think about, assume the guise of a national hero, advocate the wishes of the masses to disarm nuclear weapons to strip away any means of defense, and leave Earth open to attack by the rest of the forward force. I've seen tactics like that before and my…home village was victim to such an attack by a rival force so this is to be expected. They rendered Earth deaf, dumb, and blind first, and now they destroyed these nukes so the planet's forces don't have anything to give them a fighting chance."
"With all the Martians gone, the invaders had nothing left to feed upon. So they turned their sights to Earth. I narrowly escaped, and came here to warn of the coming danger. While I was being held against my will, it is as Decade said, the invaders sent advanced agents to disable Earth's defenses." J'onn says.
"We've got to stop them before it's too late!" John states with a raised fist.
"It may already be too late." J'onn says, as all of a sudden a massive booming sound resounds through the air "What was that?" Diana questions.
"It's begun." is all J'onn says as the heroes group up behind him and look off into the distance. Off towards where Metropolis was, a massive cloud of smoke appears from out of nowhere as bolts of lightning roar into the sky just barely illuminating through the darkness of the smoke.
"What are they doing?" Hawkgirl asks.
"The invaders are nocturnal. They want to blot out the sun so they can live in perpetual darkness." J'onn explains.
"Friends of yours?" Flash asks Batman in a slightly humorous tone.
"It's no joke." Batman retorts.
Flash runs up to J'onn's side "What's the problem? Can't you just whip up another batch of that nerve gas?" he asks.
"Unfortunately no. The gas can only be made from a rare Martian plant. I brought a sample with me but it was destroyed when I was captured." J'onn says.
"Uh~, what's plan B?" Flash asks now sounding and looking a bit worried.
"We'll have to take out those factories." Diana says putting her hands to her hips.
The First Hokage nodded at the logic of that, if these aliens were indeed nocturnal, then depriving them of any cover that would allow them to operate would not only inhibit their ability to wage war, but make them easier to track down and corner.
"I agree with Princess Diana, if we deprive them of those factories, we hamper their ability to move and fight, that makes it easier to take them out before their invasion is in full swing. Not to mention they won't have any bases to operate from as well along with making it easier to mop up any remaining resistance cells once their invasion is halted."
Diana looked at the long haired shinobi with a slight smile on her face, it was a bit surprising for her to hear a man agree with an Amazon, usually she expected the men to say no or consider her idea as foolish just because she was a woman, as what her mentors in the fighting arts back in Themyscira told her.
John Stewart however was not very happy with that and replied.
"This is no job for amateurs or wannabe ninjas," Responded the Lantern voicing his displeasure, ignorant of the can of worms he just opened and cutting off Diana's reply.
"Oh no," Hashirama internally groaned as he could already feel the killing intent emanating from his younger brother.
For Diana however, that statement did not sit well with the Amazon princess as she glared at Green Lantern, the idea of him calling her a rookie despite the fact she was born and raised as a warrior galled her and she was just about to respond to that. But Tobirama beat her to it as the younger Senju was less than pleased, even more than she was.
Tobirama glared darkly at Green Lantern and could not help but be insulted by the man. Calling him a amateur was an annoying thing though something he can laugh off. But being called a ninja wannabe was more than annoying to the Second Hokage, it was borderline slapping in the face insulting. The anger was for good reason, considering the fact that he was a Kage ranked Shinobi, with an entire arsenal of skills, Jutsu, experience, as well as the one responsible in creating several vital institutions for Konoha that allowed the village to prosper for so many years. He was also annoyed at the fact that he was insinuating that neither he, Hashirama nor Diana had no place to help humanity when it needed all the help it could get. He had lived and died to know that with a war like this, now was not the time to be wasting energy on trying to point out who's the amateur and who's the veteran.
He made that obvious as he finally flared his immense chakra towards John Stewart, and while killing intent from powerful ninja was very strong, killing intent from a ninja with a level of experience like Tobirama was very powerful indeed. That aura got the attention of every hero in the immediate area as they all shivered a bit, even more so since in doing so, Tobirama only had to barely lift a finger in order to exercise such immense power.
The Second Hokage's white aura sprung to life as the ground cracked, the plants in the area were flung away, and all the heroes were slowly losing ground too as the power pushed them. Even the air was being affected making it hard to breathe, the heroes all began to sweat nervously, they have never experienced this amount of power before. And of course, they each had their own thoughts on the matter.
Superman and Batman were surprised as Tobirama's entire demeanor became cold and furious in such a way that made him appear far older than he currently looked. J'onn himself took a half step back as he had not felt such emotion from anyone, Flash was surprised at the sudden change in the blue armored ninja with them, Diana was also caught unaware of the sudden attitude change from the white haired warrior nest to her, and Hawkgirl looked at Tobirama while slightly tightening her grip on her mace.
'By all the gods on Olympus! What… What is this power? It's stronger than anything I've ever felt before'. Diana, Princess of the Amazons thought in awe and shock as the power slowly pushed her dug in feet across the ground.
'Holy crap! Since when do people become living energy outputs?!' Flash thought in shock since he couldn't even vibrate through the energy as it kept pushing against him.
'Amazing. To think he had this much power. I knew he was strong from what I was able to sense from him, but this is extraordinary' J'onn thought in awe as he had never experienced a power like this before.
'Unbelievable, not even the magic users I've encountered can use their power like this. And this doesn't even feel like magic at all'. Superman thought as even he was getting pushed back and he was bracing Batman so the caped crusader wouldn't get pushed back too far.
'What the hell is this?! No being in the universe should be able to contain let alone possess this much power! It's not natural!' Jon Stewart the Green Lantern thought in shock since the Guardians had never mentioned anyone having a power like this. He had to admit that feeling this level of animosity was pretty strong, stronger than most he had sensed. To see it coming from this stranger was surprising as the only time he had ever felt that was from of the most battle hardened soldiers and officers in his time in the Marine Corps and among the Green Lanterns, the most obvious being the former Lantern Sinestro.
This is unreal. I knew there was more to those two then meets the eye but this is just insane! How can one man have this much power contained inside him and not explode from it? If he's this strong, just what is the other one capable of?!' Batman thought as he saw the power was ripping some of the nearby trees from the ground and the clouds overhead were scattering from it as well. What really caught the Dark Knight by surprise was that Hashirama didn't seem bothered at all by this display in power. In fact, he looked rather stern as if an older brother was annoyed with his younger sibling's antics.
'What in the name of Thanagar?! What kind of person can just contain and then unleash this kind of power on a whim?!' Shayera Hol also known as Hawkgirl thought in shock since she'd never seen anything like this from any race let alone humans.
Tobirama then spoke once more with the tone of a man that had absolute authority, experience, and power. As well as someone who was royally pissed off.
"What did you just call me, you snarky arrogant little brat?"
Green Lantern as he was still struggling to breath saw that Tobirama's eyes were cold and glacial as the ninja spoke.
"Do not let the fact that I look like a young man blind you to who I really am. I am a lot older than I look, and I have faced threats and enemies that would have killed lesser men and women at the age I look to you. And where I come from, you do not ever show disrespect to your comrades, as of right now, all of us here know what is at stake if these Imperium are take over this world. Look at what they did to J'onn's world, they intend to do that here now and I will gladly put my life on the line to stop them before they do so. Now is not the time to be telling who the inexperienced one is or being discriminate about who is on your side. The lady who you happen to have insulted from I have seen already happens to have great strength, excellent reflexes,a measure of battle training and skill, and possibly more."
He then pointed to Diana who was surprised by this and she listened intently to what the white haired ninja had to say. She had never heard of ninja before, but if this man and his companion's skill was any indication, they were indeed very skilled warriors.
"From what I have seen, she is more than ready and capable to help fight these scum from space, so you do not have the time to state such utter foolishness. The enemy does not care in the slightest if you are the veteran or the amateur or if you are a man or woman. The only thing they want is to see you and everyone who opposes them dead. I will gladly fight by her side because she is here of her own free will and knows the results if we all fail. Which you apparently see but think that it's better to go do it the official way when now is not the time for such actions. You are going to have our help whether you want it or not, but don't ever insult me, my brother or her ever again."
"Tobirama, calm down." Hashirama said with a stern tone as he flared up his own chakra which appeared to have a purple color in response, The First Hokage's chakra level was far greater than Tobirama's which quickly put a stop to the Second Hokage's display of dominance in its tracks. The two siblings glared at each for what seemed like hours as the other heroes looked on with trepidation. After a few moments Tobirama was the first to break the silence.
"I am calm brother, but I cannot believe that this man is acting like this in the middle of an enemy invasion. That woman has talents and has the right goal in mind so now is not the time to be demanding on who to work with."
"I know you're angry and that your words are completely justified, but keep in mind that we still have a war to fight and other enemies to deal with."
"All right. Don't get your chakra so riled up, brother."
Hashirama laughed heartily at that statement before turning to the seven heroes, "Sorry about that!"
John managed to regain his faculties and glared at Tobirama as he began to move forward until Superman stepped in.
"Now is not the time for this John, Tobirama is right, we have to work together here to deal with this threat."
John sighed a bit as he knew that Superman had a point, if they did not stop this Imperium from taking over the world, then it was over. That did not mean that he was going to easily forget what had just happened between him and the two ninja. Though the focus of his ire was Tobirama as he had not expected the man to actually try and suffocate him. He was definitely not going to forget that any time soon.
Tobirama knew that look but did not care at all, now was not the time for a glaring contest, now was the time for action.
It did not take long for the heroes to decide that they would be better off working in separate teams to take out their targets. There was one target in the South Pacific, namely in Indonesia, another in Egypt, and the last was obviously the one in Metropolis. Once that was over, they now had to decide on the individual team's setup, and Flash, ever the flirt decided to make his choice known as he moved to Diana and placed his hand on the princess's shoulder.
"Dibs on the Amazon."
Diana did not look the least bit comfortable with what Flash was doing and Hashirama was more than capable of seeing that and he decided to speak to Flash before his needless flirting got to a point where they would get into another argument.
"I believe that's the Princess's decision on who she's going with on her mission, not yours Flash. Besides as an Amazon, I have a feeling that Princess Diana is not used to being around men and will take offense on what you are doing, so I recommend keeping your flirting to a minimum. And you can probably guess how the rest of her people would react if they ever found out. Just a friendly warning by the way, take it or leave it," Hashirama explained with a knowing grin.
Hawkgirl smirked at the look of worry on Flash's face as he moved away from the female Amazon somewhat at the warning given by the shinobi, though he smiled a bit more and replied that he can work something out. Superman shook his head but saw that everyone was in the mission now and while this was a completely new situation even for him, it was now the time to move out.
As soon as all the preparations were in order, Batman spoke to the others seriously.
"We already got our objectives and targets, we should move out now, the longer we delay, the more time the Imperium will have to set their plans in motion. So let's get down to deciding who goes with who. In this case, who will you go with Diana?"
AN: Alright, let's stop here. I've been meaning to get back to this story for a while now as I believe this an idea that shouldn't go to waste. I promise that updates shouldn't take so long assuming real life doesn't get in the way. If you guys have any ideas on how I should proceed with this story, I'd like to hear it. Until then, see you next time.