The mech suit took a heavy step and then another. It was awkward looking to say the least.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Batman within the suit. He had made it to fit his body type, not to mention he knew the combat system that operated the suit. Batgirl was instead inside of it, clearly not used to how it worked.

That wasn't a good thing going up against the Justice League.

"We got this," Lantern announced as his aura glowed around him. Hawkgirl didn't even bother saying anything as she launched herself at Batgirl, holding her mace by her hip with both hands on the grip.

"Haaaaaaaaaaa!" she roared as she reached striking distance, swinging her mace. Batgirl raised up her armored arm and blocked the blow, the mace clanging against it, the clash echoing throughout the cave. Immediately, Batgirl drew her other arm back, throwing a counterpunch.

Unfortunately, it was slow, not anything like her much faster reaction time and counterstrikes. Hawkgirl saw the punch coming a mile away and flapped her way around it, dodging it with ease. "Haaaaaaaa!" she shouted again as she slammed her mace against the suit's shoulder. The blow echoed throughout the cave, the force from it causing the suit to teeter to one side.

Suddenly, Batgirl's extended arm from the missed punch swung outward, landing a backhand blow to the Thanagarian's back. Hawkgirl cried out as she went careening through the air, hitting the ground a short distance away, bouncing off of it once before rolling to a stop.

From a side, a beam of green energy hit the mech suit, green sparks erupting from the impact. Batgirl was thrown off of her feet, her turn to crash to the floor, though she didn't bounce around like Hawkgirl, landing with a heavy thud.

The moment the beam ended, Green Lantern formed a construct high above the fallen vigilante. A rectangular 16-ton weight formed, one that even had the construct's weight chiseled into its side along with a round hole on top of it for whatever crane hook could lift it. The weight construct then dropped down on Batgirl.

Fortunately, the girl had landed on her back—though this did make it extremely difficult for her to get back up—so she was able to raise both of her hands and catch the weight. Cracks formed on the floor surrounding the suit. The hydraulics within the mech suit were audibly grinding as they held off the construct, the arms visibly shaking from the strain.

"Stop this," Batman pleaded as he watched helplessly in Superman's grasp. The two had been watching the conflict as it unfolded.

"They brought this on themselves," the Man of Steel intoned haughtily. "Whomever is in that suit should have stayed out of this."

The vigilante instinctively lunged towards Batgirl, but the Kryptonian's hold on him kept him in place. "Let me go, Kent," he growled.

Superman glanced at him. "You're going to watch this and know that you're the reason this is happening. You have no one else to blame but yourself."

At that moment, fire erupted out of the mech's suit's feet. Batgirl must have found the propulsion system and activated it. Suddenly, she went sliding across the ground, the metal suit screeching across the stone as it went. She shot out from beneath the weight, which hit the ground moments after she had escaped from under it. She kept going, her momentum carrying right towards Hawkgirl.

The winged woman had gotten back onto her feet by then and saw the mech suit barreling towards her. With a flap of her wings, she darted out of the way as she took to the air.

Batgirl skidded across the ground some distance still, finally coming to a stop. Immediately, she was pushing herself back up, stiffly climbing onto her feet.

Batman grimaced at the sight. The suit was slowing her down. For someone that relied on her mobility to evade her attackers, the mech suit was too heavy for her to effectively evade. While it's armored plating would absorb most blows, there was still a limit on how much damage it could take. He needed to take action—had to take action. But with Superman keeping a firm grip on him…

Hawkgirl was charging in once again, this time her mace lit up with electricity. It seemed she was done playing around. As she let out her war cry, she swung the Nth metal mace at Batgirl.

In response, Batgirl threw her own punch. The opposing forces collided, sparks erupting up into the air. However, that was when the plate on top of the mech's suit's face separated and launched forward, adding additional force. Almost comically, the mace was thrown backwards, its head colliding with Hawkgirl's face, her head snapping back as she let out a surprised cry.

As fast as she was able to, Batgirl shot out her other hand, and grabbed onto the Thanagarian's ankle. Jerking her arm down, she swung the winged woman down, slamming her onto the ground. The stone floor cracked from the force of the impact, leaving the redhead stunned and breathless.

Then came another beam from Green Lantern. Batgirl seemed ready for it this time though, as she raised both arms and crossed them in front of her, blocking the blast as it hit her. She was pushed back a few inches, her feet digging into the ground and stopping her unwilling retreat.

And then Hawkgirl was returning to the fray. With Batgirl's focus on Lantern, the winged woman had gotten back up and circled around, coming in from behind while keeping low this time. Swinging her mace from one side of the other, the mace's head hit the back of Batgirl's knee, forcing it to buckle. There was a cry from the girl, one echoed within the mech suit as she pitched backwards. The force of the green beam pushed her over, causing her to collapse hard on her back.

Looming over her was Hawkgirl, holding her mace high above her head now. She let out a cry as she swung it down. Because she had kept her arms in a defensive pose against Lantern's beam, her armored arms took the brunt of the blow, the clash of metal ringing throughout the cave.

"Superman," Batman said again, before changing tactics, "Clark, please stop this."

That caused the Kryptonian to pause. He slowly turned his head to regard him. "That's her, isn't it?" he said after a moment. "The girl you claim as your daughter."

The vigilante slowly nodded.

"Then you should have taught her better. Her blood will be on your hands."

Rage erupted within the dark-clad man. Was this how this maniac wanted to play this? So be it. It was time for Plan B.

Batman reached out with a hand and grabbed onto Superman's shoulder. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have bothered the man, except when Batman pulled on him, it was with superhuman strength.

Courtesy of the 5-U-93-R pill he had taken minutes ago.

Swinging his head forward, his forehead smashed onto Superman's nose. Cartilage gave way as blood shot out of the Kryptonian's nostrils. As Batman pulled his head back, he saw a dazed look on the dark-haired man. His grip on his armor went limp and the vigilante pushed the Man of Steel off of him, dropping him onto his back on the ground.

Yet, he wasn't done. Raising a foot up, he stomped it down on Superman's face, a spider's web of cracks instantly forming beneath his head. "You don't—" Batman growled as he dropped to one knee next to his former ally, slamming a fist into his face. "—get to hurt—" another blow to Superman's head, one that warped the stone beneath him as a small crater formed, "—my family anymore!"

With one more punch, Batman drew back. Superman laid there, dazed or unconscious, he didn't care. For now, the Kryptonian was out of the fight.

Now he had two more problems to handle.


It was a lot to take in. No, that was not an exaggeration. Days upon days of information, of learning about a dystopian future that could only come from a person's deepest, darkest nightmares, and then finding out that the world was starting to head in that direction…

Most of all, you gave your own life to stop it and didn't even slow it down.

Nightwing felt that he had done a lot of growing since relocating to Bludhaven. The challenges there had reshaped him over time, forced him to really step up his game in so many different ways. For a moment, it felt like all of the experiences meant nothing when faced by, well, this.

But he wasn't that scrappy vigilante struggling his way through life like he had been in Gotham. He was different, had new ways to cope and everything. Batman himself had brought him in on this, to try and prevent this horrible future from taking place.

If there was anything the young man knew, this time wasn't going to end the way it had last time. He was not going to be dying any time soon, thank you very much.

So after digesting as much as he could, Nightwing stepped up and took charge, hoping that their team here could hit the pavement with wheels spinning.

The first questions had been the most obvious: What was happening in the present right now that ended up leading to the future that they could intervene with right now? As daunting of a task that was taking on Superman and the rest of the Justice League, there had to be some steps they could take that could slow things down, right?

Unfortunately, things were different now. Last time, everything had been set off with the death of Flash at the hands of a guy called Vandal Savage. Well, Savage wasn't here, Flash was alive, so circumstances were different. Right now, it was this Legion of Doom that came out of nowhere, were challenging the League in ways it had never been challenged before, so what did that mean?

Were they going to have to take down the Legion of Doom themselves? It was a thought he put out there to see how the others responded to it

Who thought of that name, anyway? The Legion of Doom. The young man felt silly just saying it out loud.

Well, thanks to having four—was it former now?—League members here to describe what they entailed, well, that might have to be put on the back burner. The Legion had a lot of heavy hitters, a lot of metahumans, or people who could fight other superhumans, and nobody knew where they were, so it was a moot point. Nightwing wasn't about to give up on it too soon because the Legion was still a threat and would have to be dealt with. Who knows, maybe beating it before the Justice League could would buy them some time. Sure, it would make the League look bad, what with not being able to beat a bunch of super-criminals, but it would undermine any legitimacy that people would have in its ability to govern even before it could take over.

So what other track could they take? Well, it started off as a comment from Manhunter, but it bore discussion. Taking on the League and busting it up first was that comment and...there had been a lot of back and forth on that one. The one thing nobody disagreed with was that there was a chance they would not only butt heads, but actually fight with the League. Yes, a nightmare situation in and of itself, but that was a bridge they would cross if they came upon it, Flash and Martian Manhunter practically swearing to do whatever they could to prevent it.

It sounded like an empty promise, but these were guys who pulled miracles out of their asses all the time. Maybe they could do the same here.

At some point, Green Arrow brought up that broadcast, the one that had them learning practically every detail of Batman's experience in the future, and there was the big question. Where had it come from?

Well, this certainly called for a detective's touch. It was a nice thing that Nightwing had managed to become one himself in Bludhaven, thanks to a little help from Oracle naturally.

Somebody had found out about the future too. The how could wait. Right now, who was more important.

Who benefited from releasing that information? Right now, the news media was blowing up about it. At the time, no one had recorded it, as far as they knew, and right now no news outlet had, so they were working off of speculation. That was a clue in and of itself.

Someone had interfered with the regular broadcasts. Not just in Metropolis, not just in the United States, but across the world. Someone had even taken the time to translate future Batgirl's own words. Whoever was behind this wanted everyone to know about it.

So who benefited?

Most crimes were a zero-sum game, he had learned that some time ago. Each offense was to gain the perpetrator something while taking away from another person. Most of the time, it was money, or it was possessions. With murder, it was power, money, or silence. Who stood to gain the most from showing that footage?

A lot of people did, but here was the thing: only Batman had a copy. So someone would have had to steal it from the Dark Knight, which was a one way ticket to a body cast. According to Zatanna, only one computer in the world would have any copy of it, and it just so happen that Batman owned that computer.

The Tower of Fate was a neat place, but modern-day technology was what it really lacked. Wi-Fi sucked, basically, so that meant needing to find a way to use their own resources while not leaving the tower, not until they were ready to make a move, at least.

So getting in touch with Oracle was a bit tricky, but not impossible. Since no one was recording, that meant figuring out another way to follow a signal that did not exist. Unfortunately, that meant the best that Oracle could do was narrow down the exact time of when the broadcast occurred, and then it was a dead end.

Normally, that would have been it, but then inspiration hit.

They didn't need to rely solely on technology, right? They had magic here. They had Zatanna and this Doctor Fate guy. What if, between the two of them, they could recreate the signal that no longer existed? Better yet, recreate a single moment in time in which that signal not only existed, but could be traced.

Zatanna was cautious because she had never done anything like that before. Fate was as guarded as that helmet he wore, warning about manipulating the past. Nightwing pointed out they weren't trying to change the past because the past had already happened and was set in stone. They were just trying to learn one fact from it, learn, but not change in any way. This was the equivalent of watching a scene and then looking at it from a different angle.

It took time, but Fate relented. Green Arrow volunteered some tracing tech he had. Combining modern-day tech and mystical forces was not easy, but it was doable under the right circumstances. Fate went into a trance, tapping into something, and Zatanna cast her spell as specifically as she could. Things...happened. That was all his mind would allow.

And then they were in a moment. The trace was done.

Then the moment was over and they had their results.

Immediately, they were able to exclude the world with the exception of one city: Metropolis. Then they narrowed it down to downtown Metropolis. Then down to one street in that city, where only one place would have the kind of tech needed to do such a broadcast.

"I'm surprised, and yet, not surprised," Green Arrow remarked.

"Why do I feel it's so obvious, yet I'm still unsure?" Huntress remarked.

Maybe that had to do with all the magic, Nightwing mused. "It does fit," is what he did say. "Who else has such a history of public relations about discrediting heroes, specifically Superman? Even with varying degrees of success, looking back on it, it fits the M.O. to a T."

Because who gains from tarnishing Superman's name? Perhaps someone in the same city as the Man of Steel.

"You know, if Big Blue had even said it earlier, I would have called him paranoid," Flash said, peering over Nightwing's shoulder. "Guess it's not really paranoia if someone really is out to get you."

"But what's the endgame here? I don't understand," Huntress stated.

That was ultimately the big question. Their trace had led them straight to the heart of the financial empire that was LexCorp.

Luthor.

"Batman will need to be notified immediately," Martian Manhunter declared. "Then we can try and assess what Luthor's involvement is and how deep it goes."

"Who wants to bet it goes down to the marrow?" Green Arrow growled.

That was one bet Nightwing wasn't taking.


So many people, so many opinions, and all of them were demanding answers.

There was a certain perverse sense of satisfaction that could be felt when someone was placed into, shall we say, a difficult situation. One where any answer that could be given was the wrong one. To see the one in the spotlight squirm and crumble under the pressure was quite the show and it was made all the better when he was the one who set it into motion.

No matter what channel, what news outlet, what daytime talk show it was, everyone was talking about the broadcast. Luthor was enjoying every second of it.

So far, there had been no response from the Justice League, not even an attempt at damage control. It was the wrong move to make, perhaps one of the worst ones since it allowed so many people to set the narrative. The longer it went on, the more those self-righteous pretenders would have to work to correct it. It was obvious none of them had any experience in PR.

And this was continuing to be the gift that kept on giving. There was breaking news from the White House. An impromptu press conference was being called and the President was going to be making remarks. So many politicians, all looking for the next big thing to score political points, were mining this goldmine for all it was worth. It was sometimes easy to forget that those pawns had options.

Yes, a response from the President was foreseen, but it really mattered little. All of it was the sideshow.

It was just about time to begin the next phase.

The Legion of Doom had served its purpose, and exceptionally too. Luthor was not about to cut them loose completely. They may yet serve another purpose, but for now it was the waiting game, waiting to see if the Justice League would implode, or hold together. However, waiting was not the only thing he would be doing.

There was a new report from a certain project. All sorts of security and limiting of information passage was in place. That was why this report was a hard copy, something to be placed in a manilla envelop and shredded once he was finished with it. The actual digital copies were kept on a server with no connection to the internet whatsoever. If there was one thing he had learned from the Brainiac invasion, it was how to secure his most valuable of projects. There would be no fear of hackers this time around.

Ivo's project was near completion. Only a few more adjustments and tweaks were required and it would be ready. That was the gist of the report and Luthor felt nothing but satisfaction. Everything was coming together and at the best time imaginable. Hell, he couldn't have had this worked out if he had planned it himself, which he had.

But victory was far from certain. Too many times when he had felt himself close to achieving it that victory was snatched from his grasp at the last second. The Boy Scout was very talented at denying him what he had worked so hard for.

It was so tempting to say "not this time," but time and experience had taught him the fallacy of those words. No, victory was not certain until after it had already been achieved. He was not going to make the mistake of thinking he had already won when the game itself was not over. Not yet.

And so…

"Mercy, do inform Ivo that I will be paying him a visit soon. I want to see the final product of his work," the business mogul told his right hand.

Mercy gave a sharp nod of her head. "I'll send word."

As his bodyguard marched away, Luthor returned his attention to his monitor and back to the many online feeds. So much information, speculation really, that overload was all but certain. No one would be able to resist this kind of onslaught, not without experiencing some doubt. Only zealots would be immune in their own self-righteousness.

That was fine. Everything was moving apace, and with his endgame drawing closer and closer, his gambit would need to be enacted eventually.

Then these outlets would have something else to talk about. Something more positive. Something with his name attached.

Really, this couldn't be going better if he had planned it himself.

Which he had.


As Batman turned his attention to Batgirl, he saw Hawkgirl raining blow after blow down on her. She didn't look as if she were all that interested in giving up either, not until she had broken the girl's arms if that's what it took. Green Lantern, in the meantime, was circling around them, looking for an advantage point if the redhead gave up, or was forced back.

One that never got to happen as a small lid on the chest of the suit flicked open, a taser prong firing out of the hole beneath it. The prong hit Hawkgirl as she raised her mace up and immediately fired thousands of jolts of electricity, causing her to scream wildly. The moment the shock ended, the Thanagarian stood frozen where she stood, smoke wafting off of her body, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She then dropped to the floor in a heap.

"Shayera!" Lantern cried before he jerked his ring hand up. His aura grew brighter as he charged up for another attack. "You won't get away with this!" he roared.

Batman pulled out a bat-shaped shuriken and sent it flying towards the Green Lantern. Because of his increased strength, it flew faster, harder, hitting the man on his face, and knocking him to the ground, crying out as he did so. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Batgirl begin to lunge forward.

"Stop!" he shouted, causing the girl to halt. "I got this." He then began walking towards the dark-skinned man, who was pushing himself back up, rubbing his jaw with one hand.

"You," Lantern growled as he got back onto his feet. "Nice cheap shot, but it's going to take more than that to put me down." He then thrust his ring hand forward, firing a boxing glove construct at him.

Batman continued to walk towards, only stopping to draw his fist back. He then swung his fist at the approaching construct, shattering it the moment his fist and the boxing glove hit each other.

"What the?!" Lantern gasped. Immediately, Batman took off running at his foe, closing the distance rapidly.

In response, Lantern formed a round shield around himself, the vigilante slamming a fist into it moments later. Cracks formed in the construct's surface, but it held up much better than the boxing glove. Over and over, he pounded on it, causing more damage, but not enough to break through.

"I don't know how you're doing this, but you won't win," the Green Lantern growled.

"You won't be able to hide behind that construct forever," Batman retorted, hitting it again and growing the cracks wider.

"I won't have to."

The way Lantern said those words caused Batman to pause. Glancing towards Superman, he was greeted with the sight of twin red beams closing on him. Immediately, he jerked out of the way, the beams flying mere centimeters from his face. They hit the cave wall soon after, searing through rock.

Jerking his head back the way they had come, Batman saw Superman crouching on one knee, a hand pressed onto his bloodied face. His eyes were still red from his Heat Vision, but the beams were no longer firing from them. Apparently all of his blows had only put the Man of Steel down for mere moments.

Damn it. Lantern was right, there was a ticking clock and all he had to do was outwait it. No doubt Superman was going to be pissed, more than ever wanting to rip his head off of his shoulders. Batgirl, though being able to remove Hawkgirl from the fight, wasn't going to be much help against either Superman, or Green Lantern.

They had to leave and they had to leave right now.

Rearing back on one leg, Batman gave one final kick to the orb construct, pushing his foe backwards through the Cave. Immediately, he spun around and took off running towards Batgirl. "To the ledge!" he shouted.

Not needing to be told twice, Batgirl turned around and began marching as fast as she could towards the ledge of the cave plateau they were on. Unfortunately, they wouldn't get there as a green wall suddenly formed in front of them, cutting them off.

"You're not going anywhere," Lantern called out from behind them. Turning back around, Batman could see the man hovering in the air, directing a beam from his ring that was forming the wall construct. Superman was getting onto his feet, a look of murderous rage on his face.

Time was up.

Shooting a hand down to his belt, Batman pulled out a small device, cylindrical in shape, with a button on its top end. "Last chance, leave this place and we all walk away in one piece," he warned.

"No chance," Lantern shot back.

The Dark Knight didn't want to do this, but there wasn't much of a choice. With his thumb, he pressed down on the button.

It happened instantly. At even intervals throughout the cave, small explosions erupted, starting at floor level and running up the walls, one explosion after the other until they reached the roof, converging towards its center. It was like hearing rapid fire fireworks, ones with enough power to break stone and launch clouds of dirt and dust out.

A tremor ran throughout the Cave then, one that never stopped, but grew stronger and stronger with every passing second.

"What did you do?!" Lantern roared.

"I wasn't bluffing about the bomb," Batman simply answered.

Stalactites suddenly began falling from the ceiling, hitting the ground at random places. Other, larger pieces of rock fell too, crashing to the floor and shattering into pieces. Towards the center of the ceiling, an outpouring of huge rocks suddenly emerged from the darkness, rapidly increasing the amount of falling debris. Many began hitting various stations throughout the Cave. One crushed the med bay, while a few falling stalactites ruined the laboratory. Another hit the side of the giant dinosaur, pushing it to one side before it teetered over and fell. One of the larger rocks crashed right on top of the large super-computer, causing an explosion to erupt from beneath it, flames licking up the sides of the giant stone.

Then, right in the middle of the Cave, the ground began to swell up before an explosion of fire ripped through the stone. The blast was deafening, followed by other explosions that went off throughout the cave. One such explosion erupted right beneath his car, ripping it into shreds and destroying the platform beneath it.

The wall construct vanished then as Lantern lost his concentration, his attention turning to the falling cave debris. Now was their chance. "Jump!" Batman shouted as he spun around and leaped over the edge, Batgirl following him. They both fell into the crevice below, large rocks raining down around them as they vanished into darkness.


I'm certain many of you have noticed, but the scene where Batman headbutts and then pounds Superman to the floor is right from the Injustice Year One comic. It's panel for panel the moment where Alfred beats the crap out of Superman to protect a broken Bruce. It's such an iconic moment that even the Injustice 2 game references it and I could do no less.