Victor had gone down to the Tower's garage and had set about doing some calibrations on what was his precious baby, but his heart wasn't really in it. It was a means to distract himself; he knew it. His baby deserved so much better, but things were so tense lately.
There was a lot of stuff to be distracting him, to be honest. First, and closer to home, was Kori and her sister and all the complications that came with that. It felt like they were going nowhere with that and that the biggest obstacle was Kori herself. From what he remembered—and of course he remembered because he could constantly record everything if he wanted to—Kori's sister, whose name he did not feel the need to remember despite his own personal recording, had done some real shit to her. Slavery was just the tip of the iceberg, he felt. There was a little more there than what had been said.
Then there was the stuff with the Justice League. He had come to feel a sense of indebtedness to the League. Without them, they wouldn't be in this tower, wouldn't have the cover story that was the Initiative, and he wouldn't have had the time and resources to build this car. Not only that, there was a place for him. Look at him. Majority robotic and only having half of his looks was only going to get him so far. The only place there would be for him would be at S.T.A.R. Labs and undergoing test after test after test.
Even thinking that maybe, someday, he could becoming an actual member of the League itself felt more possible than ever, especially after the first wave of recruits was recently inducted. There was a future that he could see now and it rested with the League.
So all of these recent problems had him on edge. Victor was no stranger to having his future swiped away from him. It sucked, always did. Unlike last time, he did have the power to do something about it. He wasn't a kid being gunned down by alien weapons anymore; he was the first ever cyborg with a lot of kickass weapons. He felt could do something, maybe help get whatever was happening over and done with.
But Red was now an obstacle and BB was choosing the worst of times to sit back and do nothing. Oh sure, Bart was someone he could turn to, but Bart was more concerned about the Flash than he was with the League. The girls had their reasons, or lack or reasons, or maybe in Raven's case didn't care. Well, maybe not maybe, but definitely.
It was frustrating to have to sit on his hands. Between the League and Kori, there was very little he was doing and it was really starting to—
A window popped up in his vision; not in his human eye, but the robotic one. What the hell was this? What...oh.
Something had just breached the atmosphere.
Cyborg was heading to the elevator quickly. With all the alien stuff in the past few years, it made sense to keep track of anything arriving on their planet. The most recent was Galfore, but he had contacted them first. Still, the cybernetic teen made sure to monitor the sky and so was able to detect when the large Tamaranean was getting close. He knew his programming worked now, it was kept on constantly. There were all the other invasions in the past, so it made sense.
It might be paying dividends now.
The ride up felt like it took too long. Impatiently, he sent word to Red, telling him to meet him on the roof as soon as possible. Red's response was...a little off. Whatever, he'd find out later.
Eventually, the elevator doors slid up, and the night sky greeted him as he rushed out. On alert, Cyborg scanned everything, hoping to make some kind of visual contact. Why'd the sky have to be so big? Was he even at the right angle? All he knew right now was that there was a breach, but not where it was exactly.
Not that that mattered; it was where whatever had arrived on the planet decided to stop. Where it entered meant nothing compared to where it ended up.
The doors to the elevator slid open and he heard multiple footsteps step out of it. If Red had shown up, he wasn't alone. He got confirmation when he heard the masked teen say, "What's going on? Something happening?"
"I just got an alert. We have some new guests," Cyborg reported without taking his eyes off the sky. Futile, he realized, but it gave him something to do.
"New guests? Who is it this time?" That was Wonder Girl, and man she already sounded fed up. Not that he blamed her.
"No idea, they just entered the atmosphere. No idea where they are, or where they're going."
"You think it's going to be an invasion?" Terra asked; her voice was distinctive at least.
"This can't be a coincidence." That was Red and he sounded like something was clicking into place for him. It was enough to get Cyborg to looked down from the sky and at his teammate.
Raising his only eyebrow, "What happened?"
Red didn't answer immediately, instead, strolling on over to the edge of the rooftop. With nothing else to go on, Cyborg followed, and once at Red's side, followed his gaze down to the island below. Specifically, it was the part where two alien spaceships were parked, and to his surprise, both were missing.
Okay, how long had he been in the garage?
"Just a few minutes ago, Kori's sister and her...Galfore took off in their ships," Red finally explained, looking up at him. Cyborg returned the look, already putting the pieces into place. "They were heading north, not going up into the sky as if they were intending on leaving Earth."
"You think they're still here," Cyborg stated.
"You just detected something entering the atmosphere a few minutes ago. That was right after they took off in their own ships. I don't believe it's coincidence," Red replied, now looking in the direction of north. "Something's up. At the very least, they know something about what's going on."
"So what's the plan? Stick around here and let the League handle it?" Wonder Girl had come up from behind them and took a spot to Red's left.
There was a frown on the masked teen's face now; not even that mask could hide it. "The League's busy right now. A lot of reports came from Metropolis, Midway, and Detroit—big things. I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't received an alert yet, though, you'd think they'd have one. No, we're going to have to look in on this."
"I'll go tell the others." Beast Boy was here too? How many decided to join Red Robin coming up here?
"Wait." Red's ordered was quick and short, but the silence that came after felt way too long. Then, "Get Kid Flash, tell him to meet us in the garage. Tell Raven to stay here."
Okay, where was Red going with this? "Why? Shouldn't we all go?" Wonder Girl asked.
It suddenly occurred to him that Starfire hadn't been brought up. An actual look around revealed that the Tamaranean was not up here with the rest of them.
"I saw Kori talking with her sister earlier," Red explained. "She didn't look to be in the best frame of mind after."
"Did you eavesdrop? What did they talk about?" Wonder Girl sounded so very urgent, so much so that the armored blonde was really getting into the masked teen's personal space.
Red didn't even give a sign he was bothered. "I couldn't tell you anything of what they said. They didn't speak English; I think it was their native language they were speaking in. Whatever they talked about, Kori didn't look right. Now her sister's left; I think she needs some time to get her head into order. That's why I want Raven to stick close; she'll be able to monitor Kori, maybe help get her head straight.
"As for the rest of us, we'll have Beast Boy and Kid Flash scout ahead. Beast Boy, I want you to fly out, keep over the ocean so we have an angle on the coast. Kid Flash will stick to land. When you find something, let us know. In the meantime, we'll follow in the car." Red looked up at the teen cyborg and gave a small smirk. "I think we need to give it a good test drive and I'd be happy to have the firepower as a backup just in case."
Now, if there was something that could make Cyborg screech to a halt, it just so happened that his car was able to cut through all the recent developments and all. Sure, he was distracted while working on her earlier, but the prospect of putting her out into the field...
"Give me ten minutes and I'll be ready," he promised.
Red gave a sharp nod. "Everyone else, get what you need and get down to the garage. We head out as soon as possible."
As Bruce Wayne, he had been to Slaughter Swamp a handful of times. Once as a child, there had been a swamp tour business determined to milk some money out of it. His father had been as ecstatic as a child as they made circles around the swamp in a leaky boat with a boat motor right from the 1950's. Bruce had been excited too, but eventually lost interest around the fourth circle and was ready for naptime. Needless to say, the business didn't last for long.
Over the years, he had been invited to the swampland for ventures to develop it, each one more ambitious than the last. Thank God Bruce never elected to join the ventures as each one ended in failure. It was almost as if the swamp itself resisted development.
And now Lex Luthor owned it and he was not a man to bow before anything, be it alien savior or nature itself. Yet, as Batman surveyed the area, it was quite clear the Metropolis billionaire hadn't made a dent in overcoming the marsh.
"So tell me something," Flash started as he cautiously stepped forward, doing his best not to step in the muddy waters and splashing himself with God knows what. "How does an urbanite like Lex Luthor come to own a place like this? I've seen swamps in my time, but this place looks like it's decades from being anything remotely looking like a medieval village."
So even Flash was skeptical as to what Luthor was doing out here. The speedster could be quite bright when the situation warranted, so it wasn't like he was completely oblivious to his surroundings. He just had a tendency to overlook things due to the nature of his powers. When one could cross the entire world in minutes, not every detail was a necessary one.
"That's what we're here to find out," Batman replied as he led the two men through the marsh. Luthor's ownership aside, he had been making phone calls to the place, meaning there was someone out here he was in contact with. They just needed to find this person.
In order to do that, he had his palm pilot out. On screen was a geographic map of Slaughter Swamp, a red dot flashing over and over. That was the signal to Diana's comm link and it was most definitely here. Most likely, she was with whomever Luthor was in contact with.
Which led to another question entirely. What was Superman, even a corrupted one, doing in league with a man that had been determined to kill him on multiple occasions? In the future, Luthor had been dead, the detail itself scrubbed from every database on the planet. That had been on purpose, a way to remove every last mention of the man, leaving him lost as an unnamed figure in history. It reeked of the Regime's doing. Still, such an act was rather befitting as the ultimate sop to Luthor's ego. To ultimately be forgotten, seen as no more important as the very people he trampled over would be quite the insult.
So why would two men that despised each other be working with one another? The two confirmed things the vigilante knew was that it was Hawkgirl that knocked Diana out. She was then transported here for whatever reason, a place that had Luthor's name all over it. There was a disconnect here and he was having trouble finding the connection.
There was a sudden splash, followed by Flash grunting, "Ewww, gross." Tilting his head around, he saw the red-clad man had taken a step onto less-solid ground and his foot had sunk into the mud. He had been quick enough to yank his foot back, but it was dripping with mud. He kicked his foot out, sending a large glob of mud flying out into the swamp, where it plopped into the water. He continued kicking his foot, even vibrating it to remove the mud. Some of it spattered in every which direction, a few drops hitting the Dark Knight on his cape. The hem of his cape was already saturated with water, so what were a few drops of mud on top of it.
"I hope we find this place soon because my dry-cleaning bill is going to be through the roof," Flash complained.
A hiss was heard then, causing both men to look for its source. Batman spotted it immediately, a long log that was drifting through the water. At least, that's what it was supposed to look like. It was in fact a crocodile, one that was lazily swimming by, thankfully not heading for the path they were on.
"Is that a croc, or an alligator?" Flash asked quietly. "I can't tell the difference."
"It's a crocodile," Batman confirmed.
"How can you tell?"
Batman turned his head and gave the Scarlet Speedster a look. "Oh, right, cause you're Batman," he responded.
"Also, I grew up here. Everyone in Gotham knows there are only crocs up here."
"There's that too."
They continued on, treading more carefully following the sight of the crocodile. There were ripples in the water surrounding them, though they seemed to grow bigger, becoming small waves. Faintly, Batman could hear the sound of falling water coming from up ahead. The path they were on made a slight turn, coming to a dead end shortly after surrounded by a marshy lake.
And emerging from the waters of that lake was a domed building, the lower part of it appearing to have eyes. Its size and metallic composition made it stick out like a sore thumb.
"Please tell me that's where Wondy is," Flash pleaded as he looked up at the large structure. "I really don't want to go looking for her in another castle."
Batman glanced down at his tracking device and saw that the red dot was coming from somewhere within the building. "That's what it looks like."
Suddenly, it was starting to make sense as to why Luthor hadn't developed this area. He was wanting to hide something out here and what better place than to use an infamous swamp no man had yet to conquer?
"Great," Flash replied. "So how do we get in?"
This was intolerable. Setback after setback, it was infuriating to be experiencing it.
Superman gazed out at the Watchtower, taking in the damage that had been done by J'onn. He should have known the Martian would have been a traitor. Once a traitor, always a traitor. Then to wreck the Watchtower as he had done, it was galling.
Then as if to add insult to injury, J'onn had an ally calling himself Dr. Fate come to his rescue. That's the name he had gotten from John and Hawkgirl. He had interfered when the Regime had gone to squash the last vestige of the Bat Underground and he was interfering with their reemergence. If he knew where that man was hiding, he would put an end to him now.
Worrisome though was that there was someone with that power on Bruce's side. How had he found this Dr. Fate and convinced him to be on his side? Superman was certain that Fate had used magic, which was the only reason why he had been pushed around as he had been, tossed aside with one spell. Despite all of his power, magic was a weakness of his.
J'onn was also stronger than he had thought previously. That made for two incredibly powerful figures on Bruce's side. Damn that man, he had been working to undermine them from the beginning!
"Well, it could have been worse," John reported as he entered the monitor room. Superman was seated at the monitor computer, Hawkgirl pacing back and forth as she too steamed from the latest skirmish. "There's structural damage to the Watchtower, nothing we can't fix thankfully."
"Who cares about that?" Hawkgirl growled as she stopped her pacing, looking right at the dark-skinned man.
John wasn't taken back by the vitriol from the redhead. "You should since there are some things worth mentioning," he calmly replied. "The diagnostics we ran indicated there was some damage to the navigation systems and the deep space radar. We won't be knocked out of orbit or anything, but the satellite will be difficult to make adjustments if it gets struck by an asteroid or something. Neither can we detect anything coming in from deep space, so we're effective blind. Fortunately, there wasn't a breach in the hull."
"Anything else?" Superman drolly responded.
John paused, as if trying to figure out the right words to say. He settled on being blunt as possible instead. "Girder is missing from the infirmary."
That got their attention. "How? When?" Hawkgirl demanded.
"More importantly, who?" Superman finished for her before he realized who it could have been. J'onn was the only one that had been there in the last few hours. He could've slipped the man off of the Watchtower any time he wanted, or had Dr. Fate teleport him away during the fight.
Goddamn that Martian!
"How is all of this happening to us?" Hawkgirl exploded. "This didn't happen in our time! Ever!"
Surprisingly, it was John that was the level-headed one of them. Superman was inclined to agree with the winged woman in her outrage. "That's because we had established the Regime and had everyone in lockstep. We don't have that certainty here, even as we act like we do. Even now, the newer members of the League aren't completely sold on our leadership."
That was an excellent point, one the Kryptonian should have realized early on. This whole time they had been making moves that spoke to their confidence, that they would always win no matter the odds. That was how things worked in their time right up until Bruce led his revolt. Now they were in a time designed by him, one in which victory was not so easy.
They had failed to kill Bruce when they had the chance. Bruce had formed his own League faction and always seemed a step ahead. They had failed to successfully recruit J'onn and Flash, though the latter had potential to be swayed if he ever returned. Now they had been pushed around by J'onn and Dr. Fate, losing the one captive they had from the Legion of Doom.
And what did they have to show for it? The Batcave was at least destroyed. The Legion of Doom was down a few members thanks to the capture of Dr. Alchemy, the Shade, and Felix Faust. The new members of the League were at least following their orders, but that was tenuous at the moment. At least they would soon have Diana on their side again.
Suddenly, the monitor screen lit up, a window appearing as a comm link became active. "Captain Atom to Watchtower," came Captain Atom's voice. "Requesting transport to Watchtower."
"I'm on it," John replied as he turned and headed for the teleporter. "I imagine the others will be calling in shortly too."
Superman had that feeling as well. Even as he responded in the affirmative to Captain Atom's hail, he knew they needed to inform the League as to what had transpired up here. They needed to know there were people, even the ones they worked with, that were out to sabotage everything they worked for. They needed something to unite them.
This latest incident could be that catalyst. Superman would be determined to make it so.
This hidden swamp base was massive. Its architecture was of a sleek, almost futuristic design. Other areas were more modernized, giving it a dichotomy that either flowed together seamlessly, or abruptly felt jarring.
Creeping down a hallway, Batman checked a nearby door, opening it, and finding a darkened room beyond. A quick switch to night vision lit the room up in green, revealing that it was unoccupied. Closing the door and turning off the night vision, he continued on.
Flash was somewhere else in this base, using his superspeed to investigate while searching for Diana. He was also on the lookout for whomever was holed up here, though the chances that someone hiding out in a swamp would be friendly were very remote. You didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize that.
Reaching another door, he checked that one the same as he done with the previous one, finding it empty as well. The dark-clad man had lost count with the number of rooms he had checked, only finding them devoid of personnel. Faintly, he wondered if there was anyone that actually worked here.
Suddenly, a red blur rushed by him, Flash appearing right in front of him. "I got her," the speedster informed him. "You want to follow me, or have me take you there?"
Normally, Batman would have opted for the former, but seeing as they were in unfamiliar territory and he trusted Flash not to take them into an ambush, "Take me there," he responded.
Flash grabbed ahold of him and suddenly his surroundings blurred into one grey color. He felt the air press against him before whipping at him in a wild wind. Then as sudden as it began, he was standing in front of a door, Flash at his side.
A wave of nausea hit the vigilante and he wavered on his feet for a moment. "Sorry about that," the speedster apologized. "That happens sometimes. We can take a moment so it goes away."
"There aren't patrols?" he questioned as he felt bile work its way up his throat. It sat there in the back of his mouth before it began to recede, the queasy feeling slowly going away.
"I haven't seen one," the red-clad man reported. "Which considering how huge this place is, it's definitely a red flag. No way is a place like this empty. With our luck, there's no way we got lucky and came here when everyone is gone."
Wasn't that the truth. Reaching to the door, he opened it and passed through the doorway, Flash following him and closing the door behind them. Across the room was Diana, strapped down to a metal table, something resting on her head. From this distance it was too hard to tell what it was, but Batman was willing to bet it wasn't anything good. There was a computer terminal nearby, one that was running a program.
Distance was becoming a nuisance, so the Dark Knight strode over to Diana. As he came closer to the clearly unconscious Amazon, he began to pick out more details of the scene before him, namely the device that was on the dark-haired woman's head.
With a frown growing on his face, Batman quickly recognized the device for an Omnicron. What the hell was that doing here and why was it on Diana's head?
Flash went right for the computer terminal. "There's some kind of program running," he called out. "Doesn't look like it's been running for long."
Batman moved to the Scarlet Speedster's side and glanced at the program. There was a window taking up the center of the screen, at its bottom a loading bar, indicating single digit completion percentage. The banner at the top of the window indicated a docx file, one with a random assorting me letters and numbers.
However, right in the middle of it was an underscore sign, which was followed by Omnicron2.0. Batman focused right on it before looking to Diana. Was that the Omnicron 2.0 Nightwing and Black Canary had found at LexCorp? The same one that had been running footage of the future?
Pulling out his palm pilot, he walked over to Diana, pulling out a cord from the device. He found a USB port on the Omnicron and plugged the cord into it. Running a hacking program, he waited until the results were displayed.
Immediately, he saw a video of the future, one detailing exploits performed by that time's Wonder Woman. Batman's eyes narrowed. The one at LexCorp had footage dominated by Superman.
"Flash, can you stop the program?" he asked, not even turning to regard his comrade.
"Won't know until I try." There was some typing then. Turning his head, Batman was just in time to see an alert appear on the screen, Flash acknowledging it an instant later. "Looks like I stopped it," he announced.
Batman returned his attention to Diana, immediately pulling the Omnicron off of her head. Her dark hair was pulled with it, flowing over the edge of the table she laid on. The look on her face was serene, peaceful even.
"Alright, we got our princess," Flash spoke. "Time to blow this castle."
"I'm afraid that is not an option."
Both men jerked their heads to the door. Between them stood none other than the Legion of Doom. Leading the brigade was an albino ape dressed in red. Batman didn't recognize him, but he definitely spotted Metallo, Volcana, and Killer Frost behind him.
"Humanite!" Flash exclaimed. "You're a part of this?"
"That's Ultra Humanite," the ape corrected him. His arms were behind his back as he stepped forward, casually closing the distance between them. "And we've been expecting you."
No wonder they hadn't encountered any patrols. The Legion wanted them to corner themselves and that was exactly what they had done. Batman clinched his hand into a fist, the leather creaking from the pressure.
"Now, if you gentlemen would be so kind," Ultra Humanite continued as he drew one of his arms from behind his back, revealing a futuristic gun. It looked like a ray gun, if the vigilante had to guess. "Surrender yourselves for re-education. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, but either way, you will be joining your old Justice League comrades with a befitting point of view."
To Guest: I think part of it has to do with the Justice League cartoon. They never really showed off what J'onn could do and that was a big introduction to the character. Though I could make an argument for that for John Stewart as well, especially during season 1.
