The restraints were magical in nature, so that if Diana woke up, she wouldn't go on a rampage immediately. The damage she could do were she to fly into a blind rage would be catastrophic.
It was why, after retrieving her from the Legion of Doom, Batman had made certain to inject her with a sedative to keep her unconscious. He wasn't certain what the Omnicron 2.0 had done to her and he wasn't willing to take the chance that she was now her future version, who would have a bone to pick with him.
Upon returning to the Tower of Fate, he had laid her down in their makeshift infirmary, right next to Girder. J'onn had taken the villain from the Watchtower, to ensure that he wouldn't be further victimized by a Regime led Justice League should they remember he was up there. The last thing they needed was a League with blood dripping from their hands, even if it had made attempts to become that way
A spell by Dr. Fate kept the Amazon frozen in place. Her eyes were closed, her chest lowly rising and falling. How long that would last was anyone's guess. Even if this wasn't Diana from the future, her present self wasn't too keen on being restrained in any form or fashion. She would struggle; she would fight to free herself.
Before that happened, they needed to know just which Diana they were dealing with.
J'onn stood at the head of the stone table, his hands on either side of the dark-haired woman's head. His orange eyes glowed brilliantly as he searched her mind for answers.
Batman stood nearby, watching the Martian work. He no longer felt the power and strength the 5-U-93-R pill, but he was beginning to feel soreness throughout his body. The confrontation between him and the Legion of Doom naturally had to occur as the pill's effects were beginning to fade, so any hits he had taken, while dulled, hadn't completely left him.
J'onn's eyes dimmed, a frown appearing on his face. "That's strange," he murmured to himself.
Batman's head perked up at that, his attention switching from the unconscious Amazon to his comrade. "What is it?"
"During my search of Diana's mind, I didn't find any signs of trauma or damage from the Omnicron. However, I did detect...changes...alterations if you will, of her memory. It was rather subtle and I nearly missed it."
The vigilante narrowed his eyes. "What sort of alterations?"
The Martian hesitated before turning his eyes to the dark-clad man. "I found memories that should not be there. There was one of the Justice League gathered in front of the White House and vowing to never let evil triumph."
Never again…
Batman, though not having been there, knew what J'onn was referring to. It was the moment when the Justice League lost their way and started on the path that led to the Regime. "What else did you see?"
"Other memories that reinforced that our Diana, this one before us, was a leader of oppression due to righteousness. Disturbingly, I discovered some memories that were replaced, specifically more recent events."
"Such as Hawkgirl striking her?" Batman supplied.
"Yes."
Batman tore his gaze from the Martian, looking right to the Omnicron that had been recovered. It sat on a stone table against the wall, a child's plaything in appearance; yet, there was an ominous feel to it now.
"Can you reverse it?" he asked then, returning his attention to J'onn.
"I can try," he replied even as he placed his hands directly onto Diana's head. It went without saying that it was worth the attempt. His eyes glowed brightly again as he began his work.
Batman was content to wait until J'onn was finished. This was rather important for a multitude of reasons; unfortunately, it seemed he would not be able to do so.
"There you are!" Zatanna declared as she burst into the room, even though there was a clear absence of a door. Glancing to his old friend, he noticed a stern look on her face, one that only appeared when she was being serious. "Bruce, we have a problem!"
What now? "What is it?"
"Luthor has a killer robot."
Batman just stared at her. That was the problem? "You're going to have to be more specific," he told her. "Luthor has a lot of killer robots."
Zana paused. "When you put it that way…" she trailed off before shaking her head. It went without saying the reason Luthor had a lot of killer robots was because he was trying to use them to kill Superman. "I mean, he has a new one. Batgirl and I found it in that locked room Green Arrow told us about."
Luthor had a robot he was pulling out all of the stops to keep secure? "Tell me what you found out about it."
"It—" she promptly cut herself off as she shot him a dirty look. "I'm fine by the way. So is Batgirl, for your information."
Batman rolled his eyes, even if the magician couldn't see it. He spared a glance at J'onn, who was still within Diana's mind. "Zatanna," he growled.
"Hey, I figured you wanted to make certain your oldest friend in the world and your precious daughter were all safe and sound," she countered.
"Considering you didn't come flying in here saying that Batgirl was seriously hurt, or she reporting the same about you, I figured that was a given."
Zatanna stared at him. "Smart ass," she groused.
"Are you going to tell me about this robot, or not?"
This time she rolled her eyes, though she didn't have a cowl to hide it, not that she would care to. "We found some scientist of Luthor's building this robot. Big son of a bitch too." She glanced at J'onn. "Bigger than J'onn if I'm not mistaken."
Considering J'onn had the physique of a bodybuilder competing for Mr. Universe, that was rather concerning. However, just because this robot had size didn't mean it had strength. Girder was bulkier than all of them, but his strength was a tier or two lower than the Martian's.
"Anyways, it got turned on while we were there and...I swear this is going to sound strange, but I think it knew magic."
That got Batman's attention. A robot that could use magic? "What did it do?" he practically demanded.
"It copied my spells pretty much," she answered him. "I told it to sit down and it did the same to me. I hit it with a blast of magic, it tried to do the same to me. That's when I grabbed Batgirl and got us out of there."
This...this was very concerning. A robot with magic felt counterintuitive. A robot was the epitome of science while magic was the realm of the arcane. The two just didn't fit together; yet, Luthor had managed the feat. It made sense as well since one of Superman's weaknesses was magic and Luthor wasn't going to leave such an avenue of attack untested.
This...this was a game changer.
It was at that moment J'onn's eyes dimmed and he lowered his hands to his sides. "I am finished," he announced. "We won't know for certain if I was successful until Diana wakes up, but I believe I was able to reverse the alterations."
That was a big relief. Still, Batman was going to keep Batgirl far from this room, just in case. He was not going to chance a repeat of the future in the Tower of Fate, not until he was certain this time's Diana was in full control.
J'onn then turned his head to regard him and Zatanna. "Now what is this about magical robots?"
It had struck Jefferson as odd. After everything that had happened lately, there had been three seemingly random, simultaneous attacks in the U.S. He had personally gone to the one in Metropolis, discovering a human trafficking scheme that clearly had been going on for quite some time.
Appalled didn't begin to describe how he felt upon helping those poor people out of those storage containers. The smell that emanated from those steel holding cells confirmed that these people had gone through hell, trapped, forced to do what they had to survive. There were buckets of excrement in the back of the shipping container that were best left sealed.
Then there had been that art gallery bust in Midway by Black Canary. Her calling for assistance wasn't something to be too concerned about, but apparently she had not been alone. She had one of her teammates from Gotham with her. And then there was Detroit and the smuggling ring found there. Green Arrow had been present as well..
All three cities had appointed guardians that served in the Justice League. None of them had gone to see to their cities. Instead, they had held the fort, only for there to be an attack by Batman and the Martian Manhunter.
This stunk to high heaven and anyone that couldn't see it was blind.
Metropolis had been his home for years; he had felt the urge to go defend the city, the same with Steel. So why had Superman held back? It didn't make sense.
Apparently, someone else shared the same thought.
"Do you get the feeling we're being played?" Vixen asked out loud as she lounged in a chair. She was in the Monitor Room with Jefferson, Captain Atom off at the main computer doing some work.
Black Lightning nodded his agreement. "I've been thinking that too."
"We get called to three separate cities at the same time and an attack was launched on the Watchtower." Vixen glanced to the wall, where there was a gap. That had been the result of Superman's Heat Vision as it cut through the space station, leaving a long gash in the wall from the ceiling to right next to the door. It stopped right there thankfully, but this was just one area of where there was damage.
"And another thing," Vixen continued. "The Batwing is still here. Does that sound like Batman to just leave his ride behind? I know Steel is looking into it to make certain there isn't a bomb just waiting to blow, but that seems strange."
Jefferson had to admit, he hadn't considered that. What the hell was going on here?
"I think we're overlooking something," Captain Atom suddenly spoke up, drawing their attention.
"And what would that be?" Vixen questioned.
"The fact that every place we were called out to had some criminal activity in action." The military man was typing on the computer, bringing up reports on each incident on the main monitor. "And they had been on-going for some time."
"Go on," Jefferson prodded as he stood up from his seat, walking over to the captain and standing behind him to the right.
"Obviously someone knew about it, which led to our intervention," Captain Atom "We were purposefully led there."
"We kinda figured that part out," Vixen replied.
He wasn't perturbed by the remark. "It was almost as if this was killing two birds with one stone. In fact, it was. Someone wanted to bring these operations down while taking on the Founders. Does that sound like a plan that the Martian Manhunter would come up with?"
Jefferson wasn't sure if that was possible. He hardly knew the Martian—none of them did—so it was hard to determine if the green man was behind this.
"Not sure about J'onn, but it does Batman," Vixen said instead. "We've all heard the stories about him and Gotham. He's not exactly a heavy hitter in the League, so why is he a part of it? It can't be his muscles."
"So why is it I can't find any evidence of Batman being on the Watchtower at the time of the attack?"
"How do you mean?" Jefferson asked.
"All we have is Superman's word that Batman was here, but I can't find any other evidence other than his private plane. He doesn't show up on any of the security feeds."
"What about the hanger? Surely he was there with his plane."
Captain Atom shook his head. "The camera was damaged during the battle here, including the footage. The computer must have been damaged in some way because I'm only picking up certain cameras, naturally none of the ones that could show us what happened during the fight."
Now that was odd. Jefferson could understand if all of the footage had been lost, but only select cameras? That just didn't make sense. All of the security feeds sent footage to the same database, so it should be an all-or-nothing situation. "Is it possible they were purposefully removed?"
"That's hard to tell. With the damage done here, I could make an argument for either one."
"Which puts us back at square one," Vixen snorted. "I am really not enjoying my time here with the League."
"No one said this would be easy," Jefferson commented.
"I wasn't expecting to get my butt kicked so often though."
"This is interesting," Captain Atom murmured, stopping the two of them from continuing their tangent. "I found a teleporter use."
"We used the teleporter when we beamed down to earth and returned," Vixen pointed out.
"But this one is between those two times," the captain rebutted. "Someone came up to the Watchtower...two someones. They were here for a few minutes before leaving."
"Who were they?" Jefferson questioned. "And where did they go?"
Captain Atom was typing on the keyboard until a window appeared. "That's Batman's access code," he reported. "And the second set of coordinates is to a location outside of Gotham."
Now this was getting absurd. Batman flew his plane up to the Watchtower, only to use the teleporter twice? None of this was making any sense.
"I think we need to go ask the others what the hell is going on here," Vixen spoke up then, her eyes narrowed at the screen. "And by others, I mean Superman and the founders."
"We should choose our next move carefully," Captain Atom warned. "I think we need to investigate this matter on our own before we bring it to the attention of the others. This could be nothing, but it could also be everything."
"Agreed," Jefferson added. He wasn't sure why, but he felt as if they needed to get answers their own way. What they were getting from Superman and the others was incomplete. While he didn't want to make any accusations towards his fellow hero, he wanted to make certain that if he was going to, he needed to be right.
Diana's legs dangled off of the table, the Amazon rather subdued as she seemed to stare into space.
Batman had his profile to the dark-haired woman, allowing him to study the media reports on their campaign against crime cells and keep an eye on her. She had woken up mere minutes ago, groaning before she sat up. It was difficult to read her at the moment.
The attacks in Metropolis, Midway, and Detroit had been successes, taking down the crime cells there along with drawing out most of the Justice League. Multiple media outlets were detailing each and every crime, from the human traffickers in Metropolis to the drug smugglers in Detroit. More would be coming out soon.
Which led him to his next project. Batman glanced at the Omnicron 2.0. It was currently off, but that would be changing once he connected it to the laptop.
"Is it normal?" he heard Diana ask softly, drawing his attention to her. "To have your head jumbled after brainwashing?"
"I wouldn't know," Batman replied, reaching to the Omnicron, even as he picked up a USB cord. He found the port for the cord and plugged it in.
"It's strange," the Amazon continued. "It...it feels like I've lived two lives, even though I've only ever had the one." She raised her head up to regard him. "You didn't feel this way after Nanda Parbat?"
Batman paused. She was clearly referencing his time serving under Ra's al Ghul. "I lost my memory, so I had nothing to contradict it," he attempted to explain. "When I came out of the Restoration Pool, my memory was restored and context was added to those three years. In that regard, I didn't have competing memories."
She slowly nodded her understanding. "If it wasn't for J'onn, I would be so confused," she confessed. "I can tell these...new memories, for lack of a better word, don't belong, but it is as if I went through them."
"You did, in a way." Batman began typing on the laptop keyboard, opening a program to run a diagnostic on the Omnicron.
"I hurt her, didn't I?"
That gave him pause, the man freezing in place. It was quite clear who she was referring to.
"I was...angry with you the last time we spoke. I felt betrayed by someone I respected and it hurt," she continued. "I went somewhere to cool off afterwards and I saw things."
"What things?" he warily encouraged her.
The corner of Diana's mouth twitched upward. "I was in Gotham; don't worry, I didn't intervene in any of the crimes there. As I was looking upon your city, I saw a small family walking through the streets and they encountered these admittingly suspicious-looking men. I saw the father put himself between them and his family. Fortunately, nothing came of the encounter.
"It got me thinking that perhaps that is what you have been doing this entire time and I wondered if my Sisters would do the same for me. If my mother would do the same."
"From what you've told me, your mother does care for you," Batman told her. "I have no doubt she would."
A wry smile appeared on her face. "That is kind of you to say. However, now I have some of those...memories, I suppose. And one of them was of that moment, the one that appeared in that video."
With a sharp jerk, Diana twisted Cassandra's head to a side, her neck snapping loudly.
"I felt such...righteousness. Such determination. I don't know why the reason for that was, but I can still feel it in the back of my head—and it scares me."
Batman wasn't sure where Diana was going with this, but that last admission startled him. "Scares you how?"
"That I could be so convinced in my cause that I would do such a thing; that I would hurt you in that way and not even consider it in that moment." Her eyes sharpened on him. "You saw this."
He couldn't keep looking at her. Those memories were coming back in force, not as raw, but very overpowering. He clenched his fists tightly to keep himself from leaving the room.
"I...I would like to apologize."
"I appreciate the sentiment," he managed to ground out.
Batman didn't hear the Amazon move. He wasn't even aware of her until he felt something soft and moist press against his check; a pair of lips, if he wasn't mistaken. He froze for a completely different reason now, his eyes widening. The moment the sensation stopped, he turned his head and found Diana standing next to him, a sad look on her face, one meant entirely for him.
"What was that for?" the vigilante couldn't help but ask.
"No reason other than I felt like you needed it," Diana told him simply.
Silence fell between the two, though it was different for each of them. Batman was uncomfortable with where this talk of theirs had gone and Diana seemed content. It was a very different response to the same moment.
And then Diana dropped her attention to the Omnicron. "This is the device that was used to implant those memories in me?"
"It would seem so," Batman answered her, a small bit of relief at the change in subject.
"And it was the Legion that had it on me, yes?"
"That's correct."
"What was the purpose of this? Why would the Legion want to turn me into this future version of myself, one that no doubt wanted to see to their own destruction?"
That was an entirely good question. There was little sense in supervillains wanting to recreate a blood-thirsty Justice League. They were practically signing up for their own demise.
But then Luthor—despite his claims—had released that edited video of the future to the world, one that was clearly meant to sow suspicion amongst the populace towards the League. Heck, it probably had some of the newer League members wondering…
Batman's head tilted up. Was that video truly for the world? Or was it for a very specific audience?
Luthor was the clear mastermind behind the Legion. He had given the Omnicron 2.0 to them to use on Diana and brainwash her into her future self. He had released the footage to cast doubt on the intention of the League even amongst its own members. No doubt he had the Legion performing their ambushes on them…
Ambushes that had led to the capture of their own. Superman and Hawkgirl had been captured by the Legion, returned by a League mission at a remote location. The amount of time those two had been missing had been greater than Diana's. Did the Legion have the Omnicron then too?
This entire time, they were being played.
Diana had been watching him as his thoughts played out. "You've figured something out, haven't you?"
Batman turned his head to her. "Can I trust you?"
The Amazon stood up straighter. At one time, those words would have angered her, hurt her even. With the new insights she had, it was a testament to their effect on her that she took his words at face value. "Of course you can, Bruce."
"Then I hope you're ready for a brawl. In order to save the Justice League, we need to take it down."
It was a simple matter to hijack the various satellite frequencies from around the world. The key was simple: create an overriding frequency for everything. It was expected that everything the signal hijacked would try and fight back, override theirs, but this wasn't supposed to take long from the start.
All it was really needed for was to send a message.
A simple camera was set up and plugged in, hooked up with an ethernet cable for good measure, and was currently on. The Ultra Humanite stood before it, arms behind his back and his stance imposing. There would be no hiding his involvement with the Legion of Doom, at least publicly.
"This is a message for the Justice League," he declared, keeping his voice calm and even, his eyes focused on the camera's lens. "It has been quite entertaining these last weeks, luring you out, attacking you when you feel safest. The enjoyment, however, has begun to lose its glamor. It is getting boring challenging you and emerging victorious."
That was a nice intro, he felt. Begin casual before moving on to insulting. Present yourself as a friend right until the backhanded taunt. That would be enough to rile up the hotheads. That would not be enough though, so on to attacking the cooler heads.
"Now, the smart thing to do would be to continue as is. Bringing you to battlefields of our choice, whittling you down one by one, and exposing your weaknesses to not only the whole world, but to those who would love nothing more than to dismantle you. We would win if that were to occur, but why wait?
"Instead of letting the insignificant gnats that have no role in our conflict determine its end, how about we decide it? The Justice League versus the Legion of Doom, no holding back, everything on the proverbial table. The Legion will be playing for keeps, of course. A Justice League member who is defeated in battle will be killed. That is, unless, you are able to defeat a member of the Legion instead? But how will you respond?"
By now the cooler heads would be shaken a bit. It was one thing to assume death was a possibility. It was another to confirm it was a certainty. There was nothing like striking the fear of death into the hearts of those who claimed to have none. However, this was not over just yet. He needed to put the League between a rock and a hard place.
"That broadcast that occurred recently, everyone knows the one. It has been shared throughout the internet, commented on by the media, politicians, and conspiracy theorists the world over. Are you the League that this broadcast claims you will become? Are you the one that the poor and downtrodden hope you are? Will you strike down the members of the Legion of Doom permanently, or send us all back to prison for a temporary respite?
"I believe we should find out. You, us, and the world watching. It is time to put the Justice League and its ideals to the test, the ultimate test. Within the hour, we will arrive in the southern sector of Metropolis and await you there amongst the slums and ghettos of the City of Tomorrow. The people of that great city will be our audience and potentially collateral damage if you choose not to hold back. We won't, but will you?"
Yes, a little reminder of the human costs ought to provide one last shake up. If the tainted League founders remained changed, it would further the division already created within the League. Entirely the point, of course, but why not keep striking that weakened point again and again to ensure the fracture?
Tilting his head downward slightly, Humanite added one last taunt, "Let us embrace the future together."
Humanite kept still for a moment, then straightened up. That should be making the rounds for now. In the meantime, he needed to rally the troops.
Still, he wondered why Luthor made this request. A big battle, not just another fight. It needed to be visible, public, and oh wait, how about you hold it here? A quick check revealed that section of Metropolis was owned by the billionaire and the locals weren't keen to letting him gentrify it just yet. Two birds with one stone; the genius in the gorilla body could admire that.
Still, he had a feeling there was more to this. It was one thing to antagonize and abduct the various League members. It was different to straight up challenge them.
Still, he was being paid handsomely for this, and he was a man of his word.
