Chapter 23

A/N: hey everyone! Welcome back! Glad to see y'all enjoyed the last chapter! Sorry for the long wait guys, I got distracted with some stuff. Ya know, life, the other ideas in my head, writer's block, etc. Anyways, I just own my OCs, Haruo/Kaiser is twilitenight13's, YJ belongs to DC, & Godzilla is Toho's.

/comms/

Telepathy

Batcave, October 15, 1:40EDT

"Another late night, Master Bruce?"

The Dark Knight didn't turn away from the screen, staring at the image of the Injustice League that Robin captured just two weeks ago. Something about the whole situation didn't sit right with him.

While each villain had their own massive ego that would make cooperation difficult, they all had the patience and temperaments that would enable them to cooperate and coordinate their attacks in various locations around the globe with different villain sects.

All except Joker.

Vertigo, Wotan, Black Adam, Ultra Humanite, Atomic Skull, heck, even Poison Ivy; they all made sense. Every single one of them had a clear goal and hatred towards the League. They would all be able to contribute equally to hire the Shadows and engage with other supervillains to run their various schemes.

But Joker, as maniacal as he was, wouldn't be able to fit into such a complex scheme. The Clown Prince of Crime rarely played well with others, even his own henchmen and Harley weren't safe from his temper. So, for him to stand on equal ground with other villains and cooperate with them…it wasn't something he would normally do.

He didn't hold sway in the criminal underworld. Even from an Arkham cell, he wouldn't be able to exert the amount of control needed to over whomever he brought into the agreement. Not the way the others did.

No, Joker held their fear, what he didn't hold, however, was their respect. And, in order to pull off something this big, fear alone wouldn't cut it.

So, there were two options: Joker was a last-minute addition—in order to get access to the Joker Venom and his ability to simultaneously control the different plants—or someone else wanted them to think the Injustice League was responsible for what the Team had encountered.

If the latter was the case, that meant there was credence to Sportsmaster's claim: there was a mole on the Team.

After all, it had only just been hours after they made the deduction about the cooperation of supervillains worldwide that the Injustice League reared their head.

Footsteps approached from his left, and the Batman didn't need to turn to know it was Alfred standing just behind him. "You know, Master Dick has already gone to bed, to rest up for the school day tomorrow. Perhaps I should suggest the same for you? Need I remind you that all the major villains are currently incarcerated, and you have several important meetings to attend tomorrow morning? I'm sure the city can survive a few hours without the presence of the Batman."

Bruce removed his cowl with a sigh, it wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last Alfred would use than line against him. Normally, he would disagree, however, tonight, Alfred had a point. After the Injustice League incident, Arkham was on high alert and Gordon had even assigned some officers to help guard just to make sure no more breakouts occurred for the time being. It was also a Thursday night, meaning that there would be little to no activity in the dark streets of Gotham.

He could afford to take the rest of the night off.

Sliding his chair back to get up, the Dark Knight paused when the computer screen flashed with an incoming communication.

So much for rest.

Sitting back down in his seat, he pulled his cowl back up, eyes narrowing as he read who the call was coming from. Why was the US Navy contacting him directly? How did they even get his direct contact information? If there was an emergency, why weren't they contacting the League's headquarters?

"Who is this?" Batman demanded answering the call.

The camera flickered to life, and Batman was admittedly surprised to see not some impudent officer who bullied his way to the emergency contacts for League members, but an old friend.

The young man looked worse for wear, thick patches of dirt sticking to his hair and clothes, smears of grime and blood on his face, his familiar blue eyes hidden by the domino mask he'd given to him years ago.

"Hello Batman," Kaiser greeted. "I would say sorry for disturbing you at this late hour, but you and I both know you were wide awake and would be for a while yet."

Well, it was one of the rare nights he was going to bed early for his standards, but he wasn't wrong.

Still, it wasn't like the teenage enigma to contact him out of the blue. Whenever he ran into Haruo, it was because their paths had crossed on the same missions, or the League needed dangerous relics stored away. Either way, the League had always reached out to Kaiser because they needed his help. It had never been the other way around.

"What happened?"

"I'm sure you heard about the earthquake in Japan this morning?"

Yes, he had received a notification about it from Wonder Woman earlier. Fortunately, despite the severity of the earthquake, the damage appeared to be localized to the Janjira quarantine zone. She and a few others were planning to head out at first light to assist in the clean-up and provide humanitarian aid.

But, Kaiser wouldn't be asking about it unless it was relevant. And, with how common it was for Japan to have earthquakes, the fact that the young man had brought it up meant there was more to it than what was being told in the news.

"It wasn't a normal earthquake, was it Kaiser?"

There was a tired sigh from the other end, the young man running a hand through already tousled hair. "No," he admitted, "it wasn't. I'm afraid it's worse than that. Much worse." Haruo removed his mask, glowing blue eyes narrowing with a hiss of frustration, "Bats, I need you to be honest with me, how much do you know about MONARCH?"

For the first time in a while, Batman could see the cold calculation in the teen's eyes, making him look much older than the Cold War veteran he was.

"I know it was founded in 1954 by President Truman to investigate the unexplained sinking of the USS Lawton. From there it was expanded into an international organization to research the unexplained and keep the general public from finding out about it," he answered. "And I know that you're involved in the coverup of what really happened at Janjira, meaning that it wasn't a technical failure that led to the meltdown. It was something you didn't want the public to know about."

Finishing his reply, Bruce observed the teen for his response. Kaiser had never been the easiest person for him to read, even after all his years of practice. It seemed like his personality could switch at a moment's notice, turning him from a normal teenager to an experienced soldier older beyond his years in the blink of an eye. Due to this, whenever he questioned the young man, it always felt like he ended up with more questions than he started with.

Hopefully, his abruptness this time meant that Kaiser was not in the mood for their normal exchange of cryptic answers and riddles.

"You're right." The young man rubbed his forehead, dark shadows visible under his eyes, "And that something just caused the earthquake in Japan."

"Explain. Now."

-.-

Mt. Justice, 2:33EDT

"Recognized: Kid Flash—B02. Artemis—B10."

"Does anyone know—" Wally yawned, stretching his arms over his head, "—why Bats called us here so early? Don't we have school or something?"

Robin shrugged, "I dunno, he and Agent A practically yanked me out of bed and told me to come here."

"Well," Artemis mumbled rubbing her eyes, "I'm guessing it wouldn't be for nothing."

"Maybe they're just trying to see how much we can function on little to no sleep?" Conner groaned.

"I already know the answer for that," Skylar hissed, "and it's not pretty."

"Nah, I'm sure it's pretty," Onyx smiled. "Pretty explosive."

"…How are you so damn cheery?"

"Caffeine and a lack of sanity from so little sleep."

"Ah."

"Well, whatever it is, it has to be big," M'gann pointed out. "We almost never get called like this unless it's an emergency."

"Another Injustice League?" Kaldur speculated.

"Whatever it is," Robin spoke up typing on his holopad, "it's not on any mainstream media. All the news outlets are focused on some earthquake in Japan."

"That's awful," Amber gasped as the Boy Wonder pulled up the feed.

"Yeah, but it isn't—you know—League worthy," KF muttered. "I mean, yeah, earthquakes are bad and all, but they aren't going to end the world or anything. Plus, the world has the humanitarian stuff it sends in case of those disasters, so it's not like it needs immediate League intervention."

"Tell that to the people buried alive by fallen buildings or drowned in a tsunami," Artemis deadpanned.

"Ok! But I still don't see what this has to do with us!"

"Attention Team," Batman's voice rang out as a holoscreen opened, revealing the Dark Knight. "Last night at approximately at approximately 19:30EDT there was an earthquake in Japan that registered as a 6.3 on the Richter scale. While normally this is not an event that requires the entire League, I have just been in contact with Kaiser, and have been informed that this earthquake was not of natural origin."

"You were saying Bay Watch?"

"This earthquake was the result of a breach in the Janjira Quarantine Zone in Japan."

"Janjira?" Conner remembered, speaking up towards the screen, "Wasn't that the site of a nuclear accident?"

"Oh yeah, I read about that," Wally remembered, "it was a technical malfunction. Worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Whole reactor collapsed, entire team died and the city's supposed to be uninhabitable for the next five thousand years or something."

"So everyone believed," Batman replied. "In reality the story was a cover-up for what really destroyed the power plant. During the month of August in 1999, miners in the Philippines breached an underground chamber and woke something up. This Massive Unknown Terrestrial Organism made its way to Japan where it attacked the nuclear reactor at Janjira, causing its collapse and the subsequent evacuation of the city and its nearby towns. The site was taken over by a secret international organization known as MONARCH, where they studied and contained the creature until last night, where the MUTO woke up from its apparent hibernation and escaped."

"Wait, so you're saying this…MUTO thing, caused the earthquake?" M'gann inquired.

"Yes, it also released an EMP knocking out all electricity for over five miles, during that time both MONARCH and the US Navy lost the creature when it went airborne."

"Hold on, hold on" Kid Flash interrupted waving his hands, "you're telling us, that a secret international organization contained a supposedly gargantuan creature that singlehandedly caused the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl and as of last night it emitted possibly the most powerful EMP on Earth, caused an earthquake, and this mystery organization and the US Navy lost it? You're joking, right? This has to be joke! There's no way something like that could happen!"

Batman was quiet, the slits of his cowl narrowing, "And yet," another screen appeared, "it did."

The video on the screen began to play, showing security feeds outside some containment site. Glowing red eyes pierced through the clouds of dust and smoke, obscuring their owner to just a massive dark shadow, thrashing against cables as the minute forms of people could be seen running on the ground around it.

"Current projections have determined that the MUTO was flying towards the west coast during its escape. We do not know how long it will take for this creature to cross the ocean, or even where it will end up. The League has been deployed to various cities and coastlines in an attempt to locate the creature as a front for tsunami evacuations. Aquaman is heading to Atlantis to see if they're capable of tracking it. The rest of you will take the Bioship and head to the USS Saratoga and join Kaiser to track the MUTO."

"Understood, we're on our way," Kaldur nodded.

"C'mon guys! You can't be buying this!" Wally exclaimed, tossing his hands in the air as they moved towards the hangars. "The video was doctored! It had to be! There is no way an animal that big could fly, let alone exist. It's size alone would make it impossible to sustain."

The others tossed their heads back with groans, with all the speedster's complaining, it was going to be a very long flight.

"It's too early for this shit."

-.-

USS Saratoga, 8:32UTC

"The Brody's?" Kaiser asked.

"On a helicopter back to Hawaii, they'll catch a flight from San Francisco from there," Dr. Graham answered as she and Serizawa sat at one of the monitors, the Admiral looking curiously over their shoulders.

"Get anything useful out of them?"

"There!" Ishiro pointed to the pulse scans they'd taken during the incident. "Right around the time of the EMP. Something responded."

Brows shooting up, Kaiser leaned closer to the screen as the military commander paled, "Responded?"

"Yes, Dr. Brody had a theory, echolocation, bioacoustics, the MUTO was communicating with something."

Haruo bit back another curse as he shot up pointing to the closest person, "Find out if there's activity at any of the other sites! Now!"

"Yes sir!"

Snapping his gaze back to the screen, Kaiser grit his teeth. This wasn't good. One rogue kaiju was a disaster, two was catastrophic, but three…that could signal a mass awakening, which would be an apocalyptic event.

"Have you managed to contact the League?" the Admiral inquired, jaw tense as if he were clenching his teeth.

"Yes, everyone's on high alert," he answered. "They're spreading out along costal cities on the West coasts of North and South America under the front of potential tsunamis. A few are even travelling to Australia, Russia, and New Zealand in case it's changed directions during the blackout. If this thing makes land, we'll know about it."

"Admiral," Captain Hampton spoke, "We've received an intel report: we lost track of a nuclear akula fifty nautical miles northwest of Hawaii. Could be MUTO."

"Great," Kaiser muttered.

"Martinez?"

"Aye sir. Special forces team Sparta One is picking up a distress signal northwest of Diamond Head on the island of Oahu. They're on the ground and headed to the beacon."

"Kaiser to Justice League, we've got a hit: Oahu."

/Understood. All available League Personnel converge on Kaiser's coordinates. Batman out/

"There's over a million people on that island, I'm afraid secrecy is no longer an option," the Admiral stated.

"Naturally," Kaiser replied, crossing his arms as he looked at the feeds from the team on the ground.

"Sir! We're picking up another signal, approaching from the southeast. Approaching fast."

The three MONARCH officers shared a look.

"Oh, shit."

Practically barreling some officers over, Kaiser and Serizawa began racing for the deck. "Kaiser to League, get your asses over here now or a lot of people are going to die! Things just got worse," breaking onto the deck, even without the helicopter lights illuminating the spines rising from the sea, he could see the massive tide of water coming towards them, "a lot worse."