It wasn't quite right that there were twenty-seven alien soldiers outside waiting for them.
Bart was pretty sure he hadn't done anything wrong. The Justice League had wanted to make amends with the planets aligned with Rimbor, the planet they had ravaged during those sixteen hours, so they'd sent a few teams of not-sidekicks to bring about peace offerings and the like. (Bart found himself saying 'and the like' a lot. It was probably because he and Tim had been texting a lot. Right now the group chat name was 'the rumor come out: does superboy is emo?'.)
Bart was on Beta team, which was pretty cool. On his team was Robin (who was acting as the squad leader), Miss Martian (their resident alien translator), Static (who was cool but still pretty new), and Tigress (the best). Bart was pretty sure Kaldur had put Miss Martian and Tigress on the squad to temper the younger members.
What was not cool was hiding from almost thirty aliens who wanted him dead.
"Static, can you overcharge the system over there?" Miss Martian asked through the psychic link.
"Uh, yeah, I think," Static responded. He quickly ducked out of the room they were in — it was more of a stadium than a room, really — and shot electricity at a big cube of tech that reminded Bart of a computer, the kind you had to link to a monitor. So retro.
Almost immediately, the aliens' guns started malfunctioning and shooting off sparks. Bart guessed they were connected to the tech somehow, powered by it. It seemed like a pretty dumb idea to Bart, but maybe that was just how their tech worked. He hadn't managed to build a time machine that could go more than once, so he probably couldn't judge.
"We come in peace!" Miss Martian shouted. It was a pretty straightforward line, but the aliens stepped back in what seemed like confusion.
"You are a Martian," one alien, tall and red like a brick, said. It sounded strange and accented, which Bart didn't really understand, because the alien's words were being translated in his head as they spoke. "An ally of Konros."
Bart guessed Konros was the name of the planet. He hadn't paid that much attention on the debriefing. Vibrating with excitement, he started to surge forward, before being stopped by Robin's arm.
"Hey!" Bart whispered. Robin gave him a hard look.
"Let her speak with them," he said back, just as quietly. "They might trust her. We are still being seen as threats."
Bart settled down, eyes narrowed in annoyance. When he was feeling awful, he sent on missions and talked to and treated like a useful member of the team, mostly. When he actually had enough energy to want to do that stuff, he wasn't needed. Typical.
"Don't give me that look," Robin muttered. "If they decide to attack, we fight back. But this is a peace mission; remember that we don't want to fight the Konrosans."
"That's rehearsed, right?"
Robin squirmed a little. "I talk to myself in the mirror a lot," he muttered. "Aqualad has been assigning me as leader a lot and Nightwing's trying to teach me how to actually… do that and stuff."
Miss Martian was still talking to the aliens. Bart didn't bother listening. "Are you cool with that?" he asked, maybe just to avoid a conversation about Bart.
Robin ran a hand through his hair, which he hadn't seemed to cut in a while. "Yeah," he said. "I'm gonna need it, yknow, being. Robin and all. There's this girl, she's been trying to be a vigilante in Gotham. Batman doesn't really approve, so I've been trying to shoot her down, but it isn't working."
"Maybe she should just be a superhero, then," Bart said. "What if Batman had told you that you couldn't be a hero and you need to stop?"
"Back then?" Robin asked. "I wouldn't have listened. He needed a Robin."
"And now?"
"Now…" Robin frowned. "I don't know. It's his choice, you know, to keep me as Robin or not, but… maybe he doesn't need me right now, but the world always needs more heroes. I don't think I'd want to stop."
"Ta-da." Bart smiled. "So tell Batman to fuck off and let the girl tag along in the hero stuff. Easy, right?"
"Telling Batman to fuck off is…" Robin shook his head. "That's not going to happen. And defying him definitely isn't easy."
"Kinda kidding," Bart said. "And… look at that."
Miss Martian was waving them over. Static and Tigress were already walking toward the aliens, Static with his arms up, Tigress more confidently. Bart grabbed Robin and sped forward.
One of the aliens, probably the leader of the group, surveyed them carefully. "Miss Martian tells us you are here in peace, to discuss what happened those years ago. Come in, but leave your weapons."
The aliens led them to a large castle-like building. The great door slid open to let them in, and inside everyone's weapons were taken and stored. Almost all of the weapons came from Robin and Tigress, who Bart noticed were both looking slightly awkward after being unarmed.
The room they entered next seemed to be a conference room, with a long oval table and enough chairs circling it to hold Beta squad and a dozen of the aliens. Following Miss Martian and Robin's example, Bart sat down in one of the chairs, right next to Static and across from the leader alien.
"Thank you for letting us talk with you," Robin said. "Since you've already established a, um, volley? With Miss… Martian, then you two can lead the conversation." He muttered the last bit, receding into his chair a little in embarrassment.
Miss Martian laughed quietly. "Thank you, Robin. A'Mant, I'm not sure if you saw the trial that the Justice League was a part of. The League showed evidence that they were being mind controlled. I could show you, if you want."
The leader alien, A'Mant, nodded, or at least did the alien equivalent of a nod. "We did see, but we have been skeptic," he admitted. "The Tribune has not been widely regarded as a fair judge."
"We know, believe us," Tigress muttered. She spoke up: "I understand why your planet is angry at the Justice League, but know that without circumstances like what happened five years ago, that would never have happened. The League fights for peace and justice, not for chaos."
"Yeah, apparently we didn't even know what happened during those sixteen hours," Static said. Then he looked sheepish: "I'm new."
A'Mant looked amused. "So they sent a team of their young to explain what happened? Why to us?"
"We're talking with planets that are allied with Rimbor," Miss Martian explained. "A few of them have expressed, um… ill intent toward the Justice League and Earth, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and advocate for peace."
Miss Martian, Bart reflected, was very good at saying the right things and deflecting the right questions away. She wasn't quite a leader, but something a little more dishonest. Bart thought it might have been something that came with age, with years of fighting for the right thing.
Eventually you get jaded.
They continued to talk, Miss Martian (who was by far the favorite of the aliens) taking the lead and Robin joining in when needed, notably when they showed the Konrosans the evidence they had for the League being set up and mind controlled. Bart stayed mostly quiet, which he knew Jaime would tease him about later. He knew that sometimes (most of the time, Tim would say, apologetically) he said things that… escalated matters.
His 'filter' was a little skewed.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of discussion, they were done. The ride back to Earth was annoyingly quiet for most of the duration, save for when Gar accidentally called them and proceeded to screech as a bird into the mic for two minutes before he realized it was on.
Later, a little into the night, Tim texted Bart:
TIM D.: I'm training spoiler but batman doesn't know yet
TIM D.: He will tho
BART A.: spoiler?
BART A.: like MY kind of spoiler?
TIM D.: Hah, no
TIM D.: The vigilante girl i was talking about
TIM D.: She's called Spoiler
TIM D.: Or the Spoiler? Not sure
BART A.: does not seem like a word anymore
TIM D.: It's a weird word
BART A.: yeah
TIM D.: Anyway i think there's a drug deal going on down there so i gtg
BART A.: okay txt me l8er im going 2 sleep
TIM D.: Are you a skater now?
TIM D.: Goodnight, Bart.
BART A.: night
BART A.: (and i know you own a skateboard so shut up)