Justice League Past Imperfect 27
"So how did you get to sneak away from Metropolis?" Barbara Gordon asked Kara In-Ze. Neither woman was wearing their costumes which made them Batgirl and Supergirl. Barbara was wearing a black turtleneck with khaki cargo pants and Kara wore a band tee shirt with blue jeans. In a further contrast, Barbara wore black pumps while Kara wore her customary high top brown ankle boots.
Alfred served another round of coffee and crumpets and Kara thanked him before answering, "Kyle's covering for me."
"Kyle Raynor?" Barbara asked with devilish delight, "Isn't that mighty nice of him?"
"It's not like that." Kara scolded her, "Kyle and I are just friends. He has family in town and I needed a break. Besides, that penthouse Bruce is loaning me has enough room for an army."
"You get used to it." Barbara smirked.
"I bet." Kara laughed, "Where is he anyway? Out on patrol?"
"No, Bruce took a team to Kaznia earlier today." Barbara was rather glum, "I just hope they're all right."
"Look who you're talking about." Kara chided her, "When is Batman out of his league?"
"When he's dealing with me or Dick." Tim Drake said as he approached and helped himself to a couple of crumpets, "Alfred told me to wait here while he finishes dinner…so here I am."
Kara noted the way Tim was eyeballing her, "Just keep on looking, Shorty. That's as close as you're getting."
"Who me?" Tim smirked as he took a seat in an empty chair.
"Puberty." Kara sighed, "It brings out the worst in men."
"Hey!" Tim yelped.
"And he's so meek and mild in public." Barbara let that secret go, "He's only like this at home and as Robin."
"At least he doesn't ogle me as Robin." Kara complained.
"At least not as far as your super senses can detect." Tim smirked, "Besides, it wasn't that long ago that you were my height."
"Yeah, but then I hit my eighteenth birthday and underwent the "Argoan Ascension." Kara explained.
"The what?" Barbara and Tim blurted at the same time.
"That's what we called it back home." Kara explained, "Argoans undergo a massive growth spurt all at once. It's one of the differences between an Argoan and a Kryptonian."
"So that's how they made Galatea so big so fast." Barbara surmised.
"Yup." Kara agreed, "They just triggered a natural process and made it work to their advantage."
"So how does your metabolism keep up?" Barbara had to ask.
Kara grinned, "I ate a whole cow."
"What?" that startled Barbara.
"Pa butchered a cow and I ate the whole thing in six months, which coincidently, was how long my growth spurt lasted. A hog also got sacrificed at the end. Don't ask about the chickens." Kara described the situation.
"Whoa!" Tim exclaimed, "And they tell me I'm hungry."
"Well, I did gain eight inches and put on a lot of muscle weight." Kara defended herself.
"I'll say." Tim remarked.
"Why do I suddenly want to take a shower?" Kara asked Barbara.
"I do too and the comment wasn't even directed at me." She admitted.
The grandfather clock disguising the entrance to the Bat Cave began to sound. Kara looked around as Barbara and Tim sprang to their feet. "What?" she asked.
"It's the intruder alert!" Barbara answered as she triggered the release on the clock, "Someone's in the Cave!"
"I'd better go first." Kara said and she zipped past the humans.
She flew into the cave just in time to discover Cosmic Boy, the elderly Bruce Wayne, and Terry McGuiness exiting the time bubble. She immediately recognized both the bubble and Cosmic Boy. She flew down and caught him in a hug.
"Cos!" she said with delight.
"E…easy on t…the ribs." He gasped.
She put him down, "Sorry."
Barbara and Tim made their appearance then. Standing at the top of the stone staircase, they had their batarangs out and were ready to strike. Kara called up to them, "It's all right! They're friends!"
"At least I think so." She murmured. Turning to Cosmic Boy, she asked; "Who're your pals?"
"It'll become pretty obvious in a moment." He assured her.
She thought the walking fossil looked familiar but the other guy looked like a Batman wannabe. Barbara was leery as she approached as was Tim. She stared long and hard at the old man and finally she gasped, "Bruce."
"No way!" Tim cocked his arm back again. Cosmic Boy used his magnetic powers to wrest the batarang out of the boy's grip and float it over to his own hand.
"Hey!" Tim protested.
"Easy Barbara." Wayne counseled her.
"What happened to you?" she struggled to maintain control.
"I got old." Wayne replied and then held up his hands as she started to get emotional again, "I'm from your future. This is what I look like fifty-two years from now."
He turned to Terry, "This is my successor. You can call him Batman Beyond and I'll be Mr. Wayne. That should cut down on confusion when Batman…Bruce…returns."
"I didn't know you knew that nickname." Terry said in Wayne's ear.
"There's a lot outside of the Cave that I know." Wayne replied without a trace of inflection in his voice.
Uh oh, Terry thought.
"Where's Batman?" Wayne asked, "No, better yet, what's the time and date?"
Barbara told him and Wayne grimaced, "Then right now he's a guest of the Legion of Doom."
Batman, the Huntress, the Question, and a supported Dr. Fate stepped through the boom tube into the Dome's main conference room. It consisted of a podium facing a row of stadium style seating to either side of the rectangular room and two banks of chairs facing back at the pulpit. It was designed to seat over a hundred despite the Legion's current fifty-five member roll call. Luthor and Brainiac awaited them.
Amazo came through the tube last. Spent bullets were embedded in his synthetic "flesh." He concentrated and the dents filled out and the rounds clattered onto the floor. Lashina and Mantis turned to him. Lashina said, "That's a nasty slice into your side. We're familiar with nano technology. Let us look at it."
"Very well." Amazo agreed, "With Luthor and Brainiac busy with the Humanite, your aid would be most appreciated."
They all left for the cybernetics lab. The Ultra Humanite had deposited the recuperating Tala into one of the audience chairs. The Question placed Fate next to her.
Luthor's impromptu conference ended and he approached the JLers with a smile, "You've been granted safe passage and I respect that. I would, however, like a copy of the Question's disk."
"Do you plan on reviewing it in order to make yourselves more presentable to Savage?" Batman asked.
"Not hardly." Luthor laughed, "I have no desire to see Savage ruling this world nor do I wish to see his alien interlopers wrest control of the planet away from me. Earth belongs to me and no one else. No one else can have it."
"I thought you were handing it to Darkseid." Batman countered.
"A mere technicality. I will directly rule this globe not Darkseid." Luthor vowed.
"If I may," the Question spoke up, "I need access to one of your terminals."
Luthor showed him to a desk behind the podium. The Question inserted his disk and activated a holographic screen that hovered between the podium and the audience arena. The Question then requested that Luthor mount the podium.
He swiftly scrolled through reams of data until he got to one of Savage's important agenda points: eliminate the Legion of Doom! The Question stopped and powered down the display. Retrieving his disk he strolled over to where the others waited.
"I need that data!" Luthor implored.
"It's already been uploaded to your network." The Question informed him, "Now for our ride out of here?"
"Of course." Luthor was all charm and smiles again, "Brainiac!"
"One other thing," the Question interrupted, "You'll find Savage has been receiving help…from Brainiac."
"What?!" Luthor wheeled on Brainiac.
"Yes, Master?" Brainiac asked in all innocence.
"Luthor," the Question spoke again, "it's a Brainiac from the twenty-second century. Apparently your resurrected AI goes berserk again later. Just a thought."
"Shall I engage the boom tube?" Brainiac asked.
"What? Oh. Yes, send them home." Luthor began to ruminate on what he'd already learned. Perusing all of the files on that disk would prove illuminating.
The JLers arrived several blocks away from the Hall of Justice. The spatial disruptors used to black boom tubes wouldn't allow a nearer entrance. Batman assisted the Question and they helped Fate along. Ten minutes later, they were briefing J'onn and Hawkgirl.
"Fate should have let me come rather than shunting me off over to Metropolis." Hawkgirl complained.
"You know your mace affects his magiks." J'onn consoled her, "He may have had no choice."
"Trust me; once he's coherent I'm going to have words with that man." Hawkgirl promised.
"Could we settle down?" the Question asked. He then began a point by point review of the data he'd stolen. When he was done, Hawkgirl sighed in relief.
"At least the Gordonians are only sending a battlecruiser." She said happily.
"Why is that good?" J'onn asked.
"Well, Gordonian ships of the line, from smallest to largest are: frigate, destroyer, light cruiser, heavy cruiser, battlecruiser, battleship, dreadnought, and super dreadnought." She explained, "If they expected a real fight they'd send a battleship or a larger ship."
"On top of it, battlecruisers are a hybrid design. They were supposed to fill the gap between a heavy cruiser and the substantially heavier armed battleship. That didn't happen." Hawkgirl gleefully explained, "They have the same armament as the cruiser and the larger bay for support craft but in order to utilize the support craft they have to launch from a virtual standstill with their shields down. That makes them a big, fat, happy target."
"What kind of support craft do they have?" Batman wondered.
"Literal flying saucers. They're each manned by four troopers but only one is necessary for flight. The other three are foot soldiers. They're meant to be deployed on the ground." Hawkgirl answered, "A battlecruiser holds fifty-two support craft."
"The thing is, most of the saucers' weaponry is fairly tame. They have lasers, plasma weapons, and the like. Foot soldiers carry the same. However, the saucers possess one anti-proton cannon apiece and the cruiser has a neutron cannon." She warned, "The proton cannons can probably stagger Superman while the Neutron cannon can take out the Watchtower with one shot and eliminate a good portion of New York or another major city with another."
"It takes ten minutes to recharge the cannon between shots so it's used sparingly but if it's used it'll be devastating." Hawkgirl finished her dire announcements.
"Then we'll have our work cut out for us." J'onn said positively, "You said the Gordonians will be here in five days?"
The Question nodded, "Exactly."
"Then that gives us two days to brief everyone and two days to prepare our strategy." J'onn was upbeat, "L-Ron, begin calling everyone and scheduling briefings. Question, you'll stay in the Hall until everyone is briefed."
"I'll need toiletries." The Question replied.
"No problem." The Huntress spoke up, "We've got the stuff you keep in my apartment. It's just across town. We can slip out in civvies and buy whatever you're missing. I'm sure the League wouldn't mind doling out one of their debit cards for a good cause."
"Check with Sue and she'll equip you." J'onn instructed them, "As for everyone else, you'll be informed of when the strategy planning sessions begin."