Dreams and Ideas

by Shadow Master

These are a collection of fanfic crossover ideas that my admittingly warped imagination has come up with. For the most part this is to satisfy the plot bunnies but if you see a drabbleshortetc that you think deserves to be made into a full fanfic let me k

39. To Counter A Darkness: Part 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the property of their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own amusement and for those readers who enjoy my work. Therefore please refrain from any lawsuits as I can guarantee that anything you get from me won't cover a tenth of the legal fees involved.

The Triskelion, New York City, Briefing Room of the Ultimates, Same Time, Nick Fury's P.O.V

"What do we know about them?" asked Captain America from his spot at the briefing table.

"Preliminary information indicates that they arrived in New York City mid-air via some sort of portal. We are still running tests on the affected area to determine what type it was." Fury replied as the only footage of the super powered team was replayed over and over again on the main screen, "Eight in total, three males and five females, exited the portal with this young woman carrying what we found out later was a crude titanium sack. We managed to secure the fragments and found out that whoever put it together had to be in a hurry, considering how crude it was."

"Any idea who or what that bony guy was that was in it?" asked Hank Pym, who only looked mildly interested in everything that was going on.

"No, but we managed to get the bone spikes that Blue Boy broke off and they're in the labs being analyzed," he replied, using his remote to switch one of the side screens to the lab's security camera. "Don't have a work up on them done just yet but, based on one of my agents being a klutz, we know the bones are strong enough to go ten inches into concrete if you drop it. If the rest of Mr. Bones is like that, we're going to need Iron Man and Thor to take him down if he shows up again."

"Where do you think they sent him?" Janet Pym asked, watching the footage acquired from some amateur's camera showing a blast of energy come from the golden energy curtain thing.

"No clue. Eggheads think it was some sort of matter displacement device." He replied, turning the security camera view of the lab back to the footage acquired from a source near the battle zone, "Tech boys went over Mr. Bones' last position and didn't find enough crap on the ground to prove he was vaporized or disintegrated. Where is still up for debate."

"Any info on this team and its members?" Iron Man asked with his helmet on, even though everyone knew it was Tony Stark beneath it.

"On that we do have something. Thanks to security footage from several cameras in the area and one amateur idiot who got close enough with his camcorder to pick up some audio, we have names as well as an idea about their powers." He replied as he punched a few buttons on the remote to bring up head shots of each member of the mystery team, "Visitor number one: Scarlet Lightning. Spent most of the fight hocking jewelry and junk at the neighborhood pawn shops and thrift stores. Powers are centered around speed and, based on estimates derived from camera footage, puts him moving at a hundred and ninety miles per hour. We think that's his cruising speed."

"Cruising speed? Not his maximum?" Asked Captain America, who was probably already working his way through strategies for dealing with such a person.

"No signs of exertion were evident in any of the footage we acquired." He replied before flicking a switch to highlight the next head shot, "Next up is a guy we actually were able to get a name for: Superman."

"Superman? Arrogant much?" asked Hank with no little bit of sarcasm present in his voice.

"I wouldn't dismiss him like that if I were you." He said pulling up satellite footage for them all to see, "He achieved speeds that were borderline escape velocity levels before he got knocked loose by some sort of energy discharge from Mr. Bones and managed to hit the center of Central Park at around Mach six. Considering he rose up out of the crater looking like he just slipped and fell on his ass, I'd say that puts him well beyond what conventional weapons can handle. Add to that the fact that some of his punches sent out shockwaves that shattered nearby windows and he's probably somewhere in the top five most powerful people ranking."

"Aye. Not since I last did battle with my half-brother Loki did I behold someone of such strength. T'would be foolish to underestimate him." Thor said with a serious look on his face as he looked at his potential opponent.

No one said anything about this statement but he was pretty sure everyone was wondering what sort of meds it'd take to convince goldilocks that he wasn't the real Thor and that all his so-called memories of Asgard were nothing more than grand delusions. If it wasn't for the power that he brought to the team and the fact that he had yet to exhibit truly irrational or dangerous behavior, the guy sounding like someone straight from a Shakespeare play would be in a cell right alongside Banner. That being said, if a fight did break out between this mysterious team of super powered individuals and the Ultimates, Thor would definitely be the one paired with Superman. None of the other members of the team came close to that guy in terms of speed, strength and durability. He wasn't about to send someone under his command at a powerhouse like Blue Boy unless he was certain they could come back from that fight alive.

"Next up is Mr. Tall, Dark and Pointy Eared here." He said pulling up an image of guy with the bat themed outfit, "Human from what we can tell but physically we estimate him to be somewhere damn close to the peak of what a man can attain through training and exercise. We've confirmed the existence of a specialized grappling gun and bat themed boomerangs as well. No telling what sort of party favors he might have in this belt of his but odds are he knows how to use them perfectly."

He pretty much pinged Rogers to be the one to take this one on. They looked to be in similar shape physically and neither of them were big fans of guns so it was an ideal pair up in his mind.

"Next up is Ms. Fishnets. No idea what her powers are so we're putting her in the same category as Bats, meaning combat fit and probably good at hand-to-hand combat." He said as the blonde late arrival to the park showed up on screen, "Still, be ready for her to pull a hat trick just in case."

Black Widow would get this one. With no sign of projectiles or long range capabilities Natasha would be able to finish things quick with a few well placed shots or strikes. Still he'd make sure they had something special set aside just in case blondie had a trick or two up her sleeve.

"Next we have Miss Emerald here. Flight, super strength and telepathy are confirmed. Most likely possesses durability on par with Superman." He said showing the green skinned young woman with blonde hair and yellow eyes, "No rating yet on how high up things go with her but assume the worst."

Wasp would get this one since her ability to shrink would ensure that whatever Ms. Green could do it would have to match up against a really small target. They'd still have to fit Janet with some sort of telepathic protection but he'd had the eggheads working on that since the first telepath was proven to scientifically exist. It still wasn't foolproof against the heavy hitters like Xavier or Jean Grey, but at least what they had at the moment would provide Wasp with some protection.

"Hawkgirl here is next. Flight is a given with more maneuverability than you'd think based on what we have on her flying abilities. Her mace is capable of emitting some kind of energy field that we believe acts as some sort of force amplifier or molecular bond disintegrator." He said showing the redhead with the bird inspired headdress, "Projections by the eggheads put it strong enough to punch a hole in tank armor. Fortunately the lack of long range abilities and only a single throw with that mace puts her at a disadvantage."

Clint would be assigned to this target if only because he could keep her at range during the confrontation and was good enough with his arrows to pin Hawkgirl's wings to a wall if necessary. Still, if they could get a hold of her mace and figure out how it works it would be an interesting way to upgrade the weaponry.

"The girl with the glowing lasso is also a close range fighter for the most part when she isn't trying to rope you. Image and resolution enhancing show signs of being cut but nothing more than a blemish." He said with the image of the blonde with the red top, jeans and lasso, "So were labeling her as having enhanced recuperative powers but not a healing factor on par with Wolverine's."

Tony would be sent after her. He had more than enough tricks in that tin suit of his to deal with the lasso and if he tricked it up to handle her specifically taking her down would be easy.

"Last but certainly not least is Ms. Abra Kadabra. Confirmed magic user and definitely not someone skilled in close quarters combat." He said, putting a picture of the raven haired girl in the top hat, "Nevertheless, the eggheads confirmed that she opened up some kind of portal in the park with a sign that its exit point was not on this Earth. That puts her on a very short list of people."

He'd handle this one personally. No sign she has any sort of E.S.P or some danger sense like Parker, so one tranq dart to the back of the neck should be enough to take her out of the fight for a couple of hours. If not he had a few gas grenades that should make chanting anything impossible. Still, from the line up he had just finished outlining this lot would be a real pain to put down if they turned out to be less than law-abiding. If they were on the side of the angels, he'd still have the eggheads come up with no less than five ways to put each of them down, whether it be on a temporary or permanent basis. In his line of work it was a given that he had to be paranoid and always be ready for the worst case scenario, but considering the size of the world, that meant quite a few sleepless nights spent trying to make sure S.H.I.E.L.D had its trump card. People complained about all the super powered crazies popping out of the woodwork lately? Try doing his job for a week and then complain about how hard they have it. One of the major reasons why he didn't leave and try something less troublesome was because he didn't trust anyone else to do the job right and would probably find it more stressful working a normal job, wondering if his replacement was on top of things. No, it was better that he stay put and endure the stress of being the head of this nuthouse if only to make sure that someone else didn't drop the ball after he left.

"At the moment we don't know which side of the fence these people are on. Good? Bad? We don't know." He said, deciding to draw the meeting to a close, "Considering they had Mr. Bones encased in titanium and were pretty much focused on taking him down the entire time they were here is a point in their favor. Nevertheless I expect all of you to read the official report our tech division sends you once they're done and keep your eyes open for them. Until we know where they stand, I don't want to take any chances. Dismissed."

Watching them as they filed out of the room, he had to wonder just where the eight costumes went to when they passed through that golden curtain of energy. Did they plan to leave that way or did someone just pop up and offer them a way out? He didn't know but it was definitely one of the things he'd put on his to do list.

As if I don't have enough things on it already! He thought, restraining himself from letting out a sigh of exasperation.

Earth's Solar System, Jupiter, The Center of the Red Spot,

One Hundred Kilometers Into the Atmosphere, One Hour Later Giles' P.O.V

To say that Rupert Giles was not comfortable with his present set of circumstances would be such a mother of an understatement that he would have no choice but to marvel at the stupidity of whoever had asked.

Still, he could find no fault in the logic that had placed him on this apparently Kryptonian spaceship that, if the holographic woman was to be believed, resided one hundred kilometers beneath the red spot of Jupiter. His mind boggled at the level of technical sophistication necessary for such a feat to be possible but what really had his mind spinning was the level of change his mind had undergone thanks to the Powers. He had facts running around his head that went far beyond anything he'd had as simple Watcher Rupert Giles, ranging from combat techniques to how to operate most forensic equipment without looking. He actually knew how to operate that infernal device called a computer with a skill level he dare say was on par with what Willow was capable of. While the part of him that he'd inherited from Bruce Wayne considered any additional knowledge a good thing, he had to wonder at just how thorough the changes to him and his comrades really were. He knew both from personal experience and observations (ones that were a great deal more thorough, thanks to Wayne) that they had sufficient knowledge to use their abilities with significant skill and that the odds of them accidently hurting someone with them were slim. Nevertheless, they had almost all been given gifts that went beyond what they were used to and it was bound to affect them sooner or later. He knew that Buffy at least was having a difficult time adjusting to her new condition, it was one of the reasons he suggested they take some time off after the initial meeting with Avia, and he could only imagine how well the others were handling their dimensional displacement. He himself was going to either find something to distract himself or go to Earth and buy the strongest liquor he could find when the situation permitted it because having much of the mind of a brooding workaholic rich boy in his head was not a walk in the park.

At least Whistler's superiors had the good sense to only empower us with the abilities and memories of true heroes rather than those of a far more uncertain nature. He thought as he continued walking the halls of the spaceship, peripherally making a map in his head, I would hate to think of Xander receiving the mental imprint of Slade Wilson or, heaven forbid, Orion.

Nevertheless he knew that as the surrogate father of the group he would have to do what he could to aide his young charges acclimate to their new home and for that there was one thing he needed.

Information.

"Avia?" he asked, recalling how the A.I had told them that they had only to speak to get her attention.

"Yes Mr. Giles?" asked Avia as her holographic form took shape in front of him.

"Would you have a room where I could learn about the Earth of this dimension?" he asked while unsuccessfully trying to suppress the dark and intimidating tones from his voice.

"Indeed. The central archives." She said as parts of the floor in front of him began to light up to show him the way, "Probes from this ship have been monitoring that world for the past five centuries and I can provide access to the planet's internet and media broadcasts if you require it."

"Thank you." He said and, without another word, followed the path that was being lit up before him.

If Avia's information on this dimension's Earth was truly as long reaching as she claimed, then he should have all access he needed in order to properly guide the others. While he did not doubt their ability to take care of themselves, they were still young and in possession of attributes that would tempt them to make less that moral choices. He needed to learn as much as he could about the world they would be living in and see if he could find places in that world for the others since he very much doubted that they'd be satisfied living aboard this ship for the remainder of their lives. First he'd find out what this world had in the way of super powered individuals, since those were the ones he and the others would most likely have to deal with if they chose to continue using their newfound powers for good. From there he would familiarize himself with the history of the United States in this world and its current laws, so as to ascertain how costumed crime fighters would be received. After that he would endure what would probably be several hours worth of comparisons between the reality they all came from and the world they must now reside in. It would be difficult but, with Avia granting them permission to reside aboard the ship, that was her responsibility for the time being time was something they possessed and he would use it wisely.

As she door to the central archives opened up, he stopped in his tracks when he discovered that apparently some of his charges had beaten him to the punch for the most part. Anya, Willow and Tara were already making use of the tools of the room and, judging from the way that the former vengeance demon occasionally shot the wall behind her a cross look, he would imagine she was telepathically connected to someone else. He supposed that he shouldn't really be surprised that they would reach the same conclusions about what must be done, considering that they have worked together for many years now. That being the case, he didn't even say a word before he went to an available terminal and began to conduct his own bit of research after covertly looking at what the rest of them were investigating. It would do no good to retrace work that had already been done.

Picking a topic that had always been a favorite of his, he began looking into the historical records of this reality's Earth while at the same time comparing what he read to the Earth they were all from. For the most part he couldn't see all that many differences between the past he knew and how things took place here in this reality. However, based on the readings from Avia's probe, it appeared as though there existed demons here in this world and they were just as dangerous here as they were back home. In some cases the demonic element was even more insidious and almost without realizing it he began to set certain documents aside to show the others. While it went without saying that, thanks to his Watcher sense of commitment and the traits he'd inherited from Batman, he would likely continue 'fighting the good fight' where and when he could, he had a feeling a few of the others would as well. Whether or not they'd choose to restrict their activities to supernatural threats or not was another matter. Would they truly fight human crime alongside thwarting the activities of the demonic? Considering how knowledgeable Xander was of their costumed personaes, it was likely he would seek out the life of a costumed hero and attempt to motivate the rest of them to follow his lead. Spike would likely agree to that if for no other reason than to enjoy a decent spot of violence every once and awhile. Dawn would likely vote in favor of the idea if for no other reason than to have an excuse to spend time with Xander while flaunting her decidedly more adult form. He had never been blind to the fact that the youngest Summers girl was still harboring feelings for the boy he saw as a surrogate son and the fact that he and Anya were officially no longer a couple only strengthened the girl's drive to claim one Xander Harris as her own.

Willow and Tara might be willing to aid the others in a support capacity but it was up for debate as to whether or not they'd commit themselves to a more active role. After all they had fewer reasons in this world to fight the darkness since they no longer lived in a town where there existed a Hellmouth, nor did they have loved ones outside of the eight of them here on this ship.

Or did they?

There was a theory he'd heard about during his early days as a Watcher that for every alternate reality that existed, there was another you that existed within it. If that did turn out to be the case, then it would stand to reason that on this Earth that would be their home there was another Rupert Giles there, another Buffy Summers, another…

…another Jenny Calender.

He almost gasped at that idea but fortunately the excellent mental conditioning he'd picked up from Batman as well as his Watcher training kept it merely to a narrowing of the eyes. Was she alive in this reality? Or had she died at the hands of this world's version of Angelus just as she had in his reality? He didn't know the answer to that but, for the time being, he would resist the urge to search through the internet of this world for any sign of her existence. He would wait until the others had been seen to and then he would indulge in his own personal interests that may or may not turn out to be a dead end.

He and Bruce Wayne were much alike in that regard.

They often put the needs of those they were responsible for ahead of their own personal desires.

The only difference was that, unlike Bruce Wayne, he would not allow this cape and this cowl to become his whole life.

He would build a life for himself AND fight the darkness.

Observation Deck, Kryptonian Vessel, One Hour Later, Xander's P.O.V

He'd been covertly keeping an eye on her ever since they'd all gone their separate ways after meeting Avia and hearing her brief bio. He knew she was shook up and he knew that suddenly being saddled with wings couldn't have done good things to her mentally. Buffy never handled change all that well, he knew that and couldn't really blame her, but changes that separated her even further from the life of a normal teenage girl hit her the hardest he'd wager. He recalled how much he got in her face back home about how it was his choice as to whether or not he wanted to stand by her side fighting against the darkness but just now he was beginning to realize how it must feel when you aren't given the choice. Watching her from the doorway to the observation deck, he tried to imagine what it was like to one day be a perfectly ordinary teenager and then the very next day get saddled with being a female Van Hellsing with powers. Not only that, but you getting stuffy Brits showing up, telling you that you pretty much don't have a choice about whether or not you fight the demons. True, the gang managed to get the lead rod out of Giles' butt and actually loosen up, but he still was pretty hung up on Buffy staying true to her calling as the Slayer. It was, he supposed, one of the reasons why he and Willow had chosen to do what they could to help Buffy. They both didn't like the fact that someone had to face the forces of badness all by themselves. Well that and the fact that it made sense to buddy up with people in the know when you're told you're sitting on a gateway to hell.

Still, even with their help, Buffy didn't have an easy time of it and the rest of them also had a rough time of it. Which side had it rougher? Tough call but he'd put his money on Buffy now that he had Superman's memories and was able to look at things from a slightly more experienced mind's point of view. After all, everyone but her could walk away anytime they wanted really, anytime at all, but until someone developed a way to take away her Slayer abilities for good, she could never get away from the darkness. Then, of course, there were the pressures of being the defacto leader of the Scoobies since Giles was pretty much in an advisory position and only took command when Buffy was short on info. Pressures like feeling responsible for the lives of everyone else in the group. Pressures like knowing that the bad guys outnumbered you and only had to get luck once for you or someone you love to die. Knowing that getting close to anyone was pretty much the same as putting a bullseye on their head in eyes of the demons or supernatural entities. From that point of view, he could almost understand why she almost constantly gravitated towards guys who were soldiers or vampires with souls.

Almost.

After all, if she knew, or at least believed, that her boyfriend could defend himself and hold his own against the baddies of the world, then that would be one less worry on her plate. Riley had been a soldier and while he still wasn't crazy about her two other serious relationships, Angel and Spike, they had abilities on par with her own in the fighting department. They had strength, speed, real fighting training and, for two of them, the ability to take numerous deadly objects to the torso and survive so long as none of them were derived from a tree. He could see how dating people like them could make things easier than dating an ordinary guy like him, who only had faded soldier memories and learned how to fight only through fighting. Giles had always been too busy either keeping up the act of being the school librarian, training Buffy or helping them with the latest threat to train him, so he had no choice but to learn as he went. Of course that led to many an embarrassing incident where he misjudged one thing or another, leading to a pounding that resulted in most of them thinking he was a klutz. He could see how that might take him off the list of potential boyfriends and barely keep him on the list of best friends. So, when you added all these pressures into one and realized that there wasn't a person on the planet who really knew what that felt like to be a Slayer, you had one lonely teenage girl whose family and loved ones were life preservers. They kept her from totally losing it and having a death wish. At the same time they were all like the flames of a fire to her, something she got close enough to soak in the warmth but not close enough to hurt her, so that if one of them died the pain would be more bearable than if she'd been supremely close to them.

It wasn't fair and he doubted that this so-called fresh start would change things very much.

Walking up behind her, he stopped just shy of where her wings would bump into his chest since he wasn't sure what would be the best move right now. In the end he decided that letting her dictate the pace would be best since it would keep her from feeling pressured in any way.

"I'm not going to say that it'll be alright, Buff," he said, deciding that even words of comfort might spark off the wrong reaction that he was hoping for. "This is new for all of us and we're all going to have to adjust to all this in our own way. But the one thing that gives me hope is that none of us have to face this situation alone. We have each other to lean on or talk to when things get rough and, as long as we stick together, we'll manage somehow. I know we will."

"I sort of think my problems are going to be a little harder than yours, Xander." Buffy said as she turned around with a flimsy 'I am good' attitude on her face, "At least with you all you need is a change of clothes and maybe some fake glasses to blend in. Me? The only place I'd blend in is maybe a circus freak show or something."

"You are not a freak, Buffy Summers!" he declared, gripping her by the shoulders and putting his no nonsense face on, "You're a wonderful young woman that it has been my honor to know for the past six years. Besides if you think I'm going to have it easy, you're dead wrong. Do you have any idea what it's like to be strong enough to lift a cruise ship over your head? Or to run so fast that you could go from one end of America to another in a few hours or less if you pushed yourself? If not then try to imagine having that kind of power while trying to pretend that you're just an ordinary Joe America when you're in civilian clothes. Superman himself said it once 'I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard - always taking constant care not to break something. To break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control, even for a moment, or someone could die.' That is what I feel like right now even with all the added memories and skills helping me learn control."

He could tell that his words were getting through to her when a shocked looked of realization came across her face. Not that he was entirely surprised that she hadn't realized that being Superman wasn't all glory and heroics. No, sometimes having the power of a virtual demi-god was just as much trouble as having a physical disfigurement or a disease that couldn't be cured. Even that one time, when he'd rescued a young woman from falling to her potential death thanks to the damage his body had caused thanks to Warrensday's blow, he'd been afraid of breaking her by accident. Catching someone mid-air required that you do more than simply catch the person, you had take into account the speed of the person's descent so you could minimize the force of impact when your body met their body, and it would only take one miscalculation to bruise the person or even break bones. It was that way with all his abilities now, he had to be so careful with them, because, if he didn't, someone might get hurt or even die and it'd be his fault because he'd been careless. Buffy looked like she understood that now and knowing that she wasn't the only one coming to terms with her new form seemed to do a lot in terms of taking her troubles away or at least half of them.

"Superman. Hawkgirl. Batman requests your presence at the senior officers lounge." A.V.I.A said after shimmering into existence behind them, "He and the others have finished their preliminary analysis of this dimension's Earth."

"Tell them we're on our way." He said before turning to Buffy and asking, "So? Are you ready to see what this new world is like?"

"Yep!" Buffy replied with a definite improvement in her mood, "But if I find out that women's lib hasn't kicked in yet, I'm going to be so pissed."

Senior Officer's Lounge, Thirty Minutes Later, Dawn Sandsmark's P.O.V

"So, what've you guys found out so far?" Dawn asked as she, being the last to arrive, plunked her cute, well-formed butt down in a chair closest to Xander.

"This Earth, for the most part, is nearly identical to the one we came from." Rupert Wayne, as she was calling the former Watcher now, replied as he worked the console on front of him to bring up holo-images, "Most of the countries are still the same, albeit with a few smaller ones, such as Latveria, that simply never formed in our native reality. Religion, culture, languages and old grudges are still there for the most part. The biggest differences are these three items: mutants, technology and super power experimentation."

In response to his key tapping, three video clips on three separate holo-screens popped into existence for them all to see. One showed a man dressed in purple clothes, a red cape and a helmet on his head. Another showed what looked like an Anime suit of armor flying around what looked to be New York. The last showed some guy dressed up in the colors of the American flag with a big shield strapped to one arm.

"Mutants, according to the more objective sources I was able to find, are human beings with a genetic quirk known as the x-gene in their DNA granting them a wide variety of special abilities. Everything from telepathy to control over magnetic fields to firing concussive blasts of energy from a persons eyes is apparently possible with this genetic anomaly." Batman replied as the video clips continued playing one after another, "However the cause of this genetic quirk has yet to be determined and is causing quite a bit of trouble across the entire planet. Some believe that mutants are the next stage in human evolution. Others believe that they are genetic abominations that should be feared and hated. Some more religious centered communities believe that they are children of Satan. In any case, the lack of definite answers as to the origin of the x-gene coupled with the different ways that mutants have chosen to use their powers has made them the new persecuted minority of the world."

This stunned her for more than a few reasons.

For one thing, living on the Hellmouth and working with the Scooby gang had given her a rather unique outlook when it came to people who looked different as well as how to look at different species. If there was one thing that the all night cram sessions taught her, it was that just because a demon looked evil didn't necessarily mean that was the case. Some of the most villainous-looking demons were actually quite harmless, some of their kind actually getting some acting work done in Hollywood for studios who wanted to cut back on the special effects budget. So she'd learned fairly early that looks or species did not make a person evil automatically, even though there were some demon species that were predisposed to being baddies due to their physiology or culture. But, in her mind, both Spike, and Angel, to a degree, proved that there were exceptions to the rule that an entire species was evil. Therefore the idea that the people of this Earth were carpet hating every mutant on their world just because of something those people couldn't do a thing to change and most certainly didn't choose both shocked and disgusted her.

The other reason was the fact that people who got their powers much like meta-humans did in the DC universe were being treated drastically different. Back in the DC universe, according to Wonder Girl's memories, meta-humans weren't seen as being all that different than ordinary humans and some were even seen as cool. The thought of this reality's version of meta-humans being treated like monsters or evil demons struck her as being ridiculous, especially if they hadn't done anything wrong to warrant such treatment. Sure, if they'd robbed a bank or killed tons of people, she could understand why individual mutants or a group of them would be treated like villains and be hunted down like criminals. But being harassed or lynched for no other reason than because you're different? Out of the question! She knew right then and there that if there was a mutant rights group or something down on Earth at the moment, she was siding with them the first chance she got.

"A.V.I.A? Have you been able to make any sense as to how the x-gene came into being?" Xander asked with a troubled look on his face.

"It has been over fifty years since I was last fully online, Superman." A.V.I.A replied, showing up this time as merely a holographic disembodied head, "I have only begun to analyze the data on the mutant sub-species of humanity. It will be precisely one year, two months and fifteen days before I can propose a theory regarding your inquiry."

No one, not even Superman, knew what to say to that so Batman merely proceeded with the briefing.

"Technology is also an odd thing since, in some areas, it is easily twenty to thirty years ahead of what existed back in our reality, but is somewhat behind in others. Most of the advancements seem to be in the area of genetic engineering and military hardware. This might be in response to the existence of people with superhuman abilities or simply the fact that world governments were more easily persuaded to fund Star Wars projects and the like than where we are from." Rupert explained as images of the flying suit of armor as well as orbiting hi-tech satellites came up, "In any case, we can expect that there will be more advanced devices made for killing or empowering then for something as benevolent as healing. It's basically a mechanical and super powers arms race with every country wanting to have their own super soldier or T-800 guarding their homeland."

That did not do a lot for her world view at the moment. While Wonder Girl might not be a complete stranger to the bad guys and various secret government agencies always trying to come up with the next super weapon, the idea that things were that intense on this new Earth was troubling. She had always been the more reasonable Summers daughter and not quite so quick to take out the battle axe when things got spicy. True, that might because she didn't have the Slayer essence in her making her predisposed towards fighting, but she really did prefer to think things out with her mind rather than just bash someone. Why these people weren't making more of an effort to settle their differences through diplomacy and talking she couldn't understand at all. She wasn't a fool who thought that everything could be solved with talking, she understood that sometimes fighting was necessary, but it sounded like these people weren't even giving reason a chance.

"As far as super powered experimentation is concerned, virtually every country with the resources and funds is doing it in some shape or form. They are approaching the issue from all angles: technological, genetic, chemical and even some dabbling in the occult. All for the express purpose of creating a warrior that is head and shoulders above what the other countries have. Private companies are getting into the mix as well, whether it be for sale to world governments or for their own personal army." Mr. Wayne explained as pictures of the guy in the American Flag as well as a man the size of a six story building popped into existence, "Unfortunately, because A.V.I.A's probe scans were designed for a more global coverage of Earth rather than anything specific, it'll take time to find out just where every nation is in terms of producing a viable subject and mass producing it. What I can say is that this Earth is a veritable hotbed of potential conflicts and problems that could easily affect things on a global scale."

Now that statement was definitely something that had her sit back and try to make sense of the big picture that the now prime Rupert Wayne had handed them. They were in a world with so much strife, so much potential for blowing itself up, that it almost made the stuff they had to go through back in Sunnydale seem like little league problems by comparison. Sure, they had their share of world ending demons and potentially devastating spells, but the big stuff usually only happened once a year around May or June. If she was interpreting what Giles was telling them, the big stuff happened almost every other week on this Earth. Sometimes she had to wonder if the Pricks That Be sent them here because they thought it'd be a nice place for them to live or if they did it because the Higher Beings in this reality called in a marker or something.

"Then I think now's the time I propose something to you all that I've been thinking about ever since Whistler told us we'd be shipped off to some other dimension." Xander said standing up and sounding quite serious.

"You want us to form a new Justice League for this reality's Earth." Batman said before Superman could get another word out.

"You know that's seriously freaky, right?" Xander asked rhetorically before continuing, "Yes I have been thinking about forming a Justice League here involving all of us. Think about it. We already have the powers, memories and skills of eight superheroes who did the exact same thing in their world. Why shouldn't we form a Justice League?"

"Perhaps because this world isn't nearly as open minded as the one in the DC Universe. If we show up saving lives and righting wrongs all over the world, there are two highly likely conclusions people will come to." Batman replied sounding completely serious about what he was saying, "One possibility is that they will see us as just another group of super powered people that publically says they are aligned with no government, company or organization but privately answer to one of the major global powers. They will question everything we do and try their best to find out who our bosses are as well as what scheme we're running behind the scenes. They will mistrust us at almost every turn and, even if by some chance we manage to gain the support of the general populace, there will always be a faction somewhere keeping tabs on us.

"The second possibility is that they will see as a group of tin plated super-jocks who are arrogant and tyrannical enough to think that we know how the world should be run. They will say things like we're taking away their free will or freedom of expression or something of that nature. That's not even touching on the potential political problems we'll set off if we intervene in a war somewhere or destroy a military complex without official authorization." Rupert pointed out, sounding completely serious the entire time, "Eventually it might get so bad that every single time we show up to try to do some good, the military of whatever country we're in will show up to try and arrest us. They might even start smear propaganda campaign to turn the civilian population against us. Knowing this do you really want to light the fuse on what could potentially be a global time bomb?"

"Definitely. I might not have thought about things in as much detail as you probably have, but I know that the people of this world won't greet us with open arms at first. It'll take time, same as anything worthwhile." Xander said, not sounding deterred in the least, "As for those that'd oppose us or try to make us out to be the villains, that's a given either way. I've read enough comics to know that there'll always be people in power that'll mistrust us or try to take us down. The question you have to ask yourself is: am I willing to let evil prevail just to protect myself? Because as the saying goes: the only way for evil to prevail is for good people to stand by and do nothing."

It was definitely a sight to see that was for sure.

While Xander had always been able to call up a commanding presence when he needed to, he had never quite been what one could call charismatic or anything. Now, though, what he had just said them all was inspiring her to take the same risks that he was going to be taking. She agreed that it was never easy doing the right thing and that if things went worst case scenario like Batman predicted they likely wouldn't receive any real thanks for their efforts. Then again true heroes don't get into the game because they want to be praised or patted on the heads after the job is done. They do what they do because it's the right thing to do and because in some cases they are the only people who can do those sort of things.

"I'm in. We're here and we have the power to do some good for a lot of people." She said standing up and making her position clear, "It'd be pretty selfish of us to throw all that away."

"Would it be?" Buffy asked, sounding a little uncertain of her own question, "We've been fighting the good fight on the Hellmouth for six years and I've been the Slayer for seven years. Haven't we earned the right to simply step back and let someone else do the fighting for a change?"

"And what exactly would we do Buffy?" She asked, feeling a 'normal life' rant revving up, "Even assuming Willow and Giles can hack into the federal computers and insert us in there, what could we do? Get a small apartment, work the cash register at a supermarket and only use our powers when we're sure we can do so without anyone catching us red handed? No thanks! I'm not going to let your normal life fetish get in the way of doing the right thing."

Buffy looked like she was about to fire back a rebuttal but at the last minute backed off and merely sat in her seat like she was coming up with a new plan of attack. Not that it'd work one way or another. She'd made her choice and no one was going to make her change her mind.

"Where Xander goes, I go." Anya said rising to her feet as she let her form shift back into her superhero outfit, "Plus violence and destruction can be quite cathartic after a bad day at work."

Leave it to Anya to think of some kind of self-serving reason for being a superhero. She knew the former vengeance demon could be kind when she wanted to be but she was still hip deep in the whole 'care only about myself' thing that most demons seemed to have.

"I am in, too. I'm not about to let my bestest friend since preschool go off to fight without me." Willow said following the example of the others, "Besides, if we need money I can always fall back on Zatanna's other job as a stage magician. I've certainly got the looks for it, right?"

"Then you're going to need a pretty stage assistant, so I guess I'll stick with you, baby." Tara Lance said joining the ranks of those in favor of Xander's idea, "We'll do the right thing because it's not in our nature to do nothing when people need our help."

"While I'd like to say the same 'bout myself, I think we all know that'd be a sodding lie." Spike said, sitting in his chair with his feet on the table, "Truth is I love a good spot o'violence and you lot always seem to be in the middle of some decent scraps, so I'll stick close 'til I find something better."

While not the vow to atone for past wrongs with his newfound life as a human, it was still better than what you'd expect from someone who was a soulless vampire a week ago. With a little luck and experience he just might call them friends rather than just a means to an end.

"So that makes it six in favor and two undecided." Xander said turning to where Giles and Buffy sat, "I can't force you two to do anything you don't want to do. If you're really against the formation of the Justice League, then you don't have to get involved. A team of six can work just as well as a team of eight."

"True. However a team of seven stands a better chance of succeeding." Rupert Wayne said rising to his feet to lend his support, "If you cannot turn away from the fight then I suppose I cannot let you face it without me. I'm in."

Why was it that she suspected that Batman would have signed up one way or another and was just waiting for the rest of them to sign their names on the dotted line? Was it some kind of test? It'd be just like pointy ears to try something like that.

"Fine! It's not like I was going to be able to blend in looking like this no matter what I wore!" Buffy said rising to her feet with only a crack or two in her mock disgruntled surrender, "Guess I make this little decision a clean sweep. I'm in."

"Then I guess it's official then. Today's the day that the Justice League takes up cause of defending this world against all threats." She said sounding like and feeling like she'd just signed on to be a part of something truly historic.

Two Weeks Later, New York City, Mid-Morning, Flash aka Spike's P.O.V

I gotta say this is a pretty good set-up I got goin' for me now. Spike thought as he ran down the streets of the Big Apple at speeds that made most Formula One race cars look pathetic, I'm human again, got super powers that let me go so fast only Blue Boy Harris and maybe Anya can keep up with me, not to mention I'm human again!

In all his years as a vampire, he'd looked at humans as just being a bunch of Happy Meals on legs for him to eat, maim, torture or kill whenever the mood struck him. Were there ever times when he missed being human? Sure. He was pretty sure that with the exception of the more hardcore bloody killing machine vampires just about every member of the undead troop missed something from their lives as humans. For him, he supposed it was being able to really enjoy normal food. Oh, sure, he had ordered out for some fast food or at the supper of some couple he'd drained moments earlier, but his vampire body just wasn't geared for eating normal food. In fact most of his taste buds felt like they'd been shot up with nerve numbing anesthetic when he ate normal food and he only really tasted blood. Only blood lit up his body with the tingly empowering sensation that ordinary people could usually get from some sweet chocolate or a nice dish of pasta. About the only thing he could do to make normal food come close was to sprinkle a little type O positive on top and try to pretend it was the food that was tasty rather than the red stuff. In the end, though, like most undead who mourned the loss of something only humans could enjoy, he just suppressed anything that would kill his mood or make him all broody like the Poof. It's why he always looked for the next fight, the next kill and the next massacre. He did it because if he allowed himself to become too bored he would start thinking about his unlife, where it was going, and that was not a direction he wanted to let his mind go in.

Now, though… now he couldn't imagine ever wanting to be turned into a vampire ever again.

He was reveling in the sensations of being a flesh and blood human again that seemed so much sweeter when compared to how things were when he was just a vampire. Oh, sure, vampires got the senses upgrade to help them hunt for food but pretty much everything else wound up being dulled by at least one third. Now feeling it all at full strength again made it alright that he'd lost the vampire abilities. Although this could have to do with the fact that he'd gained some new powers as compensation and bugger if they weren't better by far. The memories of Wally West showed him all the possibilities of the powers he possessed and best of all the odds of him falling victim to the whole Speed Force thing were slim. There was even a chance that his powers came from a completely different force so that even if he did push himself to his limits he would never have to worry about being absorbed into some kind of energy field. Not that he had to worry about that necessarily since he'd yet to get even a hint of a threat that might require him to go above mach three. That didn't mean that there wouldn't be down the line, hanging with the newly formed Justice League would make sure of that, but for now he was just sticking to cruise control and enjoying his new life.

BANG! BANG BANG!

"Sounds like some blighters decided to start the party without me." He said as he ran in between the cars towards the sounds of gunfire, "I think I'll go tell them how upset I am that they didn't invite me."

It took him less than three seconds to narrow down the source of the gunshots to the street where all the pricy jewelry stores in New York were and three guys backing out of one of the stores with guns raised. For the next second solid he debated on how he should handle the situation. Should he drag things out and try out a few of the moves residing in the memories he'd inherited from West or stay professional by finishing things quickly like a professional superhero. While he wasn't quite into the whole hero game like the others, he had agreed to be part of the Justice League and that meant he had to act like a hero while in uniform.

So, when his full second was up, he kicked his speed up a notch and made his first pass by the robbers, stripping them of their weapons, popping all the rounds out of the clips and placing them in a nearby trash bin. Looping around, he then stripped the belts off all three before using the strips of leather to bind their hands behind their backs and pulled their pants down to the ground. This, of course, was to totally humiliate them while making it so that they'd trip if they tried to move too quickly. Then, as a final measure of his superheroism, he went into the store where the trio of troublemakers had been coming out of to see if anyone had been hurt by the gunfire that had lured him here in the first place. At the speed he was going, everyone looked like they were statues and so it didn't take him long to evaluate the health of everyone as being scared but alright. There was no blood or any signs of a single one being injured by the gunfire, so he could only presume that the gunfire had been meant to discourage any good citizens from coming after them. Slowing down a bit to let the people catch up with him, he looked about to see if any of them were wincing in pain or might otherwise be messed up. It was tedious waiting for the next few seconds to pass so he could look but, after four seconds of movement, he concluded that no one seemed to be having a heart attack or anything, so he zoomed back to the entrance of the store. Coming to a complete halt, he watched as the world began moving at the same speed as him and it was truly amusing to behold. Not only did all three crooks trip over their own pants but, without their arms being free, they all fell to the ground with nothing to break their fall.

"What the fuck!?" exclaimed one as he tried to free his hands.

"What the hell is this!?" yelled another angrily as he rolled onto his back.

"This, you soddin' idiots, is what happens when you try an' pull something like this when I'm within earshot." He replied, taking up what he thought was a cool pose, "So howsabout you lot just give up quietly while ya still got some dignity left to you, alright?"

Of course this was when the driver of the getaway vehicle decided to make himself known by getting out of the car with a semi-automatic pistol in his hands. Deciding it'd be a bit reckless to let the guy do what he wanted, he zipped around to the other side of the car, took the gun away and then slammed the door into the guy six times. He didn't go all out or even move the door that fast but, when all was said and done, the guy dropped like a rock, a quick once over showing he was still breathing with no broken bones that he could find. He, of course, did this at a speed that couldn't be captured by the human eye or by any mechanical recording device he could think of since it wouldn't do for people to think he was trying to rob the guy or feel him up. After all, he was sure that there were plenty of pretty birds in this world and it'd be a crime not to let'em know that ol' Spike was available. True, he still sort of felt something for the Slayer-turned-Thanagarian, but it'd become a mite hazy how she felt about him. He'd been like an unhealthy addiction to her back in their reality, despite his inner desire that she return his love, but here in this dimension the reason for that was gone. He was no longer a vampire. Still, they had some bad history between each other, so he'd give her a month before trying to touch on the subject with her.

Looking back to the crooks on the other side of the car, he could see that they were trying to free their hands, both to pull up their pants as well as get away. With a sigh he figured it'd be best to just clock'em one rather than risk them getting away before the cops showed up. So without further adieu he ran into position and knocked all three out cold with a punch to the jaw. With that done it was time to drop off what the Whelp of Steel wanted all League members to drop off for the next while. Reaching under the top of the golden gloves he wore, he pulled out a slip of paper before tucking it beneath the wiper blade of the getaway vehicle and running away to enjoy the day. He wondered how the boys in blue would take the League's mission statement when they took a look at what he put on the car. It wasn't the entire thing, there was still some fine print to work out, but the basics of what they had all sworn to do and what they wouldn't do. It was sure to cause an uproar with the suits in the governments of the world without a doubt but it'd be fun to see'em get their knickers in a twist.

The Side of the Jewelry Store, Three Floors Up, One Minute Later, Peter Parker's P.O.V

Well this is new! Peter thought as he looked at the paper he'd snagged from the windshield of the car half a minute ago.

He'd been web swinging through the city, fresh from webbing Jameson's feet to the ground, when he'd heard gunshots pierce the air coming from the pricy district of the city.

Or, as he preferred to call, it the bauble and bling area since if you had one, you likely had the other.

In any case, imagine his surprise when he got here not even a minute ago he found the crooks out cold and showing everyone if it was boxers or tighty whities they preferred. Quite frankly he was pretty sure he could have gone without that tidbit of info but what he held in his hands was another matter altogether.

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED

THIS IS OUR DECLARATION TO THE PEOPLE OF THE PLANET EARTH.

WE SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO DO OUR BEST TO SERVE AND PROTECT THIS WORLD, TO HELP AVERT TRAGEDY, AND TO FIGHT AGAINST THE DARKNESS THAT PREYS UPON THE INNOCENT. WE SWEAR ALLEGIENCE TO NO ONE COUNTRY BUT RATHER TO THE PLANET AS A WHOLE. WHILE WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO WORK WITH THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD, IF LAWS, POLICIES OR PROTOCOL GO AGAINST THE COMMON GOOD WE WILL DO WHAT WE MUST. WE HOPE IN TIME THAT YOU WILL ALL COME TO TRUST US.

SO SWEARS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED.

It sounded like someone was forming a new superhero team and were getting a little carried away with their oath. After all, 'protect the planet as a whole' was mighty ambitious and not even the Ultimates, the world's premiere superhero team, were arrogant enough to make such a promise and think they could back it up. After all, Earth was a big place and making promises like this would get them in a lot of trouble when they're saving lives in one spot but not in another. He even knew how old Flattop would spin things in the Daily Bugle. He'd probably tally up all the lives saved and use the info to make them out to either be loose cannons that were a threat to all or the best thing since Twinkies. Whichever angle promised the most papers sold would be the way things went and, unfortunately, J. Jonah Jameson wasn't a big believer in presenting the unbiased truth to the people of New York.

Wouldn't it be better to present a more… what's the word I'm… a more well-rounded look?

Well-rounded? Let me give you a little lesson in human nature. People say… they say they want 'well-rounded'. But they don't. You ask someone 'do you want all the facts? Do you want the truth?' They say 'oh, of course… I demand it.' But they don't. No. They want to read about a good guy and a bad guy. They want to cheer and they want to boo. People are sheep. They'll read what you give them.

Not exactly the sort of thing that would make the Daily Bugle a shining bastion of truth and integrity where people told what goes on in the world around them, uncolored by personal bias. Still, he had to admit that he wondered if there were any job opportunities with this Justice League or if they had some kind of intern program or something. After all, while the Ultimates had been the only official super team up until today, he'd never really kidded himself by thinking he could join them just by walking up and filling out an application. They were all heavy hitters, after all, from Captain America to Thor, and he was just a high school kid who'd gotten his powers a couple of months ago. He knew he didn't even rate high enough to do their laundry, never mind fight by their side. However maybe things were different with this group. It was then that he thought up a possibility that hit him like a thunderbolt from the sky above. Was this Justice League made up of the people that totaled Central Park two weeks ago? His mind shifted into high gear as he considered the possibility that was sounding more and more likely with every passing moment. If this was indeed the case, then it put some of his concerns at ease since his imagination had been helping him to speculate about what things would be like if they were good or evil. The thought of a group powerful enough to completely trash Central Park being people he might have to fight in the future was enough to make him consider really early retirement.

He still didn't have a good idea what they looked like, he'd been too far to give a real good description of them, but he knew that there had been eight of them in total.

If the person who had foiled the robbery below belonged to that group, then it was a good sign that they were good guys but, just the same, he'd wait until he either met one of them or saw what the Ultimates' official position on them was. After all, if he met them he could probably get a feel for what they were like from that and if the likes of Captain America gave this Justice League their stamp of approval, then that was all there was to it. Jumping down onto the future resident of the police impound yard, he slid the piece of paper back under the windshield wiper and then shot off a webline so he could return to school before lunch was over with.

The fact that he'd get a chance to sit next to the lovely Mary Jane Watson for two whole hours would be the icing to the cake of knowledge he'd get from his science and biology classes.

The Rooftops, The Section of NYC Referred to as Hell's Kitchen, A Little Past Midnight,

Rupert Wayne's P.O.V

It's a little unnerving how Bruce Wayne's habits are influencing me. Rupert thought as he stood concealed both by the darkness as well as his black cape, Nevertheless, for tonight's activities they should prove useful.

It had been agreed upon by the team that they would each take some time away from the Kryptonian ship that was their tentative HQ to pick out territories that they'd patrol and introduce themselves to their new world. He knew that Spike (or William West, as Dawn insisted on calling him in honor of the person who the former vampire had gotten his empowerment from) had been patrolling the pricier targets that usually necessitated a fast getaway via a car or van and had thwarted four separate crimes over the course of the day. A decent start but, for someone who could run from one end of the state to the other in less than thirty minutes, it was clear that the former vampire was only putting forth enough effort to avoid being called lazy by the rest of them. He still had misgivings about having someone of William the Bloody's reputation in their team but the fact that he was human now and had the backing of the Summers sisters kept him from doing more than keeping tabs on the bleached young man. It would go one of two ways in the end: either Spike would follow the path that his formerly blonde Slayer believed he would go or he would revert to type, which was more than likely considering the former vampire's personality. If it did go the former, he would reassign most of his attention to other things while still monitoring the no longer undead young man enough to catch something if Spike had a relapse of evil.

As for him he had, of course, done research to find out which city in the United States seemed most like the Gotham of his inherited memories from Batman, since he felt that it was there that he could do the most good. Needless to say he did not have to look far since he started his search in the very city that they had been deposited in by the Powers That Be. Apparently New York City was rife with crime, both organized and not so, with most of the criminal element centered in an area referred to as Hell's Kitchen by the locals. In this section of the city everything from common teenage gangs to a group of crime families, known collectively as Maggia, conducted their business with little effort to conceal their transactions. The various crime families had a strong grip on this sector of the city as well as other places, with their only opposition coming from one Wilson Fisk, the so-called Kingpin of Crime. The man who looked fat but that, he suspected, had quite a bit of muscle beneath his expensive suit, behaved like he was completely untouchable by the NYPD up until recently when DVDs of his crime had reached a local newspaper. Now the bald man was outside of the country waiting for his lawyers to somehow discredit the evidence so he could return and resume his amoral activities. Therefore he had chosen to make sure that when the Kingpin of Crime did come back, Fisk would be given ample reasons by his subordinates to look for a new form of work.

Another thing that he had done some research on was the number of costumed characters on both sides of the law that resided in New York City. The obvious and most potentially troublesome were, of course, The Ultimates, who were a group of costumed heroes who had been commissioned by the federal government in response to the rising threat of super powered individuals. He'd looked through the current roster and had already come up with a few outlines of how each costumed soldier could be defeated, whether it be just himself or if he had the entire League backing him up. The biggest problem he had with this group was the fact that they were essentially an extension of the United States government and, while they might only be dealing with threats to the whole world at the moment, he didn't expect that to last. Governments inevitably tried to use assets like Captain America, Thor and Iron Man to further their own country's interests abroad, morality often becoming a questionable thing. He sincerely hoped that the members of this team discovered this potential outcome before too long or else he and the others might very well have to do battle with them someday.

There were some independent crime fighters in the city, ranging from the young Spider-man, who had appeared only a few short months ago, to a scarlet clad man who haunted the very neighborhood he was now looking down upon. The man's hero name was Daredevil and, by all accounts, was quite skilled in the area of hand to hand combat while also wielding a telescoping staff that could act either as a tonfa or a decent quarterstaff. There were also a few accounts that implied some sort of spatial ability that allowed the crimson clad fellow to be quite aware of everything in his surroundings, making a surprise attack quite difficult. Not impossible, given that he was purportedly human in that he had two arms, two legs and a head, making it simply a matter of attacking from outside the range of the man's ability. He, of course, had three separate plans for Daredevil made up based off what he had been able to dig up in the past two weeks, but he'd have to actually encounter the vigilante before he could say for sure if they'd be effective.

As for why he was here tonight, he'd learned by skimming the police database that current signs indicated that a sizeable shipment of narcotics were going to be delivered to the warehouse below within the hour. According to what he'd learned, the people who'd be in charge in of this meeting, the one receiving the goods, was fourth in command of the Silvermane crime family and he reported directly to the number two guy, who was called Hammerhead. He figured that this would be as good a chance as any to make a good first impression on the criminal underworld and he'd get a chance to practice some of the more 'dramatic' techniques. He was just waiting for the shipment itself to arrive before making his move. Fortunately he didn't have long to wait long as a large van rolled up to the entrance of the building minutes and was swiftly let in by those inside. Walking to the edge of the roof, he fired his grappling hook and, with a feeling akin to having done something countless times before, he swung over to the rooftop of the warehouse. Landing with grace and silence, he made his way across the rooftop to the skylight that seemed to come with just about every warehouse of this size and carefully peered in. A small part of himself was intrigued by the level of complexity this 'creature of the night' atmosphere that Bruce Wayne worked so hard to create so that he might prey upon the cowardly tendencies of the criminal element. The way his cape hung so that it prevented anyone from seeing his legs move, thus giving the illusion that he was swiftly 'floating' across the ground. The way he made sure that each step he took was soundless, no matter if he was walking or running, thus he seemed to be more than a mere human. Then there was the obvious point that he could skillfully blend in with the darkness thanks to the coloring of his uniform and only reveal himself if he chose to do so. Add it all together and you have something that could not be seen as a mere man in a costume but rather as a dark wraith come to drag the sinners down into hell where they belonged.

Employing these skills, he moved closer to the skylight, being mindful to not let the light coming from within the building touch him too much or else he'd become visible if one of the criminals inside happened to look up. Sharpening his gaze, he could see that only about a quarter of the building was filled with crates in random stacks here and there. He could count at least eight men that he could see but, judging by the minimum amount of people needed to maintain a building like this as well as those that would have come with the shipment, he believed there were actually twelve. Immediately he began to formulate a strategy for dealing with them that would put them down both efficiently as well as with minimal risk to himself. The stacking of the crates and containers would make isolating the men easier and the narrow paths between them would also work in his favor by preventing them from ganging up on him by more than three at a time. He could see that about a third of them had guns in their hands, so he was extra careful to memorize their faces and locations so he'd know which areas to be mindful of. That did not necessarily mean that the others didn't have firearms of their own but it'd be pointless to worry about it unnecessarily. Besides which, he already had a plan for minimizing the effectiveness of the guns while, at the same time, maximizing the fear he would inspire in the crooks below. Deciding that the time to move had come, he immediately moved to examine his entry point for any signs of alarms or security measures that would tip off his targets prematurely. He was disappointed with what he saw because it only seemed to be the most basic in terms of protections rather than what he would have suspected for the crime family warehouse.

I guess that I will have to show them the folly of underestimating their adversaries. He thought as he removed a tool kit from his utility belt and quickly disabled the small obstacle in his path.

Once that was done, he quietly lifted the skylight open and slipped inside, using the roof supports to move about. It didn't take him long to find what he had been looking for and, once done, he pulled a batarang he'd rigged to emit a sizeable electric discharge one second after impact. It could be used to neutralize robotic foes by overloading its systems or, properly recalibrated, could render most humans unconscious. In this case, though, he had a different purpose in mind so, with a flick of his wrist, he sent the projectile flying while getting into prime position to attack the largest group of foes. When the batarang hit the main fuse box for the building, it quickly overloaded it, causing every light or electrical appliance that happened to be plugged into the building at the moment to explode or go dead. It was quite impressive and was effective in that it seriously upset the cowardly fools but didn't quite have them jumping at shadows just yet. As per the usual way of thinking, some of the goons armed themselves while the others began to search the building for the reason behind the sudden disappearance of light. Waiting for just the right moment, he secured a grapple line to the roof support before grasping the edges of his cape and allowing himself to be pulled down by gravity. As soon as he was just about head level with the goon in front of him, he wrapped both cape and arms around the lawbreaker, using his right hand to cover the mouth completely. Then, like clockwork, the grapple line's motor yanked him back up at great speed, hopefully making it look and sound to the others as though their comrade had vanished into thin air. A crack of some sleeping pellets put his first victim to sleep so that, after securing the crook to a roof support, he could move on to the next target.

This was the way it went for the next seven minutes straight, surprise attacks and quick disappearances, until the three remaining hoodlums were randomly shooting into the dark whenever they heard a noise. He knew he could wait until they exhausted their ammunition but he was concerned that they might choose to flee before then, so he decided that he would defeat them beforehand. Removing two bat-bolas from his belt, he quickly whipped them around before throwing them at the two crooks to the side while leaving the middle one alone. A click from a switch hidden in his gloves caused electricity to arc along the cord between the spheres of the weapons, causing the two he'd aimed for to cry out in pain. This provoked the last thief standing into discharging the last of his bullets all over the place in a vain attempt to hit whatever had taken out his only back up but, eventually, the man's cowardice won out. Breaking into a panicked run, the man moved aimlessly through the walkways and stacks of crates, clearly so afraid that he couldn't think straight, much less remember where the exit was located. Predicting the man's course as best he could, he swooped down from the roof supports, cape flaring out as wide as it could go, before delivering a drop kick to the fool's back. Landing with the grace of a cat, he waited for the balding man to turn around to look at him before straightening up so he could loom over the man for maximum intimidation effect.

"Wha-wha-what the h-hell are you!?!" the man screamed in inquiry as he scrambled away on his back rather than getting fully back to his feet.

"I'm what fear looks like." He replied, not even bothering to suppress the deep mysterious voice his enhancement from Bruce Wayne compelled him to use when in costume.

He kept his response short and to the point since he knew that anything more would ruin the whole otherworldly atmosphere that he wanted to use to surround the man. Instead he merely advanced upon the man, moving in such a way so as to increase the fear the moron was feeling, until he was right next to his prey. He was all ready to deliver a knockout blow when in a final move of panic the fool backed into a table and a wrench fell on his head, knocking the forty-something guy out cold. Not precisely what he was hoping for to end his premiere amongst the criminal element but he supposed it would have to do for now. Quickly tying the man up, he decided it was time to gift wrap the crooks for the police and then make sure that they actually came down here rather than let the locals handle the defeated. Flipping through the memories, he decided on the best arrangement and got to work retrieving the various hoods from their places.

After all, presentation was everything and he wanted to make an impression on the police of New York along with the criminal element.

New York City, Hell's Kitchen, One Hour Later, Daredevil aka Matt Murdock's P.O.V

Looks like there's a new player in town. Matt thought as he looked down from across the street at one of Silvermane's warehouses that was completely surrounded by patrol cars.

He had been patrolling the neighborhood, the same as he did every other night, when his superhuman ears heard the sounds of police sirens approaching Hell's Kitchen. That wasn't so odd as the fact that there was more than one or two of them that was the norm for the area, considering how dangerous it was to anyone below S.W.A.T level. This time, however, there were at least five and that attracted his attention more than anything else since it meant that something serious had occurred. Changing the direction of his leaps across the rooftops, he decided to follow them and that had pretty much brought him to where he was right now. With his superior sense of hearing he was easily able to overhear every word that was spoken by the officers below as if they were right next to him. Apparently someone had assaulted the warehouse below and defeated over twelve men with various weapons at their disposal without getting hit once. The officers first on the scene found all of them hanging from the roof supports like slabs of meat in a meat packing plant but not one of them was seriously harmed. Sedatives, punches to the jaw and mild-to-moderate electrocution rounded out the tools that had been used to bring the criminals down. Some would require a little time in a hospital bed but otherwise would be fit for trial for their crimes. There were signs of a gunfight but, from the array of holes in the wall, it looked as though the henchmen of Silvermane had been firing at random rather than at a foe they knew the location of. The most interesting bit of information, though, was what the police had found sticking out of the main fuse box of the warehouse since it pretty much acted as the perpetrator's calling card. A boomerang shaped like a bat had been embedded three inches into the box and there were signs of an electrical discharge as well. That was pretty much all the P.D had been able to uncover so far but it was enough to tell him many things about the new player.

It let him know that whoever it was possessed above average skill and a strategic mind. That was the only way one person could overcome twelve with no deaths or serious injuries on either side. He knew that this didn't necessarily mean that one man was responsible, there could have been many, but it was just his gut telling him that it was one person. There would have been some sign of more than one skilled warrior in the days or perhaps even weeks prior to this night that he would have caught wind of somehow. For something like this to drop out of nowhere to hit Hell's kitchen like this, it had to be a lone person who somehow had managed to enter the city unnoticed until now.

I'll keep an eye out for this lone warrior. He thought as he stood up so that he could resume his patrol.

He just hoped that when he met the man or woman responsible for thwarting this crime of Silvermane's, he or she didn't turn out to be more of villain than a hero.

High Above the Mediterranean Sea, Heading towards the Sea of Crete, One Week Later, Mid-Afternoon

Dawn Sandsmark's P.O.V

I know I should be patrolling but I just can't until I find out whether my hunch is right or not. She thought as she flew threw the sky at Concord speed towards her destination.

It had been bugging her ever since she'd first considered the possibility of other reality counterparts and it had gotten so bad lately that her mind wouldn't let her focus like it should on the task at hand. She had first caught sight of it when she had caught Giles on the computer looking through some files and one of names that stuck out in her mind was 'Jennifer Calender'. She exited the room immediately afterwards but she suspected that he'd known she was there the entire time, nevertheless she didn't inquire further on the matter but rather tried to figure things out on her own. Fortunately the former fifty-something person hadn't quite absorbed everything about Bruce Wayne, so it was still possible to predict what was going on inside his head. Rupert was looking for counterparts to the people they'd known back in their native reality, specifically those that had died over the past six years, on the off chance that old holes could be filled in. It had been that conclusion that had gotten her thinking about the other possibilities that she doubted very much had occurred to Batman just yet. The possibilities that were centered around the possibility of there existing counterparts to the heroes whose essences they had been given in order to fight Warren. After all, the ship they were on was living (metaphorically speaking) proof that it was possible since this was a Kryptonian ship and its A.I had identified Xander as Kryptonian. From that day forward, though, her mind had randomly been spitting out plans and ideas for locating all the people that Cassandra had known in her reality. True, some of them were not a possibility since they were either extra-terrestrial in nature or had simply been born as a result of unusual circumstances, but those that had been native to Earth and had lived a pretty normal life up until they got powers or joined the costume crowd were likely somewhere to be found on this world in this reality. With that idea in mind, she'd spent her off time trying to locate them and, once found, she would see if they were walking down the same path as they had in the DC universe or if they were leading completely different lives.

Too bad some of them hadn't been born due to their parents never getting together like they had in the DC world. She thought as she set the images from Cassie's memories over what her eyes were telling her.

Naturally she'd started her inquiries with members of the Teen Titans, both past and present, but so far the only members she could put a location to were Amy Allen, aka Bombshell, Virgil Hawkins, aka Static, and Victor Stone, aka Cyborg. The others were either going by different last names that she couldn't run down or simply had gone missing for one reason or another with the law enforcement people being clueless as to where they'd gone. She'd asked A.V.I.A to comb through her records and hack into whatever relevant databases she could to try and find them but so far, no luck.

That was why she was flying right now, to see if some of the most important people in Cassie's life existed in this reality, and she'd discover the truth in about two minutes. She was going to the one place that, as far as she knew, existed in just about every reality in the DC comics multi-verse so it made sense that it might exist here.

The place was Themyscira, home of the Amazon Nation.

It was on that island that Sandsmark's idols, Wonder Woman and the original Wonder Girl, had either come from or gained many of their skills from. It was also the place where Cassandra had gone from becoming a Donna Troy fangirl to an actual warrior capable of the sort of fighting she'd admired in her idols. These memories had driven her to see if the old training ground existed or if it was nothing more than a myth in this reality. She had already combed through the nautical records of the harbors surrounding the place where the island of the Amazon's resided but found nothing that could be considered confirmation. Reports of ships suddenly finding themselves in a separate section of the sea with a missing hour that they couldn't explain were pretty much the only thing she could find as far as evidence was concerned. Still, she'd learned through several discrete phone calls that there was an area of the Aegean Sea that the locals genuinely avoided when they could. Oh, they didn't give a supernatural reason for this, just a bunch of piss poor excuses, but still the area they avoided matched where Cassie's memories said Themyscira was supposed to be found. While not the hacker that Willow or Giles were now, she had still been able to look through the files of the various law enforcement branches in the surrounding area and no sign of a massive cover up or an ongoing investigation could be found. Still she supposed that in a world where mutants are popping up all over and there was a super power arms race going on, the oddity of a few forgetful sailors didn't rank very high.

Coming to a halt just shy of where she believed she'd hit the mystical barrier, which kept the island of the Amazon's hidden from Man's World, was located, she wondered what the reactions of the warrior women would be. Would Hippolyta and Diana be there? Maybe even Donna? Would they be like Cassie's memories made them out to be or would they be so completely different that she wouldn't want anything to do with them? These were the questions she asked herself as she tried to decide whether or not to start flying forward once more or call to A.V.I.A to open a portal to take her back to the ship. It was, after all, not her that lived the life of a demi-goddess daughter of Zeus and a member of a group of heroes called the Teen Titans. She might have the memories but that wasn't here and she had no reason to feel any obligations or ties to that life. Shaking her head at the whole line of thought, she decided that dancing around the subject wouldn't make it go away so with resolve forming on her face she flew forward.

When her perceptions began to become distorted after twenty feet of flying she knew that she had stumbled across something paranormal but that didn't necessarily mean she'd found what she'd been looking for. The disorientation lasted only for a few minutes before normality returned and a smile came to her face as she beheld a lush island filled with vegetation, with the odd bit of Roman architecture thrown about in a clearly organized manner. The sight of it was almost enough to cause her to swoop down to seek out the people from Cassie's memories but she restrained herself with the rational that they could very well be nothing like the people her memories portrayed them to be. Therefore she cautiously descended from the sky while using what Cassie knew about how the island was likely to be patrolled by guards to avoid detection. She didn't want to let them know she was here before she was certain that they were the sort of people she'd want to know and hang out with. It forced her to go a little slower that her curiosity would like but it paid off as she managed to leave the coastline behind and enter the woods. However, after five minutes of careful flight, she began to become suspicious of the island as she had yet to see or hear anyone at all. Not to knock her skills at stealth or anything, but Amazon warriors were among the best in the world when you took guns and bombs out of the picture. She would have expected to at least have a close call or two by now but it had been unusually quiet and she was beginning to get a bad feeling about all this.

Increasing the speed of her flight, she decided to head for the capital of the island, hoping that if she went there that she'd be able to run into someone that would rid her of this rising feeling of dread in her stomach.

Her concerns turned out to be well founded, though, because even as she reached the outer structures of the capitol she began to see signs of battle. Arrows sticking out of the ground, broken swords and the like became more common than usual for her eyes to pick up if the island was safe. Increasing her speed further and disregarding stealth entirely, she hurried to aid her warrior sisters that she was sure were in trouble. Concern became worry and worry became fear as not only weapons covered the ground but also pieces of the surrounding buildings that had been violently knocked off the stone structures. With her increasing fear, so too did her flying speed until the buildings around her became little more than blurs to her eyes. It was as she turned the corner, entering the central square where the Queen often spoke to her people as a whole, that she saw something that caused her to freeze in shock. Laid out on the ground throughout the square and, in some cases, hanging on the window ledges around the square were dozens if not hundreds of shriveled up mummy-like forms that looked like they'd fall apart at a touch. Not a shred of cloth clad their forms but she knew instinctively who lay dead before her and the sorrow was almost enough to bring her to her knees. She had no clue when this happened, much less how, but lost in her emotional turmoil the details didn't matter as much as the bottom line before her. Almost like a zombie she walked amongst the bodies, trying to identify those around her but it was almost impossible with so many identifying features gone. She didn't care that she had only known these people second hand through Cassie's memories because in the end they were her memories now and they meant just as much to her as the rest.

What could have happened here? She thought as she moved unconsciously to the podium where Hippolyta was sure to have been during this calamity.

Her thoughts again became a storm when her eyes fell upon a golden tiara that lay on the ground next to a body that lay next to the podium and, unlike everything else, it seemed as though it could have been dropped only yesterday. It was the crimson star in the center of the front though that finally brought her to her knees though as the part of her that was Cassandra Sandsmark crumbled as the identity of at least one of the bodies was ascertained.

"Diana… no!" she whispered as she picked up the tiara looking at before down at the form of her predecessor's idol.

It was obvious to her eyes now that she had come here only to find out that she, through Cassie, was the only Amazon left in this world with the others being long dead due to some catastrophe. Out of some inner need, she gentled laid out the body of Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, out on the ground and, with the utmost care, placed the golden tiara back on the head of her namesake's mentor. A single tear traveled from her left eye and down her cheek before falling through the air to land on the motionless form before her, but she cared not. Her emotions had turned numb and now all she could feel was a detached nothingness that made her more akin to a robot than the young woman she was.

Rising into the air, she knew it was time to leave this place. While a part of her felt the desire to carry out a proper Amazon funeral service for them all, she very much doubted that she'd be able to keep herself together until the end. She knew that when she returned to the ship the others would notice the funk she was in but she knew just what she needed to clear what she was feeling out of her system.

She needed her Xander-shaped snuggle blanket. He'd make it all better...

The Island of Themyscira, Capitol City, Central Square, Ten Minutes Later

"So the time has finally come," spoke the beautiful brunette as she looked in the direction of the young woman, who was the first living person to set foot on the isle that would leave with her memory intact.

For over a thousand years this body of land had not had a single human being view its shores, much less step on them without having their memories wiped before they were returned to Man's World. She and her closest kin had made sure of this ever since the Twilight struck down the noble sisterhood of this island so as to ensure that evil did not get a chance to plunder its riches. Oh had she longed to enact a more practical way of keeping this paradise safe but her Lord Father had forbidden any of them from attempting to restore all to what it once was. She knew the reasons for this, had been able to feel the oily spell's power, and acknowledged that, given its nature, they could not take the chance that it would adapt to affect them. So it had been until ten minutes ago when a moment foretold by the Oracle of Delphi was fulfilled at long last. A young human woman who was more than a mere mortal but not a deity had come to the island to shed a tear for sister she both knew yet had never met before. With an unfamiliar power that the young woman likely underestimated the strength of, she had fragmented the Twilight into a single piece for every Amazon on the island.

Now was the time to act and she would not waste even a moment to ask for permission before acting.

Not this time.

Entering New York City from the West, Nine Days Later, Late Afternoon, Xander Kent's P.O.V

MAN! It's been one helluva month! Xander thought as he flew through the air into the Big Apple to prepare for his job interview, Not exactly one problem after another but enough to keep every member of the league from getting bored anytime soon.

He himself had just come from dealing with a mudslide on the West Coast and while a quick dunk in a lake followed by a super speed spin had cleaned him up, he still found it remarkable how different it was from recalling being a superhero and actually being one. When he had initially pitched the idea of the Justice League Unlimited to the others, he'd been banking heavily on their inherited memories being sufficient to help them with whatever situation popped up. Unfortunately for him things were not quite that easy, or at least it wasn't for him given that he was the most powerful member of the League. He had caught himself on more than one occasion straying dangerously close to overdoing things with his powers, heat vision and strength being at the top of the list, but so far it hadn't cost anyone their lives. Still he would have to see, once he returned to the newly dubbed Justice League Command Ship, if A.V.I.A had any place on board that could serve as a training area for the team. While he hadn't heard anything from the others, he wouldn't be surprised if they were experiencing similar problems applying what they 'knew' in real life situations. They couldn't afford to slip up, whether it was when people watched them on the job or if they were completely on their own, because the work they were doing was very important and demanded that they take things seriously.

He was about halfway to the place where his job interview was scheduled when his super hearing picked up the sound of some serious tunneling going on and on a level that suggested that something big was doing the digging. Considering the fact that Batman hadn't informed them of anything that size occurring within the city limits that was authorized, he had little choice but to conclude someone was doing something unauthorized. Given the amount of resources to pull something like this off, he had a feeling he should look into this and so changed his flight plan to bring to where he could hear the noise. Looking ahead, he was curious as he discovered that the digging seemed to be come from beneath the same building that Warren had punched him into a month ago. He'd done some light research on it, just to see if he'd messed up anything important, and learned that it was some sort of military think tank where they gathered all the top child/teen prodigies for the purpose of nurturing their genius level intellects. He'd even managed to put a name to the blonde who he'd saved, just in case Buffy decided to make something of that kiss he received again, and it turned out she was the daughter of the head honcho, Frank Storm. Susan Storm was her name and, if the official websites were true, then she was easily on par with Willow, if not a bit smarter with all the doctorates she had. If he felt like a candidate for the short bus with his buddy Wills then being friends with Sue would make him think he should be treated like a five year old candidate for the short bus. Fortunately, though, that very fact would be all he needed to prove to Buffy that there was no chance whatsoever of something developing between him and the super genius blonde.

As he got close enough to see the front entrance, he watched as the street in front of the skyscraper exploded upwards for at least a block to reveal what looked like a cross between a dragon and a snake. Definitely bigger than Mayor Wilkins' ascended form, it quickly went to work voicing its displeasure by slashing at the surrounding buildings and roaring for all to hear. Seeing its right hand reaching for a bus, he swooped down in a burst of speed, grabbed hold of the appendage and stopped its movement a good three feet from the bus. It wasn't too difficult, certainly no more than pulling that cruise ship clear of the storm it had become trapped in, so with only a little more effort he pushed the clawed hand skyward, completely throwing the beast off balance. Deciding that a quick KO would be best to ensure that the property damage was kept to a minimum, he surged forward and dealt a blow a swift blow to its mid-section. He was encouraged by the fact that it bent over due the force of his strike but its recovery time was quicker than he'd expected and it swiped at him with its left claw followed by its tail. Naturally he was able to evade both fairly easily but, instead of hitting him, the attacks struck the cars that had been emptied upon the beast's arrival. The battlefield was simply too crowded with public property, private property and the few foolish civilians that lacked the intelligence to vacate the area when the massive damage began. He'd have to end this quickly if he wanted to keep the collateral damage to a minimum and that meant he'd have to be a bit more heavy handed than he wanted to be at this point. He didn't know a whole lot about what was going on and for all he knew this was just some innocent creature that had been provoked into coming to the surface. Nevertheless, what wasn't in doubt was that this creature needed to be stopped before even more damage was done to the city and innocent lives were lost.

He was just about to start laying on the hurt when a voice cut through the roaring attracting his attention for a moment.

"FLAME ON??!!" came a young male voice and, when he looked to the source, he saw a blonde teenager suddenly burst into flames from head to toe.

For a moment he thought that he had something else to worry about but, when the enflamed body changed directions mid-air and began to soar around under the young man's own power, he realized that he was looking at some sort of mutant or meta-human. It also sounded like the guy was experiencing his powers, or at least his ability to fly, for the first time, so he wasn't sure if the guy had any experience fighting something like this. He'd have to keep an eye out for the civvie while he took care of the big dragon-snake thing or else the young super powered young man would hurt either just flying around or trying to help. However that proved to be more difficult than he'd originally anticipated since the creature seemed to be attracted to flames the newbie was putting out. Deciding to take advantage of this he flew forward rapidly and began to deliver body blow after body blow in order to end this fight before the flaming flyer's growing confidence got the better of him.

A new player entered the battlefield a minute later when a man of rock leapt down at least a dozen stories to impact on the sidewalk none worse for wear despite the lack of thought put into the move from what his ears could pick up. While the guy looked tough, possibly as invulnerable as he was, it only meant that there would be one more person on the battlefield that he'd have to keep an eye out for along with taking down the creature itself.

Things were getting increasingly complicated.

WHAM!

Cursing himself for getting distracted, he quickly managed to arrest his descent and shook off the mild disorientation that the monster's blow caused him to feel. When he looked back up, though, he found that a third unknown meta had entered the battle with elastic or rubbery properties that allowed him to bounce around like a rubber ball. While most of him was annoyed at this, there was enough of his old self present that he knew he shouldn't be too hard on these guys for jumping into the thick of things. If he'd been given Superman's powers yesterday and a situation like this presented itself, he'd be compelled to intervene as well, especially if the first two civvies were friends. Didn't change the fact that he needed to bring this fight to an end before the trio's good intentions got them seriously hurt or killed. With that in mind he mentally removed the limiter he'd placed on his super strength for the purpose of capturing the creature alive and flew into battle with determination in his eyes. Arriving just in time to team up with the rock guy, together they deliver a one-two combo to the creature that looked like it almost took the monster's head off and almost certainly shattered its jaw. Watching as the lizard creature fell backwards into the hole it had sprung from, he lowered himself to its edge and used his telescopic vision to make sure that the life form didn't somehow recover without anyone realizing it.

Hearing the trio come up behind him he said, "Thanks for the assist you three. Things could've been a lot messier if you hadn't helped out when you did."

It wasn't quite the truth since he was fairly certain he could have taken down the giant monster on his own and that it would have only taken a few more minutes to do so than it had. Still, he didn't want the three of them to feel too intimidated around him so talking to them like they were comrades fighting the same good fight hopefully would ease the tension in the air. He was about to ask them if they knew anything about the monster, like where it came from or who might have sent it, but the sounds of rounds being chambered caught his attention before he could speak.

"Don't move, mutant!" Yelled a S.W.A.T officer who stood with at least six others, all of which had weapons trained on the four of them.

"Holy Mother of God!!" One of the officer's exclaimed apparently awed by the devastation to the surrounding area.

"Let the humans go and no one will get hurt." Declared the one apparently in charge through a megaphone.

When he heard with his enhanced hearing the S.W.A.T leader order his men to prepare to take the mutant down, though, he was dismayed that the law enforcement official was so quick to resort to force to resolve things. Moving to act as a shield, he was about to try and reason with the armed men but his actions were apparently not as peaceful looking as he'd intended them to be.

"Take'em down!!" Yelled the commander whose words were quickly followed by the firing of every gun in the area.

Deciding that showing these idiots just how out of their league they were might have been the only way to get the diplomatic ball rolling, he used his speed, his invulnerability and his strength to snatch every bullet out of the air. For a full minute the sounds of working firearms filled the air but the officers might as well have been firing spitwads at him for all the good it did. At the speed at which he was operating it looked like the rounds were moving in super slow motion making it simplicity itself to pluck them from the air as they got within range. Eventually this fact got through to the members of S.W.A.T attacking and the firing stopped as they no doubt wondered what the hell they should do now. He hoped they wouldn't compound their stupidity by bringing out the heavy artillery because that would only make things worse both for him as well as for them.

"CEASE FIRE!! CEASE FIRE!! UNITED STATES ARMY!!" Yelled a ranking military officer as he forced his way through to the police officers followed by lower ranked military personnel.

"Johnny!!" Came a cry of worry from a man he recognized as the father of Sue Storm.

"Flame off!" Cried the human effigy, aka Johnny Storm, after landing from his sudden flight in reaction to the attack by S.W.A.T. "Don't worry Dad. I'm alright. Blue Boy here had my back."

This caused the head of the Baxter Building to look to him and he knew that the lab coat wearing man recognized him instantly from their previous encounter during the Doomsday fight.

"Thank you! Thank you for protecting my boy!" Frank Storm declared while vigorously shaking his hand to emphasize his gratitude.

"Just doing my job, Mr. Storm." He said letting the man handshake himself out.

Seeing a soldier approaching out of the corner of his eye, he decided that this needed to be addressed first despite the fact that being thanked just now felt good.

"Doctor Storm, we really need to get this situation off the street." Said one of the army subordinates, pointing to the mess that had been made.

"But what was that thing?" Frank asked, obviously still a bit shaken up by this turn of events.

"We're not prepared to go public with you or any of this yet, we're going to have to—" replied the soldier, looking a little more insistent.

"Well, too late for that, slappy." Johnny said sarcastically while holding his arms wide as if to say 'how could anyone miss this'.

"Either way, we need to get you—" said the soldier, not willing to budge from the orders he'd no doubt been given.

"No. I don't think we're done here yet." Said Mr. Elastic as he looked back at the large hole where the creature had gone.

Getting an idea of where Glasses was going with that line of thought, he was treated to a unique point of view in which he could sympathize with what Giles must have gone through with the Scoobies but also what said Scoobies had been like before they racked up over five years of experience. It was then and there that he decided that whatever the three newly powered youths chose to do, he'd go along with them in order to keep them from biting off more than they could safely chew, given their inexperience. Plus he was sort of curious as to where the creature came from and if the surface world could expect more intrusions like that in the future.

"So, what was that? Reed?" Johnny asked as he joined his friend Reed in looking down the dark hole in the middle of the street.

"Why would you even ask me that?" Reed replied, looking at the blonde like it was ridiculous to even ask such a question, "How on Earth should I know?"

"Well, aren't you, like, smart?" Johnny asked, not understanding the difference between being smart and having all the answers.

"I don't even know what we are." Reed replied, humoring his obvious intellectual inferior.

"Well, all I know is with Blue Boy's help we kicked its butt up and down the street!!" Johnny crowed, glossing over something he didn't understand or particularly care about understanding.

"I can't even identify the source biology of that mutant creature. That was a…I'm…it…" Reed said before falling silent as his no doubt genius brain tried to comprehend what had just happened.

"Uh-oh, Reed's popped a cork." Said the son of Frank Storm, not encouraged by the fact that the egghead next to him was clueless.

"Johnny, I have studied biology every day of my life for fifteen years and I am telling you that no one on the planet Earth has ever seen anything like that before." Reed said, snapping out of his mind to defend his lack of data on the creature.

"As opposed to us." Said Mr. Rock moving closer to the edge of the hole, "Oh what the heck… let's find it and say hi to it."

"Yeah." Johnny said, endorsing the idea completely.

"Um…no…no, I changed my mind." Reed said sounding less sure of himself than before, "The cops…the Army will handle it"

"The cops?" Mr. Rock asked in disbelief, "Did you see that thing?"

"I'm afraid you're friend is right, Mr. Richards." He said, voicing his opinion on the matter, "While I might not be completely knowledgeable about what the army has at its disposal, I seriously doubt that they have subterranean travel vehicles or weapons that would easily be able to work on that thing."

"He's right, Reed. No offense to the army boys but that thing's way out of their league." Johnny said, immediately moving to back up his fellow comrade of adventure, "Besides what if that was Sue?"

Huh? Where did that come from? He thought as he turned to look and see if Johnny was being serious, What does Sue Storm have to do with this?

It was then that he realized that whatever had happened to give them their powers it had happened suddenly and not under controlled circumstances. That would explain their newness to their powers as well as the fact that they didn't know what effect the accident had had on Susan Storm. Recalling the creature, he didn't want to believe that it could be the pretty blonde girl he'd saved the day he arrived in this dimension but both his Xander memories as well as his Superman memories told him it was indeed possible. Just because something started out small and human didn't mean it couldn't be made otherwise with the right tools.

"That was not Sue." Reed stated firmly in a way that might imply that he had more than simple friendship existed between the two.

"Look! You guys do whatever you want." Mr. Rock said as he leapt into the hole, "I have more misplaced anger that I need to work off. You coming, Big Blue?"

"Right behind you." He said as he used his powers of flight to rise off the ground before lowering himself down into the hole after the blue clad rock man.

While he sort of thought that he should call in another member of the League just in case things got more dangerous down below but he doubted that the Johnny and the others would wait for reinforcements. That being the case he would have to be enough to keep them out of trouble as they ventured below the surface of the Earth. He would have to be enough to keep Johnny, Reed and Mr. Rock safe while they sought out the creature.

Thirty Minutes Later, Three Quarters of the Way Down the Hole, Reed Richards' P.O.V

"This is fascinating." Reed said as he examined the writings on the wall that he and Ben were climbing down in pursuit of the giant creature.

"Yeah? Which part?" Ben asked as the man's stony hands dug into the side of the hole for purchase.

"Absolutely fascinating. The walls…these markings…These markings are from a culture that I have never studied before." He replied almost absentmindedly as his mind tried to make sense of what his eyes were perceiving, "I wonder if they are—"

"How far down are we?" Ben asked, breaking off his friend's response before it got to be too much for him to comprehend.

"Maybe we lost it." Johnny said as he provided some illumination for everyone to see by using his flame form.

"Nope. It's about three hundred meters below us and it looks like it's crawling away." Said the caped man, who'd introduced himself as Superman, "Guess we only dazed it or it received one helluva wake up call when it landed at the bottom."

"You can see it?" Ben asked, looking down into the darkness that was beyond his ability to pierce with his own eyes.

"Yep. These eyes don't miss much." Superman replied nonchalantly as though it was perfectly natural for someone to be able to see three hundred meters down into a darkness enshrouded hole.

It was one of the many oddities that he'd noticed about their mysterious ally and, while he didn't necessarily believe the young man, who looked to be only a year or two older than him, had ill intentions, he was most definitely a puzzle. The man clad in a crimson cape possessed strength easily on par with, if not exceeding, what Ben was now capable of and could move at speeds that made plucking bullets out of the air only mildly taxing at best. Add to that the power of flight and a level of durability that was astonishing, the man of the S shield was an entire encylopedia set full of mysteries that was causing a serious itch to build up in his mind. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, so many tests he wanted to run, but he knew that now was not the time for that. It was taking just about every speck of willpower he had to just keep his scientific curiosity down to where it was with so many new phenomena being presented to him in the space of the last twenty-four hours.

Maybe Superman would consent to a few cursory scans once this is all over with. He thought as they continued down the supposed three hundred meters to the bottom of the hole.

He knew that he would have to phrase the request in as inoffensive a manner as possible since he'd learned both from Ben and Johnny that being treated like a lab rat wasn't a pleasant experience. While difficult, considering he was more at home amongst laboratory equipment then people, it would not be an insurmountable obstacle. Even now he was beginning to formulate just the right combination of words, phrases and questions that would hopefully bring about the required end result. In a way, just about everything in the universe could be explained or controlled if one looked at all of it like one big experiment with a multitude of definable variables. In this case Superman behaved much like your typical human male of his apparent age and personality type so that, combined with a suitably facilitating environment, should be sufficient for his words to have the desired effect.

"Yeah, well, not to be all Han Solo on you guys…" Johnny said with a little more unease than usual in his voice, "…but I got a bad feeling about this. And Reed's on a field trip."

"I'm sorry. But you can't deny that this is a fascinating discovery." Reed said with a bit of exasperation at the fact that his friends couldn't appreciate the size of the discovery they were making.

"Bet I can." Ben said promptly making it sound like he meant every word.

"Look at the patterns on this—" he said trying to point out to them what made the writing on the walls so interesting.

"Reed, can you hold in the nerd until we're like, on land?" Johnny asked sounding like he'd tune out whatever was spoken one way or another.

With a slight 'hmph' he decided he would concede to Johnny's request for the time being since it would likely prove counterproductive to their venture if they started arguing amongst themselves. It took them another twenty or thirty minutes to reach the bottom of the hole but it was so dark that the only thing allowing them to see anything was the limited illumination that the Storm boy's fire powers were providing for them. Unfortunately this luminescence only reached out about ten or fifteen feet around them and he had a distinct feeling that this left quite a bit of space for something to hide in.

"Johnny, can you burn brighter?" he asked, wanting to get a better lay of the land.

"Definitely a good idea considering we're surrounded." Superman said, floating about a foot off the ground, looking a bit tense.

With these words the light from the flames did burn brighter, showing everyone precisely what the flyer meant. All around them, some on the ground while other hung from supports in the cavernous ceiling, were these odd creatures that looked somewhat humanoid but appeared to be made out of mud. In a way he was much reminded of the mythical clay golems of Jewish folklore, albeit decidedly cruder than the illustrations he'd seen in various books. There had to be hundreds of them spread out all around and it would put them at a distinct tactical disadvantage if matters devolved into some manner of altercation. True, they had Superman as backup, but with the full extent of the man's abilities unknown, it was debatable if they would be enough to hold back the throng that surrounded them.

"Guys…" Johnny said as he used his flame tentatively to keep the humanoid mud people from getting too close.

"Yeah?" he asked as his mind tried to figure out the scientific details of the creatures both for practical tactical use as well as for later consideration.

"This is a really weird day." Johnny replied with his unease going up another notch.

"How so?" Ben asked, looking like he was ready to start throwing punches at a moment's notice.

"Reed, being that you have this huge, giant brain… PLEASE tell me you know…" Johnny said, looking for some sort of factor or word of wisdom to help him get a grip in things.

"Johnny, I have no idea what these creatures are." He declared, deciding that it was pointless to needlessly sugercoat things.

"Fantastic." Came a familiar voice off to the far side near where he could see an opening into another section of the cavern, "Truly fantastic."

"Reed?!!" Came an even more familiar voice that reminded him that there had been one final missing member that had been affected by his failed teleportation experiment in the desert.

"Sue!?" Johnny asked with some surprise at being reunited with his sister.

Looking in the direction of the voice they found Sue still clad in the outfit she'd worn to the experiment but being restrained by more of the golem-like creatures that surrounded them still. However, standing very much like the leader or the father of this brood, was an ugly man clad in tattered green clothes with a cane of some sort in one hand. There was an eerie feeling of familiarity about the man but he just couldn't connect the dots.

"What you four have become… and what your new friend is… is nothing short of fantastic." Said the unknown man with a smile, "I told you, children. I told you, you were the future. I told you."

"You?!! Reed?!? Johnny?!?" Sue exclaimed with surprise at the arrival of two people that she knew well as well as two that she knew less about.

"SUE!!" Johnny yelled as his flames kicked up to a decidedly higher level than before forcing anyone within five feet of him to put some more distance between them and him.

Underground Network of Caverns, Far Beneath the Baxter Building, Same Time, Sue Storm's P.O.V

What are they doing here!? What is he doing here!?! Sue thought as she looked at the four people surrounded by Dr. Molekevic's creations.

It had been a bizarre couple of hours as she not only found herself underground rather in the desert where she'd been, but also possessing the ability to turn herself invisible. The former was disturbing and, as for the latter, she hadn't quite gotten the knack for it just yet. It seemed to be tied to her emotional state somehow but that was far from being able to turn it on or off like a light switch. However, at the moment, she didn't care because with her brother's pyrotechnic display, the abominations restraining her had other problems to deal with allowing her to pull herself free of their grasp. Running for the group of allies, she watched as the caped hero that had saved her from falling to her death only a month ago floated downwards to land on the ground. Throwing herself into his arms, she tried to embrace the feeling of safety that she had felt after he had caught her during their initial meeting four weeks ago. It struck her as a little odd that he seemed hesitant to wrap his arms around her and, for a moment, she thought that perhaps she was being a little too forward with him but when she opened her eyes she saw that she had been invisible for a moment.

"S-sorry about that. I'm okay…" she said as she tried to will herself into being completely visible once again, "Hold on, I have to concentrate…"

Once she was sure with her own eyes that she was one hundred percent visible again, she looked around at the others and could see the shock on their faces. That was understandable, considering that she'd vanished from their sight for a time there, but looking at Reed she could see a bit of anger in his eyes if she looked at him just right. It took her a moment to realize that the reason for this was because she was still in the arms of her own personal knight, acting like they were officially a couple even though this was the first time they'd seen each other since they'd first met. Stepping back a moment, she realized that they had slightly more pressing matters than her still-strong crush on this god of a man before her.

"Uh… did you just turn invisible?" Johnny asked, obviously wanting to stay with the safest topic.

"Are you on fire?" she asked turning her sibling's own question back on him.

"Kinda." John replied, sounding unsure of what more needed to be said.

"What happened to you guys?" she asked as her scientists mind woke up a bit.

"You turned invisible!" Reed exclaimed, obviously still theorizing inside his own head.

It was one of the things that she both liked and hated about the bespectacled young man. On the one hand he was indeed a genius on par with herself and it was often quite interesting to discuss science with him, whether it was one of their own projects or simply something they saw on TV. At the same time, though, the Richards guy, who seemed so at home with test tubes and microscopes, seemed clueless when it came to interacting with people and showed little understanding of the word tact. In fact the few times she had tried to invite him for some hanging out to get to know him better, he'd been so embroiled in his latest set of equations that he hadn't even noticed her no matter how she spoke to him. It made her wonder if it would take a supermodel dancing in nothing but a G-string in front of him to get him thinking about something other than science and start taking a more active interest in living people.

"As your teacher… I feel I must explain to you how truly dangerous and careless that accident of yours was." Said Molekevic with a stern tone in his voice, "You now have these magnificent powers but it could have been dangerous had things been different. Next time you and I will…"

"Dr. Molekevic?" Reed asked as if finally figuring out who they were up against for the first time.

Yet another sign that Reed needed to be more aware of the world around him as well as the people in it. While it was true that their former instructor was decidedly different from how he used to be, he had enough distinctive features that identifying him hadn't been hard at all for her upon awakening. Reed had been here for almost a full five minutes and been aware of Molekevic for three of them but only now was putting the name to the face.

"Yes, young Dr. Richards, this is our reunion. Finally." Molekevic said, taking on a more formal tone, "I have so looked forward to this moment and, while the presence of this stranger was not anticipated, I will allow him to stay. I was most impressed by how he managed to stand up to my creation."

"What-what have you done here?" Reed asked, looking about at the creations of the deranged doctor.

"What I have done is create a world that we, men of science, can—" he replied, sounding for all the world like a giant in the field of science.

"Don't listen to him. He's totally our of his mind!!" she said, turning to the others but keeping her eyes mostly on her crush, "First he kidnapped me!! He created this underworld nightmare-he's totally obsessed with you and my Dad—"

"SUSAN!!" Molekevic yelled, obviously not pleased that the truth was getting out.

"He monitors us. He's hooked into the Baxter Building mainframe and I'm—" she said before being interrupted again but nevertheless she plunged onward, "I'm not entirely sure but he may have sabotaged the experiment just to get us here to—"

"Susan!!" Molekevic bellowed, unwilling to be ignored any longer, "You ugly girl. You would so quickly betray my emotions and confidence?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, letting the horrid mad know just how she felt about him.

"I took you in!" he replied angrily at the asking of such a foolish question.

"You kidnapped me and destroyed any sense of a normal life we—" she yelled back at him cutting through his self-serving lies like wet tissue paper before a fact caused her to pause, "Hold on!! What is that?"

"That's Ben Grimm." Reed replied quietly so as not to make a big deal of things.

"Oh…uh, hey." She said, uncertain of how to talk to someone she'd just called a 'that' rather than a 'him'.

"Yeah, thanks." Ben said with some traces of hurt but not much.

"You're okay in there?" she asked, wondering if it was just some sort of rock armor suit or if it was a fully transformed person.

"We'll…hold on, Sue, I don't understand." Reed said sounding confused by something before he turned to Dr. Molekevic, "Doctor, how is it that you are here? What is this place? How long have you been down here?"

"I am a doctor and a scientist." Molekevic said icily as he glared at them, "When you were children I would tolerate your immature insubordination, but now I have to insist on your respect and—"

"What is this?" Johnny asked as if noticing Molekevic for the first time himself.

Her brother was yet another person who needed to be a bit more observant but, in his case, the reason was because her brother's ambition to be the next Tony Stark, minus the actual scientific acumen, kept him from applying himself to his studies.

"I'm telling you!! He's nuts and he did all this because he thinks we're his 'pals', or something, and he wants us to help him get Dad back for firing him." She said, summarizing things in a way that her sibling could understand.

"What?" John asked rhetorically with disbelief at the very idea.

"I know." She said sympathizing with her brother on this since she found the idea ridiculous herself.

"Dude, my Dad fired your butt, like, a hundred years ago." Johnny said, easily exaggerating the time that had passed.

"Doctor, these creatures…" Reed tried to ask but was cut off before he could get any momentum going.

"Dude, let it go." Johnny said, reminding Richards that they weren't here as guests.

"Mr. Storm is right Mr. Richards." Stated her Crush as he stepped to the front of their group, "I somehow doubt that Dr. Molekevic's current mood is going to make getting answers out of him very easy. Best to wait until we're back topside with him before we start with the twenty questions bit."

"BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Molekevic began to yell at the top of his lungs as the situation was obviously pushing the madman over the edge.

This went on for a bit before the doctor began to mutter to himself, something about them not listening, but to tell the truth she didn't very much care. While this man might once have been one of her mentors, it was obvious that time had not been kind to him, much less his time down here with only his creations to keep him company.

"Doctor, um, you've been down here a long time…" Reed said, taking a stab at diplomacy and reason, "We'll take you to the surface, we'll help you explain…"

"Don't…!" Molekevic declared with some bitterness at being treated like he needed help.

"We're not trying to offend you, Doctor." Said her Crush as he reached out with one hand, "But I'm sure that a scientist such as yourself knows the harm that long term isolation can have on the human mind. You're not well, sir."

"Hmph! So disappointing." Molekevic said as he continued to fade into a darker area of the cavern, "I had such hopes and dreams for us. My children… eat them, kill them, whatever you desire. They are useless to me. Like all the rest."

With these words the various creatures began to close in on the five of them despite Johnny's flames and they did not look like they wanted to play nice.

"Children? Now he thinks we're his children?" Johnny asked incredulously at yet another impossibly idiotic statement.

"He wasn't talking to us." She said before pointing at the abominations that were seconds away from being able to reach out and claw at someone.

"Yo, Reed? Blue Boy?" Ben asked as he moved closer to the rest of them for defensive purposes, "Are these things human?"

"Best guess, no. No, they're mostly plant I think." Reed replied while not letting his eyes stray from the creatures.

"I might not be the science whiz Mr. Richards is, but both my X-Ray vision and micro vision aren't finding a single thing that matches what they taught me a human should have in school." Replied her Crush as he lifted off the ground a bit to get a better view of things, "If these things were human once upon a time, the changes that've been done to them are thorough and complete. It's more likely they're just mindless drones the Mole Man cooked up in a test tube."

"X-Ray vision? You mean you can—" Johnny began to ask before stopping at a glare from her.

She could just imagine what immature uses her brother would have put such an ability to but, at the same time, she had to wonder if the young man she currently lusted after was anything like that. Had he used his X-ray vision to take a peek at what she looked like under her clothes? NO! She refused to believe that the guy she had growing feelings for would be that much of a pervert. Granted, she might not have dated much, but none of the guys she had ever gone out with had been dumped because they were lecherous old men on the inside. No, it was more a case of them being intimidated by her intellect and the occasional time when she had to break off a date to get back to the Baxter building for some reason or other. If she got a moment to speak to her crush and at least get his name out of him, she would make sure that the relationship she built between the two of them would be better than that.

"Whatever. At least knowing these things ain't human means it's time to--!!" Ben said as the horde finally went on the attack, "No, it's time to--!! Oh hell! I'll work on a superhero catchphrase later!!"

With those words the fight was on in earnest and none of them could afford to spare a moment for more than the occasional warning or question about the location of Dr. Molekevic.

The Caverns Beneath the Baxter Building, One Minute Later, Johnny Storm's P.O.V

MAN! Is there anything that Superman can't do? He asked as he continued to dive bomb the mole things or throw off some that had managed to latch onto him.

It had only been a minute or so since the fighting began but already he was beginning to feel more like the half-assed sidekick to Superman's main hero status. Not only was the guy as strong as Ben, could fly so fast he left people eating dust, was invulnerable and had like fifty different types of vision but apparently the blue clad guy could also blow people away like leaves in a tornado. It was like he was untouchable! This was not doing wonders for his self-image so he decided to focus more on his own ass-kicking duties so he could soak up some more ego stroking sights. It wasn't that he was arrogant or anything, but rather that he needed something of a pick me up when he was surrounded by geniuses all day. He wasn't dim or anything but he definitely wasn't the same as Reed or that Van Damme guy. Even Sue, his own sister, was leagues above him and so he had to find something that he could do well that they couldn't. Considering that Reed thought that two C cups plus a D cup equaled an E cup rather than a seriously good time with the ladies those cups belonged to meant it'd be people he'd be good with. While all the eggheads messed with their beakers and test tubes, he'd be the PR guy living it up in front of the cameras and dating the supermodels. He'd be the blonde Tony Stark! A tad ambitious, yes, but so long as none of the interviewers asked him to solve complex formula on live TV, he'd be alright.

Looking down at his sister, though, he could see that she and Superman were sticking pretty close together. With a smile, he could see a couple in the making no two ways about it. While she hadn't been obvious about it the past four weeks, there had been enough episodes of her staring off into space daydreaming that he'd known that heart-shaped thoughts were floating through her mind. He hadn't actually known who it was she was crushing over but it was definitely romance going on behind her eyes rather than something like clothes or some award she wanted to be awarded. It wasn't until just a little while ago when she'd thrown herself into the arms of Superman that it'd all clicked together and he had to say he liked the match. The two of them looked good together but something told him that it'd be a rocky start, one way or another. This, of course, was because of the look he'd seen in Reed's eyes and it'd almost been enough to get him to shake his head at the guy. He'd known that the egghead felt something towards his sister and had even encouraged him here and there, but that was only because he wanted his sis to have a life outside of science. Now, though, it looked like the young genius' moments of hesitation and anxiety had finally cost him because, unless something big happened, Sue was going to latch onto Superman with everything she had. He hadn't seen her this focused on something since she'd aimed for her first doctorate and she'd almost worked herself to exhaustion with that.

As an ominous rumbling began to flow through the air, he stopped his assaults on the monsters for a moment, getting yet another Han Solo feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Ben, stop fighting!! The entire structure is collapsing over our heads!!" Reed yelled stretching himself close to where Grimm was throwing punches.

"AAGGHH!!" came a bellow from Moley, who looked like he was about to get buried under tons of rock and tech junk, "NOOOOO!"

Flying in close to the others in case they needed him, even he had to admit that the big orange machine had overdone it a little with his ass kicking.

"AIEE!!" came a female scream that he surprisingly traced to his sister but the reason for it became clear when Supes swooped down to knock aside a pillar that had been about to fall on her.

He almost said something right then about her really liking the guy to play the damsel in distress role but decided to keep that little comment to himself. Sue wasn't the type to cut him any slack if he made fun of something she was really into and, judging by how she was glomped onto Superman at the moment, it was clear she liked him a LOT.

As the ground below them and the ceiling above them became more and more unstable, it was clear that they had to start looking for a way out soon or they'd wind up buried. Reed, their ultimate brainiac, was still trying to convince Moley to come with them back to the surface to get the head shrinkage plus bath package that he so obviously needed. Judging from the scream of dying defiance, though, it sounded like the ugly dude decided he'd prefer being squishified to any sort of assistance from them. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see that Supes wanted to fly to the guy's rescue but he was busy smacking aside any pieces of stone that got to close to the rest of them. As fast as this guy might be, it looked like he didn't think he'd be able to be in two places at once in order to save everyone. He could sympathize with the guy, he didn't think Moley deserved to die either, but everyone's got limits to what they can do and that was just the way the world was sometime.

As seconds passed the amount of falling rock coming down on them became too much for even Superman to handle, even though he was moving so fast all he was to normal eyes was a blur of blue and red. However, just as he thought they'd all be crushed, finally and for good, something distinctly dome shape yet invisible seemed to keep all the heavy stones away from them for a good couple feet both above as well as to the sides.

"Uh, Sue, did you just do that?" Reed asked, looking about at yet another puzzle he'd be spending time in the lab pondering.

"I think so." Sue replied, sounding a little unsure of the answer she'd just given.

"How?" he asked wanting something a little more boosting to his odds of survival.

"It looks like she's projecting some sort of invisible force field." Superman replied, looking around and likely seeing something that the rest of them would need equipment to perceive, "A perfect dome in shape and quite strong, considering the amount of rock on top of it."

"Can you get us out?" he asked, feeling that this was probably the most important question of the pile he currently had bouncing around his head.

"Maybe. If I'm right Sue can probably shape the force field into any form she wants." Superman said as he wrapped his right arm around Sue's waist, "If you all grab onto me and if Sue keeps us surrounded by the force field, I can probably get us back to the hole we came down and get us all back to the surface."

"Then let's do it. I don't want to spend another moment down here." Sue said as she wrapped her own arm around Superman's waist, "All aboard everybody!"

With the only person showing reluctance being Reed, they eventually all had a firm grip on the superhero and, with only a little effort on Sue's part, they were quickly airborne. Moving through all the rock proved to be a bit harder but it looked like Blue Boy's theory about the force field his Sis was putting out was accurate. It was strong enough to hold up against several tons of rock and, with Cape boy adding his own muscle, it only took them ten minutes to reach the hole they'd come down. From there it was a mere thirty seconds before they were once again topside and surrounded by army boys, yelling at them to keep their hands up or freeze.

"Put those guns down! Those are my children you're aiming them at!" Dad yelled as he pushed his way through the ranks of soldiers until he was right next to them.

"You heard the man! At ease!" yelled General Ross, who was the ranking officer on site and thus their commanding officer.

This was met with a bit of grumbling but the toy soldiers apparently knew where defiance would get them, so one by one they all went off to do other things, like securing the perimeter or something. However, with them gone, Ross could now focus all his attention on the five of them and that sort of had him wanting the trigger happy soldiers back.

"Now what in Sam Hill happened down there?!" Ross asked, not directing his question to any one person but the five of them as a whole.

"Well, General, the creature that came to the surface here was apparently a creation of Dr. Arthur Molekevic, whom I believe you know, sent to retrieve Mr. Richards and Mr. Storm here." Superman replied, taking the bulk of the glaring Ross was generating, "He had already acquired Ms. Storm and wanted a complete set of former students. He apparently wanted them to side with him in a vendetta of sorts against those in charge of the Baxter Building as revenge for the termination of his employment there. All three declined, he didn't take it well and, well, a fight broke out between us and Molekevic's creations. We managed to get out of there and here we are."

"And the current status of Molekevic?" Ross asked with some hostility to the largely unknown quantity.

"Mr. Richards here was the last one to see him." Superman replied turning to look at Reed.

"He fell into a chasm, sir." Reed said, sounding like he'd failed somehow, "I tried to use my powers to save him but his rate of descent was greater than the speed at which my limbs could extend."

"Hmph." Was all Ross could say but it didn't look like the General was particularly sorry to hear that Molekevic had most likely died.

"Well, now that this matter has been resolved I'm afraid I must be going." Superman said as he rose into the air slowly, "I have a patrol to complete and then some traditionally tedious paperwork to fill out."

"Paperwork?" Ben asked, sounding like he couldn't see the connection between being a superhero and having to do paperwork.

He had to admit that he was having some trouble himself since, in all the time he'd read comic books or watched cartoons featuring superheroes, there was never a scene where the hero had to do paperwork.

"Yes. The Justice League has a bureaucracy just like any other organization." Superman replied while reaching into a compartment on his belt for something, "This doesn't get into the fine details but it should give you the basic gist of what we're all about."

Tossing a folded up piece of paper to Sue, he vanished in a blur of motion that made it impossible for Ross to say or do anything to make the powerful being stay for an official debriefing. Deciding that he was more curious about the paper than listening to a rant by Thunderbolt Ross, he looked over his sister's shoulder as she unfolded it. What he saw written on it made just about everyone's eyebrows rise up and a thoughtful look appear on their faces.

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED

THIS IS OUR DECLARATION TO THE PEOPLE OF THE PLANET EARTH.

WE SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO DO OUR BEST TO SERVE AND PROTECT THIS WORLD, TO HELP AVERT TRAGEDY, AND TO FIGHT AGAINST THE DARKNESS THAT PREYS UPON THE INNOCENT. WE SWEAR ALLEGIENCE TO NO ONE COUNTRY BUT RATHER TO THE PLANET AS A WHOLE. WHILE WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO WORK WITH THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD IF LAWS, POLICIES OR PROTOCOL GO AGAINST THE COMMON GOOD WE WILL DO WHAT WE MUST. WE HOPE IN TIME THAT YOU WILL ALL COME TO TRUST US.

SO SWEARS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED.

"Cool! I wonder if they're recruiting anytime soon." Was all he could say to the idea of an international superhero team making its debut.

The Skies Above New York City, Two Days Later, Elizabeth 'Buffy' Hol's P.O.V

"Watchtower to Hawkgirl." Came the voice of Giles over their earplug-like communications gear.

"Hawkgirl here. What's the what, Bats?" she replied after pressing on the center button of the device in her ear.

"We have a tech terrorist situation in progress. A man by the name of Dr. Otto Octavius has seized control of the new alternative energy power facility in the harbor," Batman replied with not even a crumb of annoyance at his new nickname or her poor grammar. "He hasn't made any demands as of yet but, considering he brutally murdered at least four people on camera in front of a group of reporters, I doubt he's there to launch a peaceful protest."

"Ya think!?" she asked rhetorically almost rolling her eyes, "So standard swoop in and save the day?"

"For the most part, yes, but be careful. Based on the footage I have the man has at least four extendable metallic tentacles at his disposal aside from the appendages he was born with." Giles replied while no doubt attempting to gather more information, "They were originally designed by him to manipulate volatile and potentially toxic materials but he's managed to effectively turn them into weapons. I would recommend you let Miss Martian take the lead and hang back as her backup."

"What, you don't think I can handle one nutty professor with a couple of mechanical arms?" she asked, somewhat insulted that he thought so little of her abilities.

"The interior of the dome facility isn't flyer friendly, especially those with wings. Your maneuverability would be severely limited and considering that his tentacles can extend up to twenty-six feet and are every bit as flexible as organic tentacles, you would be at a distinct disadvantage." Batman replied, not noticing her raised ire one bit, "Miss Martian's shapeshifting abilities, phasing and super speed would be more effective in protecting her from Octavius' attacks."

"Oh. I guess that's alright." She said, feeling a little awkward now that Giles had backed up his plan with facts, "Anything else we should know?"

"The NYPD are sending two choppers with S.W.A.T teams as we speak and they should arrive about the same time you do. Be careful." Ruper Wayne replied with conveyed concern, "We still haven't gotten a good enough handle on this world's reaction to us to know how the police will react when they see you. Be prepared to take evasive action."

"Got it. Hawkgirl out." She said terminating the connection before turning to Anya, who was her patrol partner today, "Trouble at that big dome building in the harbor. Some crazy scientist—"

"—named Octavius is pulling the usual villain schtick with four telescoping mechanical limbs. I know." Anya finished, sounding a little impatient.

"How? I… You weren't snooping around my head, were you?" she asked, implying consequences if the answer was yes.

"No Batman included me in the transmission making it into a conference call." Anya replied, sounding insulted that someone would think her a mental peeping tom, "I just decided to let you guys do all the talking."

"Fine then. Let's go." She said, altering her flight path to take her to the dome shaped energy plant.

She knew she should have apologized to Anya but she was still feeling awkward for misinterpreting Giles' strategy and finding out she'd jumped to conclusions about Anya hadn't made things any better. Besides which, considering how Anya acted pre-empowerment, it wouldn't have been too big a leap to think that she might use her newly acquired telepathy to somehow peer into the minds of others for her own benefit. The former Vengeance demon-turned-human-turned-Martian would probably fail to see the problem with using her powers that way so long as it didn't cause any lasting harm. Tact and the usual human customs were often lost on the woman and, while she'd seen some improvement since inheriting the memories, skills and abilities of the Martian Manhunter, she still didn't believe that the tactlessness was gone. Still, until it got them into trouble, she guessed she'd keep her mouth shut on the matter as best she could and try to trust her teammate more. They'd only started going on two person patrols yesterday and she knew that trusting your partner could mean the difference between life and death in situations like this.

It took about three minutes before they reached the island upon which the energy facility was built and just, like Batman had said, there were two S.W.A.T choppers also on the approach as well as some news helicopters. What was a little surprising, though, was the person hanging from a rope of some kind attached to the underside of one of the police helicopters. Dressed in red and blue spandex with a spider theme was the costumed hero known as Spider-man and, while obviously not much older than she was when she'd been Called as the Slayer, he had a decent enough rep despite the slandering the Daily Bugle did. However it looked like the guy was having second thoughts about the idea of catching a ride to the island on the copter. It only got worse, though, when one of the idiots on the police chopper opened fire on the webhead, missing the kid only by the smallest of margins. Deciding this was completely inappropriate behavior for law enforcement officers, she didn't say a word to Anya before diving down with her mace wound up and ready to swing.

"Why don't you shoot at someone whose armed officer!?" she asked rhetorically before using her mace to smash the guy's rifle to pieces, "HAH!"

Knowing that she was risking receiving fire from the other copter, she was quick to get out of effective range of their weapons but, turning around, she found that she needn't have worried since Anya had taken up a position that would prevent the police officers from getting a clear shot at her.

You're welcome, now how about you help the little boy clinging to his webline for dear life and get him down to the dome below. Came Anya's definitely impatient thoughts telepathically, I'll keep these guys busy.

Right. She thought back before descending to where the wall crawler was watching them.

"Need a lift, buddy?" she asked, doing her best New York cabbie impersonation.

"Youbetcha! Terra firma please and please mind the speed limit!" Spider-man replied before latching onto her shoulders and glomping onto her.

"No problem." She said, uncomfortably aware of where his hands were close to, "Just remember to keep your hands to yourself, 'kay?"

"N-no problem." Replied the webhead, hastily putting his hands in the least offensive spots possible.

Definitely a guy who's never had a girlfriend before and probably a virgin too. She thought as she extended her wings a bit more and began to slowly float down to the ground in a spiral pattern.

As soon as she touched down, the webhead was rather quick to disengage from her and she had to keep her amusement restrained to a simple grin as she could just imagine what was going through the kid's head. In a way his actions sort of reminded her of Xander whenever the subject of girls and sex came into the picture, but that was more early Xander than the most recent up-to-date version. If there was one good thing about the relationship that Anya had had with her Xander-shaped friend it was making it harder to embarrass the guy. Maybe she should see if there were any verbally blunt and tactless teenage girls around and then hook her up with the webhead.

It'd be amusing to watch if nothing else.

You can play matchmaker later! Anya's voice rang sternly in her head, The cops are currently distracted so let's get inside and deal with this Octopus guy before they get their acts together.

Looking up, she was dumbfounded to see that both of the helicopters carrying the police officers seemed to be performing some sort of aerial ballet comprised of artful swoops and dives as well as some interesting near misses. It was so decidedly un-police-like and weird that it made her wonder what precisely Anya'd done to them to get them to behave like that.

Then she remembered what happened the last time she'd asked Anya to explain one of her plans and decided that she was better off just accepting that this idea had worked before moving quickly along.

"Do I want to know why the police are putting on their own air show?" Spider-man asked, sounding as confused as she was.

"Not if you want to keep your head from exploding." She replied before hefting her mace up in preparation for battle, "Now I believe we have an Octopus to deal with. Want to team up?"

"Team up with two beautiful ladies to kick some bad guy butt? Do you really have to ask?" Spider-Man asked before giving a theatrical bow, "Let's be on our way, fair lady."

With those words the young man shot out a line of what looked like webbing from a spot on his wrist before swinging towards the main building of the complex. Taking to the air herself, she was soon joined by Anya, who took up a supportive aerial position herself as they followed their tentative teammate to where the Octopus guy supposedly was. Watching as the webhead made with the dramatic entrance through a skylight window of the main complex, she thought to Anya, telling her to enter via her Martian phase ability while she followed the kid through the skylight. She knew that the Martian woman would pick it up since that was a part of the training that the Bat had them do every second day when they weren't scheduled to patrol. As it turned out the Kryptonian ship they'd made into their HQ did have a simulation room that could act as their training room and the only thing they'd had to do was work on it for a day straight to reinforce the structural integrity of the room and install certain failsafe systems. Once the room was deemed fit for training, Giles had marched them inside and had them work on mastering their abilities and working together as a cohesive unit in the field. Some (yes, she was included in that) had protested about the training taking up so much of their free time but a stern look from Batman, who had really mastered that whole intimidation staring routine, had cowed even the most resistant of them.

Once she was inside she found Spider-man trying to help an injured technician, who looked to be alive but seriously hurt nonetheless. The rest of the building was a complete and utter disaster with fires and smashed up machines in just about every direction imaginable. This Octopus guy must have had one helluva temper tantrum here and was definitely not fooling around since her Thanagarian eyes could all too easily pick out still bodies amidst the trashed machines. The Slayer attributes that somehow survived the upgrades from Hawkgirl also allowed her to smell the death and destruction around her but, given what those senses were telling her, she almost wished that she just had normal human level senses.

She was just about to tell Spider-Man to help her get those still alive outside when the Slayer essence and battle sharpened instincts of Shayera Hol told her to vacate her current position immediately. It was a good thing too since a mental tentacle slammed into the concrete floor where she'd been, causing spider web cracks to form. She didn't have any more time than that to think before another metallic appendage struck out at her but, thankfully, the room was open enough that she could take to the air without having to worry too much. While she might have had limited options on the ground, in the air Hawkgirl's memories and skills made avoiding the twin tentacles wasn't half as difficult. It still wasn't a picnic but she would have a better chance of survival in the air. Looking back the way the tentacles were coming from, she saw a forty-something man wearing green spandex and had some sort of metal device wrapped around his waist, which was where the metal arms were coming from. Thankfully, though, his attention seemed to be split between her and the web slinger so each of them only had to deal with two arms at a time.

"Are you two of Hammer's freaks? Sent to kill me!?" the man asked angrily as he continued to fail to hit them.

"The only one doing any killing around here is you, Octopus man!" she said as she tried to find an approach vector she could use to get in close, "Now you have two choices: surrender or be defeated."

"I hope you'll understand, my dear, when I choose to see neither option as acceptable." Octopus man said with hostile politeness before he began to use his tentacles to throw debris at her.

This was not a favorable turn of events to put it lightly.

While she had been able to dodge his tentacles easily enough, the debris came in all shapes and sizes, making her evasive efforts all the more difficult to make. Add to that the fact that each missed projectile caused more damage to the surrounding area and she had to anticipate how each attack might effect the surrounding environment. They needed to take this guy down now and it'd be a lot easier if Anya would show up and give the guy wearing the shades one more problem to worry about.

I aim to please! Came the telepathic message before a ghost like form rose from the ground behind the Octopus man, Get ready to move when I give you the opening.

Right! She thought back waiting for the opening to appear.

The opening appeared one minute later when, like a life form made of some sort of liquid, Miss Martian wrapped around the Octopus man like a boa constrictor. This had to be the opening and she didn't hesitate to dive down as quick as she could while bringing a free hand back to deliver a calibrated punch. She didn't know what sort of connection this guy had to his metallic arms but, considering that she didn't see any sort of controls, she surmised that he must have some sort of mental connection with them. If that was indeed the case, she didn't want to cause the egghead any unnecessary harm by possibly causing some sort of neurological feedback if she destroyed his arms. Thus, the second she got within range, she delivered a right hook to the man's jaw and said a silent prayer of thanks that she didn't hear the sound of the guy's jaw breaking. When fighting vampires and demons, she never had to worry about how hard she hit them so long as they were dead in the end. As a member of this new Justice League, though, they'd be fighting humans mostly, with only the occasional threat that would need the power of her mace to bring down. Being a member of the league also meant that excessive force on an enemy was strictly forbidden since, while they were not police officers, they still had to obey similar rules of conduct when on the job. It'd only make getting the public to accept the League harder if the people saw them as a bunch of costumed thugs who brutalized the criminals they caught. Watching the man fall to the ground, she waited warily to see if he was truly down for the count or if he was going to come back to give her a few new bruises in return for the one she left on his jaw.

You don't have anything to worry about. Anya said as she finished retaking her standard 'Miss Martian' form, He's completely unconscious. All that's left is to put some restraints on him, take him outside for all to see and then leave our calling cards behind.

Right! She thought as she began to look for some cables or if necessary some I-beams to wrap the guy in.

"Remind me never to get you mad." Spider-Man said as he showed that his webbing could be used to tie people up as well as carry him around.

"Good advice. Thanagarians aren't exactly known for their restraint when they're pissed at someone." Anya said finally saying something out loud rather than in someone's head.

"Thanagarians?" Spider-Man asked sounding confused at the unfamiliar term.

ANYA!! She thought loudly at the telepathic Martian, Stick to the codenames! It'll be hard enough for him to understand why a woman has wings, never mind a female alien!!

"It's just a pin prick sized country overseas called Thanagar. You probably wouldn't have heard of it." She said, quickly coming up with the most normal sounding reason.

"Oh." Was all the webhead said in response to her excuse.

"Now let's start getting people outside until the official rescue teams get here." She said as she went over to check the vitals of the man that Spider-Man had been examining earlier.

"Right!" Spider-Man said as he began to bounce around the place looking for survivors.

Definitely not someone who should be given any sort of sugar. She thought as she pictured what the guy would be like after wolfing down a grocery bag full of sweets.

Justice League Command Ship, Embarkation Room, Two Hours Later, Batman's P.O.V

"—can't believe they shot at us while we were getting the survivors out!" Hawkgirl, aka Buffy Hol, griped as she came through the gateway arch, "Didn't they care at all that there were innocents next to us?!"

"From what I was able to read from their minds, they thought that we were a pair of mutants and figured that was reason enough to open fire." Miss Martian replied even though it was probably a rhetorical question on Hawkgirl's part, "One of them even thought that we were working for Octopus all along and just decided to turn on him when he got out of hand. Idiots!!"

"I can just see the headlines tomorrow if anyone listens to those idiots!" Buffy growled before taking on a mocking reporter's voice, "MUTANT MONSTER BITCHES BETRAY EMPLOYER TO SAVE THEIR OWN UNNATURAL SKINS!! Make me wonder if diving in there was worth it to begin with!"

"It might have tipped us off to something we might have otherwise missed." He said, catching their attention in an instant with his Dark Knight voice, "Octavius might have had good reason for having a grudge against Hammer Industries. After I sent you in I began digging into the records on Justin Hammer and his company and what I found was troubling to say the least."

"This Hammer guy have some skeletons in his closet?" Buffy asked, her earlier temper having given way to her curiosity.

"Officially he's your typical C.E.O and a rival of Norman Osborn of Oscorp. They've fought over contracts both in the military as well more private sector deals." He replied mentally filtering out the information that would only cause him to lose his Slayer's attention, "However, I have uncovered files that indicate that Hammer may have chosen to break the Superhuman Test Ban Treaty."

"What's that?" Anya asked with actual interest.

"A little after the first mutants began to appear, it became something of a hot idea amongst the various businesses to come up with a way to give normal humans powers to combat them." He replied bringing up the information in his mind's eye, "However several groups protested these experiments and saw them as unethical as well as dangerous. After a few incidents involving test subjects who managed to escape containment and enter populated areas, most of the primary nations around the world signed a treaty forbidding further research in this area. However there is a belief going around that some of the more ambitious companies have continued with their experiments but have hidden them better in confusing paperwork as well as levels that aren't included in the blueprints of certain buildings."

"So you think Hammer sent this Octopus guy somewhere, screwed him over and so the guy came back for revenge?" Buffy asked, putting together the likely scenario in her head.

"That's one possibility. According to Octavius' employment records, he did work once for Hammer Industries before being bought by Osborn. Considering that the man was a person of some importance in his field, I find it hard to believe that Hammer would allow him to go to another company without a fight," he replied, forming scenarios and theories in his head. "It's more likely that Hammer let him go for the purpose of implanting a mole in Oscorp to steal secrets or sabotage one project or another. Octavius was involved in an explosion at Oscorp that put him in a coma until just a few days ago when he murdered the doctors taking care of him as well as the woman who'd bought his old home. Details on the accident are sketchy but, given the fields of those involved, it's likely that Norman Osborn was also attempting his own version of the Superhuman experiments."

"I'm guessing something screwy happened since you'd think that egghead would know better than to blow himself up." Buffy said clearly, not understanding that just become someone was a doctor didn't mean they were explosive experts or incapable of making a mistake.

"No evidence one way or another on that. In any case, if Justin Hammer is violating the Superhuman Test Ban Treaty, then we should look into it." He said as he turned to gather the tools he'd need to infiltrate the target building tonight, "Experiments like those have a nasty habit of going bad."

"So you plan on going someplace for a peek?" Buffy asked, sounding like she'd go with him if he needed back up.

"Yes, but I'll be taking Black Canary and Zatanna with me. They need more field time and their powers are less obvious to the naked eye than anyone else in the League." He replied without breaking stride even a bit, "Plus, between the knowledge I've gained from Batman and Willow's own skills with computers, we should be able to confirm any suspicions I have."

"Well, good luck with that. I'm going to get something to eat." Buffy said as she made her way towards the lift that'd take her to the ship's mess hall, "Slayer metabolism is even worse now that I got a set of wings on my back."

Blocking the rest of the female discussion out of his mind, he moved to where he knew that Willow and Tara would be so he could inform them of the mission they'd be going on in about five hours.

Looking through the photographic memory he possessed, he recalled precisely what the duo had been doing since this morning. It had always been one of the side objectives since arriving in this new reality that they'd try to create civilian lives for themselves that didn't involve their costumed alter egos. Even though they'd all agreed to become a part of the Justice League, each of them desired to have a normal life they could retreat to when needed rather than just using a portal to come back to the ship. However, creating civilian lives that had detail and could pass examination by the various intelligence agencies around the world was not a simple task that could be finished in a single night. They had to verify each part to see if there were any iffy facts that could lead to their own downfall. If all the police, intelligence agencies and governments had to do was actually visit one of the locations mentioned and speak with the people there to find out it was all a lie, then what was the point? Once they finished a rough draft of a past for one of them, he personally went down to the locations mentioned and spoke with the people there to see how their recollections of the dates mentioned were and find out if there were any dangerous people there with excellent memories. If the people who lived there had sketchy memories and there was no paper trail that could ruin the cover stories, then the false past was accepted. However if he found so much as a single person who could remember precisely who was present at a certain event or attended a certain school or who worked at a certain business, then that part of the cover story was erased.

So far they had working cover stories for Dawn and Xander but the rest of them still had to wait until a few wrinkles in their back stories was ironed out.

When he entered the room, he could see both Tara and Willow planted behind their consoles with a holographic representation of A.V.I.A floating nearby to no doubt render assistance if necessary. Tara looked a little tired but Willow, as always, seemed to find the whole effort invigorating but, thankfully, had not been permitted any coffee as of yet. While the former redhead may have inherited a number of traits from Zatanna Zatara, she was still primarily Willow Rosenberg and so often got a little hyper when researching or using computers. When given sugar or something similar, though, she got a little out of hand and it was by unanimous decision of the Scooby gang that they would not let her have coffee or sweets unless absolutely necessary. A.V.I.A was aware of this rule and, while the artificial intelligence didn't quite understand, she agreed to adhere to this rule and as such automatically locked out those substances from the replicators when Willow got near one.

"How is your work proceeding?" he asked as the door slid closed behind him.

"The updated versions of the remaining back stories are almost ready for your review." A.V.I.A replied, rotating in the air until she faced him fully, "After observing your efforts and examining the finished versions for Superman and Wonder Girl, I believe I can help in assuring that the remaining ones will pass inspection by Earth's inhabitants."

"You'll have to do it on your own for tonight. Willow, Tara, you're coming with me to investigate Hammer Industries' Medical Facilities for signs that they are illegally performing Superhuman experiments." He explained as he walked over to the main console and brought up the information on the building they'd be infiltrating, "We leave in two hours. Be in the embarkation by then."

With that he turned around and left the room. He knew he was being a bit short with the girls and sadly this was due to Bruce Wayne's influence. The man was married, almost obsessed with his mission, to the point where he neglected every part of his life that didn't somehow contribute to his cause. He'd done everything he could to limit how much influence Bruce had over his behavior and beliefs but it wasn't easy to say the least. It was especially difficult when he wore the Batman outfit but he just handled it like he did his inner Ripper, though this could have turned out to be a mistake on his part. Batman wasn't some teenage rebellion persona that he used to be but rather an identity that Bruce Wayne had created specifically to prey upon the cowardly nature that all criminals had at their core. Something one slid into but repressed was easier to deal with than something that had been carefully constructed and thought out. He would have to redouble his efforts in making sure that he remained who he truly was and didn't fall into the same traps that kept Bruce Wayne all alone with nothing but his mission to keep him warm at night.

I will not let myself go down that road! He thought as he went to the armory to begin loading up on the tools and gear he would need in order to infiltrate Hammer's Medical Facility, Plenty of other costumed heroes managed to successfully lead double lives without any trouble and I've been leading a double life myself as both Watcher and high school librarian. I will make it happen!

He'd already made some inquiries on that part and had made partial progress.

Jenny was alive here!

Alive and apparently still undercover for some reason that he had yet to uncover.

He had managed to confirm by following paper trails and the like to prove that she did indeed have strong ties to the Kalderash gypsy tribe of this world. However, when he tried to look up information on vampires, Angelus in particular, he could find nothing either online or via trips to Earth to look through records that weren't digitally stored. He'd even used his knowledge as a Watcher to seek out the lesser known stores and taverns where the more supernatural and magically inclined community tended to frequent but, aside from news on the current Sorcerer Supreme and a dhampyre named Blade, he learned nothing. A part of him merely wanted to go down to the planet and go to her immediately and woo her until she was his but another insisted that he investigate her further before committing to anything. Both his own mind and the part of him that was Bruce Wayne however knew that even if you encountered someone in a parallel reality that looked precisely like someone you knew, it didn't mean that the mind or soul within would match as well. For all he knew she was secretly just as bad as Snyder or Travers. With a sigh of annoyance he realized that he had no choice but to wait until he had more facts to work with on her before even thinking about approaching her.

No matter what his heart was yelling at him to do.

Across the Street From Hammer Industries Medical Facility, Two and a Half Hours Later

Zatanna aka Willow Zatara's P.O.V

"Is security what the files said it would be?" Zatanna asked as she cast her gaze across the street to their objective.

She was dressed in her superheroine outfit, complete with large domino mask in order to keep her identity a secret. It may have been safe in the DC universe for Zatanna to walk around without a mask this world was another thing altogether. Here the mainstream population was suspicious of people with powers and only those that were approved by the government or had powers grounded in science. As such a magic user like herself wouldn't go over well and she'd probably be pegged as a mutant. Not a good thing, especially with all the things she'd found out on the mutant issue since they'd arrived in this dimension. It was horrible to see how the normal humans were vilifying and demonizing people born with the x-gene but, then again, mutants weren't exactly models of good behavior either. Most seemed to want to just live normal lives like Buffy did back home but then there were a few that seemed to think that their powers gave them the right to do whatever they wanted. Between the two sides using arrogance and hate to fuel their actions, it was difficult for anyone born with a special talent or ability to get by without getting some sort of trouble. So she'd endure the itching sensation the liquid adhesive was causing since it was that substance that was keeping her mask on.

"A little higher thanks to the attack by Octavius but nothing we can't deal with." Batman replied as he lowered the mini-binoculars from her eyes, "Zatanna? You're up."

"Got it. Ekam su elbisivni ot lla taht sees, sraeh dna sllems!" she encanted, casting a spell that should allow them to make it past most conventional forms of detection like cameras, dogs and people.

If Hammer had some more… unconventional methods for detecting intruders, then they'd have to adapt to the situations as they came. Sprinting across the street, they each made it over the fence either by using their own body's strength or by employing basic levitation magic to allow them to leap higher. Once on the other side they made for the side entrance that they'd labeled as their entry point. It took the Dark Knight less than a minute to circumvent the keypad system by the door and, once they were inside, the spell she'd cast minutes ago was proven effective as a guard passed right by them without so much as batting an eye. Still, they all did their best to not leave any trace of their passing as they proceeded to the central mainframe room where all of the servers and storage hard drives were kept. They'd considered simply finding the office of the top dog and using his computer but Giles vetoed that idea on the grounds that they'd need privacy and he didn't want any unexpected arrivals interfering. There were a lot of twists and turns, as well as a few elevators, but eventually they arrived at their target to find two find two armed guards standing outside the door of the room they wanted. Two guards who definitely weren't the stereotypical rent-a-cops who slacked off on the job because they thought that no one would ever make it down this far. No, these were the guards who took their jobs seriously and would never slip up or slack off on purpose so long as they paycheck cleared in the end.

Their dedication didn't save them in the end, though.

With a gentle roll Giles sent two spheres rolling towards the guards and knockout gas gushed out six feet into the air in three directions. The duo of guards only had time to look surprised before they dropped to the ground unconscious in undignified heaps.

"C'mon. Just because they don't have security cameras down here doesn't mean we're safe. When these two don't check in the ones upstairs will know something is up." Batman said as he went to work on the security measures on the door to the room.

These locks and security measures were significantly more difficult than anything they'd encountered up until now but that wasn't surprising, considering how important the contents of the room were. However, with the tools in his utility belt, he managed to unlock the room and rig the security devices so that no one aside from them would know that anything was the matter. With a combination of speed and stealth they entered the room and immediately went to the main access terminal before removing the mini-terminals from their backs and connecting them via fire wire cables. They all knew their objectives: Giles would look for files specifically centered around Otto Octavius and Oscorp, Tara would look for client records to see who Hammer had done business with and she would look for the files on possible superhuman experiments. They knew that these files would be seriously encrypted and protected with all the best codes and security programs, since it'd mean the end of Hammer Industries if this information ever got out. So, for the time being, they'd focus on accessing and downloading the files they believed contained the information they wanted. It would take too long for them to decrypt and decode everything here so the best they could do was transfer the files to their mini-terminals and then leave for the ship. They'd take a look at what they had there and then pull what they could from it as soon as possible because it was a no brainer that Hammer would know there'd been illegal access to his systems one way or another. They didn't have time to cover their tracks that thoroughly. The best they could manage was to arrange things so that it'd take until morning before anyone would suspect something was up. Oh, they'd find the guards sooner but it would take thorough examination of the system by professionals to find signs of their handiwork.

It took about twenty minutes to find the files they sought and then another ten to download them all without any problems. Once done they did their best to put things back to where they were before the trio had entered the room in the first place and then quietly began to follow their established escape route back to the surface. They had almost reached the western storage area when they spotted a man clad in commando gear as well as a few other customized tools whose purposes couldn't be ascertained by looks alone.

It also looked like the guy knew they were there despite her spell.

"I know you're there. Show yourself." The man said with southern accent.

"Release the spell on me alone." Batman ordered as he passed his mini-terminal to Black Canary.

"But why? We can sneak by him!" she said, not able to understand why Giles would want to confront this guy.

"No we can't. If he knows we're here then all the entrances are likely under guard." Batman stated, raising himself to his full height, "If I reveal myself now it might be enough to get them to focus their efforts on me and leave an opening for you two to escape. Don't call for an embarkation door until you're well clear of the compound."

"But--!" she tried to protest as her mind rebelled against the idea of leaving Giles to fend for himself.

"NOW!" Batman ordered in a way that seriously sent a pulse of fear through her.

In the end she knew that she had little choice in the matter so with a sigh said "Fine. Esaeler namtaB morf eht lleps."

Less than a second later she knew that this unknown man could now see Batman and so waited with Tara for an opening to appear for them to make a break for it.

"Nice outfit." The man stated with a bit of contempt, "Also I have to compliment you on your cloaking system. Better than anything the R&D boys have come up with so far. Still, you should have been more thorough with the security system. Now normally trespassers who get this far and get caught are simply shaken down for whatever they might have found and then turned over to the cops. However, since that Octavius freak attacked the alternative energy dome, Mr. Hammer is in one of his moods so he's raised the bar a bit: terminate then dispose. Bad luck, isn't it?"

"Yes. For you." Was all Giles said before charging the man head on.

Before the unknown person could draw a weapon, Rupert Wayne had closed to close quarters range and then the fight was on between the two of them. It was something to see from an observer's point of view, since it seemed that this new guy was pretty good at hand-to-hand combat, but she had a feeling that Giles was leading the fight with every move. As soon as she thought that, he delivered a punch-kick combo that sent the man tumbling down the hallway away from their entry point. Waiting until she was sure that Giles and the other guy were too busy fighting each other to notice anything, she grabbed Tara by the hand and took her through the door to the western storage area. Once inside they immediately went for the door that would lead to the loading dock, since from there they'd have a clear line of sight with the gate that was their exit point.

When they stepped outside though, they saw something that didn't look to be of the good at all. Sometime after they entered the building some sort of mist had spread across the complex grounds. Looking around, she discovered that it was artificial in nature as it was coming up from vents in the ground and while she couldn't figure out why Hammer Industries had done this she knew it put a crimp in their escape plan. Her spell kept them hidden from the sense of sight, smell and hearing but if they moved through the mist their passing would disturb it exposing their presence. She could try to fly them out of there but who knew what sort of systems that would trigger. Still she could see no other way to get out of the complex without disturbing the mist.

"Grab onto me, Canary." She said and once the blonde did so she chanted, "Cigam tfil su otni eht yks."

With those words, a glow surrounded her and Tara before both of them were lifted into the air by an unseen energy with her guiding the direction they were going in with her wand. However, just as she was about to reach a height that would allow her and Tara to clear the fence, she felt something painful hit her right shoulder. She didn't know if it was a bullet or not but did know that the only reason she was only feeling brief pain rather than the prolonged kind was because her costume had been reinforced by Batman on the ship with various bullet and energy proof materials while still looking like an off the rack outfit. Still, it meant that either a guard was firing randomly or they had been detected despite the spell of concealment still being in place. This was proving bothersome to her since it meant that either she needed to train herself harder to master Zatanna's powers or magic wasn't nearly as effective against science as she'd thought. In any case, she had to choose whether to make a break for it and risk making their presence all the more apparent or continue on in the belief that it was just a lucky shot from a random guard that hit her.

She chose to err on the side of caution and channeled more magic into her flight spell so that they could leave the Hammer Industries complex as quickly as possible. This, however, caused more shots to ring out and confirm that somehow they were detectable to the guards of this facility and so she did her best to perform evasive maneuvers, even though they weren't her forte. While Zatanna could fly, she didn't do it often or do much training with it like those who naturally got around by flying through the air and, while she had tried to improve in this area, she was still something of an amateur. As such, when they'd almost reached the fence, a shot rang out and hit her in the leg where the protective material that made up her outfit was weakest, piercing it and causing blood to flow. It also had the unintended side effect of breaking her concentration, causing her cloaking spell to shatter and her flying spell to barely remain intact enough to get both her and Tara safely to the ground. Sadly this made them all too visible to the guards and men with guns started swarming them from all sides. She tried to think of a spell she could use but wondered at how effective they would be given that one of her more impressive spells had been seen through by science.

In the end she didn't need to choose.

Tara chose for her.

With a sonic scream her lover knocked the approaching guards from their feet, with most of them not getting back up again even after the Canary Cry was no longer being directed at them. However she could tell from where she was that they were still alive by the groans she heard from some and the signs of breathing that she could detect. While the Canary Cry had the potential to shatter concrete and steel, it could also be tempered to only render living things unconscious. That was the obvious case here and, once the guards were all down, Black Canary turned around and unleashed her Canary Cry on the gate, tearing it to pieces leaving them a clear path to safety. With Tara's help she was able to get back to her feet and between the two of them they soon left the Hammer Industries complex a good five blocks behind before calling for the embarkation room arch.

"You do realize that thanks to that little screw up back there Batman is going to bully us into extra training, right?" Tara asked as they walked towards the golden curtain that was the event horizon of the gateway.

"Of course, but at least I'll have a few days before I get tossed into it." She said with a sneaky smile on her face, "Can't very well train with an injured leg, now, can I?"