Gotham, Wayne Manor
Lara wakes up after hearing some loud shouting. She sits up and yawns as she stretches her arms out. She's wearing something she isn't used to and its tight, like a second skin. She rubs her eyes and makes out the red 'S' on her chest. Her eyes go wide, and she realizes she wasn't dreaming last night. She really did get her own suit, and it is freaking sweet. She looks around for someone to celebrate with, but her parents aren't in the room. She gets out of the bed and works her way to the kitchen to find no one there either. She is about to go to the Batcave when she hears a slight sound behind her.
Lara calls out in no particular direction "I believe it is considered bad for your health to try and surprise an amazon." No more movement, but she knows someone is in the room with her.
"Hide and Seek then? I'm game."
Lara turns around slowly and sees one of the windows is open. She walks over to close it, so she can focus on the sounds in the room, but she still can't hear a thing. She leaves the kitchen to go to the Cave, but she is just waiting outside the kitchen for someone to reveal themselves. After a minute she can hear nothing else, so she turns to walk away and bumps right into Damian.
"Ha! I knew someone was in there."
"I haven't been in the kitchen since I entered 5 minutes ago. You should work on those super senses, If I was trying to kill you, you would be dead."
Lara scoffs "If you were trying to kill me I'd put you through a wall and stab you with that silly sword. You're just sour because I saw you in the Cave when no one else did."
"It was obviously a fluke since you didn't see or hear me just now. Like I said work on those senses." Damian turns to walk away and Lara smiles. If she didn't know better, she would think she was talking to the Batman himself.
"I guess you're just mad because I'm taller than you." Damian stops in his tracks and her smile grows. In an instant he pulls his sword and points it at her neck.
"It's bad for your health to insult me."
"Do you really think you could hit me? I mean sure the sword gives you more reach, but I think without it you couldn't even reach my chin with those short arms." Damian sheathes his sword then takes a swing at her, but Lara steps back out of his reach and speeds behind him to flip his cape over his head and push him down.
"You should work on your warrior skills Robin, you might have been killed if I actually wanted to hurt you."
Damian swings back around after getting from under his cape, but Lara has already sped away. He had wanted to test himself against the little alien, but it seems she had more training than he estimated. As he gets up to go to the Cave he's sure he just made the little alien's day. Lara made her way down the cave steps happy as a clam. She had the bragging rights along with hurting his pride. Only 10 years old and she beat Robin.
Gotham, The Batcave
"-If you agree to do this you can meet me at this neutral location, so we can discuss terms for the future meeting with the President and a ceasefire can be agreed upon. You have 2 hours to respond." The message finishes and silence rings throughout the Cave till Oracle speaks up.
"So that was weird right? I'm not the only one who thought that was bizarre, right?"
"It was a waste of her time to do that, she can't expect us to be dumb enough to walk into- "Bruce stops as he turns to Clark and he sees him contemplating it. "You can't be seriously considering what she said."
"Why wouldn't I?" Clark is just looking at the screen and thinking of how to turn this into a good situation. Bruce is rubbing his temples, so he doesn't get a migraine from the bad idea he's about to hear from Clark.
"Oracle give us a minute. And get everyone to the Cave, we are going to strike soon."
"Play nice you two."
Clark turns to Bruce with a grin on his face.
"You want to spring the trap? You realize this is clearly a trap, right? Meant to take one of our newly acquired big guns out of commission."
"Hear me out Bruce." He groans.
"I know you have been on ice for a while, but you can't have lost all your brain cells while you were up there. The chances of this being a trap for you are too damn high for you to just walk into this."
"This was the plan anyways Bruce. Throw me in the fire to catch all the flak, then save Wally and Linda. Waller is just giving us a perfect opportunity to do it now rather than later."
"Please try to understand how bad of an idea this is. Instead of having some element of surprise you will be walking into a firing gallery where you don't know where the shooters are."
"I'm bulletproof Bruce."
"NO! You don't get to be funny with this. Think about Lara and Diana. You can't put your neck out for Waller to hack at with all the kryptonite she can muster."
"I have no intentions of dying out there, and we know that if this trap is for me she will throw her best at me. What are the chances of Wally and Linda being freed with Waller focusing right on me?" They are staring each other down.
"If this trap is for you, she will throw every Hero Hunter she has at you. So, Wally and Linda are as good as free."
"That's my point, we want them free. This will make it even easier."
"We can't just trade you for them. That's what this will be Clark, you can't underestimate those things. They have killed and captured more of our friends than you know." They can hear footsteps coming down the stairs now and Lara has appeared.
"You wound me Bruce, you think I can't take some robots on? Even with kryptonite they will have a hard time keeping me down." He looks to Lara as she gets closer "I've got too much to come back to."
The cave is starting to get noisy with arrivals of Selina, Dick, and Barda followed by Jason and Tim.
"Diana won't like this Clark, good luck getting it past her."
"Let me worry about my wife, Bruce. Just make sure you get to Wally and Linda."
Lara is freaking out a bit after seeing Big Barda, number 8 on her favorite hero list. She wasn't sure if Barda was a hugger, so she sped up to her and asked very politely if she could hug her cause she was so cool. Barda agreed but was surprised to be having the air squeezed out of her. The Knights were all there now and were crowded around Bruce receiving their orders with Selina standing by and listening intently. As Diana arrived she caught Kal's eyes and he gestures for her to come over.
"For now, we need to focus on evacuation. Dick has the Titans helping the civilians that are left in Bludhaven. Jason, Cass, Steph, and Selina can evacuate Metropolis and Central City to Gotham while the rest of you help the League getting Wally and Linda." The Knights are nodding and looking to each other then back to Bruce. "Our window will be brief, and we can't afford to linger at either of these facilities for too long. Tim will be going with Barda and Diana, he can provide tech support with Oracle. Dick and Damian can get Linda since she is just in a regular holding facility that's not far away. We move soon, so get your gear and be ready."
Diana is a little confused "You started without me?"
"Your dismissed for now, be ready in the next 15 minutes." The Knights disperse and Barda joins the 3 of them with Lara following her and continuing to fangirl.
Kal speaks up "We have a plan, but you aren't going to like it."
"Why not? Has something changed?"
Bruce turns to the computer to play the message from Waller. Diana's still a little confused.
"Why does that change anything? It's clearly a trap and has nothing to do with Wally or Linda."
Bruce nods to Kal "He wants to spring the trap."
Diana looks at Kal incredulously "What? Why?"
"It makes sense if you just think about it."
"How could walking straight into a trap ever make sense? Waller knows Batman would never walk into a farce like this, so it must be for you. She knows you would jump at a chance for peace like this."
"I'm going in expecting a fight Diana, I know- "
"No, that's the point. You don't know what she has in store, you don't know what tricks she will pull. This is a terrible idea Kal and you know it."
"I need to do this Diana, getting to Wally is going to be easy with these Hero Hunters out of the way."
Lara is now looking at the two of them expectantly. Diana never really had to argue with her sisters on the island, and if she did she usually won the argument or got her way. It wasn't good for her to see her mother and father arguing however.
"Come with me" Diana floats away to go deeper into the Cave "we'll just be a second."
Kal follows her till they get to a lower level of the Cave where she stops with her back turned to him.
"Why do you need this Kal? Because of your guilt?"
"He would do it for me Diana, you know he would." Diana hangs her head and sighs heavily.
"I don't want to lose you again Kal. I can't afford to, none of us can. Please rethink this." He walks up to her and wraps his arms around her from behind.
"I can handle this Diana, I know it seems like I'm just jumping into the fray without much thought. But I am thinking this through. I can do this, and when it's done I'll see you and Lara and everyone else. This isn't my last battle, not by a longshot." Diana turns in his arms, so that they are face to face.
She says with a smile "How are you so good at making me believe you?"
He returns her smile "I believe in myself Diana, and I believe in you. I'm coming back to you and I won't let anything stop me."
They kiss for what is probably the millionth time but feels just like the first. They will see each other again, yet they touch as if it will be the last time for centuries. Each second savored beyond anyone else's recognition. Each moment punctuated with the feeling of being utterly lost in each other's embrace. It was only a few seconds and would have lasted longer if they didn't hear some commotion above them.
Diana and Kal look up to see Lara floating in an opening above them on the level where everyone was. And there's a green light that just appeared next to her, seemingly out of thin air.
"Lara!" Kal shoots to her position and grabs the thing by the neck, holding it away from Lara.
Lara calls out "Daddy stop!"
"Reveal yourself!" The being continues to outline itself changing its all green to reveal a face Kal hasn't seen in a long time.
"It's just me Uncle, sorry to have startled you. I didn't know how I should announce myself and young Lara was advising me to just show myself." Kal loosens his grip as he watches a familiar face appear.
Diana has arrived beside them "Alan! What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" Kal lets go of him as he begins to reveal his face from under the mask he had on. He's now completely green save from the black circle on his chest, his raven colored hair, and tan face.
"Everything is fine Diana, I decided that I can no longer hide myself away and suppress my emotions. I want to help you save Wally and Linda. And if the offer still stands I'd be happy to join the Justice League in their fight as well." They all start to float toward Barda, Selina, and Bruce who are waiting expectantly.
Bruce asks, "So you'll be joining us then?"
Alan nods "It's time for me to be more proactive Batman. I can only learn so much about control while meditating and drinking tea." Bruce smirks at him before turning back to the computer. Selina, Diana, Kal, Barda, Lara and Alan gather around Bruce for the briefing.
"The original plan was for Superman to meet Waller, then we move on Wally and Linda at the same time. But with Alan maybe we can be a bit more flexible."
"What do you mean?"
"For whatever reason, Alan seems to be undetectable by anything I have on deck. And I'm guessing it was even hard for Clark to notice him." Clark nods yes.
"If that's the case then he can provide air support for our team to get Wally. Once our team gets in, it should be easier for them to extract Wally. Then we can provide support for Clark if he needs it."
"Make sure Wally and Linda are safe, I'll be fine."
"If I may" Alan speaks up "I think it would be wiser for me to be in an area where I couldn't harm someone by losing control. If it comes down to it, I'd like to be somewhere where I couldn't hurt anyone."
Barda laughs "Ha! You need to toughen up. Someone's going to get hurt by the time we are done. Settle with that now, or you'll be no use to us."
Diana tries to reassure him "Alan there isn't really somewhere in the plan where you wouldn't be able to hurt someone. But I'm confident in your control and I know you can do this."
Selina tries to be supportive as well "Alan's going to be an unknown for them, like Barda, but maybe we can use him sparingly. He could help Clark out in that ambush, or just be an emergency response if Diana's team needs help."
Bruce has an idea, "He can help Diana, Barda, and Tim get close to Wally undetected. When Clark gets close enough they can start the assault and get to Wally. Then, once they have Wally, he can get them back out."
"If that's the best way for me to assist than I'm willing to try. My constructs could use some work, but I think I can make something simple enough to get us there and back."
"What about me?" Everyone looks to Lara.
Diana crouches in front of her "You'll be staying here for this one Lara, there is too much unknown for us to risk it."
"But I can fight Mommy! I can help!"
"I know sweetie, but for now I need you to stay here and stay safe. Do it for me okay?"
Selena offers "She can help with the evacuations too. I'll bet we will be done in no time with her help." Lara is pouting and tries her saddest look on Kal to get him on her side.
"You can help out here Lara. Your mother is right, we don't know enough about what could be waiting for us out there. We'll be back before you know it." She slumps her shoulders in defeat.
"Okay." She walks to join Cass, Jason, and Steph with Selina.
"Eager for battle already? She must take after her mother." Barda grins at Diana and Kal.
"So me, Barda, Tim, and Alan can go ahead to save Wally. We will wait for your signal to begin the assault. When we are done we will rendezvous back here?" Bruce nods to Diana.
"Damian and Dick will be waiting for the signal too. Make sure you make some noise Clark."
"I plan to" Kal grins "What about Atlantis? Have we heard anything yet?"
Oracle responds "No and the chatter has died out completely. It's like a blackout, and the transponder still isn't transmitting."
"One problem at a time. We are already stretched thin. Hopefully they can hold on till we can get to them."
"Then it is decided, let us move with haste." Diana walks up to Kal "Be safe my love." She places a hand on his chest and he reciprocates with his hand on her shoulder, a brief touch before they part ways. A reminder that they will see each other again.
"You too." Her, Barda and Alan collect Tim and make their way outside. Dick and Damian are already in the batplane ready to takeoff.
"I couldn't help but notice you seem to be sitting this one out." Clark is scanning him to see of the wounds from Deathstroke are healing properly.
"I would, but I've been sidelined by…"
"By me." Selina walks up to them "Just till those wounds heal properly, we can get by and you can rest. If anyone needs it, it's you."
"Yeah Yeah, I heard you the first time." Clark smiles at them, he's glad his friend found someone as hard headed and stubborn as him.
"Won't be the same without you old friend. I'll be sure to tell you when."
"Quit it with the old stuff. And, by the way, make it loud Clark. The more trouble you cause the more forces you will attract."
"Well when you put it that way…" He smiles and takes off before waving to Damian and Dick about to go through a tunnel in the cave.
"The kids will be fine Bruce. No need to worry."
"I'm not worried, this is what I have been training them for."
"You sure? I thought I saw a little worry in your face." She leans in close to him.
"It's just wrinkles Cat."
"You're aging like fine wine Bat, sweeter as the days go by." She gives him her cheshire cat smile and bends down for a kiss. "Lara is going with Cass and Steph to Central City. Jason and I have Metropolis. By the way, what do we do about Deathstroke?"
"You talked to him?" Selina nods.
"He might take the bait, when he cools off a bit. You really think he can do it?"
"If he puts his mind to it? I'm certain he can, with a little help. Make sure the civilians and resistance personnel are clear. Then we can move him to Arkham."
Selina salutes "Sir yes sir!" She walks away, and he smiles before turning back to the computer.
With the Justice League, or anything that he planned, Batman was always hands on. He always played a direct role in the plans he made to save the day. Sitting behind the batcomputer wasn't were he wanted to be, but he knew it was where he would be most useful for now. Maybe this was just the start of this new world they were fighting for. He just hoped the Justice League's first mission in 10 years would be a success.
"Oracle, let's get everyone connected. The Justice League is back."
Author's Note: The stage has been set! The next chapters will have more action I promise. I'm not sure if all the talking has been boring for some of you, but it certainly has tried my patience lol. Let me know if you have questions or if I didn't explain something properly. I'm taking any constructive criticism I can get on this story. Also thank you again for the kind words and encouragement.
I noticed that I didn't mention Alan's age, but that's because I'm still working on that backstory of his. I'm not sure if Lara's childish/mature personality is shining through properly. I wanted it to seem like she has 2 different modes or mentalities depending on the situation. Which is a byproduct of who she is and how she was raised (on Themyscira). Also, if you haven't noticed, my guilty pleasure is having Lara say "Ohmygoddess" or pretty much anything bat related (i.e. batarangs, batcave, batplane, etc…) so I have tried to tone that down a bit.
There are gonna be some proper throwdowns in the chapters to come, so I hope I can describe the action in a coherent way. We might be going underwater in the next chapter. As always, thank you for coming this far and reading. Please review, if you have the time, and tell me about what you liked or hated or didn't understand. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
