Metropolis
In another world, the people of Metropolis went about with their daily lives, completely oblivious to the fate of the city in the parallel dimension. Neither were they aware of the ferocious battle taking place right above their very heads.
Green Lantern was having a tough day. The Watchtower had been invaded, and now Metropolis. Once he had heard that Sinestro was present, he had made himself present immediately as he knew almost no one else could deal with his adversary. No one else, but himself. The yielder of the ring of fear had incredible willpower.
"Damn," he muttered as Sinestro whizzed past him for the third time. They were matched evenly, with no signs of the battle being over anytime soon. Hal rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long day, he thought.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by a bright yellow spiked construct in front of him. He glared at it cautiously, half expecting it to bite his head off. It turned out to be a clever distraction as Sinestro avoided him for the FOURTH time.
He definitely hated the goddamned rogue Lantern.
Not a thousand miles away, Black Adam and Shazam sparred. The Egyptian's predecessor seemed to be dominating the battle as he connected punches successfully, even managing to fling him over to Hawkgirl, where she thwacked him with her mace.
Superman had defeated Ares. The war god plummeted to a rooftop somewhere below, unconscious, where Aquaman and Wonder Woman were waiting. They cuffed him and put an inhibitor collar on him with quick efficiency.
Superman said, "Wonder Woman, Aquaman, let's wrap this up. I've got to get back to the Watchtower."
They knew what he meant. Wonder Woman added, "Before Luthor throws something else at us –"
She spoke too soon. A large, grey creature made itself known with an earth-shattering roar. Superman narrowed his eyes. Doomsday. He propelled himself towards the creature that once killed him, absolutely determined to rid Metropolis of such a threat. However, Doomsday was prepared for that and batted the powerful Kryptonian away like a mere fly.
There was an awkward silence.
Wonder Woman and Aquaman sighed. They knew it could have been a combined assault, which would have been more effective. Superman's overconfidence didn't help.
Watchtower
If things in Metropolis were bad, the situation on the Watchtower was horrendous. The former Titans could barely hold their own against the villians, even with Raven's psychic powers. Luthor had already temporarily short-circuited Cyborg's electronics while Nightwing was having trouble overpowering the pure muscle strength of Bane, who was pummeling him like a rag doll. Solomon Grundy was moving towards the stunned Cyborg.
Luthor sent a barrage of missiles flying towards the prone Nightwing. Fortunately, Raven teleported before Nightwing and redirected the missiles towards Solomon Grundy with her psychic portals, who then dropped Cyborg.
"You're ruining tonight's entertainment, Raven," Luthor drawled.
"I detest violence, Luthor, but I'm even less fond of you," the psychic empathy intoned bitterly.
Their conversation was interrupted by the sharp crack of a whip. Catwoman had attempted to separate Nightwing and Raven so that they would be easier to deal with. Nightwing broke his fall with a roll and got up to face Catwoman. Solomon Grundy, meanwhile, threw Cyborg in Nightwing's direction, such that the villains were surrounding the Titans.
"Thought you'd have this mess cleaned up by now…" Nightwing mumbled.
"Name's Cyborg, not Miracle Worker," Cyborg retorted.
"Nightwing to Batman, you there? We could use your help," Nightwing had run out of options. They were getting their asses handed to them, so as to speak. It didn't help that Batman had to check on Joker to make sure Luthor didn't get him out as well.
"Be there soon, Dick," came the curt reply of Batman.
Arkham Asylum
Batman hoped everything was all right. The cell was deathly quiet. It had been that way the last time Joker had escaped and left a string of dead bodies behind. Batman shuddered inwardly at that thought. If Luthor had busted the Joker out, he would stab him with a batarang.
"We're keeping a close eye on him, Batman, just like you said," said the prison guard. "He hasn't moved in hours." He was about to insert his key into the keyhole when Batman stopped him. Something had caught the Bat's eyes. He bent down cautiously. It was a tripwire stretched across the width of the door. The guard gasped. Batman narrowed his eyes. It was typical of the Joker to do something like that, or was it? Something wasn't right, but he couldn't place it.
He took out a spray can. The chemical froze the wire instantly and crumbled on contact. The door creaked open slowly. Inside was 5 boxes of explosives, with Joker covering his ears. Batman widened his eyes.
"How'd Joker do this?" The prison guard was bewildered. He was obviously not accustomed to this.
"He didn't." Batman stated calmly. "The real trap is behind us."
He swung back and used his rubbery cape to block the metal shurikens which were aimed at him. He had figured out that the "explosives" were just a decoy, for the real death trap to catch him off guard.
"You're so clever." Deathstroke said with a hint of sarcasm, wielding his sword.
Batman wasn't scared. He charged towards Deathstroke, avoiding his sword and landing some pretty hard punches.
"You're Luthor's pet now, Deathstroke?" Batman got into a fighting stance.
"His money is green. And as a bonus, I get to kill Batman," stated Deathstroke.
*Fight Scene*
"Sorry, Deathstroke, no bonus for you," Batman looked down at the mercenary. He wasn't going down tonight.
Metropolis
Well, at least Sinestro was gone. Hal Jordan heaved a sigh of relief at that. But now, Doomsday was being irritating. Hal sighed again. The powerful creature was jumping around trying to bring Hawkgirl down. Hawkgirl had tried to swing her mace, but Doomsday grabbed the handle and refused to let go. And it was too heavy for her to support both of them in air.
"Time for me to do something!" Green Lantern dragged Doomsday away using his ring and threw it towards Wonder Woman, who slammed him downwards with a double fisted hammer. Meanwhile, Shazam was still dominating Black Adam when he glanced up and saw Doomsday hurtling down towards them. He suddenly had an idea to use Doomsday to incapacitate Black Adam.
"Shazam!" The magical lightning bolt struck Black Adam, causing him to transform back into his mortal form, Teth-Adam. Both of the villains plummeted down towards the streets.
Green Arrow was waiting on ground level. Looking up, he saw Black Adam and Doomsday. He immediately reached into his quiver for a cushion arrow and shot it at Black Adam to prevent him from falling to his death. Doomsday, on the other hand, left a big indentation on the concrete road.
The Flash sped over curiously. He asked, "Green Arrow, what was that?"
"Thunder of the gods, Flash, thunder of the gods," Green Arrow sighed dramatically.
"Then what does that make us?"
Their small talk was rudely interrupted by a guttural roar. Doomsday had come to, again. They were about to engage Doomsday in combat when Superman tackled Doomsday away in a blur of red and blue. The two heroes froze.
"The poor slobs who clean up the mess," Green Arrow declared sadly.
Watchtower
Nightwing had a jaw fracture, a broken finger and a hell lot of bruises and scratches. He hoped Batman would come soon. If this continued on, Luthor would definitely get whatever he came for. And Raven and Cyborg weren't doing much better, he thought to himself, as he continued holding off Bane.
He dodged Bane's grab and delivered a few hits with his Escrima sticks. But what he didn't expect was Bane's arm to shoot out and knock him off his legs. He grunted in pain as he hit the floor. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Bane raising his arms up to bring them down on his back.
"Now if there are no further interruptions…" Lex Luthor said.
Only there was still one more. Batman materialized from behind Luthor using the teleporter.
"Took me almost two minutes to break your encryption," Batman said, then added sarcastically, "Nice work."
"Bane." Luthor ordered calmly. He sure as hell was not going to allow this one last – and most disruptive – distraction to foil his great plans.
"He esperado mucho tiempo para esto," rasped Bane. Now what the hell did that mean, Batman wondered to himself.
"Now I break your back," Bane savoured the words.
Oh, he meant that.
*Fight Scene*
"Bane, Catwoman, Grundy…" Batman said. "You're all alone, Luthor."
"Geniuses often are-" Luthor pronounced confidently.
"Psychopaths like you…" Batman uttered, hurling a batarang. "You're testing my patience."
*Fight Scene*
Well that was easier than I thought, mused Batman. Luthor's suit sure was heavy, but not as useful as his own.
"Try this on, genius", Batman said, attaching an EMP device to disable his entire suit. After confirming with Superman the disposal of Doomsday into "very deep space", his attention was rudely grabbed by a blaring alarm. After a snarky dismissal of Catwoman's concern by Cyborg, he then brought up a virtual display of the scene of disturbance, where a certain Joker and his sidekick Harley were preparing to blow up Metropolis.
Luthor smiled. His plan was working. He had provided enough of a distraction. However, his smug boasting of his plans was soon wiped off his mouth by a particularly hard blow to his temple.
"He was done", Nightwing curtly said, rolling his eyes. Luthor had provided them with the information they needed.
Metropolis
"Now, Baldy said to remember to… There we are", Joker mumbled to himself, while fiddling with the controls of the bomb.
"Mr J, it works!" Harley quipped excitedly beside him. The Joker was such a genius to her, to be able to carry out such a beautiful plan, thought Harley dreamily. However, she suddenly heard a teleporter activating not far behind her, bringing her attention to the arrival of Batman.
"Back to the van, Harley. Bats and I need to talk", smiled the Joker maliciously. Harley's protest was silenced by a harsh slap to the face. "Go, no one likes a third wheel", Joker said, annoyed. Harley slunk off, devastated by the brutal treatment.
He turned to face the Bat. "Batman! My coeur des coeurs! My pomme de frites! I knew that ape Deathstroke wouldn't kill you", the Joker greeted his nemesis jovially as if talking to an old friend. In a sense, he was.
The beeping of the bomb alarmed Batman. "Why so jumpy? I merely took it off standby! It's this button…", the Joker held up the remote control, "that you got to worry about."
In a final fanfare, the Joker moved his finger towards the green, glowing button, while the rest of the Justice League members zeroed in on their target.
However, unbeknownst to most of them, a strange, blue electrical glow had surrounded all of them. Suddenly, as they almost reached the Joker, the weirdest thing happened. They were all teleported to a parallel dimension.
Batman looked around cautiously, bewildered. What the hell just happened, he thought, as he glanced around at the forsaken city of Metropolis. While the buildings were perfectly intact, the ghost city had not a single soul in it. The only trace of life came from the faint "caw"-ing of crows in the sky far above them.
Joker was equally as shocked. He frantically jabbed at the control, breaking the absolute silence with his irritated curse. He rushed towards Batman with his fist drawn; somehow, he felt Batman had played a part in this bizarre event.
However, the seemingly jarred Batman caught his fist and twisted it behind Joker's back.
"Maybe I was too sentimental before; I'll do fine without you!" snarled the Joker, drawing out a razor-sharp blade. He suddenly felt hugely irritated by the Bat's presence.
*Fight Scene*
"Now stay down," Batman ordered.
Shit, the Joker thought, he really hated Batman. Despite the throbbing pain from his legs, he somehow mustered enough strength to pull himself up, and ran charging towards Batman – only to be intercepted with a knee to the stomach. A second later, he found himself staring at the concrete, pinned with his arms behind him. Yeah, he sure would like to give that smug Bat-face a punch or two if he could.
Suddenly, the Joker's thoughts were interrupted by a cacophony of blaring sirens and hostile voices over loudspeakers.
"Hands up, Bat-freak! Do it, or else you're dead!" screamed the voices. What the hell? Batman thought. Since when was HE the villain here? He suddenly realised the serious vibes and slowly obeyed the instructions.
"Now that's funny," said the amused Joker. Batman contemplated sending the Joker into the sweet state of unconsciousness, but realised that he would be shot down if he so much as moved a finger. Shit, now the thing was to get the hell away from that place and get his damn bearings later. Luckily, he had just the thing.
As he raised his hand, a contraption shot out from his right hand and he pressed the button swiftly, causing a disruption in the radio frequencies of the hostile attackers. They were quickly incapacitated by the overwhelmingly high-pitched screech emanating from their earpieces, and Batman took the chance to release a smoke-bomb. The precious sliver of opportunity given to him was made use of, as he deftly hid in the smoke cloud and made his escape away from the dangerous scene.
"I'm in a nightmare," Batman murmured to himself. After hiding on building rooftops for the whole afternoon and even listening in on conversations of the military goons who had tried to capture him, he still hadn't figured out a single clue as to why he was there, or where in the living hell he was. Metropolis, yes. But he felt as if, somehow, he had been transported into another dimension altogether. Nothing seemed to tally or add up. In short, he was confused as heck.