In the distant future on a different Earth than what everyone else might know, there was a limo riding down the street. In the backseat, was an adult man who was bald and was straightening out his tie as he sat across from a young woman who had flowing dark red hair and wore glasses, dressed in mostly black and wore a beret on her head as she was sketching in a pad.
"You remember the rules, Estella," The bald man told the young woman sitting across from him. "While I'm meeting with Mrs. de Vil..." he then started to say, but the young woman rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I know the rules, we've done this a million times before..." Estella remarked as she thought softly and stared out the window. "You entertain Mrs. de Vil while I play with her son. I remember when we first met too..." she then said, having a brief flashback of her own as she wore her best clothes and stepped out of the family limo with her father beside her.
"Announcing the arrival of his richest in the land since Thomas Wayne, Baron von Hellman, and his daughter, Estella." Horace Badun would announce them at the door.
"Uh, welcome," A young boy dressed almost like a Dalmatian puppy stood beside a very tall and thin woman who looked eager and smirked at the sight of the man across from them. "You have graced us, most abhorrent and cruel one from the Hellman clan and it's a pleasure to meet you too as well, Princess of the Hellman fortune. On behalf of my mother, I would like to welcome you to-"
Estella, who was a teenager at the time, approached toddler Carlos and hugged him right away, feeling protective big sister instincts around him.
"Ah, I see... if it pleases your lordship, it would be my greatest pleasure to show your young and ever eager ward around my mother's home so that she may feel more at ease." Carlos said to Baron.
"And by showing her around, he means to play with her." Cruella said as she escorted Baron off to her bedroom right away.
"Oh, by all means," Baron replied. "You kids have... fun."
Since then, Carlos had been the most important person in the world to Estella as they often played together since their parents often met up with each other, even more so than spending time with Carlos' unknown father and Estella's estranged mother who was usually traveling the world with the fashion industry, including a colleague fond of Paris who often mentioned having a daughter who was at home with a nanny to show she wasn't that careless. It was going to be just like the usual with a red carpet laid out for the visiting Hellman father and daughter.
"Announcing the arrival of his-" Horace began to say only for Estella to slap his mouth closed.
"Thank you for having us in your home, Mrs. de Vil, I look forward to having another playdate with young Carlos while you and my father entertain one another!" Estella beamed as she popped out of the limo.
However, there was no warm welcome from a young boy who had become like a little brother to Estella over the years their parents had private meetings together which felt strange.
However, Estella opened one eye and felt confused. "Mrs. de Vil, is Carlos doing his homework or something?" she then asked hopefully.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you both, Carlos doesn't live here anymore," Cruella stated icily as she walked away with Baron. "Perhaps you can entertain yourself some other way, young Estella."
Estella looked utterly destroyed. "...well, what happened to him?" she asked, trying to wring out something of an answer. "Do you at least know?!"
But Cruella and Baron were halfway down the hall.
"Fine, don't answer me..." Estella grumbled as she stormed out of the mansion. "Call me when you have dinner ideas!" she called out.
Baron was heard growling lustfully while Cruella giggled cattily.
"Oh, Carlos de Vil, where did you end up?" Estella sighed to herself as she took a walk through town, ignoring warnings and word of a group called The Jokerz as she didn't feel scared or threatened at all. "You could've at least called or told me... doesn't that matter to you?"
If only she'd looked up, then she could've avoided walking into trouble. But she didn't, so here we are.
"Huh? What's going on?!" Estella asked as she was suddenly surrounded. "Hey! Leave me alone!"
The group of teenage clowns grinned as they surrounded Estella, looking rather menacingly and not friendly in the slightest. Such a disadvantage of living in the big city, especially where Batman and Catwoman used to roam.
There was a bright light in the distance and a few figures were shown.
"Huh? What's that?" Estella wondered as that caught her attention, but she was suddenly knocked out and taken into the shadows as her glasses fell on the sidewalk and a boot stepped right beside them.
The figure bent down and picked up the glasses and appeared to be... a very young Lady Gothika, but how?
20 YEARS INTO THE PAST...
In the Watchtower, it appeared to be a quiet day for everyone as they were hanging around and getting some food.
"Alright, I wonder what's for lunch today?" asked Bat-Mite. "Can't be worse than school cafeteria stuff...which, admittedly, ranges from blecch to decent."
"Looks like chicken mush or egg mush." Lady Gothika smirked as she picked up a tray.
"Eat your vegetable mush while you're at it, Cherry." Batman told her.
"Yes, sir." Lady Gothika sighed and rolled her eyes slightly.
Two women came shortly behind them and both reached for the tray that was next. Lady Gothika and Bat-Mite watched that closely, feeling a little concerned.
"By all means, you first." Wonder Woman said as she was in front of a certain other woman.
The other woman was soon shown to be Catwoman who picked up the tray she wanted and soon went to go off and be alone.
"Auntie, why don't you come join us for lunch?" Lady Gothika offered with a small smile.
"Thank you, Kitten, but I should probably get out of the heroes' way." Catwoman replied softly.
"You're still working on it, no need to worry!" Bat-Mite responded. "And besides... you're part of this not-so-motley crew now!"
"Well, I'll sit with you if you don't mind." Catwoman said with a small smile.
"Of course we don't mind," Lady Gothika replied. "Besides, you saved me from a deep depression that came with middle school into high school shit and my parents spending every day of their married lives arguing."
"Cherry, no swearing." Batman scolded.
"Sorry, sir." Lady Gothika muttered and rolled her eyes.
"I'm sure it's not that much different for you being without parental guidance." Catwoman smirked, amused at that.
"It's... a little different." Lady Gothika responded.
"I'll go find Thunder Boy and the others," said Bat-Mite. "You know, make sure we're all here in case something goes down."
"Sure, Bat-Mite, we'll wait for you." Lady Gothika nodded as she sat with her legal guardian maternal aunt.
Catwoman smiled warmly, enjoying this very much so far as Bat-Mite left briefly as Batman talked with Green Lantern.
"Diana's carrying a grudge." Green Lantern smirked at The Caped Crusader as he sipped some water.
"She'll get over it," Batman scoffed. "How 'bout you. Carrying anything?"
"What, Shayera? We're cool," Green Lantern explained. "We're giving each other our space. I'm seeing Vixen now. I'm very happy."
"Uh-huh." Batman smirked at that.
"Anyway, why are we always talking about my love life?" Green Lantern demanded. "What's going on between you and Catwoman?"
"Nothing. She's a respected colleague and someone I help stay sharp and out of trouble's family." Batman stated grimly.
"Uh-huh." Green Lantern smirked as he sipped his own drink at that.
"I don't have time to pursue a relationship," Batman defended. "My work is too important to allow any distractions."
"And the two kids aren't a distraction?" Green Lantern asked.
"Not really," Batman responded. "They're protégés."
"Interesting way of looking at it." Green Lantern admitted.
Bat-Mite soon came into the rec room that was there for the younger ones in the Justice League known as The Toon Force, having a pretty good feeling that Superboy and Thunder Boy would be down there. And sure enough, he was right as he saw the two playing a wrestling fighting game together.
"You're going down, Steel Toe!" Thunder Boy jeered as he used his controller.
"No, you're going down, Pain King!" Superboy retorted as they fought each other in the game.
"Well, that solves the problem of where they were hiding," Bat-Mite mused to himself. "...I'll pick them up after lunch." And he sat down and started eating.
Thunder Boy looked over his shoulder. "Oh! Hey, BM!" he then greeted fondly.
"Hi, TB!" Bat-Mite responded. "...also, maybe don't call me that. How goes it?"
"Oh, sorry~" Thunder Boy blushed and smiled. "Oh, it's going all right, just trying to keep busy and make the most of our free time while we have it."
"You wanna join us over here?" Superboy offered. "We always have extra controllers, especially when it's Mario Kart night."
"Okay, but I need you guys to be on hand in case something crazy happens," advised Bat-Mite as he came over.
"All right, one more round while we can." Thunder Boy replied.
Bat-Mite nodded as he took the third controller and plugged it in to come in as another avatar for the game.
"You gonna be Cleopatra for this one?" Thunder Boy asked playfully.
"Yeah, Pain King vs Cleopatra." Superboy added with a chuckle.
"I suppose," Bat-Mite replied. "You'll wish Antony was holding me back from the beatdown I'm about to unleash!"
"Oh, bring it!" Thunder Boy chuckled as they continued to play a bit longer.
They soon played while having their lunch break in the meantime, trying to keep up their strength for in case duty called.
"Selina's a remarkable woman. She's a valued friend," Batman told Green Lantern matter-of-factly until he had a certain feeling. "She's... Standing right behind me, isn't she?"
"Don't let that stop you. Keep digging~" Catwoman smirked from where she stood, looking rather flirty and eager.
Lady Gothika hid a small smirk at that from her seat.
Just then, am alarm rang out. "Intruder alert. Dormitory, Deck A. Intruder alert. Dormitory, deck A."
Lady Gothika got to her feet. "Looks like lunch is over." she murmured.
"Sorry about that, Kitten." Catwoman said, concerned as she knew how much her niece hated being interrupted during a meal.
"You round up your friends, we'll go on ahead." Batman told Lady Gothika.
Lady Gothika nodded at that while sighing about having to put off her lunch for a little while as the three adults rushed into the next room.
"They might need some help." Wonder Woman said to Superman.
"Unless you should let Catwoman have this mission?" Superman suggested.
"I don't know, she's still kinda new and... not really that heroic." Wonder Woman replied cautiously.
"Consider it a trial by fire!" Bat-Mite exclaimed as he appeared with the others.
"Very well then..." Wonder Woman sighed. "Catwoman, you better come with-" she then said, only to see the woman already speeding off after Batman, causing her to look deadpan. "...us."
"Come on, Wonder Woman, try to keep up!" Catwoman told the Amazonian woman urgently.
Wonder Woman sighed and shook her head as they then went off together along with the young Toon Force.
A man was grunting and struggling, trying to open a door until he put his hand over it and he soon put his palm over it, shooting some sort of energy over the door to make a hole and he smirked as he brought out a certain belt to add to his checklist. That is, until a Batarang was thrown at his hand, causing him to drop the belt to the floor and the Baterang pinned against the wall behind him.
"Who are you?" Batman demanded.
"How did you get in The Watchtower?" Lady Gothika added.
"And how did you do that thing with your hand?" Thunder Boy asked. "I wanna know how to do that with my fridge sometimes."
The others looked slightly deadpan at his addition in the conversation.
"You weren't supposed to see me!" The man said to them before he huddled against the wall as the others advanced in front of him. "S-Stay away! No one's supposed to know I was here!" he added before opening a portal behind him and used that way to escape.
"After him!" Bat-Mite exclaimed. "Only one way to go, y'know?" And he dived into the portal.
Everyone else soon followed after the mysterious man through the portal, not knowing where they were going at all.
Some of the others grunted as they bounced against the walls painfully. Green Lantern soon made them a green bubble to keep them in to avoid painful bounces against the walls.
"This is usually only for one, but..." Lady Gothika said before she created a magic bubble to protect her from pain and put her friends in it as well. "Ah, there we go."
"Oh, no! You forgot Atticus!" Thunder Boy pointed out.
Superboy was bouncing around as well, but didn't seem to be badly hurt as he powered through very easily.
"...never mind, I guess he's fine." Thunder Boy then said.
The portal opened up and spat them all out in the middle of a desert in the middle of nowhere.
"So where are we?" asked Thunder Boy.
"I think the better question would be, when are we?" Batman responded.
Suddenly, they found themselves surrounded by four adults on horseback with guns. The four adults then stepped off and walked over with their guns.
"And who might you guys be?" Lady Gothika asked with her hands on her hips. "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?"
"Did the Avengers Grimm face them too?" Thunder Boy asked her.
"...not now." Lady Gothika replied, not wanting to answer that question right away.
"Ah have to confess," One of the men said to the superhero group. "Yer about the most colorfully attired individuals I've ever bushwhacked."
"You circus folk? Cuz me and my brothers did away with a dog who tried to become sheriff." The woman in the group remarked.
"...what?" Superboy muttered about how strange that sounded.
"We're not exactly circus folk." Wonder Woman simply stated.
"I don't care what ya are, as long as ya pay the toll." The man then said to them.
"Toll?" asked Catwoman.
The man tipped his hat. "Welcome to Elkhorn, Oklahoma, ma'am," he replied. "This here's Tobias Manning territory."
"You want tribute?" asked Wonder Woman. "Money?"
"I ain't particular," said the man as he grabbed at the Lasso of Truth. "That fat golden chain will do nicely..." he smirked and rubbed a finger under Wonder Woman's chin. "Unless you got somethin' else you wanna give meEEEE—!"
The Amazon picked him up and tossed him aside like a sack of potatoes.
"He's not wrong about the chain thing though." Catwoman smirked.
"Watch it." Wonder Woman warned her.
"What in the name of Laramie is going on here?" Lady Gothika demanded.
The men and one woman soon shot right at Wonder Woman and she deflected the bullets with her silver bracelets. "Those are the biggest, slowest bullets I've ever seen." The Amazon heroine scoffed as she was unimpressed by that and looked back at the others.
"You're letting them go?" Batman asked, looking behind her.
The four men and one woman were then seen running away back to their horses.
"Oh, no." Wonder Woman shook her head and simply brought out her golden lasso to ensnare them and yoink them back.
"Nice." Superboy approved.
As the horses were brought over, Batman found a newspaper in a saddlebag. "I was afraid of this; The Elkhorn Gazette," he said. "It's either an amazing forgery, or over a month old."
"So?" queried Wonder Woman.
"Look at the date." Batman indicated.
So, she did.
"June, 1879." explained Batman.
"I have mentioned how much I hate time travel," commented Green Lantern.
"So you have..." Cherry said, checking the name of the random woman with the cowboy quartet. "Minky Dalton?"
"Yes..." The woman grinned as she looked up and looked still conscious in a random plot twist no one asked for. "The sister of the Dalton Brothers from Two-Bit where Huckleberry Hound became Sheriff and his niece and nephew Carolyn and Darryl became his deputies."
Bat-Mite rolled his eyes. "The heat's gotten to her already."
"If we don't find our sneak thief, we're stuck here." said Wonder Woman.
"Let's head for the nearest town," suggested Green Lantern. "See if we can find him."
"We can't go anywhere dressed like this though." Lady Gothika pointed out.
"She's right." Batman agreed.
"No, we can't." Catwoman added as they looked over at their tied up victims.
"You'll never take me, Minky Dalton!" Minky glared. "The most important and special member of Dalton's Gang when we took over Two-Bit when those Ed boys were banished to the Native Americans!"
"Leave that..." Bat-Mite said as he cracked his neck. "...to me."