I do not own Superman/Clark Kent/Kal El, Martian Manhunter/J'ohn J'ones, Batman Bruce Wayne, Amanda Waller, or Leslie Thompkins. DC does. Please enjoy this chapter for free.

Middle of Afternoon: Batcave Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

As Bruce entered the cave, Alfred looked over to him. "I believe there is a call for you sir. I rerouted it down here."

Bruce sighed. "I expected as much."

He pressed a button and sat back in his chair before his monitors, but it was only the speakers that relayed anything. Bruce kept his voice tight and level. "Who is this?"

Waller's more sardonic tone came through. "I think you know. Do you also know where I am?"

"Would that be Ainsley Manor?"

"Do you know why I'm here?"

"Inform me."

"I believe my target 'the Martian Manhunter' was here."

Bruce twisted his mouth for a moment before responding, letting a note of concern enter his voice. "Was there harm done to those who live there I should know about?"

"We don't know yet."

Bruce let his voice take on a slight growl. "Are you only putting it that way to hide or cover for any harm you plan to put any of them through?"

"I wouldn't have to if you had already lived up to our deal."

"I've had a lot less time with far fewer resources than you've had to capture an alien that can disguise himself as anyone."

"Don't lie to me! You know something you haven't been sharing!"

"Why would I not share information on him with you?"

"You tell me!"

"Is he as dangerous in intent as well as ability for those I care about as you said?"

"Yes."

"Then why …"

"You're in contact with Superman!"

Bruce paused before responding. "Why should that have anything to do with this?"

"He's known to be on friendly terms with the Martian."

"Why would that be?"

"Why do you think?"

"I could talk to him about it if you want."

There was silence on the other end of the line. Then a flat clipped voice responded with "Go ahead." Waller hung up.

Bruce shut his eyes and leaned his head back before turning to Alfred and re-opening his eyes. "We need to move our time-table up."

Alfred raised an eyebrow. "I believe we've been attempting to send John home for several days at this point. We simply keep running into delays. How will we change things now?"

Bruce nodded, "You have a point. Mine is that she didn't buy my answers. And now she's dragging Superman into things on her side."

A gust of air hit them both before a cheerful voice said, "I wouldn't say 'dragging."

Bruce reopened his eyes, which he'd shut when the air with some dusty debris hit his face. "You didn't have to rush over and leave your post."

Superman frowned. "Actually, maybe I did. They're packing up."

Bruce blinked. "What?"

"It's like they've given up."

Bruce gripped the arms of his chair while looking down at the floor. He shook his head. "No. They're switching tactics."

Superman frowned. "So then?"

Bruce raised his hands to his face and rubbed it before combing his fingers back through his short black hair. "She knows you're involved, and the government hasn't figured out how to defeat you directly, but she must know if she wants to extract John from 'both' of us, she'll need …"

"What?"

"Distractions probably …"

Superman opened his mouth, but then turned his head and squinted in the direction of a tunnel from the tower. Bruce squinted his eyes at the Man of Steel. "What?"

"The Batmobile is on its way."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Lucius is either sending it here on auto-pilot or driving it here."

Superman turned back to him. "I didn't think you liked sharing your toys."

"With those who helped me build them I do."

"Does that mean I have permission to use the Boom Tube Tunnel?"

Bruce shrugged. "It's less conspicuous than you flying through the tunnels from the outside."

The Batmobile pulled up into its parking space and Lucius stepped out carrying a small cooler. He nodded to the Kryptonian. "Superman, good to see you again."

The Kryptonian nodded back. "Likewise."

Lucius glanced between Lucius and Bruce. "Our other alien still seemingly recovered?"

Alfred cleared his throat. Bruce answered "About that …"

However, John himself stepped through a closed door. After re-materializing, he said "I am … for the most part."

Bruce murmured almost under his breath. "We just learned his brother died."

Lucius' face twisted up. "How?"

Bruce turned his head, but the Martian answered before him. "Fire …"

Lucius' face twisted up in pain. "I'm sorry."

The Martian fell silent as his head bowed. Lucius looked between him and Bruce. "Does this change any of our plans?"

Bruce answered, "Waller is getting more suspicious."

This made the Martian look up as Bruce continued. "We need to try to get him to Mars as soon as Scott can get the coordinates programmed into his technology, before Waller can spring whatever trap she has in mind to distract Superman and I as well as draw out John."

The Martian spoke up. "Bruce, if she is truly going to target you and Kal El …"

Bruce cut him off. "No."

Lucius cleared his throat and interrupted, "I have a few confessions to make John."

The green face turned to him, its furrowed large brow showing he knew exactly what the older human scientist was doing, but that brow smoothed out some as he listened.

Lucius opened the top of the cooler and reached inside it as he went on, "I'm sorry I didn't get permission first, but we got rather worried when Superman carried you back from the Ainsley place unconscious. I scraped some skin cells from your arm, took a little blood, and a little saliva from your mouth for study in case I could find more reasons you might be unconscious than the wound and, well, for further study in case you developed other problems before you leave us."

Lucius looked up biting his bottom lip as he held out a vial. "I'm afraid … it wasn't really ethical without your permission, but it did seem like an emergency."

John shrugged, "If my niece needs to take refuge here as I have, and needs medical attention, or something else happens to me, I'd rather you have a basic understanding of Martian biology. What have you discovered?"

Bruce turned in his chair and raised an eyebrow. "You don't already know John?"

The Martian replied, "I have the knowledge of my people and the White Martians, what we learned together during the war, but we had different ways to learn not microscopes or test tubes or Kal El's amazing vision."

Superman turned to Lucius Fox. "Dr. Hamilton and I have learned some, but truth is confirmed scientifically by experiments being repeated under different sets of eyes."

Lucius nodded to the Kryptonian with a grin before looking back to the Martian his smile growing wider. "I've had these cells out of your body for two days and they're still alive. When they dry, they shrivel up, but when re-hydrated they expand and react to stimuli again. Same when I freeze and thaw them."

John nodded. "That is our hibernation response to unfriendly conditions for our bodies."

"Do you have any idea how resilient that makes you?" Lucius went on gesturing with the hand gripping the vial, "But perhaps as fascinating is the size of your cells' nuclei! They're several times the size of a human cell's nucleus, and when their DNA unwind … they seem to be even more densely packed than ours!"

John stared at him, his face perfectly straight. "I see …"

Superman interrupted, "Hamilton and I have theorized he takes DNA from other organisms and adds it to his own set to mimic them."

Lucius' face went blank and body lax. The test tube slipped from his fingers. John caught it with his powers.

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes