I do not own Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz, Amanda Waller, Superman/Clark Kent/Kal El, Lucius Fox, Alfred Pennyworth, or Batman Bruce Wayne. DC does. Please enjoy for free.

Wayne Manor, Autumn, Middle of the Night, Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

J'onn stood in the attic of Wayne Manor. He concentrated on trying to sense all the thought-waves around him for miles. Like a radio scanning for signals and homing in on them one at a time identifying their source and content before moving on he searched through each set of brain waves seeking out more even farther and farther away until he identified the one he feared most. Waller was three miles to the northwest. At the distance she had placed herself, he'd struggle to even give her a headache from where he stood. Even the content of her thoughts was difficult to decipher, but he could sense her heightened nerves, suppressed rage, and iron-hard commitment. He also sensed several other minds surrounding her with like emotions emanating from them.

J'onn made his body both invisible and intangible. Then he flew out through a wall of the attic and over the trees toward Waller's mind. He knew by the time he arrived he would no longer be "at 100%" as Mr. Fox put it. He'd need water, food, and rest again to enter that tunnel and go back to Mars safely. Yet, he hoped his journey and placing himself within a hundred yards of Waller's brain would prove unnecessary. If it wasn't ... Waller's brain was "the" brain of this entire operation. Only shutting it down could give Alfred and Lucius a chance to escape. Only leading them away or even ... giving them their prey would distract this hunting party from Bruce's family.

Miles of Gotham's Shoreline, Middle of the Night, Eleven Years After Waynes Deaths

Superman sighed and let his shoulders sag. He'd just welded the last bit of broken ship part onto the raft he'd been building. After letting his heat vision fade away into his stare's normal temperature and thus relieving the concentration headache he'd had for a while, he turned his gaze back to what was left of the ship. The shouts of fear coming from it sounded louder. He sighed. His shoulders sagged even lower. The broken, partially dismantled craft was sinking again.

He "might" be able to carry all the living and dead left on it to this life-raft without having to once again freeze the rusty, blown-open, partially re-purposed vessel in place once more. He was actually beginning to feel an ache in his chest. But … No ...

Superman shook his head. Then he flew around the ship and blew on the waterline around its haul again freezing the thawing water, so the sinking came to a standstill. He took a deep breath. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to do that again. He glanced up at the sky. Not even a star visible through the clouds. Bruce's warning not to overdo it came back to him. Sorry Bruce ... What else am I supposed to do?

Superman looked back down to the crowd holding their arms up toward him. He swooped down and picked up one of the youngest and healthiest looking women. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and back as he carried her over the water. He had to keep the raft some distance from the ship, so when the boat did finally sink, it wouldn't suck the raft down with it. He tried to put the woman down. His heart ripped open a bit as her nails dug into the fabric of his cape. "It's okay. I have to go back for the others now. But I'll be nearby."

Dark eyes turned away from where her face had been pressed to his chest. She glanced down at the raft and then back to the ship. The clinging fingers stiffly released. He turned her right side up and lowered her till her feet touched the raft's bottom. She unwrapped her arms fully from him then. He pulled away and tried to give a smile he hoped looked hopeful, even cheerful, despite his exhaustion. Then he flew off to get someone else. Maybe having another of the women join her would make her feel better. He didn't look forward to carrying dead men's bodies to join them though. But Bruce was right. Someone wouldn't want them to sink to the bottom either. It was the least he could do.

Submarine Miles off Gotham's Shoreline, Middle of the Night, Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

A sailor stared through a scope that followed the darting figure of Superman in the distance. He spoke aloud to his commander standing behind him. "Superman appears to be slowing down."

His officer lowered bushy brows as he stared at the speaker and starer's back. "You sure?"

The man turned away from the device and stepped aside. "See for yourself."

The officer took his subordinate's place and lowered his eyes to look through the scope. Then he gave a slow smile. He turned toward a man sitting in front of their radio. "Contact Commander Waller."

Mobile Command Unit, Three Miles Northwest of Wayne Manor, Middle of the Night, Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

"Requesting Permission to Address Commander Waller directly."

The man sitting next to her turned and waved a hand in Waller's direction. She turned her dark eyes on him. He mouthed. "Sub Commander Requesting to speak with you."

She nodded. It should take several minutes for her team As to cut through the bars blocking the Manor's windows. If something came up, this man could switch the signals from the submarine to them again. Right then, he pulled out four wires and switched their placements in the board before speaking over the airwaves to let the team As know they were now connected to him. She spoke into her microphone. "Submarine, this is Commander Waller. Go ahead."

"I've got eyes on #1 Subject of Interest, and he seems to be slowing down."

She raised an eyebrow and sat back in her chair. "Really?"

"Oh yes. There is a definite change of speed to his movements. There's even a change of posture, shoulders down head hanging a bit. He's been going all out for the last half-hour. There's no moon tonight and even the stars are hidden. What do you want us to do?"

Waller slid her jaw to one side and narrowed her eyes. She settled herself more deeply into her chair. Silence reigned over the channel.

If they shot and missed ... if he survived and recovered ... But ... if they didn't and he went bad ...

Superman going from protector of all to ruler of all would be the end of civilization as they knew it everywhere on earth. As long as he lived and possibly for generations after no one would be able to successfully stand against him. Dictators became paranoid. If the naivety he displayed now became constant precaution, this could be their only shot at preventing such upheaval for the whole human race. Or they could set it into motion.

She suppressed a sigh. Also, either way, Bruce could be even farther away from ever forming an alliance with let alone working under her. The Martian she might find evidence against she could then present Bruce with after his capture. But she'd have only hypotheticals to present him with if they ended the Superman threat before it really materialized.

Bruce "should" understand the stakes of the mere threat, the importance of ending it before it began, but "shoulds" hadn't worked with him in accepting the necessity of innocent collateral damage. Of course, even getting Batman as an enemy wouldn't be as bad as becoming the enemy of a living recovered Superman, should their shot not end him permanently. It was a risk with the whole world in the balance.

"Is there any sign of the cloud cover thinning over there?"

The Commander's voice came less clearly over the channel obviously directed away from his microphone and toward someone other than her. There was a pause of silence from him for several seconds. Then his voice came over loud and clear again. "Nope, no wind here. Clouds are staying."

"Then keep an eye on #1 Subject of Interest, but let him tire himself out even farther for now."

"He's making progress on rescuing those left on the shipwreck. He's probably fixing on towing them toward shore. How close should we let him get?"

"Try to take him and the survivors both out at least two miles from the shoreline. When, he gets that close contact with a full update. No shots or even reveal of your position until you get the order directly from me."

"Aye, aye Commander."

She looked to her man at the switchboard and nodded. He nodded back and began rearranging the wires to connect her to the team As again.

Batcave, Middle of the Night, Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

Alfred sighed and interrupted Lucius' scanning of various camera feeds, motion detector displays, ect. "Still can't find our Martian friend?"

"No sign of him anywhere that I can tell. I discovered this week, when he's 'intangible' even air isn't displaced enough by his body, let alone anything solid he passes over or through, to makes vibrations our motion detectors can pick up on. And when he's invisible, the cameras can't see him better than our eyes."

"How is that even possible for a body of any sort to be invisible 'or' intangible, let alone both?"

"I have theories."

Alfred sighed as his eyelids lowered in annoyance. Then they snapped open as a final bar falling onto the floor "was" picked up by a motion detector and camera as was the leg that came through the window and foot that landed on the same hardwood floor. Lucius had been watching the same thing. "Should I prep the knockout gas?"

"Yes."

"It's a bit risky. You know what our employer says."

"I'm fairly certain they're all in excellent health let alone the masks their wearing. If anything, it won't do them nearly enough harm."

Lucius bent back down over the control board in front of him. "You got it."

Halls of Wayne Manor Middle of the Night Autumn Eleven Years After Waynes Deaths

As the team As moved through various halls they'd entered through various entry points gas seeped out of vents openings into those halls unnoticed by them. Then as one or two teams neared doorways from one hallway into a room or another hall, bars fell from the upper doorjambs to cut them off. They stopped and lowered their weapons. Those with the cutting tools got them out again.

Batcave Middle of the Night Autumn Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

Lucius and Alfred watched humans more covered in black cloth and tactical gear than their employer on his nights out, cut their way through a second set of bars they'd put in place. Lucius commented "Now they're going to have to stay in one place and as the gas sits there with them replacing the normal atmosphere, they may start to feel it even through the masks.

"'May.' And if I were Waller, I'd have even more teams standing by to replace whatever people she loses in the initial attack, when our resources are partially used up and she's learned from the first team's failures.

Lucius gritted his teeth. "I have no idea where J'onn is, and the tunnel should 'still' have another hour of rest before it's used again to be safe."

"How 'unsafe' is it now?"

"Right now, I give the odds it gets J'onn to Mars in one piece, or even mostly intact, at about 40%."

"Might be better than what Waller has planned for him. Or us."

"But we don't even know where he is or what he's been up to. Nothing to harm any of those trying to break in it seems like, or I think we would've noticed."

"Might be his kindness to us. At this point, if she charges us, which I doubt, we could only 'be' charged with preventing those who didn't identify themselves from breaking and entering Master Bruce's property. If she found him with us, or even recent evidence he was here and could prove it, she'd have a case of us aiding and abetting a fugitive of the United States, and other nations: allies and enemies.

Lucius sighed. "Not that he's ever been charged with a crime either."

"Putting a soldier into a permanent coma is pretty serious Fox."

"'After' he was held in a government facility against his will without being charged."

"True. Though he had no permission to land."

"You shouldn't have to in an emergency. No one blames a ship for docking anywhere, when the storm-clouds roll in over the waters."

Alfred sighed. "Somehow, I doubt our adversary sees things that way. But you're right."

A bar fell to join another already on the floor and one in another part of the house did the same. Lucius Fox blinked at the sight. "There masks must be better than I thought."

Alfred sighed again. "I 'told' Master Bruce to store more potent gas!"

What do you think now?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes