Chapter Text
Bruce turned to the monitors when he heard the computer beep and Clark’s voice come through. “Javelin 7 to Watchtower,”
“Watchtower here,”
“Prepare the landing bay, we’re coming in,” Clark told him.
“Just when I was starting to enjoy the peace and quiet,” Bruce replied with his normal serious tone.
“Same old Bats,” Superman replied, amused by his words. Clark knew that Bruce had missed them at least a little. It also had been at least a week which meant Bruce would need some Little time and soon or he would start feeling the withdrawals because of their weekly Little schedule.
The whole League had been on a mission across the galaxy, leaving Batman for monitor duty as he claimed he was only a part-time member. Unfortunately, their ship had been damaged and John had to fly them all home with his ring.
John told them his ring was going to need a serious recharge and soon, luckily they had gotten back to the watchtower just fine. His ring would be charged in no time.
The bay doors to the watchtower started to open and John pulled the javelin in closer, ready to park it inside the landing bay.
Suddenly a white flash of light came from the horizon of the earth, and those in the javelin could only stare at it. “Great Hera!” Wonder Woman exclaimed.
Something was happening on earth, and a shock wave was sent through space. Lantern did everything he could, protecting the javelin and himself even through the strain.
The next minute and the anomaly was gone, and so was the Watchtower. They all got up, “What was that?” Diana asked.
“I don’t know,” Superman replied. “But look,” he said, pointing out into space.
“Hey! Where’d the Watchtower go?” Flash asked.
Clark rushed forward, instantly trying to reach the watchtower with the javelin comms. “Batman? Come in! Do you read me? Batman!”
“He’s gone,” J’onn spoke up, eyes glowing in a tell-tale way that he was trying to reach out telepathically. “And so is the watchtower,” they all just looked at him, John still looking to where the watchtower had just been.
John brought them down to land on earth as everyone discussed. “I don’t get it,” Flash started. “There was no wreckage, no debris, zippo,”
“How could the entire watchtower disappear without a trace?” Diana asked in response.
“Perhaps we’ll find an answer when we locate the source of that mysterious pulse,” J’onn said as he looked to the monitors of the javelin.
John set the javelin down gently, landing on the ground and powering his ring down to conserve the energy. He waited as everyone disembarked the javelin, watching as Wally sped off and looked around.
“Where the heck are we?” Flash asked.
“Looks like we’re home,” Superman responded with curiosity.
They wandered further into what they believed to be Metropolis, looking around at everything strangely. Not long after, they were approached by two police in uniform.
“You there!” One called out, drawing their attention. “Show me your papers!”
“What?” John asked, feeling a little offended.
When the same officer approached, he held his arm out again, “You heard me! Let’s see your identity papers, now!” He yelled.
“Sorry, but my identity’s a secret,” Flash responded. “Chicks dig that whole man of mystery thing,” he joked.
“You think this is a joke?” The officer asked. “You’re under arrest!”
“On what charge?” Hawkgirl demanded, stepping in front of Flash for extra measures.
“Out of the way,” the offer said as he pushed her aside. Unfortunately for that officer, he didn’t manage to get her far before she grabbed him by the arm, yanked it behind his back and threw him like a doll. He landed on a bench, then skid off the end.
After that, the other police officer got involved, calling in backup. A few officers around started to fire on the league, and John used his ring to form a shield around them all.
As soon as the reinforcements were there, flying with advanced ships, John had to take his barrier down, “Scatter!” he commanded.
It didn’t take long for the league to take down the officers but soon another wave of reinforcements arrived, “Uh oh!” Flash exclaimed from his place on the ground.
“Over here!” A voice yelled at him.
When Wally turned to look, there was a black figure standing in the shadows of an alleyway. “Bats?” Flash asked, drawing each league member’s attention.
“Hurry!” Batman yelled, running further into the alley. When Flash came under heavy fire, he did as told and ran into the alley after Batman.
They all followed the man in the manhole, dropping into a train that took off as soon as the last of them were aboard. “Hang on!” Batman demented as he led their getaway.
Flash, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and J’onn were thrown back when the train took off but soon were able to get back up. “Whose hand is that?” Hawkgirl asked as she sat in the dogpile.
“Sorry,” Flash responded, moving his hand away instantly, a sheepish shine on his face that instantly had John shaking his head and chuckling.
Batman led the train to a dead-end, everyone’s face instantly paling at the thought of crashing into the wall. Just before they made contact, the wooden planks covering an opening in the closed train rails opened, and they passed through easily, the entrance coving itself back up as soon as the train was through.
They followed Batman off the plane and into the building. “This is too weird,” Wally said. “Hey wait up! I’ve got some questions,” he told the Bat as he sped to catch up and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Batman only stopped and turned his head to look at the speedster. Suddenly, a bunch of people popped out of their hiding places, aiming guns at everyone that entered except for Batman.
“No,” Batman finally said. “I’ll ask the questions. Who are you?” He asked as he turned to face the group again.
“Bats you’re starting to scare me,” Flash responded worriedly.
“I scare a lot of people,” he said seriously. “The resistance might be able to use you,” Batman continued. “But you’re going to have to prove we can trust you,”
“Are you kidding?” John asked. “You’ve known us for years!”
Batman grabbed a gun from one of the resistance members, pointing it straight at them. Clark’s stomach dropped. What is wrong with Batman? He wondered, squashing down his need to scoop his Little up and see what was wrong.
“You must have me confused with someone else,” He said, still aiming the gun at them.
“I don’t think he’s kidding,” Flash said with wide eyes. Finally, Superman came out of his shock and sped forward, taking the gun from Bruce’s hands. Bruce hated guns- he refused to even touch them! What was going on?
“Listen,” Superman said, voice even and calm. “If we wanted to hurt you, we would have,” he assured, voice gaining a little of the frustration he was feeling. The whole time he had been in Batman’s face and Batman was scowling right back in his.
They stood in a standoff as the resistance member came even closer, their guns cocking as they prepared to fire. With one hand signal, Batman called them off, and Superman returned the gun he’d taken.
Batman looked at it- the thing was bent and broken. Useless. “Let’s talk,” were his only words, clipped and short. Clark was worried. Other than a few differences- he knew that this was Batman. The way he spoke, barely at all and only about business had made it obvious. His costume, different with no cape and made of reinforced metals and tech was another small difference.
He still had bat ears, though so Clark let out a small sigh. What was going on? What happened to earth and more specifically- what had happened to Batman, his little boy?
~~~
A reassurance of orphans. That’s what Batman has told them. Each had been orphaned by the Regime, and Batman had organized the resistance for the sole purpose of taking the fight to the Regime.
When John asked how long the Regime had been in power, Batman had told them since World War Two.
“But we won that war, didn’t we?” Flash asked.
“No,” came Batman’s reply. He walked to the computers and pulled up a picture of a large Regime army. “They did,”
“You’re telling us we lost World War Two?” Lantern asked critically. “That’s insane! The allies invaded Europe on D-day and…”
“It was a disaster,” Batman assured. “D-day was the beginning of the end for the allies.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” John said.
“Something’s obviously happened to the time-space continuum,” J’onn told them.
“Probably caused by the disturbance we saw,” Superman agreed as Batman turned to look at them.
“But why weren’t we affected?” Wonder Woman asked.
“Perhaps the aura from Green Lantern’s ring protected us,” J’onn replied.
“Want to share?” Batman asked seriously, walking to face Superman in a confrontational way.
“Have you detected and large electrical or magnetic disturbances recently?” Superman asked him.
“We experienced some interference on our commlinks,” Batman replied helpfully. “Why?” A serious look was the only response he got from Superman.
~~~
“According to my sources, the pulse emanated from here,” Batman said as they all hid stealthily in an alleyway looking at their target. “Vandal Savage’s research center,”
“Who’s Vandal Savage?” John asked him in a quiet tone.
“You’re joking,” Batman said in a serious tone, turning to face them all. “He’s everything I’ve been fighting against,” he told them. “The undisputed dictator of this repressive Regime.”
“Jets see what’s inside,” J’onn said as he shifted his density, and disappeared into the ground. Everyone followed suit, heading for the building of interest.
J’onn ghosted inside, sticking only his eyes up through the floor until he deemed it safe, the rest of his body following. “It’s still unstable and rapidly deteriorating,” a female scientist said as he looked on.
“How soon before it flatlines?” A man asked her.
“Forty-eight hours give or take,” she responded. “Just as Savage predicted,”
“If only we could’ve controlled the wave fluctuations,” the man told her. “Practical time travel would be a reality,” that last part made J’onn eyes widen in shock. Someone had messed with time.
Hawkgirl busted the door open, flying in with everyone else following suit. The scientists ran, as they all entered the room and looked around. Security started to attack and Green Lantern put up another shield as Diana reaches for her lasso.
She was able to pull a gun from one of the guards as Flash took the other two down quickly, knocking all three out. Superman threw a panel at another three guards, making them turn to run out of the way.
Batman threw a smoke pellet from his hiding spot that rendered the guards unconscious. “Over here!” J’onn announced.
They all ran to where he was standing, looking at what appeared to be an electrified black hole. “What is that?” Superman asked.
“Heavy matter,” J’onn replied. “Like a black hole. They used it as a tunnel into the past,” he told them.
“And altered history to change the outcome of the war,” Hawkgirl finished.
“Can we change it back?” Flash asked.
“It would be risky,” J’onn told them. “We only have forty-eight hours before it collapses.”
“We’ve got to try,” John assured as the time tunnel fluctuated again.
“Wait!” Batman said, bringing their attention to him. “Are you saying that my world… my whole life is like this because someone went back in time and changed the past?”
“That appears to be the case,” J’onn told him honestly.
“Then doing this could save my parents,”
“I can’t promise that,” Clark told him, knowing exactly what would happen to Bruce and his parents if they succeeded in their mission.
“Will you come with us?” Hawkgirl asked, changing the topic slightly.
“No,” he responded. “If this doesn’t work someone’s got to stay here and fight.”
“You understand that if we do change the past, you- this version of you, will never have existed?” J’onn asked him.
“Nothing would make me happier,” Batman replied. “Now go,” he told them. Superman has a hard time leaving. He had to leave his little boy behind- even if it wasn’t exactly his little, he wasn’t the same- Bruce was still his.
In the end, he flew into the anomaly- determined to set things right. Each of the league members followed him in, Wonder Woman the last to jump as she looked to Batman sadly.
Batman stood there as they all disappeared into the black hole, his face stoic but his heart hopeful.
~~~
The anomaly dropped them into an old broken down building and they groaned as the got up. “Where are we?” Flash asked as heavy gunfire was making itself known. He sped around to get a better look.
“Great jumpin’ Hera!” Flash exclaimed as he got a look outside. There were bombs going off, guns firing and warfare all around. Tanks fired and buildings destroyed as the battle raged on.
They all looked on, “It's just like those old documentaries,” Flash told them.
“Not quite,” Hawkgirl assured as a sound boomed. When they looked, there was a giant piece of machinery rolling around. It was more advanced than anything they had at the time this war took place. Hell, it was more advanced than some of the tech they had in the present.
They all looked at the machine with wide eyes. It destroyed everything it could with the missiles it launched. Soon, it shot a missile at an Allies tank as a man was trying to escape and Green Lantern stepped in.
He blocked the missile with a shield and then blocked another as he turned to face the weapon. Flash ran next to it, calling out to get the attention of whoever was driving it.
With the fire focused on him, he ran and dodged easily until a shell got too close, blowing him into the air. Wonder Woman scooped him up after he landed in the machine’s path, taking him a little ways away from the action.
Superman attacked ineffectively then noticed as gunfire was focused on him. Hawkgirl took out their guns as Superman went back to attacking the large weapon. He tried to slow it down as J’onn ghosted into the inside, pulling wires and destroying parts.
Just as soon as he started attacking the weapon from the inside, it powered down, John and Superman taking care of the cannons that were still active. Then, deciding that wasn’t enough, Superman knocked the thing over with the help of Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl.
The allies cheered, thankful for the help. “I feel like roadkill,” Flash complained when he got back to his friends. A few soldiers wolf-whistled at Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl but made their way away from the battlefield. “Thanks, doll!” They called.
“I pulled this from the control panel,” J’onn said as he showed his newfound treasure.
“Transistors?” Lantern asked in shock. “They weren’t invented until after the war!” He assured as Diana look the tech to look at it further.
“The scientists at the laboratory said the hole was unstable,” J’onn told them as he recalled what he had heard. “Whoever left from our time could have gotten here months ago. Perhaps years,”
“So where do we start?” Hawkgirl asked as another explosion took place close by. Three more of those big machines pulled up from the woods once again firing on the soldiers.
“Those troops are getting decimated!” Superman said.
“You help them,” J’onn told them as everyone but Superman left to fight. “I’ll fly to Berlin, I suspect the answer to this mystery lies there,”
“Wait,” Diana said. “I can’t let you go into enemy territory alone,”
“Go then,” Superman assured. “We’ll handle things here,” he flew into action, leaving Diana and J’onn to fly to Berlin.
~~~
After meeting a man named Steve Trevor, J’onn ghosted into the mentioned labs of Vandal Savage. Trevor had tried to tell them getting in was impossible, but with J’onn’s ability, it was easy.
“A laptop?” J’onn asked curiously. He saw a man frozen who resembled Hitler- he could only assume that the man was exactly who he looked like then came under attack. The weapons the man used were not from this time and J’onn went down easily from the surprise of his attack.
BACK ON THE BATTLEFIELD
The rest of the league was getting soldiers to safety and attacking the weapons with everything they had. John tried to hold them off but his ring ran out of power and he had to run on foot.
He scooped up one last soldier, handing him off to Hawkgirl as he assured her that he would be fine. He kept running as she flew off with three soldiers but was soon brown out of the way by a missile.
He sat up just as his ring ran out of power completely. His eyes went from green to dark brown as the machines approached. How was he going to get out of this?