Chapter Text
“Look, it’s totally unobtrusive, and highly reliable” Hal explained, holding up the device he had been loaned from the Lanterns. “They were developed by law enforcement in one of the other sectors to investigate people ethically.”
“How does it work?” Diana asked leaning in to inspect it closer.
Hal held it forward. “It places the user in a non-corporeal state for seven days. In that state they will be tied to the individual they wish to observe. Able to follow them; to see and hear everything they do, without being seen or heard themselves.”
“That doesn’t sound unobtrusive,” Clark complained, less comfortable with this venture than the rest of them. “In fact, it sounds highly obtrusive! The whole point of this is to determine if we can trust Batman without invading his privacy, and especially without learning his identity. We can’t just spy on him!”
Hal gave him an impatient look, “Allow me to finish. When the seven days conclude, the observer will wake, whole again, with no memory of anything they witnessed in that time.”
“Then what is the point?” Barry groaned, earning himself a glare from his friend that made him pout.
“The point,” Hal snapped, “Is that whatever opinion the observer forms of their target in that time will remain afterwards. If they see them being kind, they will emerge with a good opinion of them. If they see them being cruel, they will emerge with a poor opinion. The user essentially becomes a perfect character witness.”
Diana nodded, impressed “So this will allow us to determine with confidence if Batman is a good man, worthy of our team, without learning any personal details he is not yet ready to share.”
“Bingo.”
“Any objections to this?” Arthur asked, looking about the room.
Most shrugged in acceptance. Clark ducked his head and gave a sharp nod, conceding that it was an acceptable idea.
“So, who’s going to do it?” Barry asked.
“I am,” Hal stated quickly. “Obviously. I brought it. I get dibs on spying on Batman.”
That caused a few grumbles. Several of the others wanted to volunteer, equally excited by the idea of learning Batman’s secrets, even if they would forget them afterwards. Sadly, even if they had wanted challenge Hal for the opportunity most of them had personal commitments that would not allow them to go MIA for a whole week. Hal was between missions for the Lantern Corp’s and had nothing much going on work wise on Earth at the moment.
They gathered at Superman’s fortress of solitude, having designated it a safe base to carry out the plan. Hal would activate the device whilst focusing his mind on Batman, if everything went to plan, he would appear wherever Batman currently was, in a form that was invisible and silent, undetectable. In this form he would observe the Bat.
When the week was up, Hal would return to where he began, back in the fortress in his solid form, with no memory of what transpired in that week but with a fresh opinion on the Bat of Gotham.
If he was being honest, Hal fully expected to emerge from this thing with the same opinion he had now. That Batman was a crazy paranoid loner who they were better off without. He was mostly doing this for the vindication of being proven right.
Hal tried not to fidget as the group of heroes gathered around him in a circle whilst he sat in the middle, face to face with the device.
“You will not need to eat or to perform any bodily functions in this form,” Diana assured him, reading from the manual he had provided. They had agreed together that she would be the one controlling the device and sending him under.
Hal rolled his eyes. He’d read the manual too. He knew all this. But arguing with Diana was never worthwhile. “No ghost dumps, got it.”
“When it starts, you must focus,” Diana instructed, “Keep your sights on the object and concentrate on what you wish to achieve. Think of Batman. You wish to know him. To know who he is as a man. To know if we can trust him.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
He took a deep breath, clearing his mind of all thought in the same way he did when trying to produce a particularly complex construct. Letting nothing but his goal cross his thoughts. In front of him the object sat, innocuously, a blue light blinking on and off. Hal let the rest of the room bleed away, seeing nothing but that blinking light.
‘Batman,’ he thought, ‘who are you?’
As he watched the blue light grew brighter until it made Hal’s eyes burn, but he couldn’t look away, he was mesmerised, transfixed. It seemed to glow, brighter, brighter, brighter until a sharp violent flash finally broke his focus and Hal jolted raising his hands to cover his eyes and letting out a yelp.
When the dots cleared from his vision Hal looked around. He was still in the fortress. The team still watching him.
“I don’t think it worked,” he frowned, glaring at the device which had powered down, all lights switched off.
“Dude it totally worked. You were gone for a week.” Barry cried out, bouncing with excitement.
“I was?”
The rest of the group nodded to confirm.
Now that Hal was looking, he realised there were more people here than a minute ago; presumably because a minute ago was in fact a week ago. Oliver, Dinah and Victor were all hovering around, seeming to Hal as if they had popped out of thin air. “Huh.”
“How do you feel?” Diana asked, kneeling beside him. Checking for any sign of distress of injury.
“Feel fine. There was a bright flash and then it was all over. I don’t feel any different.” Hal ran his hands over his torso nervously just be sure everything was where it should be. It all seemed ok.
“Well,” Clark prompted, keen to know if they had their answer at last, “What do you think of Batman now?”
“So sexy,” Hal blurted before slapping a hand over his mouth in horror.
Shocked laughter filled the room and Hal lunged forward to grab the device, fully intending to launch it at a cackling Arthur’s head. Diana was quick to anticipate this and intercepted him.
Thankfully Hal then remembered he was a Green Lantern and constructed a giant mallet to hit Arthur instead, which was actually more satisfying than throwing the device would have been. Less paperwork for sure. He wasn’t sure how he would explain to the corps if he broke it.
“Someone has a cru-ush,” Oliver sing-songed.
“I do not,” Hal snapped blushing furiously.
He took a deep breath and focused on thoughts of Batman, expecting to find some of that same anger and resentment he had long associated with the solitary vigilante.
Yet instead, all he found was a warm glow in his chest. Feelings of affection and amusement. Words like sweet, charming, and gorgeous floated through his mind against his will.
Oh my God, he realised with horror. I do have a crush.
“What the hell did I witness?”