Chapter Text
The transport should have been routine.
That was what Green Lantern kept insisting.
A standard metahuman containment transfer from Central City to a reinforced ARGUS facility outside Metropolis. One restrained villain. Six League escorts. Clear skies.
Routine.
Then Payload escaped at seventy miles per hour.
“Are you kidding me?!” Flash shouted as the armored convoy erupted behind him in a blast of stolen kinetic energy.
The highway cracked.
Cars spun.
Green Lantern threw up shields just in time for Superman to catch an airborne truck before it crushed the median.
And through the smoke—
Payload laughed.
“Oh, this is perfect.”
The metahuman slammed both hands into the pavement, absorbing impact from the collapsing asphalt before launching himself forward like a missile. He hit a police cruiser hard enough to flatten the hood, dragged the screaming officer out, and stole the vehicle in one violent motion.
Batman-level contingency planning, unfortunately, had not included:
criminal steals cop car and drives directly into the worst city in America.
Flash blurred after him instantly.
“On it—”
“No.”
Wonder Woman’s voice cut through the comms sharply.
Barry skidded across ruined concrete. “No?”
Green Lantern stared ahead at the retreating police lights disappearing into thick rain clouds on the horizon.
Into Gotham.
Even from miles away, the skyline looked wrong.
Too dark.
Too jagged.
Like the buildings had grown instead of been built.
Superman frowned slightly.
“I thought Gotham had its own protector.”
“That’s the rumor,” Hal muttered.
Cyborg’s holographic screens flickered beside him. “Actually, official records on Gotham vigilante activity are almost nonexistent. Every file involving the Batman is corrupted, missing, or contradictory.”
“Batman?” Barry repeated. “That’s seriously his name?”
“No confirmed visuals,” Cyborg continued. “No biometric records. No public League contact. No government registration.”
“Urban legend,” Hal said.
Diana didn’t answer immediately.
Her gaze remained fixed on Gotham’s skyline.
“There are old cities,” she said quietly. “And then there are wounded cities.”
Nobody responded to that.
Ahead, thunder rolled over Gotham Harbor.
Payload’s stolen cruiser vanished across the bridge leading into city limits.
Superman sighed.
“We can’t let a metahuman disappear into a civilian population.”
Diana nodded once.
“Then we enter carefully.”
The bridge into Gotham felt colder than it should have.
Not temperature-wise.
Something else.
Flash noticed it first.
“Okay, nope. Nope. Why does this place feel like a horror movie?”
Streetlights flickered overhead as the League crossed deeper into the city.
Not randomly.
Patterns.
Three flashes.
Pause.
Two flashes.
Like signals.
The rain intensified almost instantly.
Gotham swallowed sound strangely. Sirens echoed too long. Footsteps disappeared too quickly. Even the thunder seemed quieter beneath the looming buildings.
Superman scanned ahead with x-ray vision.
Then stopped.
“Huh.”
“What?” Hal asked.
Clark frowned harder.
“I can’t see into Wayne Manor.”
“…Excuse me?”
“It’s lined with lead,” Clark said slowly. “Every wall.”
Flash barked out a laugh. “What does billionaire Dracula need that much lead for?”
Nobody answered.
Pedestrians watched the League openly from sidewalks as they passed overhead.
Not excited.
Not impressed.
Just wary.
One man smoking beneath a laundromat awning made eye contact with Wonder Woman and immediately muttered:
“Tourists.”
A woman pulling her child closer whispered:
“They shouldn’t be here after dark.”
Barry lowered slightly beside a rooftop water tower.
“Does anybody else notice nobody’s asking for selfies?”
“Focus,” Diana warned.
But Barry wasn’t wrong.
No cheering crowds.
No phones raised.
Just staring.
Like Gotham residents were waiting for something bad to happen.
Then Cyborg’s comm crackled.
“I found Payload’s signal.”
A few blocks east.
Near the Narrows.
The League arrived three minutes later.
The police cruiser sat abandoned in the middle of a flooded alley.
Doors hanging open.
Engine still running.
Flash landed first.
“…Uh.”
The inside of the vehicle had been destroyed.
Not exploded.
Shredded.
Deep gouges carved through metal seats and dashboard alike.
The steering wheel looked torn apart by an animal.
Diana crouched beside the ruined driver’s door.
“Claw marks,” she said quietly.
Hal frowned. “Payload doesn’t have claws.”
“No,” Diana agreed.
Above them—
something creaked.
All six heroes looked upward instantly.
Fire escapes climbed the building walls overhead like skeletal ladders disappearing into darkness.
Rain poured from rooftops.
Nothing moved.
Then Barry stiffened.
“…Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Clark asked.
Barry swallowed.
Softly—
somewhere high above the alley—
came the sound of laughing.
Not loud.
Not human.
Light.
Almost playful.
And directly overhead.
The alley lights flickered once.
Twice.
Then went out completely.