Chapter Text
Firing his grapple at the exposed piping, Bruce repels out of the way of laser fire, landing up on the upper deck, laying a haymaker to the first indigo alien he sees.
They crash into the control panel they were working, sparks flying, and a third of the deck goes dark as the crew shout in fury.
But that soon turns into gasps of awe and horror as Superman streaks by the panoramic view from the bridge, a blur of red and blue through the thrusters of the smaller ships and the second accompanying ship, now that apparently some of the mothership weapons were off him. Bruce remembers when he looked at the Kryptonian much the same before getting to know him, now knowing he embodying the sentiment of little joyful moments and sunshine.
“Batman! Whatever you did, keep at it!” Superman tells him, tone cheerful enough he can tell the other man was beaming as he did.
“Incoming from subordinate ship three.” He responds seeing the ship come-about.
“Thanks! On it.” Before zooming through whatever ship he had been on to the one now facing the mothership.
Looking down to the bottom platform, Bruce sees Wonder Woman was handling the general skillfully. His gaze snaps to the sound of rapid fire to see J’onn twisting and moving around laser blasts to become a Chinese dragon, though breathing fire like a European one. Gazing up to where Wonder Woman had thrown the general from, Bruce looks for any hanging pipes and starts sprinting at an angle, hopping on top of the control panel and throwing himself off, firing another grappler up.
He swings up and onto this platform, with no trouble, Wonder Woman and J’onn keeping the lower decks occupied, and sprints for the commander’s chair with its glowing holographic panels. Holding up the cord with the Thanagarian techno-morph end, it scans and becomes the plugin he needs to integrate into the system, the tech also translating the Dhoriians’ language into English. He works quickly, bypassing their security, because regardless of the alien tech he had come across with the formation of the League, Bruce found there were universal basics to code writing and thus basics to hacking and crashing it.
Like now.
Pressing the kill switch, the orange lights above them flicker and dim, turning to emergency green and sounding of some message over the PA as the sound of clamoring intensifies.
“Oii hehi!”
Head snapping to his right, he sees a Dhoriian of rank, charging angrily at him.
With his work done, Bruce leaps out of the chair as the alien brings their weapon down like a club. Running left towards one of the sloping walls with the tall alien close behind, he goes as high as he can before flipping over and landing on their shoulders, locking his legs, and continuing to bend back with the momentum to flip them as well, rolling out of the way.
Popping up some distance away, Bruce launches forward and clocks the alien, winding them, but before he follows through on another punch, he hears it.
The screeching shearing of metal being exposed to space.
But before he can fire a grappler to get himself as far away from the vacuum, Bruce sees that the tear in the hull was Superman-made.
Pulling the rest of the metal away above the windows, green backlights him as he enters the mothership, Green Lantern right behind him with his cocky grin as he dams up the breach. Making a microphone with a cord, he spins it around lazily then tosses it to Superman, who snatches it easily out of the air and gives the whole frozen command deck a genial smile.
“I believe now would be a good time for the terms of your surrender.” He says into the constructed microphone, the English muffled as the Dhoriians’ liquid sounding language spills from it.
Bruce hears a faint gagging before a loud wheezing word is said over and over again and he can’t help huffing because he knows Wonder Woman must have had the general in a strenuous headlock.
All around weapons clatter to the floor, the closest one to him doesn’t have their weapon on then, but they makes no move towards it, simply glaring up at him. Walking around them, keeping his eyes on them, Bruce kicks the weapon off the edge, listening to it clatter down the whole way, lifting his arm to fire another grapple.
“Batman.”
Glancing quickly, Bruce sees Green Lantern descending down to where Wonder Woman and the general were, but Superman was floating over to him.
“I heard from Arrow,” Coming to a stop right at the edge of the platform, “Everything is a-okay with you turning off all the systems up here. The scout bots on the surface fell over immediately.”
“Gotham?” He asks in response.
Smiling a touch fonder than Bruce believe was warranted from the Metropolitan protector, he tells him, “Didn’t make pass the Jersey Shore.”
He had been on the Watchtower updating the transporter, Green Lantern chattering in his ear about jet engines, when the Dhoriians dropped out of hyperspace, crashing smaller ships along the upper East Coast. It had been too close for comfort, but he also knew he’d waste precious time if he tried to get down there instead of stopping the problem at the source. Additionally, their other four members of the League were planet-side and made it to the drop zone in record time.
With a noncommittal hum to hide the relief, he walks over to the edge, rolling his eyes as Superman holds out his hand for him. He stares at it, then at him, and then steps off the edge, before firing a grapple to the ceiling above, Superman’s laughter following him down.
Phobos is blank as it is incredibly lonely. A chalky grey blip only seen in the black backdrop of space as it orbits in front of Mars.
The Dhoriians were a very prideful race, but with it came an unbreakable sense of honor, which the League could exploit for the safety of Earth. The Dhoriians asked for only two things before negotiations; that it be on neutral territory and only those that fought them at the mothership be present. They had cited a clause in their Rites of Battle stating only those that took on the enemy head on, seeing what they were capable of, would know the best terms of surrender in their favor.
Bruce could see the logic in that and at least appreciated it for the fact Green Arrow, Black Canary, Flash, and Hawkwoman were still on Earth in case the Dhoriians tried anything still.
And while he would have found a way to be present regardless if he had been planet-side, he did not like these exceptions on the personal principal that Mars’ geospace was the closest neutral territory. But as Phobos grows ever closer, the still damaged mothership hanging over the largest crater where Os’andra’der Base was located, he knows it’s much too late to turn back.
Squeezing his hands tightly, Bruce is resolute in not turning to see J’onn’s expression as he flies beside him. He may have suggested and given the okay for them to use the old base, but that did not take away the anguish that Bruce knows he’s going through, the halting way he spoke his assurance that he would be okay against their offers of other places.
J’onn had shown them, as a sign of trust, what had happened to his world and why he had used the last of his strength to make it to Earth a decade ago; A mass hysteria grew due to their growing civil war that developed into a mental plague burning through their Thoughtstream, a link shared by both Green and White Martians. His wife was a doctor and had decided on the most drastic of choices, of drugging J’onn and their daughter with the hopes that when the plague had nothing left to ravage that at least her husband and child would be safe. But from the distorted memories J’onn shared then, the sudden bonds snapping was too much for their daughter, leaving only J’onn left when he awoke several weeks later.
He can’t imagine anyone else going back to the scene of their own personal devastation, but Bruce didn’t count himself among the ‘healthy coping’, still returning to The Alley on the anniversary.
As they touch down, Superman setting the Batwing down a hundred feet or so from the small Dhori craft. It was four times larger than his ship though and shaped like a letter V. As the Dhoriians starts to disembark, Bruce checks his oxygen and suit one last time before opening the cockpit and stepping out onto the wing. The tremble of anticipation and wonder for being on another planet is heavy in his stomach, only to quickly flip to that blip of fear he still has when about to fall as he finds himself searching for balance in a low gravity environment.
Gaze snapping to Superman, he gives him a sheepish grimace before looking at the ground and then holding his arm out for Bruce to brace himself on.
Rolling his eyes, Bruce takes the offer help, rather having it then pinwheeling off of his own craft in front of the Dhoriians and making their strong stance against them seem weak.
“This is what I get for letting someone who doesn’t drive, park.” He mumbles.
Green Lantern snorts, while Superman’s nose just crinkles in a laugh as Wonder Woman smiles brightly at him with her own, his comment going directly into their ear from the comm.
Once on the shifting silt of the crater floor, they walk to the entrance of the abandon base, J’onn at the lead to let them in, followed by Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, and finally him and Superman. Bruce still needed a few more seconds with a steady structure to get his bearings, and since the Boy Scout was offering, he used his arm to hold as he found his balance, thankfully before they got to the door so he could walk on his own merit. Which was needed as he received squinting bemused looks from the nine Dhoriians that seemed judgmental as well, but that could be from their height.
They were, on average, seven feet tall in shades of indigo and had a lean aquatic humanoid shape, with extra joints in their lower legs creating a digitigrade stance. They had wide thin mouths and swooped back heads with webbed frills or crests along or the sides of their head, and had four forward facing eyes, the sclera black with golden hued iris.
Before Bruce can give any thought to what they might have seen, J’onn is opening the wide doors from the inside, feeling the weight of it move even if he couldn’t hear it.
The Dhoriians enter first and they all follow J’onn down a short corridor into a circular lobby, Green Lantern’s natural light dimly showing that was as wide as two ballrooms put together. Then in a flash of green they’re bubbled in a large dome that had all the Dhoriians flinching for their nonlethal weapons.
“Hey, hey,” Green Lantern raises his hands in surrender, “None of that. I’m just making it easier to talk and see. You can remove your helmets now. You’re welcome.” Flashing them a grin that has most of them tilting their heads in confusion.
Bruce removes his after a second of no one moving, showing that Green Lantern, while obnoxious, can be trusted as he and the Dhoriians were the only one in spacesuits. Green Lantern had his forcefield, J’onn could constantly change his morphology to work in space, Superman simply held his breath, and Wonder Woman was a demigoddess. If ever he needed the glaring reminder he was a mortal among gods, it was so starkly in context now.
“And just so you know, I can drive,” Superman whispers conspiratorially as the Dhoriians go about taking their helmets off, “A lot of things actually. A motorcycle. A car, both automatic and manual. A moving truck. A tractor — ”
“A tractor?” Stopping the Man of Steel as he counted off his vehicular achievements on his fingers, which one could say made him ridiculously endearing.
Grinning widely as he did when he successfully dragged Bruce into conversation, Superman goes on to proudly state, “How else are you going to make bad decisions, like trying to pop a wheelie with them or play chicken against the neighbors’ kids.”
Bruce can’t believe what he’s hearing right now and can barely stop the hint of a smile trying to crack at his lips. But it’s not enough as Superman beams at him.
“I don’t think your feats of teenage rebellion are going to impress them the way you want them to.”
“We did not know you had such powerful leaders.” The Dhoriian general says suddenly, denoted by the neck brace and arm cast he was in from his fight with Wonder Woman. Though it was said with a scrutinizing gaze locked on him.
In his peripheral he can see Superman’s smug grin that says ‘See’ and Bruce matches it for a brief moment with his own ‘You know it’s not for that’. Superman shrugs in acquiesce and steps forward so they’re in a line as a united front, while two Dhoriians stood ahead and the other seven behind them.
“Well now you do and you will respect it.” Wonder Woman tells them, brokering no argument, the general nodding the best he can.
“Good,” Superman adds, his business smile in place as he sets his fists on his hips, “First we’ll start with the boundaries of our solar system, which are out to the…” And turns to him.
“By current agreed upon estimates, with the ousting of Pluto, it would be the Kuiper Belt. But for salient — ”
A sharp call cuts Bruce off, everyone turning to the person who spoke, the injured general turning away and hissing back at the person who spoke out of turn. Further away from the center seemed to minimize the use of the ring’s translation feature, but Bruce is more focused on the Dhoriian as he recognizes them as the last one he fought, the purple bruising to their bottom left eye and the three sails across and down their head familiar.
“That can’t be right.”
As they hiss and whisper among themselves, Bruce looks around to Green Lantern, his green mask scrunching up as he stares down at his ring.
“Seriously?” Sounding even more incredulous then before.
“What?”
Green Lantern jolts and leans behind Superman in a too obvious manner, the Kryptonian not helping as he folds his arms and puffs out his chest.
“So I swear the translating is a bit off, because I think,” And rubbing at his temples, exhales sharply, “It sounded like the guy – Who’s name is Lieutenant Love Oil by the way, which sucks for him – But I think they’re using the formal word for Empress, but um, for you?” He shrugs as Superman stands straighter.
Bruce blinks at the rambling and weighs his options before asking,
“What did he say?”
Scoffing, blowing some of his flopping burnet hair out of his face, “He was saying he doesn’t think it’s safe or appropriate to speak with the consort around. Still can’t believe he thinks you’re — ”
“Ask them how they knew that.”
Green Lantern freezes rather humorously, though Superman looks back in surprise as J’onn looks over as well.
I hope Wonder Woman is still keeping an eye on them.
“But you’re not — ”
“Ask.” He hisses out the syllables, the man raising his hands in surrender and stepping away.
“You’re trying to assess their perception of us.” Wonder Woman whispers as Green Lantern claps at the Dhoriians to get their attention.
“The more we know, and how they think, will take us a long way in terms of preserving the Solar System’s independence and safety.” Glad that she understood what he was trying to accomplish.
“Alright Love Oil,” Green Lantern says loudly, sauntering back over with a delighted grin, “Tell them what you told me.”
“It’s Luhi-Ovy.” The lieutenant enunciates with a vocal click as he steps forward.
“That’s what I said.” Lantern blithely waves at him to get on with it.
Exhaling sharply, he rolls all four of his eyes, mulishly telling them, “I said, it was clear what your station was with how the Emperor came to you first after the breach to the flagship. How he held and protected the craft you came in and how he helped you down,” Then expression furrowing, looks away and folds his long arms, his four fingered hands gripping his biceps, “And in the way he defers to you and you lighten towards him.”
All of it was conjecture at best, flimsy to anyone else that would have seen what they described, easy to deny. But that was for a human.
Looking pass Superman’s shock expression and ignoring Green Lantern’s blindly excited smile, he meets J’onn’s gaze. With a curt nod, Bruce’s deductions are confirmed. To them, everything they witnessed was more than enough proof based on their social norms, events that could just as easily be seen in the inverse, but because it wasn’t meant,
“You pick your rulers through feats of strength.” He concludes out loud, the lieutenant turning back to sneer at him.
“It’s the only way.”
“If that’s the case,” Wonder Woman moves deliberately forward, her quiet steps thunderous with power freezing the Dhoriians in place, “why would Batman not be here for your terms of surrender? He bested your system and some of your men. Might of mind and body.”
“But he is not like you.” The general bites out.
“And yet that doesn’t change how we value his input,” Superman adds, tone commanding as he stares down the aliens, “How I value his input. If I say Batman is staying, he’s staying. End of discussion.”
Luhi-Ovy chitters in a way that suited someone clicking their tongue, muttering, ‘Saddled’ as the alien general steps back as if struck,
“Our Emperor would never — ”
“Yes. Your emperor,” Wonder Woman snaps, “Remember, this is not your world and this is a world you cannot conquer, these are pleasantries and formalities.” Holding her ground easily until the cowed aliens mutter a ‘Yes General Wonder Woman’.
“Apologizes Emperor Superman,” The general turns to him, “You have — ”
“And.” Superman interrupts the man, tapping his pointer finger against his arm, waiting for what Bruce realizes belatedly is an apology for him as well.
While a show of power, it was also something Superman would’ve done regardless with his sentimentality, though it lended itself to whatever these aliens assumed about them.
Turning stiffly to him, the general bows sharply, “Apologies as well Empress Batman.”
Green Lantern inhales sharply, whispering around his smirk, “Yeah, guess it was right. But you got a fancy bow out of it.”
“Noted general,” Ignoring Lantern and getting this meeting back on track, “As I was saying, for salient purposes the boundary past the Oort Cloud seems to be the most reasonable. The translation is 100,000 astronomical units from Sol and will be equal distance on all planes.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” Superman agrees, adding, “With any purposeful injunction on our border being handled with simple removal, though the level of which we’ll be our choosing.” A minor threat at best, Superman will undoubtedly turn the ships around manually, but it was one nonetheless to help set a precedent.
And the wary looks proves the success of it.
“Agreed.” The general murmurs.
Reparations were offered for battle damages and were made through a deposit of 100 tonnes of a titanium-like metal alloy that Bruce was eager to test to see if it could be used on Earth for rebuilding or better suited for additions to the Watchtower. They also received documentation that the Dhori Expansion would not attack or lead any subterfuge against their system.
“Is there anything else that the Imperial Head would require?” The second general asks after signing his name to the datapad, handing it over to Superman.
Superman looks to him and Bruce can’t fight the small smirk that comes to his lips.
“I can think of one.”
Looking up at the V craft they left, another coming down to retrieve the Dhoriians and drop off the hover pallets with the metal stock before quickly departing, Bruce can’t deny the assumption that he was royalty was a benefit.
Walking the length of it, a spaceworthy ship of his own, he smirks as ideas for how to reverse engineer it for himself and the Justice League kept coming to him. They could have their own ship to use if something like this ever happened again or another route was needed during transporter updates. As for the upgrades he could integrate into his suit, right now the possibilities were endless.
And while he was focused on designing plans for their new ship he can’t help think about the recent events, about how the League stood by him.
Bruce is aware of his abrasive demeanor and could – Or was operating under the assumption his presence was needed for funding or support. But when his value was questioned they brought it up and defended him to persons they would never see again. But they still did.
He could almost hear Alfred’s dry tone going, Defending a colleague, almost as if concerned about a friend, but perish the thought.
Though the more time he’s spent this year with the League had been surprisingly fruitful, working quick on their feet and eventually willing to see reason to follow through on some of his suggestions. And to a smaller effect, it was useful to know that they did see him with respect. So perhaps not the train wreck he predicted before —
“Should I update Earth’s status from a multinational world to a planetary monarchy?”
But certainly retaining its car crash status.
Not turning the Green Lantern’s way, clearly done checking the hull and cargo since he had the chance to talk, Bruce spins slowly on his heels and walks back to the Batwing with Superman waiting nearby, ignoring the full belly laugh behind him.
“I already deal with one Joker,” He says halfway there, pausing for effect, “Don’t make it be two.” Before continuing on, smirking as the brunet immediately shuts up, and a bit at the thumbs-up Superman gives him.
(by @vlking-69)