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Martian Manhunter could feel the tension on the room, it had been like tense since Superman had revealed the reason for how and why he went missing for a week. Then it was made worse when Batman off-handedly mentioned something everyone else found shocking, he had contingency plans for everyone in the league, even those with some minor association to them. For one hand it felt cruel, accusatory and even vindictive; but on the other John could feel how everyone was also thinking the same along the same "would this ever be necessary against me?"
They were lashing out against Batman and they knew it, but his unrepenting scowl and unwillingness to accept any wrongdoing was just spiraling things even worse.
"So you've been planning all this time how to take us down and stab us in the back whenever we didn't see eye to eye?!" Wonder Woman was completely enraged, and her usual political sense had twisted into accusations that had no proper answer.
"You know it isn't that way. To begin with we have never seen eye to eye on many things, and that's part of th reason we founded this team." Batman grumbled back, not exactly saying something wrong but it felt incredibly condescending.
"You should have told us. This isn't something you should have hidden from us, your allies, the league, your friends." Superman's tone was hurt, offended, but he couldn't find the words to disagree after what he had see.
"I'm not going to pretend I never thought about how I could beat you, any of you for this matter. I'm a king responsible for my kingdom, and I have felt the need to... permanently get rid of a foe. For better or worse it's part of my role and my duty, but Batman, I have never felt the need to have careful documentation about it. And we have shared our weaknesses before as a cautionary measure. So, unless you are hiding anyhting else show it to us Bruce." Aquaman slipped on his real identity at the end, it couldn't be helped it was clear that he was doing his best to control his mood and from the storm in his mind John honestly thought he was doing pretty well.
"I know not everyone in the league is fond of the Guardians of Oa, but this is the type of thing they would pull off." Hal Jordan spoke matter-of-factly. But he knew Batman wasn't fond of the guardians so this was an indirect insult.
John was staying silent overwhelmed by the raging minds and emotions, he was trying to focus on Batman's mind only due to the quiet it brought due to his particular skills. He had never felt so gratefull for that corner of silence so much till now.
The Flash was silent, but only because his mind was going a lot faster than his mouth could ever. John couldn't understand his internal rambling getting only flashes of memories of previous confrontations with his enemies with super speed.
"I only did what needed to be done. It's not like we haven't have had to deal with evil versions of ourselves before. Mind control was almost our undoing on 2010, and now we have Superman seeing firsthand that alternate versions of us can make something like the Regime." Batman was still arguing which was NOT helping"
"I bet the only reason you are bringing that up is because that Batman was against the Regime as if that puts you in the right! What makes you think that there aren't some that would..."
The accusation was cut over by an announcement of entry from the Zeta tubes system.
Access Granted B01: Nightwing
Access Granted B04...
Heads turned toward the newcomers at the base, the teams must have been coming back to the watchtower after they were summoned because they were supposed to be informed about the Regime after what was intended to be a short coordination on how to inform the newer League members and the YJ team of the Regime.
Miss Martian was the first to feel the tension in the room due to her telepathic ability. But little by little everyone started getting tense and nervous on the ambience alone.
"I know we were supposed to have an important meeting today, that's why we summoned everyone but it can't be so bad, right?" Nightwing tried to charm his way into some peace talks but the answer he recieved showed that he was the worst person to do the job this time.
"Depends, did you know about Batman's so called contingency plans?" The tone alone made evryone freeze up. Including the ever increasing list of of members in the room that were barely able to hear the word plans.
"So cat's out of the bag, huh?" Nightwing sighed, looked over to his mentor and just said in a resigned, if somewhat sad tone "I told you you had to talk this with them, now I guess you wont mind we show them, there's no purpose antagonizing everyone because the knowledge would only slightly affect the effectiveness. Right?"
Batman was already coding into his wrist, and with a grunt a large screen appeared in the middle with folders for everyone.
Nightwing had no choice but to play mediator.
"This is going to be uncomfortable for everyone, so do you want me to go one by one on the list so everyone gets the information at the same time? I'm open to suggestions."
No one answered, so he had no choice but to start opening each one by one and giving an overview of the plans...
***********
Danny Phantom wa running VERY late, stupidly so. He was supposed to be at the League meeting almost 6 hours ago, but the Ghost-Zone issues made him lose track of time. Dealing with the Observants was always a mess, he had to report with them every so often due to his supposed claim to the throne and his relentless refusal to take it. Nevermind the Observants NEVER cared for his schedule as a human...
***********
Batman had chosen to keep his mouth shut while Nightwing showed and explained the plans. Some Leaguers looked down after hearing the plans on them, some looked sad, some looked angry. Everyone had at least one second when they felt betrayed. He never wanted them to know, not because it would affect the effectiveness of the plans; that was the excuse he gave to his protégés, but because he wanted to avoid hurting his teammates and friends. This wouldn't be the last time he hurt his allies on the pretence of prepration and his paranoia; he just wished he didn't need to see so many hurt at once.
But it was odd, the order was supposed to be by date generated, he never editted the plans so non of them had reviews or updates, so why hadn't that file come up yet? He was sure that one was made much earlier than other files such as Beast Boy or Blue Beetle. But by this point Nightwing had already gone through the files concerning the Outsiders... It wasn't till after hours of silence from the announcement system that the name came up.
Access Granted B11: Phantom
Phantom was running immediately after his teleportation finished. He saw the watchtower was still full and everyone turned to see him. The tension was palpable and Danny was sure it was because everyone was mad at him for his tardiness.
"I'm so sorry I had some dealings to finish in the Zone and was unable to come in time, sorry if you guys were waiting for me." His panic was noticeable to everyone and someone was sarcastic in his answer.
"Well, lucky for you we haven't seen Batman's contingency plan for you yet so you didn't miss the part you'll care about the most" This was a dig at Batman, and everyone knew that, but Danny didn't, the late teen in all his brilliant idiocy thought it was aimed to him so he answered without giving it a second thought while accessing his phone typing some things and the main screen started moving,
Cyborg, Batman, Nightwing, Flash, Ret Tornado, Robin III and Oracle immediately raised an eyebrow because he shoudn't have that access on his phone.
"I did not know this meeting was regarding the countermeasures, I had wanted to talk to the team about mine for a while now and I didn't know how to bring it up. Specially since the system is not that hard to hack."
That last comment immediately earned an offended scowl from all the heroes involved in the programming of the watchtower. But then Batman was scowling deeper when he noticed that Phantom's file was the most recent one. He hadn't touched it since the teen had joined the team years ago. Then the amount of eyes that now were open in shock or surprise unable to keep their frowns was at least half of the room when the amount of virtual screens exploded. The largest file they had seen so far needed just 5 screens and that included schematics and bluprints needed to build whatever the plan required. Phantom's files had a staggering amount of screens popping up. Enough that every leaguer could pull one to start reading in confusion, and there were leftover ones.
Nightwing was shocked. This was NOTHING like the file he had seen Batman build years ago, and seeing how tense Bruce got on the corner of his eye he was sure he hadn't changed it either.
Then Danny began explaining, but it wasn't like everyone was paying attention to his words, many were already shell shocked on the fact that the teen had updated his own file.
The oldest members of the league had noticed how tense Batman got over Danny pulling his own file. And they noticed how focused he was reding it, so it confirmed he wasn't the author, each member started reading the file on his own. And they weren't the only ones.
M'gann M'orzz was feeling uncomfortable due to the nature of the meeting but then she noticed how the emotions in the room were shifting from anger, rage and distrust to pity, pain, and sadness. So she started reading the file.
Danny was still explaining some technical sides to what he had already admitted were his own blueprints to fight himself. "... Batman's plan hadn't accounted for power surges, or the fact that at times the instability of my power grants me a level of resistance against anti-ghost measures, while I agree ectoranium is among the best options to retain me, it doesn't fully de-power me, and it might clash with ecto-technology made to affect my ghost side..."
Oddly specific, and many found it unnerving that he was basically saying that his equivalent of kryptonite was not going to be enough to hold him. But then the biggest changes started coming from the ones reading the files, not the ones listening to Danny.
Flash's POV
Barry Allen had originally seen the sheer anount of blueprints the boy had lifted in his file he had started reading partly out of scientific curiosity, and partly due to his inability to understand why had the kid made a file about himself.
Every single blueprint was breathtaking. He was even tapping into the speedforce to try and understand everything about the machinery and use of ectoplasm the equipment described as required. Even if Star Labs had recently started to work with ectoplasm as an energy source he was sure everything here would need at least 10 more years of fully dedicated teams on ectoplasm to reach the level of the simplest parts described in there. The level of precision, efficiency, efficacy and the energy concentration was making him nervous. Even Lex's anti-Superman armor wasn't nearly as powerfull. He kept reading into other countermeasures came across the section that titled Blood Blossoms and just froze in his tracks.
Aquaman's POV
Arthur Curry was a King, a politician, a representative for the atlantians, a hero, a father. Every single one of his roles had an effect on how he viewed the countermeasures Batman had. On one hand he felt disgusted that a fellow hero had created a plan for him, he felt betrayed, he felt disgust. On the other hand he felt sympathy, how much willpower and determination it needed to dissect every single one of his allies in such a manner? How twisted was Batman that he was able to do this? Then there was understanding, how badly he wanted to permanently get rid of Ocean Master, his half brother, when he had killed his first born? How much he wanted to permanently rid of those that made Atlantis a public enemy against the surface?
But in the end Aquaman couldn't make himself take those choices. They felt inherently cruel and twisted to him, they lacked the justice that came from laws and the role of a ruler. But deep down he saw Batman's intention when he wanted to make sure he could permanently stop someone when it was necessary.
But this file? It was completely different, this wasn't a file meant to imprison or stop Phantom. No, he could see the intention behind it, even if he wasn't a man that fully understoodd the models and details in the blueprints, at most he reviewed some advancements as the king of Atlantis when the council showed him the newest advancements in Atlantis, and sometimes in the watchtower. But no matter what he had viewed before nothing had felt with so much intent of destruction, of murder. This felt like the moment he lost his child, like it was frozen in his mind and he made plans just to answer to that moment. And he was pointing that to himself, Arthur had to stop at the end descriptions of the armor meant to kill the boy.
Superman's POV
Clark was incredibly frustrated, watching the timeline that had the Regime, seeing how it tore apart the heores of that world. Seeing himself as a broken man, twisted into cruelty by loss. He had come to his closest allies and friends in hopes to rebuild his peace of mind. But Bruce hadto reveal something that would impact the league almost as much as the Regime did to the league of that timeline. So much power on his hands and such a feeling of hopelessness. Bruce was right, he knew that, but he couldn't help that it felt so wrong to everyone. He was no exception.
But then Danny came and proved everyone that Bruce had been pragmatic, and holding back even. He wasn't much of an inventor, he mostly used the fortress to create clean energy and cure disease, so he never delved much into weaponry and mechanical advancements. He wasn't fully ignorant tho, this suit of armor was something that gave him pause. From what he understood this was leagues above the androids he ever faced. Way above any cyborg he came across. Even if lex dedicated years to improve his armor to fight him he doubted it could be anywhere close to how difficult would be to face this thing and it wasn't even made to face a kryptonian. He felt his blood turn cold at the descriptions and notes, even worse he had made it so adaptable, so easy to understand and so easy to modify with one line as a pretext "changes on weaponry choice suggested on the basis that Phantom (myself) shouldn't be aware of the full capabilities of the suit at confrontation".
Wonder Woman's POV
Diana of Themyscira had been fighting her inner indignation and rage. It wasn't like she didn't believe Superman about her counterpart's role in the Regime, but the choices that version of her had made felt like an insult to her own person. The choices she had made, it wasn't something she would even expect from the extremists among her sisters, it felt like a distasteful insult of everything she stood for. On the other hand she knew Batman, who he was and what he stood for. She knew he never made those plans with ill intent or even the intention to use them, every word he typed was filled with the hope those plans were never to be needed. But she felt her inner turmoil and her faith of the best in people denied. Every plan was expecting the worst from every single one of them, and hearing them one by one gave the impression he wanted the league to fail. She was feeling there was denial against everything she stood for.
But hearing Danny? Reading his plans for himself? She had never had the chance to work close to the teen, but she felt so much pain and shock. Bruce was one thing, always the paranoid, playing the mysterios card, plan after plan always claiming he prepared for the worst case scenario. She could expect this plans from that man, the man that refused to allow peace into his heart. Danny, on the other hand, had always seemed a chipper kid, looking for jokes and pranks, he had claimed an informal position of leader among the team of Young Justice claiming he wasnt fit for the formal role. She had heard from Troia and Wonder Girl how charismatic he was and how he always looked for the betterment of the team, specially since the later wasn't good at hiding her crush on the boy. Diana was always an advocate for redemtion and a peaceful solution, she had heard the boy shared her values in the area. But this plan, this models, they were made with only one thing in mind. How to kill Danny Phantom. Not one of Batman's plans came close to this level of cruelty and finality.
Black Canary's POV
Dinah always worked with the Team. Ever since their first members. Being the counselor of the kids meant she had a different relationship with each of them, even their mentors. She had known Phantom had some secrets and issues not everyone was aware of. His position was different from everyone else's, he wasn't a protégé of anyone in the Justice League, and he was the sole representative for a whole species that had yet to formally join the UN, the teen was under tutelage to be a full fledged Justice league member and UN representative for the ghosts. It was a delicate matter that had been really difficult to handle at the start, mainly because of the trust issues that started with the Anti-Ecto Acts, he was passionate, loving, careful and so radiant. And it pained her to see him so insecure of his own role and influence as a future representative. He had been recently talking to her on these subjects but she was aware they never got too deep.
But now? She was getting painfully aware that the boy hadn't let her scratch the surface even. How detailed he was at evaluating himself, how detached every word in this document felt. Batman had made every other file concise, direct, instructions and manuals. This file was different, it felt like a dissection, every detail about the boy and his abilities, how to exploit his weaknesses, what could hurt him and how to hurt him. Everything so detailed, cinical, cold; like a kid doing homework. But every page shocked her more and more, she just skipped the bluprints and schematics there were details on how each of his powers interacted and clashed agains the power houses of the league, how he recommended which member should have different options among the weapons he himself had modelled to use against him. As a psychologist she had always studied depression, she was always observant for signs of suicidal thoughts, ideation or just passive suicide. But this wasn't like any of that, the boy was preparing for when the league needed to eliminate him.
It broke her, the feeling she had failed the boy so hard. This read like a will, the boy was begging the League to kill him when the time came. And noone was able to know when that was supposed to happen. But Danny knew, and he wanted the Leafue ready to kill him; even if he knew the League was against those decisions.
Nightwing's POV
Dick was Danny's friend, comrade, ally and confidant. He was the one he consulted with when he was dating in and outside the team. He was among the ones he consulted with when he changed his uniform and codename. But he always knew Danny always kept some secrets and he kept him at arms length. For all of Batman's pranoia they could never find the details of his enemies and the Ghost Zone. The most they had gotten was the Fenton's and GIW's files describing ghosts and from day one they had tagged them as barely above useless. But weapons? most files they got were heavily corrupted or plainly nonsensical. Danny had admitted he was the one behind the destruction of said files, and he never let a word out of what were the things he deleted. Batman had built some restraints that were ghost compatible, and got his hands on ectoranium like he had gotten kriptonite, it was even on a similar vault. But Danny never let anyone too close, and the little files he had made the reason obvious: the Nasty Burger incident.
But reading this file made things worse, the pain in his chest, his heart ached on every paragraph, on each description. He had read all the original plans, he had acted against terrorists and villains, hacked documents and plans from places like The Light. Not once had he seen a plan with so much malice against a single person. If it wasn't so methodical and organized he could have waged this was coming from the Joker. His friend had never shown himself capable of making something like this, his buddy had never let him guess he was under so much inner turmoil.
By the last pages there was a log containing recorded data, there were descriptions on chemical processing and doses. A timelapse showing a couple of growing charts, he saw the last update and had to wipe his tears. Last update was not even a week old.
Miss Martian's POV
Megan wanted to be thankful that the minds on the watchtower were no longer oozing distrust and hostility. She really did, but it was impossible when the new wave of emotions was so sorrowful, so full of misery and grief. She wasn't even reading the file she had subconciously pulled in front of her. She was reading the minds of the ones reading the file. She knew she lacked the technical understanding to read the blueprints on her own so getting the impressions of the members that did was far more efficient. She would have considered it to be a great idea if it wasn't for the wave of depression every member had when reading it.
The worst part came came at the end, most of the senior members of the Justice League had pulled through till the end, and a couple members of The Team had skimmed the technical areas getting to the end. And everyone always stopped at the last few lines. The ones the boy kept updating. The grief was so strong she accidentally connected everyone telepathically, a mistake she hadn't commited since the doomsday simulation, and repeated the same lines everyone had stopped reading at.
Estimated lethal dose by Blood Blossom extract injection as of...
Recommended lethal dose injection applied by....
3rd person POV
Almost everyone in the room had gotten the telepathic mesage. Noone was expecting it, and much less, noone was expecting to recieve the accumulated grief that came form those reading the lines. Multiple members of the Team started crying, the senior members of the Justice League were in shock, half of them actually wiping more than a tear. But Danny hadn't recieved the message and as such her kept rambling. Not paying attention to the change in the room around him. He was finishing the technical and mechanical parts of his file and so he was getting ready for the part he considered uncomfortable.
"... OK I know now that this segment is a bit hard to hear but I'm sorry, this is actually the only surefire way i have in case something happens to me so regarding the Blood Blossoms and its potential uses..."
"Daniel. Stop." It had been Batman the one that managed the speak out and cut off the young hero.
"Ah, yes Batman, please go ahead with any questions I barely noticed i haven't given you a chance to proccess everything in the file." He was so nonchalat about everything, even those that wanted to speak after Batman were unable to voice anything again.
"... Why? Why make all this Daniel?" Those who knew Bruce Wayne, not just Batman, knew that those words were choking in emotion.
"I'm sorry, I don't follow. If your question is when I started this it should have been noted down on the timeline of the... ehm... the first log for estimated lethal dose. As for when I uploaded all of this it should have been when I was trying some things at the watchtower because Technus got out, I wanted to install anti-ghost hacking firewalls by checking how did the information come up by playing the role of the hacker.... I found the contingency as the most secure files, but went to check if mine was up to par and thought it was severely lacking... So I just uploaded my files there and started just updating firectly on the database. Now that I think about it I forgot to mention my plans to increase the protection levels and firewalls against ectoplasmic hacking since i was busy uploading and updating the files... But don't worry! Ectoplasmic hacking leaves A LOT of evidence when you know what to look for so I can PROMISE noone else has used this method to access watchtower files..." Daniel started rambling, again.
"No, Daniel. WHY do you have a file to use against yourself? WHY does the log go even before you joined the Team? My plans included restricting and confining. You read that, WHY does your plan jump straight to eliminating you?!" Batman was clearly emotional by the end. This made everyone understand that even when all plans were cold and calculating, Batman had never been malicious in his plans. Even if that was a fact hard to face.
"Because it's necessary." Everyone had turned to Phantom. The lack of emotion, the sureness, the tone. It was cut-throat and decisive. It made everyone wish they heard wrong, and they knew thay hadn't.
"W-What makes you believe that?" This time it was Superman who spoke.
"i read the files about the Regime, the Crime Syndicate, the Rimbor incident. I believe it's common sense" Danny's tone was slowly turning cold. Not threatening, just...so cold.
"Phantom, while some of those files were encripted, I believe it to be false. It's not common sense, the meeting today here was supposed to be a discussion on how to prepare in case something similar to the Regime were to happen on this Earth, but finding out about Batman's plan derailed the original schedule. You could ask anyone but Batman and his protégés if they expected something like that. They will deny it, it is not common sense. And even our outlier here has voiced his... reluctance to follow a plan like that." Wonder Woman tried to open a conversation on level terms.
"And I apologize but I will not compromise on this. I want to finish some details on the armaments and uses of Blood Blossom and I hope to leave the file in hands on the league to keep documenting and updating. I will give an in-depth explanation on how to test me for resistance on the extract, the formulas to estimate and overal basic methods to trick me out of finding out what is the current measure of the dose." Again, everyone was slack jawed at this statement.
"But this raises the question. You have been preparing this from before you joined the team, before you knew of those files and incidents. Why dis you even start? It's absolutely not common sense to find a way to stop yourself when you barely get your powers." Aquaman pointed the obvious flaw in his logic.
",,,," Danny was reluctant to answer, and everyone saw that.
"Your mind is getting restless, young Phantom, usually you hold your mind and emotions with equal or greater hold than Batman, but right now I can feel it. Tell us, you are trusting us with this document, we need to understand why." Martian Manhunter dropped another figurative bomb at the room. Everyone knew Batman was a freak for the hold he had on his emotions and thoughts, specially those that wanted to understand how telepathy worked. The fact that Danny was even better than Batman? It sounded impossible.
"... The Nasty Burger Incident" It was barely a whisper, and yet everyone heard it. Noone had openly talked about it, but everyone was aware of it. The losses of Daniel Fenton's friends and family, and a villain who was never identified that caused those deaths.
"...It was me from the future that caused it"
You could hear a pin drop. The silence that lated half a breath felt like an eternity to everyone in the room. But the ones who felt it the most were those with speedster abilities.
"We know Impulse is from the future, and he never had a note related to you potentially turning evil or hurting anyone." The Flash knew the rules of time travel but he fully thought the kid was lying and thus spoke out.
"Then run. Run to the day of the explosion, like an hour before it happens. Call for Clockwork out loud and tell him I'm asking him to show you. He should open the path for you to travel 10 years into the future from that day. You will see why." It was so cold, so matter of factly. The Flash looked around for some familiar faces indicating he would do jut that, waited for nods of understanding.
"I'm not saving anyone,"
"I don't need you to."
"I'll be back then"
*******
Barry thought it was ridiculous, arrogant of the kid even. The league was there to fight and face worst case scenarios. But even then, he was aware of the limitations of time travel, the Reverse Flash ws always on his mind. The implications and risks, the obsession that was the madness of that man. And yet even then he wasn't that great of a threat to the bigger picture, only to himself. How could a hero with such little time on the job compared to the veterans think that his enemy was so grand? Maybe it was the delusions of adolescense.
He understood loss... He always missed Wally after all... the team always did.
He found the place, and the time he needed to be at. And an old man was waiting for him.
"If it wasn't because Danny specifically requested this I would have a mind to freeze all speedsters and their time travel ability for good. You give me such headaches" He spoke as soon as he saw the Flash, didnt even let the speedster get a word in.
"The path is open, if you travel to the future 10 years from now youll see the timeline young Danny managed to erase." This time it was a young kid in front of him speaking. He didn't even notice signs of chnge between the forms. Barry felt utter confusion, but the green eyes glowing let him know he was not allowed to ask anything or voice his opinion.
"After you witness what you want to witness, come back to this time and you'll be able to the return to your time and place. I will not allow you to do anything else" That last bit was such a threat he felt cold sweat all over his body. He nodded and followed the instructions. The adult vanished after speaking those words.
*******
He was witnessing devastation. He ran around the world several times unable to stomach what he was seeing. Every base of a leaguer or the justice league was a crater. Countries led to devastation, Themyscira burned worse than a desert. Atlantis frozen in eternal ice. The UN a bunch of ruins of a lost era.
How could this happen in barely 10 years? No, it was supposed to happen 6 years from his current time. He trully felt despair.
********
The silence lated a full minute, noone dared to speak after Phantom's words. They were all waiting for the Flash to come back.
Access Granted 04: Flash
The veterans of the league would have thought it was a joke, or just that The Flash was provoking Phantom becuause non of them believed it possible for him to be so efficient and to not delay on his return. When they faced towards him to ask him what had he really planned to do they found themselves unable to ask.
The Flash was paler than Phantom, a look full of grief and regret.
"He spoke the truth"