emotional fall out

“You ok Jason?” Raven whispered.

“You heard about Al Falcone?” Jason sighed.

“Yeah, went crazy and killed his wife?” Raven whispered.

“Reminded me too much of what happened with my parents…” Jason groaned.

“Well come on,” Raven smiled, “Here comes some of the Titan Wanna-bes. Get your game face on.”

“Right,” Jason took a deep breath and turned to face the hall way filled with students.

*

Bruce looked at his messages, one from Lucius about an opportunity to bid on a contract for a hospital revitalization project, another was Helen about Jason getting in a fight at school, another was from Alfred asking if Miss Kyle would be joining them for dinner… and another one from Selina asking if he ever thought about getting married…

“You look rather concerned sir,” the man next to him in the lobby seemed legitimately concerned, “Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” Bruce said, “Just some messages coming in out of order as it were.”

“Your elevator is here,” the young man said.

“Thank you,” Bruce said before stepping into the elevator car.

Why was Selina suddenly asking about getting married? Bruce had an idea why Jason got into a fight… He didn’t talk about it but his father had attacked his mother many times in a similar fashion before they both died.

*

“Dick,” Kara asked as she went into the gym area of the Cave, “Why did you access my cowl-cam from last night?”

“I didn’t,” Dick said as he punched the boxing bot, “Let me guess, supposedly I logged in and looked at your footage from the Al Falcone domestic incident, right?”

“Right,” Barbara said over the speaker phone.

“You know I met Jason before I met you Kara,” Dick said, “I met Barbara right after Bruce and Alfred of course.”

“Oh?” Both Kara and Barbara responded.

“Yeah it was a domestic violence,” Dick stopped punching and was slapped in the face, “End program… Ok, Jason’s dad was out of his mind on PCP and his mom was out cold on the floor. Bruce was trying to knock some sense into Jason’s dad or at least knock him out. I grabbed a phone and dialed 911 and slide the hand set under the door of the closet that Jason was hiding in.”

“Oh man…” Kara said.

“It is always the domestic violence cases that stick with you,” Barbara conceded.

“Sad but true,” Kara agreed.

*

Bruce sat calmly, listening to the prattling of the engineer about the difficulties that the department was facing in resolving the particular problem that was resulting in their delay in productivity.

“Excuse me,” Lucius interrupted, “But I have to ask, what possible solutions have you come up with to get things going again?”

“Well short of being able to run the calculations through a supercomputer and three dimensionally print custom super conductors,” the manager shrugged shyly.

“Is that all,” Lucius smiled, “What do you think Bruce?”

“Didn’t we have a meeting with someone about our three supercomputers and fancy chip making machine an hour ago?” Bruce asked in the fop tone, “I still don’t get why they can’t make Wayne Building shaped French fries.”

“We will put you in contact with the advanced research projects division,” Lucius smiled, “Refurbishing the hospital is a top personal project of the Wayne Foundation and the Wayne Corporations Mister Cho. If anything, else comes up, just let me know.”

“Thank you, mister Fox,” the manager of the construction group smiled sheepishly.

Lucius and Bruce waited for the man to exit the room and Lucius tapped the intercom button.

“Please hold up the next meeting for a few minutes please,” Lucius said.

Bruce arched an eyebrow at the CEO of his family’s company. Lucius waited for the intercom to completely turn off before speaking again.

“What’s wrong Bruce?” Lucius asked, “You are actually distracted for once. Normally you just pretend to be elsewhere mentally speaking, but today you actually are elsewhere.”

“Selina started talking about getting married out of no where today…” Bruce said, “Wondering what the key to that mystery is…”

“Bruce Wayne Junior?” Lucius smiled.

Bruce glared at the older black man.

“Plenty of shotgun marriages going on,” Lucius snickered.

“Oh boy,” Bruce said, “So we are getting the Advanced Research Division to run the computer network acculture and make custom computer parts for Municipal Hospital rebuilding project?”

“Why not,” Lucius shrugged, “That place had been build and rebuilt for a hundred and fifty years… Getting it up and running on twenty first century standards is a priority.”

*

High above the earth the Watch Tower circled the planet and in one of the quite room the quite form of Barry Allen sat thinking quietly…

“There you are,” Clark Kent, the Superman said as he walked into the room, “I haven’t seen you since the meeting.”

“Hay Clark, just thinking about what happened in the meeting…” Barry said.

“Yeah, what are you thinking?” Clark asked.

“We are going to have trouble,” Barry sighed.

“Half the league doesn’t even think that Bruce is anything more than a big donor and questions why he gets access to our comms system,” Barry said.

“There will be blood and it will be the fault of the league,” Diana said as she entered the room.

“What makes you say that?” Clark asked.

“The League would be entirely unprepared. Think about it,” Diana said, “If Bruce wanted to, he could subdue and tie up Selina. She would be more difficult than the other thugs of Gotham, but it is beyond question that Bruce could tie her up.”

“That I want to see,” Ray Palmer stated as he walked into the room.

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Clark said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Palmer said.

“The point is, there are worse things in Gotham and it is a special level of Tartarus by itself…”

“I say it is between Satan’s butt cheeks,” Ray smiled.

All the others glared at Ray Palmer.

“Dante’s Inferno,” Ray said, “Satan at the center of hell, locked in the block of ice with the three traitors in his three mouths… Gotham is right between the butt cheeks…” Ray said.

“Right…” Clark said, “Diana?”

“As I was saying,” Diana shook her head, “Selina Kyle is not the worst in Gotham, but she is a minor annoyance to Bruce and his students. Yet, when ever she leaves Gotham, she leaves Justice League members defeated and humiliated each and every time. What will happen when a league members like Ted Kord decide to go to Gotham to arrest her once and for all?”

“I will feel a great well of pity for their stupidity,” Arthur said as he walked in the room, “And then laugh heartily at their blunders. The Catwoman is the least of the monsters in Gotham, and they have an even worse monster that just exposed himself…”

“I doubt that Gotham could be that bad,” Ted said next to Arthur in the doorway, “After all the we send the titans to school there, right?”

“Ted, I think it is time we told you about Helen Wayne,” Clark said.

“What about her?” Ted asked.

“Bring up Helen Wayne’s file,” Clark told Ray.

Ray went to the wall and hit a few keys. The monitor build into the wall came to life and a folder appeared with a few files. Ray clicked on the personnel file.

“Wait, she is a full member?” Ted asked, “She has a super-premium access code.”

“Even I have to call in before linking up with the JL network,” Ray noted.

“Wait,” Ted said as he walked up to the screen, “It says she is Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne’s Daughter… but she is what maybe five years younger than them? And a full member of the Justice Society?”

The group read over the very short bit of information.

“So she is the daughter of Catwoman and when she was old enough joined this ‘Justice Society’ as an automatic second generation member,” Ray commented after reading the information.

“What is that ‘timeline 528’ file?” Ted asked.

“A massive headache,” Barry said.

“Yeah Iris had to mummify him in ice packs after he went to town on that one,” Clark chuckled.

Ted clicked on the file. It requested a log in from three people.

“Ah…” Arthur shrugged, “What the hell, I can hide under the ocean.”

“And I can go back to visit my mother,” Diana said.

The two other Justice League members typed in their log in information. A video came up. It was a shot of Michael Carter… but he was different, older with grey hairs and a large bandage around his neck. There were other small details different about his super powered suit that were different too.

“You recording Skeet?”

“Yes Michael,” the robotic voice came back.

“Ok, who ever see this, this is your warning…” Michael said, “We failed to stop Darkseid, Earth is lost. Listen to Helen and Karen, they have survived the invasion and subjection of Earth by Darkseid and his armies. Now go Skeet. Make sure they get free in that thing Bart cobbled together out of Flash’s junk and Phantom Projector.”

“But you are coming with us,” Skeet’s voice spoke up.

The camera zoomed in on Michael’s face. You could see the grey in the blonde beard stubble and flecks of blood.

“They injected me with the Anti-Life Skeet,” Michael said, “I don’t want to end up a puppet like my sister. Let me die an individual human Skeet.”

Michael ripped the bandage from the side of his neck and bright red blood erupted in pulses from the wound at his neck.

“Good Bye Skeet. Get Helen and Karen to safety,” Michael said.

“Good bye mister Michael Carter,” Skeet’s voice came back.

“You were a good friend Skeet…”

A medical scanner reading was overlayed on the video and it displayed Michael’s death as he bled out. Once there was no more activity the camera moved and speed across the city ruins and into a hidden tunnel. There was two women and a machine.

“Where is Booster?” the blonde in a version of Superman’s outfit said.

“Mister Carter did not survive, I was instructed to ensure you get to safety,” Skeet’s mechanical voice replied.

“We don’t have time,” the Dark Haired woman in the purple and white outfit said, “Focus Karen.”

A loud crashing noise came from behind them and the camera spun around. Numerous Parademons flooded the tunnel.

“Go,” Skeet ordered I will ensure they don’t follow, “Here take my memory core.”

The video cut out at that point.

“Ok…” Ted was about to start when he turned and saw Arthur holding up his hand.

“Why haven’t we shared this with the rest of the league,” Arthur asked, “You remember in the Lord of the Rings Movies when the Stewart of Gondor tells everyone it’s hopeless and to run for their lives?”

“Yeah,” Ted said.

Arthur pointed to the monitor.

“Attention all heroes and villains of Earth, we have proof that the Justice League can’t save the Earth from Darksied, so get ready to be enslaved,” Arthur said in a flat subway station announcement voice, “You can see how that will go badly. I don’t need to be King of Atlantis to know that it would be a horrible idea.”

“Ok. Ok,” Ted said, “But what was with the blonde?”

“Here name is Karen,” Clark spoke up, “In her world she was my cousin, she called herself Supergirl.”

“So why aren’t then a part of the league,” Ted said, “Out there helping us kick ass?”

“Four words,” Barry Allen said, “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder…”

“They survived the end of their world,” Diana added, “I am sure just hearing that statement would explain how much trauma they endured.”

“So…” Ted said confused, “They just get to retire?”

“Not exactly,” Barry said, “Think about it. The two women who survived Darksied’s victory are running a school where we send all of our sidekicks…”

“So without screaming, ‘kiss your butt’s good bye,’ they are preparing the Justice League to do what their Justice Society failed to do,” Ted saw the logic, “Defend the world against Darksied.”

There was a long pause.

“Does Booster know about this?” Ted asked.

“Of course,” Barry said, “We had to get Skeet to convert the video file over.”

“What did he say?” Ted.

“A bunch of things that I think are profanity in the twenty-fifth century,” Diana shrugged.

“And then he tried to play it cool and claimed that he would never overact like that,” Arthur chuckled and then he waddled off to change his underwear.”

*

“You know you should propose to me,” Selina said, “Get married and be a respectable couple. No one would think Batman and Catwoman are the respectable couple of mister and misses Wayne…”

“Selina are you pregnant?” Bruce asked.

“No,” Selina said, “Not yet… Want to make me?”

“So what is with all this marriage talk?” Bruce asked calmly ignoring the proposition.

“I tried inquiring about what was going to happen to the Falcone girl and was rebuffed for being a stray tart. The state social worker was insisting she need the care of a real family,” Selina hissed.

“This interest in her well being wouldn’t happen to be, solely because her name is Katrina?” Bruce asked.

“Seriously?” Selina asked.

“You didn’t know?” Bruce asked.

“No, none of the news articles had her name,” Selina said, “They kept from saying the girls name by citing minor protection laws.”

Bruce looked at Selina.

“You going to take her in?” Selina asked.

“No, but I am sure where ever she ends up, she will need to see a doctor and I can foot the bill for that,” Bruce said calmly, “And no one will bat an idea.”

“Did you just make a bat-pun, mister Bat-man?” Selina purred.

“Oh boy,” Bruce muttered.

“You did make a Bat-Pun, mister Bat-man,” Selina giggled.

*

The Penguin’s goons were not prepared… clearly, they were winging it. And the car full of goons were clearly drunk. The Tire blowout brought the whole operation to a halt and got the cops over to check on the phone call about the vehicle going off the road. Kara sat on the roof top watching and waiting with Oracle.

“What do you think their blood alcohol levels are?” Oracle asked.

“At least three times the legal limit,” Batgirl suggested, “Hold up a second…”

Kara dashed down and messed with the first goon’s pistol. She was back on the roof top quicker than a blink of the eye.

“You sabotaged a pistol, didn’t you?” Oracle asked.

“Maybe, and defiantly more than three times,” Batgirl smiled.

“Now you are cheating,” Oracle smirked.

“Maybe, one second,” Batgirl winked.

She rushed down and pulled the bolt out of the AR-15 in the trunk of the car and grabbed the magazine out of the second goon’s pistol breaking the magazine catch. As soon as she got back on the roof she noticed Oracle starting to flip her off.

“Love you too Oracle,” Kara snickered.

“Five minutes to contact,” Oracle announced.

“Give me a second,” Kara noted before dashing off again.

In the blink of an eye she had the third and final goon’s pistol disabled and was back up off the streets.

“This is interesting,” Kara looked at the bullet in her palm, “Five point Seven Millimeter.”

“Oh?” Oracle asked, “The Belgians made those to punch throw Soviet soft body armor back in the late eighties.”

“Would it hurt us?” Kara asked.

“I made sure the upgraded suits are hardened against them,” Batman’s voice came over the communications link.