DCEU Prompt Post #1

[dceu_kinkmod]

Welcome to Round One of the DCEU Kink Meme!

Please have a look at the extended rules here.

The important rules in short:

• Post anonymously.
• Negative comments on other people's prompts (kink-shaming, pairing-bashing etc.) and personal attacks of any kind will not be tolerated.
• One prompt per comment. Warnings for common triggers and squicks are encouraged, but not required.
• Prompts should follow the format: Character/character, prompt.
• Keep prompts to a reasonable length; prompts should not be detailed story outlines.
• No prompt spamming.

Please direct any questions to the Ask a mod post. For inspiration: list of kinks .

Prompt, write, draw, comment, and most importantly have fun! Please link to your fills on the fill post.

Here's the discussion post for all your non-prompt/fill needs.

We now have a non-DCEU prompt post for any prompts in other 'verses (comics, animated series, other movies or TV shows etc.).

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Re: FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (3/?)

[(Anonymous)]

“Sorry, for that, sir. It seems I lost you again and interrupted you in such a delicate task”

“It’s alright, you’re doing everything you can to keep the communicators functional, you’re not used to anything like this and, to be honest, I kinda forgot you were there too” the sheepish tone made the old butler chuckle softly.

“So there were no traces of the ship anywhere?”

“No, not here in the docks or underwater. It’s as if it vanished into…”

“No, release me! Help! Help me!!” the desperate screams made him jump and the next moment he was floating in front of a tall building, looking at a man dressed in a purple suit with clown make up on his face and green, wild looking hair.

A terrified blonde woman was standing behind him on the edge of the rooftop, ankles and wrists tied and a strange, blinking device locked around her neck and Clark guessed it was something that would make her lose her head if it was activated. He wondered if he could get rid of it before that happened.

“Superman? What is happening, sir? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine… I think I found the Joker”

“Goodness, he must have been waiting for the Master! Please, Let me try and contact Ms. Prince, you must not engage with him on your own!”

“I can’t wait, Alfred! We’re not sure our call will reach her and he’s got a hostage and I think he put a bomb on her neck”

“Oh, Lord… Please, at least make sure his second in command is somewhere visible, she is just as dangerous as the man himself and...”

“Don’t worry, Al, I got this” the man on the other side of the communicator was cut abruptly mid loud protest and part of Clark was grateful for the interruption, vaguely thinking that, when he was finished with all this mess, he’d compensate Alfred for worrying him.

“Oh… you’re not Bats! What’s the primary colored Boy Scout doing in our lovely Gotham city? Metropolis not doing it for you anymore?”

“So you’re the famous Joker. I wish I could say this is an honor but I don’t like lying”

“Oh, that’s just cruel! Here I was, glad to meet the man that almost made Batsy take that one last step and become one of us and you got your red super panties in a bunch already”

“How did you…?” said Clark, shocked that this man knew what had happened between him and the Batman before Doomsday forced them to work together.

“You know criminals, they’re worse than women when it comes to gossip! Never mind that, I do have a grudge. You see, I’ve spent years upon years trying to break Batman, doing everything I could think of to make him take a life, to turn him into the monster he’s always been afraid of becoming.

I’ve made it my mission to destroy him in every way possible and I was so close, so close to achieving it! He’d even started using that brand of his, that was a work of art! Not even I could’ve thought of doing something so cruel… alright, I could but, still!”

Clark didn’t want to hear another word from the maniac. He knew what he’d done to Bruce, even if the man had never wanted to tell them the whole story, the encased costume made for someone much less bulkier than Batman and the mocking words sprayed all over it in colors the man in front of him would use spoke loud enough, no Investigative Reporter talent needed.

“Are you always this talkative? No wonder Batman always beats you if you’re always giving him this much time to think up ways to stop you”

“Manners, manners! I’m not done talking, Supermoron”

“I’m not interested in listening to…!”

The sound of the bomb on the girl’s neck activating and the choked scream that it ripped from her throat promptly made him shut his mouth. Joker stopped the bomb and laughed, clutching his stomach and Clark felt he’d never hated someone this much in his entire life.

“I knew you were hooked! Now, where was I? Oh yes, Bats. So, I did everything to make him go bananas and it was actually starting to work! Sure, the city contributed to his slow descent but it was me who did most of the work. Slowly but surely, I eroded his sanity, his iron will until he was just as bitter and ruthless as the criminals he fought. He was ready to take that last step… but you, you appeared and almost took that away from me! It was me he was supposed to kill, it was me he was supposed to look in the eye and realize what he’d done, the perfect punch line to my biggest joke! But he was so obsessed with you he didn’t care about anything else.

Then, you truly ruined it. After he started going out with all of you fools in spandex, all of my work has almost been destroyed! All my effort has almost vanished and it’s all your fault, with your stupid shiny smiles and sunny attitude. So now, I’ll make you pay, this bitch’s life will be taken and it’ll be all on you. Let’s see if Bats can come back from this!”

The kryptonian growled, furious beyond belief, and launched himself quickly, grabbing the lanky arm to keep him still while he punched one or two rotten teeth of that foul mouth when a loud, booming sound stopped him. He froze, checking to make sure the woman was still alive, then realized it was an explosion at some distant point of the city, followed by a cacophony of screams and absolute chaos.

“Getting physical in our first date? Big no no, Supes! You should leave second base for later, you naughty, naughty boy” Joker opened his jacket slightly, revealing a series of sensors connected all over his body, at least 7 bombs, and Clark realized he’d activated one when he gripped his arm “You better back off, old boy, or the sparks of our encounter will spread all across Gotham!”

Clark snarled, thinking that his throat had no sensor around it and relishing the thought of squeezing hard enough to wipe that stupid smile out of that ugly face but just before he could do just that, the clown got something from his pocket, something Clark recognized all too well.

A small chunk of kryptonite was shoved on his face and Clark could feel his head spin and his legs tremble under his weight while he tried to put some distance between him and the rock. Where had he gotten that thing from? He thought Bruce and Luthor were the only ones with access to the mineral.

“How did y-you…?”

“Oh, remember what I told you about criminals and their gossip? My new friend, Lexy, told me his tragic tale in which he lost to you two miserably and said such a fascinating thing about this pretty glowing pebble that could weaken you, most certainly *kill* you and I couldn’t resist! A few calls here, a murder there and voilà! Oh and our beautiful flower back there has more of the good stuff on her, just in case you wanted to get her number HAHAHAHAHA!”

Clark gained enough distance that the radiation didn’t make him feel like
he was about to faint but now he definitely couldn’t get near Joker, much less stop him from detonating the bombs or rescue the woman and he regretted being glad for having lost communication with Alfred.

“I gotta ask, you really thought it’d be that easy? That’s cute, Boy Scout” he looked around as if searching for someone “Where’s Batsy? He at least knows how to play”

“You should be less concerned about the guy that’s not here and focus more on the guy with super speed that’s in front of you!”

“What are you gonna do, roadrunner, make the rest of the bombs go off faster? Oh! You don’t know! Let me explain. I can activate the movement sensors integrated on this beauty, make them so sensitive that even your super speed triggers them! That would be real funny to see! Meep meep BOOM!” he laughed again, bending backwards and Clark’s frustration grew tenfold, he wanted to take the guy and throw him into the sun “Now, where’s the Bat, you and your ‘super powers’ bore me to tears”

Clark thought about Bruce, lying unconscious in his home, trying his best to survive and couldn’t suppress a low growl. Realization dawned on the green haired man, surprising Clark with his sharpness.

“Oh, so what those useless goons working for Scarecrow said was true, the pile of hay got him good this time” instead of the gleeful expression he was expecting, the Joker’s face turned somber and a look passed through his eyes that made Clark shiver ”here I am, doing all of this to get his attention and he’s sleeping upside down on that stupid cave of his!”

“Release the girl and deactivate the bombs, Joker! Now!”

Joker pinned him with his gaze, slowly letting his smile grow to it’s unnerving size and bowed down.

“Your wish is my command” right as he was finished speaking, he walked towards the captive girl, kicking her off the roof, her scream of horror at the sudden fall bouncing off the walls of the nearby building.

Clark was fast to catch her but, in doing so, he not only confirmed she had kryptonite on her body, he also activated the device on her neck and time seemed to stop. The kryptonian could imagine it all, his super fast brain allowing him to see in his mind’s eye her head being separated from her body, splattering blood and flesh all over him, leaving him with nothing but a string less puppet in his arms and regretted not listening to Alfred, to Bruce, to Victor and his lack of planing, thinking that Gotham was anything like Smallville, anything like Metropolis.

He closed his eyes and flinched when something hit his face but he immediately opened them when the girl moved, sorrounded by glittering confetti and little streamers, and giggled.

“W-What..?”

“My hero!”

The next thing he knew, he was being kissed by what should’ve been a corpse, the woman’s face having lost the terrified expression from moments before, replaced by a horrifying imitation of a smile, identical to Joker’s own. Clark was so shocked by everything and weakened from the prolonged exposure to the kryptonite that he couldn’t even struggle to make her stop.

“What did you do?” he looked at her crazed eyes with fear gripping his heart.

“Shhh, be a good boy and be silent” said the woman, her finger over his lips in a hushing gesture.

Clark tried to stop her, tried to hold her as far away from his body as he possibly could, tried to move at all but found he couldn’t, she’d done something to him when she kissed him and now, Clark was trapped inside his own body.

She whispered a command in his ear and, to his horror, his body obeyed, floating slowly toward the roof of the building and only stopping when he was right in front of the other criminal.

“It worked, Mr. J!” shrieked the woman, skipping happily towards the Joker and wrapped her arms around his neck. Joker patted her head as if she was a dog but didn’t reciprocate the embrace. He took both pieces of kryptonite and hid them in his pocket, reducing the radiation and making Clark breath
in relief.

“Good girl , Harley! That plant friend of yours is not so useless, after all. Of course, using that mind controlling lipstick after weakening him with that nice glowing green rock was pure genius”

“Oh, Mr. J, you’re brilliant! How did you know Supes would be here though?”

“Funny thing is I didn’t! I planned on visiting Metropolis after I’d dealt with the Bat so he would keep his pointy, annoying nose out of my business! Isn’t that the best punchline, Harley?”

They both laughed and Joker started deactivating the detonator, dropping it to the floor to Clark’s surprise.

“What are you doing, puddin’?”

“What’s the point of destroying the city if Bats is not here to see it? I’ll save the fireworks for his rise from the grave”

“But Mr. J! This is the perfect time to take the city without that B-man
ruining it! Shouldn’t we…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence, as Joker quickly held her face in a bone crushing grip.

“I can take over this city whenever I want, Batman or no Batman. But I want him to see how I reduce it to ruins and make every single person fall to their knees in reverence and fear, then I will kill him. And I don’t appreciate you questioning my plans so better keep your stupid thoughts to yourself, understood?”

Harley could barely nod, falling down like a ragdoll when the hand that kept her on her tiptoes suddenly released her without giving her time to find her footing.

Clark was an unwilling witness to the whole scene, fighting to make himself move and stop the Joker, to escape, anything but all he could manage was a small grunt. That earned him a soft pat on the cheek.

“Come now, Supes! Relax! Yes, you screwed up big time and let yourself fall into my hands, Batsy will be disappointed to be sure but it’ll seem like a slight headache when he sees what I’ve planned for you! You should thank me for that” that chilling laugh resonated throughout his brain and Clark wished he could make it stop.

“What will you do with your new toy, Mr. J?”

“Harley, it’s a surprise! You’ll have to wait ‘til Christmas like a good girl. Until then, we must visit Dr. Crane and congratulate him on this achievement”

“Oh, puddin’, you’re so considerate!”

“I know, Harley my dear. Let’s go, my friends! We must not miss our appointment!”

Clark followed the pair against his will, Alfred finally managing to reestablish communication and begging him on the other side of the line to respond and talking to someone, most likely to the rest of the League, to please hurry and help him.

He silently apologized to Alfred for not listening to him and to Bruce for failing to keep his promise and even endangering his city further by falling under his greatest enemy’s control. With Arthur most likely under Crane’s command, he didn’t want to imagine what would happen to Gotham with both superhumans compromised and wished he wasn’t about to find out.

Joker was right, Batman would be very disappointed.

FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (4a/?)

[(Anonymous)]

fourth part of this fill nobody asked for... but, hey! we get Aquaman this time! yay!

AQUAMAN

He felt exhausted, both mentally and physically… at least, the part of his brain that remained intact, that still resisted Scarecrow’s mind control, felt drained. It wouldn’t last, though, that horrible gas made all rational thought evaporate in seconds and only pure fear remained.

“Ah yes, it seems you’ve come back to your senses, my dear friend”

“Get that pile of brainless muscles up and let’s start our plan now, Crane”

“It’s such a terrible shame that I must endure this partnership in order to continue my beautiful work”

“I’m not jumping around in joy here, Scarecrow, but this business is too good to pass up so we both will have suck it up”

“I suppose that’s the only thing we can agree on”

Arthur wanted to roll his eyes, he would’ve if he could but his body had been conditioned for the last several hours to only obey Scarecrow’s command. All he could do was stay still until he received another order and it was killing him, having to obey that asshole without hesitation.

Everything had been alright, he was almost finished with his patrol for the night, the first of a surely to be boring week. The only remaining stop in his route was the Gotham Docks, where a big shipment of some weird chemical was being sent to nowhere just so the moron who’d almost killed Bruce would come crawling out of his filthy hideout.

Alfred had explained the plan, that Bruce had set this all up before confronting Scarecrow and that the chemical was still being shipped out of Gotham in hopes of keeping it away from the criminal’s hands, aside from the fact that Alfred had been so busy with Bruce’s health and all the measures he’d had to take to make sure he’d survive that, by the time he remembered about the ship, he was unable to call off the whole operation.

Arthur wasn’t gonna let this opportunity go to waste. It was very unlikely that Scarecrow would stay away from the scene with such a golden chance and that would only endanger the crew, if even Batman had had fallen victim to his tricks.

And, even though he’d never admit it to Bruce’s face, he wanted to destroy this son of a bitch for hurting one of his friends. Crane was gonna take a long vacation on the nearest hospital, he would make sure of that.

So his plan was the original plan, sans help from Alfred as something had started interfering with communications pretty much everywhere, at least that’s what he could gather from the people on the streets and their whines about their cellphones not working properly. No matter, as he told the rest of his friends, he’d be more than enough to keep Gotham under control until the kid could replace him.

(Not that the man wanted to help him, he was completely against it. So, thanks, faulty Gotham communications)

How had everything gone so absolutely wrong? He’d seen the asshole try to board the ship and he wasn’t alone. That ugly bastard who called himself the Penguin was with him and Arthur had smirked, glad that he could get rid of two birds with one stone and already planning how to rub this on the Bat’s face.

“It’s time, Mr. Curry, we need to move, our time is sadly limited”

Arthur growled, wondering how the creep got a hold of his surface name and willing his body to move at his command. It actually worked, slowly but surely, his muscles started moving when he ordered them to and his anger did wonders helping him fight the toxin’s effects. The horror on the midget’s face told him they weren’t expecting that.

“Crane, what the hell’s happening? Control this damn overgrown fish, will you!?”

“Now, Mr. Curry, be a good boy and behave” said Crane, using one of his
spray things directly over Arthur’s face and, even though he tried to resist inhaling the damned thing, in the end it was useless “You don’t want your friends to be in danger for disobeying, do you?”

That’s how everything had gone to hell. He’d beaten the crap out of the Penguin, he was about to do the same with the scrawny shithead in front of him but Crane had used his fear toxin and, well, it hadn’t been pretty. His atlantean physiology had helped him resist much of its effects, still the hallucinations had been pretty fucking real at times and it had hindered him from stopping Crane using his gas again.

The strength and amount of the chemical had won in the end. How Bruce had survived that long with this thing running through his veins was something Arthur would wonder about for a long time.

“Ngh!”

He didn’t want this! He wanted to choke the life out of these two creeps, he wanted to take revenge on Crane for hurting Bruce… he didn’t want to disappoint his friend. Arthur wanted to avoid being controlled again so much that he actually managed to move his arm, enough strength went into the movement to knock the gas container from his hand, making both men jump in fear for a moment but his victory was short lived, his vision blurring due to the absurd quantity already running through his veins.

Scarecrow jumped at the opportunity and used the straps he’s just untied to tie him to the bed again before he could recover and picked his gas container up from the floor.

“Fucking hell, you good for nothing straw brained moron! You said he wouldn’t resist your hypnotic bullshit!”

“He’s impressively resistant, no doubt due to his inhuman nature, what a fascinating creature”

“Well, do something before he fucking snaps out of it again and strangles us both, I bet that’s the only thing crossing his mind right now”

“Time to change that”

After another strong dose of the gas, Crane had described in horrifying detail the tragedies that could befall his friends. Both of his homelands were practically unreachable by these clowns and he didn’t feel scared of what could happen to them but the rest of the League was always in constant danger and, with everything they’d endured together throughout the last months, he’d started thinking about them as family.

That was what Scarecrow had used to his advantage, he’d made him spill his guts about his fears and then used them to manipulate him into doing everything he wanted, namely taking the ship and all its contents to a secure place where he could rob it at his leisure and fabricate more of this hellish thing.

With the last of his temporary sanity fading, he glanced toward the part of the grimy floor of the building they’d been holding him captive at, where the remains of what used to be his comm and JL secure line lay since he was brought. The moment the Penguin and Scarecrow realized they couldn’t use them to their advantage was the moment his last chance at contacting his friends had vanished.

Part of him was sad that what could’ve been his only chance of being rescued was gone, but a bigger part was glad, glad that they wouldn’t end up in his same place, that they were out of Scarecrow’s reach, at least for the moment, and holding onto the hope that maybe, just maybe, he’d die from poisoning before he could do any more harm to Gotham or his friends.


*.*.*.*.*


“I’ll get rid of this fish fucker as soon as I can, he’s too dangerous, especially ‘cause you keep failing to control him” growled Cobblepot, his snarl hidden by the gas mask he refused to take off while near his associate.

“I’ll gladly keep him for my experiments, he’ll be the perfect subject to test the limits of my fear toxin” Crane smiled widely, his intentions clear as day.

“Forget about it, Crane, I already have a buyer for this exotic specimen. Malone may have a stupid name but he sure got a sweet deal from an old fool with too much money”

“What makes you think I’ll allow that? Remember who was the one who clipped Batman’s wings, Cobblepot”

“I’m not like this laughable attempt of a hero, I’m not scared of you or your air freshener, Crane. You should remember who you’re talking to and what will happen if you decide to cross me”

A tense, silent moment followed the brief argument, then Scarecrow shrugged and smiled.

“Gotham will be my playground now that the Batman is gone so I don’t really need this man, sell him to the best bidder if you must”

Penguin grit his teeth at the irritating man but decided that getting rid of him would be a bad idea, at least for now.

FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (4b/?)

[(Anonymous)]

“Try to keep him alive, Crane, I don’t think this Hemingford Grey guy will appreciate damaged goods”

“Not to worry, we only need to finish this last job and then you can dispose of him as best…”

Crane couldn’t finish his sentence as the wall was destroyed and the dust cloud was quickly dispersed by the sudden rush of air Superman created, his glowing red eyes bright in the poorly illuminated room.

“Hello, gentlemen! Is this where the annual brainwashed superhero convention is being held this year? Sorry for the fashionably late arrival, I just got my own spandex wearing pet”

“Puddin’, you think there'll be a costume contest? I don’t think we can win with that lame onesie Superman likes to wear”

“The other contestant is shirtless, Harley, there’s no way we’re losing this year”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, stupid clown!?” yelled Penguin, interrupting the discussion, livid at the sight of part of his night club being reduced to rubble and backing away from the menacing form of the man of steel.

“I just thought I’d come and say thanks to the guy that almost killed Batman. And what better way to say thanks than to have Batsy’s new extraterrestrial friend express his sincere feelings. Go ahead, Supes, let him know how much we appreciate what he did” a ghost of a smile seemed to appear on the superhero’s mouth before he blurred out of sight and reappeared on the other side of the room with his hand around Scarecrow’s neck, choking him effortlessly.

“Gah! Mr….Cur…ry! He…” the hold tightened and cut his words, the man looked like he was about to pass out, while Cobblepot decided if helping his reluctant business partner was worth the risk.

In the end, it was Clark himself the one to slacken his grip enough that Scarecrow could escape and slid to the ground, choking in huge gulps of air.

“What was that? Harley, did you use the lipstick before we came here?”

“Y-Yes, Mr. J! I don’t know how he did that” Joker growled, clearly not amused by the hero’s resistance

“Great, just what I needed… go and kiss him again, you useless woman! I want Crane destroyed and I want that right now”

“Superman, come here!” the blonde ordered and, slower than either psychos would’ve liked, complied. Harley quickly did as she’d been told and that seemed to put Clark completely under their control again.

“Arthur” Crane spoke, awkwardly approaching the atlantean and undoing his bonds “that is the monster who wants to kill your friends, it’ll destroy me if you don’t fight it and you know I’m the only one who knows how to defeat it. Protect me and you’ll be saving your friends”

A mix of absolute horror and rage filled Arthur’s eyes and he launched himself against Superman, his intent to kill very obvious.

“Oh, I didn’t know we’d have a wrestling match. Come on, Superman, make that pile of walking sushi regret ever coming to the surface”

Clark seemed to grit his teeth, immediately lifting Arthur up by the jaw, much like he’d done to Bruce when he’d come back to life, and launched him through the hole in the wall he’d made and out of the building. Arthur stood up quickly, launching himself again against the monster in front of him and Clark received him with a powerful kick Bruce had insisted on teaching him, not avoiding completely Arthur’s fist, feeling the quite powerful strike hurt his insides.

It was an absolute nightmare after that, both heroes punching each other viciously, not holding back as they usually would and making the buildings around them tremble with the force of their blows, almost all windows exploding from the tremendous shock wave of every attack, the screams of the civilians trapped inside almost completely drowned by all the destruction.

After a while, it was obvious Superman had the advantage and an almost guaranteed victory… that was, until Penguin withdrew a beautiful ring with a big green glowing stone embedded on its shiny surface out of his jacket and gave it to Scarecrow.

“This should help him kill that nuisance! Hurry up and get rid of that pest before more of his friends show up”

“Are you scared of them, Mr. Cobblepot?”

"You want to be the Joker now? That was funny. I just don’t want them bringing the Bat here”

“Hey, that’s cheating! Where did you get that, you stupid fat bird?” Joker had lost his smile completely but Penguin did smirk at the protest.

“You think Luthor only gave kryptonite to you? Don’t be stupid, Joker. He gave it to every big shot he could think of, guess that man *really* hates Superman.

Then the fight was more even, with Superman slowly losing the edge and receiving more and more damage as the radiation continued to deplete his energy and health with every well placed hit.

Arthur managed to punch Clark square on the face, the blow so strong that it sent him flying towards an empty parking lot and the kryptonian seemed unable to get up right away. This gave Aquaman enough time to close in on him, the wild look on his face reflecting the fear toxin’s effect and what it made him see when he looked at his otherwise friend.

“I’ll finish you, filthy monster, you won’t touch another one of my friends, you hear me??” he pinned the ugly thing to the ground with his weight, punching the creature onto the floor so hard that the concrete underneath them had cracked, the thing unable to stop him or respond to the attack.

“Arthur, no!” a loud scream came from behind him and, before he could react, he found himself being restricted by a glowing rope. He struggled but it was too strong for him to destroy and at the other end, holding it tightly, was another monster, most likely a friend of the one he’d been so close to killing. Stupid! He shouldn’t have stopped, he should’ve known it was a trap! He doubled his struggle, making the beast holding him stumble a little.

“Release me!”

“Arthur, Aquaman, King of Atlantis, remember who we are, who you are! Remember!” said the horrifying creature and its glowing rope shined so bright it blinded him for a moment. When next he could focus his sight, he saw that the monster on the other side of his bindings had vanished and in its place he could see a beautiful, pained looking face he recognized.

“Diana?”

“Don’t hurt Superman anymore” said the princess and that made him look in the direction of the other ‘monster’. There, lying on the ground, pale and terribly bruised lay Clark and horror that had nothing to do with the fear toxin filled him completely.

“What the hell is that woman doing here?!” Arthur could see the men that had kept him captive, touched the ring around his finger and, knowing this could very much be his last chance to do so, gave it to Diana.

“Di, destroy this, they have more of that thing but one piece less in their hands is something less to worry about”

“I’ll get you both out of here. Flash, Cyborg, can you...?” before she could even finish speaking, Superman threw himself at her, knocking her several feet away. He seemed ready to attack again but Arthur got on his way and, unlike Diana that wasn’t expecting it, could contain the blow, although barely.

“Ar…thur… leave, pl-please” the small, afraid sounding voice of Clark reached his ears and, when he looked into his eyes, he could see the exhaustion and sorrow his friend couldn’t express otherwise. Then, he received a terrible punch to the face that left him dizzy and spitting blood on the floor, Clark would’ve followed up on the attack but it was Diana the one to save him this time, her shield trembling under Superman’s gargantuan strength.

“Cyborg, Flash! Please respond!”

“Diana? What’s wrong are you alright?”

“Cyborg!” she grunted while stopping another punch with her shield “I need help, now! Arthur and Clark, they’re here”

“I’m coming! I’ll try to… ell… sh… about…you?”

“Cyborg? Vic?? Are you there? Athena, help us!” She cursed the moment her comm went silent and had to forget that and concentrate fully on trying to stop Clark from killing anyone.

Arthur wasn’t able to stand, much less stop Scarecrow from carefully approaching him and using his toxin again, Cobblepot making sure Joker and Harley were too distracted to pay attention to him.

“Let’s get out of here, Mr. Curry, we cannot forget that we have a mission and this pointless street brawl will only delay us further” Arthur didn’t want to comply, he wanted to help Diana, to get Clark away from the real monster and bring them to safety but that was only a small, small part of his mind that still could reason. The rest was convinced that, if he didn’t do as he was told, said friends would find a terrible end and listened to every word Scarecrow had to say.

“Arthur, don’t listen to him, please! Flash, Cyborg! Can you hear me?? I need help!” her words were cut by the kryptonian, his power admirable even after being so greatly diminished. This time, without Arthur to distract him, all his ferocity was directed towards her. She tried using her bracelets, to stun him at least for a moment but Clark stopped her before she could finish the movement and that day on Heroes Park crossed her mind immediately.

“Di-i” Clark managed to say and Diana could see a small tear roll down his cheek. That made her stop completely, made her forget for a moment that Clark was compromised and her plan to use the kryptonite Arthur had given her to try and contain him to use her lasso on him too. Her pain and distraction helped Clark land several blows, including two powerful headbutts that left her on the brink of unconsciousness.

She thought she was done for, it’d take her a while to recover and her comm was still dead. She prayed to the gods for mercy and hoped Cyborg had managed to locate her before losing her signal.

“What are you doing?! Leave her, we’re losing Crane!”
Clark returned to Joker’s side and, lifting both maniacs off the floor, flew away from the scene, without looking back.

Diana, still reeling from Clark’s attack and heartbroken, could only watch as both her friends were taken away from her again.

Re: FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (4b/?)

[(Anonymous)]

WONDER WOMAN

It had been five days since the last time they heard anything about Arthur and Clark. Alfred had had the brilliant idea of sending the Batmobile in a programmed route and then letting Barry run around dressed in an old, modified Batsuit, stopping a few crimes and letting himself be seen in strategic places so that word of the Batman’s return would spread while the remaining members of the League worked hard to find their comrades and stop the criminals that had kidnapped them from using them as their puppets any longer.

It was worrying that they were both in hands of two of the most dangerous men in Gotham and, dare she say it, the country; equally worrying was the length of time they both had remained out of their radar, even though Alfred had asured her it was due to their last clash and the reaperance of the Dark Knight. Either both men where in a really bad shape after the fight or they were both… Diana refused to finish that thought, Clark and Arthur were both alive, she could feel it and the rest of the League would bring them back home safely.

The rest of the League… that had been a fun conversation, after the disaster of the Iceberg Lounge.

“How did Superman fall in Joker’s claws? It just doesn’t make sense! And Arthur, what was he thinking?! Oh, he wasn’t!” Barry had been devastated by the news when Cyborg had finally been able to send him to help her.

She hadn’t intended on going on her own but the chaos had let her know at least one of her friends was close and she acted without thinking. A foolish move on her part but she wasn’t counting on even Cyborg failing to keep the communications working and that had played against her in the end.

“You must understand, Mr. Allen, Joker’s proficiency does not come from strength or riches but rather from cunning and absolute unpredictability. He can surprise even Master Bruce on occasion and everything happened too fast for even Mr. Kent to keep up. As for Mr. Curry, this new version of the toxin is much stronger than anything he’s used in the past and Master Bruce always has the antidote with him, Mr. Curry had no such advantage. Had they…”

“Listened to Bruce, like we told them to, none of this would’ve happened? That what you were about to say?” Interrupted Victor, the frustration and worry evident in his voice and Alfred lowered his gaze and the young man sigh, irritated and obviously tired.

“Master Bruce didn’t lie when he said the League was not prepared to face Gotham’s variety of villains”

“So, what are we gonna do? We can’t just leave things like this!”

“And what do you suggest, Barry? We don’t know where Superman went, Alfred said Joker has hideouts everywhere, even outside Gotham, Cobblepot and Crane are just as evasive and something is jamming every signal, even making my systems go out and it’s completely random so, really, only Buce would know how to track them down at this point and, newsflash, he’s still unconscious”

“Still, I could go around the city, search for them in every known lair since Bruce has a database full of them… we must do something!”

“You’re right” said Diana, squeezing his hand softly “but we must think before acting. If we go around searching blindly, we’ll alert them and they’ll know where hunting them down and might do something rash and endanger Gotham’s citizens or our friends. Another one of these mistakes could cost us dearly, we’ve already lost too much and we need to be careful to get it back without losing anymore”

Barry lowered his gaze, his shoulders slumping with sadness.

“I’m sorry, Di, I should’ve been there to help you… if I’d been there, Clark and Arthur would be with us now”

“Hey, you were helping with an earthquake in Mexico” Victor interrupted him “even if you’d been available at the time, there was no way to contact you. If I had kept the lines working like I was supposed to, Diana could’ve called for help much earlier, so it’s my fault all this happened”

“It’s no one’s fault” declared the princess “we did what we could, unfortunately it wasn’t enough but we can learn from our failures… and we got this” she said, lifting the ring up from the table “I don’t want to use this but if I must to help Clark, then I will”

A heavy silence fell over the group, the weariness and uncertainity leaving a sour taste in everyone’s mouths.

“I propose we take a rest, wearing ourselves to exhaustion will do us, or our friends, no good” Alfred said, trying to lighten the dismal ambient
“I’ll prepare a nice meal and then you all will go and sleep”

“We can’t just go to sleep like nothing’s happening!” both Victor and Barry said in unison

“Joker, Scarecrow and Cobblepot will do nothing more for the day, possibly for the next two days. That fight was a close call for both parts and, super humans at their disposal or not, they’ll want to keep a low profile for now”

“Scarecrow said they had a ’mission’… you still think they won’t move soon”

“I do believe that, Gotham’s criminals like to plan things thoroughly, mostly because Master Bruce manages to destroy their schemes rather easily most of the time, and that’s another advantage we have. With Batman’s recent sightings, they’ll be in high alert, they know he’ll be hot in their tracks to get his allies back and they’ll want to lay low as much as possible. You can sleep with ease tonight”

“He’s right, we’ll be of no use if we’re asleep on our feet and Bruce would be disappointed to learn we ignored Alfred, and by extension, him” the ‘again’ was left unsaid but still resonated in the air.

That did the trick, both young men got up and asked where they could take a
shower or rest and Alfred guided them toward their rooms.

“I’ll go make a few calls and will call you once dinner is ready”

Diana caressed the delicate necklace Bruce had given her, a fond smile forming on her lips. She’d decided not to wear it, she thought it would be pointless given their situation and it would pain her if she were to lose it, something that could easily happen now that she had to fight against both Clark and Arthur on a moment’s notice.

“I want you to wear this, Diana” he’d said, a week before the incident. She’d been shocked at seeing the beautiful necklace in it’s elegant box.

“It’s not my birthday, you know?” he chuckled slightly

“Bruce Wayne never needed that excuse to spend money on a beautiful woman” that made her smile

“Why are you giving me this?”

“Because you’re my friend and I care about you”

She took the jewel and stroke the rather impressive diamond, shaking her head at how easily the man threw money away, even though she did think it was beautiful. Diana stood in front of her full length mirror and put it around her neck, walked out of her room and joined Victor, Barry and Alfred for breakfast.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

“What are you watching?”

“They’re talking about the recent robberies. At first, they didn’t know they were related because the alarms never went off when they occured so police and the victims didn’t find out until they got to the scene and noticed the missing money or jewels, so they thought it’d been a malfunction of the alarm systems. It was after the last one they connected the dots”

Both Barry and Victor were sitting at the table in the kitchen, they were watching the local news thanks to Victor’s makeshift projector.

“I told him we could use the monitors in the cave after breakfast but these young men never listen to me” lamented Alfred “it’s almost comforting having someone stubborn to ignore me at all times”

Diana smiled and was about to respond to the butler when a phone rang and said man tensed visibly and excused himself before quickly leaving the kitchen.

“We should look into this, Diana” said Victor, reclaiming her attention.

“The robberies?”

“Yes, obviously we can’t ignore it and… I think whoever is doing this is using whatever has been making the city lose communications. We need to get rid of whatever that thing is”

“You know what it might be?”

“I didn’t know what it could be at first” Victor frowned and Diana saw the worry in his eyes and knew it was bad news “but I remember that, before the Steppenwolf came, Star labs had been experimenting with the Mother Box, testing its properties and, although the results were few and far between,
they did get some”

“And you think this is related to that? That someone from the labs is responsible?”

“In the chaos that the parademons caused, some of the altered equipment was lost, among that equipment was a device that was altered by its contact with the Mother Box, it could interrupt any signal, part of a military project, but needed further investigation since it was no use to them if even their comms went off if when was activated”

“That does sound familiar”

“I’m sorry, I completely forgot about that until yesterday when I talked to dad… I should’ve remembered sooner”

“These last few days have been complete madness, don’t be too hard on yourself. Tell me what we’ll be facing if this is actually that device”

“If it really is what we’re facing, we could be in more trouble than we think… before it disappeared, they found out it could access any network with ease, even take control of satellites”

“Satellites? As in, plural?”

“Yes, at the same time but they never got any further than that. Whoever is in possession of that jammer obviously hasn’t discovered its capabilities but, given enough time, I doubt it’ll stay that way”

“Can you do anything to deactivate it?”

“I’ve been having some difficulty trying to even stop it from affecting me since it’s ‘made’ with the same technology that created me and it’s so random but, I can stay functional and, probably, keep our comms on next time they try to use it, maybe even deactivate it… probably”

“So… all three of us are gonna go catch them, right?” Barry, who had been too busy eating the impressive mountain of food Alfred had prepared for him and half watching the news half listening to their conversation, finally chimed in “since, y’know, every time we try the lone wolf thing someone ends up as a drooling zombie”

“I’ll tell Arthur you called him a drooling zombie”

“Hey! It’s not like was much of a change for him, the drooling part was there already”

Re: FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (5b/?)

[(Anonymous)]

oops, the other one was supposed to be 5a... oh well

“Anyway” said Diana, glad that they could still joke about it all “we’ll have to wait for them to attack again, think you can locate them next time, Victor?”

“I think so, yes”

“Good, we’ll go and ask Commissioner Gordon about the other three robberies and see if we can predict where they’ll…”

“Uhn!” Victor clutched his head and both Diana and Barry were by his side the next second.

“Vic, what’s wrong?”

“They’re using it again!”

“Can you guide us to the origin?” Diana urged him, the young man looked at her and, shakily, he nodded.

“I wish they’d given me more time to prepare but I’ll do it”

“You don’t have to come with us” said Barry, holding his arm tightly “just tell us where it’s coming from and we’ll do the rest”

Victor closed his eyes for a moment and, after a minute opened them, a look of determination set firmly in his eyes.

“My safety protocols just kicked in, I’m fine now. Let’s go before they turn it off and we miss them”

They quickly changed into their costumes and were getting ready to leave when Alfred came back from Bruce’s study, his eyes firmly fixed on Barry.

“I’m sorry to have to do this but I need you to accompany me, Mr. Allen”

“Can’t it wait? We most be together right now, especially with Vic feeling out of sorts with that jammer thing”

“I know what you’re thinking Mr. Allen but I assure you this is of the upmost importance and I can’t do it alone”

“But…”

“It’s alright, Barry” interrupted Cyborg, patting the other man’s back “I’m fine now and Diana will be with me, we’ll be safe”

“Help Alfred” said Diana with what she hoped it was a reassuring tone “trust us”

The young speedster hesitated but then nodded and followed Alfred down to the cave. Diana turned to look at Victor and, receiving a nod, they quickly made their way out of the manor and into the city.


*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*


“It seems their target is another jewelry this time” said Victor while they quickly approached the origin of the signal, hoping they’d get there before the culprits could run away.

They stopped a reasonable distance from the building, they could see movement inside but nothing too suspicious as to make someone call the police.

“Are you sure it’s here?”

“Yes, they must be raiding the place right now”

“Alright, so we’ll split. I’ll go through the front door, you’ll block the back entrance and we’ll stop them before they can escape”

“That sounds like a plan”

Victor started making his way toward the alley on the side of the building and Diana surveyed the nearby streets, noticing there were few people around and feeling thankful for that when a movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention.

She turned to take a good look and froze in her place. Arthur. It was Arthur, badly injuried, holding what she could see was Superman’s cape tightly in his right hand and leaning against the wall of a distant building, he seemed to be trying really hard to stay standing and, after resting a while, made his way down the deserted walkway and out of her view.

“Diana? Is everything alright?” Victor’s voice barely registered, her whole concentration was on the street she’d seen Arthur disappear down “Diana?”

“Did you see him?” she asked, franatic, when Victor rejoined her after she failed to answer his question the first time.

“See who?”

“Arthur!”

“Diana, there’s no one there… I don’t even see a heat reading that matches his”

“But that was him! I know that was him and he seems to be in very bad shape”

“It sounds like a trap, Di… we need to stay together. When we’re finished here, we’ll both go and search for him, both of them”

“He left a trail of blood, Victor… if he’s bleeding, then he’s in serious trouble, we need to get to him right now. Besides, we can’t afford to let them fight against each other again, what if they destroy more than the Iceberg Lounge this time? Last time, I was barely able to stop Arthur from killing Clark, what if they manage to kill each other now?” by the looks of it, they could alredy be too late.

Victor looked torn and Diana knew why but there really was no option. She laid both hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

“Can you destroy that thing?”

“Diana…”

“Can you?”

“…yes”

“I trust you, I know you’ll do it and stop whoever’s using that device. I will bring Arthur and Clark back, trust me”

The young man didn’t look convinced but he really saw no more options than what they were about to do.

She smiled at him, caressed the diamond on her necklace and ran into the street she’d seen Arthur at.


*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*


At some point she’d lost the trail of blood that the atlanten had left behind and she wondered whether that was a good or a bad sign, praying to the gods she could find him soon.

She walked a few more blocks before emerging in front of a park. She looked around again, trying to find anything that would indicate Arthur had been there but she could see nothing and started to wonder if she’d imagined it all, wondering if Cyborg had been right and that it all had been a trap to separate them even though there was no way for the criminals to know they’d be going together.

“You’re Wonder Woman, right?” one of the little girls that had been playing at the park had run towards her, her voice made the amazon jump slightly at the unexpected sound “you’re awesome!”

Diana smiled at the obviously starstruck kid and nodded.

“I am, it’s a pleasure to meet you. What’s your name?”

“I’m Alice! Are you here to catch some bad guys?”
“Something like that… Alice” Diana said, hoping against hope the little girl could help her “Did you, by any chance, see Aquaman walking around here?”

“Aquaman?”

“A big, muscular man with a big beard and long hair”
The little girl twirled a strand of her long blonde hair absently, thinking hard before answering.

“Yeah, he went that way” answered the kid, pointing toward a fairly distant street and frowning slightly “he was walking funny, is he alright?”
Diana was relieved, if the girl had seen Arthur then that meant she was not hallucinating and he needed her help.

“Don’t worry, he was walking funny because he’s helping me catch those bad
guys, remember?”

Alice’s eyes went wide with awe and Diana smiled a bit too tightly, more than she would’ve liked, already turning to go in the direction Alice had indicated.

“Good luck, Wonder Woman!”

She could barely hear the encouragement before she reached the street she’d been pointed towards and, after searching for a bit, not too far away, she could see a red cape lying on the floor of a dirty alley. She made her way quickly to the piece of fabric, noticing the blood stains and wondering where its owner or the one that’d brought it here were.

“Good Morning, my dear” a voice called from behind her and Diana quickly turned around, her senses sharpening and preparing for battle, expecting nothing less from this city at this point.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Jervis Tetch, though you might know me better by my other title, the Mad Hatter”

Diana didn’t have time for this, Arthur was seriously hurt and she had starting fearing that all the blood was not coming from Aquaman, she needed to move, now.

“What do you want?”

“Just a simple thing: I want you to become my Alice”

“What?”

“What you heard, I want you to become my Alice, we’ll recreate this city, turn it into our own Wonderland… with your help, it will be so easy”

Diana lost her patience and walked towards the man, tall and imposing, clutching his jacket and bringing him face to face with her.

“Get out of my sight or you’ll regret it, I have much more important things to attend to than indulge your delusions, so better get out of my way and don’t try anything or I’ll make sure you’ll regret it”

She threw him to the floor and started walking out of the alley when she heard him laugh.

“What do you think you’re doing, lady? Give my ribbon back, you thief!”

“What are you talking about? This is Superman’s…” she lifted her hand, ready to show him the bright red cape she was holding but her eyes landed on the piece of fabric in her hands, where there was nothing more than a delicate looking blue ribbon. She stared at the ribbon for a long time, not believing what her eyes were seeing.

“That’s what you saw? Your missing friend’s cape? Oh, don’t look so shocked! The police may have done everything they could to avoid the chaos but everyone knows Joker has Superman as his dutiful servant and your friend Aquaman is in Penguin’s and Scarecrow’s hands”

“What was this…?”

“I implanted this little hypnotic order in your brain. It made you see what you wanted the most and brought you to me. I thought your magic armor would make it difficult to manipulate you but your desire to find your friends was strong enough to overcome the magic!”

The shock transformed into pure rage, the realization that it was nothing more than a cruel lie to bring her before this horrible man only fueled the fire. She was at his neck again in the blink of an eye, this time she planned on punching her frustrations into Tetch’s face.

“You don’t want to hurt me, my dear”

“I thought you were delusional before but now I know you’re completely brainless”

“Well, I’ll just have to kill beautiful, innocent Alice. A shame, she was so perfect, with her long, shinny blonde hair and big blue eyes” Diana tensed at the mention of the little girl who had directed her here. Was the kid part of the Hatter’s plan? Was she in danger or was he just bluffing so she’d lower her guard again?

“That ribbon in your hand, it’s identical to the one she was wearing, didn’t you notice?” her eyes quickly fell on the ribbon and it was, in fact, the same kind she’d seen the little girl using.

“So what? You obviously planned all of this, so I can’t be sure you didn’t plan to use this to fool me, I can’t trust a thing you say” she replied, tightening her grip on his throat. Tetch didn’t actually seem scared and that frighten Diana.

“Well, they say a look is worth a thousand words” he smiled again

At first, nothing happened and the princess was ready to let her fists do the talking for her, when a distant, worried voice reached her ears.

“Alice? Alice? Where are you, A… Alice! Get down from that tree! Alice!!” The amazon felt her blood run cold, this couldn’t be happening.

“What did you do?”

“That lovely ribbon she loved so much put her under my control since her mother tied it around her head. She told you what I wanted you to hear and now waits at the highest branch she could reach, patiently awaiting my
order to jump”

“Let her go!”

“I could… but what would happened to the rest of the girls? They all got a pretty ribbon from the generous old man with the top hat”

“What makes you think I won’t kill you right now to stop you from harming them?”

“Batman would be so disappointed in you, darling girl… besides, you’re no killer either, I can tell. And, that wouldn’t stop them from obeying the order, but fine, let’s find out if you’re fast enough to save them all”

With the desperate cries of the horrified parents back at the nearby park resonating in her ears, she grit her teeth and released the Hatter who hastily got back on his feet, massaging his throat where the red marks of her fingers were already visible.

“What do you want, Hatter? What will it take for you to leave those girls alone?”

“I have no interest in harming them, darling girl. They were only the means to bring you here, you were my real target all along. You’ll be my perfect Alice, you’ll help me make Gotham the one and true Wonderland and you’ll rule it at my side”

“You know of the magic that protects me, your tricks won’t work now that I know my friends are not here” she replied, trying to gain time and think of a plan that would let her escape the same fate Clark and Arthur were trapped in without risking civilians in the process.

“Yes, I’m well aware but I know that you’ll do anything to save those innocent souls that got involved in this mess for no good reason, I don’t want to hurt them but I will if I have to”

The princess looked at the ribbon, hating having come here alone, having failed his friends and fallen into the same trap. She felt like an amateur but she was confident Victor and Barry would be able to set everything right. She removed her tiara, let it fall to the floor and kicked it behind a trash container, hoping her friends would find it before someone else could and, squeezing her necklace one last time, manuvered the silk ribbon until it was tightly tied around her head.

“It’s a signaling device disguised as a pendant”

“So you can know where I am at all times? Paranoid much?”

“One can never be paranoid enough. It’ll be useful if you need help, you can activate it with a specific touch that I’ll show you, so that the League can help you wherever you are”

“I thought our comms had that function already”

“Yes but, sometimes, we’ll be unable to bring them with us and this signaling device is much more discreet than a black thing in your ear. It has other capabilities but I’ll start simple, just localization”

“So you have one for each Leaguer?”

“Exactly”

“Why use *me* as your guinea pig?”

“You’re the one member of the League that sees more activity than anyone else, except Clark, I think you’re the perfect subject”

“That and you still feel guilty about Clark’s…”

“Absence… yes, I suppose”

“You need to talk to him”

“…please, use it as much as you can, especially if you’re going to fight someone, alright?”

“Diana? Can you hear me?” the voice that replaced the silence in her comms interrupted her memories and filled her heart with warmth and pain. 'This can still be used to our advantage' she reminded herself, feeling the weight of Bruce's gift around her neck.

“Victor? Did you destroy it?"

“I-I did… but…”

“Victor, I’m sorry”

“Diana? What’s wrong? Wait, I’ll try to g-go and…”

“Please, my dear, I cannot allow your allies to intervene in my plans, do get rid of that annoying thing” she fought the order, fought her own body so it would not obey but it was pointless, her hand reached her ear, plucked the comm link out of its place and destroyed the rather resistant little thing with ease. A tear slid down her cheek but that was all she was allowed to express.

“Do not cry, my darling girl, everything will be alright. Now come with me”
She took the hand offered to her and followed without questioning, without hesitation, without thought.

On the other side of the city, Victor was lying on the floor, trying frantically to regain contact with the princess while doing his best to remain conscious but, after destroying the altered jammer, all of his systems seemed to be failing and darkness surrounded him completely, right when both Alfred’s and Barry’s voices began filtering through his own comm, pleading for him to answer and tell them what was going on

FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (6a/?)

[(Anonymous)]

more 3 am posting because why not?

CYBORG

SYSTEM RESTORATION: 96%

AUDIO RECEPTORS SUCCESSFULLY REPAIRED

“Kid, you better fuck outta here, you’re way in over your head this time”

“Oh yeah? And you think I’ll just let you leave with that thing? You may have two faces but they definitely don’t come with the brains”

“Big mouth, just like the Bat freak. I hope he taught you more than that”

It was too near, his safety protocols almost non existent this close to the device but he’d definitely keep his promise to Diana, to Bruce and he’d find Clark and Arthur and they’d show Gotham they could tame her, that the Dark Knight was not alone and the League could protect her too.

So he wrapped his own hand over the one holding the jammer, the lunatic trying to use it to incapacitate him, having noticed how much it affected him. Victor acted as quickly as he could and started sabotaging the small gadget, all the while trying to fight his own body that was going nuts, trying to stay in control of every part of it so it wouldn’t hurt anyone or destroy anything and trying to stay sane himself, the goddamned thing doing its job marvelously and almost succeeding on turning his systems off. Almost.

“Think he’ll be alright? It’s been three days already, Al…”

‘I’ll be fine, Barry’ he wanted to say but his mouth remained shut, as did most of his body. It had been a long time since he’d experienced true unconsciousness, his brain, now more machine than human tissue, was always alert, always calculating and running, just like Bruce’s computers down in the cave, uncaring if their operator was fit to make use of them or not. This time it was different, this time he knew he was lucky to still be functional at all and he was glad that at least he’d succeeded on destroying that bothersome piece of trash for good.

SYSTEM RESTORATION: 97%

VISUAL RECEPTORS SUCCESSFULLY REPAIRED

“You fucking annoying pest! I’ll shut you down and tear you apart! The Bat will have to buy you by the piece!”

Victor had a million snarky things to say but all his concentration was on destroying the jammer whilst trying to keep it from frying all communications, including the League’s comm links, his only way of reaching Diana right now and hoped he could do it without dying in the process.

He finally, finally was able to stop the thing from having the almost unlimited range it used to and realized this would be his only opportunity to destroy it safely, so he started attempting an overload. He managed to do it but he knew the shock wave would fry most of the circuitry in his body.

“What did you do?? I’ll fucking destroy you, you…?”

“Save it, Two Face, the only satisfaction I’ll take with me is that you both and I are going to hell together! No pair numbers this time” that made the criminal struggle more fiercely, almost managing to free his hand from Cyborg’s grip. The man was strong for someone without super abilities and Victor just hoped he could get rid of the blocker before Two Face tried his luck again.

A small but still devastating explosion made the whole building shake to its foundations and, when the commotion cleared, both men were lying on the floor, out like lights.

That’s when several people, with perfectly functional cellphones, called the police.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to wait and see, it seems destroying that altered signal blocker took a lot out of him and, as advanced as the cave’s equipment is, I’m afraid we’re ill prepared for something as extraordinary as Mr. Stone’s body” Victor wanted to laugh, would’ve if his body had allowed it. As it was, his thanks for the kind butler’s words would have to wait a bit more.

“Not like there’s a good place to bring the tin man so they can help him” replied Barry with a snort “he’s too much of a special snowflake for that so he’ll have to suck it up and come back on his own”

SYSTEM RESTORATION: 99%

SOUND OUTPUT DEVICE SUCCESSFULLY REPAIRED

SYSTEM RESTORATION: COMPLETE

‘At least I didn’t get stuck at 99%’ Victor thought, then chuckled slightly at his own stupid joke, then regretted ever laughing in his life as the worst headache he’d ever felt tried to show him how a split skull actually felt.

“VIC!” he heard the overjoyed shout of the only other member of the League still standing and, though it made his head throb painfully, still made him smile softly.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Master Victor, I hope you decide to stay among us for a long time” the joke did nothing to hide the absolute relief painted on the older man’s face, mirrored by the Flash’s own expression.

“You can say that when you stop looking like we’re in the middle of my funeral”

“Can you blame us? You’ve been out for *three days* and you were stone cold… see what I did there?”

“Remind me why I stayed dead for three days?”

“You break my heart, Vic” the three men smiled and, seemingly unable to contain himself, Barry threw himself toward Victor, squeezing him hard in his arms “Don’t scare me like that again. Everyone’s been falling like flies left and right, I thought Al and me where the only ones left”

Victor felt his chest constrict, funny since he didn’t have any organ or muscle that could do that due to any emotional response. He patted the youngest member of the team on the back, trying to console him.

“And leave all the toys, especially the Batmobile, to you? Hell no” he squeezed back and Barry let go, although reluctantly, to smile at the comment.

“What happened with Two Face?”

“He was found unconscious lying near you on the jewelry’s floor, he was taken into custody by Commissioner Gordon after a slew of calls were made to the GCPD”

“So all communications are working? Neat” sighed Victor glad that he could manage that much at least “So what were you two doing while Two Face was kicking my ass at that jewelry?”

“He was the one using that satellites-blocking-thing?”

“Apparently” replied Victor, trying to get up from the bed he’d been lying on and failing the first time. That piece of shit really did a number on him if even his balance was this bad “That’s what Penguin and Scarecrow meant when they said they had a ‘mission’. Two Face stole the device from Penguin, who bought it on an illegal auction. They were trying to use Aquaman to take revenge on him and get back the jammer”

“Sounds like what they’d do alright”

“You didn’t answer my question” reminded Cyborg, crossing his arms “where did you two go?”

Barry started fidgeting with his hands while Alfred remained unfazed by the demanding tone in the young man’s voice.

“Think you can walk upstairs with us?” replied Alfred cryptically.

“Sure… will I like what I’ll see?” a knot of dread formed in his gut, the only reason they’d want him to go upstairs was Bruce and, with Alfred’s unreadable expression and Barry’s jittery behavior, it was easy to imagine something terrible had happened.

He didn’t waste any time asking anything else or waiting for the answer, just stood up and followed both men out of the room, to Bruce’s bedroom. Alfred opened the door to the enormous place, which looked much smaller now that a second bed had been added to the place.

Victor couldn’t help himself, he practically ran towards the second bed, absentmindedly reaching out and touching the feverish forehead of the person lying on it.

“How is this possible?” whispered the young man, his wide eyes darting from the smiling men standing a few feet away to the bed, amazed at the sight of Arthur himself, dead to the world, with an IV on his arm and looking haggard even in his sleep.

“Matches Malone sniffed a good deal and called the eccentric Hemingford Gray to see if he wanted this rare specimen for his collection. Turns out, Sir Gray was more than excited to possess the prince of Atlantis himself and paid a hearty sum to get such a magnificent item” replied Alfred, smiling devilishly and making Barry snort.

“Matches Malone? Hemingford Gray? Am I supposed to know who these people are?” said Victor, not so sure he was actually awake, almost convinced this was an elaborate illusion his dying brain had made up just to make him happy before he kicked the bucket.

“Of course not, Vic. Those are disguises Bruce uses sometimes when he needs information or other things Batman or Bruce Wayne can’t get ahold of” said Barry

“Those must be rare occasions”

“You doubtin’ me skills, pal?” said Barry in what Victor assumed was his ‘Matches Malone’ voice “I’ll pop you off for that, kiddo”

“As I was saying” interrupted Alfred, shaking his head but unable to hide the slight smile on his lips “I needed Mr. Malone to make an appearance, Sir Gray couldn’t just arrive on his own and, I needed Master Bartholomew to help me transport Master Arthur back to the Manor in as discreet a way as possible”

“Why didn’t you say anything? We could’ve helped you!” half reproached Victor, he’d have dropped anything else to go help them retrieve the man.

“You and Miss Prince had an important task and, really, we needed a low profile and such an impossibly beautiful lady and imposing young man would’ve attracted too much attention. It is a shame we couldn’t help you or Miss Diana, that was unfortunate”

Victor had to, begrudgingly, agree with the old man’s logic. It didn’t matter though, since Arthur was back with them now, even looking as terrible as he did right now. That’s when he remembered the last thing he heard from Diana before blacking out.

“I’m sorry, Victor”

That was a goodbye, Victor knew that as surely as he knew the sun would rise the next day.

“What happened to Diana?” Alfred and Barry looked at each other then Barry looked him in the eyes with a tired expression.

“Her comm link was destroyed and there were reports of a group of children, specifically little girls, behaving weirdly at a park. Not too far from the place, I found this” he blurred a bit, the only real indication of him moving was the golden tiara in his hands that wasn’t there a moment before.

“Goddammit, Diana!” growled the young hero, feeling the overwhelming need to punch something but not daring to destroy any part of the recently restored mansion. He settled for gritting his teeth really hard “who was it this time?”

FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (6b/?)

[(Anonymous)]

“Mad Hatter… the little girls were using ribbons with mind controlling mechanisms, exactly the kind Hatter uses. Not only that, all the girls described a man that looks exactly like Tetch giving them the ribbons and one of the girls, named Alice, remembers having talked to Wonder Woman before she disappeared” answered Barry and that little bit hope Victor had felt coming to life inside him at the sight of Aquaman back with them died a cruel death under the crushing weight of those terrible news. Would this place destroy them all before Bruce could come back? How had the man survived this long in this hellhole? He hoped Bruce never found out he’d called his city that.

“No jammer to stop us from localizing her and no comm link to do just that… it’s like a really fucking cruel joke” he wanted to cry, it wouldn’t solve a damned thing but it sure as hell felt like the only thing he could actually do right now.

“No need for the foul language, Master Victor, not everything is lost”

Victor felt the gentle touch on his shoulder and for the first time noticed the almost serene expression on his friend’s faces.

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s go to the cave and you’ll see”

Victor just nodded and followed them silently, wondering if all the surprises these two had for him would do what destroying the jammer couldn’t.

When they reached the cool, dark cave, Alfred showed him a glass case where several normal looking objects were on display, the empty space left between two of them let him know one was missing.

A wristwatch, a decidedly cute fish shaped hair clip, a lightning shaped ear piercing and a leather football themed bracelet, the same he’d mentioned wanting to buy a few weeks ago but never got around to buying before all this mess started.

“What is this, Alfred?”

“Tracking thingies Bruce made for each of us! Diana’s was that pretty diamond necklace she was wearing when you two left to destroy the jammer”

it was Barry, again, the one to answer for the old butler who didn’t seem to mind that much.

“Master Bruce thought the comm links would be too obvious if one of you needed to be discreet on your missions and created this trackers that look like ordinary things, so that you could still contact the rest of the team in case you needed assistance. So, you could say this is how Master Bruce intended to protect you all, he was just too chicken to ask all of you to use them at the same time and decided to start with the only person who will take none of his rubbish”

“So… we can use this, I mean, the one Diana was using…?”

“To locate her, yes. Not only that, this devices can do more than give someone’s position, they are signal blockers on their own right though not as powerful and versatile as the one you thankfully got rid of, can act as communicators and are, in theory, resistant to most explosives, corrosives and waterproof, of course” explained the butler, opening the case and extracting both the piercing and the bracelet, giving the latter to a dumbfounded Victor who could only stroke it softly. Bruce could come out as distant and even cold but he really cared about his friends “what I mean is that Mr. Tetch most likely has managed to use his brainwashing tools on Miss Prince and, knowing that she’s wearing the pendant, we can use that to help her snap out of his control and bring her home safe and sound”

Now, Victor prayed with everything in him that, if this really was just in his head, that he’d die without knowing the truth, it’d be too much finding out none of this was real and his friends were still out of his reach, still in the claws of their enemies and without a possibility of being rescued.

Too much information, too many emotions in such a short time were making his head hurt even more. He stared at the trackers for longer than necessary, just trying to process all the news he was receiving nonstop since he woke up.

“Why don’t you take a minute to assimilate all of this, Master Victor? It was obviously too overwhelming and we still have time to proceed with our plan of action, so sit down and breath deeply” he nodded, doing as he was told, still holding the bracelet carefully in his hands.

“Why the fish hair clip, though?” was the only thing he could think of saying. It was just too ridiculous, Arthur would kill Bruce when he found out.

“Master Arthur mentioned having seen this hair clip once and thinking it was ‘pretty cute’. Master Bruce remembered that and said, and I’m quoting here, ‘now he’ll at least be able to talk to one fish’” that made an ugly snort come out of him, it was just like Bruce to do just that, especially to Arthur.

“So tell me something, Al” said Barry, having recovered some of his appetite and practically making the five pizzas he’d ordered disappear
“now you’ll call us all ‘Masters’?”

“You ignore me, do reckless things that make my blood pressure go through the roof and are as stubborn as Master Bruce himself… you’re practically family at this point, young master Bartholomew”

“Ugh, I liked it better when you called me Mr. Allen” replied the Flash, the grimace forming on his face at the mention of his whole name.Victor could only smile, the first time in weeks he felt genuinely in the mood to do it, looking at the piercing on Barry’s ear glinting in the dim lighting of the cave and deciding to wrap his own gift around his wrist, starting to analyze the multipurpose tracker so they could start their search for the princess and, hopefully, after bringing her back, of Clark.


*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*


“So what do we know about Superman? Has there been any news about him or Joker?” asked Victor, having pinpointed Diana’s location and adjusted his and Barry’s trackers to stop Hatter from trying his mind control on them.

“Not much. The next day you decided to imitate Sleeping Beauty, the news exploded with reports of Scarecrow and Penguin in the hospital, apparently they were given a good beating but nothing Superman level so we think it might be one of two things: either Superman is too weak from all the kryptonite Joker and Harley must be using to keep control over him or he’s starting to resist the lipstick”

“That can happen?”

“Master Bruce was, uh, subjected to its effects a few times, he said the effect diminishes with every use and, judging by the amount of time and frequency in doses, Joker must be really struggling to maintain Master Clark under his command at this point”

“Why keep him alive then?” asked Victor, more to himself than the other men.

“Vic!” squeaked Barry, very visibly paling at the prospect of the Joker killing Clark

“He’s exacted his revenge on Crane for taking his pray and Cobblepot for interfering but his true intention is to make Batman suffer, he knows the only way to get to him is hurting and torturing innocent people, especially those that are close to him and he wants Master Bruce to see when he breaks Superman, that’s the only thing stopping him from getting rid of Master Kent. We should hurry and find them, though, it won’t be long before he realizes he doesn’t have enough time to wait for Batman to return before Superman breaks out of his control and turns against him again”

“We need Diana back first, Arthur won’t be able to help us and we need all the hands we can get to face Superman, even weakened as he is” Cyborg still remembered their encounter with a confused Clark at Heroes Park and shuddered at the prospect of facing him again. The man was just too powerful and the only reason they hadn’t been reduced to ashes that day was because of Batman’s plan. They didn’t have that ‘secret weapon’ now.

“The antidote for the toxin is working much faster than we expected but even with that small advantage and his unusual physiology, it’ll take time for his nervous system to recover completely from the toxin’s effects”

“So we get Diana back and immediately start searching for Clark… I hope his mom is not too worried and that Bruce can help him with his job, his boss most have fired him five times by now” commented Barry, making Victor wince, he’d completely forgotten about all that with all the chaos of the last weeks.

“Not to worry, as far as Mr. White’s concerned, Mr. Kent is in a trip with Bruce Wayne covering a huge story for Wayne Enterprises and won’t come back in a while. Miss Lane has been informed as has Mrs. Kent. It was inevitable they both got word of Superman being in trouble but they both said that they trusted his friends to help him come back home safely”

Both Barry and Victor lowered their heads, feeling desperate and ready to run out of the cave right that moment to find Clark as soon as possible. They couldn’t be that reckless, they knew that, but it was hard hearing those words and not feeling helpless and scared of losing such a dear friend.

“Look, Master Victor. It looks like the signal blocking properties of the tracker work” said Alfred, interrupting their bitter thoughts. The little light representing Diana’s location had started blinking in a specific pattern, repeating over and over.

“What…?”

“It’s Morse code” whispered Barry, eyes fixed on the screen “What?” he asked when he felt both Cyborg and Alfred staring at him, clearley shocked.

“When did you learn Morse code?”

“I had a few seconds while I ran to get some chāshāo” replied the speedster, returning his gaze toward the screen, obviously translating the message.

“You would learn Morse code while running all the way to China to buy food” chuckled Victor, not that he’d had any problem in decoding the message but he still let the younger man do it.

“Original is always best” Barry shrugged then squinted and smiled brightly
“*I’m here, I’m fine, I’m me* that’s what the message says”

“She knows it’s us” said Victor, that constriction in his chest easing a bit more knowing their plan was working “Barry, we need to go now, we don’t know if Hatter will want to change location and we can’t leave her there any longer”

“Right” said the younger man, starting to fidget in his place again, anxious about the confrontation surely to happen.

“Diana? Diana, can you hear me?” he tried the communicator feature, waited a bit but there was no response and he started checking to see if it had been damaged or the function was deactivated.

“Victor? Is that you?” Diana’s voice sounded far away, as if she was trying to talk as quietly as possible.

“Di! Are you alright? Hold on a bit longer, we’re coming to get you out of there!” Barry said in a rush, wanting to reassure her. A low growl made him freeze in his place.

“You can’t come!” she hissed and both young men stared at the monitor speechless.

“What do you mean we can’t go? Hatter won’t brainwash us, we made sure of that” replied Victor, guessing that was the reason for her harsh reaction.

“No! Stay on the comm, don’t come yet, Tetch mentioned Joker wanting to ‘talk’ to him earlier, that means he’ll bring Clark with him!” The three men gasped at the news.

“You don’t know when he’s planning on meeting with Hatter?”

“Not yet, some of his henchmen commented something about receiving a letter from Joker to ‘talk about that marvelous technology he creates’ but that’s all I could hear before he left”

God, this was too good to be true… Victor felt like something would go terribly wrong at any moment, their luck couldn’t be improving this much in such a short time.

“I can hear him coming! Stay on the comm!” then silence was the only thing filtering through the speakers until a door was opened and footsteps could be heard.

“Oh, dear Alice, I’m afraid we have no choice but to meet up with that awful man… never mind, I know you can protect me, my strong and beautiful Alice. He’ll come here the day after tomorrow to discuss some business or something. Tch, like he has anything I need, the insolent fool!”

“So that’s when we make our move” said Victor, his voice determined, feeling a confidence that had left him since they’d lost Clark.

“Di, are you sure you’ll be alright?” only the rambling of Mad Hatter could be heard coming from the other side of the line. Then a small whisper of ‘yes’ was all they knew they’d get from the princess who was now trying to act like a mindless doll so she could give them an opening to get their last remaining lost comrade back.

“We’ll see you then, Di… take care, call us immediately if something goes wrong, alright?” Victor said, knowing he wouldn’t get a direct response but, seeing the little light blink again, knew she’d received the messaged and hoped their luck would hold out a little longer.

Re: FILL: "Not Easy To Be Me" (Bruce Wayne/Justice League - Gotham Villains Prefer Batman) (6b/?)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi writer anon, I'm not the OP, but thank you so much for filling this prompt!!! I have been on the edge of my seat on every addition,

This story is delicious in showcasing that Batman knows his Gotham the best and how all the Gotham villains may be human, more or less, but they're no less formidable

The way each of the heroes getting taken down by one of the villains is quite gripping. They're not failing because they're bad at being heroes, but they just don't understand Gotham villains, every single one of them has a degree in something lmao

It also gives me joy to see Bruce being caring in his own way, creating a tracker based on accessories that each of the member mentioned once, MY HEART OH MY GOD

Alfred being exasperated at every single one of them not taking Bruce's advice to heart XD

After this is over, either the JL members never step foot in Gotham ever again or Batman's gonna open a class on how to deal with each of his villains lol

I hope you're still writing for this story!!! I eagerly await more updates~