Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When they first met, it was during a fight. It was unlike any fight Superman had ever seen and he’d been fighting Luthor's ludicrously expensive tech for six years now. It was like the sky had opened up in downtown Metropolis. The ship descended from the dusk sky and floods of smaller fighters dropping robotic ground troops came pouring down. There was a loudspeaker droning in an alien language and the streets devolved into a mass of screaming panic.

Clark responded in a blink of an eye. And he fought and he fought but he was losing. For all his strength he still couldn't be everywhere at once.

Then suddenly the tide had turned. It took a few minutes to figure out what changed when he caught the tail end of a black cloak disappearing over a rooftop and then an enemy ship went spinning out of control, starting a chain reaction resulting in significant damage to the mothership’s hull. Superman had heard whispers of another hero lurking in the Gotham streets, he’d gone looking and while he found plenty of evidence, he had never seen the man himself and then suddenly Batman was jumping through the air and saving Clark’s ass. They'd worked together flawlessly.

As the battle raged on, Superman noticed flash darting through the street extracting civilians to a safe distance. Only a few minutes later Wonder Woman flew in as backup. Superman was glad to see them again, and slowly but surely all the other heroes came to their aid.

The battle died down, Clark was so glad he had spun in the air, he noticed batman picking off a few stragglers who had not managed to retreat properly quick enough for his ire.

Superman could do nothing but greet the opportunity.

The bat, however, was still coiled tight like a spring. Clark must have approached him too fast or something because he attacked.

Sure, Clark hadn't been expecting It. Sure, he usually rolled with punches to save the limbs of his attacker. This attack was unlike any he'd ever met. One hand at his neck and kick to the ankles and batman spun superman in the air. Ending up with Clark's face on the pavement and a boot at his neck. The bat had his left arm in a hold.

Clark could get out, but he realized it would take effort. He smiled. “Sorry about that!” Clark chirped, then focused on going limp. Meeting the other heroes before this had taught him how to appear as non-threatening as quickly as possible. It was a strategy only he would employ of course, as he is nearly invulnerable.

Batman dropped him and stepped back. Clark popped back up, hovering a few inches above the ground but mostly standing. He put on his best smile. “I’m Superman, Metropolis. I'm very pleased to meet you, you must be Batman.”

The man covered himself with his cape, making him look more like a shadow of a creature rather than a man. There was no part of him that was visible. The white lenses on the cowl only allowed the barest outline of where his iris was and only to Clark's already enhanced vision. At the time batman was also wearing a gasmask. A dark shape standing in the sunlit street of Metropolis, completely hidden from view.

“Superman.” he greeted sternly. The voice was deep, subtly sent through a voice modulator.

They both noticed the other heroes approaching, smiles on their faces, cheering. When Superman turned back Batman had vanished.

It was exhilarating meeting someone like that.

When the league business started Superman finally got to spend more time with the Bat. It turned out he was the one who had called the other heroes to Metropolis’ aid. Batman was the first to suggest official alliances and bases of operations, he'd approached them with plans and files and financial backing so of course soon after the justice league was formed.

Clark was thrilled to watch as Batman worked, when deep in thought, when saving people. Batman seemed to have a lot of smaller powers. It was rare to have someone with such an arsenal. With the exception of goddesses and Kryptonians most people only had one or two gifts. Like Barry's speed, Arthur's water specific powers, or the uncanny stretchy ability that at least three heroes wielded.

With the exception of Batman and Superman most people had one simply explainable ability. As a goddess wonder woman didn't count. She was blessed by something that made Clark's head hurt to think about.

But Batman, Batman could melt into the shadows. Batman got “hunches” that saved them more than once. Batman could go longer without food or rest than most of his teammates. No matter how much damage he took Batman could always get up and keep fighting. Superman was half convinced that the batman was a vampire of some sort due to the whole avoiding sun and holding strange hours.

Batman was someone who could kick Superman’s ass at chess and on the sparring mat. Sparring with Batman was weird. Every offense was made into a counterattack. Attacking Batman was risky and dangerous, and more often ended in Clark on the mat in a hold that would have resulted in broken bones had it been anyone else. But not attacking him gave him time to plan, sometimes it took second and sometimes several minutes but when he did attack it was in a flurry of combos that were unrelenting, impossible to dodge and hit vital spots with pinpoint accuracy.

---------------------------------

Clark had been invulnerable as long as he could remember, never got colds, never got fevers. He could tell when things were supposed to hurt and would react accordingly but didn't feel the pain or get damaged. Outside of some insane superpowered battle or during kryptonite exposure there was only one time when he naturally experienced actual pain. Superman got headaches whenever he was about to get a new power.

During his teens he experienced several new powers appearing in quick order. He had learned to repair drywall that year, and fix roofs, repair burn damage, and how to control his stupidly large arsenal of superpowers. The new abilities were so close together and so powerful and ended with his all-consuming strength just before college. that year he spent summer too afraid to touch anything before he figured out if he didn't think about how strong he was his strength didn’t activate. He had thought it was done; everything was over. Puberty was over.

Apparently not.

His alarm was blaring, and he quickly turned it off. His head was pounding, and he couldn't stand the sunlight coming through the window. Usually he basked in it, being solar powered and all but today it was his enemy. Everything was his enemy.

Groaning, he sat up and sent a text out to Lois, -i’ve got a headache-

He considered contacting Batman too, but he wasn't sure if this was a league emergency. He was sure the Dark Knight was still steamed at him for his very rooky mistake during their last all-out battle. Clark had thought about it previously and decided to give him The Bat a week of solitude and then go visit Gotham to see what he was up to, or Batman would brood for three years.

It had been three days since then, but Clark was certain that he could use the help figuring out what the new power was going to be and how to handle it.

His phone pinged, -do you need coffee? Caffeine should help you get your head in the game, we’ve got things to do! - Lois replied, the phone chimed again, -get moving Smallville I'll see you on the battlefield!!!-

Clark sighed. He would have liked a little sympathy. Lois had suspicions he was superman almost from the first month of knowing him. Then she knew for sure when she ‘met’ superman later. She waited for him to tell her for almost a year before she broke and told him she knew all along. Now they were close friends, and boy was he glad she wasn't an enemy.

-im in paine lois, have mercy- he was already getting up and getting ready stubbornly not acknowledging Lois texting back to correct his spelling mistakes.

Logically knowing that the headaches were manageable and wouldn't last long. This felt like a four-headache problem, but each time was different. The headache was minor, he brushed his teeth and got dressed. He checked his bank account and decided to splurge on a taxi.

Lois met him at the door of the daily planet building holding out the to-go cups from the cafe around the corner. She did have a pitying look on her face. “What gives, I thought you don't get headaches anymore?” she said conversationally as they walked to the elevators.

“Me too.” Clark squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m dreading it. The last one was terrible and took months to get under control.” he was worried he would have to take a leave of absence from work and the league. He just hoped this superpower wouldn't be the one to turn him into a monster.

He could have flown home to Smallville but that felt more like an imposition on his aging parents. It would have to be a last resort, of course he would tell them, but it would have to be a phone call so it would be later.

The elevator doors opened, and the rest of the coworkers greeted them as they made their way over to the desk. Clark felt a dull hum settle into the back of his head, but it was overshadowed by the annoyance at the damn fluorescent lights burning down on the daily planet's bullpen. It wasn't helping the throbbing at his temples at all.

The workday passed in a daze, moving through the routine methodically. Luckily the headache lessened by lunchtime. He was feeling rather good by quitting time. He got dinner on the way home and took off for superman patrol after a leisurely solo dinner in his apartment watching the new housewives show.

Just as he was returning a stolen wallet and jewelry to a woman after stopping her mugger, he noticed the pain returning. He took off, it would have to be the end of superman-ing for tonight, the risk of something unexpected happening increasing with the pain in his temples.

Clark’s favorite activity was floating near cloud level over Metropolis, letting the air currents push him around. It was especially nice as the sun set and the city turned quieter and lit up like a star field. Superman lounged in the open-air privacy, too high for anyone to see, too low to worry about planes; he was blessedly alone and silent for the moment.

The ringing he had noticed this morning didn't return but something else was tugging at the tail end of his consciousness. He couldn't quite put a finger on what it was or even how to describe it other than horrendously distracting and disorienting. It was like seven people all trying to shout over each other vying for attention. One was just chanting something in a language Clark didn't even know the name of.

Superman reined in his hearing as tight as he possibly could, only the drone of the city roads wafting up like distant ocean waves. It seemed to lessen the effect of whatever was going on inside his head, but the thing didn't stop. He just let himself drift for a moment. Until he became aware of the Batman.

He could have sworn he’d heard Batman's voice say his (superhero) name.

Something about Batman had Clark habitually seeking him out after dark with his hearing sense. And tonight was no different, usually he would just do a quick check, see if Batman was out, wherever he spent his days prevented Clark from finding him but when Batman was out and free the heartbeat that Clark knew better than his own thrummed through the city of Gotham.

Clark turned to the city across the bay and was moving towards it before he made the conscious decision to go and let himself drop into the murky smog that hung like a blanket over Gotham's shoulders. Batman was perched still on a roof next to some gargoyles. He was watching the iceberg lounge through some binoculars. Clark landed, knowing that bats had noticed him but waiting for the other man to take a break from his focus.

For a few seconds only the sirens in the city filled the air and then the dark knight huffed and looked back at superman. Instantly his eyes narrowed.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing,” Superman said, surprised at the question. “Did you call for me?”

Batman shook his head. “No.”

“Ah, just wishful thinking then.” Clark rubbed at his temples.

“What's wrong with you?” The Batman stood, abandoning his place by the stone decor.

Superman smiled. “I’ve just got a headache is all.”

“I didn't know you got headaches.” Batman was observing him, stalking over and circling him like a puzzle to be figured out.

“I don’t, not like humans do at least.” he watched with amusement as batman finished his observation round.

“Elaborate.” Batman demanded

Clark had to resist the urge to laugh at how obviously worried Batman was for him. It was sort of sweet. “It's nothing, it just means I'm getting a new power or something.” He was downplaying his worries as much as possible.

It didn't seem to assuage Batman's paranoia because the man got three times more tense. “Do you know what it will be?”

“B, I don't even know what kind of alien I am.” he ran a hand through his hair, mussing the windswept look he's flying had afforded him.

So far, from what the Green Lanterns could tell him there were very few aliens that looked so similar to humans, there were the Thinagaran's who looked mostly human save for their massive wings, and there were some that looked like humans in colors of blues and purples but none like Clark.

It was the story of his life, he never fit in anywhere. Sometimes people just didn't have a place to belong. Ma said sometimes people had to build a place to belong, and he was trying to by joining the justice league but he still felt like he stood out like a sore thumb.

“Hmm,” Batman returned to his position but didn't use the binoculars, trusting Clark to keep watch. “Symptoms?”

“Just a Headache so far.” He sat down, dangling his legs over the edge of the building, kicking them like a kid in a too tall chair. “And my hearing is going a bit haywire but that's normal.”

It looked like Bats wanted to ask another question but decided against it. They sat in companionable silence for a moment.

“So, what are we waiting for?”

“Penguin is getting a shipment layer tonight.” Batman watched the roads.

The admission line for the iceberg lounge was just starting to queue up. The early birds already on the list were arriving in expensive cars. Superman could hear the distant chatter of excited club rats and rich socialites.

The iceberg lounge was famous for being a place that exchanged money for absolute privacy. Mob bosses and CEOs alike were avid patrons of the lounge. This brought the kingpin penguin a lot of insurance and freedom in Gotham's twisted underbelly.

The iceberg lounge was like a mini version of Gotham. As the role Gotham had in America was very similar. Arguably Batman had the hardest job, trying to clean the cesspool that polluted the whole world.

It seemed he was doing a good job actually. A lot less tragic headlines had come out in the time since rumors of a Bat in Gotham started five years ago.

“How painful is it?”

Clark shrugged, “Well it's not as bad as strength or fight.”

“I feel as though I should offer you a hot drink in sympathy.”

“I'm alright.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“This morning.” Clark got the feeling that Batman wanted to put him under a microscope. “It feels like a four-headache problem, and this is number two.” He could indulge Batman a little. “Flight came in a little under a week and strength came in three days. They were by far the fastest.”

“What was the slowest?”

“Speed actually, I just got better and better at running during gym class. Then one Saturday I decided to really see how fast and far I could go, and it was very far and very fast. That was actually my first visit to a metropolis. Ma and pa called a relative to come get me while they bought tickets and flew in.” Clark would have chuckled at the story but with the headache he could only manage a grimace.

Batman resumed surveillance again. Taking a few photos. “Are you joining the council meeting? You should bring it up then.”

“The council doesn't need to know all my aches and pains.” Clark complained, “I was going to tell them when the new power came through.”

Batman watched him for a moment. “Be careful.” he said and went back to watching the lounge.

Sometimes Clark wished he could tell what the Bat was thinking. His headache got worse.

Chapter Text

Three years ago, Batman met superman.

It was strange to see him floating through the air like destruction incarnate one minute and the next have him go lip noodle. It was so disarming that dropped his plans to enact preventive measures.

Bruce retreated from the superheroes and recontacted them when he had an actual plan together. And it was an ambitious plan. An optimistic plan. To his utter surprise the heroes took him up on it. The league was formed not long after that. They now had over 200 members. Wonder woman had taken on the role of leader. Structuring the league, making it an actual force rather than a loosely collected group. She is a queen goddess warrior after all.

Batman stuck to funding and logistics. Logistically he knew that a database was needed. The positives outweigh the risk now. The league had the best encryption software. When the watchtower gets up and running, they can keep it on off world servers even.

Batman wrote it up one night and brought it up to the league at the next meeting. It was put at the beginning of the meeting itinerary because it was boring. Later on, they had a report from Green Lantern and then Clark's headaches at the end.

As Batman presented the database, he had to prevent himself from taking on the tone he used for board meetings at Wayne enterprises. He started off explaining what it was, how he planned to implement it, all a carefully thought-out presentation “We could more efficiently create teams and send heroes with applicable powers to events as they happe.” He finished off. They were passing the tablet around the table as it was the only place the database currently was as he waited for approval before uploading it on the watchtower servers. Better safe than sorry.

Hal gave it a cursory glance, passed it off to Flash who blurred, using his speed to investigate-then froze.

“Hey B I think there's a bug.” Flash said.

Bruce felt his eyebrows knit together under the cowl. He'd triple checked it. He'd had Alfred check it. Though it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibilities that he had mistaken a detail of some hero he’d never personally interacted with.

Flash showed him the entry on Batman. Bruce scanned it, saw nothing wrong and waited for the speed hero to explain.

“You didn't include your Powers.” Flash tapped the screen where it said powers: none.

“That isn't a bug.” Batman said.

Hal Jordan, Green Lantern, snatched the tablet back, “What! No way! What about that thing you do?” he snapped his fingers for inspiration. “You know the thing!”

Batman huffed at the interruption, he didn't know the thing, before he could gather words Aquaman piped up.

“Yeah, the future sight thing where you know what's gonna happen, like, ten minutes in advance.”

“Do you mean my intuition? I don't have powers-”

“Nuh-uh,” Flash said childishly, “you can totally vanish, or teleport or whatever you do. Or what about how you walk?”

“How I- how do I walk?” Batman asked softly. New insecurity unlocked.

Superman had the tablet somehow; he was floating over the table. “Hey, Hey, it says your species is human?”

“Are you making fun of me?” Bruce kept his voice as monotone and robotic as possible. “Of course I'm human, what else would I be?”

Clark flushed, “Well, I thought- okay sorry, I thought you were a vampire or a curse or something.”

Batman sighed, as close to a laugh as he could get right now. That was silly, are they teasing him?

Diana folded her arms and leaned back. She was thinking, Bruce noted. It made him nervous. Maybe this wasn't teasing then?

“You have robust mental shields,” Martian Manhunter mused. “Are you telepathic in some way?”

Hawk woman nodded to herself. “You must be possessed by the spirit of a great warrior.”

They had to be teasing him. He tensed, unsure what to do when coworkers tease. Nobody teased Bruce Wayne. He had thought Batman would be similarly immune.

Clark handed the tablet down to Wonder Woman and she scanned the entry. Eyes narrowing.

“Is it not hypocritical to include everyone else’s powers and not your own?” Diana asked. “I understand your tendency towards privacy but since it is your project, would you like to share with us what your powers are?”

“As I don't have powers, there is a list of skills provided.” Batman said. He couldn't tell if Diana was joking either. Or especially couldn't tell with her. Wonder Woman was a difficult one for him to read. Even if most people were challenging to enough, she was downright impossible. “It may not be an entirely complete list-”

His words died on his tongue as he watched Superman slowly sink into the furthest chair. Bruce felt like he knew Clark well, ever since that night Clark had met him on the roof proudly holding his award-winning article splashed across the front page of the daily planet and explained his secret identity to batman, and more importantly didn't ask for reciprocation.

Ever since Batman allowed himself to accept that Superman was safe and good Bruce had allowed them to become friends. Since then, he had been better with Clark's facial expressions.

Clark wasn’t teasing him. Batman resisted the urge to swallow from nerves, knowing the tell would be seen bright as neon to the Kryptonian at the other end of the long table.

There was a tense moment as the room processed. As the fact hit Bruce square in the chest. Everyone in the league had thought him super of some kind. He never said he had powers. But then again, he never said he didn't. They didn’t know he was powerless. They hadn’t known he was human.

It would have been a useful miscommunication if he had done it on purpose. But he hadn't.

“You don't have powers?” Superman asked, He was wearing an expression Bruce didn't recognize.

Batman felt himself tense up Mentally cursing himself. He had messed up and now he was trapped at the back of the meeting room with five angry superbeings and no immediate way out. He started strategizing in the back of his mind. Not knowing what his friends- coworkers- what his coworkers would do.

When Selina Kyle was mad at him, she would act sweet to get within striking distance. With Harvey it had been one big blow out then random bursts of anger several days later. At Wayne enterprises it was snide comments and schemes to oust him from his position.

He didn't know what to brace for. He’d been mildly worried that there would be questions about his time in a different league, but this hadn’t even been on his radar.

Wonder woman hummed. “Over my many years I have met many capable people- most of them ordinary humans.” she paused, leaning forward, putting one hand on the table near batman but not touching. “You could have told us earlier.”

Batman forced himself to stay still. Flinching would give too much away. Put him at too much risk for retaliation.

“Why didn't you tell me?” Clark asked softly.

“You should have told us from the start!” Hal Jordan shouted.

“You're human too.” Bruce growled, not meaning the tone to be so harsh.

“Yeah, with a magical extra-terrestrial weapon and a whole lantern core behind me.” Green Lantern stood up, punctuating his words with an accusatory finger. “How are we supposed to trust you when you lie about something like this?”

“You assumed-”

“No,” the Flash interjected, wringing his hands. “Hal’s right, you should have told us.”

“You could have died-” Clark interjected, only to be cut off by Hawkwoman.

“Humans are weak.” Hawkwoman said. “It is a liability.”

“You're just some dude in a bat costume?” Green Lantern moved to advance on Batman and Wonder Woman stood up abruptly.

“Green Lantern.” she said, rounding Batman’s chair-

Bruce couldn't see her. His throat closed up. Panic was setting in. Diana continued talking but Bruce's world narrowed to white noise. He stopped breathing.

Chapter Text

Superman thought he was going to be sick. Batman was human. A powerless human. All the times when Clark had seen him falling and let him. All the hits Batman had taken Clark could have stopped. Images of what happened to human bodies against the forces they fought against every day flashed through his mind. mangled. cold. dead.

Then Batman started to hold his breath. Diana and Hal were shouting at each other. Batman had not so much as breathed since Diana stood but Clark could hear his usually steady heartbeat stutter and start to pick up.

Headache number three was abruptly gone.

Batman’s pulse was always steady and calming. Quickening during battle but always steady. Clark listened to it like one would savor wine. Forcing himself to stop listening when they were apart for his own peace of mind and Batman’s privacy

At first Clark thought that Batman was holding his breath to get the rhythm back under control. The man was probably upset to some degree. Clark couldn't blame him; this was a case of mutual assumption making an ass out of all of them.

But Batman continued holding his breath. The average human could only hold their breath for one to two minutes. Then Clark heard a high almost silent whine, he knew only he could hear it. Humans made a lot of involuntary noises they couldn't hear themselves. Well, most humans, Batman almost never did.

Clark jumped to his feet, he looked at the screaming fight the room had devolved into. It was unnatural how still Batman was. Clark felt his eyes burn red, how was nobody else noticing how still Batman was, how Batman still wasn't breathing. He looked at J'onn and nothing, he was too busy verbally subduing Hawkwoman's angry tirade. The man was a mind reader and nothing. Superman had to do something.

“Everybody out now!” he shouted. Clark never shouted.

Batman flinched hard but the rest of the group had their eyes on Clark. They were still pissed, Lantern shoulder checking Superman on the way out. A snide comment about trouble in the marriage and he was gone with the others.

The room was empty, Batman had not moved, hadn’t breathed. Clark made the mistake, again, of approaching too fast. He was by the Bats side in an instant and just as quickly there was a taser in his ribs. Clark could feel the muscles jumping but it didn't hurt.

“B, you gotta breathe.” Clark said, moving the taser away as gently as he could.

Batman’s chest spasmed but he didn't inhale. Clark was starting to panic himself; he took a deep breath. He placed one hand on Batman's shoulder, and it was like a spell had been broken. Batman gasped wetly, going right into hyperventilation. He was kicking at Clark, attacks that would have incapacitated anybody else.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Clark deflected the kicks with the techniques Batman had taught him and backed up.

For a surreal second Superman watched Batman gasp, little hiccups of panic. It felt both impossible and totally natural. A guy like bats probably didn't have many friends and they'd all just rejected him.

Superman reached out and scooped batman into his arms. It was the only way he really knew of comforting a panic attack. He was almost certain that it would make things worse but to his surprise he could feel Batman’s breaths getting deeper, more even.

He wasn't sure if it was the pressure or the physical contact, so Superman listened until Batman's pulse lowered to a more familiar rhythm, but it was still high, like he was in the middle of a tough fight or backed into a corner. Which was sort of accurate.

When Clark pulled back Batman had his eyes screwed shut and was hissing air through his teeth in an obviously practiced rhythm.

Clark held him by the shoulders and watched Batman reset himself. He squared his shoulders under Clark's hands and straightened his spine.

“Any better?” Clark asked.

Batman opened his eyes, the jaw still set. He was still, waiting for something. A long minute passed with only Batman's breathing and Clark rubbing gentle circles into his shoulders.

“Aren't you angry?” Batman asked quietly. He was always very quiet when they were alone, speaking as softly to Clark as possible.

Clark sighed, “Yeah a little.” There was no point in lying to his friend, even when he seemed to struggle with some social cues Batman could always spot a lie.

Batman’s whole body went rigid, obviously wanting to escape Clark's hold but fighting the urge. Clark recognized the set of his jaw. It was the look he got when he knew he was about to get hit hard and knew he couldn't avoid it.

“You should have told me.” Clark insisted. “You can't be deliberately hiding important information like this. It's not safe for you and it’s not fair to us.” his tone grew a little sharp at the end. “I am upset and frustrated but mostly I was retroactively terrified of all the fights we have been in together and all the things I let happen to you. You could have ended up dead, B.”

For a long moment Batman was silent. Clark was used to his constant pauses during conversation. He could wait.

“I don't need your help.” Batman insisted, still through clenched teeth. Still bracing. Heart still beating fast. Then- “I thought you knew.” then much quieter, under his breath, hard to make out. “I thought you trusted me.”

“You thought I knew?” Clark confirmed. Batman nodded. Clark frowned. “How was I supposed to know? You vanish into thin air and know everything, and you expect me to assume you’re perfectly human.”

“I don't know everything. ”

“That’s what you're focusing on?” Now that Batman didn't seem affected by whatever that little attack had been Clark's fear had turned to white hot anger. “You could have gotten hurt, and I could have hurt you.”

--------------------------------------------------

Bruce was so fucking glad for his mask today. He was so fucking glad for the white lenses that hid his eyes and the absorbent lining that made sure none of his tears were visible to Superman, who was now standing. Still looked angry. And was now raising his voice.

(He looked like Harvey would for weeks after an argument. Bruce let himself just be grateful Clark was unable to get drunk.)

This was going to suck, and probably going to hurt. He said nothing else, suspecting he was digging himself deeper into the hole. His heart was thudding against his chest.

“I’m not a fucking mind reader batman.”

“‘M sorry.” Bruce muttered reflexively. Regretting it immediately when Clark blinked at him in surprise. “M sorry.” he said again. Fuck. “m sorry.” he couldn't breathe.

Clark was in front of him again, hands back on his shoulders.

“Come on, B, in and out.” one hand moved to batman’s chest, and he couldn't stop himself from full body flinching. “In and out, good, in and out.”

Bruce robotically followed instruction. He was starting to feel tired and raw. When he had calmed down some Clark furrowed his eyebrows.

“What is going on?”

“I don't have powers.” Bruce found himself saying, then hating himself because that didn't explain anything, and Clark was going to hit him.

Distantly Bruce wondered if he was shaking yet. He wasn't ready for this. He was never ready for this part of relationships. But he’d attacked Clark first, he hadn’t meant to, it was a reflex from years of training. But what was done was done and consequences are consequences.

Superman sighed and pulled all the way back, hands leaving. “You said that.” Superman said.

They looked at each other in silence. Bruce couldn't take it anymore and bolted. He knew superman could have caught him, but his panicked mind didn't care, he got to the zeta tube without encountering anyone. He punched in the coordinates for the cave. His hands were shaking.

Once he rematerialized in the cave he was off again. Pulling off his armor and cape, leaving them on the cave floor. He didn't stop, still running. Deeper and deeper into the natural cave, turning and twisting. Bruce squeezed through the final crevasse and scanned his retinas at the steel door. The panic room slid open and Bruce fled inside, spinning the bolts into the door frame.

For a few blissful seconds Bruce was silent and still. He was safe now. Unfortunately, that was usually when things got worse. He felt his throat close up again, his breathing slipping. The room auto lit with a cool quiet blue light, Bruce struggled to drag himself over to the bed that was inlaid into the floor, curling into the blankets, searching for and finding his comfort item. Bruce covered his head and let go.

Like this Bruce didn't really experience time. He just cried until he couldn't anymore. When he’d been silent a couple minutes a tone played through the room.

“Master Bruce?” Alfred said over the intercom. “Are you conscious, master Bruce?”

Bruce raised his hand weakly.

“May I have a number, master Bruce?”

He held up two fingers.

“Very well.” the intercom shut off.

Now that he was calm enough to self-reflect, Bruce was mortified. He considered, briefly, sending in his justice league resignation. The others obviously didn't need or want him there. He wondered if Superman was still going to talk to him at least.

Eventually Bruce unsealed the door. Eventually Alfred made it down to him. He was rolled over, Alfred briefly looked him over for visible injuries. He made some tea in the panic room kitchenette. He set it on the floor near the bed until Bruce tried sipping at it.

“We argued.” Bruce said, glaring into his cup.

“I figured.” Alfred said, understanding resonating through his voice.

When the league first started there was a disagreement. Bruce had come home fast that day, ears too hot, and chest too tight. Tonight was worse.

“Clark noticed.” He said it quietly, too quietly it seemed. “Superman noticed.” He tried again.

Alfred’s eyebrows shot up. Even he had a hard time telling when Bruce froze up, the stillness right before was easy to miss and not far off from his usual brooding. Alfred waited for Bruce to get out his whole thought.

“He made everybody leave and I-” Bruce watched a teardrop collect on his eyelashes. He furiously scrubbed it away. “It was humiliating, he'll never respect me again.” he sniffed. “They thought I had powers, and they're mad I don't.”

Alfred handed him a tissue. Running his hand between Bruce's shoulder blades. Just being a soothing presence.

They took a different path out of the panic room, the easier path. The one that took a lot les turns but was guarded by doors and locks. Bruce's panicked mind always took the same route, the same way he'd discovered when he’d fallen through the well all those years ago.

He had been in the cave for days. He felt safe the whole time. He was hungry but safe. The cave was still safe now, even more so. Steel beams supported the cave walls. And there were now guardrails and platforms, pulley lines, cables and wires wound around the stalactites.

Alfred led him by the wrist into the manner proper. He sat down, food was put in front of him. He ate. Thinking.

That night he was sent a notification of another Justice League council meeting. He deleted all evidence from the computer.

He didn't tell Alfred.

If superman had noticed his mental state, then the others would have as well, and if they hadn't then superman surely would have shared the information.

Chapter Text

Two nights later Superman came floating out of the sky. Already Batman could tell he wasn't happy. Batman already wasn't happy. Tonight had been long and frustrating and he was almost done.

“You're interrupting.” Batman growled. “I'm busy.” He had an evidence sample, one he had to run before the police lab did, before the crooked cops found their target.

“This is important.” Clark said gravely, crossing his arms. Looking exactly like one would expect Superman to look.

Bruce ignored him. Continuing on his path back to the Batmobile. He was hopped up on a joint and four black cups of coffee. His blood was singing. He was pretty sure if he stood still, he would start vibrating.

Superman scoffed, following after him as he grappled up a tall building. “You're going to have to listen to me.” He waited for a response but one didn't come. “The league council had a meeting earlier today.” he aggressively checked a watch that wasn't on his wrist. “Oh, I'm sorry I mean yesterday evening. It's okay we're not going to kick you out or anything.”

It's not like he expected to be ousted from the league. While Nobody wanted some goth freak with mental problems, they couldn't exactly kick out the only human on a team meant for protecting humanity.

Before this he thought they respected him. Before this the idea that God's and heroes accepting him as an equal was a sign that they could respect humanity too.

Maybe having a human as part of the team would prevent a dictatorship. Make sure that the justice league sees humanity as equals rather than something to be protected, coddled and ruled over.

Seems that hadn't been the case. It was just Bruce being delusional. Nieve.

Batman dropped down to the alley way, his cape slowing his fall, a graceful glide to earth.

“See- when you do stuff like that of course we assume.” Clark snapped. Frustrated with being ignored it seemed.

Batman glared back at him. A glider is not a superpower. That was stupid. Batman continued to glare wondering if Superman would realize how dumb that was.

They made eye contact. Bruce sighed, looking away and blinking away the after image of eyes eyes eyes.

Frustrated by himself Batman opened the Batmobile and suddenly Superman was there holding the door open, preventing Bruce from slamming it shut in his face.

“I argued against it.” Clark said.

“Against my glider?” Bruce murmured, flushing with embarrassment for his slip up. He hasn't slept since he passed out after the incident two days ago.

There was a twitch at the corner of Clark's mouth. Bruce couldn't tell if it was anger or amusement.

Bruce's throat hurt. He wanted to go home. “I'm not making jokes.” he forced out, this situation too similar to another he would really rather forget. And he was embarrassed. And he hasn't slept. “You meant the resignation.”

Clark backed off a bit. He looked Batman over, but his eyes didn't whiten like they did when Superman used x-ray vision. He was just looking. “Yeah, I argued against it. I don't think you really want to leave. Can we just talk about this B?”

“No.” He tugged on the door, just enough for Superman to notice. “I will drive off without the door.”

“I don't doubt that but listen. Five minutes?”

Bruce glanced at the clock. “Five minutes.”

“Wonder Woman also argued for you to stay. Flash was a bit on the fence." Superman explained. “He said that if we thought you had powers anyway that obviously you deserve to be where you are, but he's worried about your wellbeing. Manhunter wanted you on the team advocating for your choice. Saying we couldn't make a decision on your actions if you weren't present. Hawkwoman abstained from voting and Green Lantern was the only one really opposed to you staying. So, we reject your resignation.” Clark finished with a cheery but strained smile. “But that’s only if you want to keep dealing with us. You can never come back if you don't want too. I will cry but will respect it.”

Batman was glad superman was joking around but he was still worried about the rest of the league's reaction to him not having powers. How would the other branches of the justice league take the news? He had felt no need to hide lack of super abilities but he didn't know the extent of the information spread.

Superman started talking again “Only the founding council knows you're human. I should have opened with that. Sorry. We all agreed not to tell. Or we made Lantern promise not to, I guess.” he chuckled but sounded sad somehow.

“And?” something weird was going on-

“What?” Superman asked. He tilted his head playfully. “You're still welcome on the team, you're still our best strategist. Nothing changed. What's weird about it?”

Bruce pressed his lips tight together. It couldn't be. Bruce felt his blood pressure rise and had to focus on keeping his heart beat steady while his brain put the pieces together.

“That's five minutes.” Batman said. Tugging again on the door. “Times up.”

“That wasn't even close to five minutes.” Clark countered. “Is about what happened after the meeting? I told them nothing about you. I never tell anyone about you. Everything you say to me is only to me.” Clark assured him.

Bruce believed him. “I don't believe you.”

Clark laughed, “that's a pretty contradictory statement Batman.”

Batman felt his brain shoot into overdrive. He knows what he says out loud. Superman visibly winced, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.

“Headaches?” Batman asked. He was afraid he already knew.

“Yeah, I'm okay.” Superman didn't sound okay.

“Symptoms?” There was a feeling of dread Welling up in Bruce's core.

Clark sighed. “It's just I thought this was a four-headache problem, but this is headache number four, but I haven't noticed anything.”

“Get in the car.” Batman snapped

“What?”

“Get in the car. We are not having this conversation out in the open where anybody can see us.”

“Are you going to take me to the cave?”

No, it would have to be a safe house.

“But safe houses don't have all your medical equipment-” Clark's teasing tone died off. “What do you mean I'm reading your mind?!”

“Don't shout. Get in the car.”

Superman zipped around and inside the Batmobile as fast as Batman managed to close the door. He peeled out of the alley in reverse.

“Agent A, prepare for a guest.”

“Yes sir.” Alfred said through the bat suit communications.

Batman knew this was a bad idea but the odds that superman already knew everything were too high not to be cautious. There was no telling-

“It's like you're shouting at me, Bruce.”

Batman took the turn a hair too tight and had to take a second to correct the car. He’d never told Superman his name.

“Shit, you're right, I'm sorry.” Superman took a deep breath and seemed to focus. “Okay, I think I've got this.”

Chapter Text

Clark had to close his eyes and focus on what it felt like to float around in the lower atmosphere on a warm summer's day. Once his own mind was more or less distracted he could focus on Batman's. Which was easy because Bruce was the pressure at the back of his skull that had been bothering him since headache number two. Batman had several streams of thought all snapping at each other and colliding into sparks creating a sort of engine fueled by force of will.

It was like chasing a tornado. It was exhilarating. Once he could tell where Batman was in the mindscape it was much easier to avoid getting tugged in but there was still a pull and the occasional clear as speaking thought that Clark couldn't help but overhear but Clark can do this. It might just take practice.

What am I going to do, I can't make another identity. I don't want that, this one is mine- maybe I can just ask him not to look-

“Batman,” Clark knew that thought didn't refer to looking around in his mind, some part of Batman already was trusting Clark not to do that.  This particular worry seemed to need actual verbal reassurance.  “I won’t look around. I won't x-ray the cave or interrogate your mysterious agent A.” he focused on meditating, how the wind would feel on his skin, how the grass below would move. 

-Fuck I cant let him find out about that! Think of something else, test or questions. Last few days?

This time Clark waited for Batman to say the words out loud. 

“Anything out of the ordinary the last few days?” Batman asked. The cityscape outside the windows was turning to abruptly dense trees. There was a definite difference in how batman spoke and how he thought. Without all this happening superman would have thought the other man to be completely calm and in control.

“I guess I've been more sensitive? Like when people were disappointed or even when they were impressed with me. Nothing too major. Maybe it just kicked in though.” Clark was wondering if it was maybe just Batman.

+abilities; heightened empathy

Clark had to stifle a laugh. 

“What?” Batman bit out then immediately felt guilty for snapping. 

“Sorry, it’s nothin’.” 

Batman turned into a dirt road, then towards what Clark thought was a fully sealed abandoned mine. there was a second where superman thought for sure batman was just going to drive into the barrier, but it slid open to allow the car to drive into the tunnel. It was only a second of darkness before the Batcave opened up. It was almost stunning enough to miss the new chanting of This is a bad idea. This is a bad idea. This is a bad idea. Taking up root in Batman's mind. 

The Batcave had a hanger bay with long supports reaching deep into the freshwater spring at the bottom of the cavern. The car was caught onto a track to be delivered to its storage location Clark could feel how much effort it took for Batman to quell some kind of compulsion as he let go of the steering wheel. Clark pulled away from that thought. There was no way he was going to intrude on something that Batman wasn't ready to show him. this was already enough of a tricky situation.

Clark was already toeing the line with the whole Batcave thing, but curiosity killed the cat and all. He wanted to know how much Batman would willingly tell him tonight.

Superman took a moment to marvel at both the natural beauty of the cave and the architectural engineering that somehow managed to blend gothic into practical industrial. The stalactites and stalagmites gave the impressions of teeth, but the steel beams held everything up like gothic pillars. A balance between manmade architecture and natural stone.

He followed Batman across the walkway and to the gigantic glowing monitor of the supercomputer. It was arranged to be in the hub of the main area, the rock formations formed partial room partitions, one was outfitted with a gym, from what Clark could see without really looking around. 

Batman stopped near the batcomputer and- well Clark could feel that he momentarily didn't know what to do.

Does this qualify as a medical thing? Would scanned even work on superman? What was the next step here?

Batman turned to him “Tell me what you know about me.” 

It was a demand not a question. “Uh, kinda putting me on the spot, okay. Um, you're Batman, obviously. Your favorite color is yellow, you like black coffee but sweet pastries. I know you have some sort of vendetta against organized crime and keep superheroing even though you don't have any powers, stubborn comes to mind. I’m still not over that by the way and we will be talking about it.”

Clark felt a wave of embarrassment and exhaustion from where he was ignoring Batman's thoughts. “How did you know my name?”

“Yeah, sorry about that, I don't know either. I guess you just seemed like a Bruce, it suits you.”

Batman hummed with contentment and pride for just a moment before the positive emotions got drowned out by the rest of the storm of Bruce's mind. He must really like his name.

The conversation lulled as Batman's thoughts whirled around faster and faster. Clark focused on not looking at what Batman was thinking about. 

“I need you to try to read my mind.” It was so surreal hearing Batman say that outloud that Clark just stared at him.

“No, I'm not going to do that.” Clark folded his arms and stepped back.

Batman didn't say anything, just narrowed his eyes.

“No, it's like a vortex of knives in there. If you want me to try you're going to have to calm down .” Clark had unintentionally Matched the tone and rhythm of one of Batman's thoughts lines. It made the man in front of him tense.

“I am calm.” Batman said, through clenched teeth.

“Liar,” Clark teased. “It's fine, there's no urgency, we can take time to figure this out.” There was a noise deeper in the cave. “Is someone else here?”

Batman was nervous all over again as Clark saw an older gentleman enter the room. He was, well, he looked exactly like Clark expected a butler to look. Balding, a distinguished mustache, slightly rotund, wearing a tux and white gloves to match. 

“Good evening master Bruce.” The butler said, giving Clark only a polite nod. “May I suggest inviting your guest to the parlor for tea and refreshments?” 

Batman frowned, shooting the butler a look. There was a momentary battle. “Superman, this is agent A.” 

“Alfred Pennyworth at your service sir.”

“Alfred, this is Clark kent.” introductions done Batman turned sharply and headed deeper into the cave.

“Please pardon master Bruce. Follow me.”

“Where's he gone?” 

Pennyworth sent Clark a small smile, appreciating Clark asking instead of just finding out. “Master Bruce can't enter the manor proper unless he ‘de-bats’ so to speak.”

“Oh, should I change then?” Clark very pointedly didn't acknowledge ‘manor proper’. He knew he was already thoroughly out of his depth. 

Alfred hummed, considering. “I would Not know sir, it's not my rule.”

Clark followed Alfred back where the butler had come from. This tunnel was obviously man made and it was a good bit of walking to reach the elevator shaft, stuck into the rock wall where it doesn't belong.

They surfaced, Alfred let the door scan his retina and it opened into an old opulent study. Once They stepped away The door slid closed, a bookcase and a grandfather clock looked perfectly in place. 

“This way master kent.” Alfred prompted.

Wherever they were was certainly manor-esque. The decor is rich and lavish. Suits of Armour lined the halls and oil paintings bigger than clarks whole kitchen hung over the stairs. It made a lot of sense that Batman would be rich and not just have a generous benefactor as he had claimed.

The parlor had a roaring fireplace, Clark was motioned to sit and Alfred left, promising for his absence to be brief. 

Distance didn't seem to be a factor to this new power, Batman's mind was still raging in the background as loud as ever. Clark rested his head in his hands. 

Stupid fucking textures - hurry hurry hurry-

Alfred returned quickly as promised, placing a tray of refreshments on the small table between the two chairs and then standing near the door. Pennyworth checked his watch and looked expectantly at the door. 

“You have about two minutes or so sir, if you have any questions.” Alfred settled into parade rest.

“Is Batman your boss?”

Alfred shook his head, “Though the young master Bruce insists on paying me a salary, I did raise him.”

“Oh, thank Goodness.” Clark muttered and ran a hand through his curls. “I was worried he was out there doing everything alone. I'm so glad he has someone to watch his back.”

Alfred hummed approvingly. “Likewise, Mr. Kent. It is good he's finally bringing guests over.”

For a second the two of them shared a companionable silence. Clark got the impression Alfred was presently surprised by Clark.

Then Bruce came blustering in. He slipped into the room silently, looking at Clark then Alfred and back to Clark. Superman's brain took a moment to reboot. Batman was very pretty, all blue eyes with black liner. He was wearing a nicely fitted black turtleneck and slacks. His movements outside the armor are infinitely more graceful. He was smaller too, not as wide in the shoulders, not as tall when not in the boots.

He was so pretty that for a second Clark didn't recognize him. When he finally did, Clark put his head in his hands and groaned loudly. 

“Oh my god, a rich guy named Bruce. You're Bruce wayne.”

Clark knew Batman would have laughed if he'd been in a better mood, but the answering self-satisfied smirk was pretty gratifying. For a second Clark watched as Bruce Wayne circled the room. His eyes darted at every nook and cranny and he even subtly checked behind the curtains. It was methodical, practiced and soothing. By the time he was done only a few seconds had passed and Bruce didn't look like he was about to dart back out of the room. 

“Right.” Batman dropped into the chair across from Clark, he crossed his legs at the knee and rested his hands in his lap, posture perfect. “Read my mind.”

Alfred moved forward, pouring the tea, adding lemon to one and handing the other to Clark.

“Thank you, Mr. Pennywise.”

“Alfred will do sir.” 

It was herbal tea, which Clark preferred given he wasn't affected by caffeine and sometimes found the taste to be chalky.

"Superman." Bruce said with all the sternness of Batman. 

“Batman.” Clark said, matching Bruce's energy. “I already said no.”

And then you went and read my mind anyway. Batman's mind hissed. 

“I don't mean to- it's like you are a storm, okay?” Clark waited until the bat nodded. “When I'm flying near storms I still get hit with wind and debris and such, but I'm not flying directly into the storm. I can tune out my hearing so I'm not listening in but it's very very loud.”

“You don't understand.”

“Of course I don't understand. I don't Know anything about Kryptonians.” Clark snapped.

“What do you know?”

Clark blinked. Before, whatever this was, Clark would have taken that sentence to be incredibly rude. Now that he could feel Bruce in his head Clark could see he was trying to switch gears, from Batman chasing corrupt cops; to concerned friend and wasn't doing so very gracefully.

Clark took a deep breath and sipped at his tea. “I should just show you the wreck.” Clark said. “I really don't know much. Mom says it was like a hologram from Star Wars and it said- ‘Greetings, I am Jor-El of krypton. Our planet is dead. This is my son Kal-El.’ Then it vanished. It only played the one time.”

Batman hummed. The gears were turning in his mind. “Any writing?” 

“Nothing human.” 

Talking about this usually made him feel so Alien but this time Bruce sat across from him feeling just as strange.

“I need you to read my mind so I can determine if there’s telling when you're doing it or not.”

“Yeah, and I'm telling you I'm not doing that. I don't know what I'm doing, I could hurt you.”

“I am telling you it is fine.”

“And I can tell you're lying.”

“Is this about what happened at the meeting?” Bruce asked. “I would have been fine if you hadn’t cleared the room.” if you hadn't touched me I could have pulled out of it.

“Does this happen during missions?” concern fizzed out Clark's frustrations. 

“Never.” Batman growled out. He was up on his feet, pacing back and forth. “It's a,” he paused, looking to Alfred for reassurance. “Social thing.”

It was a heavy weight for Bruce to admit and Clark felt it settle in his chest. “Oh.” that sentence had lots of mystery packed behind it and he could tell Bruce wouldn't be telling him anything else. Clark’s reporter instinct screamed at him to ask more questions but- “don't try to bait me.”

“I don't know what you mean.” Bruce said innocently, though internally cursing at being caught.

“You manipulative- I can tell when you start to plot even without this-” Clark gestured about generally, “whole thing. I’ve known you too long.”

“You know nothing about me.”

“Yeah, but I know Batman, and he’s a schemer.”

Bruce huffed, the bat version of a laugh, stopped pacing long enough to snatch some finger foods and then folded back into his chair. Same pose. “We’ll call J'onn, he’ll know what's safe or not.” The line was delivered with petulance and an eye roll.

“Good. Now tell me about what's going on?” Clark prompted. “Did you get your evidence or whatever?”

“Processing takes about 5 hours.” 

If I'm lucky I can sleep 3 hours and be ready by the time results come out. Convincing Them to come to the safe house will be the hardest part-

Clark had to really focus to pull out of that stream of thought. When he did it was because Bruce finally took a drink and Clark was shocked out of it.

“Oh that's sour.” Clark scrunched his nose up at the sudden shared senses. 

Bruce froze. Watching Clark intently. Batman's mind furiously analyzing every one of Clark's micro expressions, he was looking for something and relaxed when he didn't find it. 

“It's all good,” Clark reassured, "I was getting a little overwhelmed and it jolted me out. Which is why you did it huh?”

“Sensory shock.” Bruce said, “but I just like lemons.” He took another drink, Watching Clark for a reaction.

“Not tasting anything now.” Calrk said. “I don't know what that was. Seems like you have the case pretty handled, though. If you need some publicity afterwards let me know, okay? I'll type you up something mean.”

Batman hummed in response. Thank you, such a nice friend. Love my friends.

Clark's whole face flushed. 

“What?” Bruce snapped, suddenly very cautious.

“Nothing, just an unconscious thought, sorry.” Clark glanced at the clock on the mantel. “Look at the time. I have work in a couple hours. Thank you for having me Bruce. Mr. Pennyworth, it's been an honor.”

With that he super sped out the window. That last one was an invasion of privacy. As he flew away the storm of Batman's mind did distance slightly, but it was still on the horizon of Clark's mind. He hoped that the Martian manhunter would be able to help.

Chapter Text

Clark was gone and Batman was surprised to find himself disappointed, it was probably just because with Superman gone he didn't have any excuses to dodge his bed much longer. It has been three days since the disastrous justice league meeting and he hasn't slept since then. Too much was always going on with Gotham.

After he’s sent the messages to J’onn, and eaten something he goes to his bed and stares at the ceiling. There’s nothing for him to be doing but his mind won’t shut up. There are too many secrets that Superman could accidentally uncover. Over the course of the visit Bruce had come to the conclusion that he could not tell when Clark was reading him. With J’onn bruce could feel the second the martian even thought in his direction. His training had made it very easy and it has worked against the few mind readers Bruce had been unfortunate enough to come across.  

Then why wasn’t it working with Clark? Maybe Kryptonians thought differently enough that Batman wouldn't even know what to look out for?

And with Clark's sharp and persistent refusals there was no way to train himself against it. It was all dependent on Superman and Batman hates it. Some sort of control would be nice. The investigations on both fronts were stalled and it made Bruce feel jittery and wild and useless. 

The justice league communicator beeped twice. Messages confirming that Martian Manhunter could help and when he would be available. Then the communicator started trilling, the emergency line. It was an all-hands-on deck call directly from their deep space monitoring system. Something was heading directly towards earth; impact was calculated to be the eastern seaboard of the Americas near the justice hall. Though the location had to be a coincidence because that was still a secret base of operations. Batman hoped it was just a coincidence. Impact in less than an hour. 

Batman was coordinating through the coms-line while he returned to the Batcave. He made sure the more local heroes would start civilian evacuation. The space fairing superheroes would try to intercept and if failing that change the trajectory of the incoming object. They had to avoid the cities and using the Batputer he selected an empty lot destined for a Lex Corp lab that hadn't finished construction. Oh well, Luthor would have to deal.

The founder's council also doubled as the leading battle squad of the Justice League. Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkwoman, The Flash, Aquaman and whichever of earth’s two Green Lanterns that were in the area. To Batman's utter annoyance it was still Hal Jordan. John Stewart was off world dealing with something else. 

T-minus twenty minutes to impact and the Batwing was touching down at the projected landing spot. The others: Superman, Wonder Woman, Manhunter and some others from different JL teams had managed to redirect what appeared to be a hollow asteroid away from the city. Which was good. What was not good was Hal Jordan floating up to Batman as he stepped off the jet. 

Batman made sure to transfer most of the leadership of the battle off to a more local team. Giving them the run down of suggested tactics and the like. When he finally turned to Hal Jordan, he was infinitely annoyed to see his pleased smile. 

“Green Lantern.” Batman growled. 

“Batman!” Green Lantern answered pretending he was unphased by full power bat glare fixed on him.

“Why aren't you in position?”

“I knew you would be glad to see me. I'm here to watch your back spooky.”

There was a rumbling in the atmosphere, the teams of superheroes standing by, those who could all braced to cushion the impact of the still unidentified object. The space team was returning, landing amongst the ground forces. 

“Where were you, Lantern?” Superman asked, Batman wondered if he was still irritated from before.

“You guys had it handled.” Green Lantern said, waving his hand dismissively. 

“No,” Superman insisted, “we could have used you.”

Wonder woman nodded in agreement.

The argument was cut off as the asteroid-like ship was braced against, it landed, cracked open, and a flood of insectoid type aliens writhed out of the surface of the object. The justice league pounced into action. The construction equipment had been placed strategically for the fight before the bugs could even land. Careful planning would hopefully be enough. 

One of the advance troops of the bugs reminded Batman of a rolly polly combined with a rino. He used an explosive batarang to grab the attention of one getting much too close to a younger league member. He baited it away and waited for it to charge, it was perfectly under control and soon he could-

-suddenly batman was several feet away, the bug was running wild and flash was talking loudly in his ear. 

“Geeze that one was too close batman, what if you couldn't-”

“I had it handled!” Batman snapped. He knocked Flash's hands off him. 

He turned away from the well-meaning idiot and dropped off the half-finished structure to rejoin the fray. For a moment it was almost a cathartic battle. After the rhino rollies there came some whip fast giant praying mantis’ over a head taller than a human. They were plentiful but easy to predict and had obvious weak points in the form of their frail joints. 

Batman eventually figured he could line a bunch up into a combo attack, he carefully gathered a group into a choke point. Then Hawkwoman came flying through, her sparking mace slamming the enemies into the walls, but her wings were not made for small corridors, and she had to take a precious few seconds to land, turn and take off again. Batman looked up and just had enough time to dodge the debris of one of the flying bugs hitting the construction scaffolding. The flying bugs that hawk Woman was supposed to be dealing with.

“Hawk woman, where are you!” Wonder Woman called over the coms line. 

“Coming.” Hawk Woman said. “Careful.” she said, pointing her mace at Batman and flying off.

Batman was livid, once was annoying but three times was a pattern. The battle didn't last long after that, unfortunately, as Batman was nearly overwhelmed with his rage and could have used a fight to blow off steam. 

How dare they treat him like this? He was not some invalid or useless human. He’d trained half of them, you think they would respect his skills at least a little. Overlooking the remains of the battle batman took a moment to re-compartmentalize, it would do to get his feelings hurt over something so stupid.

When the all-clear was called all the superheroes started moving their way towards the mountain that housed the hall of justice. Batman mentally took three months off the timeline for making the official hall of justice announcement to the general public. It would mean that the hall would have to transition to just a meeting place, leaving all the sensitive data, training area, and med bay to all be transferred to the nearly finished space station. He was affectionately calling it the watchtower and he was very proud.

For now Batman ignored all of his teammates, entered the Batwing and landed at the hall of justice’s helipad. That didn’t stop anyone from following him of course, Superman landed only a few seconds after the bat, joining him on the walk through the base. 

They were joined next by J’onn, who was wearing his neutral expression. “Batman, Kal-el,” J’onn greeted. 

Superman beamed at him. “Hello, great work out there today.”

“I had to make up for the others.” J'onn said, jaw tight, “I must admit I did not think they would be so blatant about their worries.”

“Worries,” Batman scoffed. “They should worry about themselves.” he stalked forward, letting the two aliens fall in step behind him. 

They were heading towards their usual meeting room but whenever Batman sensed someone ahead of them he changed course. The result was a winding route that made them the last to arrive despite being the first on site. The three of them slunk into the room, trying to not grab too much attention for themselves as Wonder Woman was already giving Green Lantern, the flash and Hawkwoman the dressing down of their lives. 

“He has been a better and more consistent teammate than any of you have been.”

“Come on, Diana, you expect me to just stand by while bats-” 

Batman cut Hal Jordan off, “I would have been perfectly fine.” he insisted. “Now be quiet, we have something more important going on.”

“More important than the Batman's slighted ego?” Green Lantern asked sarcastically, “Can that even be possible?”

Bruce rounded on him, opening his mouth to say something truly terrible when Superman sped in between them. 

“I know,” Superman said, his hands hovering over the bat's shoulders, “they were being reckless and pig-headed. They didn't respect you enough to let you handle yourself. I don't agree with it and I dont condone it but let's see if we can shelf it for a while huh?” Even though Batman didn't move or say anything, Superman sighed and smiled. “Thank you, B.”

“Are you two going to fill us in?” Flash prompted, flitting out of the room and returning a second later with snacks, he shared with Arthur and Hal. "Did something happen between you two?" there was an extra layer of subtext to the sentence that batman didn't have the energy to decode.

Batman was still seething, so much so that he decided it was smarter to keep his mouth closed. He stayed standing near the door, too wound up with the case and the battle and earlier this morning. Everything hurts and everything is too loud. 

“I got a new superpower.” Superman said, like he was telling them he had cancer. “It’s reading minds.”

“Woah, supes, leave some superpowers for the rest of us.” Barry Allen jokes, but when it falls flat, “woah, seriously, what am I thinking right now?”

Superman shrugged, “it has some limitations I don't know. This literally started,” he checked the wall clock, “four and a half hours ago.”

“What is it like?” Wonder Woman asked, huffing as she sat down, crossing her arms and shooting the Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkwoman a glare that read ‘this isn't over yet’.

“Well, I don't get much from most people. For example, I get general emotions from you guys and if you think loudly at me then I might get a clear sentence. Other people are loud, like a storm, and I can’t really block that out.”

“I am sure I can help; it would be nice to commune with you mentally superman.” J'onn said with warmth and a small smile.

The man of steel smiled widely, “Whenever you’re ready.”

There was a moment of silence in the room while J’onn’s eyes glowed slightly, almost imperceptible to human eyes. “Can you feel that?”

“Maybe, I don’t know.”

J’onn took three steps forward and placed a hand on Superman's forearm. Superman laughed, lighting up like a christmas tree.

“Oh, hello!”

The martian smiled too, wide and genuine. “Hello superman.” another pause while J’onn looked around. “You have a mind scape now, it’s lovely, the skies over Kansas?”

Superman nodded enthusiastically. 

“I think you are correct in assuming that this is Kryptonian in nature rather than a superpower gained from earth’s yellow sun and unique atmosphere. Many people with the superpower to read minds never develop a mind scape, it is unique to those species who naturally developed the skill." Martian Manhunter explained, “My people evolved telepathy as a threat detection system to look beneath the waves during the time when much of mars was deep saltwater swamps. It later evolved to be part of our language and culture. Communing with loved ones and friends was a secondary benefit. For you, Kal-el it seems to be based on how much the person you are communicating with likes you.”

Batman felt all the blood in his veins turn to ice. Oh no.

“Well that explains how I'm able to tell what you guys are feeling but my boss is like a void.” Clark chuckled for a second. He made brief eye contact with Batman, before looking away like he was burned. 

Bruce felt like lashing out, this was unfair, life was unfair, couldn't he just keep to himself? Why did he have to be friends with stupid mind-reading aliens? He could have tried befriending the Gotham socialites but nooo he had to try to save the world from constant alien invasion. God, fuck altruism. It brought him nothing but trouble and insomnia.

Clark turned back to Martian Manhunter, “Could you see anything else in my mindscape?” Clark asked. His tone of good-natured curiosity.

Manhunter rested his hand back on Superman's forearm. “Perhaps,” he said. “It is a mind I don't recognize, like a storm?”

Bruce mentally lashed out, he had the conversation with J'onn before, Martian manhunter was not allowed anywhere near Batman's head. Manhunter stumbled back physically, holding his head. 

“My apologies Batman, I did not know that was you.” the Martian shook his head sharply, recomposing himself. 

Batman surprised himself by growling in response. That was just one thing too many for Batman to deal with.

Before anyone could stop him Batman shot up and was out the door. The sample will be finishing processing soon, and so should the sample the police had. If he wanted to save that witness he would have to get going. Running on less than eight hours of sleep in the last seventy two was not ideal but any rest time that he had was eaten up by the battle. A battle he hadn't even managed to help with because of other people’s meddling. Useless.

Chapter Text

The rest of the team watched Batman go, not trying to stop him. All fully expecting a detailed mission report complete with scathing remarks and training plans to fix the issue. Superman had been hoping he would have stayed so that they could talk about what was going on. 

“What’s his damage?” Hal Jordan scoffed. “Too embarrassed to let us know he likes someone?”

“No,” Superman found himself coming to his defense, “he had a very time-sensitive case we interrupted.”

“Well you would know.” Hal rebutted. 

“Oh,” Superman said, a sly smile playing on his face. “You're jealous.”

“Am not!”

“You are, you want to be Batman's friend so bad. Too bad he’s my best friend.”

“I don't need to be Batman's friend-”

“No but you really want to.” Superman teased.

“Ooooo,” Arthur said, opening a fresh bag of chips. “Somebody has a crush.”

“No I don't,” he tried to knock Arthur's snack to the floor, but didn't succeed and mostly just looked like a fish flopping around on dry land. “Shut up!” his face was flushing pink under his green lantern mask. 

“Right, right,” Flash said, zipping away from Lantern’s playfully swinging fists. “It's just a professional interest, you're not abandoning your post to go check on him or anything, nothing of that sort happening with Green Lantern.”

“You did the same thing!” Hal shouted. “I saw you zipping around, checking on him, pulling him out of danger.”

“I was just being practical.” Flash argued.

“Yeah, practically clinging to his side.” Shiera interjected.

“Like you're one to talk.” Flash stopped eye to eye with the Thargarian. “Taking the time from your own battles to fight someone else’s.”

“It is honorable to help your allies in battle.” Hawkwoman rebutted. “I take pride in being an honorable warrior.”

“Oh yeah, that was all about honor, nothing about stoic, tall, dark and handsome.”

“No matter how tall, dark and handsome Batman is, he is still a capable member of our team, and you need to respect him as such. Let him fight his own battles.” Wonder Woman said, her tone still full of bite and ire. 

Superman frowned, looking from one teammate to the next. Sensing all their very similar emotions pertaining to the batman. “So, do we all just have a thing for Batman?”

The room went stone cold silent.

“I certainly wouldn't say no.” Arthur remarked, choosing to be oblivious to the tense silence, “But I am married.”

“Though I usually prefer the superior female form, I too would not turn down the Batman.” Diana said with all her amazonian bravado.

“He is an excellent strategist.” Shiera nodded. ”Fit too.”

“I mean come on, it's the Batman.” Flash said, gesturing at the still closed door. He said something but too quick for anyone to catch any words except ‘broad shoulders’ and ‘deep voice’

Hal Jordan groaned, collapsing into a chair and saying nothing else in his defense. It was as good as a confession as far as the rest of the team was concerned.

“Human sexuality is confusing.” Martian manhunter said. “But Batman is pleasant company.”

The conversation was giving superman butterflies, there was a lot more competition than he thought there would be, “how about we all agree not to tell him?”

The whole team nodded and agreed in unison.

“But the best man wins right?” Hal asked.

Again, the whole team agreed, all looking at Superman with jealousy for being the closest to him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It'd been three days since the landing of what we determined to be a piece of a hive of Irracci (era-see) Death bugs. They'd gone extinct Eons ago, but the occasional swarm still appeared if they were caught in a time tide that ran out. 

Green Lantern managed to trace the source of the attack to a dying tide two systems over. It looked like three other swarms had been released as well, hitting other planets. The Green Lantern corps was notified and since then sent word that the threats on other planets had been dealt with. 

Clark was no astrophysicist, but those Time Tides really were confusing. It was the answer to the age-old question of why aliens never visited earth before this century. Apparently, there were invisible waves that lacked time and only affected biological matter and what the biomatter was touching. If you were unlucky enough to fly into one you were stuck until it wore out or passed over, you? the science was unclear. The Tides sometimes weeks and sometimes centuries.

So not only was earth very far away from any other populated planet, apparently the Sol system had a crazy amount of Time Tides blocking entry to outside forces. It also explained why the majority of extra-terrestrial aliens teleported In. It was too risky with The Tides invisibly guarding their borders. So hard to detect that humanity hadn’t even officially discovered them yet. All the league's information on them came from whatever the Green Lanterns were willing to share with them and what they could pull from the hard drives of any crashed or disabled invading ships. 

Not for the first time Clark was wondering how he’d managed to end up on earth. The more he learned about space travel the less he understood about his own origins. Maybe it was the size of the ship? The shuttle Clark had arrived on earth wasn't very big, it perhaps would have fit one slightly large adult but had been retrofitted to pad the space around baby Clark. Was it the extra care that saved him from The Time Tides? Was it just luck? Was one story about a hologram really the only thing he would ever know about his homeworld?

He thought about it so much that he called his parents during his lunch break to let them know he would be by to pick up the shuttle for examination by the League later this evening.

“Are you sure about this honey?” asked Martha Kent, he could hear her cleaning dishes over the speaker phone. 

“Not that we aren’t glad you trust your friends,” Jonathan Kent added, Clark thought he would make a very good diplomat. “But are you sure you want to have them messing with your past like this?”

“I have to learn more.” Clark insisted. “There must be something we can figure out from the wreckage. Maybe there’s more refugees that are out there in need of help. I think it’s time to go lookin’ pops.”

“And you're sure?” Martha moved closer to the phone. “Even if you find nothing?”

Clark nodded, “I'm sure ma.” Clark reassured them. “But just so you know you two will always be my parents, no matter what.”

Martha laughed lightly, “Oh honey, we were never worried about that. We just don't want you disappointed.”

Clark had tried before and disappointment was exactly what he’d found, he’d brought photographs and copied words to several universities around the world hoping for someone to have some information for him but it was all for naught.

“Maybe we can convince you and your manhunter friend to come in for dinner?” Jonathan asked. 

“I’ll ask him, I'm sure you could convince me though.” Clark said good naturedly, sending a text off to J’onn on the league communicator. “Oh, he’s already said yes. Count us in for dinner.”

The regular work day passed quickly with only some minor friendly ribbing from Lois. Clark detoured to the hall of justice where J'onn met him in the air and they flew side by side towards kansas.

Going home using super speeded flight was a bit more efficient but he stayed at J’onns pace today, sharing comfortable conversation. By the time they arrived at the Kent farm dusk was just touching the horizon. This was by design as they would need the cover of darkness to fly the shuttle back to base. 

Martha and Jonathan met them out on the front grass with smiles on their faces and an arm around each other.

If Bruce Wayne was a storm in his mind space then Clark’s parents were most like a pair of well tuned old trucks happily puttering down the highway together. 

He embraced them, gave Ma a kiss on the cheek and then introduced Martian manhunter.

“And this is J’onn.”

“Honored to meet you mr, and ms Kent, Clark speaks of you with warmth.” 

“Oh aren't you a charmer?” Martha pulled him into a hug. “We’re always so glad to meet Clark's friends, but you're all so busy. Can I get you something warm to drink?

“Not necessary.” Martian manhunter said. 

“Well,” Jonathan pressed an old key into Clark's palm. “You know where to find it, we’re going to go get dinner finished up so take your time and work up an appetite.”

“Yes sir, thanks Pa.” Clark said cheerfully. 

“Don't 'yes sir' me.” Jonathan grumbled as the elderly couple retreated to their farmhouse. 

“This way I guess.” Clark said, leading J’onn to the derelict barn at the back of the property.

The new barn was much closer to the house, had all the farming equipment and a loft Clark had claimed as a hang out spot during his teen years. The other barn was old, hundreds of years old, first white settlers old, and the Kents didn't have the money for all the permits needed to tear it down. It also had a storm cellar hidden under a heavy door, now locked with a rusty padlock that hadn't been removed since Clark's parents brought him out here on his thirteenth birthday to show him the shuttle.

Despite himself, Clark hesitated when he came to the padlock. He was nervous about this. It was a very real possibility that there wouldn't be anything new to learn about himself. He might forever just be the last baby of a dead planet. Adrift in the universe, happening to fall where he did. A lonely existence.

Clark steeled himself and unlocked the cellar. The doors creaked and more than a handful of spiders fled their nests. Superman used his heat vision to light an old candle held in a lantern and the pair of superheroes stepped into the darkness. 

The light of the candle flickered off the shining hull of the Kryptonian ship. It was streaked in dirt; the forward end was still compacted with soil and rock. Superman handed the lantern to Manhunter, who held it but made a visibly uncomfortable face, then as carefully as Clark could he pulled the little spaceship back out of the cellar and into the waning light filtering through the holes in the ceiling. 

It was exactly as he’d remembered it some twenty years ago. Unpainted silver of foreign, unidentifiable metal. The hatch was clear and opened easily, showing the place where it cradled an infant superman thirty-three years ago. There wasn't much there, just some burnt out thrusters, a computer that Clark guessed was for navigation and a small tablet with row upon row of strange alien writing. 

He passed the tablet over to J’onn.

“This isn’t a language I recognize.” J’onn said, looking over the tablet with reverence. “I’m sure the league’s database will have more information.”

“Ever the optimist J’onn.” Clark said. 

“No need to match it Superman. I can't imagine not knowing anything about who I am. I am sorry you carry that burden alone.”

“I’m not alone.” Superman said, more for his own benefit than for J’onn. He found himself listening to Bruce's heartbeat again. It was soothing, steady, and reliable. It was a habit of his to listen to Batman when he was stressed. One he was trying his best to break. 

“Do you hear that?” J’onn asked, running the flat of his palm over the cool surface of the ship. 

“Hear what?” Clark tilted his head, listening intently.

“Listen with your mind Kal-El.”

Clark sighed and focused, placing his hand on the ship too, there was something strange ringing through his mindscape. “Almost like singing?”

“Yes, in a language I don't recognize.”

“Is it a message?” Clark theorized. 

“It could be, it is very faint.” J’onn removed his hand from the ship.

As soon as he did the sound doubled in volume, Clark’s knees felt weak at the force of the song running though his mind. It was certainly a message. 

J’onn pulled him away from the ship. Holding eye contact with Clark until he could focus again.

“It is a message. It's a message for me!” Clark was trying very hard not to get excited.

“What does it say?”

“The cold, something is waiting for me beneath the ice.” Clark said, shaking his head. “I can't really make it out, but it’s getting louder.”

“I still can just faintly sense it.” J’onn said.

“It's getting louder.” Clark said again. “Now that I know where to look, I can hear it. It was waiting for me to notice it, oh geez J’onn, I'm so nervous.”

“We’ll figure this out.” J’onn said, rubbing his shoulders comfortingly. “You have the whole league at your back. You are not alone.”

Dinner with his parents was lovely, they asked J'onn all about what mars was like during his time and how he was liking his new home on earth. Superman arranged for someone else at the league to stop by to pick up the ship, seeing as J'onn and Superman couldn’t touch it without over enthusiastic unintelligible psychic messages bombarding them.

Clark was floating on air, not even his editor chewing him out for scheduling some much needed vacation days could dampen his spirits. It seemed Clark wasn't alone with his good mood. Where there were usually grey clouds gathering over where Batman lived in his mindscape, there were clear skies.

Since the news broke that Batman was on the run from the cops in Gotham the storm had been consistent, focused and absolutely thrilled to be on the case. 

All in all, Superman was happy to have the bat working away in the corner of his mind. Now he could feel the humming satisfaction Bruce was enjoying on his way home. Before he knew it Clark had broken away from his path to metropolis and found himself  hovering over Gotham, expecting Batman to stop somewhere in the city but the bat just returned home. 

Clark pulled out his league communicator. -I have news of developments, can I visit?- Clark checked his spelling then felt silly and sent it to Batman.

He felt the bat’s immediate suspicions. -you've never asked before-

Clark took that to be the yes that Batman ment it to be and flew towards the mine entrance, which, to his utter relief, opened at his approach.

Chapter Text

Batman decided to tune into the rest of the briefing through the hidden listening devices he had put into the conference room light. People called him paranoid for a reason. 

He had switched the Batwing into auto pilot homing mode to process the depths of stupidity that the conversation had devolved to the second he’d left.

“Do we all have a thing for batman” was not the conversation topic he ever wanted to overhear but Batman felt a sort of vindication at the leveling of the playing field. 

The league was acting stupid because he was stupid hot. 

Okay maybe Batman needs a nap. He got as comfortable as he could in the cockpit of the Batwing and turning off the live audio feed to the conference room. Batman finally managed to drift off to a shallow sleep.

He came to when the Batwing landed. The sample was done processing and it was auto cycling the databases. It would be minutes now before Batman could finally relax into a good case. 

The operation was simple. Extract the target and escort the witness out of state to the awaiting federal marshals. Tail them to make sure they're not compromised then head home and have a bath. 

He put the data matching to the left most monitor. Pulling up his files instead, file name superman. +abilities, mind reading, limitation, affection the target holds towards Superman determines strength of the mind reading.

And then he sat with it for a second. Sure, he likes Superman, or Clark or Kal-El. He had assumed that it was how most people felt about a best friend. He had similar feelings for Harvey before their falling out. Feelings which were stupid and confusing. Batman shoved them back in their box where they belonged.

Preferred name ??? He was added under Superman's 'names and pseudonyms' section. Batman scrolled down to the heading reading 'personal' and typed in the four-digit pass code. ‘ Likes me?’ Just underneath ‘ really nice smile ’ He locked it again.

For good measure he should close the file.

He knows who I am. He added, then closed the document. 

That silly little thing over with the database beeped. Showtime.

The rest of the week was a blur of avoiding the cops, extracting the hostage, dodging more cops and only having to dress one injury that wasn't life threatening. Everything went to plan, or at least with in parameters. 

He knew Clark was hovering again, looking for him now that he had a moment to breathe. Batman was almost disappointed in himself for being glad to see the blinking light representing Clark waiting for him above downtown Gotham. 

Too bad the bat didn't feel like going out tonight. He set a course for home and just as he was starting to get out of the car his league communicator Beeped. 

Clark was texting him? Was there an emergency? 

-I have news of some developments, can I visit?-

What an ominously generic text. He shot back a snarky reply and moments later Superman was flying into the cave. He did a pirouette in the air and landed gracefully next to Batman. Not for the first time, Batman wondered if Superman's fighting style could benefit from some classic ballet training.

“Hello!” Superman said cheerfully.

The only noise Batman could muster up was a soft hum in response.

Clark laughed self consciously. “Yeah, glad to see you too. You're in a good mood. I heard the case went off without a hitch.” 

Bruce let Superman follow him to the Batputer. He pulled up his mission report form and sat down.

“You got more work to do? No? You're almost done, huh?” Clark decided to take a seat too, floating in midair with his legs crossed.

Batman nodded at him, pulling off his gloves with his mouth and dropping the offending items onto the floor. He started to type, letting his mind go over the sequence of events, starting with the murder that brought his attention to the case. The murder that still wasn't solved thanks to the police trying to pin the jail time on someone else and being a much more immediate threat that needed Batman intervention. 

“Yeesh, those mob guys sure are nasty.” Clark said, reading over his shoulder. “Too bad I don't cover crimes or work in Gotham 'cause that would be one hell of a story.” 

“Good evening master Kent.”

“Oh hey Mr. Pennyworth.”

“Just Alfred is fine.”

“If you’re sure,” Clark said hesitantly. “But you'll have to call me Clark.” 

“Very well master Clark.” Alfred said he pushed the serving Cart into Bruce's personal space. 

Batman very pointedly avoided acknowledging it. Batman typed faster.

“Good evening master Bruce.” Alfred said a little sterner than he'd been with superman.

Batman nodded at him, he was almost done.

Alfred uncovered the food on the serving tray. Bruce glanced at it. He finished up the sentence then switched to shorthand and closed the document. 

Alfred had made a lot of his favorites but there wasn't enough to share. Was it weird to not offer any to Clark? 

“Apologies master Clark, if you had told me you were coming I would have prepared some for you as well.”

“Oh no, I already ate. Before I came here, I was at home with my Ma and my Pa, and they always make too much so I'm very satisfied.”

Bruce took off his cowl to eat. Watching Clark and Alfred chat about home cooking and getting fresh ingredients in the city.

Clark kept glancing at him, now sending little reassuring smiles. Bruce couldn't feel his mind start to relax. It was the first time since that stupid meeting about the database that he didn’t feel like he was going to shake apart. He finished his food and closed his eyes for just a second. That was almost a week ago, wasn't it?

“Hey B, are you okay?” Clark was looking him in the eye, Alfred had gone apparently as the serving cart had also disappeared.

Bruce really didn't know what to say. 'Case is over so talking time is over' but that wouldn't make any sense. Tired. Bruce was just tired.

“You're sleepy huh?” Clark’s voice was very grounding. “That's okay, it's just- well, J’onn and I got a Kryptonian telepathic message.” 

That was cool, Bruce Wayne thought. 

“Yeah, very cool.” Superman looked close to laughing at him again.

Bruce suddenly felt sweaty and self conscious. 

 “Here,” Superman was holding out a number written on a neon green sticky note. “it's Clark Kent's number, not that you couldn't get it yourself but I'm giving it to you.” Bruce took it. “you're welcome. Just text me when you wake up okay? I'm going to go home now.”

“Bye.” Bruce said.

Clark smiled at him like Bruce had personally hung the moon in the sky. 

“Bye.”

And with a whoosh superman was gone. Why does he feel flustered? Was Superman hitting on him?

Bruce really needed some sleep.

Chapter Text

“Lois, I need best friend attention right now. Immediately.” He tugged vigorously at her sleeve, just like one would pester their elder sister.

“Aye, what, Smallville!?!” She jerked her arm away from him with a bit more violence than usual but at least she was looking at Clark now rather than what was on her computer. 

“The guy just texted.”

“Wait, The Guy the guy?” she asked, slapping him on the shoulder, “Well then congratulations! Why don't you look more joyful? What did he say?” 

“He said, oh just look at it.” Clark held up his phone. The contact only said B. The whole message was one word.

“What?” Lois squinted at the screen. “All he sent you is ‘what’ question mark capitalized!?!”

“Who said what?” Jimmy said, jumping up over the cubicle.

“The guy, you know Clark's The Guy.”

“The guy?!” Jimmie lunged for the phone, holding it to his face even as Lois still kept her grip on it. Even as he leaned the upper half of his body over weak, plastic cubicle divider “He really just said ‘What?’ he really did!”

“He really did what?” a voice somewhere else in the bullpen asked.

“Stop gossiping!” Clark half shrieked, scandalized

He was met with a good natured laugh. Lois and Jimmy lowered their voices. Jimmy actually entered Lois’ cubicle. 

“You know what he means right?” Lois asked. She knew all about Clark's new power.

She really only knew he could feel the feelings of people who liked him.

“Not really, it only works if I know exactly what he was feeling when he sent it.”

“Right, cause he's a complicated man, that guy.” Jimmy said.

“Now I have to- oh god it sounds so cheesy. This is a terrible idea, I'm changing my mind.”

“You already asked the others.” Jimmy said. “You got this.” 

“But the others weren't the guy.” Lois pointed out. 

“Okay. Just ask him on vacation, dear B please come discover my heritage-”

“And maybe we will kiss.” Lois made a kissy face. “Muah, muah, muah.” 

“Still pissed that we weren't invited.” Jimmy said. Lois patted his arm in solidarity.

Clark started his message, -hey B, you sleep okay?- Clark erased his message.

“No, that's fine Smallville.” 

Clark retyped his message and pressed send this time.

Jimmy beamed. “Good first step.” 

Yeah. First step. Oh boy.

-hey B, you sleep okay?- 1:32 pm

-fine- 2:00 pm

- so j’onn and I got a message- 2:43 pm

-you mentioned- 3:00 pm

-it's about my birth parents. I want you, and the rest of our group to go- 3:12 pm

-when, where, how many people?- 3:30 pm

-next month is when it's the warmest. It's up by Alaska. Just the eight of us.- 3:37 pm

-I can make that work- 4:00 pm

-off work in an hour, coming to see you.- 4:01 pm

-I will let Alfred know- 4:02 pm

The next text was coordinates. Clark searched them up and found them to be just outside the ancestral Wayne manor the outskirts of Gotham. 

As soon as Clark could slip up to the roof unseen he was off. He landed in front of ornate doors surrounded by the Wayne manor lawns. It was pleasant and beautiful here. He checked his watch. 5:10 pm.

Before he could knock Bruce Wayne opened the door. His hair was just styled but was still a bit damp from the shower. He looked much more rested than he had last night. 

It had been jarring to see how expressive Bruce's eyes were without the masks.

“Hello!” Clark said, as cheery as possible. 

“hmm.” Bruce said, “Why are you doing this?” Why are you treating this like it's personal?

“Because this is personal.” Clark said. He entered the house, took off his jacket and followed Bruce into the sitting room. “I asked everyone else as Clark Kent too. I can be giving you any special privileges. And before you lecture me about putting our secret identities at risk we all met only briefly in secure locations.” 

“Okay.” Bruce begrudgingly waited for Clark to continue. 

“But yeah, this is personal. My whole life I've been Clark Kent with Superman being a background thing until the league really started. Now I have the opportunity to find out who I could have become had something been different. It could be bad news or good news or nothing but I need to feel like I'm still Clark Kent in the end, no matter what.”

Bruce nodded, no questions.

“So, we had a team bring my shuttle up from Kansas to the hall of justice. We used some fancy martian tec and managed to extract the message. It was like a song but with a bit of decoding and some creativity we managed to locate the source and what it was trying to say.” Clark pulled out the tablet he had borrowed from the league headquarters in preparation. It was already loaded up with the information. 

He watched as Bruce looked it over, checked some things then nodded. “It will be buried.” Batman said. “With the climate initiatives over the last 30 years the polar ice caps have steadily grown in size though they still are not back up to the industrialization levels. My point is that any ship that landed in the arctic thirty years ago is going to be covered by layers and layers of permafrost.”

Clark nodded, “to be honest I was just going to lazer vision at it.”

“It wouldn’t not work.” batman said, “it's better than blasting. Searching for it would take time, that far away from a league base it would be suspicious to ferry all eight of us to and from the arctic for a week.”

“I know you already have a solution so spit it out.” Clark collapsed in the warm comfy armchair and removed his glasses. 

“There is a ski resort not too far from there, I could rent it out and we could use it as a temporary base of operations during the mission.”

“You want to rent out an entire ski resort? Isn't that a little much?”

Nothing is too much for you. “No, there are some benefits to being obscenely wealthy. It's almost expected of me to go on lavish vacations occasionally.”

Clark Kent leaned back into the armchair and let go of his breath in a long controlled stream. “Wow, rich people. I’ve never even been able to afford to go skiing.”

“Hmm.” said Bruce in response.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was weird to meet at the private airport, all in their civilian clothes with suitcases. Naturally Batman was nowhere to be seen but Clark located him easily enough, the bat was in the cockpit of the private jet they likely were taking.

The seven were brought to the jet by one of the airport employees, the man told them that the plane was ready to go whenever they were. They were herded on and the door sealed shut behind them. The cabin was empty.

“No sign of Batman.” Diana said after doing a cursory sweep of the space.

It was large, there was a dining area and sitting area, the rear end of the cabin was partitioned off for a bathroom and a currently locked private bedroom. At the other end was a small fully stocked kitchenette. 

“Oh, he’s flying the plane.” Clark replied just as the jet started to move. 

“Please take your seats.” the overhead intercom said. “Once we’re in the air you may move around freely.”

“See?” Clark said.

“Of course Batman would be flying the plane.” Barry said, choosing one of the big arm chairs and buckling himself in. 

Hal Jordan sat next to him. “Wonder if he needs a co-pilot?” he wiggled his eyebrows and then laughed at Clark’s disapproving look. 

Planes being a lot faster nowadays meant that the whole flight would take a little over an hour. Though that was with Batman's probably illegal modifications to his personal jet. The ski resort had an adjoining airport because it catered to rich people. They could get started on searching for the fortress in the morning and Clark was as nervous as a barrel of bees. 

The finally clear and understandable message was “come to the arctic and uncover your birthright, a fortress of crystal under the ice, knowledge powerful enough to set some things right.” or something like that. The translation was literally based on clarks feelings that he couldn't quite explain correctly to anyone who isn't a mind reader. 

“Is he really planning on telling us who he is?” Barry asked Clark.

Clark shrugged noncommittally, not wanting to make a habit of speaking for others.

“I bet he’s real ugly.” Hal said

Clark sighed and decided that this was a conversation he would rather opt out of. He instead knocked on the cockpit door. “It's Clark.” He didn't need to say anything else, the door clicked as it unlocked. As it swung shut behind him it locked again. 

To Clark's surprise Batman was not wearing a cape cowl or anything else to preserve his identity. 

Bruce was in the pilot’s seat, headset on. He was wearing a slightly overlarge burgundy sweater, carefully cuffed at the elbow over black long sleeve collared shirt buttoned up as high as it would go. He only gave Clark a singular glance and turned his attention back to flying the plane. They had just taken off and the autopilot was engaged and so there wasn't actually that much to do. Clark had learned to fly a jet, on Batman’s insistence, no less. 

“Hey.” Clark sat heavily in the co-captain’s seat, pulling up his phone and making a show of ignoring Bruce. Even though he was monitoring Bruce with all of his super senses. 

Of course the moody bat didn't start the conversation, he just watched Clark through his peripheral vision. It took a few minutes for Bruce to relax in Clark's presence. Clark was mulling through potential conversation openers and half listening to the conversation on the other side of the door.

“Nice sweater, looks good on you.” Clark said.

Bruce turned a very pretty shade of pink but didn't respond.

“You know the odds of them actually recognizing you aren't that high.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “Barry certainly will. Apparently, I slighted one of his celebrity crushes.”

Clark laughed, “When did he tell you that?”

“You know how he likes to talk while we work in the lab.”

“We thought you just ignored him when he got like that, the rest of us do. You actually listen?”

“Barry is a very hard person to ignore.” Bruce said as a sort of non-answer. He sighed a second later frustrated with himself.

“What’s up?” Clark asked.

“I- I just,” Bruce sighed again, I just feel so stupid, " I thought the talking was something Barry and I both enjoyed, I didn't know it looked like I was ignoring him.”

“You like talking to Barry?” Clark was completely surprised. Batman very rarely liked talking to anyone let alone the over talkative speedster. 

Clark Had at least 20 conversations with Barry about the inherent aloofness of the Batman’s character.

“I like him talking at me.”

Clark got the feeling that was a very important distinction so he stayed quiet until Bruce elaborated.

“If he is just talking then I don't have to respond, I don't have to make eye contact. I can just work and he fills the space and it is a low pressure socialization.”

“Oh,” Clark said thoughtfully, “that would explain why you usually ask for his assistance.”

“That and he is an actual forensic chemist.”

“Huh.” Clark said and sat with the knowledge for a second. He wondered if there were other false assumptions made by the Justice league regarding Batman's personality. “So how do you really feel about the rest of the team?”

“This is a flight deck not a gossip corner.”

“If you say so, this seems like a little gossip corner to me.” he wiggled into the chair, making a show of flicking his blanket out to cover his feet.  “I’ll tell you who i have a crush on and you can tell me a secret, maybe we can paint each other's nails later.”

The look Batman gave him was full of both confusion and concern. It was the funniest thing Clark had seen all month.

When they landed there was small contact with the radio tower, they taxied into the hangar bay and as the landing ramp was getting set up by the staff outside. Clark could feel as Bruce steeled himself to meet his friends face to face for the first time.

Chapter Text

After a single breathing exercise Bruce exited the cockpit for the cabin. 

“Hey Bats-” Barry Allen stopped dead in his tracks for zero point three seconds. “Holy shit, you’re Bruce Wayne!? Holy shit, you’re younger than me!”

“Who’s Bruce Wayne?” Hal Jordan asked, looking up from the in flight magazine that had Bruce Wayne on the cover.

“Ah,” Shiera said, “Gotham's top ten sexiest men.” she nodded at the article in Hal’s hands

“You made number three I think," Arthur said. "not that I read it."

Hal flipped the magazine over, did a double take and then held it up to compare the photo with the real person, “Are you famous or something spooky?”

“He’s like super billionaire playboy rich kid-” Flash was vibrating with excitement.

“ Right. ” Bruce said in his best Batman growl. It was as effective on the field as it was here. Everyone shut up and paid attention. “I own the plane, I own the ski lodge and for right now you three- he gestured at Hal, Barry and Clark- “are going to be my personal staff and J’onn you can be the personal assistant. Diana, Shiera, may I ask you to pose as my guests for the next few moments?”

The two women shrugged and followed him over to the cabin door. Bruce opened it and stepped out. There was the staff caring for the plane, whom he ignored, and one very self important looking guy with a blonde mustache waiting for them at the bottom of the exit ramp. Bruce allowed himself one very unhappy grimace before shaking it off and stepping into his public persona.  He slapped his on his aviators that cost more than Barry Allen's whole year's salary and swaggered down the steps, closely followed by Shiera and Diana. 

“Welcome to Alaska, Mr. Wayne.” a blonde mustache greeted him, he had a folder and a set of keys. When he moved to shake Bruce's hand he met with the billionaire's grimace and that was enough to spoil the man’s good mood. Bruce tried not to find joy in it and failed. “We are very excited for your visit.” The man had a badge that read 'Walter', just underneath it said, 'reginal hotel manager'.

“Right,” Bruce said with a bit of a whine. “So, my girls,” he cautiously placed a hand on both of their hips, trying to both be respectful but still sell it. He had a feeling he was failing miserably. “are tired from the ride and just want to get this week started. Can we move it along?”

“Of course, could I-”

Bruce waved his hand and J’onn appeared, currently expertly disguised as a sharp personal assistant complete with glasses and a pinstripe suit. J’onn took the folder and the keys and ducked back behind Bruce's shoulder. 

“It's fine Wallace, go home. I'm sure my personal staff can find the kitchen. Call you in a week, love and kisses.”  He nudged Diana and Shiera towards the waiting cars. 

The others poured out of the plane as well, bringing luggage and such over to the vehicles. The ground crew was unloading the plane cargo bay and attaching Bruce's mobile, and well disguised, Batman supplies to the rear hitch. He surveyed all the work, made sure they were not leaving anything behind and jumped into the driver's seat of the forward most car. 

The entire drive from airport to resort was only five or so minutes but already Bruce could tell they were going to be the most awkward five minutes of his life. Somehow Clark had managed to slip into the first vehicle and was smiling at Bruce through the rear view mirror. Sheira was glaring out the rear passenger window and Diana had taken shotgun

“My apologies for the display.” Bruce said to the two women. 

Shiera said nothing, crossing her arms and clenching her jaw. 

“We were just wondering if that was necessary.” Diana said diplomatically.

“You didn't see the paparazzi then.” Bruce said, pointing over to the next building where a man was half jogging out of sight with a heavy camera in toe. “Once we arrive we will have to sweep the grounds for any unwanted guests or listeners.”

“Do you have to deal with this all the time?” Clark asked. 

Bruce shrugged, “We all worry about different things. You worry about bills; I worry about the press.”

Clark snorted, “I would take bills any day over the paparazzi.”

“Blood sucking pests those reporters.”

Clark laughed out loud at that but schooled himself with a look from Shiera.

“On my planet those who act so invasive are arrested and prosecuted for such acts.”

“Your planet sounds nice.” Bruce said idly, starting to drive away from the airport, making sure that Hal, who was driving the other car, was following and being gentle with his trailer.

“Furthermore, I will not be consenting to being a prop for your vanity.” She made a point of looking out the window with more anger this time. Ignoring the other passengers in the vehicle. 

“That’s fair.” Bruce said. “I wouldn’t have enjoyed that either but thank you for the singular exception.” he genuinely did feel bad, being nothing more than a status symbol in some man’s ego games was horrendously objectifying at best. He shouldn't have assumed that she would have been okay with that because potentially she’s used to it.

“Hmf.” said Shiera angrily. Bruce decided not to push it.

Clark hesitantly reached over and patted Shiera on the arm. She sent him a small, grateful smile. That handled, Bruce focused on the driving. He could feel Diana's interest in him growing, she was watching him in that way she watched a battle while she was waiting for the timing to be right to jump in. It made Bruce feel vaguely hunted but he kept his face as neutral as possible. 

“You're not who I was expecting to be under the cowl.” she said at last.

“Who were you expecting?” Bruce's curiosity won out. 

She smiled slyly at him. “Someone in Wayne Enterprises, though I thought you would be an engineer or some sort of other scientist.”

Bruce made a mental note to distance the bat’s technology from Wayne tech. “No, just lucky enough to have access to the research and development labs.”

Clark chuckled, “He’s being humble. I know for a fact that you designed more gadgets than inspector gadget himself. I saw all those schematics and your little workshop.”

Bruce sighed heavily. “And then I send them off to research and development.”

“After making a few prototypes just for yourself maybe.”

Silently Bruce conceded his point. 

Bruce led them to the back of the expansive ski resort. Bruce had it for two weeks, one for the Justice League and one for cover. He had makeup artists, stylists, models and camera crews all arriving next week, along with the return of the ski resort’s regular staff. So, one week of mild torture followed up by one week of literal hell. Great. 

At least the place was aesthetically pleasing, it reminded Bruce of a storybook mountain village, steep roofs, and interesting angles. All dusted in snow cover and frosted over. If he was more of a winter sports type person, he could see how the location would be appealing. Though he still maintained that the clearing of the forest for ski and snowboarding to be a bit more than wasteful. To assuage that guilt here he had made sure to purchase as much of the surrounding untouched forests as possible and pass them into an environmental land trust. 

“Woah, it’s like Ma’s Christmas village.” Clark said, standing at his shoulder and looking down at him. “You’re not really dressed for cold weather.” Neither was Clark, of course. Clark was dressed like he always was when he wasn't on the clock for either the daily planet or superman. A comfortable flannel in either blue or red, rolled up to the elbows. A gray or off white under shirt tucked into jeans. Sturdy shoes. Today was a red-gray day. He’d tucked away his glasses at some point during the drive so his inhuman dark blue eyes with hexagonal pupils were on full display.

Bruce just summed up all his thoughts about outfits with a gesture of confusion at the rest of the group. Diana had a cropped jacket, a mini skirt, ankle boots. Shiera was wearing a skintight work out set, the top was realistically little more than a brazier.  J’onn didn't seem to feel cold and was back to his default mode, looking entirely like himself, which was coincidentally bare chested. 

That was where his argument died because the other three humans were dressed for the cold, hats, boots, jackets and all. Arthur in particular looked like he had started to lose hope to ever be warm again. 

“I’ve been informed about who Bruce Wayne is.” Hal said conversationally to the rest of the group as they followed after Bruce like baby ducks. “That’s such a cool alter ego, Batsy, I didn't think you had it in you.”

Whatever, he shook his head, just generally. Bruce took the keys from J'onn and unlocked the doors to let the group run amok. The only place the Batman really had on his mind was the security room in the basement. 

Unfortunately, the group did not disperse.

Barry zipped in front of Bruce, walking backwards, matching his pace easily. “Hey, are you really Batman? Or counter question: are you really Bruce Wayne? Cause there were all those rumors when you were in highschool of you being kidnapped and then disappearing and stuff and I’m not trying to be rude or anything but come on it's a little bit of a shock-”

Bruce took a sharp, untelegraphed turn, Barry ran directly into one of the support pillars with a satisfying “oof!”

He was back in a second though, like an annoying gnat. “Not cool! But definitely Batman.”

“Kitchen is that way.” He handed Barry a map and pointed, “Leave me alone.”

“Hey, what’s it like being rich and famous?” Hal asked Bruce. “Hey, where are you going?”

“Security.”

“Tch, boring.”

“Good.” Bruce continued his direct path to his destination.

Clark shot him a worried look, but the others didn't bother. Bruce went down one of the service corridors and took the freight elevator to the basement. He unlocked the door and took just a few seconds to crack the password and then he had free rein of the lodge's security. Checking out the security video of the last three hours, erasing the footage of them arriving, setting the system to not record, all in all it only took Bruce a few minutes. Unfortunately, the bug finder he had finally perfected had a limited range, he would have to check every room. He sighed deeply. 

“Hey, B?” it was Clark, floating like a ghost down the hallway. “Just coming to check on you, you sounded stressed.”

Bruce held back a second heavier sigh. “Just security concerns.”

“Yeah?”

“The device can only scan one room at a time.”

“Give it here?” Clark held out his hands palms up. 

It was small, just a case for the electronics. “It just pings the room for any outgoing signals, or small electronic signals that are most commonly in hearing aids, listening devices and covert cameras.”

“So just-” Clark pushed the button, the led on the case blinked green. “I’m guessing that means good and red would be bad then. Is this the only one you have?”

“It's the best one I have.”

“So, every room, but there’s like a ba-jillion rooms or something. Give me just a minute.”

Before Bruce could protest, Clark was gone. This was the most efficient way of getting the bug sweep done but he hadn’t meant to ask Clark to help. Luckily there wasn't much time for Bruce to spiral, as Clark was back just as fast as he had left. 

“Sorry, Barry was wondering what I was doing. He said they found a lounge with an espresso machine and a whole bunch of those packaged cafe pastries.” Clark handed the device over. “There, one less thing for you to stress about. It found nothing.”

“Did you give it enough time to scan?” Bruce accused.

“Yep, I paused and waited for the light and everything.”

“Hmm.” Bruce said. He checked his watch, “I just need to secure my luggage.”

“That big trailer thing?” Clark followed him back down the service corridor and into the elevator. “What is it? I thought it was just the Batsuit.”

“It is partially. Mostly it is a mobile command center, I need to field test them. They come equipped with five surveillance drones, capable of doing a sweep of the glacier autonomously. I designed them for search and rescue so the multi sight camera should be able to differentiate technology from ice.”

Clark smiled at him. Bruce looked away. The elevator dinged.

“You’re still not dressed for the cold weather.” Clark said, “at least get a jacket.”

Bruce ignored him. They wouldn't be out long anyway. The mobile command station was designed well. It easily detached from the transportation trailer. It hovered three inches off the ground for ten minutes at a time. It was the best Bruce could do with his limited time and understanding of pillaged technology from downed invading ships. 

They set it up on the second floor of the lobby, which was where the group had decided to claim as a common spot, Flash was excitedly making drinks and foods behind the cafe counter, the others had draped themselves over the various lounge chairs and couches. J’onn was meditating nearby enough to hear the conversation but not be part of it. Arthur was on the first floor on the phone with his wife and thus was being politely ignored by the rest of the team.

The spot had a lovely view through the wall of glass that stretched from ground level to the third floor. Latticed together with wrought iron decorations, the hanging chandelier caught the light of the midday sun and would surely look stunning come sunset.

“Hey guys!” Barry shouted as they approached. “This place is awesome; they have a pool and a sauna and the biggest t.v. I’ve ever seen!”

Bruce watched as Clark hovered over to Barry and started asking questions about the espresso machines. He focused himself on setup. First setting all the supplies he’d brought for personal use to the side and then making sure the mobile command was easy enough to set up that anybody in the League would be able to do it. He made a mental note to change up the way it anchored down and add some self leveling programming to the set up. Doing it himself would be much too fiddly for use in active combat. But then again this is why he field tests things. 

“B, coffee for you.” Clark placed the cup on a nearby end table.

“Thank you.” Bruce said, because Alfred raised him well.

He turned around to find Diana looking at his war chest, which was fine, he did put it near her and it was unlockable by her Justice League code. She was ignoring the bat armor that was mounted to the lid of the chest, inside the box proper were various weapons that Bruce always brought on missions but never used.

Diana caught him looking. “You have quite the weapons collection.” she said. “Though I never see you using any.”

“I use weapons all the time.” Bruce said, slightly defensively. “Though I know what you mean, smoke bombs and flash charges are far different from-”

Diana pulled out a short sword. It was styled to mimic that of the spartans so Bruce figured it would be the one she would like best, its shape being familiar and all. 

At the sight of the shining weapon, Shiera was up and peering inside as well. She pulled out a spear. The long shaft of it extended as it was removed from its place in the case. She spun it, checking the balance and the weight. 

“Magnificent! Why do you not wield them in battle, Bat?”

“It’s unfair.” Bruce picked up his coffee, noticing the latte art that Barry had managed to make look like a little sleepy bear. “Those are just in case I need to level the playing field. If we happen upon any hostile Kryptonians the field will need to be leveled.”

“We should spar.” Shiera said. The look in her eyes was wild and excited. playful.

“What are these made of?” wonder woman asked. “Swinging the weapon about, it feels both alien and familiar.”

“That sword is made with an alloy of my own creation using some foreign metals taken from some of the ships. The result was ultra light, strong and surprisingly good at vibration absorption. As far as the spear is concerned the tip, at least, is eighth metal. I had the good fortune to happen upon it in one of the archaeological digs that Wayne Enterprises sponsors. I reforged it and created a collapsible shaft from nano-carbons.”

Dianna put the sword back in its space reverently. “Which is your favorite?”

Bruce couldn't help but pull a face. “I don't like weapons.” he answered truthfully. “My training with them was not pleasant but it was effective. I have a much harder time not killing opponents while wielding them.”

“How am I not surprised by this?” Hal asked loudly from across the room. Then much quieter. “Man, chicks love swords. Should have brought a sword.”

Bruce knew that Hal was not actually pursuing either of the women on the team. For one, Wonder Woman was very proud and open about her five woman strong harem on Themyscira, and for the other Hawkwoman was more of a hit it and quit it personality. Hal Jordan was decidedly, and surprisingly, not like that.

At this point Batman was about eighty percent sure that Hal and Barry were just joking whenever they mentioned hitting on The Justice League women. They never actually said anything offensive or heaven forbid, did anything. They were just being men, Bruce guessed. Not that he had a great understanding of masculinity.

“We should spar.” Shiera said, this time much more pointedly to Bruce. 

He shook his head. “No where to spar.”

“There's a gym here we could use.” Barry said, unhelpfully. 

Bruce changed his excuse. “Not dressed for it.”

“I saw all the luggage they put in that big fancy room for you, you could just go change.” Barry vanished from behind the cafe counter and reappeared near Shiera but had a couch strategically placed between them. 

“Don't want to.” Bruce finally said, he turned back to the mobile command station, it was finished booting up. He punched in his access code and set the diagnostics running. He had to make sure nothing was damaged in transit. 

Shiera huffed at his dismissal but turned her sights. “Dianna, princess of Themyscira, I challenge you to an armed duel.”

She looked at Bruce for permission.

He sighed heavily. “Don't break anything.”

Dianna smiled and looked over the weapons with new interest. This time she selected a longsword. It was designed to be held two handed and was inlaid with silver designs. 

“The wolf killer.” Bruce noted with interest. “Good choice.”

“Barry, lead us to this gym.” Shiera said with bravado.

“Don't break anything.” Bruce said again as they left. 

“Okay, dad.” Barry said, voice full of petulance. “I'll make sure they don't break anything.”

“Forgive me for not holding my breath.” 

“I'm coming too!” Hal rushed after at an awkward pace due to the fancy drink he's been carefully nursing and now was attempting to keep from spilling.

“Ah,” Arthur said, coming up the escalator from the opposite direction, with a dreamy look on his face. “My Mera is so lovely,” He looked around. “Where's everyone gone? I was out for five minutes?”

“They've taken some of Bruce's weapons to go spar.” Clark nodded in the general direction of the gym.

“Five minutes and they've got weapons?” Arthur rushed after them.

The diagnostics were finished, everything was just as it was back in the Batcave. He started up the drones, they flew out the side of the base and auto exited the building, he sent them search parameters and then suddenly there was nothing to do until the expedition tomorrow.

He looked at Clark, who was humming and texting away in a recliner. J'onn was silent, hovering, eyes closed. 

Bruce supposed he should go find His room then. He had memorized the Floorplan before arriving and so knew exactly where he was going. 

Tomorrow should be interesting.

Chapter Text

The drones returned in the very early morning, 5:24 am. Bruce had been up to watch them return. He had been up all night. The sheets, while of the correct brand and thread count were not laundered with the correct combination of soaps and fragrances as he had explicitly specified they should be. Naturally Bruce couldn't sleep on sheets that didn't smell right

They were in the dryer right now. Alfred was very patient while explaining how to make the industrial washing machines work. 

It was far too late to try sleeping tonight so when the drones came buzzing in, blinking their LEDs in the dark of the lobby Bruce thought them more as a welcome distraction rather than an over stimulating annoyance. 

Sure enough they had found a mass under the ice. It was large, and much further than Bruce had actually been expecting. He had calculated the search parameters much wider than needed. 

“Clark?” Bruce Whispered. 

There was the sound of wind and Clark walked into Bruce's sight. He was rubbing his eyes and wearing flannel pajamas. “Yeah?” 

Bruce smiled before schooling his expression. “I found it.” 

“You found it!?” Clark was suddenly very awake.

Then Clark hugged Bruce. It was brief, he let go immediately, but Bruce wished he hadn't. Hadn't hugged him or hadn't let go remained to be seen. 

“That's amazing.”

“It’s large too, as big as a stadium.” Bruce said. “The initial scans say that it’s empty. No signs of life.” Batman didn't miss the way that Clark lost a little luster at the news. 

The others were easily roused. The javelin plane was parked on the helipad, the omnidirectional flight and its small size made it one of the few crafts that could have landed here and would have a chance landing out there on the icy tundra.

Over the three years the founders of The Justice League had been operating there was much trial and error and one disastrous off world mission where Superman and Wonder Woman left flash in charge and learned he didn't know how to fly. After that there were mandatory classes for every league member. It turned out after all that The Flash had grown to be their best pilot. Something about reaction times but he could pull maneuvers with the Javelin better than anyone else could.

Flash did a flyby over the coordinates determined by the drones to be the center of the mass. Superman stood, looking with all his senses. 

“I see it.” Clark said, there was a bit of awe in his voice. 

It wasn't visible to normal sight so Superman pointed to where Flash should land the Javelin. 

The scans said it was deep, but that didn't seem to bother Clark. He took the skies as soon as the bay door was opened. He started melting the ice with his heat vision, focusing on creating a tunnel big enough to walk through. Most of the water came off as steam but not all of it, Batman stayed close to the Javelin to avoid all the conflicting temperatures. 

Clark landed, the heat vision was only really reliable in short bursts, and they took a lot of energy. Luckily there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, so Clark recharged quite quickly.  Aquaman took care of the water that didn't vaporize, preventing it from blocking Superman's heat vision. It took over an hour of working at it to finally get within several feet of the structure. It was just visible through the glassy surface of ice. 

Clark took a deep breath into the silence, greeted only by the water pooling at their feet. 

“The signal has stopped.” Manhunter reported. 

“Is that a good thing?” Flash asked. 

The ice started to crack, something on the other side broke through the barrier. It was almost like a tentacle, if the tentacle was also made out of scales. The metal appendages retreated, and the surface of the alien ship seemingly melted away. There was a corridor on the other side, it was lit by small white lights lining the floor. 

Clark winced and hesitantly stepped inside. Nothing happened. “I think I'm supposed to go this way.” he pointed to the left. 

Batman was the first to follow the Kryptonian in, standing firmly at his side. They followed the lights, the others coming along once there was room to. The corridor was not very spacious and only fit two people shoulder to shoulder. Batman couldn't help but think about the tactical disadvantage they were at. There were too many variables here, it was making him jittery with nerves or excitement, he couldn't tell which, they were too similar an emotion.

Luckily, they were not in the narrow corridor much longer. It let out into a large entryway; the actual door was here apparently. The whole ship was made of liquid like metal that moved along a white structure. There were also what Bruce could only describe as arteries, carrying massive amounts of a clear reddish substance from one unknown place to another. 

The main chamber seemed to be lined by the Kryptonian versions of control stations, complete with oval egg-like chairs. On the opposite end of the door was a set of steps leading up to a fountain of the mysterious liquid. Clark approached it almost in a daze, placing his hand on an orb floating in the center of what looked like the guard rail. 

The fluid condensed, flattened and then congealed into the shape of a man, he was graying at the temples, his face was lined and he was wearing robes. He was smiling. The first thing the man said was in Kryptonian, though he didn't seem bothered that the group didn't understand him. “Greetings, I am an artificial intelligence created based on Jor-el of krypton.”

A small tone played somewhere else in the chamber, then a female voice said. “May we please remind you that creating an intelligence to emulate yourself or another real person is illegal by Kryptonian law.”

The Jor-el deepfake did not acknowledge the notice. “I was created to educate the last sons and daughters of Krypton about our dead planet and shepard them into the future where their parents could not.” Suddenly a red light scanned the room. “I will be using this scan to determine which child of the two hundred and twelve have discovered the ship. A moment please. Identity confirmed. Kal-el. Special procedures activating. Please hold while Jor-el’s complete personality is uploaded.”

“May we please remind you that creating an intelligence to emulate -” said the female voice again, only to fritz out and die before completing the line. 

Suddenly the artificial intelligence looked a lot more alive. It gasped. “Oh, my son.”

“What just happened?” Clark asked, stepping back as the a.i reached forward.

“The ship's computer scanned you and determined you are Jor-el’s son. So the subroutine activated and uploaded my entire personality. I couldn’t get approval past the scientific council if they knew I had included my entire brain wave pattern into the computer.” Jor-el answered, he was beaming with pride. “Look at how well you have grown Kal-el, and you're the first one here. Tell me, how many made it to earth? Did our messages reach their government?”

Superman hesitated, obviously not wanting to break the bad news. He sighed deeply, shoulder sagging. “I’m the only one. I don't know anything about the messages. The only thing I've had was the shuttle I crashed in and about 20 seconds of a hologram.”

Jor-el inhaled sharply. “I see,” he said, blinking. Looking over to the patiently waiting members of the justice league. “Then who are these?”

“These are my friends.” Clark said. “They are earth's incredible heroes. Three years ago, we made The Justice League to fend off attacks from extra-terrestrial sources.”

Behind the artificial intelligence a display of internet searches flashed passed. 

“Are you looking us up?” Flash asked. 

The a.i. nodded patiently. “Yes, now that I've awoken, I can tap into earth’s satellite network. It is how I learned English while you were boring your way through the ice above. A few days from now the engines will have enough power generated to remove the ice if there is reason or desire to do so but interstellar travel may never be possible again. This was by design; we needed to send as much information as possible on a one-way trip.”

“You're a knowledge arc,” Hawkwoman said, her eyes wide. “I’ve never seen one.”

“A knowledge arc?” Hal asked, because somebody had to ask the generic questions. 

“When a planet is dying before the people can discover space travel it is common practice for them to send an unmanned ship to the nearest habitable world and hope that it is happened upon someday.” Jor-el explained.”This is a little different, just before Krypton died I discovered an untested method we weren't sure would work for sending organics through those invisible barriers. The government was deep in denial about our sun’s decay and our subsequent planetary demise. I got the plans for single person pods out to as many parents as I thought possible. According to my records, just before Krypton's death there were two hundred and twenty seven successful launches. Of those two hundred and twenty seven there were fifteen that experienced critical failure before escaping Krypton’s solar system. Since then all communications have been lost.”

After a brief moment the a.i. continued. “The signal was designed to be sent when you reached cerebral adulthood. There were older children than you in that launch. If you’re the only one who reached adulthood, then I am sorry to say you may be the only survivor.” Jor-el sounds mournful, empathetic and comforting. He shrunk down in size, matching Clark's height and stepped out of the fountain. He still had a watery movement to him, so it was obvious that he wasn't solid. “Before I chose earth to send you to, I made sure to the best of my ability that you wouldn't be alone. You should be able to have a human partner and create children. The ship has a fully functioning medical bay if natural ways fail you. As long as one of us lives, the others will not be lost.”

There was a moment of silence in the chamber.

After giving the team a moment to process Batman interjected. “What is the status of the communications array?” surely there was more that they could do. At least find out what happened to the missing pods. The missing children.

The a.i. 's gaze landed on Batman. The warm smile he had been holding dropped like a stone. 

“Ah, I didn't realize earth had things like you.” He said and went back to his fountain, looking down at The Justice League with mild interest and at the Batman with obvious disdain.

Bruce could feel his heart start to kick in his chest. The others looked confused, and a bit insulted, though Bruce didn't know exactly why. Had the mission suddenly gone sideways? There were multiple things that comment could have ment and Batman couldn't think of contingencies on anything because there were two mind readers here and who knew how much the ship could do. It very well may have telepathic powers as well.

“Woah,” Hal Jordan shouted, floating up to eye height with Jor-el, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, I didn't think earth had a third gender. Perhaps I should have chosen better. Well, what’s done is done. I suppose this particular similarity to Krypton could be helpful.” at the room's confused looks he started to ponder. “Surely you must know he's a-” he said a sharp Kryptonian word with such vitriol that Bruce didn't need to know Kryptonian to know what it translated to. 

“Superman, shut it down!” Batman yelled- at his word The Justice League sprung into action, looking hopelessly over the ships controls, pressing buttons at random, none of them seemingly doing anything. 

“Shut it down?” Jor-el asked incredulously. “Bossy little thing isn't it. Maybe you humans have a different word for it?” the display behind him went searching again. Nothing anyone was doing was stopping it and Batman was rooted to the spot in terror.

“Stop!” Clark called to the a.i. to no effect. 

“Ah!” Jor-el said, “I found it. Your word for them is Tranny.”

The whole room stopped. The last two times a revelation was made about himself to the league he had felt that they’d looked at him slightly differently but like they would get over it. This time they looked at him. Their eyes were penetrating and curious and- this wasn't something Batman ever wanted to deal with or think about. 

“Oh, this thing had the opportunity to be a woman but chose to be like that?” Jor-el continued.

There was no playing it off as an alien misunderstanding.

“It mutilated itself?” Jor-el said, images of top surgeries flashing behind him. “To what end, it's disgusting-”

“We’re leaving.” Superman announced, flying down the steps, but not putting his back to the alien a.i. 

The artificial intelligence faltered. “Oh come now,” Jor-el chastised, “isn't this a bit of an over reaction. It has been lying to you, I am just stating the facts. Surely you can't actually be leaving yet, surely there are burning questions you need answers to. I can answer them all if you just ask them.”

“Not if you disrespect my team like this, you treat them as equals or speak to them not at all.”

“Fine.” Jor-el conceded. “I can ignore it if it can keep its mouth shut. Besides, I doubt that speaking isn't what it’s here for.” Jor-el dragged his eyes lecherous over Batman’s armor-clad, cape covered form. “He must be pretty if you cover him so much.”

The reaction of outrage was instantaneous. Threats were hurled, Hawkwoman even had her mace pointed at Jor-el’s self-satisfied face. Under the shouting Batman felt his mind start to switch into fight or die mode. He tried to use his breathing exercises. The shouting around him was disorienting, the bright lights of the chamber were burning down on him. There was some underlying hum of electronics, and the weight of his cape was no longer comforting and starting to become restrictive.

“I’ll be here when you are ready to speak, my son.” the a.i. Said, dissolving into the mystery fluid. 

“He’s closed the way we came in.” the flash reported after a second of reconnaissance. “I can't find another way out.”

Batman looked up and found himself surrounded, backed into the wall by his friends without him noticing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hawkwoman’s natural first instinct was to try to smash the door out. The attack didn't so much as scuff the metal. Green lantern tried constructs of drills, hammers and other boring instruments to no effect. J’onn tried phasing though but was blocked. Flash did a full run of the ship and found no exits.

What the league did then was natural. They did as they had when they'd run into a roadblock on any other mission they had circled Batman, waiting for his insight.

“The hull seems impenetrable.” Hawkwoman reported. “Nary a scratch was put on it with my full force.”

“It must be made out of some superstrong Kryptonian metal or something.” Aquaman said. 

“Something is blocking my phasing.” J’onn added, “some strange material indeed." 

“None of these buttons are doing anything!” The Flash shouted from across the room. 

Batman isn't responding, his cape was covering his entire body but from experience Superman could tell he was in a defensive stance. Something was wrong.

“Batman, do you have any insight?” Wonder Woman asked.

The Flash zipped over to the rest of the group “Hey is Bats okay?”

“I'm sure he’s fine.” Green Lantern said, getting closer to the dark knight. “After all, the liar a.i. couldn’t have possibly phased The Batman.” 

“Green Lantern.” Superman said, urgency in his voice. “I think we should give him a little space.”

“What’s got you so freaked out?” Hal asked, “The robot thing was just spouting nonsense. It didn’t know what it was talking about. I bet it was just some weird alien miscommunication. Some assumptions that we must have missed. Cause our spooky is not-”

In a flurry of movement, the Batman had Green Lantern on the ground, restrained with a knee in the back of his neck. One hand was holding Green Lantern's wrist still and a knife was posed over Hal Jordan's middle finger, just below The Green Lantern ring. Only Superman's clenched fist around the blade of the knife stopped it from severing the finger. The next beat and superman was flying across the room, clutching his side where batman had kicked him. 

Batman's boots were studded, the underlay of each stud was a highly diluted Kryptonite polymer. No radiation but just enough for a Kryptonian to feel it if hit and boy did Clark feel it. He wheezed once, his body recovering quite quickly. Superman dropped the mangled knife. During the confusion Flash had taken the opportunity to yank Green Lantern as far across the room as possible. 

“What the hell was that?!” Hal shouted, protectively clutching his hand to his chest.

They all watched as Batman let loose a shaky exhale and dropped into a fighting stance. At least one person swallowed nervously.

“Let’s just give him space, yeah?” Clark suggested, though redundantly it seemed as the others had carefully backed away, hands all visible and away from where their weapons sat sheathed. Or in Arthur's case with the over-large trident, carefully placed on the ground in plain view.

Manhunter tilted his head. “Is he conscious?” 

“How would he kick my ass if he was unconscious?!” Green Lantern called out, still a very safe distance away.

Superman shook his head, slightly surprised by the question. “Yeah, he's conscious, but- its-” Clark sighed. “Let's just give him space? The next room over-”

Hawkwoman interrupted, “We cannot leave him alone in a hostile environment." 

“I think that Batman is the most dangerous thing in here right now.” Clark said.

“We won't be leaving,” Wonder Woman said. “But, we will be on the far end of the chamber.” she signaled and the others obeyed, joining Green Lantern and The Flash.

Batman stayed where he was, he didn't move from the fighting stance either. Clark hesitated for only a second. 

“I'm going to tell them what's going on, but I'll be as vague as possible.” he waited a second and then Clark focused. 

If he had thought Bruce's thoughts to be a storm before but this was closer to a typhoon. A snarling mass of emotions and thoughts and some very repressed memories being brought forward. Right now Bruce's mind was awash with panic and fear and regret. It was really hard to find the conscious thoughts or even tell what was happening in there, at least from a distance. 

Clark justified it to himself that this was an emergency. He took a deep breath. For the first time since he got this new confusing ability, he allowed himself to look into The Batman’s mind. The first thing that Clark noticed about it was that it hurt in here. Everything was raw, unfiltered information, thousands upon millions of data points all screaming at the same volume. It felt like he was alone in here, Superman realized that Batman was dissociating, watching his body react like an outside observer. Once Clark managed to sink below the waves of the subconscious, he finally managed to see the center of Bruce's mind, where the consciousness actually was. The conscious mind wasn't fairing much better than the subconscious. 

-Fuck fuck fuck fuck. I attacked my friends- they're gonna hate me- i can't do this it's too much-

“Bruce,” Clark called, no response. “Bruce.”

That time got his attention. Batman flinched, slightly, almost invisibly. If Clark had not waist deep in his mind it would have been missed. Clark could feel his worry twisting and seething. 

“I'm going to talk to them. They're not mad. I'm just going to explain, okay?”

Okay, okay- trust worry scared. I’m so scared

“Good, that's okay. Now, can you think about what would be acceptable to tell them?”

I lied to them, liar liar liar- don't want to hurt- I can't

Clark nodded, “I'll take care of it.”

Trust you, sorry sorry sorry -

Clark wanted to move closer but restrained himself. but with Bruce's permission granted Clark pulled back out of Batman's mind and joined his concerned comrades. 

“What's wrong with him?”

“Is the ship doing something to him?” 

“Is he alright?”

“Is it mind control?”

Clark frowned at them, waiting for the clamor of everyone talking over each other to die down.

“He's not mind controlled.” Superman said finally, “physically he's fine, he's just-” he hesitated but there was really no other way to say it. “Well, he's just scared out of his mind.”

“We've seen him scared before and he didn't try to fucking cut my hand off then.” Hal said, slightly hysterical. 

“I think this is a different type of fear.” Wonder Woman said. “It is one thing to face villains and another to face the judgment of your friends.”

“Judgment? We're not gonna judge him for some lies-” at Superman's look Hal Jordan's sentence died in his throat. “Wait, is he really a tran-”

Flash covered Green Lantern's mouth. “Woah, hey now, that's a slur.” Barry explained. “The correct word is transgender.”

“Jor-fuck was calling Batman slurs? God Clark, your bio dad is a dick.”

Clark nodded in agreement.

“If I could, I would rend Jor-El's head from his neck.” Shiera proclaimed. 

“So what do we do now?” Arthur asked.

“Well, he's in fight or flight mode.” Superman said. “I don't know the details but apparently he was trained to lash out under stress. It's a reflex he has not been able to remove; and he's got enough gear on him right now to take us all down.”

“So how do we calm him down?” Hal asked.

Superman shrugged. 

“Wait, can't you read his mind?” Hal looked from Clark to J'onn and back again.

J'onn shook his head. “For me, mind reading is as simple as hearing or sight is for you, but there are people who can block me, just as there are people who walk silently. Normally when I meet with Batman he is like a dark silent cube. Right now, he is nothing, I cannot sense him at all.”

“And that's why you asked if he was unconscious?” Dianna asked, she was always truly interested in J'onn's abilities as they were so different to her own. 

J'onn nodded. “I would not be surprised if Clark was having similar Difficulties.”

“I am,” Clark Said, nodding and glancing over at Batman who still hasn't moved since he left. “It's like he's shut down.”

“uh,” Arthur said, looking confused, “Is Bruce is autistic?”

The rest of the team stared at him like he had five heads. 

“What? With Mera expecting we wanted to be sure we could be good parents and so I did some reading on autism because Mera's sister has autism and it's genetic-” he sputtered. “Okay my point is that this sounds like an autistic shutdown.”

“We should not be questioning our friends neurotype. Let him have his secrets, we are here to support him!” Shiera said.

“I'm just saying it might help to know for sure.” Arthur muttered, “Might help us support him.”

They lapsed into silence. All thinking, all nervously glancing towards the bat, who still hasn't moved, and was still watching them.

“What can you tell from the whole mind reading stuff?” Flash asked Superman, when the speedster moved Clark could feel how tense Batman got. 

“Actually he seems to be most worried about you.” Clark said to Barry.

“Me?” 

“Well, you move too fast for him to see. He's currently coming up with two or three plans to counter you.”

Barry looked disturbed by the Thought. “Oh geez.” He said, “I'm dead.”

“Just stand here.” Superman said, taking Barry by the shoulders and standing him between Shiera and Clark. “There.” He said, satisfied. “That seems to help.”

“What's the logic behind that big blue?” Hal Jordan asked. 

Superman shrugged again. “I guess I'm fast enough to catch him and Hawkwoman is strong enough to stop him or something?”

Diana hummed, grabbing everyone's attention. “What is his threat rating of all of us?”

“Ah, I'm at the bottom followed by J'onn then Shiera and you, then GL and aqua man with Flash on top.”

“That doesn't make any sense.” Green Lantern protested. 

“The most dangerous thing for any human is an adult human male.” Hawkwoman pointed out. “The Batman is in a very precarious position. He does Not know what shade of threat he is facing and under the umbrella of possible threats are those sexual in nature. His suspicion of the human males makes logical sense.”

Clark could feel the heartbreak the three men felt. They didn't say anything about it though, they knew it wasn't personal and that Shiera was right. Unfortunate realities and all.

Flash rubbed his hands nervously over his thighs. “So what do we do? Is there anything we can do? Do we just wait and see?”

“Actually,” Clark suddenly felt stupid for not thinking of this before. “do you have any sour candies on you?”

“What?” The Flash patted his multitude pockets at superhuman speed, “Uh, yeah.” He held out a small fun pack of sour skittles.

“Oh good.” Clark didn't take them from him. “Okay, so, what do you normally talk about when you and B are working in the lab together?”

“Uh, well, usually celebrity gossip. Or whatever I want to say or something I've learned. He never listens though and he hates it.”

Clark smiled gently, thinking back to the conversation on the plane. “No, Bruce told me he enjoys your company. Really truly, cross my heart.”

“No way.” Flash whispered, awed. 

“Apparently he finds it grounding.”

“You just said he was most worried about me though.”

Clark nodded. “He is but you're still you and we can just remind him.” 

He took Barry by the wrist and brought him closer to Batman, who was watching them like a wounded animal. Clark knew exactly where too close was and stopped just short of the invisible line, nearly twenty feet between the two supers and The Batman.

“Bruce.” Clark called. “Hey, Bruce.” He gave him a minute but he felt when Batman finally looked at him. “Hey. Alright, Barry he’s listening.”

Close close close

“We have these, Bats.” Barry showed him the bright green packaging. “Do you like sour stuff? Clark said it had to be sour, I prefer the regular skittles but this was all I had left at home and I just bought them as a backup so I'm glad you like the sour kind.” he looked over to Superman, hoping that his rambling was effective.

“Toss it over to him.” 

The Flash shrugged, and gave the package a little toss. Sure enough Batman caught it easily. He looked it over like it was going to explode in his face

“It’s still sealed.” Clark said. “It's not tampered with.”

“Is he sayin’ somethin’ to you supes?” Flash asked.

“Kind of? Not really. Go on, keep talking.”

“I can't think of anything.” Barry said, “You’re kind of putting me on the spot.”

“Not even that streamer you like so much, what was her name?”

“Lilly Allie? You want me to talk about her? I mean okay. Actually I think you know her Bats, I think you turned her down. At first I was all like, what? How dare he? But now that I know you’re you it makes more sense. You and Lilly Allie would never work, she is far too bubbly but since you already have her number and everything wouldn't it be super easy for you to introduce us? I'm not gonna ask you to set us up or anything but I'm sure her fans would love to have a stream with The Flash. And if things happen then things happen and I'm not going to complain. After all, I am very charming." Barry sat cross legged on the floor in front of Batman, letting Clark drop his hold on his wrist. “Though there’s that guy she always hangs out with. He’s not bad but I'm not nearly as hot as him. He definitely has a thing for Lilly Allie, though who doesn't, I guess you don't. Cause you’re Batman and all.”

Batman opened the packaged snack and tossed at lease half of them into his mouth at once. Barry took it in stride, only blinking once.

“That good B?” Clark asked softly. 

In response Bruce relaxed into a crouch, no longer obviously defensive. 

“Good, again I’m glad you like it, cause it's all too much on my senses but they’re still a pretty good carbohydrate, you know how my body burns sugars like crazy. It's like the fuel for my superpower or something but of course I still gotta eat healthy or my running suffers. It's like a balancing act. I'm sure you know what it’s like. Diets are frustrating. My parents were always on diets while I was growing up. The Atkins diet, the weight watchers diet, that one where you eat only what a caveman would eat. I remember hating that one cause there was no bread in the house and I, as a pre teen boy, needed my calories-” Flash kept talking but superman tuned him out. He was really on a stride it seemed. 

Superman turned his full attention back to The Batman. He was still crouched, crunching away at the hard shells of the candies. He was certainly calmer but not any less tense. He was still ready to attack or bolt but for now it looked like he was stable. Like he was present and willing to listen.

“I was not expecting that to work.” Hal said to Arthur, just loud enough to be heard under the white noise of The Flash good naturedly prattling on. 

Clark deemed it safe enough to draw nearer to the bat. Clark got a weary look in response, but he allowed the approach. Superman sat next to where Batman was crouched, only an arm’s length away. Together they sat and listened to Barry ramble about jazzercise from the nineteen eighties and how many cassettes of it his grandmother had owned and how Barry was now stuck with them. It took another fifteen minutes before Batman hummed in response to something Flash said, causing the speedster to stutter and quiet. 

Oh thank god, Clark thought, the simple hum releasing all of the tension in Superman’s shoulders. He was so worried he didn't even realize how worried he was. 

“Are you back with us, B?” Clark asked.

“Hn.” said batman. I guess

“Do you need a hug?”

“Hm.” it was quiet and hesitant, but it was as close to a yes that Clark was likely to get.

Clark very carefully wrapped his arms around Batman then had to quickly adjust when the bat went completely boneless. He ended up with Bruce half on his lap and a face shoved into Clark's shoulder. Batman sniffed then sighed, regaining a bit of rigidity but not moving out of the warm embrace. 

The others very wisely said nothing but approached, standing near The Flash who was still where Clark had put him. It seemed nobody had anything to say. For a long moment they just sat in silence. Eventually Batman forced himself to pull away and Clark let him go.

“You should know none of us think of you differently Batman.” Dianna said, chancing a few steps forward, coming to her own seat several feet away from the dark knight who was back to a crouched position. “You are a cherished member of this team and no fact of anatomy would change that. Furthermore none of us feel as if you have lied to us. It is none of our business unless you choose to share that with us. It is the height of cruelty that the choice was taken from you and we will not discuss this unless a time comes when you are willing and comfortable.”

“Come now,” Shiera said, “let us combine our intellect and our power to smash this Jor-el intelligence into itty bitty painful pieces.” she brandished her mace and let forth a gleefully murderous smile.

“Hm,” said batman. Finally standing up, finally not looking like he was going to attack. He seemed to check the expressions of everyone in the group, looking for something again but not finding it. He still didn't say anything, only stepping around Clark, firmly putting the kryptonian between himself and the others. 

“Uh, he’s thinking.” Superman said, still sitting cross legged on the floor. He craned his neck trying to get a good look at Bruce but he was deliberately standing just inside Clark's blind spot. 

When another few minutes passed Green Lantern crossed his arms and frowned. “Any time, spooky. Not like we’re going anywhere.”

Aquaman smacked him on the shoulder. “Let our boy cook you impatient-”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We have two options,” Batman said, almost silently but the whole team snapped to attention the second he opened his mouth. Everyone was staring at him and he couldn't tell what anyone was thinking, too emotionally exhausted to figure out anyone else's emotions. Everything felt heavy and raw. “Either we play jor-el’s game, I shut up, superman takes the lead and we talk our way out of here.”

“Not happening.” Superman said, finally turning his body so he could get a better look at his friend. Clark’s usually gentle eyes were hardened with steel. “What's the other option?”

“This could be your only chance to ever interact or learn about your dead culture.” Wonder Woman said softly, “None of us hold it against you.”

“I would hold it against me.” Clark muttered. “If learning about my past hurts my friends like this I don't need to know.”

“Yes you do.” Batman said firmly. “This is too high a price to pay for my comfort.”

“Well too bad.” Superman said. “What’s your other option?”

“A hypothesis, not really a plan. Given how your powers are psychically based-”

“Psychic? I’m not psychic.” Superman protested.

Batman sighed heavily.

“Dude, you read minds.” Aquaman pointed out. 

“Not from a distance, not like J’onn does.”

“You can move through the air with just your mind.” Batman added. “Then there is the psychic field you project to carry heavy objects. The projection of your senses could be reasonably defined as telepathic power. I’ve wondered if you could learn telekinesis if given enough time and practice.” he had started to pace, annoyed at the seven pairs of eyes following his movements, annoyed he couldn't bring himself to stand still.

He was starting to feel twitchy, caged in, trapped. The fact that they are trapped was worsening his mood. Then there was after to think about. If they make it off this ship they still have to return to the lodge together. The others may want to do multiple runs out here for information, so he was stuck with the rest of the team unless he wanted to pull the public’s suspicious eyes to him by returning to Gotham early and canceling the appointments and interviews with the magazine. Fuck.

“Okay,” Clark's tone of voice meant he was processing but didn't quite believe it. “So what does that have to do with the ship?”

Batman sighed; did he have to spell out every little thing? When the League is together do all their brain cells cancel each other out, leaving Batman the only one with thoughts to spare. 

“No need to get rude.” Superman said, his eyes smiling. 

“Stay out of my head.” Batman snapped reflexively but didn't really mean it. By the look on his face Bruce guessed Clark hadn’t taken it too seriously. He took another second to pace, pushed down the urge to stim and tried his best to get further away from his team without looking like he was putting distance between them. He had to force himself to stop and take a deep breath. “It said that it was waiting on you to reach cerebral adulthood. Not physical, or sexual or social but specifically cerebral.” talking was hard and he wasn't sure if he was slurring his speech or not. “That indicates that it needs your ability to interface mentally.”

“The ship must use the Kryptonian versions of neuropathic circuits.” J’onn said. “Of course, it will take a moment, now I know what to look for, it will not take long.” the Martian floated over to the nearest console, looking over the seemingly useless buttons. 

“Are you certain you do not wish to reconcile, Batman is right, this may be your only chance.” Wonder Woman pressed.

Superman sighed, pushing his hair back and away from his face. “I already have a loving father.” Clark said finally. “He's kind, respectful and knowledgeable. He listens when I need him to and gives advice when he can. This thing, this Jor-el ghost or whatever is not my father.” Clark said firmly. “It’s an alien a.i. And those can be dangerous on a good day. We don't know what his motivations are or if we can even trust his answers. The best course of action is to deal with this potential threat now, before it has time to cloud my judgement with potential lies.”

“Wow, spooky is really rubbing off on you.” Hal said, almost smugly.

There was a pleasant electronic chime, and the team looked over to J’onn and found him standing in front of a holographic display. There were several graphs and a column of Kryptonian text running past relaying information. Martian manhunter was carefully touching buttons and eventually the screen flickered and the Kryptonian text was translated into English.

They crowded around the newly discovered screen. 

“It looks like the Jor-el a.i. Program is acting as the ship’s primary system, but it was not originally. It seems it is acting as a computer virus, suppressing the real ship operating program.” J’onn reported. “Though there is no evidence that it misled us about the state of the ship. The hull integrity is permanently damaged. The short distance communications are fully operational but the deep space communications are completely gutted. It is unclear if this is because of sabotage or the long stay in the ice." He was flicking through diagnostics screens and ship data with focus. “It seems it has been here far longer than thirty years.”

“How long then?” Barry chirped.

“According to the ship, it left krypton eighty years ago, just before the cataclysmic event and settled in the ice about seventy five years ago.”

Everyone turned to superman to see how he was taking the news. He seemed surprised but then concerned, “What? Why did I get here so late then?”

“Hmm,” Batman said, which translated to; I have a theory, but I need more information.

“It appears that the Jor-el a.i, has ingrained itself into the seven operational servers scattered throughout the ship. We would have to enter the computer’s equivalency of the mindscape to remove the infected neuropathic highways.” J’onn explained very patiently, “I believe it would be similar to the human concept of virtual reality.”

“So cool!” Green Lantern said, “I volunteer!”

“We do not know if human minds are compatible.” J’onn reminded him. “Let me see what I can learn. Please allow me but a moment.” the screen started flying again, information appearing and vanishing just as quickly. The others waited with bated breath. “It appears possible-” another second and “it even appears to be relatively safe.”

Green lantern let out a joyful whoop. “We’re gonna be gamers today boys!”

“VR VR VR!” Barry, Hal and Arthur chanted, all bouncing on the balls of their feet. 

“What can you tell us about what we will find inside?” Shiera asked. “Though the idea is intriguing we cannot enter a battlefield we know nothing about.”

“It appears that it would be dependent on what minds enter the mindscape. Though Jor-el will be the primary mind, and we will have to depose him. According to this,” J’onn gestured at the screen, “repairing or replacing the original a.i. would have been a fairly simple process of inputting a code then switching it off. By the current datasets running here I can see that Jor-el won't be nearly as easy to remove. There surely will be a fight. We should take care to only send in those able to hold their own in a psychic battle.”

“Good thing the Green Lantern Corps trained me in mental combat.” Hal Jordan said proudly.

“Obviously I am going.” Superman said.

“Though I have no doubt in my physical prowess, I fear I would not be as effective in a non physical battle.” Hawkwoman said. “I will stay alert and guard your bodies while you fight the good fight.” 

“Well, I'm going, this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity.” The Flash said.

Aquaman nodded. “Me too, let's go kick some freaky robot ghost ass.”

“Batman,” Wonder Woman asked gently, “are you going to be joining?”

“No.” Batman said sharply. He didn't elaborate even though she gave him time and space to do so. He didn't need to tell them he wasn't stable enough to be messing with telepathic alien technology. In fact, that seems to be the very last thing he would ever want to do. He doubted it would let him in anyway. 

“Very well.” wonder woman said, a note of finality in her voice. “How do we begin?”

“Please find a seat at one of the consols.” J'onn instructed and the other heroes did so. Once everyone was all settled, “Now, clear your minds and I will guide you into the matrix.”

Batman and Hawkwoman watched as their teammate’s breathing slowed and muscles relaxed. Their eyes closed and their expressions lax. Something in the room's atmosphere changed and suddenly it felt like Shiera and Bruce were alone in the massive grand chamber.

Chapter Text

To be perfectly honest Batman wasn't entirely sure if Hawkwoman was good company to be left alone with during a potentially dangerous mission while emotionally compromised. 

He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he took in the chamber with more detail. It was almost triangular in shape but not quite. There were twelve pillars running down the chamber and three distinct levels separated by six steps each. The consoles were on the middle tier, the fountain at the widest point of the chamber and the highest. The door and the exiting hallways were at the lowest point of the room. From what Batman could see from his vantage point next to Superman's chair the halls were dark. Not even the small pin lights were lit.

It was cold here, but there was no ice as there was no moisture in the air. It was dry, frozen and still. The ship didn't so much as groan around them. The only sound was breathing. Their communications had died the second they passed fifteen feet below the ice. It was strange given how the same communications operated flawlessly deep in the ocean. 

He doubted they would be here for long. Part of the convenience of being prepared for anything was that each of The Justice League members had carried two weeks worth of rations into any JA mission, which they stopped complaining about after the protocol saved a fourth person’s life. 

People would surely come looking for them far before they were actually in danger of starving to death. Alfred would probably call them on his behalf if he failed to check in within the next seventy two hours.

This was hardly the most dangerous mission this team had been on. There was no sign of active assailants. No impending loss of life or end of the world. Just them and the cold dark of the ship and the unforgiving ice.  

Batman was running out of soothing rationalizations to keep calm and think it through. It was as if he had been skinned alive and then asked to keep walking. He was aware of Hawkwoman’s eyes on him as he investigated the chamber, he took a sample of the strange fluid that pumped through the ship and filled the fountain. It was thicker than water but not quite gel consistency. He tried to take a scraping of the metal for a sample to no avail. He looked over the vents, making sure that there was no obvious poison delivery system.

He looked over the consoles that the others had taken seats at, there were twelve in total, so Batman took the one furthest away from one of the sleeping team members but still in sight of where Shiera was steadfastly standing guard. 

Batman replicated what he had seen J’onn do, holding both hands out over the console, not actually touching the blue fleshy looking buttons. He cleared his mind and thought about how nice it would be to see the ship schematics. A moment of focus and the screen chimed into existence in front of his fingertips. The very helpful computer had provided a slowly rotating holographic render of the ship. There were accompanying graphs showing the engine power and air cycling. He was glad to see whatever J’onn had done to change the language had transferred over to this station as well. 

Next, he turned his attention to what was supposedly happening inside the computer. When he started to look for the mindscape the computer started to fight him, causing the screen to glitch and flicker. Batman must have caught the attention of their gracious host going by the tone of the error messages he was receiving. Eventually it gave into Bruce’s single minded persistence and insistence.

The screen opened on what topographically looked like Kansas, flat and open. The land was split into neat farmsteads, the roads lined with fence posts. The similarities ended there, the plants were alien, they looked like J’onn had described martian vegetation to look like. Fleshy, neon colored, many of them carnivorous. The roads weren’t paved, they were red dust, some of the fence posts looked as if they were melting.

In the distance he could see a crystalline structure, pyramid in shape but not quite, on top was the vaguest outline of a humanoid. The Justice League members were rushing towards the structure as fast as super-humanly possible but Jor-el seemed to be summoning house sized crystals at will, using them both to hinder and to hurl at them. He saw flash narrowly dodge a spear like crystal the size of a car at the same time that Green lantern was clipped by a slightly smaller but otherwise identical projectile. Superman was circling in the air but unable to get close due to a plethora of man sized objects hounding his tail. There were enough of them that whenever superman managed to knock one out of the sky two seemed to replace it. 

There was no audio, no coms for Batman to talk to them through, he watched as Flash zipped past Wonder Woman, managing to miss her presence entirely, even though she had one leg pinned and could have used the help. She managed her way out and continued her advance but they could still use his assistance for coordination if nothing else.

“Have you found anything of use, Batman?” Hawkwoman asked, she did not move from her post, but was leaning and squinting in the general direction of the screen. He knew she was far sighted so he did little more than move to the side so she could see enough of the screen. “Ah, the battle rages on then.”

He gave the computer a few more commands but only received a passive aggressive error message in response. Cautiously Batman glanced over his shoulder to see Hawkwoman still watching. “I am surprised you volunteered to stay back.”

“You are not the only one with a love of privacy of one's own mind.” She said, “I have never been one to dabble in mystic arts and I understand that telepathy is not exactly that but its similarities must not be ignored. There is no honor in a poor death but there is much in standing by your chosen allies and friends.”

Batman responded with a hum. It wasn't as if he hadn't had a one on one conversation with Shiera before but he felt he was really floundering through this one. It seemed like she was trying to give him a meaningful look from under her headdress. He couldn’t spare the brain power to figure out what she was trying to communicate. He turned back to the screen and tried again.

“You said once that my planet sounded lovely.” Hawkwoman said, deciding she could still guard the unconscious while watching the monitor of the battle. “I believe you were right.” Batman waited for her to continue as he wasn't quite sure where this was going. “On Thanagar there were four genders, and two sexes. There were boys and girls and then there were men and women. Most boys grew to be men and most girls to women but sometimes there would be boys who became women and girls who became men. It was never a problem. It was always a fact of life. There were no issues raised as long as you could raise your weapon. I understand it is very different for humans. But you raise your weapon better than any human I have met so far and over the years I have met my fair share of humans.”

Batman decided it was best to say nothing to this, as he was certain that what he did have to say would be considered very rude. Bruce couldn't figure out if it was incredibly insulting or comforting to know his whole thing didn't fucking matter. 

He had already known the information that she had shared. it was in the data transfer she had given The Justice League about her home world. The war-like planet had sent her with a robotic army to overthrow the earthen governments and ready it for colonization; when she swapped loyalties she provided as much information to combat that as possible. 

It was too soon to try to confront what Jor-el said and what had happened afterwards. Bruce stubbornly returned to concentrating on what he wanted the Kryptonian computer system to do and ignoring the error messages and annoyed little buzzes. He also ignored Shiera, and her curious head tilt.

Into the silence of the Kryptonian ship the sounds of battle finally broke out. 

“Justice League, can you hear me?” Batman asked. The sounds raged on, nobody giving any sign of acknowledgement. He made a few adjustments. “Justice League, can you hear me?”

Jor-el shouted something and Superman must have heard it clearer than Batman did because he let loose a powerful burst of eye lasers directly at where Jor-el had fortified himself. Splatters of molten crystal splashed down at Aquaman and Flash who were working to destabilize the pyramid. 

Batman sighed, he could hardly call them amatures now that he’s spent the last three years trying to force them into a cohesive team. It was disheartening seeing all his hard work fall apart as soon as personal vendettas were involved.

He made a few more adjustments, “Justice League, can you hear me?”

“Batman?” Wonder Woman said. 

Mentally he cursed, it would seem he could only contact them one at a time. “Wonder Woman, report?”

“No injuries, going strong.” she said. “I have no visuals on the others.”

He looked for her on the battlefield, it was no wonder that she had sounded slightly winded, she was holding her own against what Bruce would describe as golems, shooting beams of white that solidified to crystals. She was doing well and holding her own. 

“Manhunter report?” Batman called, finding the Martian moving upward through Jor-el’s pyramid structure.

“No injuries, no visuals. Moving towards the mission objective unimpeded.” he said, “Good to hear you, Batman.”

Batman rolled his eyes. “Three hostiles a level above you.” he moved on looking for the others. 

“Flash, Aquaman, report?”

Aquaman panted and looked around for the source of his voice. “I have a burn on my left shoulder.”

“No injuries.” Flash said, pausing only long enough to talk, still not showing signs of fatigue even with his running. 

Good, apparently, they could both hear him, he wondered briefly how his voice was manifesting to them but quickly decided there were more pressing matters.

“We have occasional visuals on Superman and Wonder Woman.” Arthur continued, moving away from some incoming falling debris via a shoulder high wave of ruby water.

“Good, you two stay together, assist if needed.” Batman looked for Green Lantern, a few nail biting seconds passed where he saw nothing of the tell tail emerald green. He found him at last, pinned down by a swarm of small spider-like crystal constructs. 

“Flash, Aquaman, north-northwest of your position, assist Green Lantern.” he watched as they moved on his order. It had the additional benefit of getting them away from the destruction of being near an enraged Superman.

“Superman, report?”

“Batman? You hear me?” Superman asked, taking a spin to dodge one of Jor-el projectiles. 

“I hear you, boy scout. Report?”

“No injuries-”

“Good. Remember the lasers are a scalpel not a hammer.”

“I know, they work better when I focus.” he said, letting another beam loose. As usual Batman was right and the more concentrated form was not as easily deflected by the constructed crystals, instead it melted right through and managed to damage one of Jor-el’s arms. The artificial intelligence cried out, regenerated almost immediately and launched a counter attack. 

“Back up is about three minutes out. Keep his attention.” Batman urged. 

“Do you hear that, Batman?” Hawkwoman asked, dragging Bruce’s attention back to reality and sure enough there was a sort of slithering noise like metal gliding over metal. 

“Hold your own.” Batman growled to Superman and made sure that the line was cut. The others didn't need to be distracted by what was happening out here.

He was up and moving before he was totally conscious of what was attacking him. He was infinitely glad for his instincts when a harpoon materialized from the ceiling and skewered the chair batman was just occupying. He dodged two more, the second one managing to only nick his upper arm. 

Batman noticed that the surface of the metal bubbled before attacking; he relayed the information to Hawkwoman, each of them taking one side of the chamber. Hawkwoman narrowly managed to deflect an attack aimed at the defenseless form of Flash. Batman had to drag J'onn away from an attacking harpoon only to turn around and repeat the same action to save Aquaman from a non-lethal but still potentially painful attack. 

The only one’s poised to kill were targeting Batman, he had to leave the others to the protection of Hawkwoman as he fought to dodge and deflect using concussion charges. 

Just as quickly as the attacks started, they stopped. Confused, Batman managed to look up at the monitor just in time to see the Martian Manhunter dispel the Kryptonian a.i. The others all gasped and jumped to life, everyone looked about the chamber, re-orienting themselves.

Chapter Text

“That was intense.” Flash said. 

“I wasn't sure we were gonna be able to do it.” Green Lantern said. 

J’onn nodded. “Very good thinking to split his attention Batman.”

“It was entirely accidental.” Batman said, pulling himself to his feet and trying not to look at the walls with suspicion. He returned to the station he had been at, watching as the damaged chair seemed to heal itself. 

Bruce decided that was too weird and did not sit back down. “While you were indisposed I did some digging.” he said. "I found six other fountains on the schematics so those are our targets. Each one will require a reset similar to what we did today but there is reason to believe that as you purge each one Jor-el’s processing power will decrease and thus make the task easier each time.” he showed them the schematics, each of the blinking lights representing the server locations. 

“Six more times?” Green Lantern said. “That will take ages.”

Batman paused. “How long do you think you were in there?”

“B,” Superman said, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “That took us at least three hours, maybe longer.”

“Nonsense,” Hawkwoman said, “it was but a few minutes.”

“Hmm, something to consider going forward. Mindscape time is longer than real time.” Batman noted it as a potential problem but not a pressing one. “I should be able to open the front door from here but the other side is solid ice.”

“I could burn through it again.” Superman offered.

Batman looked up at his long time friend and saw his slumping shoulders and tired eyes. “You just fought for three hours.”

“Yeah,” Superman said, “but not really, it was just mentally.”

“For you mental exhaustion would be more potent than physical.” Bruce pointed out. 

“You’re one to talk about exhaustion.” Superman teased. “Do you have any other suggestions then?”

“We could try to go back out the way we came, though that may require more control over the ship than we currently have.” The images on screen started to flash as his mind started to work through the problem, he removed his hands from the console, not able to concentrate hard enough to find what he wanted, not with Jor-el somewhere in the system now dedicating far more power to blocking his every move. He glared wordlessly at the Kryptonian text of the last error message frozen on the holographic monitor. “Perhaps someone else may have more luck.” he suggested, J’onn took his place, sending Batman a sympathetic look.

Batman busied himself with another perimeter check, naturally nothing had changed by the time he circled back to the group though it looked like J’onn was following another lead though the Kryptonian arc’s data banks.

“This place is pretty amazing.” Batman said to Superman. “There are residential areas, nurseries, classrooms, training centers, there is even a temple. It looked like they designed it to be a home away from home for you, well you and 300 family units.”

Clark looked a bit uncomfortable. “I’m not sure if I even want it.” he said.

“We are all products of those who came before. I’m sure that my ancestors in particular have some horrendous people among them.” Bruce said. “I know for a fact that there were monstrous acts that ultimately resulted in my being born. We’ve just learned that your race had its fair share of bigotry, same as any other planet. It is not the end of the world, so to speak.”

“Right, cause that ship already sailed.”

“Maybe it is just a chance to wipe the slate clean.” Bruce suggested, then frowned. “That thought was very out of character for me. Please pretend I never said it.”

Superman giggled. “Your optimism is safe with me, Batman.” 

“Not with me Bats,” Hal interrupted, “I'm going to tell the whole world what a softy you are and not a single soul will believe it.”

“Good.” Arthur said.

“As it should be.” Dianna added.

Overtime Batman had noticed that while he was concerned with his bat reputation the others were almost fanatically obsessed with it. He wasn’t one to complain especially as one of the side effects was The Justice League’s refusal to let Batman be photographed let alone be hounded by the press. It made things easier for him but he didn't pretend to understand it. 

Batman left the group again to do a third perimeter check, something was off and he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. The fountain was inert, the walls hadn’t started to bubble, nothing in the halls changed. He investigated the pillars, they were mostly decorative and didn't seem to be load bearing. He looked over the consoles again, they were the same. Everything was the same, everything was fine. Even so, Batman could feel the anxiety singing through his veins. Ignoring hunches like these had brought him far too much trouble to ignore it now. He looked again, grappling up the wall to inspect the ventilation system better, dropping to the ground to recount the amount of steps going from one level to the next. 

He went up the steps, then back down, then up again, then back down. Then he jumped in place a few times. Batman became incredibly aware that the room had fallen silent. With dread in his heart he turned to see the whole team staring at him with confused but well meaning expressions. 

“What you doing there, Bats?” Aquaman asked, mirth in his voice. 

Bruce wasn’t sure exactly so he said nothing. instead walking back up the steps, six steps, then back down, six steps. Then back up. Something was off, something about how he was moving maybe?

“What’s he doing?” The Flash stage whispered to Superman, who tried to bat him away like an annoying fly.  

J’onn, who had been multitasking research and friend confusion, was merciful and pulled the attention back to himself. “We do not have enough power to return the way we came, however, records indicate that the ship has a kryptonite weakness, just as Superman does, the mineral should be able to damage the hull.”

“Well we know Spooky has more than enough on him right now, we could just cut our way out.” Green Lantern said.

Diana shook her head. “The amount of time that it would take to cut through the metal would far exceed Superman’s tolerance of the kryptonite, even if he were elsewhere in the ship. We cannot risk his health like that.”

“Eh,” Green Lantern said, “maybe if daddy Kryptonian notices baby Kryptonian in distress he will just let us out?”

“Never call him that again.” Clark said sternly. “Gross.”

“I doubt Jor-el would intervene.” Wonder Woman said. “We will have to think of something else, kryptonite will be a last resort.”

Batman went up and down the steps again. 

“Perhaps once we rest and recuperate we purge Jor-el from another fountain? It should give us the operating power to reopen the hull where we entered.” J’onn suggested. 

Six steps up and six steps down. Batman huffed and swept his cape to the side, then to the other side then hurled a batarang across the room, it glanced off the metal and fell to the ground. That’s it. That’s what's wrong.

“Woah,” Flash said, “misplaced aggression much? We get you're frustrated-”

“There’s a delay.” Batman interrupted. “The gravity is wrong and there is a slight delay.” He took a moment to recenter himself. Letting his cape fall back over his form, blanketing him in shadow. 

Flash ran from one end of the chamber to the other. “Holy shit, you're right. What does it mean?”

“We’re still inside the computer.” Superman realized.  

“Nonsense!” Hawkwoman said, “Batman and I never entered the infernal machine.”

Batman went up and down the steps again. At this point he was just enjoying the feeling of his cape catching on the stairs. It was weird to think this wasn't real. Did it bring all his inventory with him?

“When did it bring us in then?” Shiera demanded.

Green Lantern shrugged. “My money is when it scanned us with the red light.”

“The ship’s safeguards should prevent non-consenting minds from entering. It wouldn't even have the power to take a conscious, non-consenting mind.” Manhunter told them.

Batman’s cape was lined with pockets, each filled with a useful item just as his more convenient utility belt was. Did The computer scan them and include them? Would they be potent enough to do anything or did it only include things that wouldn't cause any harm to the a.i?

“No, gravity was fine then.” Batman said softly.

“Or when we all sat down?” Aquaman suggested. “The real question is how it got you two.”

“It just happened.” Batman muttered.

“What was that B?” Superman called. “I don't think the others can hear you.”

There was a sudden and violent shift from outside the ship, the whole room dropped by two feet. The Justice League snapped into high alert but nothing else happened for a tense minute. Batman joined his team on the middle landing; they took a defensive formation, all looking out.

“Hawkwoman, did you sustain any injuries?” Batman asked.

“Only a scratch, healed over already.” she said, seeming to sense the reasoning behind his question. 

“The ship made contact with our blood, we must be incapacitated.” Batman's thoughts spun with all the ways they could be incapacitated. They could be paralyzed, poisoned. There’s no guarantee the ship has knowledge on human or Thangarian biology. Even something meant to put them to sleep could be deadly in high enough doses. Bruce's tolerance was far lower than Shiera’s if they were given the same dosage then he very well could be dead already. 

“What’s that noise?” Superman wondered.

Moments later the rest of the League became aware of something screaming outside, it could have been mistaken for wind if the unmistakable choir of human voices chanting in different languages. 

Batman recognized the noise, he felt the tension in his body tighten like a noose. It was him, his thoughts were manifesting. Clark had described his mind like a tornado of knives. It certainly sounded like it.

Batman watched Superman very carefully. He moved a hand outside of superman’s sight but where green lantern to his left would see. He carefully signed a warning. 

Imposter.

Green Lantern tensed beside him, Batman wasn't sure if there were other imposters but Hal, for some reason or other, was hard to imitate. Bruce had a theory that it had something to do with the green lantern ring but it was unconfirmed. Through the corner of his eye he saw Green Lantern relay the information to The Flash, who twitched. Barry was safe for similar reasons. Whenever someone imitated his powers they somehow always failed.

But the twitch was enough, superman’s virtual clone spun upon batman faster than human eyes could follow. He had Batman by the neck and ten feet in the air before anyone on the team could react. 

The next move was more instinctual than anything, Batman thrust his palm into the attackers chin, they responded by turning to the left, Batman's hand grabbing them by the back of the skull and using the hold on his neck as leverage to knee the bastard in the face. He felt the satisfying crunch of bone just as the imposter dropped him and he started to fall. 

He didn’t fall far, Wonder Woman caught him, setting down at the lowest level of the chamber. She turned, setting into her defensive stance. Batman watched as the fake Superman regained his senses, his nose fitting right back into place, only the trail of red blood showing he was injured at all. 

“Rao, you are just too smart for your own good aren’t you.” The imposter said, his voice lowering, his skin aging. Jor-el glared down at the circling The Justice League as his Superman disguise melted away. “Nothing gets past the pretty little bat.” he mocked.

Batman responded by hurling a batarang at Jor-el's face. To nobody's surprise Jor-el caught it between his palms. The a.i smiled, opening his mouth to say something cocky just as the batarang exploded in his face. 

“Standard split.” Batman called, it was a command that sent them off in sets of two. Dianna and J’onn, Shiera and Arthur, Hal and Barry, Clark and Bruce.

The others hesitated, knowing what he meant. Knowing that he meant them to leave him alone with an a.i of indeterminate power and go and find Clark. 

In their hesitation Jor-el attacked, sending a blaze of fire from his eyes down at Batman and subsequently Wonder Woman. Wonder woman managed to deflect the beam long enough for Batman to use his grapple to take cover behind one of the twelve pillars. He tucked himself against the ceiling and the top of the pillar. He looked at the lights over.

This was a few jumps of logic. A solar powered telepathic race might use uv lights in their telepathic ships. Odds are that if Batman managed to deplete the uv rays from the Jor-el then he wouldn't have enough energy to use his energy beam more than five or six times. Batman could dodge that many. 

There were a limited number of kryptonite weapons, he had twenty four batarangs that would possibly be enough to take out the larger solar lights. Without the energy beam Batman was certain that the playing field would be leveled enough. 

“Standard split.” Batman ordered again, dropping down, swinging in a wide arch, sending his projectiles out, hitting three lights and landing in a pile of sparks at the foot of the fountain. His team looked up at him. “Trust me.”

And they did.

“South-east.” Wonder Woman said, Manhunter went intangible and they both vanished down the south east hall. 

Hawkwoman nodded to Batman, taking flight and grabbing Aquaman's wrists. “South-west” 

“North-west.” Hal said, “be careful bats.” they vanished in a blur of The Flash’s super speed. 

Jor-el let them go, raising one eyebrow. “You think you can best me?”

“I know I can.” Batman said. It was nice to know this wasn’t real, knowing that the damage he was about to take was fictional.

The sound of a storm battering the ship grew louder. 

“What is that?!” Jor-el hissed. He let off another volley of laser beams. Batman took off running, the light catching at the ends of his cape, leaving him smoldering as he ducked behind another pillar, using the momentum of his movements to take out three more of the lights. The effects weren’t going to be felt by Jor-el, at least not yet. 

It was obvious with the way Jor-el was using the attack that he was unaware of the heavy drawbacks. The next wave of psychic heat cut through his cover. He was forced to dodge the falling debris as the pillar was toppled. 

Jor-el laughed, as a piece of pillar the size of his head landed on Batman's shoulder. He rolled with the hit and gritted his teeth as he came to standing again. The next batarang was sent, Jor-el knocked it away.

“Pathetic.” Jor-el sneered, though his face quickly dropped when a second attack flew past his head, embedded itself into the light behind his head, the sparks rained down on him as the baterange released a fine kryptonite powder. 

Jor-el started to cough and sink lower in the air. “What is this?”

“Hm.” said Batman, closing the distance rapidly, he leapt into the air, his first kick landed hard in Jor-el’s left knee, the second in his chest and the third spinning kick landed directly in Jor-el’s neck. 

Batman landed, favoring his right ankle. He pushed through the pain, taking a flawless stance as Jor-el retaliated with a series of punches. He blocked several superpowered punches with his gauntlets. Each hit echoed through his bones. Batman took advantage of a sloppy punch and rolled his body, grabbing Jor-el by the wrist, forcing him to follow through, tripping him as he went. 

Jor-el landed hard, chest down, he spun backhanding Batman in the already wounded shoulder. The human went flying, hitting the wall with enough force to rattle his skull. Batman staggered to standing. 

The alien a.i had the gall to coo at him like one would a cute animal. “Oh, look at you, poor thing. You wouldn't have to be fighting if you just knew your place.”

Bruce grit his jaw. This wasn’t real, his ankle was not broken, his shoulder was not bruised and dislocated. His forearms were not bleeding, he does not have a concussion. It was all fake, nothing here was real. He could take this. 

He could even take this a little far if he wanted to. Maybe some dismemberment, as a treat. Reaching behind himself in a compartment that he hardly ever opened, Batman retrieved his axe. 

The ship shuddered, the storm outside roaring with a thousand thoughts and a bloody satisfaction as he readied the weapon.

“I was thinking, Jor-el.” Batman said, watching as the a.i shook off the kryptonite powder, still affected by it but significantly less than Superman would have.

Jor-el communicated he was not interested in Batman's thoughts by trying to blast his with eye lasers. They were not nearly as powerful as they had been earlier.

“If you had to hack your way in here,” Batman continued, “then you must have had to remove a lot of protections.”

A second beam of attack managed to surprise Batman with its intensity, he had to change course but even then he took damage, a whole chunk of his right calf was missing. He ignored the hot blood pooling in his boot. 

The sight of the injury brought elation to Jor-el's face, though the expression changed to horror as The Batman was undeterred, his pace didn't even falter. He tried for another beam but the power fizzled out. Batman was on him in an instant, both hands on his axe, imbedding it in Jor-el's shoulder first then turning to hack at the rest of his arm. Jor-el caught the axe blade and shattered it.

So much for a treat then. 

The retaliation was brutal, Jor-el had him by the wrist and was twisting. Batman managed to stifle his reaction to a grunt as Jor-el forced his humerus through his skin. Batman disengaged as quickly as possible, letting his broken arm hang at his side. 

Batman let himself get angry. Channeling the pain into his rage, the ship shuddered and the storm outside screamed, breaking through bits of the ship and snaking inside like a dark smoke. Even if this wasn't real there was no reason to break his arm. Batman activated his suits medical compression, the arm of the suit turned stiff, splinting his arm to prevent further damage.

“You should have let me chop your arm off.” Batman said. “It's the least you could do.” He put some space between them. Waiting to see how Jor-el would react. This injury isn't healing as fast as the others. 

The a.i seemed to be worried now watching his useless arm dangle with barely restrained horror. Batman circled him, watching him like a lion watches an injured gazelle. He was trying really hard to not let his glee show. It was unbecoming to smile at a grievously injured man. The storm didn't seem to have the same sense of propriety. The electric excitement hung in the air, the laughter and cheers from the voices rose and fell with the multilingual chanting. 

“You’re mad.” Jor-el accused. He charged using his super human speed to close the gap, Batman was expecting this and drove his shard of raw kryptonite into Jor-el’s gaping shoulder wound.

Batman ground the rock in harder, bursting with satisfaction when Jor-el cried out. His good hand was back on Bruce's throat, trying to choke the life from him once again. Escaping Jor-el’s hold this time was significantly easier, he tried to evade back but couldn't in time, he took a hit to the side of his face, he staggered back. 

Jor-el advanced on him again, fist flying in rage. Batman avoided the first and second blows, but took another blow to the other side of his head. He shook it off long enough to get hit again. His vision blurred. 

Again, he reminded himself that this wasn't real. He retrieved his last kryptonite batarang and drove it down into Jor-el's eye.

The man screamed and Batman twisted, Jor-el twitched violently as the batarang scrambled his brains. Batman grinned and twisted again. The body thrashed as the surroundings started to glitch out of existence. 

Distantly he could see the rest of The Justice League looking about as the ship turned into a white void. 

Chapter Text

Jor-el was defeated, between one blink and the next Clark had been transported. He didn't recognize where he was, then looking around found himself alone. He appeared to be in some kind of museum, directly in front of him is a grand statue of some impressive man receiving a sealed scroll from a levitating muscular woman. 

The label read ‘receiving the right of research from the saintly sisterhood’ beneath was a lengthy text explaining the significance but to Clark it was without context, and thus gibberish. For a moment Clark let himself sit with that ever present hollow feeling in his chest.

Other exhibits lit up around him as he looked, obviously Jor-el was playing gracious host now, but where had the others gone? When they had first entered the mindscape they had been standing shoulder to shoulder. Had Jor-el tampered with things behind the scenes while distracting them with the battle? More than likely. Superman would just have to find his way out, and failing that, trust in his team to come find him.

The museum was a series of short halls and large rounded rooms, separated by subject or time period. There were a great deal of rooms dedicated to scientific achievements. The only mentions of space travel research was in the short halls, these were the only ones lacking a picture of who discovered them, only noting the names very briefly in the corners of the notations. 

Jor-el seemed to have him trapped in an endless loop of the arts and sciences. The rooms that were not packed full of science were all art. The paintings and sculptures of an alien civilization, all digitally preserved.

Clark found himself going around in circles for a brief moment before he turned a corner he was sure he’d turned before and came to an entirely new space. It looked to be a lecture hall, another one of those fountains was waiting at the bottom of the amphitheater. 

Jor-el was already standing, waiting, a smug look on his face. Clark could see how his expression was meant to be warm and friendly. It didn’t exactly land through Clark’s anger.

“Where are the others?” Clark demanded. 

“I apologize for removing you from your comrades, they are safe and unharmed. I have only placed them in a time dilation field. I know you have lived on earth your whole life, it may have influenced you more than I was anticipating. Let us fix this, let us speak of Krypton.” Jor-el, stayed standing in his odd blood fountain, imploring Clark to listen.

Superman exited the chamber the same way he came, only to step through the doors on the other side of the lecture hall. Clark scowled in Jor-el’s direction.

“You can’t keep us here.” Clark said.

“Not indefinitely, no.” Jor-el said, “but long enough and your companions' bodies will either freeze or starve.” The hologram softened its expression. “Please, my son, think of our planet, of the millions of years of history lost. I only wish to teach you the ways of your own people.”

It was solely tempting; it was also something Clark had been wishing for since he was a child. Then he thought of how Bruce felt when Jor-el called him that slur and all of Clark’s temptation fizzled out like water on a hot stove. 

Clark steeled his expression and crossed his arms. For a moment Jor-el looked annoyed but smoothed his expression over.

“How about we begin with the basics, yes?” Jor-el suggested, the blank wall at the base of the lecture hall started shifting, images appearing and works snaking between the figures. “Perhaps with some explanation you enable you to understand.”

Jor-el waved and the pictures started to stabilize to show three adult Kryptonians. A tall, broad shouldered man, a statuesque woman and a thin willowy man who posed seductively where the other two were standing square to the camera. 

“Krypton’s people had three genders.” Jor-el explained. “Mi, Fi and Ti. The Mi boasted superior strength and the Fi had superior intelligence and spirituality. You are Mi, as am I.” Jor-el glanced back at Clark to be sure he was still paying attention. “Your mother was Fi, she, as did all the women, lived at the Fi temples where they provided spiritual counseling and a number of other services.”

Clark had to swallow around the lump in his throat. His mother. His real biological mother. “May I see her?”

Jor-el looked shocked, “Keeping an image of a woman posthumously is the height of blasphemy. This woman here granted special permission to utilize her image for educational purposes.”

The disappointment was crushing but Clark managed to keep any hint of it off of his face. 

“Her name was Lara. She was blonde,” Jor-el offered, seemingly taking pity on him, “she was taller than most women I’ve met and far more intelligent than me. We met at a scientific symposium, she was the ceremony leader. She sent me an invitation and nine months later I received word that you had been born.”

“Invitation?” Clark asked despite himself. Damn the curiosity killing the cat and all.

“As women lived at the temple, a Mi could only engage with the Fi on their terms at their invitation.” Jor-el smiled gently. “I was very blessed to have caught her attention and those few weeks I spent with her were the best of all my years.”

Clark said nothing to that. Taking a moment to look over the images of the Kryptonians. “So did each gender have a temple.”

The Kryptonian a.i shook his head, a soft good natured smile on his face. “No, just the women. The Mi made up the majority of the workforce and held government positions; they lived similar lives to the human men here, from what I've seen.” 

The screen at the far end of the hall changed again, showing the different factions that Kryptonian life had been split into. The Sciences- learning, the military- supporting, the Fi temples- leading.

“Where do Ti fit in?” Clark just barely caught the annoyance on Jor-el’s face before it vanished behind his mask of politeness. 

“Well, the women couldn't be expected to birth the entirety of the population, and someone needs to raise those babies. The Ti were dull, emotionally volatile, simple creatures. Beautiful, of course, but simple and expensive. They had their place in the home.”

“Expensive?” Clark’s stomach rolled with the implications. 

“In the sense of how much tribute to pay to their fathers.” Jor-el responded flippantly. “They could keep a house and bear young but they weren’t good for much else. I never kept one, as they are a distraction at best, though if Krypton continued I would have possibly gotten one to raise you.”

“Did Ti get any say in this?”

Jor-el looked confused by that. “They are not educated, if it could not look after itself I'm sure it would be happy to live a leisurely life under my care.”

Several things occurred to Clark at once. “Were they allowed to go be educated?”

Jor-el looked down his nose at Clark. “There were Ti schools, if one cared enough to throw money away on one. A Ti child can't carry on the family name.”

Jor-el paused when a new noise crested over the dull humm of the ship's engines. A chanting cacophony of voices-

Clark had to fight not to visibly react. it was Batman, he would recognize his mind anywhere. several theories flashed through his mind. had Bruce come to get them or had Jor-el dragged him into the computer? Either way, Clark was deliriously glad to hear it.

“What is noise?” Jor-el wondered aloud, almost bored in his inflection. A moment later he inhaled sharply and turned his attention back to Clark. “No matter, as I was saying-”

The ship shook slightly, the sound wind beating harshly against the artificial hull. Something had changed, Clark could tell. His muscles tensed in anticipation as Jor-el turned back to his screen. something was about to give.

“-as I was saying-” Jor-el's voice trailed off like he was distracted by something, his face flashed with anger, though the emotion was gone as quickly as it had arrived. 

He was distracted, superman took the opportunity for what it was and rushed out the far exit as quickly as he could, which was pretty damned fast. The sound would be centered on batman. All Clark had to do was get to him, just listen and he would be there.

Jor-el let loose a wordless roar, but now that Clark had a point of reference he could tell that jor-el was moving him, moving the fabric of the reality that they were trapped in. shifting the rooms around like blocks. He had to constantly re direct his course in nonsensical ways, his only static point of reference being the screaming of Bruce’s mind.

Only now did Clark recognize their mistake of entering the ship’s mindscape; they’d given Jor-el home field advantage. Space looped in on itself and Clark found the lecture hall again. Jor-el was grinning at him triumphantly but it was obvious he was glitching out. His watery form was less solid, drops of liquid were rolling down Jor-el’s robes like melted candle wax.

Then Jor-el laughed, boisterous and cocky. Clark cringed at the similarities to his own.

“Your little toy is trying to fight me on his own.” Jor-el said. “To think he can-” he was cut off, gasping.

Hot sparks of molten matter spit from the a.i’s skin, he was less solid. Jor-el lurched, obviously taking a hit somewhere, perhaps from another body. He hissed and the lights dimmed, green- that specific shade of green that Clark held a mild phobia for. 

“What is the green dust?” Jor-el snapped.

Clark smiles, a gentle disbelieving chuckle. “You’ve really pissed him off.”

The reality around them subtly shifted, moving so that Clark's back was the direction Batman was in. Clark bit the inside of his cheek, annoyed that the a.i would try to disorient him with such a simple trick.

Jor-el staggered, only briefly. “Is this why you brought it, it's your feral little attack dog?”

Clark shook his head. “I brought him because he's my best friend, well that and he's pretty damned competent, I'm not sure I could beat him in a fight, kudos to you for trying. I think if I were you I would kneel and beg for forgiveness.”

Jor-el growled, opened his mouth to say something when suddenly there was an arm waving through the wall. It waved at them frantically.

Clark, just as surprised as Jor-el, reacted first and grabbed the Flash’s hand and the other hero pulled him through the solid wall, it felt tacky almost, then it was over. On the other side, Clark saw that Manhunter had joined hands with Flash and they combined the Flash's vibrations with the Martian’s ability to phase, and Wonder Woman pulled the three of them back through the solid wall. 

Green Lantern was shielding them against scaly sharp tentacle attacks. Hal grimaced as the neon green cracked. 

“You got him? Please tell me you got him?” Green Lantern asked- and was summarily ignored. 

Wonder Woman turned just in time to deflect two stabbing attacks. “We need to get back-” she deflected another attack. 

Clark was already up, grabbing a few tentacles and ripping them off the wall, snapping like thin ropes. He was already off down the hall, toward the eye of the storm. 

By now Batman's mind was shaking the floors at every crest- the chanting had turned to screaming and now sounded how Clark imagined the blood thirsty crowds of the colosseum would. 

It made his skin crawl, reminding him of how off putting Superman had found Batman at the beginning. How his brand of violence was just barely restrained by Bruce's self discipline. 

The going was slower than he'd like, though at least the walls were smashable now, whatever Batman was doing was certainly working.

Flash shrieked, “I just saw a whole room disintegrate into the void.”

Seconds later a wall dematerialized right next to Clark, for a moment Clark looked out- it was nothing just digitized space and rage, clouds of thought taking the form of smoke a color, the occasional face peered back but distorted and unrecognizable.

 Had to look away before he panicked. Something was grievously wrong. 

The physical space was shrinking, so it was no surprise that they happened upon Hawkwoman and Aquaman, fighting their way through a writhing mass of scaled whips. Hawkwoman was using the openness of the void for tactical advantage, with backup the battle was quick and they could move on. As the ship shrunk it was obvious where they were going, back to the main chamber.

They were nearly there when everything sparked and shattered. For a moment they were in free fall, landing back on their feet after the short sudden drop. The void had become white, solid, barrierless. 

About thirty feet away was Batman, obviously injured, with a batarang in Jor-el’s skull. The sight made Clark's heart stop in his chest. Logically Clark new that Batman didn't kill, that this wasn't real- but there was blood on Bruce's hands and-

Everything faided to white.