"You have to start out learning to believe the little lies to believe the big ones."

[matchmadeinhell]

They had to try their best to do this thing incognito. After all, the plan was get in, get the shard, get out, and while several of them were total unknowns in this world, three of them ran the risk of being recognized by some of the resident superheroes and supervillains since they were from a similar dimension and had equivalents here.

Nightwing, not so much since he usually wore a mask, but Cassie and Kon didn't wear masks as part of their costumes, and Kon especially wore a very familiar face. He was younger than Kal but still approaching adulthood now and that meant his cloney resemblance to the current de facto ruler of the world was pretty uncanny now.

That was why Kon was in disguise. He was wearing his usual jeans, black long-sleeved shirt, black boots, and black gloves. But he had a dumpy, shapeless, brown jacket over top of it all, a blue baseball cap, and a pair of dorky, large-framed glasses. Fortunately, spring was only just starting in this world and hadn't quite chased away the chill of winter so they could all bundle up with clothes that made them look innocuous.

The magical door had appeared in an alley, against a nondescript wall. As soon as they were all through and had closed it behind then, Kon peered around a corner to see if he could recognize where they were by the city's night-time skyline.

"Looks like Gotham." A pause. "It's hardly recognizable, though. I've never seen Gotham this clean."

He squinted instinctually, trying to peer around some more with his X-ray vision and found it working in full when he usually struggled with it back in the Guardians' universe. He held up his hand and poured on the teke, creating a field around it.

"My powers seem to be stronger here for some reason. The ones that are limited in the Guardians' universe are back, like my teke. You guys feeling the same? Most of us are superheroes or equivalents in our worlds. Being in a superhero universe might be amping up our powers or something. Maybe making the belief stronger."

It all ran on narratives, right? Stories? This was a story superheroes were supposed to be in.

Comments

[holydefendersbatman]

"I'm aware of the risks," he said, "but I'm afraid I can't give it back. At least not yet."

Yes, he was going there.

"I need insurance."

[morescaredofyou]

"Insurance? Insurance?! You'll risk not just your own reality being destroyed, but every other one in existence, when you could have stopped being a crazy paranoid bowl of nuts for just a few minutes and tried asking us to help? Because guess what! That would have been way easier, and then you wouldn't have to worry about the death of all reality. Also, you wouldn't have had to be a massive dick."

Peter paused, and glanced apologetically at Nightwing. "Uh. No offense Dick."

[injustice_npcs]

"None taken," said Deadman the same time as the other Dick.

[holydefendersbatman]

"Certain contingencies have been put into place to monitor reality's state of degradation, to prevent it from getting that far," said Batman. "But you're not getting the shard until the threat to this world is gone."

[matchmadeinhell]

"He's not stupid enough to let the universe fall apart," Kon said to Peter, before turning back to Bats. "He'd give it to us so we could put it back in time if it came to that. He just knows if we're forced to stay long enough, we'll get invested and join the fight, afraid something bad will happen before he can hand it over. It's all about control. We don't get to do it on our terms, it has to be on his. He's a control freak in our world - of course he'd be one in this one."

Kon gestured to Batwoman/Deadman.

"That's why you had Deadman possess me, isn't it. That way you got to control me and use me against Superman but someone you trusted would've been at the wheel. Because how can you trust me if I'm cloned from him? Even if it's another version of him that didn't take a no scope swan dive into being evil."

[injustice_npcs]

"I'm so sorry for that, Conner," apologized Deadman. It said something that the apology was so sincere and apologetic when the Conner in this universe didn't even have the same aversion to being mind-controlled that Kon did. "He would've used a worse way of controlling or incapacitating you if I hadn't done it. I had only planned on staying in there long enough to have a chance of talking him out of doing worse."

[holydefendersbatman]

"If what this Benedict said was true, there was more reason to control you than you just being his clone," said Batman. "He said the government in your world captured you and that you'd killed innocent people while working for them. Most of the things he said were obvious lies but that was something I could believe."

He stared Kon down.

"Is it true?"

Batman watched for a moment as Kon glared back in silence, clearly unable to find a way to explain what had happened.

Not that any explanation would allowed Kon to escape his judgement.

"That's what I thought."

[willbeyourhope]

Haruto sighs, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment. "Well, if this world needs hope, they called the right people," he says, glancing sideways at Batman and his posse. "Can't do any worse than the ones here, I suppose," he adds quietly with a shrug, before turning his attention to Batman. "Not that I'm eager to have my chain yanked, but what hoops are we gonna have to jump through to get the shard?"

[mark_in_the_sands]

It took every ounce of the blood, sweat, and tears Cassie had poured into her training and her super hero career to keep from popping Batman square in the mouth. She reached for Kon's hand and gave it a squeeze instead.

"I have a better idea," she said. "It starts with 'Batman shuts up and lets the grown-ups talk'." She shot Batman a scornful look before turning away to look at the Nightwing currently inhabiting Batwoman's body. "We did our research before we came here because we understand that context is important. I've got experience fighting an evil version of the Justice League, albeit not one comprised of these people in particular. We're going to need more people than we have here."

She frowned thoughtfully. "Though if we can get some of them to turn, so much the better. Cyborg and Raven might come loose if we get the Titans out of the Phantom Zone."

[injustice_npcs]

Understanding when to back down and let his much more personable son to take point, Batman was quiet as Deadman took over.

Deadman started in surprise, then narrowed his eyes.

"I knew Superman had something to do with their disappearance. I was the one that told the Titans Superman had killed the Joker and Superboy was devastated. Some of us could see the writing on the wall so I warned them to stay away from Superman but they disappeared not long after that. I had always figured Conner had gone to confront Superman with the Titans in tow and that he'd done something to them."

His expression hardened.

"That's what got Cyborg and Raven to join him. Superman denied knowing anything about it and they thought a villain like Deathstroke had gotten to them and wasn't making themselves a target by taking credit. After already losing Gar and Bart, it pushed them over the edge and they thought that the villains were out of control, that the only way to stop them was Superman's way."

He looked to Dick, looked at all of them, the hard expression fading.

"I know this isn't your world and that holding the shard hostage is paranoid and dangerous," he said very pointedly as he turned to glare slightly at Batman. As much as he loved his mentor - his adoptive father - he knew just as well as they did that he was being unreasonable and paranoid. "If I knew where he hid the shard I'd just give it to you, but he knew I would, so only he and Zatanna know where he hid it. I even asked Rama Kushna, the goddess responsible for making me Deadman, to see if she could see where it was, but all I got there were some enigmatic koans. Either she knows and wants to keep you here or she didn't want to admit someone got something over on her."

He stepped forward.

"She's at least keeping an eye on the cosmos to make sure the shard doesn't get returned too late - and in the meantime we really could use your help. This world is on a fast track to becoming a world dictatorship and innocent people - heroes and civilians alike - are dying because of Superman's Justice League and his Stormtroopers. If we can free the Titans, between them and all of us, we might have a chance."

A pause.

"Batman might not be willing to just ask for your help but I am. Will you help us? We could tell from what Benedict said - from how afraid of you he was - that you were doing something very brave and ruffling the feathers of some very evil people. This world needs heroes like all of you."

A brief glance over at Batman.

"We don't have many of them left."

[goddamnwingman]

It might have been a bit unfair, but Deadman knew who he was talking to. At least, he knew three of them and could probably guess on the other three.

Dick let out a breath, looking to the ceiling before he turned and motioned for the others to come closer. There wasn't exactly a lot of room to be able to speak amongst themselves, but he'd learned long ago how to pitch his voice so that it wouldn't carry much. And it helped that he knew the ones behind him didn't have super hearing.

"I'm not going to order anybody to stay that isn't comfortable with it," he said, keeping his voice down as he looked to each of the others. "He's right. This isn't our world. We all signed up for a quick in and out job and this job? Isn't going to be that at all. So if you want to head back to the North Pole, nobody is going to hold it against you." A pause. "Well, nobody who ultimately matters to you."

Because, yeah. Bruce's opinion really only mattered to Dick in this group and he well knew it. "But I, for one, am staying."

Bruce should have known that Dick could hardly say no to him. Which, honestly, he knew the other Dick had been counting on.

[daddyphantom]

"I'm in." Danny wasn't really the type to leave innocent people in danger. That didn't mean he wasn't still angry, though.

"I do want to make a request, though. When this is all over? One of us gets to punch him in the face."

[morescaredofyou]

"Head back, when we could help the people here? No way. But just to be extra extra clear, I'd be saying we should do that even if Batbrain over there wasn't trying to hold the entire multiverse at random. Are you really sure that that guy is actually a hero?"

[willbeyourhope]

"Changing despair into hope is what I do," Haruto says to Deadman with a wry smirk. "Though it looks like we've got our work cut out for us on that front. Easy or not, though, I'm definitely in."

[matchmadeinhell]

"Don't even get me started on our version of Bats," said Kon to Spidey. "Death satellites were involved."

But he wouldn't get into that in front of Nightwing - or Nightwing, since there were two of them.

Kon sighed. "Let's face it, we're all superheroes. A quick in and out was never in the cards, anyway - we're all a bunch of bleeding heart heroism addicts with a terminal case of pummeling-bad-guy-itis."

A pause.

"And if you're going against evil versions of Big Blue and Wonder Woman, Cassie and I are probably the only ones here that can go toe to toe with them. Which is saying something - I know all you guys are pretty stacked, powers-wise."

Superman was just that strong and just that fast.

"So I'm in." He turned to Danny. "But we're not punching Bats after all this."

Perish the thought.

"We're feeding him his own jockstrap."

[daddyphantom]

Danny considered that for a secondly and nodded. Definitely a better plan than punching him.

"Batman has a butler, right? I wonder if we should ask him what kind of wine goes with sweaty underwear."

The smirk he gave at that comment was quickly wiped away as he got serious.

"But if we're going to do this, we need a plan. Multiple plans, if we can. We need to know all their weaknesses, physical and mental. We need to know if this group is all we have to work with, or if there's anybody else still out there who's willing to help us."

[mark_in_the_sands]

"It will probably be less depressing if you guys go down a list of people who might be options than for us--" Cassie gestured to herself, Nightwing, and Kon, "--to start listing names and finding out who never existed here." Or didn't rate a mention as one of the dead.

[matchmadeinhell]

"I've got it all memorized," Kon said. "From reading the comics. So it's just a matter of asking these guys who's left aside from that."

Speed-reading. He wasn't able to retain things word for word - not even most of the Flashes could do that, only Kid Flash could. But he'd taken enough mental cliff's notes.

He leaned in closer to Nightwing.

"That means someone letting 'em know we're staying," he said quietly to Nightwing, eyes glancing over at Bats, "and doing it in a way that makes Bats understand he's not jerking our strings around for this. We either get a say in tactics or we do our own thing to fix it by ourselves, that's what I think."

Nightwing had the best chance of properly laying down the law and getting Bats to listen.

[goddamnwingman]

Yeah, the whole 'punching Batman' thing wasn't the most comfortable thing in the entire world for Dick to listen to. Not that he hadn't done the same thing in the past, but that had been different. Probably mostly because other people hadn't been debating it, first.

Not that the jock strap thing was much better.

He nodded when Kon spoke, though, and straightened up. Because, yeah, he agreed with him. And, honestly, he thought most of the Resistance would agree as well. Bruce might be the hardest, but he might not.

Finally, he turned, face as impassive as he could make it without being masked. "We're staying," he said, looking to each person there. "But there are stipulations." Another breath before he went on. "We don't do as you order us. We have a say in the tactics and in the planning. And that means all of us. We don't get dismissed just because we're not from this world."

[injustice_npcs]

"Sounds fair to me," Deadman said, turning to face Batman, arching one of Batwoman's eyebrows. "Doesn't it, Bruce."

[holydefendersbatman]

Batman stared at them all in silence for a moment, then finally relented, "Get them briefed on our situation and let them know what resources we have left. I'm going to talk to Oracle about giving them comm clearance."

With that, he swooped off.

[injustice_npcs]

"I'm going to let Batwoman take over from here," said Deadman.

Batwoman started in surprise when she was freed. She wasn't upset. She'd offered to let Deadman possess her at times he really needed to talk with the others.

"What's the situation?" she asked Renee Montoya.

[injustice_npcs]

"Bruce wants us to get them briefed," she said, "They've offered to stay and help - but only if they get a say in what goes down. And they wanna know who's left."

[injustice_npcs]

"You're looking at most of us," said Batwoman, "But I'll get you caught up."

However they'd gotten their information, there were still things they likely didn't know.

They were led to a large meeting table so they could come up with a plan of attack.