"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

[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.