My feet landed on good, solid, old Earth.
There was a snap, followed by a hard push of air. I looked over my shoulder and found no portal waiting behind me, only the crushed rubble of the STAR Labs facility. No strange red sky or weird alien monsters.
Thank God.
Godspeed, my wondrous little robot. We were partners for a short time, but I'll never forget you.
[Feat Achieved! Not My Planet, Not My Problem]
[+1 Diamond Gacha Ticket]
The thrill of what had just happened shot straight up my spine.
I bent over as a small laugh escaped my chest, then another, and another, until I couldn't stand anymore and fell onto my back. The ground was rough and covered in dust, but I didn't care.
I just cackled with everything I had.
What… the fuck just happened?
[Rolling Diamond Gacha Ticket]
[Ichor]
|Epic Trait|
It is Ichor that flows through your veins, granting you extreme vitality, a natural healing factor, and incredible resistance to poison and disease. Even as a regular human, you will live to see your late thousands. Your blood also has healing properties and serves as an excellent potion ingredient.
I felt something in my body sing as something inside me changed. The tiredness and aches sloughed away, replaced by a rush of fresh energy.
"I'm fucking unbeatable!" My voice tore out of me, renewed with unspent energy. "No one can stop me!"
"Are you sure?"
A voice asked from above.
My eyes trailed upward, and I was greeted by a sight anyone in the world would recognize.
A flowing red cape draped over a blue suit. A red and yellow S sat dead center on the chest of a tall man. Blue eyes stared back at me with a slightly admonishing look.
"Would you mind coming with me, young man?" Superman asked.
Well, shit.
I stared up at the big man in blue and contemplated my chances.
But, well… it was Superman. I wasn't Lex Luthor, and I'd rather not harass literally one of the greatest heroes in the world.
Even if I could win with luck, I'd rather not throw him onto some alien planet.
I raised one finger.
"I'll surrender on one condition."
Superman looked perplexed as he nodded.
"Simply…"
—
Bruce scowled as he looked over the rubble of the facility.
Of course, this had to happen just as Gotham regained some faint semblance of peace.
A disaster of nearly unprecedented scale, one that could have ruined Gotham, had happened right under his nose. The splattered remains of the League of Shadows assassins scattered throughout the facility did nothing to improve his mood.
He forced his mind steady, keeping a tight lid on his anger. A quick glance back showed Cassandra and Damian standing perfectly fine a short distance away, both keeping watch. Stephanie was the only one hurt, leaning against a wall while Zatanna crouched beside her and worked on healing her leg.
Damn any researcher or League members who tried to stop him. Once this was done, he would see every Amazo remnant destroyed and disposed of thoroughly.
Had things gone differently tonight, one of his children could have been among the bodies.
His glare shifted toward part of the root cause of his distress.
The bound forms of nearly a dozen supervillains lay groggily across the floor, wrapped together in various groups by bent steel girders.
Clark's first visit during his break from the Reach fiasco had been fortunate. Had he not been in Gotham, it was more than likely that a few of them would have slipped past him and Zatanna.
Or, more likely, left this world entirely.
His scowl returned as he eyed the tiny, defunct nanite bomb that had been extracted from one of the villains.
No doubt a countermeasure meant to clean up loose ends.
It was extremely lucky that both Clark and Zatanna had been with him. Removing the bombs safely and quickly would have been almost impossible without all three of them working together.
A black ops operation like this, one that required the release of several imprisoned villains, no doubt had government backing. He had a sneaking suspicion about who was responsible as well.
Waller was not going to walk away from this unscathed.
But those were tasks for later. For now, he needed to deal with the elephant in the room, because the rather enormous number of fortunate coincidences involved in his arrival hadn't escaped him.
Hopefully, Clark would be able to find him.
It was about time he met this enigmatic Jean Valjean.
He would get to the bottom of this dangerous crime boss and reveal–
"Wheeee!"
A happy voice rang through the air.
Bruce turned toward the sky and twitched at what he saw.
Jean Valjean was being carried through the air by Clark, held above his head in the classic flying superhero pose, one arm stretched forward as if he were flying himself. Clark, to his credit, looked only mildly embarrassed as he brought the man down toward the ruined facility.
Bruce's lips thinned as the pair touched down. He shot his friend a silent look, because Jean Valjean was very much unbound beyond a simple pair of wires hastily wrapped around his wrists.
Bruce highly doubted they did anything to inhibit the man's more esoteric abilities.
Clark at least had the decency to look embarrassed.
"He said he'd surrender peacefully if I did it."
"Yep!" Jean Valjean preened. "A Union Leader's word is their bond."
He shot finger guns at Clark.
"Ten out of ten, my man. Flying through the air like that was on my bucket list."
Clark, the ever-paragon of politeness, only smiled and shook Jean Valjean's damn hand like they were friends.
Goddammit, Clark.
"Jean Valjean." Bruce pitched his voice into its deepest register, his body positioned to be as intimidating as possible. "Cooperation—"
"Batman!" the crime boss said brightly, completely unbothered by his presence. "Don't worry, I'll tell you everything. Wouldn't want to suffer, Batman the Ball Cutter."
Clark turned his face away, but failed to hide the snort that escaped him.
Bruce suppressed the urge to close his eyes.
He was never going to live that down, was he?
"Speak," Bruce continued, ignoring the slight despair that came with that thought.
"Of course." Jean Valjean gave a small nod.
The man began recounting the events from his perspective. The appearance of the stray gray monster of seemingly alien origin was worrying, but Bruce could only file that away for later. The sequence of events Jean Valjean described was largely the same as what he had gathered from his protégés and the captured villains.
There were omissions, of course. The man's abilities were either brushed over or avoided entirely, which was expected.
But the latter parts of the story...
"You're saying you ran into it?" Bruce asked, his composure cracking under the sheer absurdity of the final sequence of events.
"Yep!" Jean Valjean said, flashing him a lopsided smile. "Last I saw, Amazo and the gray monster were going crazy fighting everything."
Clark and Bruce shared a worried look.
How was he supposed to react to the fact that two monsters had apparently been left loose on Apokolips?
Or the fact that another Boom Tube had opened in Gotham at all?
Bruce felt a headache beginning to form.
Was the extent of this man's luck really that far-reaching?
He was going to have to update the file again.
"...I see," Bruce grunted. "Thank you. I will relay your cooperation to the commissioner when you're arrested."
"Arrested?" Jean Valjean smiled. "For what?"
"Breaking and entering, destruction of property, and several other offenses," Bruce said. "Unless you're claiming those are no longer crimes?"
"Why, of course not. I call that being a hero!" Jean Valjean said it without a shred of shame. "By those standards, shouldn't your three little friends be arrested as well? Not like they had a warrant to enter the lab."
The man simply spread his hands wide and smiled.
"My heroic endeavors did save Gotham, did they not?"
Bruce felt a mild flicker of annoyance, mostly because he had walked himself straight into that one.
Jean Valjean got under his skin far more than he liked to admit.
"Is there anyone who would support your purported nature as a hero?" Bruce asked dryly.
"Of course…"
Jean Valjean paused, then hummed as if the answer had just occurred to him.
"Why, I bet Bruce Wayne himself would vouch for me!"
Bruce went very still.
"…What?"
***
Sorry for the Slight Delay!
***
Sorry for the delay! Schedule should return back to normal this week.
Comments and Thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Likes are like a drug to me and boost my creative juices.
I have advanced chapters on my Pa tre on/daisyberry if you wanna read ahead.