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The Watchtower was breached.

They don’t know how. They don’t know why. But all the Heroes were either contained, taken down, or away from the tower at the moment.

It was an unprecedented event.

Admittedly a main part of it of the intruders’ success was because Batman was the first to go down. A gunshot wound to the chest and shoulder, which distracted Superman enough to not notice the Kryptonite, which set off an unfortunate chain reaction of captured heroes.

Now with half the League corralled to the center of the observation deck, tied up, and cuffed. The Heroes could only watch as guns stayed trained on their heaviest hitters.

“Batman…”

Superman tried to be as quiet as possible as the dark clad man was dumped next to him and his Kryptonite laced handcuffs… while the Dark Knight’s cuff seemed more complicated than most as the motion wrenched the man’s shot shoulder resulting in a gruff but quiet grunt.

“It’s handled.”

That was all he got as Batman sat up, a strange, quiet, clicking chirping sound seemed to come from his gauntlet. Superman almost missed it due to Batman’s increased heart rate, no doubt from the injury.

As expected Batman had a plan… and as much as Superman wants to ask he wasn’t going to willingly bring attention to it.

The group who invaded was largely unknown, unfamiliar, and bold. Using hired men to overwhelm them in numbers.

“I want full control of your satellite here.” The head man crouched down before them, “It will make for a good base of operations once I’m done dealing with all of you.”

“You won’t get away with this.” Superman tells him, not so calmly but not so upset, “You’ll have every hero not here planning to attack.”

“That may be true… if I didn’t have a signal blocker, nothing is getting through it so no call for help for you guys.” The man waves off the threat, “Now give me the code to the system so I can shut down your teleporters.”

“Like we will just hand them over!” Flash piped in, “You really think it works like that?”

“We can make it work that way.”

“Who hired you?” Batman asks, gritting against the pain, “You're not the one truly in charge are you? David Wellman.”

“So you know who I am?”

“Of course, I keep track of every crime and name that pops up in the case files.” Batman admits, “You come up a few times as a grunt for hire in various cities, not anyone who would have the money or capacity to pull something like this off.”

“Well you're right. As expected Batman.” David admits, casually waving his gun around, “I was paid to do this but an opportunity is an opportunity, I just need to play my role. Unfortunately for you, I don’t know who my beneficiaries so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t tell you.”

The man seemed to have no qualms about what he was doing as he slams his foot into Batman’s injuries.

“Now get me those codes.” He demands, grinding his heel in, “and no funny business or we’ll shoot you… again.”

…

“Oracle.”

“Yes, Batman?” The AI voice speaks from the now green screen of the monitor, “How can I assist you?”

“Initiate Code Transfer code 1MD-FBC-10.”

“Command Accepted: Please input methods of transfer and wait for System Reset.”

Several pairs of eyes watched in disbelief or curiosity as Batman gave them what he wanted.

“Seems like you're reasonable after all.” David says, sauntering over to the terminal to insert a thumb drive, “I was expecting to have to hurt you for a bit longer or start with someone else.”

The next moment the Watchtower fully powered down, lights shutting off covering them in darkness before rebooting back up moments later, the main floor lights turning back on immediately.

“Now then how does this-“

David’s question was cut off by the sounds of steps echoing off the hall beating to the Meta-tube, which was odd seeing as everyone was either here or not and the Tubes disabled.

From the darkened hall a well dressed older gentleman emerged, his face covered by a bat mask, hands clasped behind his back in a stiff and proper pose..

“Good Evening, gentlemen.” The Bat… Butler? greeted, “I must kindly ask you to release Master Batman and his colleagues at once.”

“Who the hell are you?” David demands, pointing his gun at him, “And how did you get up here?”

“I’m afraid I have no name to offer the likes of you.” The bat-butler tells him, “As for how I got here, I’m afraid that’s a secret. Now again, I politely ask that you repeat the league.”

“Or what?”

“Or you’ll find out that I am not as lenient or merciful as Master Batman.” A soft rumble started up down the hall drawing everyone’s attention to barely seen white-eyes of masks decorated the shadows. “Or rather, you’ll find that we aren’t as lenient as he is.”

“What the hell?!” David cursed, “Take care of them!”

The ringleader himself charged forward, ready to bash the old man with the butt if his gun but the rumble down the hall turned into a roar as a motorcycle speeds out of the shadows revealing The Red-Hoid while the Bat-Butler bows to them.

Right as he did, Red-hood swung his crowbar. At first everyone thought he was aiming for the old man but the metal stick passed right over his head and hit home right in David’s face. Red-hood swerves the bike around, making it skid to a stop between the butler and the ringleader.

“Hands off.” Red-Hood said, “If you know what’s good for you.”

“Red-Hood!!” Wonder Woman calls out, “Is this your doing?”

“Please.” The helmeted man says, “My beef is only with Batman, not you louts. This became a family matter, I’m the only one allowed to shoot B, ya hear me!”

Red-Hood kicked the now unconscious David. Besides him Batman huffs a bit.

“Now then, Gentlemen.” The Butler said, pulling out a shotgun from behind his back and cocking it, Red-Hood leaning his bike against him, a gun also locked and loaded, “Choose wisely.”

“You mess with the Bat, you get the Birds.”

Several shadows spring from the cover of the hall in a mix of colors and shades. One was a well known league candidate, Nightwing, much to their surprise and he gracefully maneuvers around guns and fist, laughing at each take down.

One in red moved not as gracefully but just as well, using various gadgets to take down his opponent, a girl in purple by his side laughing and throwing… Was that glitter?

Two shadowy blurs swept the gunmen up high, both moved with deadly precision to quickly knock each of them down.

One in yellow stood behind the butler, bending light to blind the shooters about to pull their triggers or to help temporarily make the others disappear from sight as Red-Hood shoots or bashes anyone who got to close.

It was clear these people were called by Batman, and worked well enough together as a team… but who were they?

“Hey! Watch where you throw people, Demon Brat!”

“Dodge better!” The smallest one yells back, kicking another person towards the one in red, “or is that too much for you to handle.”

“Not now you two.”

… Maybe not, they at least work well enough to handle this situation.

“Hello there!” The purple girl pops up in the middle of the hero pile, “I am here to help!”

“We are here to help.” The red one corrected as they both pulled out lock picks, “Got yourself into a real pickle for once, B.”

“Hmm.”

“Pain level?”

“Fine.”

“Right, any other issues or injuries?”

“Hn.”

“Got it.”

“Kid, there’s no way you understand him.” Green Lantern says, “He never answered honestly.”

“What? Speak for yourself. Of course I understood him.” Red said, looking at Green Lantern like he was being weird before Purple pops over, “Yeah, he agreed, his pain level is high but manageable and no other injuries besides the GSWs.”

“Batman, who are these people!?” Flash asks as Purple gets the dampener-cuffs off his wrist and starts in the ones on his ankles, “and why do they all know you?!”

“Hmm.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Red swats at Batman, “We know you're not much of talker B. To answer your question Flash… We are B’s… colleagues, we work with him in Gotham.”

“That’s certainly one way to put it.”

“Most of you don’t look old enough to be doing hero work.” Superman noted, jutting his chin toward the smallest one, “Especially that one.”

“Try and stop us.”

The grins the two gave them out most of them on edge because it didn’t sound like a challenge, it sounded like a threat.

“As long as you know what you are doing, I have no complaints.”

“Good.”

Several moments later, most of the league were free from their respective restraints and doing clean up.

The only one of the several strangers who stuck around was Nightwing, who was crouching besides Batman talking quietly.

“The hell is going on!?” David was now awake again, “Whatever you still have me the codes, Oracle was it? Self destruct or something.”

“Request denied.”

“What!?”

“Did you really think Batman was just going to hand over control of this place?” Nightwing asks, leaning sassily against Batman’s good shoulder, “If so then you're more stupid then we thought, you might want to go back to school or something.”

“Why you…”

“Ah ah ah.” Nightwing stops him, “Honestly you should know when to quit at this point.”

“Thanks for your help, Nightwing.” Wonder Woman offered her hand to the young hero, “But when did you join the League?”

“Oh I haven’t!” Nightwing grins, shaking her hands, “Mr Broody here won’t let me yet, anyways I’m out, B, P-one sends his usual threats about dinner time.”

Nightwing gave a two finger salute before causally accessing their Meta-tube that didn’t even announce his departure like it usually would.

“Alright Batman.” Superman turns to his colleague, “Who were those people, and why do they have access to the Watchtower, especially Red-Hood!”

“They are not a threat and Red-Hood is none of your concern.” Batman tells them, “He may be one of my rogues but he isn’t always on the wrong side as for the group… I’ll let you try to figure it out. Now that they’ve been seen you’ll likely see them more often now.”

“In that case, can we formally extend Nightwing an invitation to join?” Wonder Woman suggests, “That way we can keep an eye on him during his probation period.”

“You can.” Batman stands, ready to leave. “But Nightwing wasn’t fully honest.”

“About what?”

“I’m not the only reason he hasn’t joined the League yet.”

“What does that mean!?”

But Batman was already gone.

“Wait! He never got his injuries checked out!”

“It’s Batman, he’ll be fine.”

…

…

“So much for ‘I work alone’ am I right, guys?”