A/N: This story takes place during Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. I’m pretty sure I used a little liberty here and there.
“Small Price”
“Now we destroy that device.”
Lex Luthor narrowed his eyes at Green Lantern. “First, we have to find it.”
As one, the Justice League turned toward Superwoman, who laughed demonically while still held tight by the gurder. “You think I’m going to tell you?”
“You don’t know.” Batman’s growling voice declared. He bent down low to glare at her vicious features. “Owlman never told you where the device is.”
Superwoman started. “No one but Owlman knows where it is.”
“I know someone who would” Lex admitted, looking away from the League’s questioning eyes.
“No,” she argued. “Owlman trusts no one.”
“You’re right,” Lex agreed. “He doesn’t.”
*^*^*
As they
arrived as the high-rise penthouse in
“Owlman’s place,” Lex muttered.
And so it was. Though the place had mostly glass for walls, it looked like an above ground version of the Batcave with a sophisticated computer rising high above the rest of the headquarters. Workout areas hung low along with medical facilities and out the back, an apartment. Most of that, however, was encased in opaque walls and secluded from the eyes of the world.
The scream of tearing steel swiveled the Justice League, and Superwoman took off in a blink. “I know who you’re going after,” she said in a singsong voice and disappeared into the apartment.
“Follow her!” Lex screamed madly.
“Why?” Flash zipped to his side. “Who could be—”
Lex appeared as if he had super speed when he flew into the headquarters.
As he Justice League followed, they heard the strangled shout, follow by the muffled grunting. Superman quickly scanned the headquarters with his vision before gasping, “No…”
He broke through three walls to land in the kitchen with the Justice League behind him for support. The kitchen was larger than most but smaller than it should have been in a large place such as this. The tiles were currently wet from a shattered bowl and spilled milk. An enraged Lex Luthor faced off with Superwoman, his hands out in front of him to blast the villainess.
Only he couldn’t.
Not while she held a young boy, perhaps sixteen at the most, tight in her grip. His hair was raven black and his eyes sparkling sapphire. He wore nice clothing—a Tommy Hilfiger shirt and Gucci jeans—in exchange for the black-eye and huge scar scraping his cheek. His eye trembled, but whether from the sight of the new Justice League or the cold fingers laced about his neck, no one could tell.
The boy struggled against the hold, but Superwoman giggled in his ear, causing him to squirm.
“This was who you were looking for, right, Lex?” she hissed, then brushed the back of hand along his cheek.
The boy flinched noticeably.
Batman pulled out two batarangs and stepped forward. “Let him go.”
“And why would I do that? He’s my bargaining chip. After all, that’s what your Justice League does, isn’t it? Save innocents, and there’s no one more innocent than Dick Grayson.”
“I’m not asking again,” Batman demanded.
Superwoman chortled, haughty and braying. “Please. What can you possibly do to me, and why would you even want to? Who is this boy but a waif?” As if in emphasis, she ran her fingers along his collarbone and laid her chin upon his head. “An orphan with no one to look after him. Why do you care about that?”
“You have no idea,” Superman breathed.
Lex’s brow furled, and his already stern face tensed. “Now.”
A slow cackle erupted from Superwoman’s malevolent soul. “Now what?”
Dick’s eyes flashed from Batman to Lex Luthor, the fear dissipated, his eyes blazing with anger.
Lex nodded once. “Now.”
“Lexie, dear, whatever do you—”
“He wasn’t talking to you,” Dick rasped, and his left arm suddenly glowed gold. With a swift elbow to Superwoman’s stomach, he freed his neck, albeit not without scratches, and pivoted in perfect martial arts’ form. He kicked up, his sneaker now connecting with her chin. As she flew back, he blasted two shot of gold power from his palms, hitting her directly in the stomach. She crashed to the floor, unconscious, at the floor of the refrigerator, right in a puddle of milk.
Dick flicked his left wrist, and the gold force fields about his hands shrunk down into a black wrist-hugger. “About time you showed up, Lex. Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you, but—”
Lex’s hand encircled Dick’s forearm, stopping the boy firmly. “Are you all right?”
Dick smiled gently, dismissing any fears the older man had. “Yeah. I hate when she comes at me like I’m a piece of meat, but it’s nothing I can’t—”
His eyes widened, causing Lex to look over his shoulder. Batman lunged, shoving Lex against an intact wall. The two batarangs sliced along his neck like Superwoman’s nails on Dick’s.
“You let a boy infiltrate Owlman’s stronghold?”
Lex narrowed his eyes. “We don’t have time for this.”
“We’re making time,” Martian Manhunter clipped, coming to Batman’s side. “Placing a minor in the hands of a psychopath—”
“First of all, minor in question is actually twenty-five,” Dick interjected, coming to place his hands on Batman’s. With one shove, he forced the man away. “Thomas Wayne de-ages me once a year, so he could still use me as his servant without having an imprisonment case for the government to use against him. This way, I’m still his minor, so it’s really just child slavery.” He laughed.
Lex regarded him sternly. “It’s not funny.”
“To you, maybe, but I have a sense of humor.”
Lex slapped him across the back of the head. “Like I said, we don’t have time for this. Do you know where Owlman’s holding the planetary destroyer?”
“Planetary destroyer? Is that what you think it is?” When Luthor nodded, Dick motioned for them to follow. He didn’t walk, though. He ran. “It’s not a planetary destroyer! It’s a dimensional destroyer!”
“A dimensional destroyer?” Flash questioned.
Dick led the group up the stairs to the large computer where he immediately plopped down in the seat and swiveled to the computer. He typed frantically. “Yeah, Tommy’s gonna take the device to Earth-Prime and detonate it, which will, in turn, detonate every dimension afterward until everything and everyone is destroyed.”
“We have to stop him,” Green Lantern proclaimed.
“No duh. What I don’t understand is how Tommy even knows about Earth-Prime.”
“Tommy?” Wonder Woman asked.
Dick glanced over his shoulder at her. “You look an unsettling amount like Superwoman.”
Lex put a hand on Dick’s shoulder. “Focus.”
Dick sighed and recommenced typing, going through file after file. “Owlman’s name is Thomas Wayne, Jr. He became the criminal because his mother and little brother were killed in front of him after a movie when he was a kid.”
“His brother?” Batman asked.
Dick nodded. “Yeah, Bruce. Apparently, Thomas’s dad was a police officer, and he was on it. Tommy hurts his father every day being the criminal he is.”
Superman narrowed his eyes on the computer. “And how do you fit into all this?”
“Dick’s parents were victims of one of Owlman’s made men power trips, so he tried to go after the killers,” Lex explained. “That led him to Owlman, who gave Dick the opportunity to become his protégé.”
Green Lantern scanned the area, making sure Superwoman was still unconscious. “And you took it?”
Dick shook his head. “No. I told him I wanted to see him before a judge. He laughed at me and decided to keep me as a servant.”
“You haven’t tried to escape?” Flash demanded.
“No,” J’onn’s serene voice voiced. “He stayed to gather evidence for a federal case against Owlman.”
“I met Dick during one of the Justice League’s operations to gather our own information,” Lex explained, a protective hand still on Dick’s shoulder. “The Jester and I were injured, and Dick hid us until we were well enough to escape. Since then, I’ve been teaching Dick and helping him when Owlman tosses him into the other dimensions.”
“Where is the Jester?” Dick asked.
Silence greeted him. Slowly, he turned toward Lex who simply hardened his hand upon Dick’s shoulder.
Dick turned back toward the screen, crestfallen, and typed.
Flash looked about the room. “Sorry, but what was that about other dimensions?”
Everyone looked at Lex, who continued with a heavy sigh. “As punishment for any disobedience, Owlman tossed Dick into another dimension for a few hours, if not weeks, with a device attached to him to recall. I come and stay with him until Owlman calls him back.”
“And teach him to survive,” Batman interjected. “He is—was a child. You should have separated him from someone who would—”
Dick swiveled in the chair. “Why do you care?”
Batman remained silent, his face stoic.
“Why do you care? Who are you on your planet? Owlman?”
Slowly, Batman slipped his cowl off his face, much to Dick’s discomfort, but Dick said nothing, realizing the resemblance. Any uneasiness he had eased when Batman tore of a piece of his cape off and pressed down the bleeding cuts across Dick’s neck.
Like most times, no words were needed
With a grateful smile, Dick swiveled back to the computer and brought up a map. “Tommy’s too smart to leave something around I could find, but here’s a blueprint of the Syndicate’s base. There’s a section here that’s been reinforced with granite.”
“Granite?”
“The one thing that Ultra Man can’t see through.”
“So that’s it?” Green Lantern punched his left fist into his right palm. “Then let’s get going.”
Dick once more whirled in his chair and clipped on an earpiece. “I’ll place Superwoman into one of Owlman’s holding cells, and then give up support from—”
Lex turned the seat manually. “It’s over.”
“What is?”
“The Justice League is right, and…and it’s time that you finally find sanctuary.”
Dick cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Lex ran a gentle hand along the newly drawn scar on Dick’s cheek. “This wasn’t here the last time I saw you. What happened?”
The younger man looked away.
Lex whispered, “Who was it? The bitch or the bastard?”
“Does it matter?”
“They will never touch you again.”
Dick met his eyes, his own blazing. “You don’t need to protect me.”
“I know I don’t need to, but I want to.” Lex hesitated for a moment before raking his hand through Dick’s hair. “I’ve allowed this to go on too long. You are not my responsibility but my family. You are the reason I continue this campaign, and you are the reason I will not yield until they pay for what they have done. And I can’t go in there wondering if you’re okay, if you will be okay.”
“But what if you—”
“My life is a small price to pay for yours. Now, let me give it, will you?”
Dick matched the soft emotions in Lex’s eyes. “Don’t die on me. You’re the only one I have left.”
Lex clutched the boy’s forearm. “I won’t.”
*^*^*
“I was thinking about recruitment.”
Batman opened the door to the monitor womb to see Aquaman and Black Canary fixing the wiring, Firestorm cleaning the excess debris with Black Lightning, and a familiar black and blue figure at the main screen. The last man turned from the console and walked toward the Justice League.
“Main power has been reconnected. The teleporter is once more working, but you seriously have to get the number of a good pizza delivery place,” Nightwing said as he stopped in front of the group. “Now, what was this about recruitment?”
Batman waited a full moment before snatching the younger man by the neck and forcing him through the doorway. “Ow! Ow!”
He finally let Nightwing go “No.”
Nightwing rubbed the back of his neck and gave Batman a sideways glance. “No? Just like that?”
Batman hesitated. “I would appreciate your disassociation from this endeavor.”
“Just like that, I don’t get a seat—even after your recruits called me when you disappeared and asked me what to do.”
“I would appreciate your adherence to this request.”
Nightwing glared at Batman, defiant, before he threw up his hands. “Fine. Since you asked so nicely…” He headed toward the teleporter. “But I’m coming home for dinner on Friday, and I want take-out.”
Nightwing punched in the coordinates before Batman called, “Nightwing?”
“Yeah?”
“…Thank you.”
“Don’t
thank me now. I want Chinese from
Batman rolled his eyes but held back a grin before heading into the monitor womb. For his son’s life, it was a small price to pay.
THE END