Justice - Black_Victor_Cachat - One Piece [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: The Heroes

Chapter Text

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"So why're we both here, Perry?" Lois Lane demanded as soon as she stepped into her editor's office.

Truthfully, Clark Kent, her fellow reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper, was a little nervous about her coming along. Unlike her, he had a better idea of what they were about to get into, and there were still a few mysteries about this upcoming assignment that bothered him. Still, he trusted Batman's intel, and while Lois was smart and resourceful on her own, he would be there to protect her if necessary.

Having Clark Kent alongside the tough-minded and fiery woman seemed far from reassuring to most, except Clark went to a lot of effort to make people underestimate him. Clothing always slight wrinkled, a habitual slouch that made him appear smaller and slightly overweight, dull glasses that slightly changed the tint of his eyes, and a carefully cultivated air that made people ignore him unless he was firing off piercing and insightful questions as a reporter. Yet underneath that well-made yet unimaginative suit was the red and blue uniform of Superman, the world's mightiest hero.

Gruffly, Editor-in-Chief Perry White put down some papers he was holding to explain. "I want the two of you to check out a new company that's come out in the last year: Cherry Blossom Medical. The reason I want the two of you is because Kent's sources have brought up a few questions."

Lois frowned in thought at the name. "I've been hearing about them a lot lately, now that I think about it. They're making a lot of breakthroughs in medicine, aren't they? Weird logo for a medical company though, a skull and crossbones with pink blossoms all over it."

Adjusting his glasses, Clark nodded. "Yes, but despite that marketing issue, they’re getting huge business thanks to their developments all across the medical field. Especially in terms of surgery, pharmacology, vaccinations, and salves that cure regular injuries at a staggering rate. According to my sources," a.k.a. Batman, "they're also selling their products at less than most companies would, despite how people would be willing to pay a lot more for them. Of course, since it’s so popular and cheap, they're still making a lot of money, and growing very fast."

"Alright," and then she smiled at Clark, "so what's the catch, Smallville? What're they hiding?"

"That's what you're going to find out," Perry declared, "especially with what else Kent has to say."

Lois stopped for a moment in thought. "It's something to do with Lex Luthor, isn't it? That many advances from one company, and being so charitable and all."

"Try to be more objective, Lane," Perry warned. "Luthor's not responsible for everything. But no, and in a way it's actually even more suspicious because of that."

"Lots of companies, including both Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp, have been trying to buy the company," Clark explained, "except none of them have been successful."

"Alright," Lois agreed with raised eyebrows, "that is suspicious. I know Bruce Wayne's smart and got good people working for him, and if they think it would be a good deal, they'd do all they could to get a hold of Cherry Blossom. Just legally. But keeping Lex out!? How're they doing that!?"

Unspoken between Lois and Clark was the knowledge, loathe as they were to admit it, that Lex was absolutely brilliant, and if the multi-billionaire thought Cherry Blossom was a good deal, then they should probably think of investing in stock themselves. But what was very surprising was the megalomaniac had failed. The man was very skilled at convincing people that they should 'cooperate' with him. He would use bribery, blackmail, threats, violence, whatever it took to get them where they were vulnerable.

Not that they had ever proven anything.

"We'll find out whatever it is, Chief," Lois promised.

"See that you do."

"But why isn't Jimmy," their main photographer, "here?"

The older man coughed awkwardly at that. "There's some other photos I want him to catch, yet I also thought it would be best not to have pictures this time, might distract from the Daily Planet's image," he explained as he hunted for a particular piece of paper. "The main staff don't get out in public much, but here's a photo of Dr. Nami Mikan," and he showed Lois the image.

"…No way those are real."

!JUSTICE!

It was an almost surreal sight.

The sun was bearing down on an unusually hot day, traffic was backed up for blocks to get onto the bridge, but everyone was patiently waiting. Some of the cars just joining the line started angrily honking their horns, until those ahead of them popped their heads out of the window to calmly explain and/or point at a distinctive green glow that would settle everyone down as they realized who was responsible for the delay.

They trusted the hero to have a good reason, and know what he was doing.

John Stewart, or as he was more commonly known, Green Lantern, flew back a few more meters to survey his work. The African-American former marine turned space cop had been flying home, wanting nothing more than his bed, when out of the corner of the eye he had caught something wrong with the bridge. A quick inspection revealed that one side of it over the water, blocked from most viewpoints by trees or from facing the ocean, was starting to look a little unstable. Maybe it would have been safe to wait a few more hours, except it would have been criminal to take the risk. Never mind supervillains or alien invasions destabilizing it, what if an earthquake happened?

A little work via his power ring, creating green constructs to act as the necessary tools, and it was looking much better now. He waved to the people watching in their cars (he had blocked traffic from getting on for a few minutes to be safe, but none of them seemed to mind) and flew off. I'll find out who's responsible for this and let them know exactly what I did so they can double-check tomorrow. They were probably sending someone any day now, but this is safer and saves tax payers money. And if they weren't on the ball after all, then it'll serve as a polite wake-up call. I'll still check them out later, and get Batman to help me go through their records to make sure this isn't the result of shoddy work to pay off any kickbacks, he grimly promised.

!JUSTICE!

From the very start Clark was nervous, and glad he had his Superman costume on underneath his suit.

"Doesn't look like much," Lois noted, taking in the generic, yet newly constructed building. "For an up and coming company, they sure aren't worried about public image."

No, Clark thought, but I'd say they are worried about people spying on them, given how the walls are lined with lead. His X-ray vision was useless here.

They went in to see the receptionist, who verified that they had an appointment, although then the pretty woman took a furtive glance around before leaning towards Lois. "The CEO, he's just all talk, alright? Never touches anyone, and will back off if you tell him to." Before they could ask any questions, she called the CEO to say that two reporters from the Daily Planet were here, and the cheerful voice told them to come right in.

"Well helloooooo~! It's such a pleasure to graced by the enchanting presence of the Lois Lane~!" the man behind the desk cried out, before swooping out to appear before her with a variety of cups on a tray, extended with an exaggerated flourish. "Something to drink~?"

Despite the tantalizing aromas, Lois tightly refused. The way the man looked her over making her feel slimy.

"Uhm, I'd—" Clark began.

"I wasn't talking to you!" the blonde man snapped, grinding on his cigarette, before throwing a lustful look back at Lois. "Can we start the interview please?" she coldly asked.

"Why of course~!" and the supposed CEO all but danced backwards to pull out a seat for Lois. There was none for Clark.
"We'll stand and you can sit," she told him, and he agreeably took a seat behind his desk. "Sanji Kuroashi at your service. You can call me Sanji, Lois~!" he beamed, before glowering at Clark. "Mr. Kuroashi for you, and don't forget it!"

Unbelievable, Lois thought. This guy can't be in charge! They'd never get anything done. . . . No, alright, calm down. It could be an act. Maybe even probably, given how over-the-top it is. If I have to, I'll just turn on the charm with him, telling Smallsville to give us some space. If all else fails, I hit him and scream while Clark gets the police to lock this creep up.

Privately, Clark was vowing to never leave this man alone with Lois, no matter what she said. He was far too dangerous, and not in the way she was probably thinking.

At first glance, Mr. Kuroashi, if that was his real name, had a thin yet wiry build which implied he kept himself in shape, if only casually. Kryptonian X-ray vision however revealed that like his friend Bruce, the Batman, there was more here than met the eye, but on a greater scale. There was a staggering physique compacted under that skin.

Powerful, wiry muscles that were beyond anything a human could naturally develop. The more that he examined them, the more Clark felt they were more like his own in terms of scale, especially the leg muscles. He had only seen such development in the Flash. No, there was no doubt that Kuroashi was a meta-human, and one with incredible strength.

Given the hints of secrecy and his behaviour, it was very possible Kuroashi was also a dangerous meta-human.

"I can't place your accent," Lois began, deciding to lead with some easy questions. "I'd almost swear it was Japanese, but I'm not sure. Where are you from?" Especially since the man sported clearly Caucasian features and hair colour.

"Wherever you want me to be from," Kuroashi said with transparent effort to appear seductive. He then paused to pull out another cigarette to light it.

"You smoke that inside?" Lois noted with some surprise. While she was not one to judge on such a thing, it was something generally considered as unprofessional. Although what about him is professional? Except for that suit. I admit it is pretty classy. Just about the only good thing about him.

"Why not?" he shrugged while retaining his 'suave' smile, his blond hair still covering his right eye. "I'm the boss here after all."

"Your name, 'Kuroashi,' that's Japanese for 'Black Leg' or 'Black Foot,' isn't it?" Clark said, having picked up a little of the language.

"Maybe, what's it matter?" Kuroashi growled.

Deciding that beating around the bush was getting nowhere, Lois switched to the offensive. "It's really amazing what you've done with this company, Sanji," she said with the slightest flutter of her eyelashes. Surprisingly, the man became more serious.

"I'm just handling the business side of things, and part time at that. This is really a favour for my friend, who's the real expert. His dream is to find a cure for all of the world's illnesses."

"So you're doing it to make the world a better place?" Lois sweetly asked, noting how the CEO had said "his dream," while Dr. Mikan was a woman.

"Well, it's good publicity, and keeping prices low makes it more appealing for most people," the CEO countered with a small grin. Surprisingly, once he was focused on this new topic, he almost seemed suave. "That means people are more willing to try our products out, and then find out how superior we are. Give us enough time," his smile turning into a smirk, "we'll put all of the other companies out of business, and be able to expand our operations further."

"And then you'll raise your prices?" Lois accused.

"Oh no, Lois!" he cried out, looking both horrified at upsetting her and infatuated. "I'd never do something like that if it'd offend you! Our prices will continue to remain low!"

"But how did you achieve such breakthroughs," Clark interjected, hoping to rile the man up by 'interfering' between him and Lois again. It made people sloppy. Contrarily, the blonde kept his cool, his smile widening out of pride.

"That's because we've got the best doctor in whole world working here."

He answered a few more questions in a calm, comfortable manner, yet the veteran reporters were not fooled. Not only was he carefully avoiding giving any more solid details, there was an air of rehearsal to this. As if he were playing a role he had practiced for, as opposed to genuinely being a CEO. Granted, he had said he was not really into this, but given the massive amount of money the company was making, and his wannabe-playboy demeanor, such altruism was harder to swallow.

However, Lois also realized he was procrastinating. "Could we perhaps meet with Dr. Mikan?"

"Certainly!" and the maniac edge had returned to Sanji Kuroashi. Pushing a speed-dial button on his desk phone, he quickly crooned out, "Nami-swaaaaan~! Those reporters would like to speak with you~!"

"Be there in a minute!" a bright young voice answered back, yet Clark caught the same accent. Japanese too. Hmm, 'mikan' means 'tangerine,' right?

!JUSTICE!

As much as she wanted to make them suffer, Princess Diana, Wonder Woman, kept herself in check as she tied the scum up to a handy pole with strips of metal she casually bent in her hands.

Some of those girls aren't even ten! she silently snarled to herself as she struggled to keep her face a mask.

Hollow-eyed, they were huddled behind her, desperately trying to make themselves small enough that she might not see them. Afraid that this violent newcomer was but one more in a chain of abusers. Violators. Owners.

It was the ones with rage and pain in their eyes that concerned Diana however.

They know they're being rescued, and want to use this chance to hurt their captors. Not just kill them, hurt them. Torture them to make them feel the sort of pain they've been forced through. But if I let them do that, let them give in to that sort of violence, it'll only be harder for them to come back.

They might think it'll give them closure, but that's not what we can allow ourselves to teach the children. The ones who will inherit this world.

Millennia ago, before isolating themselves from the world and guarding the gate to Tartarus, Diana's mother and sister Amazons had been subjected to enslavement, rape, murder, and torment at the hands of men, and it was on days like this she wondered if anything had really changed in Man's World. But it must, because there is so much potential for good in all of them. That's why it's up to us to protect them from the monsters, and help them heal from the violations and sufferings inflicted upon them, by those who think they can do whatever they wish.

No matter how much it pained Diana to hold back against these human traffickers. Suppressing her own desire to wreak vengeance in the girls' place. And yes, her own mother and sisters had rebelled and killed their own enslavers, except that was a different time, and not the world she was trying to help build here and now; not only one where this sort of thing did not happen, but one where death was not answered by death. Yes, sometimes it was the only solution, yet that did not mean she wanted to teach it to a bunch of young girls. It became a trap that was too easy to fall into…

For if we want to change the world, then we've got to hold ourselves to that same standard, to prove that change is possible. Or as my mother always said, 'Lead by example, or they will not follow.'

!JUSTICE!

While an attractive, smart, and independent woman in her own right, Lois Lane was finding herself having a tough time believing the same of Dr. Nami Mikan from the moment she sauntered into the room. And no, Lois did not miss how Smallsville's gaze snapped to the woman's oversized bust.

It was not jealousy or disbelief that any woman could be both a brilliant scientist and attractive; the veteran reporter simply had a hard time believing that this vision of beauty spent any time doing hard work of any kind. Her waist-length fiery red hair shone with a healthy gleam that bespoke meticulous and time consuming care. While she wore a lab coat over everything, Lois found it hard to believe that someone supposedly working with chemicals and medical instruments would wear a very high skirt, and her very low and exposing frilled dark blouse was open nearly all the way, displaying her massive and obviously silicone cleavage. Does she even have a bra on!?

Then she caught the woman's eyes, and recognized them from her own reflection.

No, Lois knew. She might be a fraud –what kind of self-respecting scientist would dress like that!?— but she's not just some vapid exhibitionist. Dr. Mikan gave her and Clark a quick once-over, but in a way that Lois knew was to judge their own reactions. Subtle calculations directed towards deciphering the reporters' own intentions, and not in a cynical manner either. This was not a woman who dressed herself up for the sake of the men in her life, nor for their attention. She dressed as she wanted, because it was her body and she looked glorious like this.

This is a woman who's used to getting what she wants, and isn't afraid to do whatever it takes to get it. For all that she dresses like that, I doubt she's into casual romance. I'm still going to chew Clark up for staring at her chest however. Ugh, he's still glued to it.

!JUSTICE!

Dr. Jonathan fiddled with his sleeve as he prepared to begin his rounds, looking forward to his newest shift. There were always patients to help at Central City Hospital, but things here were a lot calmer these days, without anything truly serious for a while.

Then he was hauled off his feet and his surroundings blurred around him. Blinking he found himself suddenly in the emergency room, a pair of children stretched out before him, heavily burnt and— a quick check confirmed they were not breathing.

Leaping into action, the doctor raced to save them, assistants and medical instruments appearing around him in flashes of red.

An eternity later, the exhausted medical doctor walked out of the room, finding a man in a full-body skintight red suit anxiously tapping his foot. "They're going to be okay, Flash. You got them the help they needed just in time," he addressed Central City's beloved hero.

With a sigh of relief, the Flash, secretly Wally West, allowed himself to relax. While many called him the 'Fastest Man Alive,' Dr. Jonathan had always privately referred to him as the 'Friendliest Man Alive,' always looking out to help people, and connect with them. "There's new treatments we've started by Cherry Blossom Medical that should keep them from getting any scars. But what happened to them?"

"Big fire in an apartment complex," Flash explained, while an orderly diligently came up with a cart laden down with food. Brightening up a little, the speedster immediately began shovelling down food to appease his hyper metabolism. Continuing, "I think it was someone smoking indoors or something, and it got out of control." Wiping his face, Flash finished off the massive meal, and started towards the door with a determined stride.

"The children'll want to thank you when they come to," Jonathan called after him.

"I'll be back later, I've got to take care of something else first."

"What?"

Preparing for a massive run, the Flash shot a look back. "Putting smoke alarms in every household and apartment in the city, and checking the batteries of those that're already there."

"Wait!"

Braking, Flash stumbled for a moment, before turning back to see the doctor and orderly pulling out their wallets. "The fire department will probably cover the expense, but here's some to help pay for it all," Jonathan grimly yet sincerely offered.

Seeing the speedster smile again was infectious for the whole hospital.

!JUSTICE!

Clark could not take his x-ray vision off Dr. Mikan's breasts.

First of all, he had discovered that despite how oversized they were, particularly for someone whose waistline was so thin, they were —somehow— indeed 100% natural.

Second, like the rest of her body, they were still hiding stuff.

Specifically, crammed between the massive pair was a baton made up of strange and unrecognizable technology, as well as an assortment of other objects.

Moreover, while nowhere in the same class as Sanji Kuroashi, her seemingly flawless body concealed a coiled physique that would put a Navy SEAL to shame.

While she might present herself as a beautiful scientist, this woman could doubtlessly run faster and hit harder than any non-Amazonian human woman Clark had ever met. Instinctively he knew that this was the result of hard training, born from a desire to survive whatever the world could throw at her. What made such a woman feel the need to develop a body like that?

I don't want to leave either of these people alone with Lois, each of whom had discrete ear pieces hidden by their hair, but if we leave now, we might tip them off. Not to mention I'll never be able to convince her to get out of here! Her courage, despite being so fragile, was one of the things he so loved about Lois. And while it was not a reckless, foolhardy courage, there was nothing he could use to justify why he thought she was in danger.

These people are more than they seem, and they're both fighters. How far would they go to protect their secrets?

Clark glanced at Kuroashi and gave a gulp that was only half-faked. The man was evidently trying to set the reporter on fire with his eyes, visibly struggling to resist the urge to say something or attack. He's jealous? But while he's also treating Lois that way? Clark let a hint of contempt show in his eyes. Shameful.

!JUSTICE!

Shayera Hol, known to the people of Earth as Hawkgirl, gently laid the kitten into the arms of elderly woman. "Hopefully he's learned not to climb trees anymore," she smiled. Then she gently spreading the feathered wings on her back to take off, making sure to not disturb the grateful senior with a gust of wind.

While still vigilantly keeping an eye out as she performed a random patrol, Shayera took a moment to breath in the peace of this planet. A peace that her fellow Thangarians had not known for far too long. And it'll stay that way! she vowed. These people will never have to grow up knowing threats like the Gordanians!

That was why she was here after all. Why High Command had sent such a skilled lieutenant and former instructor in espionage to infiltrate this world with the mission of determining Earth's weaknesses in case the Gordanians attacked them. When she had first arrived, so far away from the front lines of the seemingly endless war and its atrocities, she had been skeptical that the fighting would reach here. As time had passed, and particularly after joining with her fellow defenders and heroes to repel the Imperium Invasion, she had discovered many things that might attract the Gordanians and their depravity.

Technology and people with powers to fuel their war machines. Innocents that the Gordanians would torture for the sheer joy of it.

Yet as Hawkgirl, she was also finding a sense of peace that she had never known growing up on a world geared for a seemingly endless war. As a hero, she struck out with her Nth-mace to capture, not to kill. She worked to help the weak that the cold practicalities of warfare had often forced her to reluctantly overlook. With the Justice League she had found friends she could trust and depend on.

Despite the lies she had to tell, it was her personal pride and pleasure to serve these people and protect them. Even better, as a member of the Justice League she was in the perfect position to do so. Either from the villains of this world, or from the Gordanians should they ever appear.

!JUSTICE!

Lois and Dr. Mikan ignored Clark who was following behind them for the tour, with Mr. Kuroashi picking up the rear. "How do you stand working with that guy?" Lois bit off, hoping to provoke a reaction. Plus, she was genuinely curious as to why this sharp-eyed woman endured all of that depraved attention. . . . She probably abuses it to get whatever she wants.

"Sanji's not so bad," Dr. Mikan lightly defended. So, on first name's basis, Lois noted. "For all that he acts, he's a gentleman to the core," the redhead continued. "Mostly. At the very least, a lady can always feel safe around him. Which is more than you can say about most men."

The incredulously raised eyebrow Lois gave was ignored, and Dr. Mikan went on to explain her work and what her current projects were. While it did not seem rehearsed like Kuroashi's commentary, it was still hard for the reporter to swallow, unless . . . "You use the treatments yourself, don't you?" she asked.

"You’re a smart one, aren’t you," winked Dr. Mikan, while holding up one flawless hand. "Otherwise I'd have a lot more scars and weathered skin. It's really a miracle worker!"

"Is that why you invented them?"
"No," the scientist reassured her, before acting more serious. "There was a doctor a while back, everyone thought he was a quack for all of his experiments, but he genuinely wanted to heal all of the world's illnesses." She gestured around. "He's the inspiration for this place. The cosmetic applications were solely intended for mental health. For people to feel better about themselves."

Mollified, Lois asked some more questions, but could not shake the feeling that she was missing something. Something big. Perhaps related to why Clark seemed edgier than usual . . .

!JUSTICE!

Later that afternoon

"Well?" Batman bluntly asked once he sensed Superman behind him, the darkness of the Batcave enfolding around them.

Unfazed at being detected despite his silent flight over to the Batcomputer, Clark had already removed his glasses and donned his superhero costume. He gave a small smile to his friend, the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, but really the fearsome Batman. "And hello to you too."

"Out with it, Clark," Batman snapped, noting the slight hints of concern in his frie—teammate. Teammate was the word.

"The entire building's laced with lead," much like the Batcave for that matter, "so they're definitely hiding something. Especially the top people there."

He went on to give his report.

Finally, "So what got you so interested in them that you sent me and Lois to look at them in the first place? Why haven't you gone yourself? Is there something illegal or dangerous in the drugs and medicine they're selling?"

"Nothing so straightforward," his friend denied, except Clark could hear the slight touch of annoyance. "Their company is selling multiple ground breaking advances that cover the entire medical field. Experts have also confirmed that they are selling them at less than they could actually charge if they wanted too."

He's frustrated that he can't figure it out, especially not on his own, Clark concluded. "And it really is ground breaking? Nothing sinister with the medicine itself?"

"I have some in the cave myself." Which, from the posterchild of paranoia, was high praise indeed.

Clark took a moment to think about it a little bit more. "Alright, and you got suspicious when Lex Luthor couldn't make them knuckle under?"

"Partially," the detective conceded, "but at first that was easy enough to explain. They are making enough money already that they might not feel tempted to be bought out. Also, there is little known about the CEO or Dr. Mikan for someone to dig up any dirt," Clark raised an eyebrow at this curious detail. The man known by some as The Detective had not found anything?

"They have no known acquaintances to coerce, and the level of security they maintain would make them difficult to intimidate. So Luthor's failings so far were understandable."

“No details whatsoever?”

“Nothing useful. Even ‘Doctor’ Mikan’s credentials are faked, appearing only on record. No one from her supposed graduation remembers her.” And a woman like that they certainly would have. The men at least. “However, that did not change the fact the work they are doing is beneficial.”

And his own father was a billionaire who wanted nothing more than to be a family man and a doctor, Clark knew. Then something finally clicked into place. "If what they’re hiding is nothing too serious, you’re wondering about the possibility of the League working with them. Working to help improve their medical innovations with our own technology, and distributing it to the places around the world that need it more." Then he scowled. "You sent Lois in because you wanted the CEO off-guard," Batman was unrepentant, "and you wanted my original and unbiased impressions of them, so I could get a feel for them, while you do your own quiet investigation."

"More or less," the World's Greatest Detective said with a touch of approval at the deduction his teammate had accomplished. "But yes," straight to business. "I wanted your assessment of them before Superman approached them. People trust you more."

You wanted to help us develop a good relationship with them, to help so many more people, but you can't just say it, can you Bruce? Clark ruefully thought. You're paranoid as they come, but you've got a reason to be, with what we deal with. Yet despite it all, you wouldn't be wearing that cowl if you didn't believe in a better world. If you weren't still capable of seeing the good in it.

Then something else occurred to him. "But you didn't know the CEO was a meta, did you? So then what was it that made you concerned enough to send me in as an investigator, and not Superman? Or with the rest of the League?"

"Before I found out that they’re lying about who they are, Fox and the lawyers at Wayne Enterprises brought to my attention that there are discrepancies in their finances," Batman growled. "A lot of their profits go back into safe investments, including building up their own business more so they can produce more and make more money, with only a fraction of those profits going unaccounted for. But given how widespread and popular their products are, they are raking in a lot of cash, so that small fraction is still worth a lot. Money even I can't trace."

He pulled up a spreadsheet, and when Clark saw the total sum of profits, his eyebrows raised at the number of digits making up the total amount of money that was missing. "I see what you mean. So you’re worried the company is hiding something darker?"

"Exactly. Alfred suggested it might be for some medical project they want to keep secret from their competitors," which meant that a small part of Bruce had also hoped that if he had brought it up, "but now we know they're likely experimenting on manufacturing meta-humans!"

!JUSTICE!

J'onn J'onzz, the last surviving Martian and now the Martian Manhunter of the Justice League strode along the monitor room of the Watchtower, the Justice League's headquarters orbiting the Earth.

It is a fine team we've assembled, and we've already accomplished so much together.

Some days they seemed to just spend their time up to their necks in pointless violence, dealing with those consumed by greed, violence, or both. Yet J'onn swore to never falter in protecting his newfound home from devastation. Never again.

Moreover, there were so many wonders to discover, like the mission they had just finished where they had discovered an invisible and technologically advanced city run by intelligent gorillas. Despite the danger they had faced –or the beating J'onn had endured by the misguided locals—that had been a fascinating experience, and the celebrations once the city had been saved had been very pleasant.

No, J'onn was proud to be a defender of humanity and all other inhabitants of Earth, and had been ever since they had first all assembled at his telepathic summons a little over a year ago.

Superman. The alien with the powers of a god, but at heart remained a farm boy from Kansas, ready to do anything for the world he loved.

Batman. The man who had turned his pain and grief into a fire that had forged him to the peak of human ability, dedicated to ensuring that no one else would die on his watch.

Hawkgirl. The winged police officer who had been transported to Earth against her will. While she might tend to resort to hitting first and asking questions later (or leaving it to Batman to do the latter), she was relentless and uncompromising in her defence of the innocent.

Wonder Woman. The privileged princess who had refused to abandon the rest of humanity in its hour of need.

The Flash. The speedster who appeared to be an immature goofball, until you saw the purity that had led him to use his powers for the sake of others.

Green Lantern. The space cop, armed with what was regarded as the most powerful weapon in the universe. Unflinching in his resolve to uphold the law, even at personal cost.

The sun peeked over the horizon as the Earth continued to revolve, and J'onn smiled at the sight. Today is a good day.

!JUSTICE!

Clark made his way through a few more of Bruce's investigative reports, finding the information fascinating, while searching for a less sinister motive for what appeared to be such a charitable company. "It's not like making meta-humans is specifically illegal," he reasoned. "It's more a matter of human rights, and Kuroashi and Mikan could have gotten theirs some other way."

"If they're working in secret, it's probably not for any reason we'll appreciate," Bruce snapped. "And they're people with super-powers delving into human biology. We've got to confirm what they're up to, or else we might find ourselves dealing with all manner of trouble. Crime bosses trying to buy powers, or some overzealous military general wanting to 'make America strong again' or something worse."

Looking through the list of the company's products and their benefits, Clark paused as something occurred to him. "If they're making multiple advances throughout the entire medical field, where are they getting this sort of knowledge? Is it actual research, or are they getting it from another source? Although, if it was that, they wouldn’t want to advertise it with huge, public company like they’re doing."

With a sour grunt, Batman addressed those issues. "Yes, and they're particularly making progress in terms of surgery, pharmacology, vaccinations, and salves that cure regular injuries at a staggering rate. Even cosmetics that make scars fade away. If they're doing research, it would be incredibly expensive to cover such a diverse range, so it must be multiple large projects, and they need lots of funding, except off the books. Or they found some source of knowledge from an advanced alien race or something," while Clark had initially been confident the two he had seen were human, suddenly he was not so sure, "and just got greedy."

"No, they still wouldn't want to advertise what they've got if they have an ulterior motive," Clark argued. "If it's some medical databank or something, it's possible they're just using it to enhance themselves, and they need the money to uncover more secrets."

In their world, an uncovered alien database was far from an unreasonable theory.

"And none of this explains why they are selling for such a reduced cost. If it was pure research, they could've approached any number of backers, including Lex. Instead, they're keeping it to themselves while still working to help people. Why?"

"That's what I'm going to find out tonight," Bruce growled as he pulled the cowl over his face. "I'm going to their headquarters to get some answers."

"Not without back-up you're not," Superman declared, stepping in his friend's way.

"The building is lead lined. You'll be a worthless spy."

"Humor me. Besides, if they really are a threat to the people they claim to be helping, I want to be the one to punch Mr. Kuroashi after the way he treated Lois."

Batman just grunted, but Clark interpreted it as agreement. Neither of them said anything of how they both knew it would be necessary for the Dark Knight to have some more muscle around if the people protecting the building were more than he could handle.

!JUSTICE!

Getting past the first layer of security had been harder than it should have been for a mere corporate building. Obviously someone's personally gone around covering up whatever holes in the system they can find, Batman's practiced eye assessed. It's like breaking into LexCorp. And just like with Luthor's company, it was critical he went unseen. Besides, if these people were actually on the level, there was no need to breed mistrust between them.

Batman made his way inside. Dodging guards, and hacking door codes, he made it to the main lab. It was suspiciously clean of anything incriminating, which was unsurprising. In Batman’s experience, even the legitimate scientists had little, harmless things they kept quiet. Here, there was nothing to show it had ever really been used. Just props so it looked like this was the place where the medical magic happened.

Doubling back, he slipped into the security room to study where the cameras were and were not focused on. Wherever they were hiding their secrets, the CEO and Dr. Mikan would want a location that surveillance would pick up someone approaching the entrance. At the same time, they would want their real lab placed in a blindspot where no one would see anything incriminating.

After he had determined where that was, it was the work of a moment to cause a momentary ‘technical problem’ to the relevant cameras. He slipped by them, and found the concealed elevator to take a ride down. After of course he disabled the alarm that would notify whomever was below that there was an unexpected arrival.

The next levels of security, getting into the sealed off basem*nt, were far, far harder. Whoever had done so was obviously the careful sort with the level of steps taken –the kind that made others call Batman 'paranoid' when he did it, even though it was so obvious that people were out to get him— to keep people out. Going right through the door was too risky, and he was wary about the other alarms on the door, as if a secondary access code was needed to get out, and this one was too secure to readily hotwire.

Still, this was the Dark Knight they were dealing with.

Slipping out of the roof hatch, his miniature laser quickly burned a hole through the wall above the elevator, discreetly avoiding the alarms there. A little cosmetic work while sealing it back up, and only a close inspection would reveal what had happened. Then he cut and dug his way through the wall and dirt to the side of the elevator shaft until he found the ventilation system. An independent system right within their inner compound, 'safely' behind all of the other defenses, so they didn't see any point in putting security in here, he mentally chastised as one professional to another. The Batcave was far more secure.

Looking through the air vents, he determined that what appeared to be the real main lab was empty. Soundlessly, he dropped down to investigate.

He took in the large room that was decidedly not on the blueprints, the reinforced ceiling, and all of the expensive equipment, and smirked.

I could arrest them all just for illegal construction.

!JUSTICE!

"So how're they really doing," asked a concerned Flash, back in Central City Hospital, gesturing towards the room where the two kids from yesterday were sleeping after a visit from their rescuer.

"They'll be fine," she assured him. "They're responding well, and that new medicine is already taking care of the scars. With a little luck, they'll never even know they had them."

"Alright! Great! Thanks!" and with a skip to his feet, he started off down the hallway.

"Oh, and Flash!" the nurse called after him.

"Yeah?" he said, shooting the pretty lady a bright smile.

"Thanks for the smoke detector."

!JUSTICE!

Strange, Batman thought as he looked over the current project in what appeared to be the real medical lab for this place.

It appeared to be a variant of the company's medical compounds to stop internal bleeding while promoting recovery, except that according to the notes it appeared to be a far stronger version. In fact, the amount of trauma needed to require something like this would kill a normal man twenty times over. For super-soldiers maybe? But then he turned to what was truly perplexing about the lab setup: whomever it was for, they were too small.

Table and chair height, location of the various instruments, etcetera. Batman had trouble believing that whoever was creating all of these ground-breaking medical discoveries was taller than his knee. Still, in this world that isn't that unusual. And it does confirm that 'Doctor' Mikan is not the one behind all of this.

Quietly he took out a miniature camera from his utility belt to copy everythi—

His shoulder cracked as he flew into the far wall, his other arm clutching his screaming ribs.

"I don't remember giving you an invitation," someone politely noted.

Batman forced his head up to see the CEO lowering his leg, having evidently kicked him all the way over. "Mr. Sanji Kuroashi," he grunted, stalling for time. Too strong, and I never heard him coming. That fast, or that stealthy?

"I prefer Black Foot Sanji," the man corrected, casually making his way over.

From another room, three more figures emerged: Dr. Mikan, still in what was evidently her costume, and a long-nosed young man with thick, curly hair. The third newcomer was clearly a meta, alien, or engineered animal. A head taller than Batman, a squat body, a wide head and no neck, giving the overall impression of looking like a pill. There were small antlers on its head, and hooves on its short but clearly muscular arms and legs, giving a clear impression that the strange creature meant business. Yet all of them clearly deferred to 'Black Foot Sanji,' who continued to advance and talk. "Mind telling us what you're doing here?"

"I wanted to see if this place was too good to be true," Batman growled. "Guess it is."

Shrugging, Black Foot pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter. "Sorry, but yeah, we're not just a medical facility."

"So I figured. Nice skull and crossbones," and Batman gestured with his chin at the wall visible through the doorway behind the newcomers, ignoring the screams of pain his body was sending him.

"It's a copy of our Jolly Roger!" the furry one yelled indignantly. "Our Pirate Flag! We’re the Straw Hat Pirates, and you'd better not have messed with my work!"

"Pirates, you say?" Batman said conversationally, his fingers having finished inching towards a certain device on his belt. Still, if they were willing to be so talkative, and thought him helpless . . . "I must say, I’m impressed, I would not have expected such brilliant work from pirates. Which one of you is the one actually responsible for your medical work?"

"Oh!" cried the animal-like one, wiggling its body in some sort of dance while visibly blushing beneath its (male? His?) thick fur. "Don't think I'll forgive you for breaking in here if you call me brilliant! Idiot! Loser!"

"Uhm, we really don't want him breaking in here," the long-nosed one deadpanned, while the other two gave small sighs of exasperation. Catching the steely looks on the faces of 'Dr. Mikan' and Black Foot, Batman decided they were too clever for him to risk stalling any longer.

!JUSTICE!

Carefully Superman swept his enhanced senses over the building, looking for the slightest change.

As frustrating as it was, he knew that Bruce was right that he should go in alone, given the precautions these people had taken against Clark's powers. Fortunately, his friend had agreed to take a distress beacon that would send a high-pitch alert through even all that metal. Or a "call for assistance if evidence is in danger of being destroyed while I handle business," as the man had insisted. He's really loosening up, the Man of Steel smiled. Guess this League is working after all.

Suddenly a familiar sharp sound hit his sensitive ears, and faster than a bullet he was tearing down through the ground towards the source.

!JUSTICE!

Even as Superman finished smashing his way inside the underground lab, he never took his eyes off the enemy. How they maintained their cool as the debris came hammering at them, casually avoiding it or knocking it aside. Even when they recognized who had come, and everyone but the CEO seemed nervous, they maintained their determined posture; ready to fight if necessary.

Mikan pulled out an object from between her breasts that expanded into a staff, the long-nosed one took a strange slingshot out of his shoulder-bag, and the furry one took up what resembled a martial arts stance. Kuroashi appeared completely disinterested, but Superman knew he was a coiled spring ready to strike.

Sparing a quick glance at Batman to be sure he was okay, Superman turned to look at the others. "Surrender now, this doesn't have to go any further," his voice and gaze confident and sure as he stared them down. Making it clear that while he was not going to kill them, if they wanted a fight before they were hauled off to jail, they would regret it.

Not a lick of doubt on what the final outcome would be.

Kuroashi seemed to be thinking the exact same thing, except that he would be the one victorious. The others never flinched, and Batman knew that they were not going to back down.

"Sorry," Dr. Mikan smiled, despite the beads of sweat on her forehead, "can't do that."

"Still, we don't have to fight him today, and the rest of the League might be on its way," the long-nosed one warned. "Chopper, you don't really need any of those notes, do you?"

"No," the furry one agreed, sounding a little confused.

"I'm more worried about where we're standing," Dr. Mikan added, as the dust specks from the ceiling kept falling down in front of them. "He took out a support beam or two," in Superman's rush to respond to the emergency distress call, and his inability to examine the lead-lined walls in detail as he tunneled in. "So this whole place might collapse if we stay."

"Alright then," and the young man shot at Superman with his slingshot.

Not taking any chances, and familiar with the nasty surprises Batman packed into his baterangs, Superman dodged it, but the projectile exploded mid-air, covering the room in grey smoke.

Playing it cautious, Superman quickly made his way to Batman who –on the same wave-length— popped open one of belt pouches for Superman to pull out two miniature breathers. They barely managed to slip them on before the weird cloud could get into their lungs.

Throughout this, Batman dimly made out the sounds of people running away, while Superman advanced through the smoke. However, a few minute later the Man of Steel walked back to him. Answering the unspoken question, "Lead lined smoke, and too many possible exits they could've taken. Besides, your health is more important if they're only running away."

Hmm, even I and Luthor haven't managed something like that, Batman pondered. "You should've still gone after them!" he snapped. "Use your super-hearing and find them!"

"No, there's also too many echoes in all the tunnels. Plus, they're moving too fast and they're right, this whole place is unstable." Gently Superman picked up his friend and flew off.

"We'll get them next time," Superman said as he slipped out of the underground base. He knew that Batman was upset because of how severely he had underestimated their quarry. "I'll come back after we've gotten you patched up at the Batcave."

Flying quietly but quickly, they were nearly back at Gotham City when Superman finally voiced what had been bothering them both. "They didn't really retreat because they were afraid of fighting us, only because they thought it unnecessary."

". . . Yes," Batman confessed, voicing his own concerns. "Except for Black Foot, I think he did it because he decided there was too much risk of the building coming down on his associates, who are apparently weaker than him. If not for that situation however, they were sure they'd still be able to win."

The Dark Knight took a deep yet decisive breath. "This isn't over."

"Did they tell you anything useful?"

"Apparently they're called the Straw Hat Pirates . . ."

Chapter 2: The Pirates

Chapter Text

Several months ago

Sluggishly the ocean lapped against the dock, while the rain drenched everything it could reach. Drips leaked through the grimy warehouse, within which were huddled the Straw Hat Pirates.

That morning they had been wild and free in the New World, now they were here. . . .Wherever this was.

As far as Robin could figure out, this was an entirely different planet, and they had no idea how to get home.

"We're gonna need some more food supplies," their chef, 'Black Foot' Sanji, said for lack of anything else. "I'll stay here and watch over the ladies while the rest of you go. Take the Little Lost Swordsman so you can lose him for a year or so."

"Aw shut it, nosebleed," 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro muttered, unable to muster the energy to even properly snap at his rival. For his part, Sanji did not act as if he had even heard Zoro, failing to fire off an insult of his own, or throw a kick at the swordsman.

Luffy glanced around at his crew. He knew he was not the brightest man alive –that was why he had such smart crewmembers— but he knew his crew. His friends. His nakama.

He could tell that they were all just robotically going through the motions, struggling to deal with the despair that was threatening to consume them. Any other group in these circ*mstances would already have had half of them at each other's throats, except none of them could fathom tearing themselves apart like that. No, not even Sanji or Zoro, when it was serious at least.

Still, it was clearly time to start acting like the Captain.

"There's no One Piece here, right?" his voice rang out, drawing the eyes of his crew. "No Hawkeye to beat, no All Blue, no Laboon, none of our important things. Just this lame world with its wimpy seas."

His tone was deceptively casual, his Hat cast his eyes into shadows, and all of his friends felt the shift in the air as something familiar stirred within them as they recognized this Moment. Each and every one of them had sworn to follow their Captain, to follow their dreams, ready to die in the pursuit of them if necessary. As time had passed and they had become a family, each of them now willing to die so that the others could accomplish their own dreams.

More importantly, they had all learnt how to live to see each other achieve this.

The malaise that had swiftly overcome them however, was from the knowledge that such dreams were impossible here. Or in Zoro's case, irrelevant, since there were no real swordsmen here, automatically making him the greatest of them all, without any challenge. Something called 'satellites' had even already mapped this world for Nami.

Their Captain had merely voiced what they were all thinking: this world was hell.

Yet now that depression was burning away before the light of their memories of all of the times when they had known they could entrust everything to him, and why; he would protect them from both their enemies and the darkness that plagued them from within.

The Straw Hat crew found themselves remembering all of the 'hopeless' struggles they had overcome under his leadership. The sheer determination they had felt each time they lived up to the faith that Luffy put in each and every one of them, that in turn they would be able to handle whatever he could not. His unquenchable belief that together, all of them could handle anything. In the name of that trust, they had all followed this unimpressive looking man into hell time and again, defied the wrath of the world itself, and had faced down monsters without reservation.

Captain 'Straw Hat' Monkey D. Luffy raised his head and looked at them all, his eyes now drawing in their very souls and lighting a fire in their hearts. "We're going to get home," he swore. "Now. What do we need to do that?"

Yes, they definitely knew this growing sensation.

It's impossible, we don't even know where we are! 'Cat Burglar' Nami almost said, before stopping herself. Their resident Rubber Man was too stupid to realize what he was attempting to do was impossible, and thus would succeed anyways. A 'smart' man would never have attempted a tenth of what he had done, and been all the poorer for it.

We don't even know how we got here! 'God' Usopp nearly protested, yet knew his words were meaningless. None of them would give up trying to find a way back to their own world.

"Glad to hear it," Sanji said with a smile that everyone else shared, and continued in a neutral voice that conveyed the facts, devoid of pessimism, "but how are we going to do it? We still don't even know how it happened."

"Then we just find the people who can figure it out for us," Luffy replied with a serious expression as everyone paused in thought. "If we know who to ask, then we're halfway there!"

"It's possible that this has happened before, and that there are some records to help us," 'Demon Child' Robin, the archaeologist, mused with a small smile.

"We're going to need some incentive for them to help us," Sanji pointed out. "Can't expect charity work after all."

"We're still pirates," Zoro sneered, holding up a certain white-sheathed sword. "If they don't want to help us, we make them."

"We should start by offering them something first," Robin gently yet firmly corrected.

"Yo ho ho ho! I might have an idea for raising money!" 'Soul King' Brook burst out, while the rest were grinning too, along with 'Iron Man' Franky entering his signature pose.

"And what we can't earn, we'll steal!" Nami declared, clenching her fist, and the others all nodded or cheered in agreement.

All except for their Captain, as Luffy just beamed in happiness, knowing that they were on their way to getting home.

!JUSTICE!

Now

Despite being officially vacant, the inside of the warehouse had been transformed into a warm and comfortable place to live, with delicious aromas already wafting through it.

While it still wasn't home, it was tolerable for now.

Sanji and the others had just reported back, although a few other crewmembers were absent on other jobs, or because they stood out in public too much.

With a sigh of exasperation, still wearing her scientist costume, Nami closed up her laptop and then walked up to her awaiting friends.

"How'd it go?" Luffy asked.

"Good. All of our former employees have received a generous final pay cheque. I left the building in the hands of a worker they all trust," Nami did not bother saying who, since her Captain lacked the attention span to care. “All of Chopper’s patents and his remaining notes for what we were planning to do next are now in the public domain, so that’s taken care of at least. Cherry Blossom can still produce them, but this way we’re sure that LexCorp or Wayne Enterprises won’t control them.” Nami and her crew hated monopolies on general principle, although in her case it was also because she felt only she should have them. Then she snarled with fangs she suddenly grew, "Except we've still lost one of our best sources of income!"

"Can’t be helped.” Sanji calmly interjected as he lit a cigarette, elegant in his suit and apron even after their hasty retreat. “We’re keeping our distance from the League, which means severing all ties. Better safe than sorry.” It physically hurt him to remind her of this, knowing his precious Nami-swan was upset over the loss of money that was her rightful due. Of course, the reminder of how she was also helping other people would soothe the heart of beautiful gold that beat within her chest, and placate her fury.

To the side and sitting on the couch, a forlorn wail burst out. "WAAAAAH! BWAAAAH! GWAAAAAA!" Little Chopper continued to sob into Robin's lap, while she stroked his back soothingly.

"So, the Justice League, huh?" Zoro pondered out-loud. "Took them long enough," he said with a bloodthirsty smile as his thumb flicked up one of his katana an inch from its sheath.

"Yeah, yeah, but at least nothing really happened," Usopp scowled. "Fighting with them ain't worth it, especially since we didn't lose any of our research. Sure we lost a great source of money," everyone pointedly did not look at Nami lest she vent her fury at the reminder, "but who knows what'd happened if we fought them?"

Deciding to tone down the mood, Zoro lowered his sword. Truthfully however, while he agreed with the Idiot Cook's decision –not that he would ever admit it— it was not just the swordsman who was getting itchy for a chance at some serious action. Luffy was also getting antsy without anything to challenge himself against. How else were they supposed to become stronger?

"It was inevitable that we'd run into them," Nami said with a shrug of her shoulders, "they fight for justice, after all."

Zoro just sneered at that, Usopp gave a scoffing noise, only Chopper, despite how he was crying, caught the briefest flicker of tension from Robin's hands before she went back to consoling him.

"At least the Justice League try to actually help people now and then," Sanji calmly noted. He was starting to prepare dinner for them all, before blushing with hearts bursting into his eyes. "And the women do it in such fantastic uniforms too!"

Suppressing the urge to smack the man on the head, Nami addressed the chef's first point. "Yeah, it makes what they're saying more believable, but they're still dictating to everyone what 'Justice' is, living on high above everyone else. Just like the marines."

Of course, the crew all knew that the Justice League was not like the World Government’s Navy. Robin’s research had been thorough. The key detail was that they were not like the World Government yet.

Sooner or later, while they went on about ‘Justice’ and doing whatever they wanted while they beat up and arrested people for crimes, they would forget what that word meant. After all, who could stop them?

"If they're real heroes, they might still share some meat with us," Luffy granted the League, finally chipping in. "But if they go too far, they'll eventually have to come after us, and we'll take them down," his words echoing with finality. "That way they won't be able to do to this world what the World Government did to ours."

"Of course, Luffy," Robin answered neutrally, even as everyone else understood the significance of her support given her own history with the ruthless global institution and their military arm.

The extermination of Ohara, the guilty and the innocent. The sole survivor, an eight-year old Robin being hunted for twenty years.

Murdering pregnant women and babies in the search for the Pirate King's heir.

Framing Tom, Franky’s mentor and father-figure, and taking him away to the legendary prison and hell, Impel Down, to be tortured and executed.

Discrimination had wrought the fear and pain that had festered within Fishman Island.

The hypocrisy in which the elite flouted the law and kept slaves. Torturing, debasing, and killing their victims at a whim. Meanwhile, the marines dutifully overlooked this, while hunting down those who escaped, since liberation was a crime.

Marine Captain ‘Axe-Hand’ Morgan ruling over an island like a tyrant. His spoiled son doing whatever he wanted, even ordering Zoro's execution for saving a girl from the Morgan’s brat's dogs.

Nami’s life of servitude under the very pirates who had killed her mom, made possible by the corruption of the marines. The first naval officer to land on her island in eight years came solely to steal the treasure that Nami had saved to buy back both her freedom and all of the villagers.

Threatening the crew, in order to abduct Robin and take her, and Franky, to be tortured in Impel Down for their knowledge to unlock the ancient superweapons. The sick toady in charge of the World Government’s second most elite intelligence agency, betraying and beating them. Making clear that the weapons would be used to advance his career, while abusing those weapons' destructive potential against the world.

The granting of legitimacy that allowed Crocodile, Doflamingo, and the Vinsmokes to carry out their atrocities with near impunity, so long as they paid lip-service to the World Government.

…Killing Luffy's brother Ace, and trying to do the same to their Captain. Not for their crimes, but for their bloodlines. A death sentence even if either young man had lived a life of peace.

Every act of pain and cruelty, rationalized by the World Government by claiming it had been done in the name of 'Justice.'

No.

No, the Straw Hats would take 'Freedom' over 'Justice' any day.

And they were pirates, so they would take what they wanted by force.

Although they were being unusually circ*mspect in this world. Luffy and Zoro had found this grating at times, but as the others had pointed out, they did not even know what exactly they were looking for to get back home, that they had no clues to start with.

Moreover, the powers that people had here worked differently than they were used to, and the technology the various militaries had were more advanced than most of what was back home. Not to mention what would happen if the fighters here, especially given how diverse their abilities could be, stumbled onto what water, especially seawater, could do to some of the crew, including their Captain…

Individually this was not a problem, and they could even roll over the armies of most of these nations with ease. Unfortunately, all of those people would likely all unite against the pirates if the crew got too big before they were ready. And they had more important things to do in the meantime.

They would play by the rules for now, but only for so long as they felt like it.

Until that inevitable point –it was a miracle they had gone this long without a public declaration of war against anyone— they would stay quiet. Despite how Luffy, Zoro, and some of the others were itching for a serious fight. And undoubtedly it would be with the 'heroes' of this world.

It was only a matter of time after all, until even the 'pure' and 'true-hearted' Justice League would become like the marines; dictating what was allowed or not. Vindicating their actions by saying they fought for 'justice.' That it was to 'protect' people.

Not too long ago, Superman had tried to conquer the Earth, and would have succeeded if not for the military and his cousin opposing him. Afterwards, Superman had claimed he was under mind control, yet the fact remained that he was once again flying around without facing any repercussions. Now he had other powerful beings helping him, operating out of the League's Watchtower. An orbital base of operations that distanced them from the rest of the common people, made them impervious to any resistance, and was securely placed to rain down attacks on any country on Earth.

That said, having them around to stop stuff like that alien invasion that supposedly made them become a team, makes them useful enough to keep around to deal with stuff like that. Still, that almost sounded like a declaration of war from Luffy, Nami wondered, before catching Zoro shaking his head, and then she got it.

They were not like the Revolutionary Army, they would only fight the League if they came for the pirates, or if they did something so awful that the crew could not overlook it and went to hunt them down.

"The League's still a pretty small group, so if we have to it'll be easier to chop off the head than with the World Government," Zoro smiled. Then stretched his lips even further to show his teeth. "It'll probably even be fun!"

"FUN!?" Chopper wailed. "THEY DESTROYED MY MEDICAL LAB! ALL THE CURES AND TREATMENTS I SILL COULD’VE GIVEN PEOPLE! BWAAAAAAA!"

"There, there Chopper," said Robin soothingly as she stroked him. "Much of your knowledge and teachings have already gotten out to the world, and so cheaply too! And now that it’s in the public domain, more people will continue your work. You've already made it better for people all over, and I promise we’ll find someone else to discreetly continue to take credit for your findings!"

"That probably would’ve been easier from the start,” Nami admitted, “except that we’d have had to pay them to keep quiet too.” Then she brightened up. “Besides, don’t forget Chopper, you also made a lot of money out of it too," she praised with a warm smile. "I couldn't believe how much you were racking in! Playing scientist to cover you when you were advancing their medicine was actually pretty fun at times!" Especially with all the cash we made, she added to herself with dollar signs in her eyes, while most of the men rolled their eyes.

(Except for Sanji of course. He was busy twirling around her with hearts in his eyes over what was 'obviously' her declaring that the reason it was so much fun was because she Loved him)

It had been a little tricky, but Nami was intelligent enough to memorize any scripts Chopper gave her, and cunning enough to detract attention where necessary. A few times they had needed to use an earpiece, with Chopper feeding her lines while dealing with a particularly inquisitive scientist or interviewer, who Nami could not distract with her charms. By the time the Daily Planet reporters had come by she did not even need it anymore.

They were all shaken out of their happy thoughts as Sanji got back to the stove to continue stirring a pot of rich sauce."By the way, according to my Observation Haki," jerking his thumb at his head, "that so-called male reporter that dropped by with that enormous presence, is actually Superman. Who'd have thought? I mean, seriously, they look nothing alike."

"Robin and I looked him up after the interview," Nami mused, rubbing her chin, "he's actually a pretty famous investigative reporter, which makes sense really."

"Useful cover," Usopp agreed.

Luffy just shrugged and turned his attention back to what was important: when would their next meal be?

Robin just smiled to herself as she took in her captain's disinterest, fully aware that the idea of going after the hero's personal life had not even occurred to him. It had occurred to her, although Robin just blamed that on her residual cynicism that had somehow survived Luffy's presence. It was irrelevant to her anyways, for the hero had done absolutely nothing to justify such an attack.

And if he did in the future? Then her friends would improvise and deal with the situation as it came. Besides, as had been noted, even with the issue of Chopper's lab, the heroes had not really done anything to seriously provoke the pirates. Money and buildings were replaceable, and none of the crew had been hurt. Oh, sure, if they attacked another of their enterprises in the future, then there would most likely be fighting, but only in defense. There was just no need to actively seek out a confrontation.

For over the last few months, they had been busy. Laboring in the shadows.

Given their inclinations, many of their projects to raise money or gather information were criminal in nature, but some were less so.

From the start, Chopper had wanted to help develop the healing arts of this strange world, and the others had been quick to support him. When they had realized how much money there was in it, Sanji and Nami had volunteered to take up roles from time to time to help the doctor's work go more smoothly. Truthfully, Robin would have wanted to be part of that too, but she was too busy. A former vice-president to one of their world's most far-reaching and powerful crime syndicates, and protégé of the Revolutionary Army, only had so much spare time after all.

Early on she had given some thought to approaching the Justice League, but had ultimately dismissed it. While there was the possibility that they had access to the relevant technology or abilities, there was nothing concrete to support it. If they revealed themselves, then all future operations would be at risk if it turned out the League lacked the means. It had been Luffy who had made the final decision however, displaying one of his great moments of insight that had stopped everyone short

He had pointed out that in that case it would be the League controlling the 'door' home, and that the crew would be vulnerable. Vulnerable not only in terms of whether or not they would actually be sent home, but in terms of where they would be dropped off. Say, Marine Headquarters. And if the 'heroes' chose to later follow, having discovered where the Straw Hats were from, they might ally themselves with the other 'force of Justice' that the pirates knew of.

The thought was too terrifying to contemplate.

(And no, they were not letting that telepathic alien anywhere near their minds. It was not happening. Ever.)

(It was not just Robin or Franky who held secrets that must never see the light of day, for fear they might spread beyond the League)

Funds rolled in, science was assembled, and slowly but surely they begin to map out how they would be able to return home.

Their goal was in sight, so they remained patient. For those who had decided who would rule kingdoms or not, had wrecked nations in defying the whims of monsters, had violated taboo after taboo, and had challenged the world itself to a fight, it was a miracle that they had remained so quiet as long as they had.

Inevitably however, they knew it was only a matter of time before other movers and shakers took notice of them.

!JUSTICE!

After a scrumptious dinner and waiting for Sanji to clean up, they all went to fulfil their little ritual whenever they got together.

It was underneath another warehouse, bought by another one of Robin's numerous shell companies, but deliberately kept separate from any of their other activities. It was used by a small yet legitimate shipping company, and was always busy during work hours. At night and on holidays however, getting in was merely a matter of turning the key, entering the security code and turning on some flashlights. They were the owners after all.

The door was under a recessed panel in the floor, which in turn was always buried under several tons of merchandise; child's play for them to shift aside and back when necessary.

With near reverence, they took in the sight of Franky's private lab.

Computers and strange devices that they could barely describe, all reverently placed around a standing metal ring that was to serve as the portal home.

They had been forced to move his equipment to this artificial cave after an accident had destroyed most of his progress, and nearly many other irreplaceable things.

After all, Franky required a large place to do his job, lots of raw materials, and the most expensive tools money could buy.

Or could be stolen.

That said, they all accepted that large and pricy purchases, along with hush-money and discrete and misleading shipping, was more productive. This raised fewer questions than a string of thefts, so which they tried to keep at a minimum. Or they stole stuff that could be turned into capital for later shopping trips.

Blinking his tired eyes, Franky got up from where he had been napping, having worked himself to exhaustion again. After Sanji had scolded Franky for missing dinner, the chef shoved into the the man’s arms a still-warm meal he had packed (including cola), after Robin had reported their friend needed some rest.

"I'm at an impasse again," the massive cyborg admitted, cringing a little at the flicker of weariness he caught in their eyes.

"Is it the theory again?" Usopp asked, playing peacemaker.

"You know it," Franky said, and everyone but Luffy sighed. Their Captain just picked his nose and walked over to a pile of travel brochures.

Despite his own impatience to get home, Luffy had been the first to mandate vacation time. Especially to keep his crew from crumbling under the weight of the task before them.

"Oh well, at least we can have fun while waiting for some scientist to come up with the next part," Nami offered.

"Let's go to somewhere sunny with all the ladies on the beach!" Sanji panted. "I've heard of places where they have to go topless! It's the law!"

"You'll die of a nosebleed," Zoro deadpanned.

"What was that you Idiot Mosshead!?"
"I should put you out of your misery right now!" the swordsman snapped back, blades already clashing against the cook's black shoes.

Luffy chortled at this while the others ignored it with practiced ease, secretly glad to see them both in good spirits.

They had a lot of obligations to maintain still, but they were all looking forward to another vacation.

The fact was that creating a portal across dimensions was ground-breaking work in itself, and was further hampered by the fact that a) they had no idea how to find their home universe, and b) the closest thing they had to a trustworthy scientist was their shipwright.

Albeit one whose lack of formal education had not prevented him from turning himself into a super-advanced cyborg with a ridiculously efficient power system, utilizing nothing but scraps and his own genius. He was also self-taught expert in many other fields, ranging from carpentry to advanced neuro-surgery. Heck, even some of Chopper's medical work was based upon Franky's dabbling in chemistry and biology!

(What, did you think that was natural skin covering his bare chest after being hit by a train, self-surgery, and being at the epicenter of an explosion that burnt away most of his torso?)

Unfortunately, quantum mechanics, or whatever it was he was studying right now, was not on the list of his pre-crossover skillsets.

In the meantime, his research and development was slow, especially since it had to stay secret. So secret, that some ignorant outsiders might accuse of him of being paranoid and needlessly delaying his own progress.

'Iron Man' Franky was not paranoid. He was the former head of a city-state's underworld, while hiding from a worldwide dictatorship and its insidious intelligence agencies. This was just standard procedure.

His materials came in circuitously, yet at times he also had to wait to study the results of his own experiments. During these breaks in activity, he and Robin searched for sources of information. Various scientists were consulted and paid handsomely, or their files were stolen. Some even tutored Franky (via phone or mail), receiving generous payments along with subtle threats. Of course, the blue-haired man had from the very start also asked questions on other subjects to help misleading them from his true intentions.

And these inquiries were not just with the men and women who were publicly recognized as mad scientists, but also those regarded as stable pillars of society and scientific advancement.

In the meantime, the whole crew, including Franky, did what they could to relax, and even went on short vacations from time to time.

(Nami, Usopp, and Robin had worked overtime to prevent Luffy from being seen swinging around on his rubber arms on stuff like that giant stone cat in that desert country).

Movies had been a fantastic discovery, and they had worked their way through so many films, while also making new friends.

Aside from that, they also religiously maintained their training. While lacking any strong opponents to pressure them so far, even sparring against each other had been beneficial.

!JUSTICE!

"Oh, and Zoro," the massive metal and flesh form of Franky boomed, pulling something out of his suitcase, "we're all ready for yah!"

The swordsman only grunted at that, yet turned to join him. When Franky had been twenty-six and hit by that train, he had saved his own life by using nothing more than scrap metal, junk, and his natural genius to turn himself into a crude cyborg. And by 'crude' that meant a little deformed, while still packing a variety of weaponry that could likely overcome the military might of almost any nation within the Blue Seas.

A decade later, he could probably take on most of those armies all at once.

Here on Earth, Franky now had access to far more advanced tools, his trade developed into all but an art form. The speedo-wearing shipbuilder was able to offer the same aid to the bodies of his comrades –if nothing major, because that would be insulting all their hard work and abilities— if they so wished.

Like a certain one-eyed swordsman.

"Ready to operate, Dr. Chopper?" Franky boomed as he struck his SUPER™ pose!

"Ready!" Chopper beamed, all sorrows banished at the thought of being able to heal one of his crew even further.

"SUUUUUUPER" roared Franky before turning to look at grumpy Zoro.

Zoro only gave a slight "tch" at that. He had initially been insulted by their little gift; he had lost that left eye fair and square during training with a fellow swordsman. Moreover, it had been his newest sensei, the man he would surpass. He would die before lowering himself to cheating like that, end of discussion.

It was not like he needed bifocal vision to fight anyways.

Then however Franky had brought up potential features that had sparked Zoro's carefully hidden Man's Romance.

While Zoro refused to let his Observation Haki get dull, having x-ray vision, infrared, a telescope built right into his head, and even being able to use the eye as a flashlight was admittedly pretty awesome. The laser beam function had been what tipped the scales in favor of accepting the artificial eye.

Of course, he had been quite firm with them that closing his eyelid, especially during a fight, would turn it off, allowing him to fight with honor. If he had the slightest sensation the thing was still working, he would cheerfully rip it right out.

Truthfully, Franky and Chopper had been more than fine with this, because giving Zoro binocular vision had always been a secondary objective. Their real mission, which they had declined to mention as being their specific intent, was an attempt to 'cure' their friend of his frankly absurd and outright terrifyingly awful sense of direction.

The little computer that they were planning to bribe/bully/whatever Zoro into carrying would input coordinates and his cybernetic eye would project a computerized arrow across his vision to give him much-needed directions. They had made a point of acting as if it were just one of the various features, and of no particular importance.

Zoro would give a scoff of derision at the slanderous lie that he got lost. The terrain and buildings just kept moving around! Other people got lost!

"But what about when he forgets the computer or breaks it?" Nami had skeptically argued.

"Then we track him with the GPS tracker that we'll be implanting into his eye socket," Chopper bluntly answered. "And then maybe we can get some sleep without worrying about losing him on these oversized islands!" the doctor finished.

"They're called 'continents'," corrected Usopp before giving an exasperated sigh. A rarely used term given how there was only a single one back home. "But yeah, now we can worry about the hundred other things." Luffy just laughed at that, and rattled off other suggestions for Zoro's eye that were ignored.

(How could they fit a missile into an eyeball anyways?)

(Luffy had also sulked for days when he had been informed they had no idea where to start in making a 'meat ray.' They did not even ask how it would work, Franky and Usopp just bluntly told him it was impossible to kill the idea before it took root too deep in their Captain’s mind.)

They had also been careful to make sure there would be no internal damage if/when Zoro chose to just yank it out of his eye socket.

"Let's just get it over with," Zoro grumbled half-heartedly. "And remember, no anesthetic!"
"Yeah, yeah, we know," Franky reassured him, while Chopper muttered about how Zoro's recklessness probably meant he had shredded all his nerves already.

The rest of the crew just shook their heads in resignation.

!JUSTICE!

Later

"How long until he can take the eyepatch off?" Nami asked, once the surgery was complete.

"About an hour," Chopper assured them, while the swordsman just went to find the nearest bottle of booze.

"Then he can do it after we see Brook," she decided, looking at her watch. "If we hurry we can get there before he's busy."

Sanji nodded, hefting up another bag full of meals for the skeleton and their resident martial artist who would be waiting for them.

"Alright!" Luffy beamed. "Let's go meet up with everyone else!"

!JUSTICE!

The security guards waved through the blue semi with distinctive red flames painted on, without even asking for identification from behind the tinted black windows. Orders were orders.

Two minutes later they were walking through the deserted hallway to knock on a door, smiling at the sounds of someone singing behind it.

It was nice to hear that familiar voice, without any of the weird accents of this world. It was puzzling, to those of the crew who cared, how they could all somehow speak ‘English,’ especially for Robin. Here, nearly every single nation seemed to have its own 'Mother Tongue,' or variations of the same language (like 'defence' vs. 'defense'). Back home, in addition to being able to read the Poneglyphs, Robin was familiar with several other forms of speech, but they were all ancient ones. Somehow, the entirety of modern society, across all of the diverse islands and species of the world, all spoke the same language. Every. Single. One.

A concept that Earth proved should have been impossible.

Yet here was a world with so many different ways of speaking, which raised such intriguing historical implications that it made the archaeologist itch all the more to return home to solve the mystery of the Void Century.

Granted, the crew all talked with a 'Japanese accent,' and had 'Japanese style surnames' (and yes, other cultures did it too, but given the accent they found themselves identifying with Japanese more) but that was not an issue for them. They had also enjoyed a vacation to that country.

(Nami had to drag them back to America when all of the men would not stop sulking upon the discovery that no, Japan did not yet have giant, transforming robots)

It even amused them to use Japanese words for some of their aliases, such as for Sanji and Nami.

Luffy barged right into the room without knocking, while everyone else smiled and followed. Before a mirror was the familiar figure of Brook playing on his electric guitar. When the reflection of Luffy appeared over his shoulder, the animated skeleton spun around exclaiming, "Oh my! Don't sneak up on me like that, you'll scare me to death! Oh wait! I'm already dead! Yo ho ho ho!"

Chopper and Usopp chuckled while their Captain laughed, but they all knew that Brook had been aware of their presence before they had even opened the door. They all ignored it in favor of the levity however.

A side door opened, and another pirate came into the room to join them all.

Smiling with his fangs, the blue figure made his way over in his wooden geta with an ease and grace that defied his massive bulk. "Good to see you all!" declared Jinbe.

There were no real demonstrations of joy at seeing each other after being absent for a while, each acting as if they had never been parted from one another. Sliding into place like a well-oiled machine, refusing to acknowledge the times when their family could not share in the presence of each other.

Sanji handed out more still-warm food, and everyone found a place to sit while they got to business, discussing their discovery by the Justice League and the loss of the medical lab. As two veteran warriors, Brook and Jinbe's expertise was well valued.

"Well," Brook said thoughtfully, "I'm glad we haven't lost anything important, even if it's a shame they wouldn't trust us to continue Chopper's work. Frankly, my main concern is that there was nothing else incriminating there! I haven't been able to keep track of all your projects after all, working myself to the bone with my job. Oh wait, I am already all bones! Yo ho ho ho ho!"

"Don't worry," Usopp said reassuringly after his friend's obligatory skull joke. "Robin's been doing a phenomenal job managing everything, and we kept everything related to our other operations away from there."

"Yeeeah! She's SUUUUPER!"

"Speaking of which," Jinbe rumbled, "how goes the rest of the network?"
Due to his distinctive appearance, at this stage Jinbe himself had noted that it was probably best for him to lay low, unless helping them deal with the underworld which he also had some experience with. Thus the fishman had aided Robin where he could, and had served as obvious muscle where intimidation might be needed. The rest of the time he trained, taught the others some tricks, and was presently visiting Brook to keep him company.

"We have the resources," she admitted, "but we're burning through money as fast as we can make it to help Franky's work. Along with other expenses and projects."

One such problem they had encountered was that all of the various brands of pop and cola in this world were slightly yet distinctively different from the universal Cola that Franky relied upon. Fortunately, the man had learned how to manufacture it himself after a few close shaves during their two year Separation. Nonetheless, he had been adamant that it would be preferable if he could also acquire it through commercial means in case of an emergency. Hence their need to create a company to produce it, and pour money into it to ensure the success of Iceberg Cola.

(Franky had sulked at the name until it was pointed out that if he kept guzzling cola while yelling "SUPER," or with the way that Luffy chattered on, then as soon as they –inevitably— went public, it would be impossible for people to not make the connection to 'Pirate Cola,' 'Sunny Cola,' and especially 'SUPER COLA).

(Franky would not be one to boast about 'Iceberg' Cola, and Luffy would not remember how to say the name right)

Other supply issues like vast quantities of food, booze, exotic plants, rare books, etcetera, had been essential to keep everyone else in order.

Then there were the obvious benefits of maintaining multiple secret bases to hide out, given how they traveled so much around the world. If they stayed in one place too long after all, they might snap and lay waste to the local cities.

It has to be said again, Robin's experience as the vice-president of a major crime syndicate, and her time allied with the Revolution, was invaluable.

"I still wish I could take over the meat market," Luffy moaned, a drop of drool leaking out. "We could ship it all to me instead!"

Robin had brought up the fear that the meat in this world would not taste like the food back home, forcing Luffy to revert to eating his own limbs as withdrawal hit him. Fortunately, to their indescribable relief, Luffy had already rebelliously tried the meat and found he enjoyed it before she even had finished talking. He had cheerfully continued to stuff his mouth while laughing as Nami, Usopp, and Chopper begged their 'Big Sis' to please, never ever say stuff like that again.

"Wipe your mouth!" Nami snapped. "And we couldn't ship it all to you without telling everyone where we are!"

"Would they try to take my meat away?" he grimly asked.

"Yes."

"Then I'd just beat them for trying to take my meat, and since I could keep eating more meat I'd keep having the energy to keep hitting them!"

"You—!" Nami cut herself off as she seriously considered Luffy's argument. Robin giggled and the others exchanged wide-eyed stares as they marveled at the possibilities.

"We'll think about it," the navigator finally compromised. "But for now, all of those meat farms and factories we already own will have to do. Not all of them. Yet. Maybe."

Anything further was interrupted as Brook glanced at the clock. "Oh my, I have to get going or I'll be late!"

They cheered him on as he hustled out the door. Moments later he was being escorted by eager staff.

He patiently took his position on stage, and seconds later spotlights framed him as he held up one boney hand. "Are you ready to rock!?" called out the Soul King.

"YEEEAAH!" screamed the horde of hyperactive fans here for the live performance of the world's newest music sensation.

Chapter 3: Aftermath

Chapter Text

Calmly, Black Leg Sanji turned around as he took in the sight of the Watchtower. Acting as if he owned the place.

Which he sort of did.

Partial ownership at least.

“Yes, that’s it exactly,” Superman complimented.

The form of the ex-CEO of Cherry Blossom Medical shifted and flowed, until in his place stood J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. “It should be, given how I took this image directly from your memories,” the shapeshifting telepath dryly noted.

Batman said nothing, having denied their teammate the right to poke around in his head. His injuries hurt, but he kept on working. Not daring to appear weak. The sole normal human on the team.

Although the rest of the assembled League felt like trying to convince him to go to bed to rest from yesterday’s injuries, they respected his desire to first discuss the ones who had attacked him. Each of them examined the pictures taken of Manhunter, showing different profiles of the four pirates.

“Don’t look like much,” Flash noted, as he rummaged through his twelfth bag of chips for the last few crumbs.

“Appearances can be deceiving,” Martian Manhunter neutrally reminded him. “But do we really have grounds to put out alerts on them? Illegal construction or not, and false backgrounds, you did break into their home, which is also illegal.”

“I’m not a member of your little club,” Batman growled while the others tried to not roll their eyes. While they had the support from many governments, Batman, their ‘part-timer,’ was the one who broke the most laws; albeit in a manner that none of them were willing to call him out on. Breaking and entering to spy around was a regular occurrence for him, with the caveat that none of what he ‘found’ would hold up in courts. It was the results of the follow-up investigations that were born from those first clues that made the difference. Strictly speaking, they had nothing to hold those criminals on that they would not be promptly bailed out for.

It’s not too different from what the prosecutor said at my trial, John Stewart thought. Remembering when he had been brought before the tribunal on Ajuris 5, charged with destroying their neighbouring planet. No one gave us the right to protect people. The Guardians of the Universe entrusted me with the means to uphold law and order throughout every planet in my assigned sector, but they were the ones to appoint themselves to play that role. They answer to no higher authority, yet so far they’ve gotten it right for the most part.

Just like we are doing here with the League.

Protecting innocent life is too big to let ourselves be constrained by the governments. Yet at the same time, I turned myself in to the court because we must work alongside those same officials if we want to show people how to achieve peace and justice without violence. That it doesn’t have to be a part of life.

To say that it was a delicate balancing act, one which they had to be carefully scrutinized every single second of every day, would be an understatement.

The truth of the matter was that the members of the Justice League had for all intents and purposes been vigilantes, which was illegal despite widespread support from the public and law enforcement. Since the founding of their team though, they had the privilege of the United Nation’s approval, as well as countries like the United States. Those institutions overlooked what were technically criminal acts out of faith that the heroes would remain true to their ideals. That they would not push the envelope too far.

So far it worked, but only because of the level of faith the various governments and police were willing to put in them.

But these people Superman and Batman had uncovered, had gone to suspicious lengths to hide themselves. Which they would not have done if helping people with superior treatments was all they intended. Clearly they held an agenda that they were willing to fight to protect at the drop of a hat, used a lead-based smoke bomb that would have been very hazardous if they had been anyone else, and openly identified themselves as pirates. Actions and words that spoke volumes.

No, there was no doubt in Green Lantern’s mind that these people were going to cause trouble. The only question was how much, and how the League was to contain it.

“I dropped off most of our notes on it to the Daily Planet before coming here,” Superman said. “We don’t have anything to hide,” Batman coughed, “aside from how Batman is going to be out of it for a little while. What’s important here is that people are warned that something suspicious is going on.”

There was some slight reluctance, but the others agreed. Their reputation was important, but ensuring people were safe was more so.

!JUSTICE!

Lois Lane gave a little “hmm” as she reread her article. Smallsville would look it over later to check for any grammar issues (as she would do for Clark in turn of course), but right now she wanted to be sure it had the right balance to it.

The damage from the attack on Cherry Blossom Medical’s head office had apparently not gone public yet, but Superman had already dropped by to leave her and Clark his notes, along with an explanation for what had happened. He had learnt about the interview she and her co-worker had done, and wanted to break the news first. Given Lois’ own suspicions, observations of the individuals involved (including how she had caught the CEO in a lie over who was responsible for the medical breakthroughs), and verifying Superman’s copies of the company’s finances, she was inclined to believe he had been right to intervene. Whoever ‘Black Foot’ and ‘Dr. Mikan’ were, they had obviously been up to something, especially since if they had really been as honest and helpful as they claimed, they would have had no reason to need such secrecy. Ergo, whatever they had been hiding behind what was supposedly one of the greatest humanitarian enterprises, was likely something too unsettling for the public to ever condone.

On the flip-side, an extremely successful medical company had been attacked, and who knew what would happen to those priceless patents. Lois could only hope Wayne Enterprises would buy them out. Even more costly, was how the original source of these ground-breaking medical breakthroughs was –however temporary if she knew Superman— lost. Her article was quite clear that while what the hero had done was correct, how he had gone about doing it was another matter.

That was Lois’ job after all: making people aware of the full story, and guiding or prodding them into asking the hard questions themselves. Freedom and democracy required more than just punching would-be dictators to succeed after all. It was the responsibility of every citizen to hold their defenders accountable.

In her opinion, given what was at stake, more members of the Justice League should have been present. That was why they were a team after all, right? They had definitely been too co*cky here. If it had been Lex Luthor’s company (and yes, hiding something sinister behind something so benign, was exactly the sort of thing he would do), he would already be suing the League for searching without a warrant, destruction of property, corporate espionage, breaking and entering, mental trauma, etcetera.

While she might have a crush on Superman, not calling him out on stuff like this would only hurt him and his friends in the long-run.

She also suspected that Superman was keeping some cards to his chest, although Lois had a shrewd idea what they were. They had just gotten word from Gotham City that the multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne, who she knew was Batman, had cancelled a charity dinner because he ‘hurt himself slipping in the bathtub.’ Promptly following this were rumours that the playboy had actually injured himself while dallying with his latest conquest. Further scandalous gossip had flourished from there. Clearly Batman was covering something up, and had to provide a public explanation for some actual injuries. Again.

Regardless, she knew to keep quiet about it. A bloodbath in Gotham because the criminals learnt Batman was out of commission, was not something Lois wanted on her conscience. Aside from that, I think Superman covered everything else. Although if the League doesn’t come up with something to help the authorities locate these guys, even if only to report any sightings, I’ll have to think of something myself, Lois grimly thought, her thoughts darkening further beneath her neutral mask.

And Superman had better bring in that slimeball CEO fast. I don’t want him on the streets any longer than necessary! Especially if he, or whoever he’s with, is good enough to take down Batman hard enough that Superman doesn’t want anyone to know.

Because at the end of the day, Lois did believe what Superman and his fellow heroes were doing was necessary.

It was tough love, but articles like this were her own way of helping them remember what they were responsible for.

!JUSTICE!

“This just came in,” Batman called out from where he was working at his computer. “All of the medical company’s patents just went onto the public domain.”

“Not what I’d expect if they really were hardened criminals,” Princess Diana pointed out, as she came up to read over his shoulder.

“Don’t just jump to that conclusion,” Green Lantern John Stewart cautioned. “That might just be want they want us to think. As intimidating as Batman might be, they could’ve called the police, or tried talking to him instead of blindsiding him hard enough to hospitalize a normal man. For crying out loud, they call themselves ‘pirates,’ remember.”

“Why use a medical company as a front though,” Flash asked while snacking down chips.

“Like Batman said, they probably got their hands on advanced stuff, and couldn’t adapt it for anything else,” the ex-soldier turned space-cop argued. “And then used it to make a hefty profit.”

“So Batman’s theorised,” J’onn reminded them. “And he said the furry one claimed to be the creator. It could be that he feared prejudice against his appearance, and that is why they chose to be secretive about it.”

John paused at that. As an African-American, he had experienced discrimination growing up, and had seen far, far worse as the Green Lantern of this space sector while traveling to and amongst alien cultures. Moreover, J’onn was literally wearing a different form than the one he had been born with. The shapeshifter taking a more ‘human’ appearance so as to not unnerve the people of Earth with what he really looked like. “It’s possible,” John granted. “That might even be part of the story. Nevertheless, they’ve taken it too far now for it to be as simple as that.”

“You’re all being naïve,” Batman admonished. “I just told you they put the patents out on the public domain, and that’s the first thing you all think about?”

"You're worried. You think making them public is part of some sort of PR campaign?" Diana queried. “Something to use against us in court?”

Batman frowned. "That’s if we’re lucky. Those patents represent a huge amount of money, almost the sum total of Cherry Blossom’s market value. Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp were already furiously trying to get a hold of them. Either one would have paid any opening offers for them, if only to keep the other from getting them first. These so-called pirates stood to gain a lot of money from whoever bought out them out in the hours since we confronted them. They haven’t been formally charged with any crimes yet after all.

“Instead,” Batman continued to lecture, “they immediately disposed of everything at zero profit, just as a major source of income dried up.” Now the rest of League were starting to catch on as he finished.
“No, the entire company was always a smokescreen of some sort. And that makes me wonder –what have they got to hide that makes them treat a billion-dollar asset as a pawn to be sacrificed?"

Everyone tensed up at these words, leading Superman to hold up a hand to play peacekeeper. “Let’s just wait until we have some more evidence. Do we have anything concrete yet?”

“What about their base? Was there anything left?” Hawkgirl asked.

“Superman and I took a look around before coming to the Watchtower,” Batman said, omitting how Superman had first flown him to the Batcave for medical aid. “When we were first distracted by the smoke, we missed how they had also fired a projectile to set fire to the notes I’d found. However, even that they had expressed no concern over. We found no clues that would lead us to them.”
“Nothing at all?” Hawkgirl said with surprise, well aware of Batman’s skill as a detective.

“It’s probably a good idea if John and J’onn go with us for another look,” Superman offered. Between John’s Green Lantern Ring, and J’onn’s ability to phase through solid objects (especially when lead-lined against X-ray vision), they might catch something. “But no, we couldn’t find anything. By the looks of it, from the beginning they were professional enough that there were never any personal effects that could be traced. Even the materials they were using, were simply diverted from their official resources for the company overhead.”

“The only thing of interest,” Batman tightly added, annoyed at Superman’s lack of attention to detail, “is the flag. They took their ‘Jolly Roger’ with them.”

It was a strange one, with what looked like some sort of hat on top of the skull. A straw hat like their name.

Everyone lapsed into silence as they thought about it some more, until they noticed Diana shift to get a better look at what Batman was studying now. Reports and images that looked familiar to them.

“Fortunately,” Batman said as he continued to scroll through information, “I think we’ve now gotten a lead on who’s been doing all those robberies.”

“You mean all of those banks, museums, and laboratories that’ve gotten ripped off lately?” Flash inquired as he zipped up beside the Dark Knight.

For the last few months there had been of string of high profile thefts. At first there had been enough variety in the methods used to make them think it was several different gangs operating. Inevitably, the crooks had messed up, leaving enough clues behind at several heists for the League and investigators to realize it was one single organization. While the revelation gave them a more accurate profile to track them down, and solved many questions, it also raised a series of new ones.

Particularly the mystery of just how skillful this group was, given the scale and scope of the crimes they had already committed.

Whoever it was, they were smart enough that not even Batman could predict their movements, leading some to wonder if they were targeting at random. There were also no hints to their identities.

“Exactly. We’ve suspected for some time that there were meta-humans involved, but whatever was stolen was either quietly sold without a trace of the original culprits, or disappeared. And every single time, we’ve never caught them in the act. Nothing for us to find them. Sound familiar?”

“Unfortunately,” Superman grimly agreed, folding his arms over his chest. “Except we don’t have any evidence to prove that either.” He did not accuse Batman of ‘jumping to conclusions,’ he knew the man’s intuition was razor sharp. Still, it did seem a bit of a leap.

“I admit, there’s nothing conclusive,” Batman allowed. “Yet with the speed and strength Black Foot displayed, and indications of meta-humans we’ve been unaware about until now, the possibility exists. They also had a secret base, and extensive knowledge of security based upon what I had to get through. Finally,” and now he paused to turn around in his chair to face them all, with Wonder Woman and Flash forced to take a step out of the way. “Those robberies started shortly before Cherry Blossom Medical went public. In fact, some of the labs struck were working on biological research that would have benefited the company. Not to mention funding their start-up.”

Now Superman was very interested. “Fair enough. Even if it’s just a coincidence, I admit that’s suspicious”. Of course, the League had to be careful not to jump to conclusions. The idea that they had finally gotten a break on a frustrating and concerning case could be overly seductive after all. Indeed, for all that the others were willing to acknowledge the possibility of a connection, they were clearly still skeptical.

“Well, good medicine or not, if it is them,” Green Lantern declared, crossing his arms, “we’ll bring them in. Maybe we can get them some leniency if they make more products like that.”

Deciding everyone was getting off track, Clark decided they should redirect their energies back to Cherry Blossom Medical.

“Very well then,” he calmly said, “we’ll keep this mind. But for now we’ve got other work to do. J’onn? John? Would you join me in taking another look at the base under Cherry Blossom?”

Both men nodded.

“Diana and Flash,” Superman reached over to pick up printed copies of the four individuals he and Batman had seen. “Get these to law enforcement. With any luck, they’ll be able to give us some better ideas.”

Diana gave a pleasant smile in acknowledgement, although it was practically subdued compared to the speedster’s full-toothed one.

“Hawkgirl and I will stay on the Watchtower then to monitor any new incidents,” Batman grimly declared. He did not care if she acknowledged, since he was already planning to do some more research from his computer station. With a little work, he was sure to find some leads, and he would go back down to Earth to investigate.

“Alrighty then,” Hawkgirl cheerfully said, grabbing Batman by his shoulder and heaving him out of the chair.

“What’re you doing?” he growled, hiding any sign of pain.

“If you refuse to get some rest like you should, and we’re going to be on duty together, you might as well make yourself useful. I’ve heard some good stuff about chess,” the winged alien smirked, “so you’re going to teach me.” She figured the challenge, along with the opportunity to evaluate how good she was in a game of strategy –and she had always been good at those— would sufficiently salve his pride. Anything to get him to stop moving around.

Jerking himself free, Batman nodded without any emotion. “If you insist.” He gestured for her to lead the way. They both knew a board and pieces could be found in the recreation room.

!JUSTICE!
Two Weeks since the Raid on Cherry Blossom Medical

“Could we really sue the Justice League?” Chopper’s young voice rang from the back of the SUV.

“Probably, but we shouldn’t,” sighed Nami with a tear in her eye at the money dangling just out of reach. She knew Chopper was referring to that newspaper article that had interviewed Lex Luthor, who urged the former Cherry Blossom Medical to come out of hiding ‘from fear of Superman’s brutal and illegal actions,’ and do just that. Truthfully, the fact the bald man was suggesting it was enough to make her wary. ‘Dr. Mikan’ had met the billionaire a few times at charity events, and something had vaguely unnerved her about him.

Still, it had been entertaining watching 'Glorious' Godfrey lambast the League on his talk show. Particular phrases stood out, like ‘hypocrisy,’ ‘criminal,’ ‘vigilantes,’ or accusing them of being jealous of others being put into a good light. Of course, when he had also tried to blame them for the rising divorce rate, Nami had started to find Godfrey a bit ridiculous. Amateur. If you want to play people, you’ve got to get better material.

“Captain’s Orders,” Zoro grunted, swiping the steering wheel to send them into oncoming traffic.

“Zoro—!” screeched Nami, about to wrest control of the vehicle with her own steering wheel, but he cut her off. “Don’t worry!” he snapped when he made another sharp turn to take them into a side alley, missing a truck by millimeters.

“If we were suing the League, we wouldn’t need Zoro to drive,” whimpered Chopper, glad he had not seen Zoro’s most recent near-collision. Alas, he could still hear Nami’s panicked screams while the plain white van violently swerved about. He was seated safely in the back, where no one would catch sight of their doctor’s distinct appearance, and so that he remained blissfully ignorant of Zoro’s suicidal stunts.

It had been with severe trepidation that they had let Zoro be the driver, and only after Franky had added in a variety of safety features, including the ability to take control of it. The reason they risked this, was because it allowed them to tap into his ability to wander wildly without any regard to logic or geography. When Zoro got lost, he got lost, making sure their routes were utterly unpredictable.

As for the constant near heart-attacks while Zoro was at the wheel . . . well, they were all young with good hearts. Except Brook, who was old and had no heart anyways, but that didn't stop him from clutching his breastbone in terror when Zoro was at the wheel— while adding new skull jokes to his arsenal . . .

(Both Franky and Jinbe were too heavy to drive in anything except Franky's custom vehicles. The cyborg was the only one allowed to drive his enormous babies; sporting such massive horsepower he bragged they would soon need a new measuring system).

It was not as bad as it sounded of course. They had endured worse in the New World.

Probably.

The reason they were risking life and limb, was that unfortunately the Straw Hats always had a need for more money, a necessity that had been further aggravated by the loss of Chopper’s medical company. Despite everything Nami did, their expenses were immense. While they had a few remaining legitimate companies that were carefully hidden away, it was not enough. Finding and creating the resources for Franky to create a portal back home (by far the largest drain), sustaining her crew of lovable lunatics while laying low, along with their other projects, quickly burned through their income. Hence the regular need to steal stuff to maintain their capital. Aside from the robberies for Franky’s work. Or heists for other stuff to help lay a false trail so no one realized what it was they were really after.

They had stolen a lot of stuff in only a few short months.

Thus, Chopper and Nami found themselves doing heists with Zoro again. In preparation, Nami had (temporarily) disabled his brand new cybernetic eye’s functions, specifically the ones designed to prevent him getting lost. Of course, once we get back home, we’ll lose the GPS and automatic directions. After all, there’ll be no satellites there, she mourned as they drove down the alley way.

Not that she would miss the competition in mapping the world.

They had chosen this city by having Luffy throw a dart at a map without looking at it, and traveled to the closest location indicated. Now Zoro was randomly driving them throughout the city until they found something worth stealing from. Finally, his ability to get lost was doing some good, after all the headaches he had caused.

“Captain’s Orders,” Zoro repeated. “Taking them to court would risk exposing ourselves, and these heroes are too crafty to not take advantage of that. We can do whatever it takes to get back home, including robbing whatever we have to. But we aren’t to involve the Justice League in any shape or form, otherwise they, or someone worse, might follow us back. Any and all contact between our world and theirs begins and ends entirely on our terms. Period.”

“Yes, we know,” sighed Chopper and Nami in stereo. The two universes were similar enough to each other for people from either one to adapt to what they discovered . . . yet were still too alien to each other for the consequences to be anything but catastrophic. Even if the League was on the level, there were too many ‘supervillains’ here who –if they learnt how to access a new planet—would leap at the opportunity to wreak havoc upon the Blue Seas or Grand Line. And that was without the World Government getting involved. Just last night, Nami had been tormented by a nightmare where the marines had discovered how to produce nuclear bombs…

“Just keep driving and don’t get us killed,” she gruffly told Zoro.

“Tch,” he grunted back.

!JUSTICE!

With ease from far too much practice, Alfred continued his check-up of Master Wayne.

They were in the Batcave, the gloom and titular bats kept away with powerful lights. The mini-hospital was also pointedly away from the Batcomputer, or anything else any patients might try working on when they were supposed to be resting. His charge was laid out on the medical bed, his Batman uniform conspicuously absent.

“Well, Alfred?” Batman casually asked, being far more at ease with the man who had basically raised him.

And routinely patched him back together while admonishing him.

“It appears that Cherry Blossom’s medicine will indeed allow you to recover quicker, so that you can go out and get shot and stabbed more often,” the butler dryly noted, while packing up his various instruments. “Your internal injuries have healed in record time. Remarkable.”

With a light grunt, Batman turned onto his stomach, revealing a back riddled with scars. “Yes. Can you apply more of the anti-scar lotions?”

“Certainly, Master Bruce. All the better for you to attend beach and pool parties where you do the best to ignore the women around you,” Alfred said as he got the bottles.

“Like you’d want me to be involved with the kind of people who go to those of events,” Batman said with a slight smile. “But yes, it will be make it easier for me to deflect attention.”

“Indeed. They must think it’s a miracle you’re even allowed out of the manor, given how you apparently keep attempting extreme sports while being so accident prone. As for the young ladies in question who you keep lying to, at this point any women in your life would seem an improvement. Although if I must be picky, I'd prefer one who doesn’t keep trying to kill or rob you.”

Despite his biting words, Alfred’s touch was delicate as he smoothed in creams that would make the myriad of scars from fighting crime, simply disappear.

Or at least remain under the surface, alongside all of the deeper ones he feared would never fade from the man he thought of as a son.

Distracting himself, the Englishman changed the topic. “I’m glad to see so many companies are producing similar products now.”

“Yes,” Batman’s smile was larger now. “And because they’re on the public domain and were initially so cheap, it’s keeping the price down. Even Luthor’s having to do it. Everyone will also be rushing to try and improve them as well. Wayne Enterprises is working on an automated platform for applying the stronger salves in an emergency, since they can treat injuries that previously only full surgery could handle. It won’t solve everything, but it might be enough to keep people alive when there aren’t enough doctors around to save them.”

“Personally,” Alfred noted with a touch of admiration, “what impresses me is how much of it seems to have grown out of herbal remedies. Almost a step back from all of the complicated chemicals or cell research. It’s really thrown the medical industry into a loop.”

He smirked as Batman gave a dissatisfied grunt at that. Ever since his failed infiltration of the company, the latter had been pouring over various reports on the medical treatments, until Alfred spotted what all of those scientists –and yes, possibly Batman himself— had been trying to deny: that the brilliant breakthroughs involved a step back in medical science. Ergo, Batman’s theory that the ‘pirates’ had found a cache of advanced technology –at least in regards to this— was possibly inaccurate.

The actions of Black Foot and his compatriots, and their continued silence were still highly suspicious however. The Dark Knight knew that whatever they were up to, it was not good.

!JUSTICE!

A while later, also deep underground, Nami and Zoro were following Chopper, who had gone on ahead as they committed their newest heist.

“My blades are going to go dull at this rate,” the swordsman sulked while holding his flashlight. “You should’ve gotten the stupid cook to do this. He’s the one who cost us all that money.”

Truthfully, there were others Zoro could have done this with, or he could have spent his time training, but he had missed the other two. They had been so busy lately with Chopper’s pet project.

He would just rather have his intestines slowly pulled out by a rusty hook than admit it.

“Oh pipe down!” Nami snapped. “You know he made the right choice. Besides, with our luck, you’ll be able to fight the Justice League any day now. And that’s not a good thing!” she added with barred fangs at the bloodthirsty grin her friend sported.

Chopper said nothing as he overheard them bickering, choosing to focus on his job. He had been a little uncomfortable when they had first started stealing, if eventually accepting it as part of being a pirate. Plus, he was far too smart to risk angering Nami by complaining about ‘appropriating’ money she viewed as rightfully hers. She was scary like that.

Not that he would have it any other way.

The books on psychology Chopper had been reading made him wonder if his crew was odder than the norm. Although, he was pretty positive that he was not the right person to judge. ‘Normal’ was not something anyone had ever used to describe the reindeer-human hybrid with a blue nose.

Silence fell as they continued down the rough tunnel. Eventually, Nami admitted her own impatience. “How much farther?”

“Shouldn’t be much longer.”

They kept moving, before Nami spoke up again. “So what was that movie 300 about anyways?”

Now Zoro’s grin was of appreciation. “People fighting to the death to protect those precious to them, never turning their backs. Eh, there was some stupid political stuff too, though I just fast forwarded through it.”

Nami sighed, yet did not otherwise comment.

“What did you watch last night?” he asked, hoping that talking would help her calm down a bit. Neither particularly liked their current, tight circ*mstances.
“The news, particularly the marketing stuff,” she lustfully grinned, before giving a superior look. “And the weather forecast! Bunch of amateurs!”

He scoffed in agreement; he would trust Nami’s judgment any day. Then he belatedly remembered that he had forgotten to turn his new eye back on. For some reason, the Witch had told him to turn it off before starting all of this, muttering about using how he, Zoro, kept getting lost. Ridiculous.

Pressing his finger against the artificial eyeball for a count to three, it rebooted, and he checked their GPS location, and with precise blinking of his eyelid, activated the various filters to confirm with his ‘own eye,’ so to speak. “Just another few ship-lengths.”
“Finally!”

A few minutes later they caught up to Chopper, and were relieved to be able to stand up straight after walking hunched over through the short tunnel. Their doctor was already preparing for the next stage, including setting up some portable lights. This was not the bulky, pill-shaped form he had worn when Batman had broken into his laboratory however. Now Chopper was thin and lanky, with oversized paws and long sharp hooves, and a mane of hair on his back. Most distinctively, the doctor sported a truly massive pair of antlers on his head, easily as long as his body.

They were deep underground, with Zoro and Nami having just walked through dark and confining tunnels their resident reindeer had just effortlessly dug in his Horn Point mode. While waiting for them, he had expanded the endpoint so that his friends exited into a fairly spacious cavern for them to operate within. On the ceiling, a distinctive patch of metal was visible.

What followed was an example of precise, well-oiled teamwork, despite how they had done no rehearsals for this particular operation. It was less that they had done this together so often lately, and more that they just knew each other that well.

Using the various functions in his new, burning red eye to help, Zoro looked up, drew his black blade, and made three quick cuts into the steel ceiling.

Succumbing to gravity, the large triangle fell right down into the massive hands of Chopper’s enormously muscular Heavy Point. Gently he placed the weight down, and they all looked up the dim hole.

A moment later they all leapt up into the bank vault, securely locked up for the night. It was kept deep beneath the surface, accessible only by a single elevator, and surrounded by metal walls to resist all but the most determined attacks. Heat and motion sensor alarms were also present, but the Straw Hats were unimpressed as they scooped up bundles of money into bags.

There were no cameras for budget reasons, as Zoro’s new x-ray vision had confirmed. Otherwise they would have used one of Nami’s tools to short them out.

In under a minute they were dropping back into the hole. There had been so much inside, that instead of letting the men do all the heavy lifting, even Nami sported a massive bag of cash on her back.

The second they hit dirt, Chopper hoisted the floor of the bank back up, holding it in place. So smooth was Zoro’s cut, once the metal triangle was back in place, there was no visible seam.

Standing on her furry friend’s shoulders to reach, Nami applied a super-glue that Usopp had invented, sticking the safe floor in place. Meanwhile, Zoro helpfully extended metal support beams he had been carrying on his back to support their former ‘door,’ reducing any chances of investigators figuring out how they had done it.

And if it failed? Who cared? Let the police come after them.

The mission was a success, with more money for Nami to cuddle with before investing it for their various operations.

Total time elapsed?

Thirty seconds choosing a random city via Luffy throwing a dart at a map of the USA.

Driving time to the city: fourteen hours and thirty-eight minutes, with Nami and Chopper crying tears of joy at how Zoro’s new eye had saved several days of travel time, while the man scoffed in disgust.

Then they had told Zoro to turn off his GPS, and randomly drive around the city until they found something of interest. Even with planned heists, for materials for Franky, they relied upon the man’s wild and unnatural ‘walks’ to ensure it was as impossible to track them as it was to predict where they would rob next.

Travel time within the city: two hours, seven minutes, until they passed by the bank and decided it would do.

Fifteen minutes to find a place to start digging from (breaking into an apartment building basem*nt).

Ten minutes to dig in, rob the place, and get back.

“Keeping a low profile is a pain,” Nami groaned, glancing down at her dirty and fully covering clothes. “Still, I guess it’s worth it,” she grinned next, feeling the heavy weight of the bag on her back.

Without a care in the world, they lugged the money back to their most recent base. As they drove, Nami schemed on how they would use it to make even more, so they could return to the New World and continue sailing in search of their dreams.

!JUSTICE!

Luffy hopped out of his personal seat in the TV room. Everything was a patent Franky SUPER Creation^TM , from the chair stylized to look like the masthead of the Thousand Sunny, to the 10meter by 10meter TV screen, adjustable to accommodate each individual film.

He was alone, which was a bit unusual for the Straw Hat Captain, but he had been watching a Yu-Gi-Oh marathon. It was so awesome! Every episode with cool monsters, tension, surprise moves, and best of all it never seemed to end!

Sadly, Usopp and Chopper were the only other ones who seemed to appreciate it, and they were out stealing stuff. The others claimed it ‘dragged on,’ ‘made no sense,’ and other such nonsense. So they usually found something else to do while Luffy watched.

Regardless, Luffy had been on his own for long enough, and decided it was high time to be with his nakama.

Feeling out with his haki, Luffy took stock of the situation.

Zoro, Nami, and Chopper were not back yet, which meant no fun there.

By the feel of it, Sanji and Jinbe were sparring, so best let them be. They took training seriously after all. Worst of all, this also meant Sanji was too busy to make food.

Franky was busy with what he hoped was a breakthrough. Best to leave him alone.

Usopp was with Brook, who had a performance soon. Hmm . . . what time was it again? Robin would know. With that in mind, he strolled out of the room and upstairs to her office.

He found her seated in front of her desk, and immediately frowned in concern. In terms of getting home, Luffy had already done his job as Captain so far: figure out a plan, and get the right people on it. Punch his nakama’s enemies as necessary.

Robin had been particularly invaluable, having spent the majority of her childhood growing up in the underworld back home, until rising to become the vice-president who managed the day-to-day business of a secret crime syndicate that had stretched across Paradise, with significant influence within the Blues to boot.

Now however, she was almost hidden behind stacks of paper.

“Oh, hello Luffy,” Robin smiled. She was glad to see him, yet also knew that this paperwork needed to be completed sooner rather than later. Duplicates of her arms grew out of the table to grab the majority of her paperwork to shuffle it out of sight. “Don’t worry,” she reassured him. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing at the remaining sheets, still upset that she was so overworked.

“Oh, fu fu fu fu,” she delicately laughed. “Sanji’s been donating money to various food banks, but doesn’t want Nami to know.”

“Shi shi shi shi,” Luffy chortled back. “She’d hit him. But she’d also understand and do nothing to stop it.” Indeed, although they never spoke about it, and he had never bothered to listen to her past (since it was irrelevant, and she appreciated that), Luffy knew that Nami was more familiar with the desperation of being poor and hungry than most. “Anyone else doing something like that?”

“Oh now, Captain,” Robin said formally as a light reprimand. “You know the others wouldn’t appreciate me tattling.” Such as how whenever he thought no one was looking, manly Zoro would slip orphanages some of the money he was responsible for.

The social support systems present in this world were one of the things they did appreciate about it. The closest equivalent to them back home, was joining the Navy to earn a roof overhead and three square meals a day.

The recruiters forbore to mention the mandatory indoctrination and death.

Robin thought she had pulled it off, but then Luffy’s attention focused back on her and she knew she had failed to distract him. He always saw right through her.

“Robin, you’ve been keeping up with your training, right?”

“Of course,” she replied, already knowing where this was going.

“But you’re also doing all this stuff?”

“Yes.”

With a sigh of exasperation, Luffy flung out his arm with casual ease, and it stretched so that he grabbed her own just about the elbow. “Okay then,” he said with a large grin, “we’ve got to get you out for some fun!”

“That sounds lovely, Luffy,” she smiled as she let herself be pulled along by the younger man. Wherever he went, she would follow –and she did appreciate the breather. That job was always secondary to enjoying her life after all. “Where are we going?”
“Brook’s got another concert playing tonight, right?”

“Oh my,” Robin continued to smile, happy she had figured it out. “That does sound lovely. Let’s just let Jinbe and Sanji know before we leave. I believe our chef had a meal he wanted to run over to Usopp and Brook anyways, and we can grab a snack ourselves.” Robin knew the refrigerator lock’s newest combination code, specifically intended to keep Luffy out. Sanji changed it every few days –rolling dice for the numbers— after he had caught Luffy trying to (poorly) spy on him.

(He could not just break it open, because Sanji would automatically assume Luffy was guilty and start kicking him and stop making meat for a while, which was just mean.)

(Also, Franky had made some . . . improvements to security.)

“Yosh!” Luffy cried with joy. “And I got Usopp to make me some new fireworks that will be totally awesome!”

(Even though Usopp had refused to have them depict Luffy eating meat, or a big piece of meat in the sky, or their ship . . . or their Jolly Roger . . . or declaring Luffy would be the King of Pirates. Usopp had been more willing to entertain the possibility of a cool dinosaur, or robot, or dinosaur robot however).

“I can’t wait,” Robin answered with surprise and anticipation. She had not known about that, and whatever the tinkerer Usopp had designed, and deemed safe in his overly-cautious manner, she knew they would be breathtaking. Maybe the lights drawing a picture of a man being eaten by kittens? Or a dragon that will swoop down to terrorize the crowd? Maybe it’ll look like Ryunosuke? she fondly thought.

!JUSTICE!

Off in Central City, a certain redhead named Wally West opened his letter with glee. He had received it a few days ago, but it had gotten buried beneath some dirty laundry when he been distracted by the fliers listing what foods were on sale.

“Sweet! I won! Tickets to the Soul King concert! Ooh, and just enough for me and the rest of the League!”

Chapter 4: Heart and Soul

Chapter Text

"—and that's everything," Flash beamed as he finished his personal report of the mission he had just completed.

"You were sloppy," Batman all-but snarled. "Sinestro would've escaped if not for Superman, and that's all because you were so busy goofing off, you let your guard down."

The rest of the League hung back, pretending to ignore the dressing down as Flash wilted. It was not pretty, but their friend had gotten too co*cky. He had been too busy harassing and irritating the alien, when he should have been punching him. Or failing that, paying attention while distracting the villain until reinforcements arrived for a safe arrest. Instead, Flash had been blindsided by one of Sinestro’s constructs. If not for his incredible reflexes, the hero would have been killed.

Next time, he might not be so lucky.

On cue, Batman reached that topic. "—have a death wish? Because you could have died. Or gotten someone else killed. If you don't take this seriously—"

With a sigh, John shot Superman a look. "I'll do some more drills with him tomorrow. With," growing more stern, "an emphasis on paying attention." Not today though, not after Batman's ongoing verbal lashing.

Nodding, Superman offered, "Let us know if you want some help."

"Like maybe being one of the surprises," Hawkgirl playfully offered, hefting her mace.

"Remember, we want him intact afterwards," Superman said with a small grin.

Then they noticed that it was quiet, as Batman strode over to a nearby computer console. Ever since he had voiced his theory that these new criminals were responsible for the rash of crimes the League had been investigating, he had been digging for clues and connections, using Cherry Blossom Medical as a starting point.

The public backlash towards Superman and Batman's failed investigation, and subsequent devolvement of the company, and loss of further 'miracle cures,' had been serious. Superman had been forced to have another interview with Lois Lane to further address the issue and the concerns that had been raised. Furthermore, the League made a public apology for how they had handled the situation, but stood by their reasons, if not their precise actions. That the 'pirates' had not come forward despite offers, through neutral parties, to discuss reparations and continuation of their research –with the caveat that it had to be verified it was legal— spoke volumes.

Promises had also been made by the League to cooperate closer with law enforcement, along with in-person meetings with various police chiefs. These get-togethers had already proven productive, and overall the majority of citizens appeared reassured.

Men like Lex Luthor, or 'Glorious' Godfrey, continued to try and undermine them of course, although that was no surprise. Proper reporters like Lois Lane were keeping an eye on the League as well, although Superman appreciated that she cared enough to speak up when she was concerned about what he was doing.

Giving Batman an once-over to see if his friend were making any progress, Superman turned his focus to the approaching Flash. The hero's shoulders were slumped over, clearly contrite.

"Sorry guys, I messed up."

"Just don't do it again. Keep alert, and don't fool around, and we'll all be fine," John said, not unkindly.

Diana put a reassuring hand on the Speedster's shoulder. "You're a good man and a fine warrior Flash, we're honoured to have you by our side. You just need to be a little more careful."

In a, well, flash, the man straightened up with a grin plastered on his face. "Thanks Dee! I'll make you all proud."

"You already do," she promised.

He snapped his fingers. "Say, what're you're plans for the evening?"

"Nothing much," she said, blinking in surprise as he changed topics on a dime. He's planning to ask me out again, isn't he? she internally sighed. She thought he had gotten the message, and had only been recently flirting for the fun of it, as a way to slip in some jokes, except this seemed more serious.

"Well," out of nowhere Flash pulled out a handful of slips of paper, "I won a bunch of tickets for all of us to go to the Soul King musical concert tonight! Anyone interested in going?"

"I'd love to," Diana smiled, happy for her friend on several levels.

John Stewart hesitated for a moment. Concerts were not really his thing. Yet ever since they had gotten over their initial difficulties working as a team, and taking down Gorilla Grodd together, they had become good friends. Even more importantly, when most of his own fellow Green Lanterns had assumed him to be a mass murderer, the Flash had been the one to stick up for John the most. Risking his own life as his defense lawyer in that trial. Taking the night off for some more bonding time could hardly hurt, right?

"I'll come too," he offered.

"Really?" Diana asked in surprise, before hastily clarifying. "Forgive me, I wouldn't have thought you and Flash would have similar tastes in music."

"That's one of the reasons the Soul King's so popular!" Flash grinned. "He plays all sorts of different instruments and types of music! He's not stuck with one particular style."

"And even his Rock and Roll stuff ain't half bad," John admitted. "Besides," and he turned off his ring to reveal his civilian clothes underneath, "I can go to the concession stands to get you guys something to eat." After all, while Diana did not have a secret identity that required wearing a mask, the Flash did, and she was still adjusting to 'Man's World.'

The smile on Flash's face was beautiful to behold.

"Hmph," Batman grunted in his best Scrooge impersonation.

"Something wrong, Batman?" Superman asked with fondness and a little exasperation.

"The Soul King is someone else I've been investigating."

"Oh come one! Why!?" Flash cried. "Is it because he's a skeleton?"

"A skeleton!?" Diana hissed, warry of the undead. Instantly she and the others assumed this was the cause of Batman's concern.

"Walking, talking, nine-foot skeleton who can play any music you please," John flatly told her. "Goes by the name, Brook Rumbar. No one knows if it's an illusion, fancy mask, or the real thing. He just laughs when people ask. Although he isn't a star just because of that trick, he really is fantastic at what he does. Plays all sorts of instruments, keeps bringing out brand new songs. Even stopped one concert halfway through a song, because something a fan yelled gave him inspiration, and he would not continue playing until he and the audience had worked out the new lyrics. I hear the result was one of his best compositions ever, and his security was nearly mobbed by the fans afterwards.

Diana was clearly caught between being interested, or concerned about going to this event now, so John quickly reassured her further. "I'm sure you like it. It's all appropriate. Nothing about worshiping the Grim Reaper or anything."

"Hah! Not in those outfits!" Flash barked. "He wears an afro, awesome sunglasses, and goes around in neon clothing. As far away from a cloak and scythe as you can get!

"Not to say there haven't been oodles of conspiracy theories about him. The ones that he was resurrected for vengeance have died out, but others say he's an emissary of peace, or a musician who came back from beyond the grave—they just can't figure out who. Or that he was badly burnt and only survived because of his powers, was caught by some sort of radiation, you get the idea."

Now Diana was looking very confused by this latest oddity of Man's World.

John continued to describe the Soul King, with the others looking on in interest. Clearly this Brook Rumbar was something special, if even the serious John Stewart had picked up so much. Clark was rather embarrassed he had missed how good the singer apparently was. "Although you wouldn't know it for his lyrics," Green Lantern went on, "a lot of his music is about freedom of choice and expression, but the rest is really well done too. The only references he does to his appearance are some corny jokes."

"They're hilarious!" defended Flash.

"I'll have to pass," Hawkgirl said with a touch of regret, before covering a yawn. "I need to get some rest." They all nodded in understanding, she had been doing some stakeouts on a major cartel while Batman dug into the criminals' backgrounds for any vulnerabilities.

"I'm busy too," Superman regretfully added. He did not elaborate, and they did not ask, correctly assuming it was related to his civilian life.

"I'll monitor things from the Watchtower," J'onn simply said. He was not comfortable enough with Humans for this.

"Ahem!" grunted Batman, and for an instant they all thought he might want to come to. Then their sanity returned.

Clearly they had gotten off topic.

Seeing he had their attention again, the Dark Knight elaborated. "As I said, I've looked into him, and not just because he's a meta-human. At first glance he's apparently harmless one whose musical talent is unconnected with any known power—"

"It's the power of the soul!" Flash cheekily interrupted.

Ignoring him, Batman went on. "And he has done some beneficial public awareness campaigns against drugs as well. Yet despite how benign his music appears, I've still kept an eye on him. My reason being that unlike other popular celebrities," yes, Batman spied on even them, while living on coffee to function, "is that while he's making a lot of money, just like with Cherry Blossom Medical, I don't know what he's using it for."

"What does that have to do with anything?" J'onn asked, only to be met with a flat stare.

"If Batman doesn't know, then either he’s being responsible and saving it up, or he's hiding something, and hiding it well," Superman explained, giving his friend a knowing look. "Except you don’t think it’s a big enough priority to really investigate, right? Nor do you think this is related to the Straw Hats."

"That's right," Batman grudgingly admitted. "While it is a lot of money unaccounted for, it's too different an approach from the Straw Hat's medical company, or those crimes I suspect them of."

"How much money?" the Man of Steel asked, making a private bet on the number.

And lost.

Big time.

"Well, if he's the most popular music entertainer right now, that would explain why he's making so much," deadpanned J'onn, while Superman and the humans looked stunned, obviously having a better appreciation of just how much the apparent skeleton was rolling in.

"It's probably nothing serious," Batman admitted, "and I'll get to it when I can." He threw Flash in particular a glare. "But that doesn't mean you should barge in and draw attention!"

"We'll just keep an eye out," John promised, "and let sleeping lions lie for tonight."

Turning to Flash, he smiled. "Well, let's get going, Hot Shot."

Wisely, neither man mentioned to Diana about the tradition of women throwing their panties onto the stage, whenever the Soul King asked for them at the end.

Although he hated it when the men threw their own underwear.

They were also silently conspiring to not be anywhere close enough to the stage for her to see.

!JUSTICE!

Brook, the 'Soul King' was humming to himself as he gave his lyrics one final try. A true artist never assumed it was perfect after all. Presently he was debating the proper pitch, and how slow the beat should be to emphasize a particular part.

~Never forget what Death left behind~
~Nothing but bones for those still livin'~
~You don't need eyes to see, you need only feelin'~

~Life is what you feel inside beatin'~

~Trust my eye sockets, I'm not blind~
~'Cause Life is the gift that keeps on givin'~

~Love being aliiiiive~

Then to help drill it in while maintaining his catch-phrase while steadily deepening his voice:

~Bone, bone, bone, bone, nothing but boones~

"Oi, Brook!"

"Ah, Usopp," Brook said as his friend barged into the room. Despite his friend's wild eyes, he was only slightly concerned. His young friend could be quite excitable after all.

"It's Luffy! He's just disappeared!" screeched Usopp.

"Oh, my."

!JUSTICE!

"Y'know, this really wasn't what I was expecting," Flash said aloud as he looked around.

Most concerts would have the stage in a public and popular location. For the Soul King's newest appearance however, he was staging it in an area full of empty buildings scattered around. While it helped the Flash lie low for now while wearing his bright red suit, it remained a strange surprise.

Princess Diana blended in well however with tasteful white slacks, and a purple sweater. "I overheard someone saying he specifically asked for this, to raise awareness for something," she replied. "There were a few theories, including renovating the place to boost up the local economy."

"Well, seems to be working," he grinned as he watched more fans go by. There were a lot of them, especially since the open stage meant people who could not get their hands on the tickets could still hang back and listen as the tunes drifted through the air. The numerous concession stands scattered about apparently helped make up for lost ticket revenue. Speaking of which . . .

"Here you go," John grunted as he came over with both arms trying to balance over a dozen popcorn bags and even more hot dogs and various drinks. Not wanting them to spill, Flash grabbed it all out of his friend's hands with practiced ease. "Thanks John," he beamed.

"No problem," John said, checking to make sure there were no stains on his street clothes. "Now I'll go back and get our food and drinks."

"I'm just going to go use the lady's room," Diana said as she also drifted off.

Alone, Flash considered his options on how he should wait for them to get back. Given how so many people assumed that the Soul King's skeletal appearance was just a trick or gimmick, a lot of people were wearing costumes of their own, including superhero ones. Can I just eat this in public? Hmm, no, my 'costume' is too good. Real snazzy even. I should try marketing it. Maybe slip a suit over Batman's when I see him next? That'd be so hilarious! But only if I got away in time. Maybe for April Fool's Day for some safety? How many days away is that? He was halfway through counting the number of days before he got himself back on track. Alright no, best not out in public, but I'm sooooo hungry! Where could John and Diana find me?

His eyes swiveled around from behind his cowl and found an interesting spot.

A single second had passed since Diana and John had left.

In a blur he ran up the side of a nearby building, expertly balancing his food, and came to a stop with a conspicuous screech as he braked. Sitting at the edge of the building, facing towards where the concert began, was a young man in a straw hat.

What really got Flash's attention though was how the guy was beside a pile of food which rivaled his own.

The teenager glanced over his shoulder, just as he swallowed a mouthful. "Hey," he said cheerfully.

"Hey," Flash returned the open-hearted grin. "Mind if I join you?"

"Sure. Always nice to meet someone new."

"You got that right," Flash agreed, and plopped down beside him. "Have to say, you're the first person I've seen who appreciates food as much as I do." His arms blurred along with his jaw, and three hotdogs were consumed within two seconds.

"Awesome!" the stranger gasped, stars all but shining in his eyes. "That was so fast!" Then he looked a little competitive. "Watch this." Then he stuffed easily two dozen hotdogs into his mouth, the sides of his face somehow stretching to accommodate it. With a hefty swallow, it someone all went down his throat and disappeared without even being chewed.

"Impressive," Flash complimented, not at all put-out by that display of abnormal human physiology. He had seen weirder. Besides, it would be rude to point it out. "Except, what's the point if you don't take the time to chew it and enjoy the flavor?"

"You mean you can still taste it despite eating so fast?" the young man wondered aloud, giving the situation the seriousness deserved as from one professional eater to another.

"Sure!" Flash boasted. Still, he chose to eat his next burger at a more sedate pace. "So what brings you here?" he asked. "Waiting for the concert to start?"

"Yep! I can't wait to hear Brook play again, he's fantastic."

"I know! And you never know what he's going to play next. Like your vest by the way." The teenager glanced down, it was a warm vest that had the Soul King's face on it.

"Oh yeah, I got this earlier today. Feel's weird having my musicians' face on my chest, but he seemed to like it."

"Your musician?" Flash repeated. It sounded a little absurd, yet it seemed like this stranger was being honest. Before he could press further, someone else spoke up from atop the roof.

"Luffy?" a deep, cultured woman's voice called.

"Ah, Robin," the young man cheerfully called. "There you are!"

"Here I am," the newcomer chuckled as she stepped into the light, and Flash fought to maintain his composure.

She had rich dark hair, and unusually wide, dark blue pupils that you could drown in. Her attire was what caught his attention first however, wearing a very tight jean vest that was unzipped most of the way to reveal that underneath was a massive bosom that was barely covered and clearly had no bra on. In fact, it seemed like the only other scrap of fabric she had was a tiny pair of jean shorts. Flash had no interest in staring at all her exposed flesh however, and it took him an instant to figure out why.

The way Princess Diana dressed might make some people accuse her of being indecent, even a prostitute or part of a related profession, except no one would ever dare say it to her face. They could not. It was not the threat of her powers, but the personal aura she unconsciously emitted. An inherent part of her that was shared by this friend of Luffy's.

Confidence, sophistication, with a dash of intimidation that made a person instinctively know they were to treat Robin with respect.

Flash gave a low wolf-whistle and flashed a smile while meeting her eyes. "Wow. Hello gorgeous."

What? It was polite for him. Certainly more than most men could manage when confronted with such beauty.

"My name," Flash began, but she had already started to cut him off at his first comment.

"I know who you are," Robin smoothly said. "And Luffy already gave you my name." Inwardly she was both amused and mildly exasperated. Trust her Captain to accidently meet up with a member of the Justice League, and have no idea who they were, despite them being in costume.

Although, given everything they had gone through in the past, she was hardly unsurprised.

Nami's going to give him a beating.

Especially after the seven times she tried to teach him to recognize them all.

Luffy blinked in mild confusion, until he decided that if Robin was not going to elaborate, then she must have a reason. She was smart like that.

Flash was a little suspicious of these two for a few seconds, until he put it aside.

Well, a few seconds for other people. For himself, he had already gone over the conversation several times, made various interpretations of the duo's clothes and interactions, and decided they seemed nice. As for Robin's weird greeting, it was true that the Justice League had been on the news so much lately that she decided a formal greeting was unnecessary. Besides, Luffy seemed fun!

"So Brook works for you," Flash said again. "Must be pretty rich if he's decided to work for you."

"Who cares about the money," Luffy said with a dismissive wave of a hotdog before throwing it into his mouth. "It's his music that matters. Well, almost as much as what an awesome guy he is."

"Can't argue with you there," Flash agreed. "Does that mean—" Unfortunately he had jostled his food a little and a bag of popcorn started to fall. "Aw nuts," he groaned, arms stuffed with so much other food this would take a little juggling to run down and grab it.

Then an arm stretched out and snagged it. Slightly bemused, Flash accepted the bag as Luffy's arm retracted and handed it back. "Careful, you shouldn't waste good food."

"I won't," Flash promised. Huh, so he's definitely a metahuman. Oh well, it seems like a harmless power, and it would be beyond rude to pressure him about it.

They fell into a discussion about Brook's past performances. They even learnt they had attended a few at the same time, yet had sadly missed each other. It might be easy for people to dismiss Luffy as 'simple,' based upon his expression and horrible table manners as he stuffed food whole into his mouth, but it was clear to Flash there was a brain lurking under there—and not just because he himself could be messy and greedy with his food. Luffy had memorized every one of the Soul King concerts he had been to, including a fair chunk of the lyrics. Those he had not been to escaped him however.

"Well, if I wasn't there to enjoy it, then it's not important enough to remember," Luffy argued between mouthfuls of popcorn.

(Flash found it telling that they were not talking about food, despite their mutual interest; they were able to fall into talking about less predictable topics with ease)

"They were important to other people," Flash lightly shot back, grabbing some of his own. "What about you, Robin?" he said to the woman quietly standing back. Flash respected that, and did not bother her. Nevertheless, he was a little curious about what her relationship with Luffy was. Guess since he's a rich guy, she's his assistant? "Did you attend any?"

"Only a few," she confessed. "The reason Luffy even took me here was because he felt I was being too busy."

"Good for you," Flash grinned at her and then Luffy, giving the young man a small punch on the shoulder.

"All that work can't be healthy," Luffy solemnly decreed.

"Hah! Trying telling that to Bats," Flash chortled.

"Bats?" Luffy blinked in confusion.

"Yeah, y'know, Ba—"

Whatever else was cut off as an explosion went off a few blocks away. People immediately began running away in a panic.

In the blink of an eye, Luffy's remaining food was stuffed down his throat, and all of Flash's vanished in a blur of red. They both knew they would need the energy.

Without any further delay, Flash ran down the building to go help out. Although he kept his speed down so that the civilians sensibly running in the other direction would not be caught up by a slipstream. To his surprise, a glance over his shoulder showed Luffy keeping up.

Turning a corner, they saw Green Lantern fire another blast of green Will at another young man, who was wearing brown coveralls. His long nose and curly black hair shockingly familiar.

That's one of the Straw Hats! Flash gasped to himself, coming to a stop beside Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. How could he not recognize him after Batman forced him to memorize those mug shots made by J'onn and Superman?

To his dismay, Luffy came to a stop beside the criminal.

"Hey!" Luffy yelled. "Why're you attacking Usopp!?"

Glowering, Green Lantern took charge. "So you're with the Straw—" Then he processed how the newcomer had an actual straw hat on his head. "You the guy in charge of your little gang?"

"I'm the Captain. Captain Monkey D. Luffy of the Straw Hat Pirates," Luffy glared back. "I'm going to be King of the Pirates!"

"What's that even mean?" growled Green Lantern in irritation.

Flash shot Wonder Woman a glance that screamed 'Please explain.' "I was just coming back when I spotted and tailed him," said Princess Diana. "I saw John and waved him over, but then this man, Usopp, caught sight of us and tried to run. We engaged. Who's the other one?"

"Huh?" Luffy blinked. "You're with them, red guy?"

Briefly hesitating, Flash answered. "My name's Flash, and yeah I'm with the Justice League. Honestly, I thought you already knew that."

"And it didn't occur to you that the straw hat was suspicious?" Green Lantern sighed. "According to Batman and Superman, their so-called 'Jolly Roger' had that atop the skull."

"Hey!" Luffy yelled. "You don't mock someone's Pride like that!"

At that point, Robin appeared from around the corner to join them. "Careful, Captain. We don't need to tell them anything. And the one hovering in the air is called Green Lantern, and the other is Wonder Woman."

"Oh right. Thanks, Robin."

!JUSTICE!

Luffy was confused and irritated. He had made a new friend and was having a good meal with them, but now it looked like they might have to fight. Hmm…

"Are you going to try and arrest us?" he asked. Best to be clear.

"Given what happened at Cherry Blossom Medical, are you surprised?" Green Lantern pointed out.

"You broke in! It was self-defense!" argued Usopp.

"You attacked someone publicly acknowledged as part of law enforcement, with enough force to hospitalize a normal man, without even saying anything!?" Green Lantern shot back.

Then Robin smoothly broke in. "Did you have a warrant then? Or do you even have one now?"

The implication that what they were doing might be illegal, briefly distracted Green Lantern. His teammate was undeterred however. "No," Wonder Woman admitted, but there was no give to her tone. "Nonetheless, you are hiding secrets, attacked one of our own, and chose to not deal with this legally afterwards when you were publicly given the opportunity. Not only did we already have the authority to arrest you before," especially given their no-kill policy, "but the authorities already want you to come in for questioning."

"Hmmm . . ." Luffy said again as he was visibly straining to remember something. "Didn't Sanji say something about Green Lantern?"

"Only about a dozen times," Usopp deadpanned. "According to him, he uses his Ring to fight with his own Will. That those green things he make are his Will."

"Oh right! Now I remember! So they were wondering if it had anything to do with—"

"Luffy!" Usopp snapped.

"Oh right," Luffy stopped, feeling a little embarrassed at how he had nearly blurted out about—

"Don't even think about it, or you'll still say it," warned Usopp.

Fortunately, Luffy got the message.

What the more cerebral members of the crew wondered (and even Luffy and Zoro) was if Green Lantern's power had any relation to haki. If so, the possibilities were limitless if they could harness that, opening up a whole new 'colour' to haki.

Alternatively, it was another thing totally unique to this mostly-lame universe.

"Eh, probably doesn't matter," Luffy said aloud.

"So are you going to come peacefully?" Wonder Woman asked.

Huh, Flash seems a little upset, Luffy noted. He shouldn't. It's not like anyone's in any real trouble. Then he turned his attention back to the topic at hand. "Nah, we don't want you asking us any questions about all of those banks, labs, and museums we've been robbing."

. . .

"Luuuuffy," Usopp hissed, while Robin's face was a neutral mask. From that, and how she had crossed her arms, Luffy knew this meant she was ready to fight. But why? I just . . . oh. "I mean, never mind I was just kidding," Luffy lied, eyes looking away from Flash and the others so they could not see the truth in his eyes.

"You're terrible at lying," Wonder Woman flatly told him.

Dang it!

"But why do all that if you were already making so much money with your medical company and this musical business?"

Sticking his finger up his nose, Luffy blankly explained. "It wasn't enough. And sometimes we need special stuff. I don't know what though, I can't remember their names."

Usopp sighed as he pulled out his special slingshot, while slowly putting his hand into his shoulder bag. "Luffy, please, just stop."

"Yeah, I know," his Captain assured him, eyes now hardening. I don't know enough to cause any more trouble, except I want to go somewhere else now, and they look like they'll stop us. "Sorry, we really can't let you arrest us. Besides, you're the Justice League, and pirates don't get along with Justice. Even if you guys are heroes."

"You see a distinction between following Justice, and being heroes?" Wonder Woman asked in surprise.

"Of course," Luffy said, as if it were obvious. Then he snapped his fingers as inspiration hit. "I know! You can prove you're really heroes by sharing your meat with us!"

!JUSTICE!

Wonder Woman blinked in surprise. "You want us to give you meat?"

"Yeah! If you're heroes, then that means you've got to give us meat!"

"He's just trying to distract us," Green Lantern growled.

"And I'm not giving up any of my burgers to anyone who asks that rudely," Flash added. "You didn't even say please!"

Inside, Flash's mind was racing, trying to find a way out of this mess. I just know that Luffy's a great guy. I mean, look at him! Couldn't even tell a lie to save his life! Hmm, maybe that bit about meat's just a joke? Something to ease the tension? Alrighty then, how about I . . .

Like a bullet he took off, moving so fast from a flat start that Luffy was only just beginning to move, letting Flash grab a certain something.

A certain straw hat.

"Look," the hero lightly said, holding it casually in one hand. "How about we all just settle down, and talk this over."

Time stood still.

Robin's eyes widened in disbelief, before smirking at the inevitable.

Usopp flinched, and then did the same. "Well now, now you people have gone and done it. Hope you aren't particularly fond of Flash."

"Second Gear!"

!JUSTICE!

Chaos broke out as Flash disappeared with a yelp, a steaming pink fury after him. Before the heroes could act, the long-nosed one threw down a smoke bomb.

Green Lantern took to the air to scout them out, while Wonder Woman boldly strode into the smoke. Let them see me as vulnerable, she coolly thought. It was almost amusing, the assumptions men made when they heard she came from an island inhabited solely by woman. Princess Diana had not grown up indulging male fantasies, she had been raised to relentless training in the art of war and peace.

And yes, the Amazons knew they were not mutually exclusive, and yes, they preferred the latter.

(She also studied less exciting things like music, art, philosophy, and other such pleasures)

Predictably, a faint whistle reached her ears, and she ducked beneath some sort of projectile. Larger and slower than a bullet, but still pretty quick, she assessed. Fired from over there.

While slower than the Flash, she rocketed towards her target as fast and unstoppable as a freight train—

Something grabbed her.

Reflexively she broke loose, except then something else slapped her aside even as she was already off course and she went slamming into a building. Relentlessly, Diana stood up from amongst the rubble, aware that her attacker had succeeded in deflecting her, and that the sniper had assuredly disappeared again. Standing before her as the smoke cleared, was the woman amongst the criminals. Her arms were crossed in front of her, yet Diana keenly saw the slight shake to them as if they were somehow hurt. Interesting. So it was her that somehow grabbed and hit me?

"Why are you doing this?" demanded the princess. Whoever these people were, their behaviour was atypical of her usual brand of villains. "You're not like the people we usually deal with. Your operations we've uncovered so far are legitimate and even genuinely helpful. Yet at the same time, you're hiding something that you're so afraid for, that you'll respond with violence at the drop of a hat."

Robin smirked at that. "That genuinely is how we handle things, yes." Within however, her mind was operating with a cool detachment as she assessed the situation. After all, she had used their intelligence network to ruthlessly assess the power of the Justice League, and was unsure if she could triumph. Unfortunately, in saving Usopp from being crushed, Robin had carelessly wrenched several arm muscles, putting her at a disadvantage. The Flower-Flower Fruit's strength lay in surprise, imagination, and leverage, not raw power. And this injury complicates things, but I still have tricks to play. Besides, what would I accomplish by snapping her spine and leaving her lying in the dirt? Except of course to bring down upon us the full, 'righteous' wrath of the Justice League, and a world that loves them more than is wise.

For all that Luffy wants his Hat back and to teach Flash a lesson, I don't think he's really in the mood to start a war.

Yet.

"We have issues with those in authority," Robin confessed, still smiling. "As for you and your merry band, we don't really have any real issue with you. For now. You honestly seem to be doing your best to clean up this world. Nonetheless, we already know where this will end. You will continue to tell people what is lawful and just, until it's only you that makes that final decision. Eventually your own power will corrupt you."

"I haven't been in Man's World for long," Diana scoffed, "yet even a child could tell you're trying to make yourselves appear to be the victims. Your friends attacked Batman the moment you found him inside your lab, never trying to talk it out. And now your own leader has confessed you are responsible for even more severe crimes."

"Sanji just decided to cut to the chase," Robin cheerfully agreed, mostly ignoring the part about Luffy. "Once you discovered our other activities, you would be fighting us anyways. Although that wasn't his motivation. We just really don't want anything to do with you. And you were on our property without permission, and there really is only one answer to that."

She's stalling, Diana knew, but let it continue. She was confident that her teammates could handle the others, certainly Green Lantern against the one named Usopp. Once John was done, they could mop up the rest. As it was, she was getting some useful insight. While she did not think this pirate was lying, doubtless Batman could get something more concrete than vague hints. Finally, she was still unsure about this stranger's powers.

But if there was the slightest distraction . . .

!JUSTICE!

Usopp tried to not scream in terror as he ran, giving his Black Kabuto a little water to make it grow to give him greater range. Around him flashed blasts of green as up in the air that insufferable Green Lantern fired down on him. Oh why oh why are we having to fight!? Why couldn't we have made a deal with them!? I don't even have my full arsenal with me tonight!

Truthfully, he knew the reason. Nami, Sanji, Brook, Jinbe, Franky, Robin and him had all given some thought to how they would handle the appearance of the League in one of their operations, but had in the end decided there was no point in trying to deceive them. As soon as Luffy got involved –and yes, as Captain they were obligated to include him— it would all just fall apart, and they would be fighting anyways. Far better to spend their time on plans that actually had a prayer of working.

Which meant that Usopp had spent several restless nights trying to figure out how to best Green Lantern.

Moving as fast as he could over the ground, Usopp twisted his body to rapidly fire back, eyes locked on target even as he instantaneously computed wind trajectory, the pattern of incoming fire that might hit his own, movements of the Green Lantern, even the supposedly miniscule influence of the explosions happening around him, while he ran as if the most terrifying things in human existence were after him.

(Examples include: running like Sanji was after him for ruining a dessert meant for Nami and Robin; Nami if you lost her money; Zoro if Usopp accidently spilled the swordsman's sake; etcetera)

Unerringly, Usopp unleashed a barrage of flash bangs and smoke bombs, followed up by a layer of explosives to strip away that shield before the Pop Greens finished the job without killing the hero.

. . . Aside from the fact he was over a hundred meters up in the air.

!JUSTICE!

Flash saw the world in slow motion. All the time.

For everything that everyone else saw, the speedster had already seen, processed, and made several thoughts about it. This was invaluable as a hero, since he could spend far more time than 'normal' people to consider a problem. More importantly, it was why he was able to move at such high velocity without hurting himself, and what allowed him to improvise so smoothly even in the heat of battle.

Not that he was necessarily having serious thoughts all the time of course. Even for him, life went by too fast to waste a chance to smell the roses. Or flirt with a pretty girl. Or have a detailed internal debate on what exactly he was going to have for lunch. He could even just be letting his mind wander to whatever topic came up.

In essence, despite how Flash could 'think' so much more than he had before gaining his power, he spent most of his time considering stuff people might label as 'unimportant and mundane.' They might even describe it as stupid, given the dangerous lifestyle he lived. That he was wasting his intellect and potential, when he could be busy learning and planning. The Scarlet Speedster was unconcerned however; those same powers allowed him to rely upon rapid improvisation to triumph, adapting to any surprise threats as necessary.

Besides, if the world moved more slowly for him compared to everyone else, that meant he had to find some way to entertain himself. If he chose to be serious all the time, he would be as nutso as Batman!

Anyways . . .

The point was that because of this lack of focus (which occasionally occurred even during fights), unless Flash decided to get serious, he tended to be too relaxed, too impulsive, and too co*cky.

He was not feeling co*cky right now. While the steaming pink-tinged fury behind him was not quite as fast as he was, he remained entirely too quick for comfort.

"RAAAAAH! GIVE ME BACK MY HAT!"

Flash ducked and dodged around fists and feet, incapable of building up enough real momentum as he ran for his life from what was probably –Hopefully!— the second fastest human alive. Can't build up enough speed to go faster! he thought as he braked to avoid another stretching arm whose fist upon impact somehow left a ten-foot crater into the ground. This guy's strength is no joke either! Flash realized, understanding that they had seriously underestimated these criminals.

Personally, the speedster thought this was an understandable mistake, since nearly every other super-villain with this much power would have already dramatically revealed themselves, usually by challenging Superman to a fight in broad daylight. Beating their chest and yelling how powerful they were and all that. Or robbing a bank in the middle of the afternoon. This low-key approach was just another line on a growing list of reasons the Flash was quickly coming up with on why the League should be concerned. Even if Luffy had been pretty friendly beforehand.

He shook that thought off and fully focused upon the task at hand. He could still win this, he was a member of the Justice League, who had survived to take on the most dangerous threats to the planet for a reason. All he needed was the chance to retake the initiative so that he could use his powers to their fullest.

I'd like to keep thinking of him as a friend, even if he's a criminal, but he's making it hard. I mean, why the fixation on his hat? Yes, it is on the Jolly Roger, yet what is it about it that makes it so precious?

Unimportant. I've got to concentrate.

Somehow he's more experienced at this sort of high-speed fighting than I, except I've still got an advantage. Flinging out his arm, "You want your hat so bad!? Go get it!"

His attacker immediately broke off to go catch the flying hat, and with that momentary distraction, Flash turned around to attack, building up enough speed to generate a punch even Superman would feel.

A bare palm caught his fist as if the rubbery body were suddenly steel, and as a stunned Flash looked at his opponent, the man's eyes were shadowed by the hat that was somehow back on his head. Luffy's fist sent the superhero crashing across the pavement, and into blissful unconsciousness.

!JUSTICE!

John Stewart scowled as another explosion flared over his green shield of manifested willpower. Those pack a punch, he thought, checking his Ring's power reserves. While nothing serious, they were definitely more than he was used to. More than any conventional weaponry he had faced on Earth before. Still, as long as I stay focused, and if this is all he can manage, then he's not a threat.

A powerful and sustained barrage was another story. A continuous beam of energy for instance could begin to overwhelm Green Lantern's concentration, which was something he was careful not to advertise. Nonetheless, right now there was enough of a gap between each shot for him to have a short, yet decisive, 'breather.'

The Guardians of the Universe had designed the Green Lantern Rings to be the ultimate weapons after all.

It had turned into a snipers' duel, with Green Lantern having superior firepower, and a position in the sky—although he was unwilling to tap into his full potential, since that would tear up large swaths of the city. Even if all of the civilians had all safely evacuated, he did not want to escalate it to outright destroying the entire block.

The rest of the League had been called in, but they would not be able to make it in time in the Javelins—traveling from an orbital space station took time. There had been glimpses of flashing lights from police sirens, so they would be helping evacuate people; especially since the sight of Green Lantern's power and these explosions would clue them in that this was too dangerous to get mixed up in.

The 'pirate' had stealth as he moved through the abandoned buildings, and ran fast enough to strongly suggest he was enhanced as well. Once it had become clear his explosives could not penetrate, and that his weird mutant plants –which eerily reminded Stewart of reports on Poison Ivy— just slid off and fell back down, the young man had been surprisingly quiet. Given his earlier boasts, those wolves made of leaves were probably his trump card, he theorized. They certainly looked intimidating enough. Fortunately, as an ex-marine, Stewart was a believer in staying mobile. He had dodged or shot them all down with blasts of green.

Suddenly dozens simultaneous shots erupted out of alleyways and from around other places of concealment all around him, shooting into the air in random directions, before exploding themselves.

No, Stewart suddenly realized. Not explosives . . . boosters to accelerate and change course!

Each of the large projectiles abruptly and rapidly converged on him, some flashing with further bursts as other, smaller payloads, accelerated them further. But at speeds staggered so that despite their greater distance, they'll all hit me from all sides –even a few from above given how they can maneuver like that— in coordinated, staggered waves! an impressed Stewart calculated. The type of skill it would take to pull this off . . . It's incredible!

Unfortunately for all that display of talent, it remained impotent.

Able to see them coming, and his bubble shield fully maintained afterwards against further surprises, they just kept detonating against Stewart's Will without breaking through.

Not even the flash of light or ringing sound could hurt him, his shield automatically muting it to safe level as it had when the criminal had originally tried to disorient him.

That was not to say at the end, Green Lantern was not sweating heavily at the exertion. Nonetheless, he was untouched, and his Ring had plenty of juice left.

A variant on his fired projectiles, Stewart further assessed, replaying how the young man had been ducking and dodging the earlier part of their exchanged fire. Probably planted while he was running, with the layers of explosives that somehow launched them, while he fired off others . . . The timing and accuracy needed . . . This is a waste of his talent. Did he invent all of them? Usopp was his name, right . . . ?

Then in a flash he realized what the real intention was.

!JUSTICE!

Brook was silent as he entered the manager's office. He knew what his duty was here: getting the money from the show.

Despite the significant impulse to run off to help fight, it was too far away for him to get there in time. Moreover, based upon what the running civilians were yelling, it was only Green Lantern, Flash, and Wonder Woman. 'Only' being the operative word, if still nothing too serious in terms of preventing the Crew from making their escape. Brook knew Luffy well enough that he did not see any reason in a pointless fight. Except when it was about food, but food was very serious issue to their young Captain.

The revenue from the concert was a priority however. It was important that they have this cash to help fund their efforts to return home. Especially since this would be the Soul King's last public appearance for a good while. He felt sorry for his audience, yet it was necessary. Both this gig and Chopper's medical company had been their main source of legitimate income after all. Moreover, given how soon they were clashing with the League again, the musician was worried about their extra-legal methods too.

Maybe if Franky fixed it so that I could do a few public radio broadcasts to make it up to them?

Granted, removing the Justice League from the equation would prevent the threat of losing further income, except they had not really done anything to deserve that yet. Moreover, their small band against the world was long odds even for them, especially since the League routinely handled various potential world-ending threats which would then go unopposed.

Besides, as a rock star himself, Brook was willing to acknowledge how popular the heroes were, and that the happiness they brought to their own fans was not irrelevant.

The cash was kept in a secure safe that Brook had specifically requested from his supposed 'managers.' He did not know the combination of course, since the point had been ensuring no one else could rob it. Drawing his cane sword, his blade swished right through the thick steel faster than the eye could see and the pieces of the former safe slid apart.

Professionally he examined the thin blade for the slightest flaw, being more comfortable thrusting through such dense materials as opposed to cutting it. Satisfied, he began to gather the bills together.

I'm glad I took the precaution of specifically requesting for this concert to be near such an abandoned area. Makes fighting and escaping so much easier. Even if I did have to make up such a silly excuse.

!JUSTICE!

"Orders, Luffy?"

Hat safely secure, Luffy turned to look at his subordinate, and shrugged. "None of this really matters, and there's too many people here who might get hurt if we keep fighting. Just make sure we get the money out, or Nami'll get mad at me!"

"Understood."

!JUSTICE!

"Personally, I think it's your penal system that will finally make you decide to forcefully change the rules," the criminal cheerfully continued to tell Diana. "I can't say I'm opposed to how humane your present system is, but the supervillains you lock up have a depressing tendency to escape to cause havoc again. How much longer until one of them kills someone you love and hangs their intestines around the living room to try and insult you and rub it in your face?"

Wonder Woman blinked. It was not so much what had been said, as it was the matter-of-fact knowledge, combined with the sense it was all some sort of joke.

The failings of the judicial system, and the consequences for the innocent, was something that she had tragically become aware of since joining Man's World. While the regular crooks and thieves could reliably be kept in prison, it was the supervillains, those with powers, skills, and genius that broke out. Worse, they knew that freeing the regular inmates in the process served as great distraction. Except changing it, making a system that would guarantee their incarceration, would require, as this enigma had noted, more intrusive methods. This was a delicate line that they had to be careful not to cross towards inhumane solutions. Given these concerns, and to distance themselves from dispensing justice, as opposed to enforcing it, Superman and Batman had convinced the others to leave it to the governments.

That's not to say that they're happy with this solution of course. Nor that they aren't coming at it from another angle. If their plan for Lex Luthor pays off…

No stay focused, she's trying to distract you.

Then something shifted in the pirate's eyes, and Wonder Woman stuck, instinctively knowing that something had changed and she had to go on the offensive. She was a blur through the air, but even though the woman's hands were right in front of her, a smoke bomb still went off, obscuring her—

—and Wonder Woman broke through the smoke to find no one there, and no one around.

!JUSTICE!

Green Lantern scowled as his bubble shield burst through the lights and smoke, looking around even as he knew it was futile. That massive final attack had been nothing but a distraction, while his opposite number broke cover and ran to wherever he was going.

Next time it'll be different, he promised.

!JUSTICE!

With a small sigh, Robin walked out of the shadowy alley, rubbing her arms. While her clone may have served its purpose before dispersing into flower petals, that did not change the fact that any damage it suffered still transferred to the original.

"Thanks for the save, Robin," Usopp quietly told her.

"Think nothing of it," Robin smiled back. "I appreciated your smoke bomb, it helped hide the truth of my abilities. Besides, it's my own fault really. Clearly I need to improve my Armament Haki."

"Please," Usopp gently scoffed. "You're already doing the work of four people. I bet if you had the time, you'd have already mastered it!

Robin had reached the point where she could manifest the first stage with Armament, which was essentially an invisible shield, as opposed to the more refined, darker version. Like the vast majority of such users however, the most surface area she could manage was her forearms . . . which was a problem when her fighting style resolved around forming multiple arms. More arms required more concentration, which essentially involved 'spreading out' her haki, making it too weak to contribute much if she created more than a few arms. So far.

Even just slowing down Wonder Woman must’ve taken more than she could manage the haki for, or have the time to focus it, Usopp quietly knew. That, and she wasn't really in the mood to fight. If she was, you can bet it would've been over already.

Heck, Luffy's right here, so she could’ve consulted him, while her clone fought Wonder Woman at the same time.

The Captain in question was sitting across from the alley Robin had been in, sitting on a trash can as if he did not have a care in the world. This was only an illusion however, as Usopp knew his Captain's Observation Haki was trained like a hawk.

Despite knowing he should just let sleeping dogs lie, Usopp could not resist the urge to probe his best friend's uncharacteristic behaviour. "Are you really passing off the chance for a fight, Luffy?"

Giving a lazy shrug, Luffy hopped to his feet and started to walk away, his crewmates following behind. "I still like heroes, and for now that's what they are. Brook will miss his concerts, but he already told me earlier tonight that with all of the other jobs he was doing," –because even for a simple snatch-and-rob, Brook was not the type to let his friends go into danger when he could help— "that it was only a matter of time before people caught on. I got my Hat back and a good fight with the Flash already, and we've got the money," up ahead they could see Brook making his way to towards them, his lanky long arms carrying several large duffle bags, "so we don't even have a reason to fight outside of fighting for the sake of fighting."

Unspoken through that bad grammar was: 'and that'd be just stupid.'

"Besides, I like Flash! He's a cool guy, even if he did something mean like that!"

Shrugging, Usopp knew he had no reason to complain, being glad it was all over. Especially since he had only brought his regular bag of tricks for the concert. He had consumed every piece of ammunition he had, and in the end had only managed to distract Green Lantern enough to escape. Any further fighting, and he would have mostly been just a hindrance. Unfortunately . . . "You do know that Nami's going to be violently furious with us, right?"

Luffy just looked at Usopp blankly, so the latter elaborated. "Without Cherry Blossom Medical, Brook's concerts were our biggest legal source of income. Now we've lost all that." Usopp started to sweat as it occurred to him that technically it was his own fault that they had been discovered, even if Luffy had met Flash first. Alas, there were no reliable witnesses to verify what had been said between them. "So as Captain, it's your duty to take responsibility," he quickly added.

"What!?" Luffy gasped in horror. "No way! What'm I going to do!? She's going to kill me!"

Giggling, Robin threw in her own two cents. "And we never got to see the fireworks either. Oh well."

"Respectfully, I believe you did the right thing, Captain," and now Brook had joined them. While the man was hardly a pacifist, he deeply cherished the value of life. Fifty years dead-but-alive, surrounded by the bones of your first crew-friends-family-nakama, with nothing to distract you but your own thoughts, would do that to you. So with deathly seriousness, he elaborated. "The moment they figured out I was working with you, this operation would have to be closed down. Further fighting would have been pointless. As for Nami, she will agree."

Brook decided to not ruin Luffy and Usopp's hopes by adding that she would still likely hit the two young men. Because he was a nice guy, he decided he would ask Nami if he could see her panties, so that she could vent some of that lovely, youthful energy on him first. He caught Robin's knowing grin, and tipped his head at her in a little nod at her own insight. Then he let himself relax again.

"Oh my, Robin dear, is your arm hurt~?" he dramatically asked, despite already knowing the answer

"It's nothing," she assured him. "I've already put one of Chopper's salves on, and it'll be better than ever in a few minutes."

"Well in that case, we should celebrate!" He handed the bags of money over to Luffy to carry, who was happy to lend his monstrous strength to the task, anticipating what would happen next. Pulling out his violin from his ribcage (being a little quieter than his guitar), Brook played a cheerful beat, skipping down the road away from the remains of the battlefield. Grinning, the others followed behind, maintaining a fast but happy pace as they put distance between them and the heroes.

Timing it perfectly, Brook unleashed the crescendo just as the fireworks he had set to a delayed ignition went off. It was the musician's job to see to the mental health of the Crew after all, and Usopp's newest invention was perfect for it.

Series of rising blue lights formed waves of water, while yellow starbursts formed a ship upon it. Touches of red and green added the details to make clear it was the Thousand Sunny, sailing the oceans of the sky.

"SUNNYYYYYYY" Luffy shouted happily, while jumping up and down at the sight of his ship. Then he relaxed to face the artist. "That's beautiful, Usopp," Luffy said quietly, with utter sincerity.

"Oh my," Robin gasped. While not as bloody and violent as she expected, it was still unquestionably lovely to behold.

"Well done my friend~!" Brook cheered.

"Oh, you know, the Great Genius Usopp always delivers!" boasted the inventor.

Then a white van pulled up in front of them, and Nami stuck her head out of the window. "Usopp," she said in a voice that was too calm to be real. "That's a very beautiful fireworks display, but would you boys," –Robin was automatically assumed innocent due to a) being of the rational gender, and b) being too smart to be responsible— "mind explaining these police reports we've intercepted? Or why while driving here, we've been watching explosions and flash bombs going off in the sky?" Now Nami's forehead veins were visibly throbbing. "Or why you're running away from there carrying my money?"

"Uhhhhhh," Luffy and Usopp managed, sweat running down their faces like rain.

"We'd be happy to explain," Brook cheerfully offered. "But first, may I see your panties?"

"Die!"

!JUSTICE!

Later

Flash's eye's snapped open behind his cowl as his mind reorganized itself.

Although only a second passed, he quickly assessed that he was in the Watchtower Hospital Wing, noted that this was his first time seeing it as a patient, remembered his fight, knew that his accelerated healing was still at work, calculated how long he had been unconscious based upon how hard he had been hit and how hungry he was (Starved!) to gain an estimate on how badly he had been hurt, and concluded that John must have come out of the fight okay and flown him straight here.

"Uuuugh," Wally West groaned with more than a touch of self-pity.

J'onn Jonzz appeared overheard, and did a quick test with a handheld Martian medical device to check for a concussion (shining a light in Wally's eyes would require removing his mask).

"Are the others okay?" croaked Flash.

"You were the only one hurt," J'onn assured him, with a sympathetic look.

The real reason for it became abundantly clear as the Dark Knight appeared to stand over the downed hero.

"I know, I know," Flash contritely said.

"Know what?" Batman asked, disapproval dripping off his every word like meat-sauce at a barbeque. I seriously need to get some food . . .

Despite being hungry, with his healing ability and ability to still process his thoughts faster than norm, he was already fully awake, and engaging in a rare bout of rapid self-reflection.

"I messed up," Flash said, refusing to break eye contact with his fellow hero. "I didn't realize who he was in time, but frankly I'm not upset about that. Even now," his eyes narrowed in thought, "he's either a phenomenal actor, or that's really who he is. He just wants to have fun, so he doesn't take what's happening seriously most of the time. It's only when he does get earnest that you realize how dangerous he is."

Batman resisted the urge to point out the obvious comparison, not wanting to get sidetracked.

"As for our fight," now Flash looked particularly glum, his eyes glancing aside briefly before meeting Batman's gaze again. "I underestimated him going in, and that cost me. I didn't expect to fight someone so fast, and it kept me on the defensive. I didn't think. Not really.

"His powers seem based upon rubber, so trying to punch him was probably a stupid idea in the first place. I don't even know if that would've hurt him. Instead I should've gotten more space from him to go faster, grab something to use to help fight him, wrapped his stretching limbs up, made a tornado or two, something like that. Instead I found myself reacting too much." Then Flash took on a grim cast. "I'll train with Superman more. He's fast too, so he can help me prepare for next time."

The two Justice Leaguers continued to stare at each other for a moment, with a trickle of unease going up Batman's spine—

"But first!" Flash grinned, all cheer again. "I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really need something to eat! C'mon man, what've you got for a handsome speedster in recovery? Hope you didn't scrimp on the necessities when you spent all that money building this place. That means decent food, none of that junk in the other hospitals. And is there any chance of a nurse in a skimpy outfit?" Then he lowered his voice to a sotto whisper, "But not Diana or Shayera of course. They'd kill me."

"I'll get you your food," Batman said expressionlessly, before turning around to walk off.

"Don't you go wearing a nurse's dress!" Flash called after him. "That'd be just plain wrong!" Then he turned to talk normally to Martian Manhunter. "Did you hear that, J'onn? He didn't criticize me once! Alright, except for that first one, but still! A record! Maybe I hit my head after all, and this is all a hallucination?"

"You acknowledged your mistakes and came up with a plan to correct them," the Martian pointed out with a small grin.

Unseen, Batman allowed himself a slight smile too, even as he suppressed all memory of his fear. Fear of a Flash gone grim, from being disillusioned by the world.

I should've known better. He's irrepressible.

The Scarlet Speedster was an annoying, loud mouthed, immature adult, who at the same time was seen by some of the others as the little brother they never knew they wanted. For all that merciless torture would never make him admit it, even Batman would rather cut off his own arm than lose him. With a dull blade.

For the truth was, more than the rest of the Justice League, Wally West –yes, Batman knew who he really was— represented what they fought for. He was joyful and kind to a fault, always ready to see the best in others. And once he saw it, he would do all he could to draw it out.

Superman was the Leader, the Example they all looked to.

Flash was the Heart.

To take that away from the League, would be an unforgivable crime.

So Batman made his way back to join the others and tell them Flash was awake. And then he would join them in searching for those responsible for all this.

They had new clues after all.

Chapter 5: Fury

Chapter Text

America was spiraling into madness.

Everywhere, people were succumbing to the plague as they collapsed, their veins visible beneath pale skin. Glassy eyes, unresponsive, high fevers, and grey blotches across the skin were other symptoms. Even worse was the terrifying rate at which the allergen (it was technically not a virus) took effect. Once it was in the victim’s system, it took only minutes, if not seconds, to render the person comatose.

Only males were afflicted however.

The consequences were not just limited to them of course, as cars crashed as their drivers were suddenly and rapidly sickened, planes fell, and fires dotted the cities. In hospitals, medical operations turned into nightmares as surgeons could no longer hold their instruments, while the nursing staff ran themselves ragged to save those already sickly, or needing treatments. Mothers screamed for help as their baby boys fell ill. The number of catastrophes and terrors only seemed to grow.

What the precious few female emergency personnel were in service ran themselves to the bone to keep up as half the human race was dying, and the other half was trying to keep civilization from going up in flames.

Thus far, the epidemic was confined to north-eastern USA, originating in Gotham. Unfortunately, it was spreading across the continent at an unprecedented rate, and it was only a matter of time before it spread globally.If something was not done soon, it was all too possible various governments would take ‘extreme, but necessary’ steps to ‘contain’ the threat. Not to mention how scared individuals would react to a disease that only killed men, and not women; the accusations that would be thrown… So far the international community was keeping its act together, but the sooner this was handled, the quicker they could keep the situation from blowing out of control. Permanently.

In Gotham City at least, the situation was stabilizing. The lion’s share of this accomplishment could be laid at the feat of the valiant women who had risen to the challenge. However, no small part could also be credited to Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, the only remaining active members of the Justice League besides Martian Manhunter. Due to how he had been on the Watchtower the entire time, J’onn J’onzz had escaped exposure thus far. Nonetheless, since the allergen was effective against even Superman’s own alien physiology, the Martian was probably as vulnerable as everyone else. Currently he was working as hard as he could back up in the Watchtower to isolate a cure.

The two heroines watched a fire truck drive away, having just been helping the crew. Now the fire-ladies were tirelessly moving on to find where they could next be of help.

"They seem to be on top of things,” Hawkgirl complimented. “Impressive."

"Almost reminds me of home," observed Wonder Woman with a bit of regret. She had left home without permission to save Man’s World, and when she had returned she had found it under attack. To save the Amazons, she had been forced to call upon the aid of the male members of the League, in blatant defiance of her people’s sacred laws. This decision had saved her people, which was all that mattered, even though Queen Hippolyta, her own mother, was forced with a heavy heart to banish Diana from Theymiscira. Forever.

"Yes, but who wants to live in a world without men?" Hawkgirl argued.

"They can't possibly be that essential to your life," Diana questioned. She had been struggling with that more and more recently. Was it only yesterday that she had been forced to confront how much women were supposed to objectify themselves for men?

"Don't knock it until you've tried it, Princess,” Hawkgirl replied with a knowing smile, seeing Wonder Woman slightly flinch. “Let's find Aresia."

“Is Aresia responsible for this?”

Spinning around, the heroines took in the four advancing figures.

Two highly attractive, women, a celebrity skeleton, and a walking pile of fur, waving as they briskly walked up to them. All familiar from wanted posters the League itself had created.

Despite taking defensive stances, neither Wonder Woman nor Hawkgirl attacked. Wonder Woman’s tone was still accusatory however. They had enough trouble as it was without having to deal with more villains. “What do you want?”

Surprisingly, it was the furball –who was indeed large and pill shaped as reported— who determinably stepped forward. “I’m Tony Tony Chopper, Doctor for the Straw Hat Pirates, and the creator of Cherry Blossom Medical’s patents and products. I need your help if we’re to save everyone!”

Noting his male tone, Diana had to ask. “I understand why the skeleton might not be affected, but why are you okay? Even Superman is sick right now.”

“Truthfully,” and now Chopper seemed a little concerned, “I do have a high fever, yet so far only that. It’s seems I’m partially immune to the allergen. As for Brook . . .” and now he shot his friend and embarrassed look, “we really don’t know how his body works.”

“I’m a little under the weather myself,” the Soul King lightly said, before pulling out a bottle of milk. Popping the lid, he poured it down his . . . jawbone, and it just disappeared out of sight with no sign of soaking through his clothes as it should have. “Ah! Milk seems to help me keep it at bay. Healthy bones! Yo ho ho ho~!”

The Justice Leaguers, blinked in confusion for second, before putting it out of mind.

“Again,” Wonder Woman ground out. “What do you want?”

“Why?” Nami sarcastically retorted. “Too busy putting ground breaking medical establishments out of business? Or famous musicians?”

That last incident had only happened a few nights ago. The backlash had been predictably severe from the die-hard Soul King fans, yet the majority of the general public supported the League’s actions. The Straw Hats were criminals after all, as proven by how violently they had resisted arrest. Even more condemning was how civilian eye witnesses recognized from police reports one of the individuals connected with Cherry Blossom Medical, proving their intentions were not benign after all. Not to mention that Brook had taken off with all the concert money, not just what was to pay his own wages, but even what was to pay for all the other employees, and expenses the show had incurred.

“You do know your so-called captain confessed to committing numerous large-scale crimes, to our faces, right?”

Forehead vein throbbing briefly, Nami retorted, “Why aren’t you busy worrying about all the mass murderers, or those trying to conquer the world?”

“Because you’re powerful,” Hawkgirl observed. “Already willing to commit crimes, and she,” –pointing at Robin— “admitted that you readily resort to violence. Why shouldn’t we assume you’re willing to kill if you deem it necessary? And even if you aren’t, that doesn’t excuse you of your crimes we know of.”

“Enough!” snapped Chopper. “This poison is killing half the planet, and you’re bickering!” Everyone stiffened at this, realizing they were taking things too personally. He continued, “We were heading towards one of my laboratories that has potentially beneficial materials for curing this allergen, except the League’s got advanced technology and contacts of its own. We have to work together!”

“He’s right,” Robin grimly noted. “It’s the only way, and the only reason we’ve come to meet you.”

“Indeed,” Brook cheerfully noted, hoping to help defuse the tense atmosphere. “As per our Captain’s orders, we’re not even supposed to be in Gotham City.”

That was a surprise, even if it was intended as a distraction. Glancing at each other in silent confirmation, the heroines relaxed into a more diplomatic stance. Now that they were calming down, they acknowledged that Chopper could be beneficial. He already knew that it was an allergen, and had research geared towards that. Making a judgment call, Diana tapped her ear radio.

“J’onn, come in. We’ve made contact with the Straw Hat Pirates. I’m passing you on to Dr. Chopper, who claims to be the one responsible for Cherry Blossom Medical’s breakthroughs.”

She reached over to hand Chopper the radio, then flinched as suddenly he shrunk to a far smaller –and cuddlier and oh-so adorable— form. All business, he hopped up to pluck it out of her hand, confirmed J’onn could hear him, and immediately began rattling away with technical medical terms that the others only dimly recognized. What they did understand however, was that it was a two-way conversation, and that he and J’onn were in agreement about possible avenues for isolating a cure.

Hawkgirl hung her mace on her belt. “So, truce until we take care of Aresia? Who yes, is the one responsible for this.”

“Agreed,” Nami promptly declared. While she was tempted to negotiate for an extension for after the crisis passed, she also knew better than to push the matter. “We’ll need you to tell us about her.”

They all glanced up as another newcomer came to join them. “You’re slipping,” Star Sapphire reprimanded, yet they could hear the strain in her voice. Although that could be from how she was projecting a pink energy field from the gem on her forehead, which gently lowered down a helicopter. As soon as she and it touched the ground, two female pilots scrambled out and distanced themselves from the gathering.

The woman in question was a dangerous super-villain in her own right, capable of creating energy constructs similar to that of Green Lantern. Worse, Star Sapphire was nearly as good as John Stewart too. Despite her power, she lacked the ability to command other villains herself, which is why she was only the type to work for hire, or as part of a team. A follower, not a potential conqueror. She had been last seen as part of Aresia’s gang, except now she was showing up, along with apparently rescued civilians as a peace gesture.

"Relax! I'm not here to fight," she said with raised hands. "In fact I came to warn you."

“About Aresia?” Wonder Woman demanded.

"She's crazy. She wants to wipe all the men in the world." The earnestness in her voice was convincing, making it clear that Star Sapphire knew she had gotten into a ‘job’ that was far more than she was willing to accept.

"We noticed,” Hawkgirl flatly said. “Where is she?"

"She and Tsukuri are at a nearby air base," Star Sapphire promptly answered. “They’re getting a stealth plane to fire cruise missiles into the atmosphere to disperse the toxin globally. We don’t have much time before they launch!”

“If it’s the base I’m thinking of,” Nami said as pursed her lips in thought, “it’s not too far off from where we’ve got to drop off Chopper.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Star Sapphire said, her energy construct picking up the Straw Hat Pirates to carry them there.

“So, who are you?” Star Sapphire added.

“Nico Robin, as you well know,” the woman in question remarked, wearing her special knowing smile, causing a slight flinch in the super-villain.

“Uhm, yeah, sorry. You’re in charge of the Straw Hats, right?”

“No.”

“Oh. The guy with three swords then.”

“My name is Nami,” the redhead spoke up instead.

“Brook the Soul King,” the skeleton answered.

“Dr. Chopper.”

Hesitating, Star Sapphire decided to drop her line of questions.

Glancing over, Wonder Woman processed something about Nami she had not noticed. “I like your shirt by the way.”

Looking down at what she was wearing tightly over her large bosom, Nami smiled. “Yeah, it’s awesome!”

It read: ‘Her Body, Her Choice.’

!JUSTICE!

Shortly later

“So,” Hawkgirl said to fill in the time as they traveled, “if you’re not the leader, then what do you do for your gang?”

“Oh, I’m their archaeologist,” Robin brightly answered, looking forward to the reactions.

She was not disappointed, as Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, and Star Sapphire all gave her sceptical looks. “Fu fu fu fu fu! It’s true!”

Nami and Brook were also amused, except they knew they had to get down to business. Especially given how fast they were traveling. They had already dropped off Chopper, and would arrive at the air base in only a few more minutes. “So what can you tell us about this Aresia?” Nami asked.

“She’s a rogue Amazon,” Wonder Woman answered. “One of my sisters.” She did not elaborate further, because she did not know many of the details herself. Even as a child, she had sensed a bitterness with Aresia, a feeling she was never really one of the Amazons, despite their attempts to make her feel welcome. Knowing how sensitive the younger woman’s past was, Diana had never pressed the subject. The woman’s recent actions made her wonder if she had ever known Aresia at all; where was she to even start in describing her?

Fortunately, Hawkgirl had heard full the story from Queen Hippolyta herself. It had become necessary after their joint confirmation that Aresia was the one responsible for leading a gang of super-villains –including Star Sapphire—in a series of robberies. The crimes had been done so flawlessly, that the League’s first assumption was that it was the Straw Hats again. Until Batman had pointed out that the casualties involved with those new heists were more violent than the pirates’ usual methods.

“From what I was told,” Hawkgirl said, “Aresia was not born an Amazon. They said she came from Man’s World, although from her complexion and other details, I’d say somewhere in Europe. When she was a child, her homeland became what Queen Hippolyta described as a ‘battlefield for a bloody and senseless war.’ Where the victors were ‘cruel, and denied even the basic humanity of their defeated foes. Soon neighbours, friends, and schoolmates were all gone. Killed to the last.’ Aresia’s family was forced to flee, which included her mother and baby sister. They eventually made their way to a refugee ship, but then,” and now Hawkgirl gave Nami and the others a pointed look, “they ran into pirates.”

The self-proclaimed pirates were unfazed, and the Thanagarian decided now was not the time to press the topic.

“The pirates raided the ship, and stole whatever valuables the refugees had left. Then they fired upon them to remove any witnesses. The boat sank, and Aresia survived by clinging to a piece of floating wreckage. By some miracle she washed ashore on Themyscira, home of the Amazons. Queen Hippolyta herself found Aresia, and nursed her back to health. The Amazons adopted her, trained her, and magically endowed her with Amazon strength. I can’t blame them for that, but it does mean she’ll be a tough fight.”

“I see,” Robin stated neutrally, but something in her tone still caused everyone to snap her a look. “Anything about her father?”

“No, although the Amazons wouldn’t have cared about that part.”

“I see,” Robin repeated, and this time there was nothing unusual in her flat words.

“We’re almost there,” Star Sapphire managed, sounding a little nervous, if still determined.

Hmm, Nami pondered.Interesting how precisely she knows how far away we are. Not to mention, how did she find out about Aresia’s plans? They way she’s acting so horrified about them, you’d have thought she’d be such a terrible actressthat they’d see right through her, and stop her . . . Unlessthisis the act?Maybe she just isn’t good enough at improvisation, and we’re throwing her off now?

After the initial ‘help’ from Charlotte Pudding, Nami was now far more sceptical of people who conveniently presented a perfect solution to a problem. Indeed, this latest offer had been so tantalizing that Nami had nearly forgotten that lesson until they had almost arrived.

She glanced at Brook, and his index finger tapped once on his cane and the sword hidden within. So he’s suspicious too. Nami did not look at Robin for fear of tipping off the person carrying them at high speeds, dozens of meters off the ground. She was counting on her Big Sis to be on top of things, if only by catching the interaction by her crewmates.

Darkly Nami knew, This is going to get ugly before it’s over . . .

!JUSTICE!

In the air base hanger, the super-villains were finishing their preparations.

Aresia was an undeniably beautiful woman, with her long blond hair held in place by a golden headdress which resembled a crown while also partially shielding her sharply defined face. Her shirt and pants were tightfitting, yet coloured white with a golden trim reminiscent of the fashion of Themyscira. As beautiful and dangerous as she viewed her cause.

Walking down the ramp of the ‘liberated’ stealth bomber was Tsukuri. “That’s the last one,” the Asian woman obediently reported. She wore a band-like visor, and armour similar to that of a samurai, despite how she fought like a ninja. Her skill with her katana, mirrored by her hand-to-hand combat, made Tsukuri a difficult opponent even for the likes of Batman to best. “All the chemicals are onboard."

"Good,” Aresia said professionally. “Then there's just one unfinished matter to attend to."

"And it will remain unfinished," Wonder Woman firmly declared as she, Hawkgirl, and Star Sapphire swopped into the building through the open doors. On the ground right behind them, were Nami and Robin.

With a vicious uppercut, Wonder Woman sent Tsukuri flying back, landing dazed amongst oil drums. Skillfully, Aresia raised her Amazonian bracelets to block Hawkgirl’s vicious swing, blunting the blow, even if she was still knocked onto her back. With a grunt she stood up unopposed. “What took you?” she smugly asked before rearing to throw a punch, even as Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl moved to overwhelm her—

A wall of sapphire energy formed a wall between her and the heroes.

Surprised, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl looked up to see the self-satisfied Star Sapphire. “Forgive our little deception.”

Inwardly, Hawkgirl cursed how she, the former instructor in espionage for the Thanagarian Military, had been so easily duped. Granted, she had been flying around non-stop to save lives all night, and had been on a mortal deadline for her teammates, and then a solution had just— No! Those are just excuses! I’ve been a hero so long I’ve gotten rusty, and let my personal feelings blind me, and now it might kill us all!

Phasing through her own shield, she landed beside Aresia while keeping it secure. "Diana," Aresia began, "I had Star Sapphire bring you here, so I could offer you one last chance to join our noble cause."

"Man's World may not be perfect," Wonder Woman sincerely answered, "but destroying it isn't the answer."

Glaring, Aresia offered her one final chance. "You would stand against us, your sisters?"

Before the heroes could make their answer, someone else butted in.

“You call this a noble cause?”

Aresia co*cked her head in confusion, before recognizing them. “You’re Nico Robin, leader of the Straw Hat Pirates.”

“No,” the statuesque woman corrected.

That’s the second time someone’s identified her as the leader, Wonder Woman noted. It’s true that while we released her wanted poster, Batman decided to only tell senior law enforcement Luffy was the ‘captain.’ He doesn’t want other super-villains finding out, and the general public only needs to know they are dangerous; they are to avoid them, not confront them after all. Meaning nobody else knows Luffy’s in charge. So why did both Aresia and Star Sapphire –and she mentioned a man with three swords who we don’t know about— make that assumption? What do they know?

Tilting her head, Robin calmly gazed at Aresia. “Do you understand what you’re doing here?”

“Of course,” Aresia smirked, a perfect blend of arrogance and gleeful satisfaction. “I’m destroying Man’s World, and all the greed, deception, and cruelty that makes it up. I’m giving control of it to all the women.”

“You are a child,” Robin coldly told her. “Striking out at the world as an expression of your pain.”

Aresia froze.

Undaunted, Robin continued. “It’s pitiful really. I assume all the soldiers who killed your family were men? The pirates too? And then you spent the rest of your life growing up with women who hate men. It’s understandable. Just not excusable.”

“What do you know!?” snarled Aresia. “Or are you so in love with your shackles that you can’t even see them!? Is that why you dress like you did in that wanted poster the League got of you?” Specifically, that when Robin had met the League she had been wearing a tiny pair of jean shorts, a very tight jean vest that had been largely unzipped, and nothing else. “What do you really know of Man’s World!?”

Slowly and silently, Robin tilted her head to the side, as if studying the rogue Amazon. No one said anything as they recognized the calculation buzzing behind her eyes.

Finally, she made up her mind. “I don’t really share this story with anyone,” Robin said. “Nevertheless, I think it’s for the best. Not just for you to understand, but the Justice League as well.

The heroes were puzzled, while Nami whipped around to stare and her crewmate in shock. “Robin!”

Her friend held up a reassuring hand. “It may prove educational,” is all she said. Facing Aresia and her subordinates, she began her story.

“I am familiar with the concept of genocide. Your own people tore themselves apart, while mine were exterminated by outsiders. The slaughter was quick and efficient, and they disposed of every last man, woman, and child. Except one. Me.”

She said it so calmly and collectedly, Nico Robin could have been talking about the weather.

The women who were all new to this flinched, and Aresia’s heartbeat accelerated as she realized she was facing someone who might truly understand how she felt.

“They were unsatisfied of course,” the archaeologist continued. “They decided that so long as one of us survived, then the sin of my entire culture endured.”

“Sin?” hissed Aresia. “Such is the way of men! They decree—”

“I’m not finished!” snapped Robin, eyes flashing with the first sign of emotion. “Never interrupt a history lesson with your assumptions until you’ve heard the whole piece!”

She waited to see that the others were paying attention. Despite herself, Nami was enjoying the reactions from the rest of the audience. The horror on Wonder Woman’s face, on Hawkgirl’s face the briefest flicker of . . . empathy? Huh. She’s supposed to be just an alien police officer. Now it’s sympathetic, if still wary and suspicious.

Despite these observations, her efforts to find humour in the situation, and the composed mask she wore, Nami was struggling to hold back her own grief. Her memories of the despair and pain in Robin’s eyes the day she had wanted to die and let it all end. Nami would not sabotage this performance, so all she could do was feel, and swear once more to always be there for her Big Sis.

Aresia and her little soldiers were clearly sickened however, as the tale was woven further.

“But yes, that we chose –I chose— to live, was a sin in their eyes. For what else could it be, given what they had devoted themselves too? Their cause?” Robin never looked at the heroes, yet that only emphasized her point. Knowing what was coming next, Nami also had to hide her own meaningful grin. “Justice.

“They killed us all, and called it Justice. Whatever they did in the name of such a cause was righteous and pure. All that from a vague, frivolous term used by the winners. Rationalizing whatever they did.”

While Robin herself was not looking at the members of the Justice League, the clone eyes she had sprouted elsewhere were observing them. Interesting, she thought, as she registered how they only seemed moderately stunned compared to Aresia. Professionalism? Something they have thought of before? Or are they already blinded?

“So in the name of Justice, they spent many years hunting for me, and finally succeeded. Once they had me, the man in charge, in the name of ‘Justice,’ promised to torture me until I was dead, regardless of what I told them. That he would ‘hurt me. Use me. And then discard me.’ And that was all in the name of ‘Justice’.”

She tapped her chin in thought. “He was also the son of the man who ordered the actual attack upon my homeland.”

Robin hid her satisfaction as her words hit home with the others. The archaeologist knew that Wonder Woman and Aresia claimed to come from the culture of the ancient Amazons, and her subsequent studies into Greek mythology had painted a grim picture of their people’s past fate at the hands of Hercules and his followers. It was for understandable –if flawed— reasons that all those women hated every last man, and had gone into self-imposed exile to escape them. Stewing in that hatred for century after century. Not that they would define it as ‘escape.’ A strategic withdrawal, perhaps.

Personally, Robin doubted Spandam would have lowered himself to inflicting those horrors upon what he regarded as a piece of filth . . . that would have been the pleasure of the sad*stic men and women of Impel Down, as they spent every instant of endless days torturing her. First to get her to talk, then to verify, and then because they could. Because her suffering would be Just.

Robin was a gloomy woman, but such thoughts were always chased away by the warm lights of her friends that she kept in her heart.

“Tell me you wanna live!”

Playing mind games with people too self-righteous for their own good was also entertaining, especially if it might help them from becoming a threat to the world.

Indeed, Aresia appeared too shocked to respond. It was Star Sapphire who spoke first, face contorted with loathing. “Except you’re still here! You escaped from those men! If they’re still alive, we can kill them all off! Join us in this, and it’ll never happen again! Or at least not by those people!”

Robin laughed.

It was a rich, bright laugh, ringing off the walls despite how it did not deserve a place amidst such a dark discussion.

Nico Robin was a Straw Hat however, and they went wherever they wanted too. Her past was a shadow compared to the sun that was her nakama.

After a few more moments, she got herself sufficiently under control to resume dispassionately lecturing Aresia and the others. “I already told you, it wasn’t gender that caused it. Men did it, yes, but out of what they perceived as Justice. Something that is not unique to them.”

“As for how I escaped, I never told you how I was captured, did I? They did it by threatening my nakama, a Japanese word that does not translate well into English,” –despite how somehow on their original world they spoke English with a Japanese accent— “and means people who are beyond being just friends or blood family. True companions. To save them all, I was willing to suffer that horrible fate. To surrender the life I had guarded for so long, and let my people’s story end.”

Then Robin’s eyes hardened just a little, showing just a hint of whatever lurked deep down in the depths of her soul. Something straining against its leash. “But they came for me. Rescued me against impossible odds. Because I was precious to them, and they were willing to risk it all. Those same people are now dying from your allergen.”

“We destroyed them,” Nami growled. “Because no one, and I mean no one, hurts those we care for without paying a price! They took something of ours, so we took everything from them!”

Shaken for reasons she could not explain, Aresia turned her attention upon the woman who had been meekly standing back all this time. She believed it promising that the pirate’s shirt said ‘Her Body, Her Choice.’ “And what about you? Is that your decision?” Aresia sneered as she glanced at Nami. Then flinched.

“What did you call all men again? Oh right. Cruel. Deceptive. And greedy. I know all about that,” Nami whispered as she glared back with burning eyes. “I know allll about men like that. I couldn’t kill him either, and I tried everything. Poison, sneak attacks, hired guns, you name it. Yet, the thing is, those men, they were just like you.”

Aresia’s face stiffened, yet Nami steamrolled on. “They thought they were right to do so. That they were so superior, that I and those I cared about were so inherently weak and evil, that whatever they did to us was justified. Justified for crimes they accused us and our ancestors of; crimes that we were born guilty of. Condemning us for the actions of only a few.

“And at the very end? In the end it was men who saved me.”

“Nami! You are my nakama!”

Raw pain and hatred dripped into her voice. “And right now you’re killing millions, with plans to kill billions, out of the same idiocy and empty hatred as those people who killed your family!” Nami’s hands tightened on her stave. “For that alone I’d stop you, except you’ve also dared to poison those same men who mean so much to me! You’ve dared!”

It was in that moment that Aresia realized she was facing women similar to herself . . . and oh so different. She had always imagined she had taken her own torment and bitterness to forge herself into a weapon. One that would cleanse the world. These people however . . . they had monsters inside of themselves. Savage, dangerous things ready to lash out at whatever threatened that which was theirs.

“You are willing to slaughter half the world for your beliefs,” Robin said as she crossed her arms and Nami hefted her bo-staff in readiness. “While I don’t have the right to speak for the others, I,” she solemnly promised, “would burn everything to save that handful of men.”

Silence fell.

“I see,” Aresia softly spoke. “Then there is nothing more to be said. Diana?”

Turning back, Wonder Woman was resolute. “I too have seen the evil of Man’s World. I have also seen the goodness within it, and its potential. These aren’t the days of Hercules and his cruelties, Aresia, and the Justice League now exists to stop tragedies like yours. It isn’t perfect, and it may never will be, but it is proof that we are moving away from that bloody past.”

“Death won’t improve things, trust me,” Hawkgirl added. “You don’t realize what you’ll lose if you go through with this.”

“Enough words then,” Aresia snarled.

“Yo ho ho~! My, my, there’s never a time when talking things out won’t help.”

Star Sapphire paled as she realized she had forgotten about the skeleton. That his female companions had seized all their attention. Was he busy sabotaging the bomber!? They were distracting us the entire time!? Her and her co-conspirators whirled to face the plane they were depending upon to spread the allergen globally.

Swinging his cane, while wearing pants with pink and yellow vertical stripes, a neon blue shirt with purples flowers, and a black top-hat, (which made their total obliviousness to his presence until now all the more humiliating) Brook strolled into sight. Peering over his sunglasses with bright green frames, he regarded them all. “I went for a stroll around this lovely contraption, and found this wonderful young damsel tied up and in distress. Alas, after I freed her, she wouldn’t show me her panties when I asked.”

Nami rubbed her face in the palm of her hand, while Robin gave no reaction. Used to Flash’s own antics, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl barely noticed his words in surprise at who accompanied the skeleton.

Down the ramp strode Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons. Unruffled despite her recent captivity. Using the gifts of the gods, she had left Themyscira, and found Aresia before anyone else, hoping to end this without further violence.

Resplendent in a white dress and cape of ancient Greek design, with a golden trim. While her hair was blonde, the beautiful face and cheekbones were strongly reminiscent of her daughter Diana, or Wonder Woman as she was more commonly known. For all her loveliness however, century upon century of experience lay upon her shoulders, and she was not at ease. She suspected that this . . . person . . . who had rescued her was just putting on an act to put people at ease. Beneath his foolishness, the queen sensed a veteran warrior, and was well aware of the folly of underestimating the undead.

“No!” cried Aresia. “Stop them!”

Obediently Star Sapphire dropped the shield and fired a shot at Nami, yet it phased right through her. “What!?”

“Hah! Mirage Tempo!”

Tsukuri went straight for the plane, planning to handle the newcomer. More importantly, victory would be assured if they recaptured Hippolyta as a hostage, as had been the original plan when she had unexpectedly appeared. Tsukuri had beaten the legendary Amazon once –by ambush— and would do it again.

Suddenly the skeleton was gone.

Sensing something was amiss, Tsukuri halted, trying to find him, until she heard humming from behind. Spinning around, she saw the skeleton walking away from her, idly twirling a cane sword. While the swordswoman was confused, she did not hesitate while his back was towards her. Once more she raced at Hippolyta who was staring at her with shocked eyes. “So fast,” she registered the queen say. Behind her, Aresia screamed out in horror, “Tsukuri!”

Believing she was about to be attacked from behind, the Asian woman leapt to the side to evade—

Brook finished sheathing his spotless blade. "Three Verse Humming: Arrow Notch Slash!" he declared.

—and blood burst out of Tsukuri’s torso.

Gasping, she collapsed to the ground without a word.

“You man!” Aresia snarled with hate. “You killed her!”

“You attacked my nakama! Poisoned them!” the skeleton icily hissed, the jolly stage performer no more. Shadows framing his face into a menacing nightmare, while the blackness within his eye sockets seemed to darken further.

While she did not understand what had just happened, Hawkgirl maintained her priorities. Charging her mace with electricity, she brought it hammering down on Aresia again. Instinctively the Amazonian trained woman brought up her bracelets to guard herself, and shrieked in pain as her nerves crackled.

“No!” Star Sapphire yelled, firing at Hawkgirl now. The Thanagarian dodged to the side, yet Aresia was still unable to move. Taking to the air, Star Sapphire moved to give herself some space.

“It’s too late,” Nami’s shimmering image smirked. “Thunderbolt Tempo!” From a cloud that had been growing under the roof of the massive hanger during the long conversation, down flashed a bolt of lightning.

“Whoa!” went Star Sapphire, forming a shield at the last moment to protect herself.

“Wonder Woman,” Robin smoothly said. “I’ll cover you. Dos Fleur!”

Wordlessly, Diana charged Star Sapphire.

“Oh no you don’t!” snarled the villainess, just as two hands appeared from her own back to cover her eyes. “Wha—!?”

Wildly she fired two quick shots, reaching up to regain her sight, but that was enough for Wonder Woman to get in a nasty haymaker. Star Sapphire was smashed down into the ground, away from the plane.

That should do for now, Robin decided. I don’t know the properties of her pink aura enough to tell how defensive it is.

Flawlessly Wonder Woman spun while unhooking her magical lasso mid-air. The golden rope ensnared Aresia while she was still stunned, securing her. Just in case, Hawkgirl gave her a sharp rap to keep the mastermind from having any funny thoughts.

Queen Hippolyta never even had the chance to throw a punch.

!JUSTICE!

Up in the Watchtower, Martian Manhunter examined the results of Tony Tony Chopper’s work with appreciation. At this rate of progress, it was entirely possible that his teammates’ mission would be unnecessary.

Of course, as Flash would say, ‘It isn’t over until the Fat Lady sings,’ he gently admonished himself, fingers flying over the keyboard. Nonetheless, whatever else you could say about the pirates, their doctor was first-rate. Certainly superior to J’onn himself.

Before their extinction barring a sole survivor, the Martians had been a very advanced race, at least decades ahead of humanity—although the recent appearance of a small number of super-scientist, and access to other-worldly technology, was quickly narrowing the gap. That meant that while J’onn himself had not been considered particularly brilliant in science, especially medicine, the basic scientific foundation he had grown up with were lightyears ahead of anyone else in the League.

To give an analogy to make it clearer, imagine a regular, human police officer from the early 21^st century, sent back in time by hundreds of years. While he may not be a licensed medical practitioner, he would have received regular check-ups with his doctor, been trained in first aid, know the gist of penicillin, been raised to despise leeches, and appreciated the importance of ‘basic’ hygiene and sanitation, including keeping rats away from food, and cleaning your medical instruments after use.

Unfortunately this meant that while J’onn had grown up absorbing ‘average’ knowledge for an advanced race, he lacked the ability to sufficiently adapt it too this crisis.

Tony Tony Chopper had the necessary brilliance. Martian Manhunter could clearly see that not only did the pirate possess a superior intellect, he was also innovative enough to take charge of this crisis.

“You were right,” he calmly reported from the Watchtower. “Samples of my body prove I’ve been exposed to the allergen, even if it hasn’t taken effect yet. It must’ve been on Superman’s costume. We’ll update our quarantine protocols after this.”

“I’m not doing so well too,” Chopper squeaked back over the radio, down on the surface in whatever laboratory he was operating out of. “My assistants can take over for me if they have to, but we’ve got to do the most with the time we’ve got left!”

“Agreed.”

!JUSTICE!

“Here,” Robin said as she walked over Hawkgirl. “Brook got this sample of what we believe to be the allergen. Your Watchtower’s medical equipment will probably be better suited to analyze it.”

Quietly, Hawkgirl accepted it, noting how the skeleton in question and the third member of the Straw Hats were examining the bomber. Probably undoing whatever sabotage he committed as a precaution. And we already know Robin has some sort of disappearing act if we attack her.

Warily, Queen Hippolyta walked up to her daughter, who was standing guard over Aresia. “Diana, who are these people?”

“Criminals,” Wonder Woman promptly answered. “We have a truce until we’ve dealt with this poison. Their doctor is very skilled though, and is working with J’onn. The green man I brought to Themyscira,” she clarified, as if her mother could have forgotten their saviours.

Nodding, Hippolyta gave the three strangers an evaluative look. As a warrior and Queen, she knew people. She could to see into their hearts and minds. Even near the beginning with Aresia, she feared she was making a mistake, taking the girl in. In the end, she had been unable to refuse an orphan in need, and had planned to help her heal in both body, mind, and heart. Alas, the troubled young woman had recently isolated herself to escape her sight. These others however . . .

Hippolyta had heard everything from within the plane, and could already make a preliminary assessment of them. Indeed, too many of her Amazons had been like them once. Those who had been hounded and hounded until they could take it no more, and turned to fight their tormenters. Then amongst the flying blood learned that they were wolves, and their former hunters were mere mutts. Hippolyta had seen this in many of her Amazons as they struck back at their male tormentors, and found their true warrior spirits. Themyscira and their Sisters had then provided them with a home, and new sense of identity and joys so that they could recover.

So it was with these three, and they truly would do anything to protect their new lives.

Groggily, Aresia re-orientated herself, and realized she was tied up with the legendary lasso. In front of her, she could see Tsukuri’s body still laying on the ground. “You fools!” she spat out. “Don't you see? We're not your enemy, it's the men! They must be destroyed!"

“You’re wrong Aresia,” and Hippolyta’s voice carried with it all the centuries of her authority. “Without men, you wouldn't still be here. After your ship sank, you must've lost consciousness, as you drifted on your makeshift craft. You would surely have drowned as you sank, if the ship's captain had not found you and pulled you to safety. Valiantly he struggled to keep you alive, until he brought you to the shores of Themyscira. But the effort was too much for his heart, and he died. Too be sure of his character, I consulted with the gods, and Athena told me of his actions. His final resting place is a simple, unmarked grave. He is the only man buried on Themyscira. So you see, for all your hatred of men, it turns out you owe your life to one."

Aresia could only glare at this revelation. “Why didn't you ever tell me about this?"

"I didn't think it was important,” then Hippolyta looked regretful. “I didn't think he was important." Why else had she failed to ask Athena or another goddess for his name? Was that a deliberate omission by the gods as she had thought, or a test? If the latter, had the queen failed?

"Maybe it's time to reconsider that,” Hawkgirl said, before taking flight on her wings. The auto-pilot for the Javelin spaceship she and Wonder Woman had originally come down from the Watchtower in, would soon bring the craft here, and there was not a second to lose to get the sample to J’onn.

“So everything you ever preached was a lie,” Aresia accused.

"Not everything,” Hippolyta assured her.

"Still,” hissed Aresia in accusation, “the acts of one man cannot redeem the sins of his kind. They all must pay! Look at what that male skeleton did to Tsukuri! He killed her without a thought!”

“And how many are already dead, and beneath your notice?” Brook quietly accused in turn glaring at her with empty, dark eye sockets that somehow conveyed a bitter contempt. For all Aresia fought to return his gaze with equal force, she could not deny feeling the sensation of someone stepping on her grave. “But I am not like you,” the skeleton added. “Your friend is merely injured.”

“You lie!” she snapped. “You expect me to believe she’s still alive while she bleeds like that!?”

“Perhaps,” Hippolyta mused, having a better appreciation for the level of skill displayed. She walked over, subtly angling her path and body so that she kept the pirates in sight at all times. Leaning down, she held one of her bracelets to Tsukuri’s mouth, and saw mist upon the metal. “She still breathes,” she declared, voice devoid of the respect she felt within. For all her years as a warrior, the skeleton’s swordsmanship was humbling. Indeed, his abilities were simply inhuman. Not a pun, a fact.

“Where did you learn to wield your sword?” the queen inquired. “That you could cut down another warrior of great skill, yet still leave her alive?”

As if the topic were inconsequential, Brook gently waved his hand in dismissal. “Around.”

Accepting he would not answer, Hippolyta glanced at Lasso tying up her failed subject. “Aresia,” she calmly said. “Did you perchance create an antidote for your poison?”

The glare was answer enough, and Hippolyta was convinced there was no need to escalate matters and compel her to talk. The young woman’s fanaticism was predictable like that.

Brook walked up, appearing more curious than anything. “What about your dad?” he asked Aresia, taking everyone by surprise. Indeed, none of the others (except maybe Star Sapphire, or Tsukuri, who were still unconscious) had ever even had a father in their lives; if Hippolyta had ever known hers, she had forgotten him long ago, and did not mourn this.

Aresia flinched, then bit her lip to keep herself silent.

“Either he left her family, was killed in the war, or was killed in the attack which forced the rest of her family to flee,” Robin theorized. “So even if she remembered him while growing up in an isolated society that hates men, she would have only remembered that he had failed to protect his family. More proof of the failings of men. I wouldn’t be surprised if she overheard the older Amazons say as much.”

The prisoner tried to glare at them all, yet it fell short. She loathed it; the self-reproach mingled with pity in Diana and the Queen’s eyes, and the searing contempt in the Pirates’.

“It appears we truly did fail you,” Hippolyta murmured.

!JUSTICE!

Breathing heavily, Martian Manhunter finished mixing the chemicals together. Their existence was one of the fields where his knowledge surpassed Doctor Chopper’s (who had earned that full title), being discovered on Mars only a few years before its downfall.

As it was, the Martian was only holding on thanks to some compounds that Dr. Chopper had recommended before he had stopped answering. Tellingly, Cherry Blossom Medical’s own products had factored heavily in creating what was currently keeping J’onn upright. Someone else had taken over, using something to disguise their voice. They claimed that the medicine to stave off the allergen had not been as effective for Dr. Chopper. Fortunately, he was merely immobile, and able to process information and pass it on to this anonymous assistant.

Together, both parties believed they had found an antidote. The others had suggested using Superman and the others as guinea pigs, yet Martian Manhunter had overruled that. Morality aside, his computer simulations would get the results only slightly slower, without the risk of worsening the situation.

A few minutes later, he had confirmation.

They had a cure.

!JUSTICE!

“I would like to bring Aresia back to Themyscira,” Hippolyta said to Diana. “Our prisons are designed to hold immortals, and the guards are both as long-lived as her, and better trained.”

“We will discuss it,” Wonder Woman promised. “I won’t commit to anything before talking with the rest of the League, and the authorities.”

The prisoner in question ignored them, having fallen into a sullen silence.

Female soldiers from the air base were also present, helping to guard the remaining samples of the allergen. As all their senior officers had been men, and were currently sick, they decided they were uninterested in involving themselves into command decisions. Something like this was best left to the politicians and generals.

Some of them were using their medical training to patch up both Tsukuri, and the guards the super-villainesses had knocked out in seizing the hanger. The patients were all stable (somehow in Tsukuri’s case), so the base’s regular doctors absent, as they were on stand-bye if any more emergencies cropped up during this pandemic.

Hawkgirl flew in at that moment with a large grin on her face. “I just got word from J’onn,” –Diana’s radio still with Chopper— “and he says they’ve found a cure! They should be able to distribute it before anyone fully succumbs to Aresia’s poison!”

The soldiers erupted into cheers, while Wonder Woman and the Straw Hats breathed a sigh of relief.

Aresia merely hunched down lower. Star Sapphire was still unconscious, tied to a support beam by heavy chains, the gem that gave her powers facing away from the heroes.

“Thank goodness!” cried Brook. “I was so worried about them, that I was afraid I’d die.” Then he paused. “Oh wait, I’m already dead! Yo ho ho ho~!”

“We’ll be taking the bomber,” Nami declared. “The missiles are off it, and we’ll drop it off at the Gotham airfield. That’ll give us enough of a head’s start so as to not endanger the truce.”

The heroes glanced at each other, then nodded at the pirates. “Before you go, Robin,” Wonder Woman said. “That story you told, is it true?”

Serenely, Robin smiled. “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, you already know it easily could be. That’s the world we live in.”

Shayera’s grip tightened on her mace, even as her face remained impassive. She had grown up in the ongoing Thanagarian-Gordanian War, with the latter committed to either the extermination or enslavement of her people. As a Thanagarian soldier, she had seen entire planetary populations slaughtered. Civilizations ended by the Gordanians, because they shared the same type of fanaticism as Aresia; the belief that they were superior to all others, and had a responsibility to do whatever was necessary to reshape the universe to match their vision. Even by killing any and all who opposed them.

Hippolyta stepped to the side, curious to see how her daughter handled this. She would also remain alert for her if the pirates tried anything.

co*cking her head, body at ease, Wonder Woman got right into the heart of it. “The hardest part about what is going on between us, is that besides everything, you seem like good people. It’s just that you’ve been so hurt in the past, that you’re determined to forge your own path without a care of what happens along the way, even if it takes violence. You don’t like to kill, yet you still cause immense damage that you refuse to see and acknowledge. More importantly, it won’t stay fun forever.

“All it will take is one mistake, one step too far, and you’ll go from being ‘relatively harmless,’ to becoming cold-blooded killers. I don’t want to see that happen to you, and only the gods can bring back the dead.”

Coming to stand beside Aresia, Hawkgirl added, “And your past cannot be used to excuse your actions. Ultimately you’re responsible for your own decisions.”

Nami raised the tip of her bo-staff a few centimeters. “Don’t underestimate us,” she warned.

“But the biggest issue between us,” Wonder Woman went on, “is that of Justice. What we each think of it.”

“The path of Justice may appear righteous and easy to walk,” Brook solemnly warned. “But if you continue down that path, you may very well find yourselves consumed by it; incapable of seeing the evil you are committing.”

“Right now your Justice League has some actually decent people in it,” Nami added, while Robin remained silent. “We just don’t want you going down the same path as other people we know. Being heroes, and following Justice, aren’t necessarily the same thing.”

“You don’t really mean that,” Wonder Woman said, causing the pirates to look surprised. “Or rather, most of the criminals we meet don’t believe in Justice because they believe in taking whatever they want. They don’t want to think it’s real. You on the other hand all know it’s not real, and think us arrogant for acting as if it is.” Despite her verbal speech, her expression was actually sad. “That in trying to protect the planet, we’re a bunch of egomaniacs. Thinking we can do the impossible, while glorifying in the adulation of the public. That, or we’re just simply naïve.”

The Straw Hats said nothing.

Opening her mouth to speak, Shayera paused as she remembered the thoughts she had just had on the Gordanians and Aresia. After a moment of introspection, the undercover agent reoriented herself. She hefted up her mace to show the pirates. “What I believe in, is that I do Justice. That I go out there, and do enough Rights to make up for all the Wrongs in the world, even if it means hitting people with this. We don’t kill though, we don’t take people from this world. For all their faults, we do our best to give everyone a chance to improve this world, this universe. While also putting a limit on ourselves, to keep us from going too far. Maybe that’s arrogant, but I don’t care. I won’t stop saving people.”

A skull is a perfect poker face, and Nami and Robin were equally impassive. Nevertheless, Hawkgirl caught a slight shift of uneasiness.

Smiling, Wonder Woman finished it, remembering her own childhood teachings, and experiences since leaving Themyscira. “After all, if we don’t believe in Justice, and don’t teach others to do so, to safeguard it, how will it become real? And that? That is worth believing in!”

The Straw Hats regarded them without a word for two whole minutes, with the heroes meeting their gaze. Finally, Nami sighed, and shrunk her staff back into a baton. Stuffing it between her breasts, she turned around to head for the plane they were borrowing. As the rest of her crew followed behind her, she called over her shoulder, “Goodness knows, this dump could use some real heroes. I only hope your resolve is up to the real test.”

A minute later, the bomber took off.

“Alright,” Shayera grinned as she clapped a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Now, enough philosophy. Let’s get these ladies,” –gesturing at the defeated Aresia and her teammates— “properly secured. Then we can go see the boys in the Watchtower as they wake up.”

“We’ll probably have to tie Batman down to make sure he has enough rest,” Diana grinned, causing a small chuckle to escape Shayera’s own lips.

!JUSTICE!

It was surprisingly easy for the Straw Hats to fly away. The advanced aircraft was largely automated, meaning even a novice could get by. Doubtless another reason why Aresia wanted to steal it, with that irony only making it more delicious for the pirates. Presently, a few of Robin’s arms were handling the controls, while the original and full clone were reviewing the instruction manual.

If all else failed, they would aim for the river and get out before it crashed. There were even rocket-packs available instead of parachutes—which they were keeping regardless. Seriously, how much did a craft like this cost?

“Are you sure about telling her all of that about Ohara, Robin?” Nami queried.

“It’s no concern,” the statuesque woman assured her. Then she gave a giggle. “This world’s had so many conflicts of late, that the information’s nearly useless to them. I could be from any number of countries that experienced genocide.”

“Please don’t laugh at that,” Nami sweatdropped at her friend’s darker sense of humour.

“For the record,” and now a bony hand rested gently on Robin’s shoulder, “I’m glad you didn’t turn out like her.” While he said it lightly as a joke, there was no denying the underlying seriousness to his words.

Nami scoffed. “If Robin really wanted to kill people to stop stuff like that, she’d have already resurrected the Ancient Weapons to destroy the World Government. For all that she acts, she isn’t that type of killer.”

“Am I, Nami?” Robin softly asked. “Alabasta.”

The navigator stilled at that single word, and the taboo it represented. Brook understood, yet kept quiet. While his crewmates may have discreetly informed him about what had happened there, it did not change he had never actually been present.

“. . . Even then,” Nami confidently said after a bare moment of hesitation, “you didn’t really want to do it. You were so focused on the Poneglyphs that yes you did nothing while a nation nearly collapsed into civil war, with thousands dead and millions more endangered. I haven’t forgotten that. It’s just that it was Crocodile who was behind that. Trying to warn Cobra would’ve gotten you killed, either by him, or the marines learning and coming down on Alabasta without caring how many they killed to get at you. Deep down, you know you couldn’t have stopped him, Robin. Not without getting yourself killed, and Crocodile succeeding anyways. Instead, you did everything you could to discreetly sabotage his schemes. Leading Vivi to him, giving Alabasta a chance to solve the crisis itself, and if you hadn’t then she never would’ve been able to stop the war after his defeat.You even saved Luffy’s life so he could fight, despite how badly outclassed he’d been the first time. And at the very end, knowing you were facing a Warlord of the Sea who would kill you, you denied him the one thing that would have guaranteed his victory.

“What you did was wrong, but I honestly don’t know what else you could’ve done.”

Despite herself, Robin smiled warmly as she filed her memory of this conversation away into the mental folder labeled ‘Reasons To Keep On Living.’

It was surprisingly thick after only three or so years.

“You’ve thought about this a lot. Thank you.”

Shrugging, Nami just kept her interest on the skies. Carefree as them.

The other two were not fooled.

“You wanted revenge yourself,” Brook softly said. He had seen how Nami had glared at Aresia, both during the confrontation, and afterwards when she was helpless.

“Yes,” and in Nami’s raw tone was pain and hatred. Old wounds from Arlong and the sense of helpless after learning about Marineford, had bubbled up at the sight of all those idiot men that were her family, dying from a poison. By some coward who chose to strike them down from afar as if they were irrelevant.

Luffy’s warmth had healed most of those scars, had fixed her when she had been all but broken by her need to save her island. If she ever lost that now however . . . she would not break down in despair; Nami the Cat Burglar would unleash a monster every bit as fearsome as her One-and-Only-Captain.

All the Straw Hats had that beast within them, all born from the anguish of their past lives, and what they had endured upon the seas. They were kept in place by chains forged by their own intrinsic knowledge of Right and Wrong. The examples of their precious role models. And because their nakama would expect it of them.

To save the world from Aresia, their very own code of conduct compelled them to be willing to lay down their lives if necessary to stop her.

(That was one reason they appreciated having the Justice League around, because usually they would do it for them. Unfortunately, this time most of the League were already incapacitated.)

To save their nakama from Aresia, they would be willing to pay an even higher price.

None of them said anything about Robin’s threat to burn the world; Nami and Brook were well aware that at Water 7 she had already made that choice. That Robin had placed the whole of the world on a scale, and found that it was outweighed by the lives of a handful of individuals she had only just recently met. For them, she was even willing to give the World Government the Ancient Weapons. Nami did not know if she could make such a decision, and prayed she never would have to. At the same time, she would never condemn her nakama for what she had done. Never.

“Aresia almost succeeded, and for the stupidest of reasons,” Nami continued. “Even worse, I can understand why she might feel that way, if never accept it. Death isn’t how you make the world better,” she drew in a harsh breath, “and I’m glad I walked away from it.” Then she flipped her hair over her shoulder in dismissal. “And I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of being a martyr.”

“I’m glad I didn’t feel the need either,” Brook confessed. “Like Hawkgirl said, while we may be only Human, that doesn’t excuse us from the decisions we make.”

The skeleton brooded for a moment before realizing how depressing this conversation is. “More importantly however, we’ve confirmed the existence of an island of woman, and have clues as to where it lies! Panties! Panties galore!”

“GYAH!” shouted Nami as she punched him.

!JUSTICE!

With interest, Queen Hippolyta stared out the window to gaze down upon the form of Gaia, the Earth. This ‘Watchtower’ of theirs . . . truly it is a marvel!

Her daughter’s teammates Green Lantern and Superman were finishing distribution of the cure, while Flash, Batman, and J’onn were providing what remaining medical care and emergency relief was needed. They had all insisted that Shayera (Hawkgirl’s real name apparently) and Diana get some rest, citing that while they had been saving the world, the men had been ‘lying around all day.’ Hippolyta was also supposed to be getting a few hours’ sleep. Alas, it eluded her as her mind raced.

Today she had seen more of Man’s World than she had in centuries, as well as the newest challenges it be faced. If those three we met were but the subordinates, what must their commander be like?

Still, based upon Diana’s performance, she was confident she and the Justice League would rise to the occasion.

For all the pain that she could not put to rest, Aresia had been an incredibly dangerous adversary. The books on germ warfare retrieved from Man’s World that she had left on Themyscira, found after she had begun her final preparations, hinted that her campaign had been long in planning. The execution: a masterstroke.

Aresia had effortlessly led whole gang of super-villains with their individual greed, cruelty, and personal issues. Carried out high-profile heists with little issue. And finally, unleashed a bio-weapon that had come within a hair’s breadth of success. With Hippolyta herself as a hostage, and luring Diana and Shayera in with Star Sapphire, it was entirely conceivable she would have won. Her only flaw was her blindness to how far other women were willing to go in defense of men.

Shall I tell my daughter of the real gifts Hephaestus endowed upon the Lasso and armour? Hippolyta wondered. . . . Not yet. Some more seasoning would serve her well. Their true power, to wield Truth itself, is too great a burden for her to bear now.

And speaking of the Truth, I fear it is time for me and my Sisters to confront the changing Truths of Man’s World . . .

!JUSTICE!

The Justice League debriefing regarding the Straw Hats was underway, and the heroes were all grim as they considered the facts.

“I honestly can’t tell how much of what they said was true or not,” Diana admitted, after she had finished recounting the events.

“It seemed like they believed what they were saying,” Hawkgirl said, “but they were slanting it, or being vague, to keep us from verifying their tales. They didn’t want us learning anything else concrete from them.”

“I wonder if it is significant that the skeleton, Brook, said nothing about his own origins,” Martian Manhunter pondered aloud.

“I don’t know,” Diana said with a pensive look. “All I do know, is that I’ve never seen such skill with a sword before. Moving so fast, and cutting so fine that the victim doesn’t even know they’ve been cut until he has walked ten steps away from them? It’s unheard of! And the entire time he was travelling with us, or any time he was not fighting, he was acting, acting—” she hesitated in thought.

“Acting like Flash?” Hawkgirl offered, throwing the speedster a speculative look.

“Yes!” Diana agreed, also appearing to be re-evaluating her friend.

Guzzling down his pop, Flash produced a massive belch.

Unimpressed, the heroines returned to the topic at hand. “At the same time, he and the others seemed to have a strange habit of calling out phrases when they attack. Like they’ve named them, and feel the need to say them while fighting,” Hawkgirl quizzically noted.

The rest of the Justice League were also confused by something so silly.

“Given their power, I assume they feel confident they can spare the time to do so on the battlefield,” Queen Hippolyta announced, a special guest at the table.

“Is there anything else you would add?” Batman asked. A fine judge of character himself, he knew her majesty had more to offer.

She tapped her armrest once in thought. “They are no mere band of brigands. They are fiercely loyal to each other, and coordinate together seamlessly. Moreover, I believe that Nico Robin was speaking the truth when she said they would set the world afire if it meant the safety of the others. It’s even possible they believe they can. Aresia threatened to do so out of a misguided attempt to find relief from her pain. Them? They would do it out of unconditional love.”

The League all exchanged uneasy glances at this.

“As for the specific characters of those I observed,” Hippolyta went on, “I do not have much more to add. Nico Robin delights in appearing an enigma, choosing her words with careful precision. Her eyes and movements betray her as a wary and dangerous opponent.

“At first I believed the skeleton’s behaviour was a performance to put us at ease. Upon further consideration however, it was too flawless. I would say it is how he acts routinely, even around those he explicitly trusts. Therefore I would describe him as someone who chooses to live his life in a happy and carefree manner, yet can summon forth the skills of a veteran warrior with hardly a thought.

“Finally, for all that she acted in charge, I would say that the redhead was the weakest of the three. The others were always carefully near her to act as support, ready to protect her if necessary. While I do not know the source of her powers, and as effective as she demonstrated them to be, they remind me more of elaborate tricks, rather than a strength inherent to her. Despite this, she is clearly adept at making those actually more dangerous than her, think that she is the largest and most fearsome predator.”

“This is definitely not going to be easy,” Batman growled. “A gang of supervillains whose members have already proven they can go toe-to-toe with us individually. Worst, they’re organized, loyal, and able to cooperate without issue.”

“They almost sound like the Rogues from Central City,” Flash offered speculatively. “Except these guys are a lot stronger, and a lot more—” he hesitated out of consideration for the Rogues. They were not all bad after all. “More rational,” he hazarded.

“What’re you’re thoughts on why they’re banned from Gotham?” Green Lantern asked. “Why didn’t you press them on that?”

“We had bigger priorities!” snapped Hawkgirl, surprisingly angry that he was questioning their decisions in the field. Never mind that she would be more composed about it if any of the other men had brought it up.

“It could’ve been a valuable clue!” he fired back.

“Easy guys,” Flash interjected, giving placating gestures with his hands. “It’s all in the past. And they were dealing with a bigger problem. Personally, I feel they made the right call. While maybe the gals could’ve asked after things quieted down, there was a lot going on at the time. What matters most is that they stopped Aresia. Besides, we weren’t there, so it isn’t our call to make.”

With a huff, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern subsided.

“In terms of clues,” Martian Manhunter offered, “there are the assistants Dr. Chopper had. They concealed their identities, but by their interaction, there were more than one. Moreover, they are competent enough that he judged them able to contribute. I would not jump to the assumption they are females however. From the way Dr. Chopper criticized our quarantine methods,” –which were next on the agenda— “it is very possible they were men who kept themselves safe.”

“It wouldn’t be difficult for them to contact another medical company, offering their services,” Batman mused. “That would explain where they got their help for this.” Then he gave Wonder Woman a flat look. “Now, what’s really bothering you?”

Not even bothering to hide her frustration that he had seen right through her, Diana blew out a breath. “I’m not entirely sure about this, and it’s just a theory based upon what they said; not what we know is true. From what I can tell, we’re going after them because they’re criminals, and we’re afraid of what they’ll do in the future. That’s why they’re our enemies.”

Now her face hardened. “The reason why we are their enemies, is because we believe in Justice. Something about it has poisoned the term for them. That whatever we say is ‘wrong’ is something they’ll do because it's not considered Justice. Except it’s more than that, more than just children lashing out at authority. These aren’t immature or unreasonable people; they have a strong reason to believe in whatever exactly it is they do, even if they’re keeping quiet about it. Something that gives them a sense of commitment to what they’re doing. As well as how while we fear what crimes they will commit in the days to come, they fear we will become villains ourselves, while believing we are still righteous.”
It was obvious that such thoughts and introspection were uncomfortable at her, chipping at her usually unflappable confidence. Despite this, she was not finished.

“More importantly, we still don’t know their final motives. People like this . . . they’re aren’t doing it for money, power, politics, or world conquest. They have an endgame, and we don’t have any clue as to what it is.”

Scowling a little, but steadfast in his commitment to Truth and Justice, Superman turned to face each of his friends and companions. “It doesn’t matter, we still have to stop them. And we will,” he promised. “We’ve beaten every other threat together, and we won’t falter now.”

“And now we’ve got another lead,” Hawkgirl stated, and Wonder Woman grinned with satisfaction.

!JUSTICE!

In a concealed hideout, a pair of eyes blinked open and groaned out, “Meeeeeat! Sanji . . . Meeeeat.”

“He’s all better!” Chopper cried with joy. Laughing, Brook resumed playing his violin to help encourage the others to recover. Nami gave sigh of relief before berating her Captain for making them worry, hiding the anxiety she had felt. Smiling Robin, went to get some food.

“Meeeeat!”

“Hold . . . yer . . . orses…” slurred Sanji automatically.

Zoro was a little more awake, choosing to stoically endure what he assumed was his first-ever hangover. I really hate this world. They can’t even do booze right . . .

!JUSTICE!

“So, anything you want to tell us? It might be enough to reduce your sentence,” Batman lightly offered. He was one of the few people who could play both Good Cop and Bad Cop. Acting composed and reasonable at first made it all the more unnerving when you switched to threatening and intimidating.

A depowered Star Sapphire glowered at the hero, while her handcuffs clinked. “I tried to kill off half the planet!” she spat. “How much do you really think I can reduce it!?” Then she paused in consideration. “But I can tell you about those Straw Hat Pirates that you’re so worried about.”

“Who says we’re worried?”

“They took me and the others down without breaking a sweat. That means they’re dangerous to you too,” the convict retorted.

“What do you know?” They both knew that whatever information she had was invaluable right now. On the other hand, Star Sapphire’s situation truly was abysmal. This was the only card she had to play, and Tsukuri was still alive to also question to make her own deal, as well as for comparing testimonies for accuracy. Not to mention that the League would be questioning other supervillains in custody. She had to make a deal before her knowledge lost value.

She had overheard the guards talking about the news, that Aresia had been extradited to Theymsicra. There had been some discontent that she had not been brought before the Hague for war crimes, although the guards expressed their relief over having to secure someone so obviously dangerous and resourceful. In the end, the fact that the Amazon’s own head of state had risked her life to stop her traitorous subject, and the League’s own support, had led the grateful nation to approve of her transfer.

“I want special privileges while I’m in prison. And off the death penalty.”

Batman saw no problem with that, and they could always be revoke it if the woman misbehaved or lied. “We’ll decide what you get once we’ve heard what you’ve got.”

Star Sapphire paused, then admitted to herself this was probably the best she was going to get for now. Besides, the League was too prideful to break their word over this, and that she could always hold onto some details for later. “Whoever they are, they’re becoming a big name in the underworld. The thing is, I almost went to work for them before Aresia approached me and the rest first.”

“What do you mean ‘work for’?” he asked, barely hiding his growing dread.

Leaning forward, Star Sapphire crooned, “They’re recruiting, Batman. A bunch of others are already on their payroll, and some of them are big players in their own right!”

Chapter 6: Enter the Villains

Chapter Text

A few weeks after the Straw Hats first arrived

If they had been run-of-the-mill pirates, they would never have been able to pull off getting home—especially not discretely. Of course, if they were your average pirates, they would have all been dead years ago.

Nico Robin had been forced to grow up in the criminal underworld back home, rising to be the right-hand of one of the world’s most powerful crime syndicates, whose duties included counter-intelligence as she kept both Alabasta’s monarchy, and the World Government from finding the truth. Later she had studied under Dragon ‘the Revolutionary’ himself, and the Straw Hats all just expected that she knew even more than that.

Franky was the former mafia boss of his hometown.

Nami was a talented actress and thief.

Usopp, Sanji, Jinbe were all both brilliant and adaptive, and the rest of crew started looking into what they could contribute; except Zoro, who concluded that at some point they would need to fight somebody, and until then he just felt like having a nap and training.

As for Luffy . . . the crew found ways to keep him too occupied to ‘help.’ TV was magnificent in that regard. Usopp was also happy to distract by bragging about his vast experiences from leading his fleet of eight thousand men before ever meeting the crew.

The problem was straightforward: they were all trapped in an alien world, specifically one without the One Piece, and no idea how they had gotten there or how to get back.

Their usual solution, finding someone who knew something, followed by doing whatever it took to get the necessary co-operation, was hindered by the fact that no-one here had a clue how to help them. This was compounded by the fact they all agreed their intentions should remain a secret, to avoid unwanted contact between both worlds. ‘Unwanted’ meaning ‘not on their terms.’

Consequently, they had to figure out how to do it themselves.

Unfortunately, it was unavoidable that they would need help to pull this off. Even worse, this required doing something previously considered inconceivable: actually hiring people to do the work.

!JUSTICE!

Warily, the feline figure scouted around the dark alley. To the world at large she was known as Cheetah, a dangerous super-villainous. No one, not even herself, referred to her as Dr. Barbara Minerva anymore. The name she had used when she had been fully Human.

An ambitious research scientist exploring the possibilities of grafting animal characteristics onto Humans, her frustration at insufficient funding had forced her to use herself as a test subject, unintentionally transforming herself into a Human-cheetah hybrid. Now she found herself skulking around at night in the shadows, a freak, committing various crimes to raise funds; be it stealing where she could, or being hired to do various jobs, no matter how dirty the deed.

For tonight, she had been contacted by individuals who, predictably, wished to remain anonymous, yet were willing to meet her face-to-face. Obviously, she would have to be on guard for whatever mischief they had in mind, hence why she was arriving early to scout out the area, and see what she could learn when they arrived. Although the crude manner in which they went about getting a hold of me, shows they’re rank amateurs at this.

There was a system for navigating through the criminal underworld, separating those with powers, abilities, public aliases, etcetera, from the normal crooks and riffraff, and it was clear that whoever these newbies were, they were rather clumsy at the process. Fortunately, it was equally evident they had money to spend, despite how much had been wasted on false-starts making contact with her. Which means I have to be even more careful of course. I don’t know why they want me in particular.

“What’re you doing?”

Spinning around like lightning, the snarling cat woman threw herself claws first at the man who had come up behind her, catching the briefest glance of his surprise—

She was flat on her back, winded yet unhurt, staring up at her stalker in the straw hat who still appeared confused.

She was not fooled.

Every hair was standing up on end, her feline instincts screaming at her to show them her belly and throat, and to be as submissive as possible.

Dominance.

Overwhelming dominance and power.

For the briefest of moments this seemingly blank-faced boy radiated such an intense inner strength that it absolutely terrified her. It had not been the ‘Human’ in her that saw it, but the ‘animal’ that knew she dared not make him angry. Dared not draw attention to herself lest she be consumed whole.

Then he stuffed his pinky up his nose to pick at it, while tilting his head in bewilderment. “Something wrong?”

Aaaaaand there that feeling went. Out the door and wondering why it had even been here in the first place. Now he just seemed like an average idiot.

“Were you planning to sneak up on us?” a tall woman in her late twenties or early thirties cheerfully asked as she stepped forward, and again Cheetah felt a twitch of warning. “To answer your question, yes we are the ones who are to meet you, and we’re glad you came early.”

“Allow me, mademoiselle,” a calm, kind voice asked, and a blond haired man stepped forward, offering her a hand up. While his solely visible eye smoldered with attraction that was disturbing, it was also weirdly familiar. It’s like he’s treating me like a normal woman, and not like one of those furry perverts. Just regular perversion.

A little shakily, she ignored her initial impulse to lash out, and instead let herself be helped up while taking in the whole motely group, the majority of whom appeared as strange and exotic as her. That one smells of machinery, and is that a blue alien? A skeleton? Whatever they are, no wonder they wanted to meet in these back alleys; it’s got to be even harder for them to lay low. Regaining her mental balance a little, she gruffly asked, “So, what do you want?”

A red-haired young woman answered. “We need to acquire advanced scientific information and knowledge, mostly in the realm of physics. You’re both a skilled thief to help us acquire stuff for us, and while specializing in biology and bioengineering, supposedly have contacts with other scientists. Particularly the unscrupulous kind.”

“How much’re you offering?” Cheetah inquired, her interest piqued. She had a chance to make a lot of easy money tonight.

The apparent negotiator snorted. “No, we’re not starting by telling you that, do you think we’re amateurs?”

“Do you like being a cat-lady?”

Everyone turned to the one with the straw hat at the non sequitur.

“What do you mean, Luffy?” asked a furry creature that Cheetah thought smelled tasty, even as her same feral side warned her it was scarily unnatural. An herbivore that preyed upon carnivores . . .

“I dunno,” the one apparently named Luffy said, seemingly unconcerned about his own ignorance. “She just seems less at ease like this.”

“You mean since I turned myself into a freak?” Cheetah blandly asked, wanting to observe how they would react.

They all looked at her in confusion now, as if they were perfectly used to conversing with human-animal hybrids. . . . Which given their own little furball was a distinct possibility, while raising the question of where he came from.

“What if we offered you help in curing yourself then?” the brunette woman offered. “Presumably your crimes then are to support yourself, and to try and find a way to revert back to your old self. We can help you with that.”

Despite herself, Cheetah’s tail flicked in anticipation, even as she reminded herself it was probably a scam. You mean keep me compliant and grateful with scraps that promise eventual salvation? It was too good to be true after all. . . . As sincere as they seemed to be.

“In addition to this assistance, we’re also offering you a retainer fee,” declared the blue alien.

She pretended to think about it, and then quoted a sum. The man with metal gloves or metal hands, and blue hair, just grinned and made a counter offer, which she knew was perfectly reasonable. Guess they’ve done more homework than I thought.

“We could use some extra help with our own jobs getting cash and equipment, for which you would be compensated” the blonde man added genially.

Cheetah hesitated.

On one hand after all, these people were sending off warning bells she had never even known existed. Except they’re also practically offering to hand me what I want on a silver platter. Besides I can always slit their throats if necessary . . .

However, deep down she knew she was just trying to fool herself. The way her instincts had been raving, she knew would never have the chance to do so. Still, like they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained . . .

“If you work for us,” the straw hat guy said again, and now Cheetah realized how the rest of them were circled around him as if he were in charge, “you’re also under our protection.”

This was apparently off-script.

With most of the older members of the strange group, something passed between them. There was not a word, nor the slightest twitch of a muscle, yet somehow they seemed to come to attention, becoming far more lethal. The younger ones however . . .

“What!?” shrieked the teen with the long nose. “Why’re we going that far for her!? Why!? We don’t need to get pulled into supervillains or superheroes!”

Deciding that offer was pretty vague, Cheetah held up a paw to clarify. “Sorry, what do you mean by protection, exactly?”

“If you need money we’ll give you a special loan,” promised the redhead, her eyes all but flashing with dollar signs.

“Uhm . . .”

“You’ll get medical help too,” said the little furry creature who continued to weirdly shift between tasty prey and terrifying not-prey to Cheetah’s senses, and everyone else seemed to agree with that.

“You won’t go hungry,” the man in the black suit gravely said, acting purely professional.

“Restful music to soothe away the sorrows of the day~!” crooned the skeleton having pulled out a guitar from . . . under his coat and inside his ribcage? How’d that even fit in there!?

Swelling up his chest, the long-nose complainer than boasted, “And no one would dare hurt you if you were associated with me, the dreaded Usopp!”

“If anyone hurts you,” all levity died, and even the air dared not whisper as Cheetah’s eyes snapped back to this gang’s leader. There was something in his tone, a conviction that was as unnerving as it was awe-inspiring. In a way he appeared to be the youngest and dullest looking of the group, if not for how those glimpses of power earlier and right now made her know he was something . . . more. “Then we make them pay, so that they never do that again, and no one else will want to,” he finished.

“It’d be a matter of honour,” adds in someone who had not spoken up yet. Aside for his green hair, he appeared fairly normal as he lounged against a wall. Then he tilted his head to reveal one eye scarred shut, and he barred his teeth into a grin that spoke of a bloodthirsty animal. An apex predator unafraid to assert his position when necessary.

Gulping, Cheetah nodded, weirdly both reassured and also more than a little afraid.

I guess they might have the muscle to pull this off after all. But what exactly’s the catch here?

“Do you get a cut of my profits for any jobs I do for you?”

At this the redhead stepped forward. “Twenty-five percent—”

“Nami!” whined the man with the hat.

With a resigned sigh, the woman corrected herself. “Ten percent, and only if the job you carry out is done with fellow members of our organization or our resources. And we still pay you regularly.”

“Just don’t get into debt, or you’ll never pay it off,” the green-haired man groused, before being hit on the head by Nami, who seemed to be handling financing. The sudden shift in dynamics as he failed to retaliate against her was only enhanced they mystery they all were. Trying to define them, put a label on their actions . . . they were just too bewildering. Too complex.

There’s only one way to be sure, Cheetah knew. “What if I say no?”

She tensed up, waiting for the inevitable threat that would prove who they were. Except none of them so much as twitched.

Luffy merely went back to picking his nose and flicking away a booger, barely missing the man in the black suit who scowled, yet cut himself off from saying anything as his boss spoke up again. “Then you go home, and we go back to where we’re staying, and then go and find someone else.” Then he flashed his teeth in a smile that seemed to be the rising sun. “But you’ll miss out on some awesome stuff if you do!”

There might have been a threat in that statement, nevertheless she also recognized that they could indeed make this same excellent offer to someone else, so it was best to get in while the going was good. Despite this however, she still had a lengthily list of questions about them.

Trying to regain her footing, she tried one last thing to try and get a sense of what they were up to. “So what is this,” she gestured at them all, “some sort of plan for world domination?”

“Why’d I want to do something as stupid as that?” the young spokesman blankly asked her.

Cheetah’s mind stalled at the question, trying to think of an answer. Is he really a super-villain? “Wealth, power, fame, whatever,” she managed.

“But if I ruled the world—”

‘I,’ he used ‘I,’ so he really is the one in charge?

“—then I’d be the one responsible for it. Ruling, keeping things going, why’d I want to do that?” Then his face stretched into an honest, carefree smile that sent a tingle throughout her. “I just want to be free!”

!JUSTICE!

“Why we here?” moaned the living corpse, Solomon Grundy.

“So you can carry stuff!” snapped Livewire, only for Poison Ivy to place a calming hand on her partner’s shoulders, before turning to Grundy. While immune to her powers, like any man he was still vulnerable to a pretty lady putting a hand to her hip and looking at him with interest and adoration. Typical, even dead, men were incapable of using their brain to think. Mustering her patience as she repeated herself for the umpteenth time, Poison Ivy put on her sultry tone. “Livewire needs this generator, and once we’ve got it, we’ll pay you for helping us.” Probably. Maybe.

“Okay!” grinned Grundy, and stepped forward to yank the door off of the building, while Livewire, formerly the popular ‘shock jock’ Leslie Willis, shook her head in disgust. She had once been an immensely successful, and controversial, radio star, whose shows had emphasized ridiculing Superman, denouncing him as nothing but ‘the world’s strongest con-man.’ Then tragedy struck in the form of a lightning bolt at a concert of hers, with Superman present —and doing nothing to help her. Miraculously, she survived, if also suffering a host of changes, including turning blue. More importantly, she had been bestowed the power to generate and manipulate electricity. Knowing Superman was responsible for what had happened to her, she had vowed to kill him, turning to regular crime in the process. “Almost as bad as the clown,” Livewire muttered.

The woman once known as Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley frowned at this reference to her other, and far more preferred, partner: Harley Quinn. Together, the two ladies were capable of some impressive stuff, despite how ditzy she admitted Harley could be. Unfortunately, the woman in question was currently with the Joker, and however loathsome the Clown Prince might be, and abusive, Ivy tried to respect her friend’s wishes.

Livewire was just a ‘business associate’ for Ivy, albeit a powerful and useful one, given her mastery of electricity. Even better, they had fun together, and could be trusted to make the rational decision of valuing future pay-offs over what could be gained by immediate betrayal.

This latest, temporary partnership would last long enough for them to get a nice profit, and then they would probably part ways with equal shares.

The blue woman’s need to recharge herself was one of her main weaknesses however, leading to the decision to rob an experimental, prototype generator for her to use. Given the bulk of the machine, and how dangerous it was (the words ‘experimental prototype’ being a big hint), Ivy was unwilling to risk having her precious plants carry it out. Hence the need for some muscle, which is what Grundy was here to provide. The walking corpse was not Ivy’s first choice, as he was immune to her pheromones, except Livewire was the one to find him, and her electricity was strong enough to subdue him if necessary. Besides, his idiocy more than compensated for being unable to turn him into a mindless drone like Ivy did to most men.

The laboratory’s security guards wisely fled rather than engage the three supervillains as they quickly tore their way through. Livewire’s power had already fried any way for them to call for help.

“This it?” wondered the massive, pale form of Grundy asked, as he looked up at the even larger metal contraption, with ominous looking cables sticking out of it.

“Congratulations,” Livewire told him, her sarcasm flying over his head.

Just before he could begin to tear the generator out of place, someone yelled from behind,

“Hey! That’s ours!”

Spinning around, they saw nine figures behind them, some wielding possessive stares. “We stole that first!” snapped the red headed woman.

“We’re the ones who’re actually in the room, idiots!” snapped Livewire. “It’s ours!” With that she launched a lightning bolt at them, which the newcomers dodged with disturbing ease.

“We’ll see about that! I need to strip it for those SUPER rare parts!” boomed a muscular man with . . . blue hair shaped like a lion’s head, complete with stylized jaws, open as if it were roaring?

Great, another future Arkham Asylum inmate, Poison Ivy wearily thought, before releasing her pheromones against the men.

What happened next however was puzzling.

The green-haired man with swords immediately leapt into the air and out of the way as if he could detect her pheromones, drawing two swords. The one with the straw hat also moved out of the way. The big blue one was unfazed, as were the skeleton and furry creature, and the guy with the criminally bad hairstyle. Maybe they’re too different from normal humans for it to work? Ivy worried.

Roaring, Grundy charged forward, rearing back a massive fist, before stumbling backwards.

Suddenly in front of him was the straw hat kid with all his teeth grinning, staring back at Grundy while cracking his knuckles. Impressive, she acknowledged with a touch of concern. They say Grundy can go toe to toe with Superman. Except now the brat’s close enough.

“Oh, that wasn’t very nice,” purred Ivy. “Don’t you want to be friends with us?”

!JUSTICE!

Inside Luffy’s mind

“Hey there, big guy, want a wild night?” ask the sultry voiced, curved figure of Ivy’s pheromones, meant to turn any male into her slave.

“Snnr snnrr snnnoorre” Luffy’s libido answered as it turned over in its sleep with its straw hat on its head, dreaming of thick, juicy meat. Literal meat. Served at the table by Sanji for the whole crew to eat.

!JUSTICE!

“Sorry, but no,” he apologized, with apparently genuine regret. “We really need this generator. Probably. Franky thinks it might be useful.”

“What are you?” Ivy gasped, taking a fearful step back.

“Your dutiful servant, milady!”

Spinning around, Ivy found the last of the men who had arrived, kneeled before her, staring up at her with lust and worship.

“Well then,” she rallied, “I—AAAAARGH!”

Lightning coursed through her body, before a concussive force of air smashed her into the very generator both sides were there to collect.

Pure chance kept Poison Ivy from being shocked and literally frying on it, but the large machine was still knocked loose from its stand, hanging at an angle from thick electric cables.

Blearily, she saw the redhead maneuvering a staff around, and felt a breeze. She’s blowing my pheromones away! The blonde haired man appeared to have also been shocked, now only staring at Poison Ivy with disgusting lust.

Trying to get up, Ivy found human hands forming out of the ground to restrain her, and the redhead’s staff extended itself like a spear, so that the tip was resting against her pale green throat.

“If you ever do that to Sanji again,” hissed the furious wielder, “you’ll wish to be sent back to prison!”

Fearfully, Ivy rapidly nodded.

“Oh Nami-swan! You do love me!”

“Shut up!” the redhead snapped, as if automatically.

A scream of frustration drew her eyes, and saw that Livewire was throwing bolt after bolt at the swordsman, who was merely smirking as he casually dodged each and every one. He flicked a sword at the electric woman, who instinctively took her energy form.

“Gaah!” she cried, holding a bloody cheek.

“Surrender,” the man sneered. “You can’t hurt me, but I can reach you!”

“B-but I’m pure electricity, h-how do that!?”

He just bore her down with his single eye.

“Screw this!” With a flash, Livewire became electricity again, and jumped into a nearby light fixture, and within moments had fled as fast as lightning.

“Oof!” Grundy moaned, before picking himself up.

His opponent, despite originally being a positive shrimp before him, was grinning and on the offensive, his fists having swelled to gigantean proportions, easily the size of Grundy himself, who was feeling those punches and hard. The next blow making the zombie land beside Ivy . . . and finish tipping over the generator.

*CRASH*

They all dully stared at the totally busted, formerly hyper-advanced prototype.

“Right,” the woman holding Poison Ivy prisoner –Namiswan or something— sighed while shaking her head, and declared. “That was a bust. You doing alright, Sanji?” she asked, apparently having just realized she had actually struck him with some electrical attack of her own.

“Yes, Nami-swan!” crooned the blonde.

“Idiot!” snapped the swordsman. “You should’ve sensed that! Have you no self-preservation!?”

Sanji was clearly uncomfortable, awkwardly admitted, “It didn’t feel like a threat to me.”

The rest seemed to sag in resignation at that.

“Is it safe to come out now?”

“Yes, Usopp,” Nami called back. With that, their relieved friend came forward. Unlike most of the others, he had taken the time to memorize the various public powerhouses around, particularly those who might be a threat to the crew. It was unclear if Ivy could control any plants freely, or only those she had altered, so it was best not to take chances given the, aheh, nature of his own weaponry.

I should probably diversify a bit while I’m here, Usopp decided.

“So what now?” Ivy hesitantly asked.

“Now? You dare ask that after what you’ve done!” snarled the woman above her, the apparent leader. “You went and broke the generator we were both after, you clumsy fool!”

“Uhm,” Ivy began, before glancing at the one with the straw hat, the guy named Usopp, and the little furry guy, who were furiously gesturing at her. As she interpreted them, they were trying to convey that Poison Ivy should not disagree with the supposed chain of events. Not if their horrified faces were anything to go by . . . or running their index fingers over their throats.

“So what,” she managed instead, “you want cash to make up for it? Sorry,” she patted her skin tight, low-cut dress, “I don’t have my wallet on me.”

“No,” grinned the woman, and now the rogues scientist felt a tingle of genuine fear. “You and the big guy are going to work for us until you’ve both paid off your debts!”

Later both Grundy and Poison Ivy found themselves passing up on multiple opportunities to escape their supposed indentured servitude. After all, while it had been graphically described what would happen if Poison Ivy tried to influence their chef again, even without using her powers, both of them agreed his food was far too good to miss!

At some point they were receiving pay cheques as well.

Wisely, they said nothing about them to Nami.

!JUSTICE!

About a month before the closure of Cherry Blossom Medical

“We’ve got some more potential recruits today,” Nami said, handing over the files Robin had assembled. “They’ve killed some people of course, yet nothing indiscriminate.”

The others nodded, while Franky and Jinbe each picking up a profile to read. Since these people were even being considered, there would be nothing truly concerning of course. Still, best to be prepared.

“I’ll talk to them after lunch,” Luffy said, before stuff himself with more food.

Zoro was dozing, and Sanji was sulking.

“Hey, cheer up Sanji!” Luffy called out. “It’s not like it’s the end of the world. I mean, it’s just that you aren’t allowed to be part of the decision making process.”

“But why not!?” the chef shrieked in indignation.

“You know perfectly well why,” Zoro snapped as he popped open his eye. “You whine and sob every time we say a female villain can’t join us, while moaning about how hot they look in those outfits!”

Blithely Nami ignored the ensuing fight as she sipped a new brand of tea Sanji had bought.

!JUSTICE!

Luffy hummed and hawed as he looked back and forth between Claire Selton, better known as Volcana, and Matt Hagen a.k.a. Clayface, both of them struggling to maintain their composure under his blank eyed stare.

Cheetah was also feeling a bit nervous, having gone through this process several times, only for her new boss to dismiss every candidates she had brought in.

Copperhead who was good for sneaking into places, rejected.

The Key, who could unlock anything, shown the door.

Deadshot, an experienced mercenary of considerable skill and dedication, never even got to the interview.

Moreover, whenever Luffy made his final decision after he had looked them over and talked to them, he never gave a reason why.

For these newest two, the sultry Volcana was a victim of government experimentation who had turned to crime to survive, which Cheetah suspected might suit the man’s own contempt for the system.

Like Cheetah herself, Clayface had been transformed into a monster and then ostracized from society, driven deeper and deeper into crime. Now also no longer treated as a Human, she privately thought she could try researching a cure for him as well, given how she was being helped in turn.

Already the Straw Hats had provided her with a new lab, and had taken the time to help her steal some valuable biological samples to help her research.

For the first time in years, she felt she was making genuine progress towards returning to normal again.

“Alright,” Luffy eventually said to the applying supervillains. “I’ve got one last question for you guys.”

It was the first thing he had said the whole time.

“What are your Dreams?” The capital letter was clearly heard.

The three super-villains started in surprise. Despite this unorthodox approach, Clayface answered easily enough. “To be Human again, and become an actor again! Whatever it takes!”

Smirking, Volcana said, “Well, to be rich of course.”

“That’s lame.”

She blinked in surprise at the calm rudeness of the man before her, then lit her hand on fire in silent threat.

Unfazed, Luffy co*cked his head. “And that’s not the truth either. So what is your Dream? If it’s what you want, you should be proud to say it.”

Flinching, Volcana stared into the depths of his eyes, and felt herself being judged by . . . something. Someone I mean, she corrected herself. This was just another person, no matter his powers. Right?

This could be my biggest gig yet, she reminded herself. And if they laugh, I’ll roast them. She shrugged her shoulders in attempt to appear as if it were nothing, then ruined it by how she had to clear her throat.

Unwanted memories of her time imprisoned by Superman on a deserted island rose up in her. It had been warm and beautiful, away from the government men who would try to use or kill her again, with the surrounding ocean replacing prison walls she would have otherwise escaped by burning her way free. Except . . . for all her flirting with the Man of Steel, it had still been a prison. Solitary confinement, aside from whenever her warden dropped by with supplies, and sometimes he was too occupied with crises to come by for days or even weeks. She had been on half-rations more than a few times before he could break away from whatever emergency was happening, and always only briefly.

Her only, sporadic, company, a man of the law, while she remained a criminal. Oh, Superman had always been nice, friendly, infinitely patient, and when he could afford the time to talk to her, he tried to rehabilitate her. Eventually though a boat had stumbled by, and she got aboard with some smooth talking (she knew it was best if Big Blue did not show up while she was surrounded by burnt corpses because things escalated), and made her way back to civilization.

Civilization . . . where she could never have a regular job without fear of being abducted in the middle of the night by ‘rogue’ government spooks. Where her only safety while in prison would be under the watchful eye of either ‘heroes,’ or officials who were actually honest. So instead she had made her only real choice: to be free on her own, using her powers as she desired. Wanted, and dangerous. To be the predator, not the prey.

“What I want,” Volcana finally said, fire still lit, “is a fresh start, where no one can control me, imprison me, or judge me because of my abilities, or my past from when I was too powerless to control my own destiny.”

No one laughed.

“. . . Same here,” Clayface quietly concurred.

She ignored him, hand still raised to scorch the interviewer if he did not choose his following words with great care.

Unfazed by his imminent death, the apparent man in charge tapped his chin in obvious thought, before giving a serious yet kind smile. “I’m sorry for what I said. He’s right, that’s a great Dream! I totally agree with you!” A megawatt smile appeared. “It’s similar to my Dream too!”

He stood up, and as he did so, his clothing shifted enough to reveal his bare chest and what Volcana recognized as a massive burn scar right over his heart.

“Glad to have you!” Both his hands shot out to grab one of hers and Clayface’s, and shook them in welcome, shocking them both that he could both impossibly hold onto the former actor’s muddy body without the villain mentally making it more solid, and Volcana’s without frying his own hand.

Continuing to beam, Luffy turned around and called out, “Sanji! Bring food!”

!JUSTICE!

“Won’t you come in?”

The instant where Talon Karrde froze was so brief it was almost invisible, but he quickly rallied himself, and continued into his own private office.

“How could I say no to such a lovely woman, who doubtless has a fine proposition for me,” he genially asked.

Nico Robin merely graced him with an enigmatic smile as the man sat down behind his desk, lounging back into the guest chair she occupied while examining his pets, Strang and Durm. A rare breed of canines known as Presa Canario, they were obviously as intelligent and well trained as they were deadly.

Despite his words, and polite expression, Karrde’s mind was racing with dread. He knew very well who she was, even if he had been unable to obtain a clear photo of her before: the leader of the growing gang known euphemistically as the ‘Straw Hats.’

From what he could gather, she had personally and quietly destroyed various small-time criminal groups, and managed a growing criminal empire. At first Karrde had been suspicious of her role until she was seen giving instructions to one of her enforcers, the blonde with feet like steel.

“Do you know what my people and I find most admirable about you?” Nico pleasantly asked. “It’s not that you’re probably the world’s foremost underworld information broker in addition to your impressive smuggling network, it’s that you are only truly ruthless when it comes to protecting the interests of your subordinates.” Her smile grew even more beautiful. “If I promised to leave your subordinates alone if you committed suicide here and now, your only concern would be guaranteeing their safety.”

He almost touched the panic button at that point. But she’s probably already disabled it and all my other security features. Most of them at least. Probably.

“And that is something my leader approves of.” Karrde hid any reaction to this surprising tidbit “The ability to care about his followers before oneself is something he considers mandatory above all else. So you can relax.”

Karrde tilted his head in thought. “You also know that my people are loyal to me in turn, and would disapprove of my untimely demise. Moreover, my intelligence network would not function nearly as well without me,” he calmly parried. “Your own organization has been establishing your own intelligence network, although it is only bare bones given the limited time you have had. You’re also trying to acquire money, articles of science, and other oddities with an unseemly haste. You need something.” Unspoken was the additional word, “desperately.”

The mystery woman merely appeared pleasantly surprised. “Yes indeed. Our own network is coming along well despite such a short period of time, more than you may think, yet it’s obviously clear I still have much to learn about keeping it as secret as your own. Which is why I’m here, and from what I see of your desk, this will be even easier than I thought.”

As if he were unaware of which papers were scattered around on top of there, Karrde took a moment to examine; psychological profiles of various super-villains, with an emphasis on how they regarded regular Humans.

He decided to place his cards on the table since she appeared to appreciate bluntness. Moreover, he was hoping in turn he would learn more about her leader.

That was a new tidbit for him, and he was unapologetically hungry for more details about this shadowy figure who had such a dangerous woman as a mere lackey.

Of course, if it was that man with the three swords, that would be both unsurprising and frankly boring.

“The number of individuals with superpowers is growing,” he admitted, placing his palms face-down on his desk. “We have advanced weaponry, acquired from assorted governments, except we are forced to consider the need of recruiting those with such abilities to match that of both law enforcement and our competitors. Unfortunately, those such powers who are also ‘villains,’” he said with a twinge of irony at the term, “also tend towards mental . . . quirks shall we say. Ones that can make them dangerous to my employees.”

Instantly understanding, the brunette settled back in her chair —likely having already disabled the booby trap hidden within it— and gave a small tilt of her chin. “In exchange for information and your discretion, we’ll pay you handsomely and assist you with metahumans who prove to be a challenge. The difficulty will be equivalent of the information you provide us of course.”

Ergo, no taking on heroes for paltry scraps.

He reached over to pour some brandy for two. “I do believe we’ll get along well then, so long,” and now he gave her a slightly chilly look of his own, “as long as the discretion goes both ways.”

“Of course,” she simply agreed, foregoing the drink and getting up to leave. “I left a list of what we need in your safe, along with money to compensate for what I’ve already learned from you today.”

With that she walked out the door.

Mere seconds later Karrde followed with Strang and Durm, concerned about how his subordinates might react, except she had already disappeared into thin air once out of sight.

Within his office, all his security features had indeed been disabled, as had his phone. The money in his safe however had included a little extra to pay for repairing his various security features. Well, at least she’s civil, and maybe has a sense of humour . . .

!JUSTICE!

Sobbing, Permafrost ran through the alleys of Dakota. Even she had nearly forgotten her old name of Maureen Connor, and knew that everyone else already had. Why would they not? She was unimportant. Now she was Permafrost, the name the voices in the dark whispered.

Why, why’d I go there!? she berated herself as she fled. She knew that going inside the mall to beg for change was too public, knew how she felt about the people there, but she had still gone. Seen all those happy families who refused to see the homeless, all caught up in their warm, comfy lives.

It had been some jewelry, Permafrost had been unable to ignore it, and then that man had said she did not belong and he was right and then her powers had gotten out of control and—

She stumbled as she remembered that woman protecting her daughter. Remembered her own mom, and the pain!

“Hey, are you alright?”

Whirling around, she saw a man approaching, carrying several large bags of groceries. He had a warm looking purple coat, a lit cigarette in his mouth, and messy blonde hair. “I can get you a hot meal if you want.”

No one cares about me! So what does he want!? Permafrost stepped back. “No! Stay away!”

But the stranger put down his groceries and held up a placating hand as he slowly advanced. “It’s alright, I won’t hurt you. Just come with me—”

To the terrified and confused girl, he morphed into the figure of the woman from child services who had taken her away after her mom died.

“NOOO!” Permafrost shrieked, and instinctively her powers came wildly to her call. Eyes blazing with a purple light, a blast of wind and cold swept away from her. Except this man was unruffled, appearing only slightly surprised. The only real response he made was covering the top of the bags so nothing flew out. Desperately, she called forth even more of the cold within her, creating a wave ice out of thin air to cover him.

“No,” she gasped, grasping her head in her hands. She had just killed a man. “No, no. Not my fault, no.”

Ice burst apart into water and mist, and the man continued to stand before her, except on fire. “The offer of a hot meal still stands,” he gently told her as his passionate flames died away, “although I bet you’d prefer someone to talk to first.”

Open mouthed in shock, Permafrost could not even move her legs. Then someone else showed up.

“Sanji! There you are! Why’d you—” the newcomer paused as she took in the scene.

She’s beautiful. Like an angel, Permafrost thought.

“Oh,” the angel-lady softly said. Carefully she came towards Permafrost, arms also spread to the sides to appear safe and reassuring. “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you. My name’s Nami. Let me guess, you’re alone and afraid, and you thought Sanji would hurt you?”

“Not my fault,” Permafrost managed.

“No, it’s not your fault,” the strange lady, Nami, assured her. Her eyes narrowed. “Are you out here alone because of your parents, or did something happen to them?”

“M . . . Mom, s-she—” the homeless girl got out, tears starting to leak. Suddenly, heedless of the lethal risk, found herself enveloped in a warm hug by Nami.

“There, there. I’m sorry to hear that. My mom . . . she’s gone too. And I miss her every day.”

“Mine too,” the man added sadly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Permafrost’s legs gave out as the tears gushed out, and she returned the hug with all her strength.

!JUSTICE!

“No, I said, what’s your name?” Luffy repeated to the young girl, barely in her teens. Her pale blue skin and white hair had been replaced by normal, pale skin, and very light brown hair.

Angrily, Nami slapped her Captain over the head. “Don’t pressure her!” she snapped. “She’s still scared and confused.” She gave Permafrost a gentler look. “He’s asking you what name you were born with,” she softly clarified. “What did your mom call you?”

“. . . Maureen Connor,” the teenager finally whispered, before ducking her head to spoon up more soup.

“See,” Luffy beamed, “that wasn’t too hard. Nice to meet you, Maureen!”

Maureen’s head shot up to look at him in shock. “Wh, what do you want from me?” she managed.

co*cking his head, Luffy looked at her in equal confusion. “What do you have that we want?”

“. . . My powers?” Her voice was so unsure it was clear that she was grasping at straws, disbelieving that even those would make her of value to someone.

“Eh, nah.”

Sanji kicked his Captain in the head, and clarified. “We aren’t making you stay, Maureen, which is a beautiful name by the way, and neither are we going to make you do anything. If you stop by Chopper though, he’s got some pills which’ll help you think clearer.”

“You can’t go without taking some food and warm clothes with you though,” Nami decisively added.

“If she’s staying,” and now Volcana sauntered over, “then I’m taking care of her.”

“Uhm, why?” Maureen meekly asked.

With a huff, Volcana sat down beside the young homeless girl. “Because you’re an impressionable, troubled, young teenage girl who’s hanging out with dangerous men who are very persuasive,” —she was ignoring Nami, who was scary in her own right— “and someone’s got to watch out for you. Besides, I’m fire,” she set her hand aflame as a demonstration, “and you’re ice. We’ll work well together.”

Hesitantly, Maureen smiled.

“Now, after you’ve eaten, we’ll get you washed up,” Volcana smiled. “Then more food, and then clothes shopping, and—”

!JUSTICE!

Given herself a final look in the mirror, Robin examined her appearance.

Melding her cloned arms and legs onto her originals, had given her thicker limbs. Arms wrapped around her belly and under her dress made her appear heavyset, while padding in her cheeks added to that appearance. Hair in a blonde wig, green contact lenses, and a drab grey business dress finished the disguise.

Usually she managed this via video conferencing, with her doing so out of a secured site that could be abandoned if anyone traced the calls. Plus her own screen was blanked out, while she could observe everyone else. Alas, sometimes the personal touch was needed, so they tried to do a meeting whenever she had the (scant) time.

A consummate actress, even her walking style changed as she entered the boardroom through the private door.

“Thank you for joining me,” the woman the audience only knew as Miss Sunday calmly greeted the assembled men and women. They all only sat after she had done so. “I trust you are all satisfied with this month’s profits?”

Murmurs of agreement echoed around the room, and soon they got down to business. Robin led them through a list of other companies that she wanted to acquire or invest in, and her employees threw around some insightful ideas on how to do it.

None of them were wanted criminals, merely entrepreneurs who were willing to handle large sums of money whose origins they did not question. Nor ponder how while some of the transactions that ‘Miss Sunday’ desired were clearly shrewd moves to generate further capital, others were rather strange or apparently nonsensical. The most glaring examples of this being why so much wealth was poured into owning a growing percentage of the meat industry, or maintaining control of a certain new brand of cola that was becoming increasingly popular.

Some of the villains working for them had even taken to asking her to invest their own money into the meat business. Not just for the profits, but also because of nagging concern of whether Luffy would remain a Good Captain if he did not get enough meat, and what kind of Bad Captain he might become if that happened . . .

Robin's giggling whenever she heard that, did not reassure them. At all.

!JUSTICE!

“Soooo, are we, uhm, turning into superheroes now? Or super anti-heroes?” Cheetah delicately asked as she looked at the motionless form of a bloody man as Sanji and Zoro walked away. The individual in question had the misfortune of trying to hide out in the same warehouse as them as they made their way back to the main base, and Cheetah had recognized him from the news.

I mean sure, he’s a serial rapist and killer and no one’s complaining, except they just attacked him the instant I identified him.

“Heroes have to return all the money they find, and even pay taxes on all their money,” Nami answered, as she twirled her staff before pointing the tip at Cheetah. “Are you saying I should give up all those thousands of dollars that I stole?”

“N-No ma’am! Not at all,” Cheetah gasped out, hair standing on end in fright. Of course it’s what ‘we’ stole, not that I’m going to call you out on that. And it’s easily millions by now, at least. You’re just understating it to make sure no one gets greedy. Or because you want it all for yourself?

!JUSTICE!

It was a straightforward heist, stealing some rare alloys that could be sold or used to help make the portal that would take them back home, depending on what Franky’s final verdict was.

Or it was supposed to be at least, but they were delayed at the last minute with Sanji noticing a bunch of people throwing half eaten food on the ground. Five minutes later, after he had forced the wasters to finish chewing down what they had started, Volcana had volunteered to keep Sanji from wandering off by asking questions about his ‘heroic strength.’ With their friend now distracted with something they had more influence over, Brook and Usopp led the others the rest of the way to their destination, with everyone taking off their disguises or stepping out of the alleyways and shadows.

A little gizmo that Usopp and Franky had put together cut the alarms, and Solomon Grundy tore off of the metal door for deliveries, and they all waltzed right in.

. . . To find the security people were already dead.

“I got a tip on where you were going, so I’d thought I’d beat you here,” Killer Frost smirked, corpses of all of the guards piled around her within solid ice. “If you’re still recruiting, how’s this for an audition?”

“You killed them!?” Usopp gasped.

“Uh, yeah,” the amused sociopath confirmed.

“And why did you feel the need to do that?” Brook hissed. His eyeless sockets taking in the expressions of terror and helplessness etched onto her victim’s faces. One was even only holding a doughnut and newspaper. Harmless.

Grundy, Cheetah, and the other regular supervillains had thrown the dead men a quick glance, and while they were slightly disturbed by the deaths, it was nothing they were going to take issue with. At the very least, it just meant less trouble to deal with for the robbery, right?

“I absolutely detest,” Brook threatened as he hefted his cane, “those who refuse to treat life with the respect it deserves!”

“Phfft! Don’t tell me you guys really believe that!” she sneered. “Especially with you looking like that! What kind of villains are you, anyways?” Glancing away, she threw the others a knowing look. “I mean seriously—wait.” Where’s the skeleton?

Someone humming a song behind her made her spin around to take in the sight of the vanished figure twirling around a sword cane, delicately stepping around the bodies. So fast! “That supposed to scare me!?” she jeered as she raised her hands to attack. “You didn’t even do anything!”

“Didn’t I?” and something about his chilling tone made her freeze, and then he sheathed his blade. “Song of Scratches: Blizzard Slash!”

A single long slash erupted up Killer Frost’s body, with ice coming out of it. “Wh-what!? N-no! S-so cold!” She hugged herself in a desperate urge to fight off the biting feeling seeping throughout her, a sensation she had not experienced in years. “N-not possible! I am ice!”

Gone now was the jolly musician, and all of the supervillains beheld a terrifying speaker for the dead. His empty sockets like holes trying to suck them into the bottomless abyss. “And my soul carries with it the chill of the underworld itself! A power that I wield through my blade! Goodbye and goodnight!”

With a final scream, Frost hunched over before becoming completely encased within a block of ice, unable to move or make a sound.

Unable to look away from the frozen expression of pain and horror, Cheetah could only manage, “D-did you kill her!?”

“No,” Brook informed her as he turned away to jauntily waltz through the building to retrieve their prize. “But we’ll have to take her with us so she doesn’t tell the police about us. The freezer will do for now.” At some point they would hand her over to the authorities, just not until the pirates were done keeping their existence a secret. Probably. Maybe.

And all of the other watching and dumbfounded criminals were busy revising their opinions on when it was acceptable to kill, and when it wasn’t.

!JUSTICE!

Franky grinned as the mansion burned.

“Maybe that’ll get the message across!” he boomed, before taking a big breath to spew out more fire.

This was the holdout of a particularly nasty gangster named Mandragora. The crime boss had discovered that one of his men was making money on the sly by selling information to Karrde, and had killed the mole, his wife and kids, extended family, several friends, and the pets, all as an example. Normally the spymaster would avenge one of his agents himself, except a) that would have alerted others to what kind of power and influence he wielded, and b) had suspicions that Mandragora was a meta-human himself. So he had contacted Robin.

Sure, this might seem like an act of charity, except it was part of their deal with the info broker, and Mandragora had had plenty of cash to steal. Not to mention he was heavily invested in the drug trade, which disgusted all the Straw Hats. The reason Franky was here, instead of continuing to work on a gateway home, was because he had overheard the gory details of the man in question had inflicted on helpless children as a warning, and decided he could do with a little exercise. There’s some things you just don’t do, he thought resolutely. The League might not be able to do anything because they need legal permission, except all I need is Luffy’s approval and an expense validation from Nami Sis.

Besides, Luffy had ordered him to take a break and work off some stress.

“Bout time you guys let me let loose!” Volcana preened, before letting loose another blast of her own to burn down what was left of the fancy, pricy garden. Half the reason she was even here, as opposed to tutoring Maureen on her math —the government agency that had raised Volcana had provided her with a good, fundamental education at least— was because Franky knew she also needed to vent, so as to not show the young teen her more troubled side.

Looking around, he took further stock of the situation. Don’t see Zoro. So he’s probably found Mandragora’s —which is a stupid, wordy name— personal booze supply, while grumbling about how his swords are going to go dull at this rate. Either that or he’s lost

. . . I’ve really got to get around to giving him that new eye with the implanted GPS tracker.

As for Nami Sis, she’s probably finished stripping the mansion bare, and gone off to find Zoro.

Yep, he could hear the sound of her furious screeching now. Probably saying how she could not spend all day looking for him, because she had to go back to play her ‘Dr. Mikan’ role.

. . . Or possibly she was angry because the mansion he and Volcana had lit on fire was burning faster than she could loot it. Oops.

Overall though, everything seemed to be going SUPER.

Then Franky’s gaze darkened at what he saw.

Moving faster than anyone his bulk and metallic composition should be capable of, he was beside Volcana and snuffing out the fireball in her hands within a single massive metallic one.

The already badly burnt guard on ground continued to spasm, not even aware his life had just been saved.

“He’s beaten,” the cyborg growled. “You don’t need to take it any farther.”

Glaring at him in shock, she snarled, “You hypocrite! You were just throwing around lasers and missiles at Mandragora, yelling how he wasn’t ‘Super’ enough to handle you! What about that!?”

Unfazed, the lenses of his sunglasses continued to bore down upon her. “That was in the middle of a fight, and making sure none of them had a chance to hurt the others, including you. This guy’s beaten, and a man doesn’t let others kill someone when he’s down. He’s not worth it.”

She held his eyes for a few seconds longer, but then lets her arms go limp. “Fine!” she snapped, angrily stalking off.

Giving her a minute, Franky took another critical look at the mansion. It was still burning, yet the firetrucks would probably make it before anyone got killed. Probably.

He glanced over his shoulder. “I’ve got some pretty keen hearing, so how’s about you come out?”

“I wasn’t trying to hide,” an angry voice bit out.

Out of the shadows came an attractive young woman, well dressed in civilian clothes that accented her perfect curves. Tentatively Franky labeled her as ‘Italian.’ The crossbow in her hand was a little unusual though.

“I saw the fire and came running,” she continued. “And then I overheard you arguing with your partner. So you killed Mandragora?”

“Did you see who my partner was?” Franky asked. The Justice League and authorities did not know about them yet, or that they were recruiting supervillains, and the Straw Hats wanted to keep it that way.

“No,” was her impatient reply as she glared at him, waiting for him to answer her own question.

Judging her to be sincere, Franky said, “You wanted to be the one to kill him.”

“Yes,” she hissed out in frustration. “I just wasn’t good enough to do it without getting killed first! A little more time . . .” she cut herself, biting her lip in anger.

“He’s still alive.”

The strange lady’s head snapped up, but Franky held up a warding hand. “What’d he do to you?”

“Killed my family,” was the prompt reply, a dangerous light in her eyes.

Franky stared at her. He had known too many people who let vengeance consume them. At the same time, he knew from personal experience how important that closure could be. When he had gone after Spandam the first time, he had been maddened by pain and rage, only to ‘die’ by standing in front of a train. The second time however, with the Straw Hats . . .

“Mandragora is alive and unconscious in that mansion,” indicating with a massive thumb over his shoulder. “Stripped of his wealth, and probably his bank accounts too by this point. Personal secrets and whatever blackmail he relied upon leaked. Despite the fire, he, his bodyguards, and main enforcers are going to be in the hospital for a while, and then jail with what we left for the cops to find. They’re probably too banged up to even remember what happened.” Certainly not in the chaos of the lightning blitz of their assault. “He’s going down, and if not, his competitors will probably try to kill him off while he’s vulnerable. Or whichever of his own people weren’t here and are feeling ambitious.”

With that, Franky turned and walked off. “But I won’t stop you.”

Just before she could eagerly make her way forward, he added. “He’s got a son, y’know. Kept him away from the family business. And that boy’s gonna grow up without a father too. Don’t be surprised if he comes after you.”

He left Helena Bertinelli behind, trusting that she was enough of an adult to make her own decisions.

Around the corner, Volcana was waiting for him, looking more confused than ever. “It’s personal for her,” is all he said.

!JUSTICE!

Days after Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s interview with

‘Sanji Kuroashi’ and ‘Dr. Nami Mikan’

After the fall of Cherry Blossom Medical, the release of the wanted posters for Sanji, Chopper, Nami, and Usopp, the supervillains knew it was time for them to have a talk.

“Uhm, Miss Nico,” Cheetah managed, cursing at how insecure she felt. Still, it was still preferable to talk to her over the others, as she had already proven ruthless enough to cripple her opponents, while being not as intimidating as Roronoa could be when he got serious.

They had taken careful steps to ensure their privacy here. Including making sure Maureen in particular was not be in earshot. There were some things she did not need to know about just yet.

“Go ahead, Cheetah,” the dark haired woman offered, never taking her eyes off the thick historical volume she was reading while sipping her coffee. The Romans really had fascinating ways of killing people. “I suppose you have some questions?”

“It’s just that, this whole no-killing bit, you do know someone’s going to die at some point, right?”

“Yeah!” Volcana broke in from the background. “Even the goody-goody League fried all of those aliens when they first came together!”

“And we’re going to be bumping heads with lots of other crooks at this rate,” Clayface chirped in. “People who’re ready and even eager to kill!”

Nico Robin’s giggles were not what they were expecting. “Sorry,” she apologized after a few moments as she regained control, except they could all see her eyes dancing. “I’ve been where you are, from when I first joined. Before I met the crew, I was an assassin. I killed a lot of people,” all of the eavesdroppers seemed to be edging away from her at that, although the spokespeople held their ground. “In fact, I was actively complicit in the attempted murder of a lot more people just before I joined Luffy and the others. Thousands.”

Which while accurate, was also misleading. The total was actually in the millions.

Alas, that would lead to more serious, and unwanted, questions about the Straw Hats and their pasts.

Seeing their expressions, Robin was struck with further amusem*nt. It’s almost like they don’t know whether to be relieved or worried that I’m admitting to being a war crime-level mass murderer.

“But the thing is with the Straw Hats, is we’re strong enough to take people down without killing them. And we’re not afraid of them getting back up to try again.” Then something harder entered her expression. “And sometimes it’s even more satisfying. Leaving them alive with their Dreams shattered beyond recovery.”

Signaling the conversation was over, she turned back to her book, leaving the supervillains to reflect upon her words.

“And everyone?” she suddenly spoke up again.

They all paused in their retreat and looked back, and gulped at the intensity within Nico Robin eyes and words.

“My nakama and I have all had our lives marked by death, people we’ve loved and lost to those who believe being willing to kill is a form of strength. While we have no interest in furthering it, we will do whatever’s necessary to protect you!”

The villains trembled with fear and relief.

Then Volcana managed, imagining their go-happy leader. “Even Luffy? He’s lost people too?”

Robin flinched.

For the first time ever they saw her façade crack, and they quailed at the grief and shame within.

“Including Luffy,” she simply answered before turning her attention back to her book.

!JUSTICE!

A few weeks later

It was a warehouse in a rundown part of town, yet perfect for them to stay hidden as they slowly recovered.

According to Chopper’s earlier call, it was a rogue Amazon named Aresia who was responsible for the allergen sweeping across America. All of the men in the Straw Hats barring him and Brook were out and slowly dying.

At the time, the supervillains had been separated from their . . . benefactors, with Poison Ivy and Cheetah racing off to join Chopper at one of his labs to help find a cure. Volcana had been left to try and help make Grundy and Clayface comfortable, while reassuring Maureen that they would be alright.

Then a few minutes ago, Poison Ivy and Cheetah had raced back in with what they claimed was a cure.

“Thank goodness,” Volcana breathed out in relief as Clayface’s form started to solidify, and Grundy started moving again.

“Told you it would work,” Cheetah purred, hiding her own great relief behind smugness at how she had contributed.

“I wonder how that allergen could be so selective,” Poison Ivy mused aloud, earning a scowl and angry hiss respectfully from the other ladies. “Relax,” she lazily reassured them as she waved her hand. “Tempting as it is, if I was going to resort to that level of biological warfare, I’d have done it already. It was only a matter of time before it mutated and did something harmful. Given how it could target aliens like that, it was only a matter of time before it started killing off male animals next.” She gave a small smirk, “Animals who aren’t just Humans I mean. Plants need them to produce carbon dioxide after all.”

Her cool eyes both unnerved her fellow criminals, while reassuring them Poison Ivy had not ‘gone soft.’

That was not to say she did not have extensive notes on the subject matter, she had just never made any real progress with it. Besides, Harley was part of the human race, and Ivy had no idea how this allergen had distinguished between genders. Ergo, more . . . surgical methods were required.

Most of all, she was not going to trust someone else’s work with decimating the Human race, especially not someone so reckless.

For now however, Poison Ivy was content with building up her resources working for the Straw Hats.

A groan from Clayface as his face reassembled itself cut off anything else.

!JUSTICE!

A few hours later

They all sat around the warehouse, taking a breath to relax after the harrowing day.

People whose powers and deformities had rendered them outcasts from society. Forcing them to endlessly lower themselves just to survive, or find peace.

Or finding them striking back at the sanctimonious hypocrites who had rejected them.

. . . Or, you know, because they really did like being free from social norms and expectations. And really, really wanted that big screen TV or jewelry, and were unwilling to work to earn the money to pay for it.

Right now, the adults had all wordlessly gathered together. They had gently shooed Maureen off to bed, saying she was a growing girl, and needed her rest.

By memory, Cheetah walked over to a certain wall, following the directions that Miss Nico had given to find and unlock the hidden safe. A few moments later she returned to the group of supervillains with several duffle-bags full of cash. “These should tie us over until the Straw Hats renew contact,” she flatly said.

There was a moment of silence, then Volcana, asked, “What does it say about us that none of us seem to feel like just walking off with all that cash? And not just because we’re afraid they’ll track us down?” The other supervillains gave uncomfortable nods.

“We’re trusting them to come get us,” Clayface hesitantly contributed, voicing thoughts that he had not dared say aloud around the Straw Hats.

“They treat us nice,” rumbled Solomon Grundy, obviously a little confused by it. “Honest nice.” The skeleton Brook had been teaching him how to do corpse jokes, which even Grundy was finding hilarious.

The others all smiled at him, only dimly realizing how they were all treating him better too. “Yes indeed,” Cheetah agreed. “And yeah, Volcana’s right, if they wanted to beat us all at once, they wouldn’t even need their big guns to do it. But,” holding up a finger at how defensive some of them seemed, “we all know they’re our best bet for success. We’re making more money working for them than any other score!”

None could disagree.

They all knew that their —allies? Employers? Associates? Friends? — were their best hope for a better, real future.

It was clear that the Straw Hats did not regard them as actual ‘crew members,’ their innermost circle, yet they had still been inviting and helpful as the supervillains worked to carry out their ends of the bargain and rebuild their lives.

Frankly, it had been weird how uninterested the Straw Hats found their various afflictions, accepting all of the diverse natures of the super-villains without blinking an eye. It was even disturbing how genuinely enthusiastic some of them were about it. Yet despite this acceptance and familiarity, some incidents over this had also driven home though, that the Straw Hats were the senior partners in their relationship.

But they did not care.

For the first time in longer than they could remember, they were genuinely accepted. They were happy. And they would always cherish that.

Oh sure, there were hassles like Nami’s temper, or Sanji’s blatant sexism (although the special treats he baked for the ladies were a delight), but nothing they would really complain about.

There was also the issue of Monkey D. Luffy.

They all knew he was powerful, but it was equally clear that he was hiding the greater extent of it. Still, they all strongly suspected that in the supervillain hierarchy he would be a major player if he ever stepped out of the shadows.

No, none of them had any delusions which ones were the biggest, baddest criminals around here.

That said, this enterprise had still been immensely profitable for the super-villains.

“Oh, I just remembered, Clayface,” Cheetah spoke up. “Chopper and I made some more progress on both our conditions!”

“Really!?” he said with delight.

“Yeah, we still need to run a triple check, and it’ll still take time,” emphasizing that she was still verifying her work since there was no need to give a violence prone man any false hope, “but now I’ve got a clear plan on how we’ll both become Human again!”

The others started a flurry of encouragement and congratulations, when the doors to the building snapped opened, putting them all on guard until Cheetah caught a familiar scent and raised a calming hand.

“Hey guys,” Luffy called out in a cheerful voice, “you all doing okay?”

“Yes, Captain!” they answered without hesitation. Volcana quickly went off to wake up Maureen despite having just sent her to bed, since they were now leaving sooner than expected.

“Great! Then let’s get going!”

As one they rose to follow the Straw Hat Pirates into whatever future awaited them all.

Chapter 7: Halloween

Chapter Text

The Straw Hats were all assembled.

Ominously, they were all being serious.

Sorry, I meant: Terrifyingly, they were all being serious.

Nations had crumbled over less.

“So what’s the situation, Robin?” Captain Monkey D. Luffy asked his archaeologist/spy/retired assassin/spymaster/walking-encyclopedia-of-knowledge. “You said we needed a private meeting.”

“Yeah, as in without all the others,” Usopp chimed in, referring to the inhabitants of this universe they had either met and befriended, or recruited and then befriended. “What’s wrong?”

“Have they figured us out?” Zoro grimly asked, his steely grey eye glinting, while his red cybernetic one ominously readjusted itself. “Do they know where we’re from?”

“And we still haven’t really come up with a plan for if they do,” Sanji calmly note, lighting a cigarette.

The Straw Hats had spent these last few months in this new universe with an important guiding principle:

No one was to know where they came from, or have any clue as to how to follow them back.

Undoubtedly if they were free to ask for help from any of the super-geniuses here, magic practitioners (knowing magic was real was Awesome!), or people with special abilities, things would be much easier; it was even possible they could already be back home. Crossing between dimensions could be lots of fun and beneficial for both sides as well, not to mention opening up lots of new adventures.

Sadly, the reverse was true as well. This world was not ready to face the power of the Grand Line. Any pirate who survived halfway through even the Paradise side, would be stronger, faster, and tougher than anything regular civilians here could cope with. It did not bear thinking of what would happen if an Emperor of the New World discovered how to access these new lands to plunder them, or the World Government learning of new lands to ‘liberate.’

Even if countries like the United States did not retaliate with nuclear bombs, once their existence and power was learnt of, they and other weapons of mass destruction would be stolen, and the former owners pre-emptively attacked.

On the other side of the coin, if it was the more dangerous lunatics and power hungry would-be conquerors from this world who learnt of the riches and power to be found on the Grand Line, they would be the ones to attack, with all their own strange powers. Or the Justice League, trying to impose ‘truth and justice,’ and maybe even falling in with the World Government.

Maybe these fears were baseless. Maybe finding a way to travel to other worlds would usher in an era of peace and prosperity for everyone.

Regardless, the Straw Hats were not interested in finding out. They just wanted to go home to achieve their Dreams, and did not want to bring any more complications coming back with them. The competition for the One Piece was already hectic and violent enough as it is.

They had started recruiting supervillains to help navigate through this world’s criminal underworld, carry out heists, and acquire necessary technology and scientific knowledge. All a calculated risk to return to the Grand Line. Inevitably, they had also found others joining in the process.

Their one rule applied to their new friends as well however, as it was essential for the Straw Hats to keep the secret of their origins from even their close allies. After all, what they did not know, they could not tell by accident or coercion. At least that is what those who worried about it told themselves to placate any lingering guilt.

Thus far the Straw Hats had been out of luck trying to return. Their dilemma was unique as far as the pirates knew. Even back home, the closest situation they had encountered like this back on the Grand Line was the Rainbow Mist. Unfortunately, Franky had not joined them at that point, and descriptions from the others could only get him so far in trying to figure out if there was anything useful to learn from that experience. Even then, the shipwright theorized that what the crew had discovered was a pocket dimension that was attached to their own reality, as opposed to a totally separate parallel world like the one they had become stuck within.

“No,” Robin said, holding up a soft, gentle looking hand that disguised how fearsomely strong it was. “However, I overlooked something, and it nearly gave us all away.”

“No sweat,” boomed Franky. “You’ve been carrying the load of twenty people,” promised the cyborg, his blue hairstyle being Micky Mouse ears today. “So what do we need to do get around this issue?”

“You clearly have a solution,” Jinbe shrewdly rumbled.

“‘Course she does,” smirked Nami.

With a beautiful smile, Robin started some slides. “It’s a holiday that is very popular here in America, and known almost globally. Complete ignorance of it would be a glaring red flag. It’s called Halloween, and involves dressing up in costumes to extort people for candy when they can’t identify you.”

“Go on,” grinned Luffy, already giddy with excitement.

!JUSTICE!

“You should go as yourself for Halloween,” Nami said to Clayface.

“Huh?” the shapeshifter said in confusion.

“She’s right,” Chopper chirped. “You can disguise yourself as anyone, except on Halloween you can go as you are, and people’ll think you’ve just got an awesome costume.”

“Huh,” Clayface repeated, albeit more thoughtfully.

Overhearing the conversation, Usopp turned to Poison Ivy. “Will you be going Trick or Treating?”

“Pass the fertilizer,” she said in response. Once the sniper had done so, and she had taken the time to add a little more water to the various indoor plants they were tending to do, did she deign to address the less important issue. “No I will not. I refuse to support the mad campaign of botanical genocide that grips this country every October!” she hissed with a rare display of anger. “It’s bad enough with Christmas Trees, the yearly wasting of innocent pumpkins is just as bad, if not worse!"

“It does seem wasteful,” agreed Robin as she came over, having also briefed everyone on Christmas. “Especially since modern children at Halloween are no longer engage in acts of coercion and vandalism to get their treats. It’s rather saddening.”

“Rooobin, parents don’t want their kids learning that,” Usopp groaned.

“Well, I confess I don’t really get it,” Robin said, as she bent over to water some flowers.

“It really is nice how you are all willing to spruce this place up,” Poison Ivy praised. “Although is it really necessary to have a watering can like that?”

Bedecked in tan pans and a bright, pink shirt, Robin looked at her personal watering can, which was a dark grey, while the spout was shaped like a moaning zombie, the water coming out the ‘mouth.’ “Why, what’s wrong with it?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

Recognizing a lost cause, Ivy waved her hand in cool dismissal. “Never mind. Let’s just work on the rest of our babies.”

No need to antagonise the closest people she had to allies here, even if she was affronted by how readily Usopp used his plants as weapons. Not partners whose own lives you had to protect in turn.

Oh well, at least he was committed to growing more, and even introducing some fascinating new breeds that she had never seen before. That made him tolerable.

!JUSTICE!

Elsewhere in the base, Brook was mentoring his protégé in a priceless art form. “Or you could say: You talk so much, you’d wake the dead. Oh wait, that’s why I’m awake! Yo ho ho ho!”

Frowning in concentration, Solomon Grundy puzzled over that for a long moment, before the zombie clutched his belly as he broke out laughing too. “Because I’m dead! Ha ha ha! Good one! Ha ha!”

“Why thank you,” Brook said with a modest bow. “And no doubt with a little more practice, you’ll be saying those on the fly yourself!”

Grinning, Grundy opened up a joke book for further inspiration. In turn, Brook picked up the latest copy of a music magazine, reading about how his fans continued to praise his talent, despite the revelation that the Soul King was a criminal.

!JUSTICE!

“Hey, Mosshead!” snapped Sanji as he walked over to Zoro. They were in a large basem*nt under the warehouse, reinforced by Franky for the crew’s training sessions. Sanji was toweling off his sweat after a long hard work-out, doing ten thousand kicks in ten minutes with heavy weights on. Then the other foot.

Pausing to take a drink of water laced with electrolytes, the chef took another look at his personal headache, realizing the man was meditating, not sleeping as Sanji had originally assumed.

Nuts to this, I need to spar against a real opponent.

Lashing out with a devastating kick, Sanji took satisfaction in how the swordsman barely managed to raise his sword to block it in time. “You’re getting slow!” Sanji gloated.

“Pfft. Why bother putting any effort into it,” Zoro angrily snapped back. Now Sanji registered the subtle tones in his crewmate’s voice, and withdrew his leg.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Groaning, Zoro massaged his forehead. “I’ve got a problem I’m trying to work out.”

“Did you get further into debt with Nami-Sis?” Franky teased, as he ambled over, rotating his arms.

“No,” grunted Zoro. “Although the witch’s already calling in debt to the people we’ve picked up, saying they owe her money for what they borrowed, and they’re so shaken by it they don’t remember she never actually loaned them any.”

“Hah!” barked Franky in good humour. “That’s Nami for you! Now, anything we can help you with, or can Sanji and I spar?”

“Sounds more productive than hearing this idiot moan and whine,” griped Sanji, angry at hearing an angel like Nami being slandered.

With a sigh, Zoro explained. “I was watching a movie with Luffy last night, and they had a really cool fighting style I’d like to incorporate into my swordsmanship.”

“Huh,” Sanji said, taking another small sip of water before his fight with Franky. “Alright, that sounds interesting enough. What is it, and what’s the problem?”

For the first time Zoro raised his head to look at both his friends, his face clearly showing his inner conflict. “It’s called Drunken Kung Fu, where you drink a lot of sake, and fight with unpredictable movements while drunk, or at least act like it. It’s perfect! Except, except,” and now Zoro looked truly torn, “a true swordsman never lets alcohol take control of himself, so how do I learn!?”

“Idiot,” scoffed Sanji, before sauntering off. If Franky was going to be shooting missiles at him, then they would want some open space.

!JUSTICE!

Sipping his tea, Jinbe entered the dining area to find Maureen hunched over some paper, working on math problems. The ice user was making excellent progress, emboldened by everyone’s support, especially Volcana. “How’s it going?” he asked.

“Pretty good, Jinbe,” she answered, albeit a little nervously. She was still a little unused to her new life. “How are you doing?”

“Oh, pretty good, thank you. I just wish I could join you for Halloween.”

“But you’ve got to come!” gasped Maureen. Living on the streets for all those years, Halloween had been one of her few bright spots, as she was able to get some candy then. Even if it had hurt so see all those children with their loving parents. Now however she had friends. Almost a family. “You’ve got to come with us!”

“I wish I could,” Jinbe assured her. “Alas, my size is too distinctive, and we have to take care of some other business.”

“Don’t worry Maureen,” Volcana assured him as she came into the room, still wearing her tight tank-top and form fitting red pants. “There’s always be another chance. Now, get cracking,” she sternly told the younger girl, while pointing at the homework. “I’m not Luffy. No Halloween if you haven’t finished that!”

“Nooo!” cried Maureen as she promptly got back to work.

!JUSTICE!

The only thing that nearly rivaled the dangers of a serious Luffy, was a bored Luffy.

In fact, said nations that had eventually crumbled from a serious Luffy, usually were the by-products of scenarios where the legendary young man had been insufficiently preoccupied.

For the Straw Hat Pirates, managing this was not really regarded as a chore for them –despite how some of them may claim otherwise. That said, they did have their own hobbies and responsibilities they needed to address. Thus the crew were quite happy to hand him over to be babysat by their new recruits. Plus, it was always fun to watch others struggle with their Captain. Besides, if that backfired, they got to enjoy whatever new adventure Luffy sucked them all into.

Cheetah was the sacrificial goat of the day.

(Of course, they never referred to her as that. Usopp had simply and ‘innocently’ asked her if she would join Luffy for a movie so Usopp would be free to tend to his plants, and Cheetah, poor naïve, naïve Cheetah, had agreed.)

“That was a boring movie,” moaned Luffy. “I thought you said it was good!”

“It is!” cried a shocked Cheetah. “‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ is a classic for a reason.”

Rolling his eyes, and blowing a raspberry, Luffy shook his head dismissively. “Most of their fight scenes weren’t all that impressive, and some were even silly. My crew could do much better even when we first got together!” Then he co*cked his head in thought. “Although learning how to jump like that could be cool.”

Flexing her fingers in frustration, Cheetah struggled to find an answer. Truthfully, she knew next to nothing about her boss’ past, and they had made it discretely clear they wanted to keep it that way. Except for Luffy, who when asked just sucked in his lips and looked the other way while humming.

Of course Cheetah respected their need for secrecy, and felt no compulsion to endanger her comfy new position (or skin) by digging for details. She was not that curious a cat.

So Cheetah did her best to not pay attention to all the strange jobs she was doing on behalf of Franky. With mixed results.

As for Luffy’s opinion on the fight scenes, from what she had seen of his ‘sparring’ matches with the other Straw Hats, anything short of an all-out brawl with Superman would seem tame.

Grasping for straws regarding the movie, she asked, “What about the romance then?”

He looked at her blankly. “There was romance?”

“Yes. Yes there was,” she deadpanned back. “How could you not notice?”

“Oh,” Luffy stroked his chin. “I thought romance just involved people going up to each other and asking to marry.”

“Where did you get that idea?” she incredulously asked.

Sucking in his lips again, Luffy looked away. “I’m not supposed to say. That’s just what I learnt from this lady who said she loves me and wants to marry me.”

Initially Cheetah had found herself rather attracted to Luffy; he was kind, powerful, charismatic, and did not give a wit that she was a cat-woman. However over a month in his presence and all of his quirks, especially the way he ate his food (if it could even be called that) had cooled any passion, even as she came to deeply respect him as a friend—something she suspected the other ladies had not achieved.

Regardless, the point was while once Cheetah would have felt a stab of jealousy at this news, now she felt a shiver of dread. What kind of woman would want to marry him!? Even Nami and Robin just seem like friends to him. Very, very close friends. I think . . .

Just trying to imagine the type of person Luffy would accept as his bride –because he was being too vague to tell if he was interested in turn— made Cheetah’s hair stand on end, and feel as if two or three of her nine lives were trying to run away.

With an act of will Cheetah shook her head and changed the subject.

!JUSTICE!

“Alright!” Luffy cried out. “Is everyone ready for some extortion?”

“I told you,” growled Cheetah. “That isn’t what Halloween’s about. Certainly not these days. Where you’re going, it’s more about having a big party.”

“Is that really what you think it’s about?” Volcana asked as she gave Robin a light glare.

“People going around saying ‘Trick or Treat,’ and setting off low-grade explosives,” Robin smiled as she adjusted her costume. “Sounds accurate to me,” she answered with a serene smile.

“You know,” Cheetah deadpanned. “I can’t tell if you’ve just got a very morbid perspective of it, or if you’re just messing with us. Stop it.”

“Good luck with that,” muttered Usopp.

“Waaaait,” Luffy said with concern as he focused on Cheetah. “What do you mean by where we’re going? You guys’re coming too, right?”

“No,” Poison Ivy flatly answered, walking by the doorway.

“Not my kind of party,” Volcana stated.

“Not with this fur,” Cheetah chipped, holding up an arm. “I’m too distinctive, and a costume’s too stuffy for me.”

With a cough, Franky stepped forward. “I’m SUPER sorry, but I’ll have to pass, Luffy. I’m too big and bulky, even with a costume.”

“And don’t forget, we,” Zoro jerked his thumb at Jinbe, Brook, and Grundy, “have another job to do.”

“Indeed, and we’re late as it is,” Jinbe threw in.

“Right,” the swordsman nodded. “Let’s go. I’ll drive.”

“Uhm,” Brook diffidently spoke up. “May I drive this time?” While Zoro was without equal at evasive driving, even with his GPS implant they were on a deadline, and wanted to reach their destination tonight, not next week.

(Given how their crew members ranged from just under 3ft tall to just under 10ft, Franky had been forced to devise some pretty innovative seats for the truck, so that everyone could sit comfortably, and drive safely—with the blatant exception of Luffy, for whom the vehicle locked up.)

“Tch. Fine.”

Grundy looked sad that he was too big to come with Luffy and the others, so Chopper promised to bring him back some candy.

“Okay then, I guess it makes sense for you guys,” Luffy conceded, before turning a blank look onto the lady super-villains. “But your reasons are dumb.”

“No way,” Volcana dismissively told him. “We’re not coming.”

!JUSTICE!

“Not one word,” snarled Volcana.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Usopp promised with dead seriousness. “One day we’ve got to tell you how Luffy made the rest of us join him.”

“Did extortion factor in?”

“Extensively.”

“Oh don’t be like that,” Luffy beamed. “You guys look awesome!”

“I don’t even want to know how the chef had these for all of us,” Cheetah said as she tugged at her outfit. “Or how he had them all already fitted to our sizes so perfectly.”

“We should just kill the pig,” Poison Ivy coldly declared.

All three of the super-villainesses, and Maureen, were in classic princess costumes.

Poison Ivy’s was a billowing green dress of various shades, reaching down to her ankles. Her arms were bare, yet the light greenish tint of her skin blended in beautifully, and a party mask of white over her face disguised her identity. Her curly hair styled into a half up, half down bun.

Volcana’s red dress was fiery as it also merged shades of her favourite colour, yet with subtle hints of yellow to make it look like living fire. Her mask was also red, while her hair came down free as usual, as it was already styled to look like flames.

Cheetah found hers a little confusing. For years she had lived wearing solely her fur, except this dress was light and airy enough to still be comfortable. It was of light tan and only reached to her knees, while leopard patterns on the side blended will with her ‘bare’ arms. Her mask was a dark brown, with a wig of black hair on top to make her look like a woman dressed as an animalistic jungle princess.

All three wore glittering tiaras, completing the impression of royalty.

Like the others, Maureen’s costume was a reference to her powers; ice in her case. It was a simmering light blue, with her light brown hair in a braid that went over the front of her chest. The teenage girl was ecstatic, and was spinning around in circles as much as she could while surrounded by the crowds, another sparkling tiara atop her brow.

The Straw Hats and company were in New Orleans for the yearly Halloween party on Bourbon Street.

“Yeah, probably best we don’t think about it,” agreed Nami. “At least he made it so we can hide a lot of gear underneath, and easily tear it if we need to move fast.” Truthfully, she loved her outfit. Based directly off Belle from ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ covering the navigator in simmering gold of the highest material. She also had the same hairstyle.

(Although personally Nami felt the protagonist should have hit Beast over the head with a chair from the beginning. With that out of the way, she could have seized control of his palace and wealth, instead of all that wishy-washy marrying your captor).

Sure, these costumes dented their budget a bit, yet Nami knew the value of letting everyone vent some stress. Besides, Zoro and Co. were busy acquiring more capital, which along with what the pirates already had saved away (along with ongoing investments) would hopefully be enough for them to go completely into hiding long enough to throw the heroes off their trail.

Nami also vowed to herself that once Luffy had become Pirate King, she would find a way to make a practical dress out of real gold. No matter how many people she had to threaten or hurt.

“You look ravishing,” gushed Sanji to the adult women, red faced and panting. Pointedly, he was dressed in the same royal suit as Disney’s Beast when he had returned to being a human prince, including a brown ponytail wig.

“If you kill him,” Usopp deadpanned at the ladies in question, “please don't drag us into it. Besides,” and now he started to preen, “he did help me get this awesome get-up together!” The sniper was wearing a full fitting ninja costume, complete with black pants, jump suit, and mask. Only his nose poked through.

“Does that mean I can switch costumes?” grumbled Chopper.

“Oh come on,” Usopp said, trying to hide his giggles. “You look terrific!”

Chopper head-butted his friend. “I’m never letting you choose my costume ever again!”

To his ire, their doctor had discovered all too late that his friends had somehow found a suit that made him look like a racoon dog; the exact animal he was often mistaken for. “I’ll get you for this!”

“Don’t worry, Chopper,” Robin reassured him. “You look fine, and no one will figure out who you are.”

Of all of them, Robin had embraced Halloween so thoroughly that the others wondered if she would regularly dress like this in the future.

Nico Robin had discovered Goth.

Every scrap of skin barring a window over the top of her cleavage, was covered from her neck down (which also had a choker) to her hands, with a long billowing dress. It was pitch black except where a lighter shade of dark showed intricate pictures that could either be of flowers or human sacrifice depending on the angle you looked at it. Robin’s long hair had been dyed so instead of shining, it now seemed like a shadow to suck in the light as it hung over her shoulders. Her face and hands had makeup that turned her skin paper-white, with thick black lipstick on her lips, and thick mascara around her eyes that came down like black tears.

Her smiles were the stuff of nightmares..

“You guys all look awesome!” declared Luffy, wearing a full-body Flash costume, with his straw hat hanging from his neck.

“Why are you dressed as Flash again?” asked Maureen. “I thought you—” Clayface quickly put a hand over Maureen’s mouth to keep her from blurting anything out. He appeared as he always did, albeit slimmer and smaller so that he appeared more human. Like this, on this night in New Orleans, instead of running in fear and horror, people complimented him on his ‘realistic’ costume.

“We were surprised to see you dressed as a hero,” Clayface diplomatically said.

“Oh,” said Luffy in surprise. “I like heroes. I just don’t want to be one. Now, let’s go get that candy!”

!JUSTICE!

“At least the climate is nice,” huffed Poison Ivy. She loved how New Orleans had so much green, a place where the plants of the world still held strong. Of course, the persistent efforts by the meatbags to destroy the—

“Who cares where we are!” burst in Luffy. “It’s a party!” He was grinning like a loon as he took in the sights.

For at this time of year in New Orleans on Bourbon Street, it was the greatest Halloween celebration on Earth.

The lights were bright at night, music sang out, and the pavement was packed with people having a good time. Costumes were everywhere, and what the Straw Hats were wearing were actually tame in comparison to some of the others.

Volcana was finding herself having a conversation with people in Stormtrooper armour, while Clayface was chatting with people ‘also’ dressed up as various swamp creatures. The experienced actor was improvising, as he described how he had ‘made’ his outfit.

Zombies and vampires of every description. Pirates and knights. Heroes and villains. Men and women dressed as fruits and vegetables. People dressed as the Ghostbusters chased those dressed as ghosts. Pirates with peg-legs and eye-patches laughed and sang alongside their friends, dressed as noble knights.

Clowns good and evil skipped around, while Hula dancers wiggled their hips. Luke Skywalker dueled his father more than once for everyone to see, while Vulcan men and women enjoyed telling people how illogical Halloween was. Winston Churchill was having fun as he engaged in comical discussions about European politics with Napoleon Bonaparte, even as Julius Caesar laughed at their display.

Here, every spec of Human imagination was on display.

Robin was enthusiastically talking to some locals about the local tradition of painting your face white and then applying black face paint decorations that were so popular. A helpful lady was even helping apply it to her, blending in with her Goth dress beautifully, while telling her all about the Day of the Dead.

Luffy was having a mock fight with someone dressed as Darkseid, the latter of whom drew a few glares, except most people accepted it for today alone. Especially since ‘Flash’ was winning. In the background there were even more people dressed as the Justice League.

Nami was teasing one muscular young man dressed in only a speedo, stringing him along before leaving him flatfooted. Then she went to flirt with ‘Superman.’

Having ‘won’ his fight, Luffy rejoined the others as they approached some food vendors. The pseudo Flash then disappeared in a –ugh, it is painful to even say this— flash, to reappear with ice cream cones for both Chopper and Cheetah. “Here,” Luffy beamed. “You guys can cool down with this!”

“Oh, don’t be like that!” laughed Luffy.

“Thank you,” Cheetah said more calmly, touched that he had noticed how the heat affected her, wearing all this fur.

“Don’t sweat it. We know how much it bugs Chopper, so you’re likely the same.”

Not trusting herself to speak, Cheetah just gave a nod as she continued to lick her ice cream beneath her mask. It really was weird with the Straw Hats, although given how they had accepted Chopper, it made sense they would accept another half-Human.

. . . Scratch that, given the composition of half the crew, it would be surprising if they did not. Cheetah sometimes doubted Luffy was human himself for that matter.

Still, it was a nice thought from a . . . friend. Yes, a friend. And she smiled as she ate.

“Hmm, this is nice,” Poison Ivy said after buying some fried vegetables in a tantalising sauce. What? She was a vegetarian, and it was part of the circle of life. The plants nourished her, and she repaid it by watering them, caring for them, protecting them from the meatbags who failed to treasure what plant life did for the world, and returning the fertilizer to nourish them in turn.

“It really is a pleasure to have a lady of your tastes around, y’know,” Sanji said.

Noting his tone was actually serious, Ivy decided to humour him. “Oh?”

“Yeah. I have all of these vegetarian recipes, but I haven’t cooked any in ages. Captain and the crew love their meat after all.”

Chuckling, she gave him a dainty pat on the cheek with a smile. “I’m glad I make you so happy.” Then she sauntered off, feeling his eyes follow her. For all that he’s polite, he’s still a pervert.

“Tasty!” Nami said as she tried some beignets, enjoying the fried bread. She was gobbling it down, confident her exercise routine would burn it right off. What? The Straw Hats had a chef who delighted in pandering the women with delicious treats, and her waistline remained as thin as the stem of an hourglass.

“Yum!” went Maureen, unable to believe she was having such a wonderful time. Right after the ice cream for the others, Luffy had brought her some praline, which was a semi-caramelized piece of brown sugar with pecans in it. She had been distressed at first to discover she had forgotten to bring any money, yet the cheerful young man had bought it for her with his own allowance Nami carefully doled out.

“Thank you!” she gushed, throwing him a hug.

He only gave her a quick smile and pat on the back, before reaching for more of his own to eat.

Sanji was being rather popular, as he was equally generous and sincere with his praises to witches who were young and beautiful, as he was with those who were going as old crones.

Usopp found himself having a serious conversation with ‘astronauts’ about space travel, even as a whole line of Elvis Pressley’s danced their way down the street.

More and more people went by as the Straw Hats talked and had fun, with Luffy unconsciously gathering to himself a growing crowd of laughing people. A guy with yellow body-paint was a drunk Homer Simpson, realistic apes and wolfmen (including one in a classic granny's outfit), Dorothy and all her companions looking for the Wizard of Oz, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, with more and more joining in on the wild, wild fun.

!JUSTICE!

It took a few seconds for Chopper to realize something was off.

“Sanji,” he asked as they slipped down a side street to where it was marginally quieter, “why’re we going away from the others?”

“Because,” the chef answered, taking a drag on his cigarette, “you look like you could use a man-to-man talk. Zoro wanted to do it to, except he had to take care of that job, and best to get it done sooner than later. Seemed like as good as time as any.”

Instead of being curious, Chopper’s first response was to blush. “Don’t think I’m happy to hear you acknowledge I’m a man now! Jerk!”

However Sanji did not respond for a long minute, continuing to walk. “Chopper, what’s bugging you?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t try and fake it. Nami and Robin see it too, and the only reason Luffy’s not hugging you and refusing to let go until you answer, is because I volunteered to talk first. So, what’s got you down?”

Now Chopper’s shoulders slumped. “It’s, I just, y’know, this world. It makes me feel weird inside.” He looked up at Sanji, his eyes shining through his mask. “Here, there are heroes! Ones who fly around and fight monsters and aliens! Just like in the comics back home!”

(No, there had not been any comic books living with Doctors Hiluluk or Kureha, although that was only because they were so focused on feeding Chopper’s voracious appetite for medical knowledge. Usopp had been happy to provide them for Chopper to read once on the Going Merry).

Nodding, Sanji prompted, “But . . .”

This time Chopper’s sigh was longer and full of greater regret. “But it’s not as simple as it is in the comics. Not when so few have stuff like super-strength, laser beams, and flight, and so many people don’t. Even if all the powers the heroes have doesn’t eventually corrupt them and make them like the marines, they’re still confident that they’re right. And that’s dangerous! Too many people will get hurt . . .” and the doctor trailed off in thought for a few heartbeats.

“Yeah, they’re needed to fight the supervillains.” Chopper then waved a dismissive hoof (hidden in a glove), sounding angrier. “Plus, there’s the fact that we’re criminals here, so they’re after us too. We’re here with all this cool stuff and we can’t enjoy it because—”

He cut himself off, eyes hardening as the little doctor further worked out his own thoughts and feelings. Sanji gave an approving nod; while Chopper was still pretty naïve and even gullible, he was still exceptionally brilliant, and not just for medicine.

“I’m feeling guilty,” Chopper breathed out, “because we all so desperately want to get home, yet there’s also so much I want to do here. Except the longer we stay here, who knows what’s happening back in the New World? With our friends there? Our dreams? So I feel like I’m not supposed to enjoy it.”

“And that’s making you anxious and stressed out,” Sanji concluded, giving his nakama a kindly pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, we all feel the same way to different degrees. Yeah, this place has some pretty cool stuff, and not just the heroes. Unfortunately, at the same time we’re all borderline desperate to get back. The only reason we haven’t gotten to the point of just openly seizing whatever we want, is because Luffy knows too many innocent people’d be hurt if we did. Plus, all the fun stuff here would be destroyed. Like super ladies in tight outfits!” he gushed.

An exasperated Chopper rubbed his face.

Sanji continued after only thirty seconds of drooling. “We’re playing it patient because it beats fighting the whole world at once, so we don’t hurt people, and because there is some awesome stuff here that’d get wrecked. People too, new friends we’ve made even. And on that note, we’ll have to make a decision eventually on whether or not to take them with us.

“For now though, we’re just trying to enjoy ourselves without getting all pent up, and—”

He broke off as his nose twitched. Chopper’s did the same at the same time, and both heads instantly swiveled to a young boy (up past his bedtime) about to bite into a caramel apple.

Said apple appeared in Sanji’s hand an instant later, glaring at it with hate. “Kid,” he growled, not taking his eyes off the treat. “Where’d you get this?”

The lad –who was maybe ten years old, and probably snuck out without his parents knowing given how he had only a plain mask on as a costume— puffed himself up indignantly. “Hey! Give that back! I—”

“It’s poisoned!” snapped Sanji. “Chopper and I can smell it!”

Gasping, the kid’s eyes darted to the side, and Sanji stalked off towards the stall across the street, other kids already backing away as they heard that fateful word.

“Well now, why’d you ruin the fun,” grouched an unfamiliar voice, and out of the stall stepped a man in a purple suit, white face, green tinted hair, and the widest, most insane and sad*stic smile the Straw Hats had seen since Doflamingo.

“Joker,” Sanji said with a blank face. Calm, expressionless, as if he had no emotional stake in the situation.

“In the flesh,” preened the Joker. “It looks like great minds think alike, Straw Hats,” stressing the words to show how he saw right through their disguises. “Come on down here for Halloween, and people think you’re just wearing a costume. Aha ha ha ha!” he cackled. “Isn’t it hilarious!? I’ve even got a few decoys back in Gotham to keep ol’ Bats sniffing around for me.” Now he seemed to sulk and scowl at once. “And then you goody-two shoes had to ruin the fun. Again. Bad enough what you’re doing to Gotham.”

“I dunno, Mistah J,” a chirpy lady’s voice broke in, as Harley Quinn skipped forward in her characteristic red and black suit. “I mean, maybe instead of poisonin’ kids,” she nervously offered, “we should do something, like, rob a bank?” Then she perked up. “Yeah, instead of kids, we can kill some security guards!” She whirled to look at some of the terrified boys and girls —who while wetting themselves, were also gaining a valuable life lesson on listening to their parents, ignoring peer pressure, and not going out on your own at night— and gave them all a grin and two thumbs up. “Don’t that sound neat?!”

“No one asked you, Harley,” snapped Joker, already in a bad mood, as he automatically swung his hand to give her a light backhand.

It stopped a centimeter from her face.

Incredibly flexible, Sanji was standing between the Joker and his girlfriend, foot raised to block the arm swinging towards a woman’s face. His eyes shadowed by his wig, although what could be seen of the lower half of his face still spoke of detachment. Perfectly calm and composed, he took an even longer drag of his cigarette, took it out to release some smoke . . .

!JUSTICE!

The Straw Hats and their allies whipped around to see a pillar of fire lighting up the night sky.

“Oh c’mon,” moaned Usopp. “Sanji, you had one job!”

“Idiot,” muttered Poison Ivy.

“That’s . . . Sanji?” gasped Maureen as for the first time she truly got a hint of what he was capable of.

Volcana was just gaping at the pyrotechnic display.

Luffy put down the chopsticks he was about to stick up his nose as the party got into full swing. “He can handle it. Except we’d better grab all the candy while we can.”

!JUSTICE!

In Gotham City, Batman prowled the streets.

It was had been a long night so far, and promised to only get worse. The last couple of Halloweens things had been relatively quiet for Gotham. He and Commissioner Gordon had made careful preparations because they knew how many of the lunatic members of the city’s criminal fraternity were known to enjoy acting out on Halloween. This had made them predictable enough for Batman to pre-emptively deal with them. For example, even this year Scarecrow had been found last week by tracking shipments of chemicals to make fear toxin. He had escaped in the end, yet his plans were ruined, and he would not be able to put anything big together for tonight.

Meanwhile, the sane criminals had spent the last two years laying low on October 31^st, so they didn't get caught in the crossfire. The few years before then, some of them thought the battles of the cops and the Dark Knight versus his Rogue Gallery meant they would get overlooked as they stole and killed, only to discover the Arkham Asylum inmates were happy use them as a diversion to escape said fists of Justice. Or kill them for the fun of it.

Unfortunately this encouraging trend had been broken this year, as it seemed like thugs were pouring into Gotham, and Batman was recognizing some of the super-powered variety mixed in as well. So far it was nothing too serious, however it remained a serious concern, due to how it appeared the trend was actually growing.

And there was still the Joker.

Whatever the Joker had planned, it was big, given the scale of the diversions he had left behind to keep his nemesis running around town. Impersonators of himself scattered around with all manner of ‘pranks,’ ranging from killer robots loaded with Joker Venom gas, to bombs that could have levelled whole city blocks (including the ignorant actors). All to keep Batman from discovering his true objective.

Or the Joker had left said decoys scattered about, and called it a night, thinking it would be funnier to leave Batman worried about whatever the Clown Prince of Crime was plotting.

“Batman,” Hawkgirl’s voice suddenly came over the radio. “We’re coming with a Javelin to Gotham to pick you up.”

“I’m busy, and don’t need any help,” growled Batman. While heroes like Superman could definitely make a massive dent in crime here, it would be temporary until the major leave crooks adapted and escalated. After all, most of the worst were all super-geniuses in their own ways, and the results would cost even more lives as the violence spilled over. To work in Gotham would require careful planning and long-time commitment. Which was unacceptable given the crimes that would be happening while they were occupied. Who knew when the next giant robot or alien would start terrorizing Metropolis next? At least that was what the Dark Knight told himself.

Superman answered back. “It’s the Joker. He’s in custody in a New Orleans hospital.” Then Batman heard a little smirk in his frien—teammate’s voice. “Which means he’s outside of your jurisdiction.”

Before Batman could make a comeback, the Man of Steel grimly continued. “And according to eyewitnesses, the Straw Hats were involved too.”

“I’ll be waiting,” was all Batman said.

!JUSTICE!

The Justice League reached New Orleans in record time, and went straight to the specified hospital. Only Superman, Wonder Woman, and Hawkgirl were in attendance with the Dark Knight, as the rest were occupied.

An entire floor of the hospital had been cleared away, and the police guarding the room were in full riot gear. The police chief had made it clear that while he did not want any ‘accidents’ to befall the Joker, he was equally unambiguous that he cared more about the lives of his men than a mass-murdering nutcase. Thankfully for the nerves of everyone, the League promptly arrived, and the Joker was too injured to be a threat.

The League was given a preliminary briefing as they marched through the halls to his room.

“I can’t go in,” Batman whispered as he stood a few meters away from the closed door.

“Why not?” Wonder Woman asked, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder as she saw the tension in his body. He turned to face her in a motion that also dislodged her hand, and bore a terrible smirk. “Because I might not stop gloating,” he confessed.

Steeling himself, Superman walked in. No less than four armed police officers were in the room, all with their weapons nervously aimed with the safeties off at the man lying in the hospital bed. Covered in casts and bandages for a broken body, and tied down with numerous security straps, it was almost comical.

Until you saw the utter malice in the Joker’s eyes, all but choking the room with it.

The need to kill everyone in the room, just because they were there. To kill everyone who had seen him like this. Anyone who might possibly in the future see him like this.

Not daring to say anything and provoke the man, Superman focused his X-Ray vision on the madman’s face for verification, and then left.

!JUSTICE!

“There’s no doubt about it,” Superman said as he walked back into the hallway. “Somehow the Joker’s entire face has been restructured. He can’t smile. Or laugh. Ever. The bones and muscles have all been somehow rearranged so he can only frown.”

Perversely, Batman’s smile died as that tidbit was confirmed. “Not good. He’ll want vengeance for that.” He held up a folder that the police had handed them during the trip to ensure the Joker was secured, and to escort him safely back to Arkham Asylum in Gotham. While having a bad reputation for holding the Joker, the truth was that between Batman and the staff there, the majority of the lunatic’s escape attempts ended in failure. New Orleans lacked those resources.

“According to the eye witness reports, I’d say it was Black Leg Sanji who did this for sure, somehow using kicks to do it, and possibly Dr. Chopper. The last part is trickier since it was mostly children nearby. The rest of the Straw Hats were also enjoying the celebration up to the point where Blackleg caught fire. Then they stole all the candy in sight and ran off.”

“I wish you were joking,” deadpanned Hawkgirl.

“Do the witnesses know what the Joker planned here?” asked Superman.

“Selling poisoned apples,” glowered Wonder Woman.

Batman dryly noted, “Playing the evil queen, how fitting.” Then he became serious again. “What’s worrying is how many people were described being with the Straw Hats. While we can’t tell if it’s all of them, and no one’s exactly sure who was with them or not, there’s definitely at least ten of them in this gang.”

In a blur Superman suddenly shot back into the room. All the officers were down and bleeding, while the bed was empty and the window on the fourth floor of the building was wide open.

Quickly prioritizing, Superman grabbed the man with the bleeding jugular –as he grimly knew the Joker had expected him too— before racing away as fast as a speeding bullet to perform surgery to save his life.

The rest of the League were right behind as they performed emergency first aid.

“How’d he do this? And so fast?” wondered a shocked Hawkgirl.

Saying nothing, Batman berated himself for letting himself get sloppy and underestimating the Joker. Even with broken limbs.

The Justice League scoured the city, with full support of law enforcement, but were too late. It was Batman who found the pre-prepared escape route the Joker had hidden away for a fast exit from New Orleans.

!JUSTICE!

I’m going to kill the Joker, Poison Ivy, swore as she tracked down the source of the whimpering in her private greenhouse/home.

Deep down she knew it was an empty threat, given how the man was literally, insanely dangerous. ‘Crazy’ did not mean ‘stupid’ either, and doubtlessly he had horrific plans to kill off the rest of Gotham’s criminal elite. Even if just for laughs.

The prodigy Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel had worked at Arkham Asylum to try and cure the Joker, and instead he had dragged her into his mad world until she had emerged remade as Harley Quinn. For all that Poison Ivy loved how this made it possible for her to meet the woman who would become her best friend, Harley had tied herself to a psychotic who was just as likely to beat her as he was to tenderly kiss her. I wonder what kind of bruises she’s trying to hide with her make-up this time?

After the Joker’s failed attempt to kill Ivy after she and Harley had first met, she and the Joker had the equivalent of an unspoken nonaggression pact between them, and worked to keep off each other’s toes. Harley now seemed to bounce back and forth between the two, unable to resist the Joker’s toxic charisma.

Finally, Poison Ivy’s path through her greenhouse led her to Harley and her pet hyenas trying to hide within a shadowy corner. Before Ivy could say anything, she found herself tackled by a sobbing Harley. “Oh Red! You’ve got to let me stay! It’s my Puddin’! He’s lost his sense of humour! I don’t even know what he’ll do now!”

“Easy, Harles,” she soothingly told her. “Just tell me what’s wrong!”

“He can’t smile anymore! This blonde jerk with a cigarette disfigured his face!”

Ivy’s veins froze. After the Halloween party had broken up, she had felt the need for space, and had asked to go back to Gotham for a few days. Just long enough to check on her babies and their security. Usopp had kindly flown her there, while they had a few friendly chats about crossbreeding various lethal plants.

“Harley, did he by chance have swirly eyebrows, with one eye hidden behind his bangs? And did he maybe do this only after the Joker said or did something to you that he shouldn’t have?”

“He really does love me,” Harley sullenly and reflexively muttered.

“That wasn’t my question,” Ivy gently chided her, knowing full well that even if Harley believed what she was saying, right now even she was aware that the Joker was too dangerous to be around. Now that he could not laugh. She repeated her earlier comment.

Blinking, Harley thought about it, and then gaped at Ivy in shock. “Wait! That’s right! That’s exactly how he looked! How’d you know!?”

“Because,” Ivy scowled, “he’s one of my new,” she hesitated over which word to use, “allies.”

“You mean those guys you said want you to pay off for something’ that they broke, except you only go along with it because they’ve got such cool stuff and great food?”

“I still get money too,” Ivy shrugged in a what-can-you-figure expression, “and they’re okay guys. Some of them really respects plants too. Plus,” she admitted, “it’s a good idea to keep an eye on people that dangerous.” She stopped in thought, giving Harley a determined look. “And now they can make up for the mess you’ve caused.”

Grabbing her friend, she started to drag her to the door.

“Where we goin’?”

“To the only people besides Batman who might be able to protect you! If we hurry, Usopp won’t have flown too far yet.”

!JUSTICE!

“But it’s your people’s fault that she’s in this situation!” hissed Poison Ivy. “And she can’t stay in Gotham on her own now, you know what it’s getting like there!”

“If she’s not willing to deal with the Joker herself, when he’s really is that mean to her, then I don’t like her. She’s too weak,” Luffy bluntly said, reaching for another piece of cooked meat on his plate.

Furiously, Ivy restrained herself from attacking him, knowing full well it would accomplish nothing, as she was helpless against his own power. Worse, she even agreed with him that it would be best for Harley if she killed the Joker. The plant mistress glanced at the only other Straw Hat in the room, except Chopper would not meet her eyes, focusing on his newest herbal remedy. The two of them got along well given Chopper’s appreciation for herbs, and using them for medicine. Especially since he was so reverent about it. Poison Ivy had no issue with using plants like that, so long as it was done with respect, for a more reasonable purpose, and promoted the growth of more of them.

Seeing no help from that quarter, Ivy turned back to stare daggers at Luffy as she tried to think of an argument to sway him. She racked her brain for a few minutes, until he sighed and put down his newest sandwich to levelly gaze at her. His pupils were dilated in an unnerving way, and seemed to be stabbing right into her soul as her spine crawled.

Finally he broke his gaze away and went back to eating. “She’s your responsibility.”

“Huh?” gaped the super-villainess.

“She’s your responsibility,” he repeated as if she were the idiot. “It’s your job to keep her safe, but she can stay here, and you’ll still retain our protection.”

She stared blankly at him for a moment, digesting what he had said, then smiled and rushed off to tell Harley the good news. As she did, Nami ran into the kitchen to tell Luffy that Zoro and company had hit a little ‘snag’ that made her furious.

Luffy found it hilarious.

!JUSTICE!

“What’ll I do now, Red?” moaned Harley as she sat on a comfy, red couch. “It feels like my life’s over.”

“Don’t you worry,” Poison Ivy said reassuringly as she rubbed her friend’s back. “It’ll all work out.”

Truthfully, Poison Ivy knew she should say and offer more, yet for the life of her she did not know what. She had . . . trouble interacting with people. Except for Harley. And even then she never fully knew how to help her. It was all she could do to not congratulate Harley from getting out from under the Joker’s thumb. The blonde needed someone to help her feel better, someone like—she snapped her fingers. While it was a bit of a gamble given how their last meeting had gone, she figured a certain chef could make up for his earlier idiocy while delivering Harley some pampering. Moreover, while he was a pervert, he never seemed to act upon it.

“Let’s go to the kitchen,” she told Harley. “Some food will make you feel better while I fix you up somewhere to sleep.”

The rumours about her and Harles’ ‘relationship’ aside, she figured her friend would feel better knowing there was her own private room available to her if she wanted it.

!JUSTICE!

Sanji checked himself in mid-twirl as he took in Harley sitting at the dining room table.

As was tradition, the eating area was directly connected to the kitchen, allowing instant distribution of the still-hot food, and allow whoever was cooking to instantly interact with everyone else—Sanji was bending his ‘no one else cooks in here, especially Luffy’ rule, in giving Maureen some cooking tips to help the former homeless girl feel more independent.

Harley however was slumped over the table, chin resting on her forearms in a picture of dejection. While her face was clean and dry, at this range Sanji’s keen nose could still smell her beautiful feminine aroma tainted by tears of sorrow.

Delicately, he laid down the cup of cocoa, with marshmallows and a little cream to cheer her up.

!JUSTICE!

Harley Quinn grabbed a blond ponytail in one hand as she threw a glare at the stuffed up cook, ignoring how delicious her drink was—how did he even get the exact number of marshmallows she liked? While she had only been a newbie at Arkham Asylum, Doctor Harleen Quinzel had still been a trained psychiatrist, and recognized when someone was giving a ‘patient’ space. Her! Harley Quinn, the Joker’s top enforcer, who kept the criminal underworld of Gotham in fear of her, and had fought Batman countless times! She was not weak! She did not need pity! Before she could yell at him however, he spoke first. “Would you like to help me clean up the kitchen?” he politely asked.

That threw Harley off, and she hesitated. Helping out, getting moving, did seem okay, so she gave a nod and stood up.

“I’ll handle my knives,” the cook said without looking at her. “Could you please wash the dishes in the meantime? We can dry and put them away together.”

Without another word, he picked up his personal knives, and started to sharpen them. Following his lead, Harley silently washed up the sink full of dishes. They dried up without speaking, and only when they were putting them away did he say anything to help direct her.

Not that she did it ‘boringly’ of course. Harley showed how she was starting to feel better, by deciding to make it more ‘fun’ by doing things like throwing glass plates and bowls into the air and cartwheel forward to catch them.

“What’re you doing now?” Harley asked, for lack of anything else to do.

“I’m going to start cooking dinner in a little bit,” Sanji answered, lighting a cigarette.

“Those are bad for you , you know?” she cheekily said as she pointed at the tobacco stick.

“Chopper’s been treating my lungs ever since he first caught me smoking. And the woman who taught him did the same in-between reshaping my spine,” he said without concern. He gave her a serious look. “The ladies have their own combat training regimen if you want to join them. They’d probably appreciate someone else to help them get stronger.”

Mind short-circuiting for a moment, Harley’s jaw dropped a few centimeters, before snapping it back up again. “Thanks, but maybe later,” she airily said as if it were nothing. “Besides, you look like you could use some help here still.”

Grinning, Sanji nodded in approval. “Alright, you can start by getting some meat from the freezer.” He pointed towards a metal door. “There’s some warm clothing that’ll also keep you clean in there.”

With a little skip, Harley went and put on one of the several outfits, and then fully processed the door.

It was half again as wide and half again as tall as a regular door, made of reinforced steel that reminded her off a bank vault. A keypad was to the side. “Uhm, why the password and junk?”

“Oh, right.”

Glancing back, Harley saw Sanji concentrating on something unseen. “Okay, Luffy’s far enough away. Today’s code is 9-5-8-7-7-7-3-5-2-1-4-0-5-7-1-4-6-6. Once the doors are open, immediately shout ‘Tofu forever.’”

Blinking, Harley punched in the numbers without Sanji repeating them. Then the door swung open.

The steel door behind it slid to the left into the wall.

The door behind that one, slid to the right.

The next door rose to the ceiling.

The next door sank into the floor.

The next one split on a seam from the bottom right corner to the top left.

The next one split on a seam from the top right corner to the bottom left.

The next door rolled aside as a big wheel.

The final door opened up to reveal a dark space at the end of the long corridor.

Unnerved, Harley promptly shouted, “Tofu forever!”

Ominous clicking sounded from within the gloomy room down the long hallway. Worse were the sounds that made her think of disarmed traps all around her just standing outside the doorway.

“What is this!?” she yelled at Sanji.

Unfazed, he just waved his hand reassuringly. “Franky was a bit depressed one day, so I asked him to make me a meat freezer that could keep even Luffy out. We haven’t really tested that in practice yet, but don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe now.”

Refusing to show any fear, Harley stormed down the walkway, fists clenched at her hips. Up ahead, lights were automatically flickering on in the room ahead.

Even so, she was a little surprised as she took just how expansive it was, with row upon row of various meats hanging up in the cold temperature. There were even a few whole cows there, with space set aside to skin, clean, and gut them. Based upon all the preserved goods to the side, it seemed like they used up every part of them, except for the hooves.

Then she saw something else.

A few seconds later she was running back into the kitchen, grabbing by the collar the man she had seen beat her Puddi—the Joker within an inch of his life, and dragged him into the freezer.

“What the heck is with that!? Is that what you’re planning to do to me and Red!?”

Sanji blinked at the sight of Killer Frost still preserved within Brook’s block of ice. “Oh, right,” he murmured, a little embarrassed. “Thanks, we’ve been meaning to turn her over to the cops and get her out of our hair . . .”

!JUSTICE!

“Laugh,” the Joker hissed from behind his bandages, hiding out in a suburban home.

The husband and wife who lived there were crying as they laughed, the Joker Venom in their veins contorting their faces as they cackled with forced humour.

“Laugh!” he roared, stabbing the man first, over and over again. “LAUGH I SAID!” Disgusted, he let the corpse drop, and turned upon the woman. “LAUGH!!”

Chapter 8: Not all Fun and Games

Chapter Text

October 20th

Gracefully Green Lantern floated into the boardroom through the large open windows.

"Thanks for having me," he said cheerfully, despite his gruff voice.

"The pleasure's mine," answered billionaire Bruce Wayne as he extended his hand. "How could we pass up a meeting with the Justice League at their request? Any chance of Batman joining us?"

"Sorry, no," said John Stewart as he raised his Ring hand to shake. "He said he’d be too busy, and gave me permission to be here in Gotham City."

"Pity," Wayne genially smiled. "I dare say he'd have a few things to say about this too."

Behind the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, the rest of the men and women sitting around the table gave their own polite greetings, a few also getting up for a handshake. No autographs from the hero though, not in Batman's city. They had their hometown pride after all.

"Well then," Wayne said. "Coffee? Tea? Something to eat?"

"I'm good, thanks," Green Lantern assured them.

"Let's get started then," and the billionaire nodded to Lucius Fox, who managed the day-to-day running of his company.

The older man promptly got down to business. "Just so we're all on the same page, we're discussing setting up insurance for homes, business, and other private property destroyed by super-villains, as well as damage caused by super-heroes, or the authorities in the process of arresting said villains, given the danger they represent."

"That's right," Green Lantern nodded. "Usually the Justice League and the independent heroes do their best to help fix it up afterwards, especially Flash and Superman who can do it pretty quick, or guys like Batman pay for it. Unfortunately, we don't always have the chance, or it's not something we can take care of. And frankly we don't have an infinite amount of money. What the Justice League is hoping to help form is something that would help people with rebuilding their lives, while we're dealing with the next threat."

"Of course," Wayne nodded. "And as Gotham City has so many super-villains, the loss of livelihood we see here is consequently much higher too. Wayne Enterprise has provided relief where we can, but I know Commissioner Gordon has been pushing for something like this for a while now."

"I presume," Fox put in, "that this will be a non-profit organization?"

"Of course," Green Lantern firmly agreed. "A public service, and not something that can be abused. Which is the main reason why we need your professional help with this. We need a company that will not serve to benefit from super fights, will investigate insurance fraud, and make sure the money is used for what it's supposed to be. Otherwise people might misuse it and only worsen the situation. Yet at the same time, when it gets going, it’s got to be independent and self-sustaining, so it still has to make its own income. Putting together all that is outside of our areas of expertise."

"Of course," Wayne said, with a firmness that made all his subordinates sit a little straighter. "I don't see any reason why we can't accomplish this. I presume you brought some preliminary ideas and figures?"

Nodding, Green Lantern pushed forward the folder they had all seen him bring, while Fox pulled out his own.

"I must say," Fox added, "I'm glad to see you doing this. Was it your idea initially?"

Green Lantern waved a dismissive hand. "We came up with it together when we saw how much our fights were escalating. I'm the one with the background with the ins and outs of construction, and have seen some similar stuff on other planets, so I volunteered to meet you."

"Either way," Fox stated with conviction, "you're doing a good service. Now, let's see how we can carry it out."

The window exploded.

Instantly Green Lantern was up, forming a dome barrier to protect everyone from the shards of glass. A loud noise caught his attention, as at the same time a buzz saw burst out of the floor near Bruce Wayne, and cut a hole for him to fall through. He was gone before Green Lantern could safely multitask without risking the lives of everyone else in the boardroom.

The loud boom of a rocket then rattled the room, and he caught a glimpse of something zipping away at extreme speeds.

!JUSTICE!

It spoke well of Batman's self-control that he was not silently cursing right now.

There he was, at a meeting with Green Lantern and his board of directors, working to help improve things for people outside of doing battle with super-villains, and now one had abducted him. And not just anyone. He had a depressing suspicion of what the motive behind this was.

"I suppose I'm a hostage," he deadpanned. "I'm sorry, but could we schedule this for another time?"

What? Bruce Wayne's parties, galas, company events, etcetera, were regularly gate crashed by criminals. Which only made this all the more embarrassing since a) his kidnapper had somehow disarmed or evaded all his precautions, b) had done so right in front of a fellow League member, and he had to play the victim, and c) she was probably only doing it for the thrill of it. Oh, and he would have to wait to be rescued, since 'Batman was busy.'

Batman knew he would be counting his blessing if Alfred was not ribbing him about this tonight. Or Dick calling to 'make sure he was feeling alright.'

"You bet!" was the gleeful claim of the criminal currently steering the vehicle Batman was handcuffed too, which was nothing more than a rocket with seats strapped on.

Roxy Rocket, ex-stunt-double turned adrenaline-junky crook. Wearing her aviator's jacket, with her long red hair trailing behind her, she was undoubtedly as attractive as she was skilled. Despite his circ*mstances as she swerved through skyscrapers at breakneck speeds, Batman knew he was in no danger. Together they dodged death and destruction by only a hairsbreadth, as she wove and improvised with finely honed intuition. She was just that good.

"Sorry to ruin your afternoon," Rocket went on, "but I've got a hot date with you tonight."

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Batman smiled, turning on the charm, while letting his eyes smolder with (false) desire. "Although I'd still like to do this some other time. I do have a meeting to finish. And then maybe I can pay my 'ransom' personally?"

"Too bad! I've just stolen you out from under the nose of one of the Justice League, and I'm—"

"Going right to prison?"

Despite Roxy's shock, she maintained control of her ride as she snapped her head around to see Green Lantern effortlessly keeping pace with her.

Faster than she could react, a blade shot out from his Ring and cut off the seats she and Batman were riding on, making them come off the rocket and into a green bubble that both safely canceled their inertia. Another one formed around the rocket, letting it harmlessly explode within.

A little more manipulation with the constructs, and Batman was safely in his own separate bubble, with the handcuffs removed, while Roxy was scowling at Green Lantern. She had known he could fly fast, and use various abilities to make him the perfect challenge, but she had assumed she was still good enough to succeed, while his (supposedly) failed pursuit would give her the necessary thrill. Then she brightened and jabbed at his Ring. "Can I get one of those?"

"No," was his flat retort. Turning his attention to Batman, "Are you alright, Mr. Wayne?"

"Call me Bruce," he smiled. "Shall we get back to our meeting?"

"No chance for that date then?" Roxy asked half-heatedly. She had just been teasing before, yet a playboy billionaire was still a playboy billionaire.

"Sorry," Batman shrugged to communicate how helpless he felt. "Green Lantern came all this way to talk. And afterwards, I have a meeting with . . . a certain someone tonight. I can't be late for her—them, I mean. You understand."

"Yeah I do," Roxy huffed, sticking to reliving the thrill of that chase, however short it was. Maybe next time I'll…

!JUSTICE!

Later that evening

"I'm ever so glad that Green Lantern was able to rescue Bruce Wayne," Alfred dryly said in his British accent, bringing Batman his dinner. "Despite the interruption, I do hope your little get-together still proceeded as planned?"

"We've made excellent headway, but we won't be able to implement those changes just yet. As much as everyone wishes otherwise, it'll take at least another month.

"As for Roxy Rocket, she was as co*cky as usual," grunted the Dark Knight. "Unfortunately, she's a symptom of a growing problem. Crime's spiking in Gotham. Including metahuman crime. Although last time she left the city."

As he had been reflecting lately, over the last few years both he and the Gotham Police Department had been making serious inroads towards reducing crime. Wayne Enterprises' relief efforts and social outreach programs had also been making progress in stopping the conditions that helped encourage crime in the first place.

Batman was not blind. People were more likely to rob when they were desperate for cash to pay their rent, so they and their families were not kicked out onto the streets. Or how people who felt they had no future were ripe targets for drug dealers, making them willing to do anything to feed their addiction. Batman's more violent, nightly activities were still necessary to stem the flow, save lives, and give a more vivid incentive to not start in the first place. He handled the threats the regular cops were just not qualified for, and overall helped the legal authorities do their jobs.

Think of it as bad cop, good cop, where the bad cop could punch you in the face, and/or dangle you off a building until you cooperated, and then vanish before the good cop got there. And that good cop was not particularly motivated to find bad cop in the first place, so you had better make a deal with him before bad cop comes back . . .

"In the last few months," Batman elaborated, "more and more criminals from out of town are coming here."
"Yes, you said as much," Alfred agreed. "And I'm still confused as to why. After all, criminals protect their 'turf,' as it were, here just as viciously as elsewhere. If not more so, given how entrenched the underworld is here, and with so many super-villains at that. So what has changed? Does the League have any insight?"

Grunting, Batman pulled up some other files. "No, I haven't asked them."

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Alfred's carefully neutral tone still held a drop of acidity. "Perhaps you should ask them then, sir. To get a second opinion, as it were."

"You may be right," Batman admitted, seeing his own lack of progress. "But there's something else I want to discuss with them first." He pointed at the profile pictures up on the screen, with a few lines of information detailing who they were, psychological summaries, threat level, and weaknesses. "While supervillains seem to be coming towards Gotham, a bunch of them have also dropped completely off the radar. What's concerning isn't just that some of them are powerhouses in their own right, it's also that most of them are not known for being subtle and patient. Certainly not enough to be quiet this long."

"And you don't think they've suddenly become reformed, upstanding citizens," Alfred heavily concluded. Not that he could blame Master Bruce as he saw the list.

Volcana.

Parasite.

Gorilla Grodd.

Solomon Grundy.

And others . . .

"Clark should have some insight into some of them of course," Batman mused aloud. "And then we can look into what's happening with Gotham."

Sighing, Alfred shook his head. "If you insist, Master Bruce."

!JUSTICE!

Watchtower

At that very same time, Hawkgirl was doing her own analyses, combing through hints and clues.

Obviously tracking super criminals was a difficult task, given the effort they put into hiding themselves, and she was still fully integrating herself into the ins and outs of this world. Still, as one of Thanagar's former instructors into espionage, she was anything but complacent.

Other tidbits were interesting her however, as it appeared that some gang bosses had mysteriously gone under. Investigations had concluded that a rogue meta-human was responsible. While separately they did not add up to much, after looking at the evidence and testimonies again, Shayera now wondered if the Straw Hats were actually the culprits.

"Hmph," she grunted aloud.

"Something the matter?"

Recognizing the sound of Green Lantern's voice, she found herself frowning more. The two of them had been arguing more and more lately, and she could not bring herself to explain why. Despite this, she could not find it in herself to avoid him, or feel actually violent about it. This confusion only frustrated her even more. Not being sure about how to behave or react wasn't like her at all.

"The Straw Hats," Shayera answered without turning around. "I think they've been doing more than just robberies. Looks like they might've been taking out some rival crime bosses along the way."

Stepping up close, Green Lantern leaned forward to read the original reports himself, making her snap at him. "What? Don't trust me?"

"It's not that," he growled back. "I just want to get an idea of what you're talking about!" Grimacing, he cut himself off and handed her one of the cups of coffee he had brought. "Here."

Accepting the peace offering, she took a sip of the bitter drink. While normal coffee was not particularly appreciated by her alien taste buds, she had discovered enough salt and cinnamon made it pretty pleasant. Even better, it was a genuinely new foreign experience for her. Didn't realize he knew I liked it that way.

"Yeah, definitely looks like they’ve been into this too," Green Lantern continued. “Did you see that report Superman put together??"

Not even bothering to look at the files the man had pulled up, Shayera nodded her head. "You mean the one collecting the facts the Soul King groupies try to ignore?"

"Precisely," grimaced the ex-marine, now-space cop. "The Straw Hats might console themselves saying they're only robbing from the big companies and laboratories, or beating up other crooks, but everything has consequences."

Bank vaults had been emptied. Museums robbed of historical artifacts. Jewels disappearing into the night. Major companies had lost machinery wholesale, entire supplies of materials, or whatever else was desired by the self-proclaimed pirates.

Several of those businesses had been unable to recover, and forced to shut down, putting people out of work. And insurance could only cover so much.

People, innocent people, losing their lifesavings, children's education, retirement, the whole shebang.

Moreover, with the rising tide of supervillain crime, both the League and ordinary law enforcement were being pushed to the limit as they tried to investigate and manage every crime. While the Straw Hats were not solely responsible for that, they were still a major contributor.

Taxes were being lost too, which contrary to belief were not designed exclusively for lining the pockets of politicians; they also made a country run.

Build roads.

Schools.

Hospitals…

It was not just the pride of heroes and cops who were hurt by ‘Captain’ Luffy and his gang.

With a sigh, Green Lantern rubbed his eyes. "We'll get through this," he promised. "We'll stop them all. And with our work for social relief, like we're doing with Wayne Enterprises, which should help even more."

"Yeah, I saw the news about that," Hawkgirl noted. "Any troubles with that kidnapper? Rocket or something?"

Truthfully she was more interested in hearing about Bruce Wayne. As a literal outside observer to this planet, she was less convinced he was just a playboy billionaire, whose sole redeeming quality was his generosity at charities, hard work, and talent at finding people trustworthy enough to manage his affairs so he could continue to spend money as fast as possible. Moreover, he was reported to have several times met Batman in public, removing him as a potential suspect.

Except with the amount of money Batman threw around (such as building a honking space station, without leaving any paper-trail Hawkgirl could trace), he has to have a wealthy backing. Unfortunately, there were a lot of rich men and women in Gotham City who might be willing to do so, and Wayne was not the only one who had lost family members to crime. And that was assuming Batman's backer was not lying low and hiding their wealth through various false identities so no one would suspect them in the first place. She gave a mental snort. Or he’s doing it all on his own, living off the grid as Batman 24/7, while doing something like playing the stock market under various aliases. It’s also equally possible that he set up those meetings with a fake Batman to throw people off; he’s certainly sly enough for that.

"Nah," John reassured her with a dismissive wave. "The only trouble was relocating to a different office room, and putting up with Wayne's dillydallying in choosing a new one that was 'appropriate.’ Honestly, the cafeteria would’ve been good enough for me."

"Good. Now go get some rest. I'll keep looking for any clues."

He bristled, yet she ran over him. "You've been up for hours, and I just started," she told him with a touch of irritation. "Don't think that because your Ring can keep you from needing food and sleep, it doesn't mean you don't need any downtime." It could also handle bodily functions, which frankly was not something she wanted to know in greater detail.

Scowling, he nodded and walked off, although not before getting in the last word. "I'll want to see your results when I get up."

!JUSTICE!

October 22

The warm sun was lighting up the opening of the newest Cherry Blossom Medical Center.

Originally founded and owned by the Straw Hat Pirates, when they had been discovered, they had been forced to divorce themselves from it as thoroughly as possible. While the former employees had received a nice final pay cheque, and had been given shared ownership of all the property, all of 'Dr. Mikan's' patents and private notes had been put onto the public domain. Meaning that everyone could now develop what had once been exclusive products.

Despite this, the company had rallied together, and were still a major producer of advanced medical supplies, remaining stiff competition for LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises.

They were also not fans of the Justice League.

Things had been fun and profitable under their old bosses, until the heroes had made a frankly illegal search of the premises based upon mere suspicions. Yes, Sanji Kuroashi (the pervert) and the others had clearly been doing some shady stuff, even before Luffy's major revelation at the Soul King's concert, yet that did not change how the League had lacked any concrete evidence of that beforehand. Moreover, what had been discovered in the secret basem*nt (which was illicit in itself) was hardly anything as serious as the corruption other businesses were engaged in!

They were a medical company for crying out loud! And not one that had done any remotely unethical experiments at that!

Which meant it was a bitter pill to swallow when the Justice League approached them to help rebuild themselves back to their present status. Offering support to alleviate the stigma of being a company formerly owned by supervillains (even if Soul King retained a large fanbase). Given this aid, this meant the new board of directors felt obligated, for better or worse, to invite Wonder Woman who was standing before a crowd today, to the grand opening of a new building for expanding Cherry Blossom Medical's production.

"Tch! What a joke," scowled Sanji from behind his sunglasses. He had a hat on to cover his hair, large sunglasses to hide his distinct eyebrows, and was lost in the crowd. In front of him was a stroller, with the screen down to keep Chopper hidden. The fabric was special however, acting in reverse of a standard design so that his 'son' could see out far better than people could look in to see who was there.

"I'm just glad they're continuing it," Chopper said through his radio.

"I'm just glad Wonder Woman's the one hosting this," blushed Sanji, giggling a little as he fantasized about the heroine.

Safely concealed, Chopper just rubbed his forehead, letting his friend enjoy his delusions.

"—formed by criminals, this company will continue towards the advancement of mankind, without operating in secret."

"If you'd just left us alone we could've kept doing it, and better," groused Chopper. He had been proud of his company! He had been helping millions, if not billions of people!

"Simmer down," murmured Sanji, snapping back to reality. "Yeah, they were idiots about it, and got burnt by the press for it," –newspapers that would actually criticize those in power were a new and strange phenomenon for the pirates— "but there's no good in dwelling on it."

Then applause broke out as Wonder Woman finished her speech while they had been distracted. She stayed to shake some hands, and then flew away.

"Huh!?" chirped Chopper. "That's it?"

"According to this flier," Sanji explained, "she had to hurry off to some other charity event. Something about raising attention on the plight of the homeless." Something which admittedly he was sympathetic about. Luffy and Idiot Mosshead might be of the opinion that if people wanted a better life they should just take it, and failing to meant they were weak, while Sanji had a more empathetic appreciation for what those sorts of people went through. The horrible circ*mstances that brought them to that point, and the ones that kept them there. Not to mention the hunger . . .

If the Justice League was raising awareness, to promote understanding, respect, and compassion, then more power to them in the cook's opinion. More importantly, unlike other 'concerned citizens,' they seemed to try and do it regularly, as opposed to just once a year. Hmm . . . I should talk to Franky about what he did for the homeless of Water 7.

!JUSTICE!

October 23

"If we rob Fort Knox," Nami argued, "then we can take all that gold back home with us!"

Most of the crew decided right then and there to stay out of this, playing possum while Nami's eyes were literally glowing. "And we need the cash to lay low for as long as possible!"

Ever fearless, Zoro argued, "Then we should rob the gold just before Franky's figured out how we can leave this world, so we don't have to store and protect it! Bills are easier to handle."

"But if we have it now we'll be able to take it right away from its hiding place!" Nami yelled.

"Not right now," Luffy said.

Nami paused. She had expected Luffy's support, except she could see that her Captain's head was bowed so that his hat shadowed his eyes, which meant he was actually thinking. "Nah," he finally said.

Nami blinked in surprise, but before she could start chewing him out, Jinbe spoke out. "Why not, Luffy? Are you concerned about something?"

"Well, we're trying to lie low, right? Keeping them from finding us is more important. So why go that big?"

"Hah!" smirked Zoro, who enjoyed seeing the witch hit an argument she could not beat.

"We do still need some funds to get by for the next few months," Robin diplomatically put in. "Where will that come from?"

Face still hidden, Luffy just shrugged. "I dunno. Something quieter. And maybe far away so they won't be waiting for us."

"They being the Justice League," mused Usopp, finally participating. "So maybe outside of the US where they're most centered."

"Sure. Whatever," Luffy yawned. Then he lifted up his hat to beam at Nami. "Don't you worry though. We're still taking all the gold we can once Franky can get us home. Might as well make our stay here worthwhile after all."

Whenever their Captain brought up one of his rare smart ideas, everyone knew better than to argue.

Satisfied, Nami sat back down, and started to brainstorm another rich place to rip off within her leader's new criteria.

!JUSTICE!

October 28th

Somewhere in the tropics

Carrying several hampers of canned and preserved food (and yes, this time he remembered the peanut was supposed to be chunky), and a few perishables for a treat for today, Clark Kent raced through the air to an overdue appointment.

To his shame he had gotten a few days behind on Claire Selton's supply run. True, she would have plenty to get her by for a few more weeks, but that was not fair to her. Besides, he had been late several times in the past, and all of the issues he and the Justice League had been dealing with over the last few weeks were no excuse. It was only an hour or so out of his day after all.

A minute later he arrived . . . to an empty island.

Sunny and tropical, the little plot of land had enough room for a single person to live comfortably, while being totally isolated from the rest of the world. As far away from civilization as Clark could find, without becoming an inhuman prison for the meta-human criminal, Volcana.

Grimacing, he changed course to head directly to the Watchtower in space.

!JUSTICE!

Watchtower

Later

"What were you thinking?" growled Batman.

Opening his mouth, Superman was cut off as his friend bulled on with as cold and biting a tone as he could manage. "You imprisoned an unstable meta-human in solitary confinement without any legitimate authority, sporadic oversight, and I suppose you'll be surprised when Volcana springs up again as a supervillain with her considerable power!?"

"I couldn't trust the normal penal system, given the rogue government factions after her," defended Superman. "I couldn't be sure they were all gone, and they wanted her either as their enslaved assassin, to sell her, or dead so they could dissect her! And those very same powers meant no normal prison could have held her! They'd have to imprison her in a containment unit, forced to wear an oxygen mask to breathe, 24/7!"

If anything, that only made Batman more incensed. "So you decided to be judge, jury, and warden yourself!?"

It was only the two of them, yet they both knew the rest of the League was going to have to hear about this.

"Well what was I supposed to do?" demanded Superman.

Truthfully, the penal system was a sore spot for the heroes. To work with law enforcement and the authorities, to prove themselves worthy of the trust of the people, included handing criminals over for lawful imprisonment. Indeed, all of the League regarded the police officers as the real heroes, as they did everything they could without the powers or resources people like Superman and Batman possessed.

Unfortunately, it also made it rather difficult for them to keep their prisoners locked up. Or prevent others from breaking them out. Not without violating their fundamental rights, which was a slippery slope that Batman knew certain people would jump on and abuse, if given the opportunity. Lex Luthor came to mind for one, especially as they lacked evidence to prove his own crimes. So far. But just a little bit longer . . .

"Not isolate her from human contact, and hope that said isolation would be enough to keep people away from her in the tropics!" snapped Batman. "Or that you'd be able to drop by often enough to see her! You should know what that does to people!"

Grimacing, Clark bowed his head to glare at the table. Then took a deep breath to think on what he was being told. . . . And despite her flirting, I always remained her captor. No matter how much it was supposed to help her. Not to mention she already had trust issues beforehand.

"She still chose to be a criminal," he sighed. "So if we see her, we'll have to arrest her again. Maybe I can negotiate for a more lenient sentence though."

"If we see her again, she'll be a dangerous threat," shot back his less-than optimistic friend. "Her pyrokinetic powers and mastery of them, makes her one of the most powerful metas on the planet! And according to the Metropolis police reports for the heist where you first met her, she would have burned alive everyone at that yacht club if you hadn't been there!"

Clark knew that Bruce was referring to the original reports, which he had somehow uncovered; the rogue federal operatives who had been tracking Volcana down, had inserted their own altered versions, as part of covering their tracks. No point in asking how he had found them. Unfortunately, that did not change the fact that Volcana had proven a willingness to risk the chance of homicide over finesse in committing crimes; albeit out of no small amount of desperation to stay ahead of said operatives.

Suffice to say, Clark, and the rest of the Justice League, now kept a close eye on any and all institutes that helped people with paranormal abilities. Particularly to ensure no vulnerable children went 'missing' again.

"Volcana, no!" cried Superman as she confronted the helpless man who had ruined her life. "Let the courts deal with him."

"You'll understand if I'm a little skeptical about the justice system," she replied lashing out at Superman with fires powerful enough to even hurt him a little. Especially since he did not want to hurt her. "I prefer my own justice. And if you're not part of my solution, you're part of my problem."

Later when she was lying on the beach he had set her up at.

"Food, shelter, sunshine, could be worse."

"Could be Metropolis Woman's Prison," he smiled back, "if you weren't so, volatile."

"Polite to the end. Your mother raised you well."

"I was lucky."

Now her face hardened with bitterness. "Yes. You were."

A woman who had been betrayed by everyone she had ever trusted before even meeting him.

Rubbing his face, Clark gave his friend an apologetic look. "I'd just wanted to help her after all she's gone through. Give her some peace, and a life where she didn't have to rely on stealing. Instead, I only made it worse, didn't I?"

Saying nothing, Batman merely turned his attention back to reading up on Project: Firestorm. A US black ops program to create a super-powered assassin, and who had given Superman too much trouble for his peace of mind; even if the alien had been holding back a lot.

!JUSTICE!

November 1st

(About the same time as Superman meets Joker in New Orleans, which would still be October 31st in America)

"—personally," Franky was saying, "I really want to have a good chat with Superman. I know we're kindred spirits."

"Oh," Brook curiously asked. "How so?"

"Well, first he does what he wants without worrying about what other people think, like a real man! And that's including how he's not afraid to show his face either. Everyone knows who he is because he goes around without a disguise on. And, he wears his underwear on the outside! He doesn't care that people know he's a pervert!"

Brook was almost doubled over laughing, Solomon Grundy chortled, Zoro smirked, and Jinbe's lips twitched in amusem*nt.

"What!? I'm serious!" boomed Franky, setting them off more.

Shaking his head, Zoro rested his hand on the hilts of his swords. "Speaking of which, we really should get serious. Time to get to work."

The five of them were on a rooftop, staring down at a large bank from atop a neighbouring building. While closed for the evening, there were still people going about on the street. Usually the pirates would discretely rob the place of all its cash, except their specialists for that were all out enjoying Halloween.

Moreover, now that the League was on to them, it was decided that any special tricks they had should be kept in reserve, lest anyone learn about them. On the other hand, simple brute force was rather straightforward, and honestly would not reveal too much, hence the line-up for this heist, while the others enjoyed Halloween. Besides, not only was everyone besides Zoro too large and distinctive to be out partying, their appearances also forwent discretion anyways. Finally, Nami and Robin wanted the money ASAP, so the crew could all disappear back into the shadows until the heat died down, using the cash to maintain their operations in the meantime.

They were still taking precautions however, which was why they were not in the United States of America (or "United Steaks of America" as Luffy kept calling it), choosing a prominent London bank instead.

Yes, in his spare time, Franky had built a stealth jet for them to cross the Atlantic in. Because he is awesome. In addition, he had benefited from how Robin, Nami, and Brook having ridden a super-stealth bomber during the whole incident with the crazy Amazon lady, and brought back lots of useful tips, including a copy of the manual and blueprints Robin had memorized.

As a final precaution, they all put on big cloaks to cover themselves. For while they were abandoning subtly, and none of them besides Zoro could walk down the streets in public without standing out anyways, Jinbe cautioned that there was still no need to make themselves identifiable.

Of course, giant figures (for the humans who lived here at least) wearing fully concealing cloaks one early morning after Halloween, were still pretty noticeable. Especially since Zoro's swords still stood out, and he would never consent to leaving them behind. Not to mention how he carried three of them, and had green hair. It was weird how no one (besides Sanji) seemed to pay attention to that in their own world where that colour was even rarer, yet it stood out more here with all the posers who used dye. Nami had tried to convince Zoro to change it, but he had steadfastly refused, even in the face of a rising debt. It was his hair, and he could do what he wanted with it!

Hence the crowd of people getting away from the bank as fast as they could once they saw them.

"Pretty smart," Zoro sneered, before kicking in the doors to the bank. "Well, no matter. Let's make this quick, and get out of here."

"What about Justice League?" growled Grundy, having forgotten about that part of the briefing.

"According to Robin, we're good," Franky reassured him, albeit quieter than usual. Low profile and all that. "League's either occupied, or elsewhere, like up in space. We just have to move fast."

With that in mind, they continued into the bank, smacked the guards aside, and walked right past the empty teller booths.

"Grundy, if you please?" Brook politely asked, holding a gloved hand towards the vault.

"Why me?" asked the zombie.

"Because if we are discovered, they already know you have super-strength. They won't know what we can do," the skeleton elaborated, even as Zoro cut down the cameras. "Just a precaution."
Shrugging, Grundy walked up to the massive, reinforced steel door, and with barely any effort, wrenched it out of its frame

Fighting the urge to use super-speed to hurry it along (also a significant clue for investigators), Brook, Jinbe, and Franky hurried in, and started throwing money and wealth into bags, while Zoro walked back outside to stand guard.

To his pleasant surprise, a flying horse came charging at him.

In the same way a cat enjoys having a mouse run past it, when the feline is feeling bored.

Leaping down from his steed, was a man clad in gold chainmail armour, which made Zoro's Observation Haki tingle, as did the naked sword in the man's hand. "Villain!" cried the newcomer. "Surrender now!"

"You're Shining Knight, or something, right?" Zoro acknowledged in recognition. After all, he had asked Robin to look up whoever passed as a swordsman in this world. Of course, given the pitiful results, he had not tried hard to retain any of the details. Particularly for one of the independent heroes who did not even warrant membership into the Justice League. Then Zoro let his bloodlust shine through. "What brings you here?"

The man's face hardened, as gimlet eyes recognized his foe's passion, yet he did not yield.

He seriously did not know what he was dealing with.

As a pirate crew, each member of the Straw Hats had a job to do for their Captain.

For all Sanji's use to Zoro as a sparring partner, or dealing with other, less significant threats, Curly Brow's main job is too cook. For crying out loud, Luffy did not even know the man could seriously fight before trying to recruit him.

Jinbe is a former Warlord of the Seas, who answers to the title of Helmsman, because that is what he is expected to do.

Brook was brought aboard without Luffy having ever even personally seen him use his sword. He had been chosen because Luffy found a talking skeleton with an afro who asked to see women's panties too cool to pass up.

Robin? Because Luffy trusted her, not because she was one of the most dangerous women alive in either universe.

Franky? With him, Luffy had an idea of what the guy was capable of after he had helped them save Robin, except even then it was the personality of his future shipwright that mattered.

In fairness, Usopp did take his role of sniper seriously, even if neither he nor Luffy had any clue how much potential the long-nosed teen had truly had when he first joined up.

While the weather itself fought on behalf of their navigator, Nami was quite happy to avoid any battles.

Chopper was an exception since while Luffy had known the little guy could fight, he had not known the reindeer was a doctor. It was his strength of spirit that had made him stand out.

The point was, that Luffy had never recruited the others for their potential for laying waste to entire armies. They had developed that potential out of respect, loyalty, and love for their Captain.

Zoro?

I was chosen for my swordsmanship, he grimly thought, closing the lid over his cybernetic eye to shut it off.

For my ability to violently cut down whoever and whatever got in my crew's way. And this guy? He's in the way.

Worse, for him, he's so far beneath my level with a sword it's practically sad. A glance was all that was needed discern that.

Although that sword and armour were interesting. The 'breaths' they were giving off, were fascinating, and even confusing.

"This ends!" cried Shining Knight as he charged, sword raised high.

Curious, yet playing it safe, Zoro drew Shusui, his most durable blade, and imbued it with as much Armament Haki as he could muster, adjusted to meet the 'breathing' in that strange sword, and met the glistening edge of the enemy's blade head on.

For most swordsmen this was not only reckless, but worse, disrespectful to your weapon. However Zoro was used to cleaving straight through anything that came his way, and he could tell from Shining Knight's stance that he was used to doing the same.

The legendary swords locked together in a flare of sparks, sending the hero stumbling back a few feet, while the pirate stood firm. Both glanced at their personal weapons, and saw they were unmarred, displaying the power they both possessed. Moreover, that clash had made clear both wielded strength far greater than normal men.

Unbeknownst to Zoro, his lips were drawing back in into an inhuman smile, reminiscent of a cat who was now waiting for the tasty mouse to do something else to keep it remotely interested.

Or a starving tiger for that matter . . .

!JUSTICE!

Sir Justin, late of King Arthur's Court, knew that he faced a true villain.

One who hungered for nothing more than violence that was worthy of him drawing his blades.

On a professional note, Sir Justin was still curious as to why he carried three katana. While hardly magically adept himself, the knight was confident that neither of them were enchanted in any way. Unless there are sentimental reasons to carry them, or he can grow extra arms to wield them? he distractedly wondered. No matter. They shall not rob the fortunes of these good people. For all that though, this may be my greatest adversary.

Noble Gearradh had wrung with the sheer force of the impact, instead of continuing through. A weapon bestowed upon him by Merlin himself, which had never failed Sir Justin before.

"What is your name?" he asks his foe.

"Doesn't matter," and then the knave attacked, his actions as wide and ferocious as his smile.

And no less devastating.

Almost faster than Sir Justin could see, his foe ducked under Gearradh and delivered a vicious slash to his torso. The magic armour, enchanted by Merlin himself, held, but the world still blurred as Shining Knight was sent flying back across the street. For all that he had not been cut, the impact had nonetheless obviously inflicted physical trauma. Chest aches. Cracked some ribs I think.

Despite this, he rolled to feet, charging once more.

Barely did he block a slash at his face, and once more Sir Justin found himself rolling down the pavement. Drops of blood ran down from his face, yet once more he stood.

There was no sign of the other criminals in their obfuscating cloaks, which means they were either still robbing the bank, or had run off. No matter. There remained innocent people nearby trying to get to safety, and their hard-earned lifesavings were being stolen away. Moreover, they did not deserve to have to suffer the fear of being caught up in such events, or feel vulnerable at such crimes occurring. A knight's course was clear.

"Have you no shame, villain? Robbing those too weak to stop you?"

Now his foe appeared almost bored. "Then they should get strong enough to protect it. It's not like I'm killing anybody."

Grimacing, Sir Justin stalked forward. "So might makes right, and those weaker have only themselves to blame? There it tis once more, the creeping moral decay of the past thousand years."

"Oh?" sneered the man with visible derision. "So you're saying that everyone back in your time was moral and perfect?"

Snorting, Sir Justin leveled his blade. "Not perfect, no. Far from it even. However, in Camelot, every knight under King Arthur committed themselves to living with honour. To make the world better than it was before. And by our example, we did make a difference and bring a light to dark times. There were those who opposed this of course, and here I am now, with but another brigand before me."

Said brigand was unfazed.

A blur, and he was before Sir Justin, and this time the hero never even saw the strike that made sparks fly from his golden armour and bones creak as the sheer power of the strike still broke through. His flight down the street even farther this time. Except that his armour was still intact, and Gearradh remained in his hand. Sucking in a deep breath, Shining Knight pushed through the pain, and rose to his feet, glaring at the green haired criminal.

"You can't win," the villain noted, voice carrying down the now empty street. "And everyone's run off already, so there's no one to defend. Just give it up and go. You're going to die otherwise."

"Or you could surrender in turn," Sir Justin snapped back. While in part bravado, there was still sincerity to his words. Even greater truth in his next ones. "Besides, I will not forsake my honour and run."

Surprisingly, a contemplative look flashed over his foe's face, before resuming a feral smile akin to a beast. And yet, now there was a hint of something that suggested he was intrigued.

"What drives you?" asked the nameless swordsman. "Why do you fight so hard when you cannot win? You're too weak."

"Because tis my duty," Sir Justin answered as he advanced, Gearradh at the ready.

In contrast, his foe retained a casual stance, hand and sword dangling at his side. An insult, declaring the hero was not a threat. And unfortunately true, Shining Knight calmly conceded. He was outmatched. Far more than when he had faced the ogre Blunderbore. Yet every second I buy, tis another moment for help to come. And even if it doesn't, I cannot run while there tis even the slightest chance of victory.

"'Duty,'" the word was sneered back. "Don't you mean 'Justice'?"

"They mean the same thing!" snapped Sir Justin as he swung his sword. "To be a protector against ones who would do harm to those who have done nothing to them! To stop those who act solely upon their own self-interest and greed!"

Gearradh locked against the black katana, and he met the boring gaze of his enemy's single eye. "Your sword is heavy with conviction," the villain conceded to the hero. "Except mine's greater." Then the pressure against Sir Justin's blade exploded beyond anything before, and he was hurled through the air by the sheer force, smashing into the building across the street and through several following walls.

Sir Justin blacked out for an instant, then stood up once more, limping as he made his way past the rubble he had left in his wake, following the hole he had made in his passage. That his sword was missing did not pause his advance. He did not despair. If necessary, he would die as befitted a knight; defending the weak from those who would prey upon them.

The man was waiting for him outside on the street, a glimmer of satisfaction in his hungry, predatory eye and smile.

Stumbling, Sir Justin made his way forward to pick up Gearradh for perhaps the last time, his adversary patiently waiting. He could not tell if it was a bloodthirsty need to strike down someone who could actually fight back, a need to demonstrate his dominance, or some sliver of virtue, but Sir Justin appreciated the chance to arm himself.

To stand with honour.

To fight for the ideals his Lord King Arthur, and all his fellow knights, had believed in till the end.

Then the villain spoke loud and clear. "My name is Roronoa Zoro, of the Straw Hat Pirates." With those words, he unsheathed another of his swords and placed it within his teeth. Then he reversed the grip of the black sword in his left hand so it was laying against his forearm. Finally he drew out the last sword, holding it more traditionally. "What's your name again?" Zoro clearly asked, despite the hilt between his teeth.

"Sir Justin, the Shining Knight," gritted out the last knight of King Arthur of Camelot. "Now, have at you!"

Once more he charged.

"Oni giri!"

Darkness.

!JUSTICE!

November 1st

"First the Joker escapes from us, and now Shining Knight's hospitalized," grimaced Superman as he looked at the other heroes assembled on the Watchtower. "Batman's on the scene?"

Sir Justin had woken up briefly at one point to gasp out: “Zoro,” and “Straw Hat,” before falling unconscious again.

"Yes," Green Lantern nodded. "Hopefully he can explain why they've changed their M.O. so completely. Even if we do know about them now, we had no leads to finding them. So what made them decide to come out so boldly?"

"They probably want to go back into deep hiding," Hawkgirl offered, "and wanted the money to do so ASAP. So they're hitting fast now so they can disappear." It was the only explanation she could think of.

"Still, it's strange that one group goes partying, while the other one commits a felony," Diana said. "Even if the latter are apparently pretty distinctive even with those cloaks on."

"Yeah, and now we have a better idea of who they are," Flash optimistically put in. "There's a bunch of big guys, and this sword guy. Plus we have a rough idea of at least how many others from the Halloween party."

“I bet one was Brook, trying to help throw us off the scent,” growled Hawkgirl, remembering the dangerous and misleading skeleton.

"That's probably not all of them," Superman warned. "Or else they're being really reckless. Still, you're right. Even if they were in costumes, we've still got more clues than before."

"Volcana might meet one of the descriptions of the ladies traveling with Luffy," Flash noted, wincing a little as he brought back up that sensitive issue. "Real buzzkill. Man, I wish things'd gone better between us. I mean, c'mon, he was wearing my costume! He's a friendly guy, and travels with lots of hot women too! Why him and not me? Is it because he's a bad boy?"

Green Lantern snorted, and everyone else ignored the speedster's last comment.

"Ah well," the irrepressible Flash beamed, shining smile glinting. "I guess I'll just have to lay on the charm more!" Then he looked even co*ckier. "Hey! Maybe it was dressing in red," –i.e. again, Flash's costume for Halloween— "that did the trick."

"Uh huh, sure Hotshot," Green Lantern said, now rolling his eyes.

"Volcana's certainly a threat," Superman agreed, staying on track. "Except I don't think it's her with them. She hates authority figures, and wants to be as independent as possible. Even if it's just for money, I don't see her staying for long. And if they tried to force her, she'd lash out."

"Yeah, about that," Flash commented, putting aside his bag of chips and straightening up. "In all seriousness, they aren't acting like the kind of criminals we're used to."

"You're defending them!?" snapped Hawkgirl in disbelief.

Playing the peacekeeper, Superman held up a hand, before nodding to Flash. "What do you mean, specifically?"

"They didn't just save a lot of kids from being poisoned tonight, dying in the streets. How many crooks do we know who would stand up to someone like the Joker? Or come to a lady's defense like that? Except Black Foot did all that."

Stroking her chin, Hawkgirl considered the warrior code of Thanagar. While the women of her people were far more assertive and warlike than the ones of Earth, she thought she saw what her teammate was getting at. "They have a moral code, and stick to it. At least, more so than usual."

"And they still chose to make medicine," Wonder Woman threw in with regret. The re-opening of Cherry Blossom Medical had been a conflicting event for her. "They've saved lives," she emphasized, repeating Flash's earlier point.

"And a music star," Flash threw in. "And yeah, they're breaking the law left and right, including stealing a lot of money and stuff, and threw one of our own into the hospital. Doesn't change the fact that they're different from guys like Orm, Faust, Grodd, Joker, and all those other troublemakers."

"We still can't let them get away with breaking the law," Green Lantern all but shouted, sweeping his arms to encompass the Watchtower. "Otherwise what's the point of all this!?" As an ex-marine, and over a decade as a space cop, he hated the very idea of criminals just walking free. Especially when they had plenty of incriminating evidence against them.

"We won't," Superman promised. "However . . ." and now his eyes looked distant for a second as he considered Volcana. Gaze sharpening, he looks at each of his fellow Justice Leaguers in turn. "However, that doesn't mean we can't still find a way to solve this peacefully, without anyone else getting hurt. While they'll still have to make amends of course, the situation hasn't yet escalated too far."

Shining Knight was still alive after all.

Then Martian Manhunter came in to join them. "I just received word from Batman. Shining Knight is stable, and the doctors expect him to wake up sometime tomorrow. He reported nothing else."

"Which means they got away," Superman sighed. "Alright then, while Batman handles that, we'll continue looking for Joker. We'll join Batman in London tomorrow."

!JUSTICE!

November 2nd

He awoke to a beeping noise, staring up at a white ceiling he dimly recognized.

Then a warm, comforting face filled his vision, one that instinctively made someone know they were safe.

"How are you feeling," Superman asked, relief coating his words.

Sir Justin managed a rasping sound, and the head ducked back and came back with a cup of water. "Easy," his fellow hero said, as he gingerly tipped it so that it trickled down the knight's throat.

Recovering from his disorientation, Sir Justin realized he was in a modern hospital, having only seen them on TV, or when visiting patients. Never as an invalid himself. "I'm alive?"

Superman's eyes hardened, and his jaw clenched. "Yes. After the pirates nearly killed you, they took the time to give you some first aid. The ambulance picked you up before we got there." Ashamed, Superman forced himself to meet Shining Knight's gaze. "I'm sorry. We weren't fast enough, even with the time you bought us."

"Were any citizens hurt?" Sir Justin's raspy voiced demanded.

"No, just you."

"Oh, good," the knight sighed as he let himself relax back into bed. "Then all is well." He cracked one eye open. "Do you know how long I'll be here?"

"The Justice League will do what we can to speed up your recovery," Superman promised, "but for now it's best for you to rest."

"Indeed." For a moment the Man of Steel thought the man –further proof of the worth of humankind— had fallen asleep, yet then he stirred again to look at Superman. "The swordsman who beat me, his name was Roronoa Zoro. You said he also saved me?"

Reluctantly, Superman nodded. "Yes."

"So he does have some honour. Interesting. And no, someone that skilled… he meant for me to survive. He knew that would not kill me. But he is also right, I will have to do better next time."

With that he fell asleep.

!JUSTICE!

Listening to Shining Knight's heartbeat ease until he was definitely resting, Superman silently left the room.

Outside, the rest of the League was waiting along with a stern nurse who had made it clear that heroes or not, only one person was going in to see her patient at a time.

"How is he?" Flash asked first.

"He seems to be alright," Superman assured them. "Mostly just glad that no one else was hurt."

"A true knight," praised Diana, Flash and John grunting in agreement.

"So he took his loss well," J'onn asked, impressed at the human's resilience.

Irritably rubbing his head, Superman nodded. "Yes, but he's already planning for a rematch, and it's clear that this new swordsman of the Straw Hats' is no joke. Possibly even better than Brook."

"Shining Knight's a warrior," Diana bluntly said. "It's get stronger or die, and since the latter's out, there's only one thing left to do."

Privately, Hawkgirl agreed, except she did not want to allude to her people's martial culture. Fortunately, there was another way for her to contribute. “Remember what Star Sapphire said? How she thought the Straw Hat’s leader was the man with three swords? Well now we’ve got an idea why.”

"There's something else you should know," J'onn grimly added. He handed Superman a file folder. "While you were talking to him, we got a chance to read the crime scene report," he gestured at a police officer standing patiently nearby, "including what the first responders found." The Kryptonian had hoped to ask Batman about what he had found before going in, except his friend was absent. Also, his super-hearing had sensed that Shining Knight was waking up just as they had arrived, so he had gone to seem him first. All he knew was that the self-named pirates had escaped, and neither Batman nor the police had any leads. "According to this, despite having to flee a crime scene, not only did they take the time to lay him somewhere comfortable and make sure he would not die, they also left a message on the ground. Written in his blood."

A hint of anger infecting his voice, Superman read aloud what the emergency services had found: "'A true swordsman carries no wounds on his back. Also, a true swordsman is one who has learned how to not cut anything'?"

!JUSTICE!

"Zoro," moaned Usopp. "Did you really have to give him advice on how to become stronger?"

"Eh." Zoro shrugged his shoulders in disinterest. "We'll probably be long gone home before he figures it out."

"But why'd you have to go all horror-esque and write it in his own blood!? Ugh!"

"I didn't have anything else to use!" snapped Zoro. "I didn't want to ask Franky, because if he had something to write with it'd be in his speedo." Both men shuddered. "And I wasn't going to use my blood, because then Chopper would chew me out. Or I'd get it on my clothes, and then I'd have to wash them, and the witch would get angry at me for using that expensive stain remover. She screeches."

"Oh, right! Nami's scary… Robin's been a terrible influence on you."

"Shut it!"

Chapter 9: The Siege of Gotham

Chapter Text

Muscles straining, Batgirl decked another thug down as they fought it out in the dark alley, whirling around to handle the two at her back—

“What’s up?” Nightwing cheerfully waved, kneeling on the two comatose bodies.

“Doing better now,” she grinned at the previous and first Robin. “About time you showed up. We were wondering if you’d forgotten us.”

“Sorry, things spilled over into Blüdhaven, if not nearly as bad as here. Took me ages to beat it down to the level the cops could handle again. Where to next in our cheery Gotham City?”

!JUSTICE!

It did not take a genius like Nightwing to know that Batgirl, Barbara, was near the end of her rope. There was a slight shake to her limbs, she had been a little slower than usual from what he had seen of that fight against common gangb*ngers, and it was taking her longer to regain her breath than usual. Although telling her that would only antagonize her, so he tried a different tact. “If you’ve got a minute, can you fill me in on some things?”

“What do you want to know?” she asked.

“About the Straw Hats,” he answered truthfully. He had his own sources, and while things might remain a little strained between him and Batman, they were both professional enough to keep each other in the loop about any concerns. And yes, they did care about one another. However, there were some details that were seriously starting to concern him.

“Sure,” she shrugged, and pulled out her grappling gun to head to a nearby rooftop, as he followed right behind.

“So, anything specific?” she asked once they had settled down.

He snorted. “Just want to know how they’re running circles around Bats. It’s been two days since they put Shining Knight in the hospital, and people are getting even antsier now. But what’s bugging me is why hasn’t Bats found out anything concrete about them yet? World’s Greatest Detective and all.”

On one hand, he was glad to see she was clearly distracted from her exhaustion now. On the other, Batgirl’s simultaneous resignation and frustration were ringing fresh alarm bells for Nightwing. As one of Batman’s primary partners in Gotham, she was one of the few who would have any real idea what the man was up to, and what he knew. Not everything of course, because he kept a death-grip on secrets, but still enough for an informed opinion.

And she was worried.

“Well,” Batgirl deflected with a light tone. “How would you go about it?”

“Alright,” Nightwing grinned, “have you checked the various criminal databases?”

Batgirl’s raised eyebrow clearly communicated she was unamused.

“Of course you have. I’m guessing Bats went and broke into the Interpol, FBI, CIA, and NPSC files?”

“All that and more,” Batgirl nodded. “Although, he had full cooperation from Japan’s National Public Safety Commission, who have been doing their own search. They don’t like the idea that these new, mystery criminals are going around with Japanese accents. Oh, and used a Japanese term: nakama. So yeah, it looks pretty bad. They’d rather that they’d all be Americans.”

“Guess you haven’t heard then,” Nightwing commented, looking a little grimmer. “The guy who took out Shining Knight? Word out is he used three katana, and follows some kind of honour code. People are thinking bushido.”

“Interesting,” mused Batgirl as she tapped her chin. “Of course, it could all be an act. And then there’s the ethnic variation amongst them, and that story from Nico Robin about her history. If it’s even true.”

co*cking his head, Nightwing considered her attitude. The way she was assuming this Zoro guy was just pretending to be some sort of criminal samurai –Would that be a rōnin? Guess I should brush up— implied . . . “I’ve been assuming that there haven’t been many clues to go by, but is it the opposite?” he hazarded. “So many hints that they’re conflicting and confusing things?”

She grimaced. “Worse actually.” Gesturing, she led him across the roof so that they were behind the extension where the door down was. It was an old habit to not be in one place too long, and the shadows here were easier for them to disappear into while having a long conversation.

Taking a deep breath, Batgirl elaborated. “Batman’s found seven false trails for the whole group. Fake identities that were supposed to explain their origins, and the deeper he dug, the more fakes he found. Three were in Japan, one in America, one in China, one in Russia, and another in America that was supposed to make him think it was a fake, to lead him to one of the Japanese ones and believe he had found the ‘real’ one. Plus at least twenty more for the individuals we know about, of similar variety.”

“Industrious,” Nightwing complimented, although his eyes were narrowed. “I hadn’t heard about that.”

“Batman’s keeping it quiet, even from the League since he doesn’t have anything solid,” she defended. “Yet.”

“Same old Bats,” he scowled, a trace of bitter anger leaking into his voice. Then he made a brief gesture to let her know she should just ignore him, and continue.

“The thing is, the biggest mistake they made, was that all the so-called evidence was too new. As in, only put in place a few months ago.” Once more she quirked an eyebrow at him, except now as a challenge to figure out the significance.

“Which means they didn’t really start anything big until a few months ago, or they would have done it better,” he concluded, starting to understand why Bruce was keeping quiet on this. There were so many questions still that it would only confuse the issue. “So were they hiding out so deep before when something changed and forced them out into the open and into crime? Were they model citizens who suddenly got powers and skills to both evade and take on the League in a short period of time? Or,” and now he looked concerned, “did they come from somewhere else, and recently?”

“Batman was already considering they might have alien technology as the basis of their medical products,” Batgirl softly affirmed. “Focus on herbal remedies aside. Moreover, some of those plant weapons and explosives the long-nosed guy was using to fight Green Lantern? Batman analyzed what was left. Nothing in any botanical database, with enough weird stuff in them to make it clear that if their ancestry was ever terrestrial, they’ve been heavily altered. Even Poison Ivy’s are normal by comparison. Well, on a genetic level at least.”

Rubbing his brow, Nightwing nodded as he reached the conclusion she was leading him to. “So more human-like aliens, huh? Usually they just gear up in flashy outfits and head right off to Metropolis to talk to Superman in broad daylight, or mostly fight it out with him. That said, yeah, if they’re aliens it would explain a lot.

“Maybe they landed in Japan first? So why are they here in the US now? And—wait.” He stopped to consider the series of thefts which, due to a blurted confession and similarity in M.O.’s, the Straw Hats were the major suspects for. “I still don’t see a pattern in their thefts,” he noted with a touch of respect, “and that’s the point, isn’t it?”

“Bingo,” Batgirl confirmed. “That’s what Batman thinks.” He bristled a little at the idea that he was only being used to validate an idea, and promptly crushed the petty thought with a self-awareness of that flaw, and knowledge that they were both just working through the same chain. His friend had hesitated briefly as he did that, and then she continued.

“Of course, this is all speculation without any solid evidence, but yeah, them being aliens would really help explain away a lot of questions. If also raising more of them.

“We think they’re stealing to get the materials to build something, for some goal, and the rest of the stuff they steal is either a smokescreen, or to be sold off for money to buy legitimate goods through other channels.”

“Except we still don’t know what they’re really after,” Nightwing pointed out. “Charming.”

His expression turned a shade darker. “And since the first things Bats found were their legitimate sources of income, and shut them down, they’ve turned to bigger and bigger crimes to make up for it.”

“Unfortunately,” Batgirl sighed.

“And pushing them further and further into a corner,” Nightwing finished. At this rate, the number of non-violent solutions to this mess with these supposed aliens was dropping.

An explosion rent the night a few blocks away, and wordlessly they were both leaping from the rooftop to go investigate.

War had come to Gotham City once more.

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Hideout

“What took you so long!?” snapped Nami. “You should’ve been back days ago! We were worried sick once the news broke out!”

“My apologies,” Jinbe exclaimed with a slight bow. “I felt it best for us to be discrete coming back, to ensure there was no pursuit.” Brook and Franky nodded.

The redhead sighed, but knew that if Jinbe had urged caution, it was probably a good idea. Especially since, “It was a simple bank robbery, and you had to go and cut down a hero!” she jabbed her finger at Zoro, her teeth suddenly seeming almost like shark fangs. “And worst of all, you not only gave your name, you said you were a Straw Hat! What is WRONG with you!? This was supposed to be A LOW PROFILE theft you MORON! IN and OUT! Now thanks to you, we’re international criminals!”

In spite of her burning fury, she still saw he was about to say something along the lines of, “What else is new?” and cut him off. “And that’s a bad thing!”

Zoro hesitated and then grimaced. Right, no letting slip that they were from another universe around the locals like Grundy.

Nami give him another menacing scowl, eyes promising future retribution, and faced said zombie.

“Oh, and by the way,” Nami grinned at the large zombie in question, “Chopper’s looking for you.”

“For Grundy?” he asked in confusion at the sudden shift in her mood.

“Yep!” chirped the doctor in question as he skipped into the room, a big paper bag trailing behind him. “Here’s the candy I promised you!”

Grundy’s massive smile was somehow simultaneously the most heartwarming and most disturbing thing Nami had seen in a while.

!JUSTICE!

Gotham City

Batgirl and Nightwing took it all in while still in motion as they swept down into no less than a five-way battle.

One side was a street gang they recognized, the Pig-Heads, who had broken out their emergency gear: cast-off military grade weapons smuggled to Gotham through the lucrative arms trade. They were also losing, and badly at that.

A group of unknowns were sporting heavy winter gear, and guns shooting beams of ice. They seemed to be amateurs, except most of the Pig-Head casualties still seemed to be from them.

Killer Croc was an enhanced human whose tendency for violence had led him to reject every second chance he had been given. He was also supposed to still be in jail, if not for the unfortunate fact that Blackgate Prison had suffered another major prison break just a few hours ago. Using his monstrous strength, the super-villain was fighting it out with Atomic Skull, a meta-criminal with a flaming green skull who was not from Gotham.

Last but not least, the cops trying to contain the madness while getting innocents to safety. Fortunately their gunfire had forced Atomic Skull to take cover.

Batarangs hammered the group using the ice weapons, stunning them.

A veteran at fighting the Bat Family, Killer Croc immediately turned in the direction the new attack had come from, seeing only shadows. This gave Nightwing and Batgirl the chance to take out the Pig-Heads in a flurry and fury of martial arts that rattled skulls and broken arms.

“No Bat to save yah this time!” growled the supervillain.

“Who needs him?” drawled Nightwing, hefting up a little ‘gift’ from the gangb*ngers: a rocket launcher.

“Wait!” gasped Killer Croc in shock. This was not how it worked!

Fire and shockwave hammered into him, bowling him over. Dimly he realized the explosion had only hit in front of him.

“Psych,” Batgirl grinned, hitting him with electrified batarangs, taking him out for good.

She kept in motion however, and stuck to the shadows –staying still was too dangerous— as she and Nightwing rushed Atomic Skull. He was so disorientated from the sudden shift that a double kick from the duo was all that was necessary to put him down.

Without taking an extra breath, the Batclan darted back to make sure their first victims were out cold.

Having done this a thousand times, the finishing kicks and punches were really anticlimactic.

“What’ve we got here?” Nightwing thoughtfully said, as he looked at the advanced tech.

“Looks like some of Dr. Freeze’s old toys,” noted Batgirl. “Except that Freeze’s been gone for a while,” maybe for good, “and this,” gesturing around at the aftermath of the firefight, “was too shoddy for him. Also, wrong style of winter gear for him.”

“They must’ve found an old cache of his,” Nightwing grimly concluded. “Maybe stored out of town?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s all nice, but what’s going on with the rest of them!?”

Both vigilantes turned to see Detectives Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, and Officer Wilkes coming over. Unsurprisingly, the brusque Bullock was the one demanding answers. “This is as bad as it’s ever gotten, including those two weeks when Bats was a no-show!”

That incident the overweight if keen-minded cop was referring to, was an incident when Batman had been under the mind control of Brainiac, albeit without the Kryptonian android knowing who he truly had in thrall. Regardless, for the two weeks Batman had been not appeared, crime had skyrocketed a chilling 15%. At this rate, it might get worse than that.

“All our questions and sources are getting us nowhere,” Detective Montoya said more politely. However it was evident that she and all other police present were being worn to the bone. They all showed symptoms of sleep deprivation, and Wilkes’ usually pristine uniform had a few small rips and stains.

“Hmhmm,” murmured Nightwing. He looked down at one of the downed thugs. “Anything you wanna add? And since you’re new, I’d advise you skip the impolite language.”

Fear clear on his face, the young man –barely out of his teens— gulped loudly. “Look, alright, jobs are coming apart elsewhere. If it ain’t you spandex freaks,” Nightwing’s foot gave him a warning nudge, “coming after us, it’s the super-crooks hogging the good stuff. We’re feeling the pinch, see? Hard to make a decent living!”

His audience was neither impressed nor sympathetic.

Hurrying on, “And then we get word that Gotham City’s the place to be! That the super-crooks are moving out, and the rest of ‘em are staying out now! So we figure that with just the Bat to worry about. . . Yeah, I’ll shut up now,” he trailed off at the glares.

With a grunt, Bullock turned back to the heroes. “That’s pretty much what we’ve been hearing. Except what’s shaken it all up?”

!JUSTICE!

Sliding and gliding through familiar shadows, Batman raced to his destination before his quarry knew he was coming.

Things had always been grim in Gotham City, and now they were even worse than usual. Far worse. Not the usual petty drugs and theft, but something both new and beyond what his contingency plans had accounted for.

For years he had built up a reputation of respect and fear within Gotham, and it had spread from there. Except now and inexplicably, the crooks were streaming to the home of America’s darkest pit of violence and sin. Obviously men like Two-Face, Rupert Thorne, and every other criminal in town took exception to intruders on their turf. Especially since said trespassers wanted their own piece of the pie; somehow imagining that there was plenty of profit to go around. Violence had been inevitable. It was amazing it had not blown up sooner.

Of course it was only going to go further downhill at this rate. The local gang leaders were getting increasingly territorial, and the newcomers were escalating as they tried to carve out a piece for themselves. Even the ‘special’ criminals who were less concerned about money than their individual psychoses, like the Riddler, had to join in, just to keep up. It would take lots of long nights to prune this all back.

At least after Batman’s most recent shakedown of Penguin, who was distressed at how this newest crime spree was impacting his legitimate business interests, he had a new lead on the Straw Hats.

Internally he grimaced; clearly they had become a bigger issue than he had imagined when he had first started investigating them. At first they had appeared to be a company too altruistic for there to not be a catch, along with some suspicious finances. Honestly though, that was simply chump-change compared to Lex Corp. He had been committing discrete raids upon Luthor for months now to put all the pieces together, and the man was too quick at hiding the dirty stuff, or ensuring ‘plausible deniability.’

Like he had told Clark, Batman had hoped that Cherry Blossom Medical’s secrets were relatively benign, and that the League could work with them to spread their ground-breaking medical advances globally.

His father, Doctor Thomas Wayne, MD, would have done no less.

Except he had played it safe, and sent Clark to scout it out along with Lois (who had an undeniably keen mind herself), and the former had come back to him with very concerning reports. That the CEO, ‘Sanji Kuroashi,’ had a physique comparative to the Flash, one of the most powerful beings on Earth, and that the supposed scientist ‘Dr. Mikan’ reminded Clark more of an elite soldier, with unidentified yet advanced technology concealed upon her. Plus he had learnt their backgrounds were fraudulent, including Nami Mikan’s doctorate. Did that fit the bill of the simple, generous company they portrayed themselves as?

Not to mention the sheer number of super criminals whose powers were the results of shady experiments to enhance people, and here was at least one secret meta-human running the most advanced medical company in the world, along with everything else thrown in?

Honestly, he had investigated people over less, usually discovering nasty surprises that would have cost many lives if allowed to succeed.

So he had gone to discretely investigate. Maybe find some blackmail like that illegal underground hideout while he was at it. To use if necessary.

Instead he had found self-styled pirates, been discovered without his realizing it, and received several broken bones.

Things had gone downhill from there.

Still, he remained confident that if Cherry Blossom Medical really had been as altruistic as they claimed, they would not have been hiding anything on that scale.

Now the evidence pointed towards the possibility that they were actually aliens, which only muddied up their potential motives even further. While he was still unable to find a pattern to their thefts, nor figure out which ones were merely to mislead him, he was confident their intentions were anything but benign. After all, if they were, they could simply just approach Superman, a fellow alien, to get whatever help they needed. Or Green Lantern the space-cop. No, there was definitely something sinister going on.

That aside, during the whole nightmare with the rogue Amazon, Princess Diana and Hawkgirl had worked alongside them, the skeleton Brook, Soul King, had said, ‘As per our Captain’s orders, we’re not even supposed to be in Gotham City.’ Why?

Especially since there was so much concentrated here that they had been stealing elsewhere. There were several multi-billionaires who chose to inhabit the city for one. Not to mention the numerous corporations that produced advanced technology, while taking advantage of the desperate labour force, bribable safety inspectors, and other sources of corruption. And finally of course, there was his own Wayne Industries, which managed to be both ethical and cutting edge. Various other international gangs took advantage of this, so why not them?

He had a gut feeling that it was connected to the perception that there was a sudden vacuum in Gotham’s underworld. Moreover, some of the local super-criminals were indeed lying disturbingly low, despite how new competition was marching brazenly around, which was out of character for them.

Although they were right about the Joker.

Except it started before he left for New Orleans, he reflected. Is that why he went? Or just to mess with me as I searched through the city for whatever Halloween stunt he was going to pull?

Regardless, he had a mission to complete.

!JUSTICE!

Later

It was almost painful to take the time to do this, while his partners and protégés, and the police force, were out fighting to stop all the widespread robberies and violence, yet Batman knew this could be his best lead.

Something had happened to change the calculus in the underworld, and the only wildcard factors he could imagine responsible for this were the Joker (who would not have been in New Orleans away from the ‘fun’), Lex Luthor or Ra's al Ghul (both of whom were too orderly, and too much of a control freak to set off something like this), or the Straw Hats (simply because Batman still had no grasp upon their motives). He was hoping that his target should shed some light on the situation.

Stalking through the ‘abandoned’ warehouse, he silently snuck up behind a little girl, sitting on a high chair, looking over some maps of Gotham.

“Mary Dahl,” he rasped.

Jumping up in shock, the blonde child spun around to face him, hands grasping for a weapon he had already discretely taken from her.

It was her eyes that betrayed the truth of who she was: an adult.

Throughout her life she suffered from systemic hypoplasia, an extremely rare medical condition that prevented her body from physically aging. So while she appeared five years old, she was really in her thirties. Once an actress, the disparity between how old she looked and actually was, had driven her insane, and into a life of crime under the alias ‘Baby-Doll.’ She had recovered and taken up a regular job. Unfortunately, once more what made her ‘different,’ how people treated her, made her willingly and violently lash out a society that misunderstood and shunned her.

Worst of all, she was willing to destroy Gotham itself in the process.

“I see you got out of Blackgate Prison. I hope you’re behaving yourself,” he coldly demanded. She had in fact successfully escaped several weeks ago –her childlike appearance made it harder for people to appreciate how resourceful she truly was— and had laid low ever since. Batman had been searching for her, except she had done a surprisingly good job of staying hidden until now.

“I-I am!” she gasped.

“Then why are you seeking out the Straw Hats?”

Still shaken she tried to answer, and he switched topics to throw her further off, intensifying his aura of menace. “What do you know about them?”

“Uhm, I,” she hesitated, before sagging down. “I wanted to join them. That’s why I broke out, and learnt all I could about them.”

“Anything you want to share?”

Cagey now that she might have an opening, she promptly answered, “They’re the reason the crooks are flooding here.”

As he had suspected. Still, “Impossible. If they were giving that sort of orders, I’d have heard about it.”

Shifting about to make herself look more harmless, she awkwardly looked to the side, trying to make herself look more ‘adorable.’ “You’re not going to like it. At all.”

“Try me.”

“There’s a lot of rumours spreading around about them now, because one of them, or one of the newbies they’ve recruited, said something to one of their contacts. Next thing you know, everyone’s hearing it and passing it on. Until next thing you know people’re flooding here.”

“With the original rumour changing from person to person,” he deduced. “And spreading more and more different rumours in the process.”

“Yeah, I tracked down the first one, but the word on the street is that if they’ve got guys who can take down members of the Justice League, then that means that sooner or later they’ll either be trying for world domination, or taking over all the gangs, and they say they don’t want the first.”

Interesting, if reassuring. If it’s accurate, thought the Dark Knight. Outwardly, he maintained his intimidating silence, trusting Dahl to hurry to fill the void.

Sure enough, she gushed out, “And since they’ve knocked off a few rivals, or the powered crooks who’ve annoyed them, people are starting to get real antsy.”

While he hid any reaction, internally Batman was furious he had failed to consider this. When Killer Frost had been turned in to the authorities by the Straw Hats, he had only considered it in terms of the power displayed to take her down. He had limited himself to the perspective of law enforcement, failing to see how other criminals would see it, particularly meta-criminals. Given how they were all ‘freethinkers’ who were ‘shunned’ and ‘ostracized’ by a society that ‘refused to accept them,’ as opposed to the fact they preyed on those weaker than them, there was a loose sense of brother and sisterhood to them. Obviously that did not mean there was any ‘honour among thieves,’ yet they still tended to leave each other alone, unless their interests directly conflicted. After all, the Justice League and law enforcement were after them indiscriminately, so they were in it together. However, if a new player joined the board and showed a willingness to pick them off, then their choices were either fight back against a group who, as Dahl said, could clash with the Justice League better than anyone else had, or head to richer prospects.

‘Richer prospects’ like Batman’s city apparently.

“So once they learnt that the Straw Hats were staying out of Gotham, people started thinking that if they went there it would be better for ‘em. So much crime going on that surely there’s enough for all, y’know. And once some started doing it, more followed thinking it must be a good idea after all. Of course once they got here, they got caught up in this big ol’ gang war.”

Yeeesssss. . . It was all coming together nicely now. Except for how the Straw Hats were perceived by the underworld though, there were no big surprises.

The only question . . .

His voice like ice, “The rumour?”

She fidgeted, “Uhm, right.”

“ . . . ”

“Look,” Dahl awkwardly said, “I’m not a hundred percent sure I’ve tracked down the original one. I mean, it’s all rumours, y’know? But I found this one guy. . .”

She let out a deep breath.

“Apparently the Straw Hats actually were planning to come here for one of the science labs, and then their boss overheard a guy say he got sick eating spoiled meat in a hot dog he bought in Gotham, and he declared they were to never, ever come here. Yeah. . .”

Batman blinked as his mind rebelled against this answer.

Against the horrific possibilities.

No, there were only two really.

First, this, his city, his home, being torn apart by war, was all just a demonstration. That this new player on the board had let it be known to America’s criminal fraternity, “I’m staying out of Gotham City, so it’s all yours,” and they had come. That despite all his years as a hero and creating a shroud of protective fear, they had still decided it was safer and more profitable to come to his territory to fight it out. That it was better than staying out of Gotham where they would have the Straw Hats as competition.

A simple display meant to showcase how powerless Batman, and by extension the rest of the Justice League, really were.

Or, second, it really was all born from a whim. And if so, if they could set off all this chaos so easily, than how was he to predict them? How was the Justice League’s top strategist and detective supposed to get ahead of the Straw Hats?

Then he took a deep breath, clenched his fists one last time, and straightened up.

No, he was not done yet.

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Hideout

Luffy’s eyes were hard as he watched the news alone.

After the whole incident at Halloween, Monkey D. Luffy had started keeping track of the news for once. Quietly of course, in the room reserved for those who might want to watch their shows alone (like Sanji watching beach volleyball and drooling), because he knew his friends would be concerned by him paying an active interest, as opposed to listening to whatever Nami said as she read the paper if he was around. Concerned because they would know he was upset by something.

Violence had broken out in Bad Meat City, and after asking Robin about it, he knew it was because other criminals were trying to stay out of him and his crew’s way.

“. . . Why is this happening?” he muttered aloud.

He knew people thought he was overly simple, while he just thought people were trying to make things overly complicated. People lived and then they died, and what mattered in-between was if they believed in something and were willing to strive for it. Being alive and alone was hell, so find those you cared for and cared for you in turn, and protect them with your life. And always strive to eat twice (or even better, three or four times) your body weight in meat. The rest tended to be incidentals that people got all bent out of shape over while insisting that he should care about them.

As if a man should let others dictate what he cares about, or how he should act.

That said, ever since Luffy had set sail and taken upon the responsibilities of Captain, he had been increasingly forced to focus on more issues, and think about those ‘incidentals.’ Zoro and Rayleigh had worked hard to hammer home that it was his job to be open-minded about that.

Coming to this world had been a BIG issue.

Possibly the biggest.

When they had come here, they had all been in the middle of a war, with so many friends, and their friends’ friends, counting on them to come back. To say nothing of his nakama’s own dreams that could never be fulfilled here. Plus, it was hard to become the Pirate King without the One Piece.

So the solution was simple:

1) Get back home. By any means necessary.

2) Do not let people from this freaky, complicated world follow them back, or know about it. Nothing good would come from it.

Quickly they had realized they would need vast resources to accomplish their goals, and their robbing had escalated far, far beyond anything they had ever done before. What they ran off with from Skypiea was chump change in comparison. Although in fairness, they had tried doing it legally! Unfortunately those methods were apparently too exposed, and invited unwanted attention. Only a few of those avenues were left now. Besides, pirates used force to take what they wanted.

What was different from all those times before, was now the consequences of their actions were being splayed out on the news for all to see. Back home the World Government tried to pretend everything was perfect, or at least lie that it was not as bad as it sounded. Here, the news guys actually liked to focus on all the yucky stuff for some reason.

A part of him knew stuff like this happened back home, like those rants from obnoxious jailer back in Impel Down who kept getting back up no matter how many times Luffy hit him. About the consequences of releasing so many of the worst prisoners to do whatever they wanted. People got hurt by what the Straw Hats did. People unconnected to the marines or pirates.

He just rarely thought about it because it did not mean he was going to stop being a pirate –not like the government would just let him be by now either. He was not like Vivi who thought she could save the day without anyone getting hurt; that was what a hero tried to do.

He was no hero, he was a pirate.

However, that did not mean he enjoyed knowing people were being hurt by his and his crew’s actions. Those who were innocent of doing anything bad to those he cared about. Even if he did not know them.

Most of his nakama had probably figured this would happen, except they had largely kept quiet. It was not like they could just stop trying to get back home. They knew just as well as him that they did not belong here, and they were needed back home! In Wano! Where Traffy and the rest of their friends were gearing up for a war with Kaido!

Sighing, he massaged his forehead which was hurting from all this thinking.

As Captain, his foremost duty was to his crew, so yes, it was not like they could just stop. But . . . maybe they could think up some other ways to get home without any more damage to others? Or at least no more than necessary. Something like Chopper’s Cherry Blossom Medical Company, or putting the pant-tents or whatever on the public domain –he had no idea what that meant, only that the others seemed to think it was good news.

Not that he or the others had any idea of how they would go about doing that.

“Luffy?”

He glanced up to see Maureen come in, looking much healthier and well-fed than when he had first met her. “Yeah, Mauri?”

(Ever since she had started getting better, he had felt safe to give her an easier name).

Smiling at the nickname, she glanced at the cup of water beside him. “Do you want some ice cubes?” she eagerly asked.

“Sure!” Luffy grinned back, while muting the TV volume, glad to give her the opportunity.

With a twitch of her fingers, there was now some blobs of ice floating in his drink.

“You’re getting good at that!” he complimented, picking up his instantly cooled glass for a sip.

“Thanks!” she giggled back.

Turning her attention to the news, Maureen caught the rolling headline about how Batman was apparently incapable of handling the drastically rising Gotham crime rate.

“Luffy?”

“Yes?”

“Uhm,” and she awkwardly looked at her feet, “are Batman and the Justice League bad guys? I mean, I hear Volcana talk about Superman sometimes, and Poison Ivy for Batman, and, uhm, they don’t sound like what I always hear on the news. . .”

Her head snapped up as Luffy ruffled her hair. He was only a few years older than her, and could act far more childish, yet right now she felt drawn into the certainty of his expression. The hidden and sometimes weird wisdom he held. With level eyes, he simply said, “Heroes are very important. I love heroes myself. It’s up to you however to decide for yourself if someone’s a hero or not.”

Blushing a little, she nodded resolutely. In that sense, Luffy, Volcana, Nami, Sanji, and the rest were heroes too!

Glancing back at the news, Luffy gave another sigh, and turned it off.

!JUSTICE!

Gotham City

Reasserting himself, Batman narrowed his gaze further at Dahl as she seemed to be inching towards a concealed weapon. As if struck, she snatched back her hand.

“Why were you seeking them out?” he growled, wanting to distract her from his momentary weakness.

Surprisingly, she barked out a harsh laugh. “You have to ask!? They were running the most advanced medical company in the world before your ruined it! What if they can cure me!?”

“Cure you?” and it took considerable will to hide his shock.

“Duh! I mean, I was a little hesitant at first, because if he’s calling himself Dr. Chopper, then you just know the odds are even that underneath his fury complexion is a bloody, sad*stic surgeon.” Dalh stopped for a deep breath. “But I just can’t take it anymore! And maybe, just maybe, with people as different as them, I’ll find kindred spirits!”

In an instant it all clicked together for Batman.

Baby-Doll, Mary Dahl, had no one in the world. The one time she had tried to find a friend in someone ‘different,’ also ostracized from society for their criminal background as she was (and in all fairness, hers had begun from a genuine mental breakdown), it had ended in disaster. She had put what remained of her trust in Killer Croc, thinking they had a genuine connection, and he had betrayed her. Unlike her, he was not looking for a place where he belonged.

Something that the Straw Hat Pirates, with all of the powerful misfits they already knew were members, could offer.

Like Volcana who’s disappeared? Or Harley Quinn after they crippled the Joker? Who else would be interested?

Not just for a place to belong, but for another chance at life . . .

Moving down that thought-chain, it was also clear he had been too hasty in his earlier conclusion while talking to Dahl.

The meta-criminals don’t look at them with just fear, it’s respect too!

Power, wealth, protection, they can provide all of that, yet unlike someone like Luthor or most of the rest, they’ll promise a place to be part of. To be safe and accepted!

Not universally of course, some like Luthor would conclude they were either overly sentimental, or running a scam. The regular street crooks or gangs would simply not care. Yet running through his mental psychological profiles of every super-powered threat, Batman knew too many of them would still be intrigued. A group who could possibly make ‘honour among thieves’ work!?

Events were shifting faster than the Justice League could keep up. So far.

While criminals had to pay a penalty in order for there to be both a deterrent and Justice, was it working for super-criminals?

He remembered how he had torn into Clark about his criminally negligent attempt to imprison Volcana, and now wondered what would have happened if he had asked her to join him fighting crime, or suppressing flames for firefighters. A second chance perhaps, while working to publicly rehabilitate her? While risky as she obviously had serious trust issues, if she had been given a strong, genuine, display of it in turn when he did not have to, it probably would have been all that was needed to help give her the necessary push to becoming good. And everyone would know Superman would remain true to his promise.

She would have had the chance to be a hero and live a better life. Whatever she may have chosen in the end, everyone she had dealt with before had never actually given her a choice.

Many other villains would try to abuse this sort of opportunity of course, and others would (briefly?) relapse, but Batman knew what Clark would say:

That if you give people a shot at being better, enough of them will take it to make it worth the effort.

All of this flashed through his mind before the woman before him could notice.

“You’re right,” he admitted to her. “Maybe they could.”

Her eyes brightened with hope. “Are you going to let me go then?”

“There may be an alternative.”

Instantly her eyes hardened in suspicion. “What?” she ground out.

“Wayne Enterprises has begun making great strides themselves since the Straw Hat’s patents went onto the public domain. But you’ll have to find out in prison if they can help you.”

She hesitated for a moment, before nodding in acceptance.

This . . . whatever it was he was considering, Batman knew he had to discuss with the others. With the authorities. However it was becoming clear that at the very least, they had to take another good, looooong look at what the current system was doing to rehabilitate the convicts. Maybe some fresh perspectives would help . . .

!JUSTICE!

Later

“Situation,” Batman curtly ordered.

“Good to see you too,” grinned Nightwing, having sensed the man’s approach.

“Oh how I missed the egos,” groaned Batgirl melodramatically. Addressing her boss more seriously, “It’s only getting worse, we’re barely staying ahead of this. Did you get any clues?”

“I confirmed what we already knew, that the word got out that there was less competition in Gotham. Now I know who and how.” Before he could elaborate, a bundle of joy joined them.

“Hey guys, guess what?” Beaming, the fifteen-year old Robin, a.k.a. Tim Drake, hopped up to join them.

“What?” Nightwing asked with a grin.

“We’ve got back-up?”

Batman shot his ward a sharp look. “Who?” All of his protégés were accounted for. Maybe Selina? He had also been hearing rumours about a new vigilante dubbing herself ‘Huntress.’

“Me.”

Regal and tall, Wonder Woman descended down beside the Bat Family.

.

.

.

Breaking the stunned silence, Nightwing leaned over to Batgirl to sotto whisper, “This is gonna get awkward.”

“What. Are. You. Doing. Here?” bit out Batman. His face was stone cold and impassive, except for the slight furrow of his brow over narrowed eyes. The infamous ‘Batglare.’ “I’ve told all of you before, I don’t need your help in Gotham!” Even Green Lantern had asked for permission to come to here. This place was too much of a powder keg otherwise!

Unimpressed, she crossed her arms. “Have you seen the news reports coming out of your own city? Superman told us to leave it to you, but honestly this is getting ridiculous. Besides, you never showed up to see Sir Justin in the hospital. Not that we were worried, we know you can take care of yourself,” she quickly assured him, “except that told us it really was bad if you passed up the chance to interview him more on what happened.”

Coughing into her fist, Batgirl took the more diplomatic approach. “Wonder Woman—”

“Call me Diana,” she warmly told the younger heroes.

“—Diana, there is a good reason Batman doesn’t want super-humans in Gotham. We’ve got to show the people here that they don’t need powers to make a difference; that ordinary people can do it too.”

“And most people don’t have access to the resources and wealth Batman must have, to be as good as he is!” protested Diana. “Don’t get me wrong,” she apologized to the increasingly menacing figure, “you’re absolutely incredible at what you do, you’ve accomplished more than any other ‘normal’ man that I’ve ever heard of.”

“Oh, he’s not normal,” deadpanned Nightwing. His smirk made it perfectly clear he was enjoying himself.

“Gotham’s not like anywhere else,” Batman snapped again. “It’s a warren of madmen with a diverse array of dangerous weapons. Just rushing in will get even you killed! I don’t need any help!”

“Really,” and now there was a mocking tone to his voice. “Is that how it is?”

“When lives are in danger, yes.”

“Having a meta-human here will force the villains to escalate!”

“You don’t know that!”

“Ahem,” Nightwing broke in, stepping in between with a palm facing either of them. “Alright, look, this is getting us nowhere. Bats, she’s right. On a long-term basis, letting people think that the heroes will just swoop in and save the day will not fix Gotham. Except it’s only getting worse out there, with no sign of improvement. Cops are getting hurt, with some pretty close calls, and even we’re all getting worn out. Sooner or later, someone’s going to make a mistake. Besides, you said it yourself that whatever is causing this is coming from outside of Gotham. Who is it anyways?”

Recognizing the blatant attempt to change the topic, nonetheless Batman answered. “The Straw Hats. They put out the word that they were uninterested here, and their rising fame spooked gangs into coming here, which made everyone else think it might be a good idea.”

“Them again!” barked Diana in frustration. While she might respect the good they had done, the harm the pirates were also causing was swiftly becoming too much.

“Hey, hey, let’s worry about Gotham for now,” Robin quickly interjected. He had been keeping quiet during this, knowing that they needed the help. Unfortunately he had belatedly realized that his adoptive father was even more upset about this than anticipated.

“Very well then,” and Diana relaxed her crossed arms so her fists dropped to her sides. “Are you going to let me help, or am I doing this on my own?”
For over a minute Batman only stared at her, before turning around. “Watch your back, and follow my lead. Do exactly as I tell you.”

“Hey, Diana,” she turned to look at the man Superman had described as being Batman’s oldest protégé, and adoptive son. “He’s got too much pride to show people he cares about them, he’s a melodramatic brooder like that.”

“He doesn’t overtly show he cares at least,” Batgirl hastily corrected.

“But he does,” Robin chipped in.

“So if he keeps trying to push you away,” grinned Nightwing, “then that means he’s worried he’s getting soft by liking you. Just push back.”

The man in question refused to respond in any way, while she just smiled. “Thanks for the advice.” With that, she flew off after her colleague.

“I like her!” Nightwing grinned, while Batgirl glared at him.

“You do realize with that advice you’ve guaranteed he’ll be insufferable for months, right?” she hissed.

“Eh, he’s spending more and more time with the League anyways, and she can take it.”

!JUSTICE!

Grinning widely, the Riddler took in the sight of his gang setting down C4 explosives to break open the bank vault. This was one of the few remaining intact ones in Gotham, only the thickness of the doors keeping it protected.

Not for lack of trying though. There had been four other failed attempts these last two weeks, including one that ended with the bank manager and four hostages killed when said manager failed to cough up the combination. Amateurs, those three-bit newcomers had been too sloppy to prevent the alarm going off, sealing up the vault beyond even a mere branch manager’s ability to open up. Especially a Gotham branch manager; his head office had been too savvy to make it so he could do that. And equally uncaring about the fate of their employees.

Whistling and twirling his cane, Riddler went over his plan again. The money from the heist would satisfy his men, and fund the rest of his work. Meanwhile, the real prize lay in certain scientific documents he knew were secured within, as well as the perfect opportunity to leave a clue for Batman about his newest criminal masterpiece! A puzzle that would finally stump the man, proving once and for all who was the brightest!

Speaking of which, he casually took in the sight of the front lobby again.

Guards covering the doors with machine guns, while to trip up any nosey Bats, they had littered the floor in front of the doors and windows with marbles painted in the same colour of the floor. A simple trap to ruin a do-gooder’s balance when they rushed in and slipped on them, yet also another clue he had generously provided to his true plan.

More of his gang had automatic weapons were trained on the hostages, and small squads were patrolling around the build—

Breaking down through the ceiling, Wonder Woman landed between the hostages and their kidnappers. Guns barked on reflex and she deflected them with her bracelets, the flare of sparks and rebounding bullets making the thugs flinch back and briefly stop shooting.

More than enough.

Her fists hammered them through the air towards Riddler and his bodyguards, knocking them down.

“What is—get her!” cried Riddler in shock. What was she doing here! This was Batman’s turf—it clicked together. And my guys on the floor above would’ve seen her coming! She’s a distraction!

Sure enough, the guards by the doors and windows were already silently down, and the rest of the infernal Bats were upon him, leaping a path through the marbles. Doubtless the same thing that had happened to the ones upstairs.

Batman’s fist was the last thing Riddler saw for several hours.

!JUSTICE!

As the night continued, Wonder Woman and Batman split off from the rest, and they continued to hunt. Thankfully, things were finally calming down, and according to reports from an ‘Agent A,’ Commissioner Gordon agreed.

“Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, head back in to rest,” the Dark Knight ordered over his radio.

“Roger,” Nightwing answered. “Don’t forget you’re human too, and follow your own advice though.” His tone was not unkind though.

Diana was about to say something when Batman held up a hand for silence. Used to the gesture by now, she stepped back from him for cover to stay low.

Peering down from the rooftop, she saw a couple of young men and women huddled together and briskly walking down the street. Why in Hera’s name are they out so late when the city’s like this!? Then she registered how they were all wearing the same store uniform, that she was certain provided twenty-four-hour service. They must’ve just come off shift, and are hoping for safety in numbers. Except . . .

Sure enough, she caught sight of a burly figure lurking in the shadows of an alleyway just ahead of them.

With eerie silence, Batman fired his grappling gun to cross the street overhead, and land on the adjacent roof. Ducking down into the darkness, he disappeared from sight.

Relaxing, Diana knew what was about to happen.

The young men and women, teenagers really, passed by the mouth of the alley . . . and nothing happened. Not a single disturbance. Unaware of their close call, the teens hurried inside one of the apartment buildings that one of them evidently lived in.

They never even knew, she proudly thought. Without witnesses, glory, or reward, because none of those things matter. Because people shouldn’t have to live their lives in fear.

Shouldn’t grow up thinking it’s part of life.

With slightly more noise than her teammate, she floated over to join him, as he was searching through the perp’s wallet. “Louis Franz,” he said as she arrived. “Fresh from Metropolis. Should’ve stayed with Superman.”

“Apparently,” she agreed as she appraised the unconscious thug. Given the presence of a nasty looking knife, she held no sympathy for his condition. That said, she had examined Batman’s victims before, and this one seemed more roughed up than normal. More than such a pathetic looking lowlife warranted.

Hmmm . . . It was one more piece to a puzzle that had gradually been starting to concern her and Superman. The other Leaguers did not see it, except now she wondered if she had been missing other hints. He obviously still had it under control, but still. . .

Batman suddenly co*cked his head to the side, before stepping out of the alley, dragging Mr. Franz behind him, wrists tied up by his own belt.

As if on cue, a police car pulled up around the corner, and slowed to a stop when they saw their hometown hero.

“Batman,” one officer said as he stepped out of the car. “Got someone for us?”
“Attempted mugging,” was all he said, before taking back up to the rooftops. Stunned, Diana stared after him for a few seconds before belatedly following him.

Used to this behaviour, the police settled their new ‘guest’ into the back of the car. They did not even bother switching on handcuffs.

!JUSTICE!

November 4

Early morning

Wayne Manor

“Well, I must say, I’m glad things have settled down,” said Alfred. Dick, Tim, and Barbara were all in his little kitchen with their costumes off. The oldest member of their little family was baking them a hearty late dinner/early breakfast.

“Same here,” sighed Tim. “Say, what’re you cooking? Is that a new book?”

“Why yes, Timothy. It came very highly recommended, and I must say, I am impressed with its recipes. Although I haven’t heard of the author before, one ‘Zeff Baratie.’ No matter, I’m sure you will all enjoy this one; lots of protein, energy, and vitamins.”

“Hah!” scoffed Dick. “Make sure to give some to Bruce then, he’s gonna need it more than we are!”

“And just what are you implying?” Barbara asked with a light glare.

“Well,” grinned Dick, “didn’t you see the tension between ‘em? C’mon, Princess Diana came all the way here to help out, and even made him listen to reason. I approve.”

“Certainly healthier than some of the other women he’s been interested in,” Tim chipped in.

“Ugh, yeah,” agreed Dick. “I sometimes have nightmares of Talia al Ghul showing up at the doorstep with a baby in tow.”

“Do you really think Bruce wants a girlfriend?” huffed Barbara.

“Ah, he doesn’t want to think he wants one,” Dick cheekily replied. “He’ll list off all these dumb reasons, like,” he lowered his voice in a parody of Batman’s, “I have too many issues, and I need to brood all the time.”

Despite themselves, Tim and Barbara both quirked a smile. Alfred remained impassive, ready to intervene if necessary.

“Well,” mused Tim, “he’s probably thinking dating within teams never works out. No fraternization and all. That’s kinda reasonable.” Neither Dick nor Barbara looked at each other.

Coughing, Dick focused himself, and then sighed, “Or something stupid like his enemies would go after her to get to him, or something equally stupid.” Then he started snickering. “Of course, after tonight I bet the crooks won’t be going after Batman because they’ll be afraid she’ll come after them!”

Now both his fellow heroes were definitely amused, and Alfred was happy to see the tension draining away.

“Yeah,” Tim nodded. “Now they know Bruce really does have the League at his back. I want to see Superman beat up Bane again!”

They all had a good laugh. It was frankly criminal that Tim had failed to take pictures of that!

Seeing how they were all fully settling down now, Alfred began serving the mouth-watering omelet, while draping it in thick, rich sauce. “What I think,” he calmly said, “is that if Master Bruce does harbour feelings for her, for her to reciprocate, he must first work this out on his own.”

“. . . Whelp, sorry Alfred,” Dick sadly said, “no grandchildren for you.”

“I daresay, I’d be shipping them off to ‘Big Brother Richards’ every weekend,” the butler dryly rejoined. He was highly tempted to make a comment about great-grandchildren, but there was no reason to frighten the children out of his kitchen.

“I’ll be studying abroad during the diaper years,” smirked Barbara.

“Mind if I join?” Tim chuckled.

“Hilarious,” deadpanned Dick, before grinning again, and serving himself a generous portion. “Well, we’ve done all we can for Gotham tonight, today, whatever, so let’s eat up.”

“Hear, hear!”

!JUSTICE!

“So, was my performance . . . satisfactory?” Diana dryly asked.

The two members of the Justice League were standing on an empty roof, looking at the sun slowly poke over the horizon behind thick smog. Things had finally settled down.

“Yes,” grunted Batman.

“Good. Hopefully, it’ll settle down a bit more now that you’ve had the chance to cover more ground. When do you think we’ll see you on the Watchtower next?”

“Not for a while,” he answered. “I’ve got some things to take care of here still. Investigations I can’t put off.”

She stared at him for a little bit, before shaking her head. “You’ve been acting more and more irritable and aloof lately, and not just tonight. I’m sorry if I bruised your pride coming here, but you can’t hold yourself responsible for everything. That’s why we’re a team: we help one another.”

“And it was appreciated,” he grudgingly acknowledged. “There will be some backlash of course, but nothing I can’t handle with a little preparation.”

“Thanks heaps,” she muttered, before realizing she was getting off topic. “So why the bad attitude then? And I’m serious, Superman’s noticed it too. Something’s been bothering you lately. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said without even facing her. “And even if there was something, it’d be none of your concern.”

She glared at him at that. “Why are you being so stubborn about this?”

Silence.

Her fists clenched with the desire to just shake the man until he answered her, except she knew that was not the right way. So she took a quiet breath to cool her emotions, and tried to figure it out. She did it aloud just to provoke him. “It’s not just Gotham nearly being torn apart, and me coming to help. If it was, you’d have resisted more. Honestly, it went alright. For all broody you get, the cops here sure are supportive of you—”

He made no visible response, yet still she stopped herself.

“You get the support from the law that we don’t have outside of your city,” she teased out. “Here, if you show up with a beaten up man and said he was a mugger, they believe you and cart him off to jail. Except that’s not how it works elsewhere. Green Lantern and Superman gave me, J’onn, and Shayera a long talk about the legal systems in Man’s World, and how important it is that we cooperate with the law, even when they’re being stupid about it. Or having different ones for different countries or states. When they should just believe us. So when you go sneaking around for evidence for League cases, you do it discretely, without letting the authorities know.

“And, Nightwing said you try to keep yourself distant from those you care for.”

“Those have nothing to do with each other,” the Dark Knight disdainfully told her.

He didn’t even try to deny it or keep his silence. Maybe he was more tired then he was letting on.

“Don’t they?” she grinned. “I think it’s why you decided to be a part-timer. So you could do the,” she made quotation marks with her fingers, “dirty work,” she stopped, “and the League could disavow you if needed.”

He twitched, which in any other man would have been a full-blown flinch.

To his dying day he would deny it, yet she still saw it.

Mercilessly she continued. “Most of the time we’re dealing with alien invasions, mad scientists, or super criminals. Nice and straightforward, and in public. It’s the complicated stuff, with all those annoying ‘shades of grey,’ as you call them, when we need to present solid evidence. When it has to be admissible in court, procured by legal means, or else the crook could just walk free. I think Superman called it Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, or something like that. When that happens, a certain someone is sneaking around, breaking and entering to steal the clues to lead us to a so-called legitimate trail.”

“Don’t delude yourself,” rasped Batman. “I’m a part-timer because I’m not a team player. Besides, we aren’t part of a government organization, so, UN support or not, we’re a vigilante organization. Sooner or later, something’ll happen, and we’ll have to disband anyways. And a self-righteous attitude like yours is guaranteed to bring that about!”

“Lies.”

“What?” Now he was truly stunned by her arrogance. For a member of the League. . . Or was it because she was royalty . . . ?

“Oh, stop,” Wonder Woman sighed. “I didn’t mean you’re lying about me maybe being too self-righteous.” She hesitated as if remembering another conversation, before plowing on. “And while maybe that’s not the right word, that’s certainly not what you think about the League.”

Walking up to him, the princess tapped the bat symbol on his chest. “You go on about being the night and vengeance, but I know you’re really about justice. That you believe in it.”

“So you’re an expert on Man’s World now?” His voice was dry enough to drain a lake.

“No, I just know you. You believe in the League, and are feeling guilty about yourself for all the troubles we’ve been having lately. That you didn’t manage to handle the Straw Hats right. That it led to the PR disaster we’re still dealing with, because we can’t erase the fact it was a medical company, a helpful one, we took down.”

“There was no we,” he growled, before cutting himself off.

Gently, she put a hand on his shoulder. “We’re in this together.”

Shrugging her off, Batman turned away.

“They don’t believe in Justice you know.”

“The Straw Hats? I heard your debriefing,” he said without turning back.

“Uh huh, and what Shayera said is still true. We’re doing what we believe in to make the world a better place. And no matter what other people think, what they label us as, that will never change.”

“Go too far,” he warned, “and we’ll be no different than the scum we lock up. If our public image is tarnished enough, then there are those in the government who’ll say we should be treated like criminals too—and there are powerful people who already want that!”

She opened her mouth, but he cut her off. “People get a thrill tearing down heroes, proving that they’re no better than they are. Vindicating their own failings. And now that we’re losing battles, people are starting to question if we really are what they imagine us to be!”

Her bright smile cut him off. What was so funny!?

Honestly, thought Wonder Woman. He talks about us as a group more than anyone, and then in the next breath tries to deny his place in our midst.

Leaning against a nearby gargoyle, she shook her head. “We don’t need to prove to the world we’re heroes, we know we are.”

“It’s not that simple!”

She shrugged. “I’m a warrior. I came here to make the world a better place the best way I know how. Whatever people say about me, it’s not going to stop me from doing what’s right.” She stopped to think about his words a bit more, and co*cked her eyebrow. “If you’re planning to take the sole heat for what happened with Cherry Blossom Industries, don’t bother. We won’t disavow you, and it’s far too late for anyone to believe it anyways.” He said nothing to that.

To his surprise, she then took a deep breath, and then sat down to lean against the wall beside him, silently looking up at the stars, faint against the pollution and rising sun.

Realizing she was working through some thoughts of her own now, Batman took a look around for any observers, before sitting down to join her.

Giving a sad smile, Diana softly spoke to him. “Believe it or not, after meeting the Straw Hats, I’ve been thinking about this stuff a lot.”

Looking up to the heavens, Wonder Woman enjoyed a rare break in the clouds over Gotham to see the stars overhead. “‘Hero’ . . . a word people associate with a pure image. Totally pure. Chivalrous. Perfect. Flawless. Bringing hope. A hero gets it right every time, and always saves the day, while always making the right choices. Every time. An impossible dream some would say. And of course, the definitions of ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ depends on where you stand. After all, one of the things I looked into when I first came to Man’s World was your take on Greek history and mythology. I found how Hercules is hailed as a legendary hero, while for my people he is our most hated enemy.”

Grimacing, Batman knew he had to speak up at that. “Because of the crimes he committed against your sisters.” No need to mention the specifics; she had grown up hearing about them. “While Disney made a childish movie about him as a hero.”

“That’s right.”

She frowned a little, “Except that’s what we did to the Imperium. We exposed them to sunlight, and killed most of them that way.”

Once more he was silent, yet his fists and jaw tightened in an alarming loss of control. After a long moment he relaxed with a soulful breath. “We had not choice,” he softly said.

“Yes we did,” she gently countered. “We could have let them win. Like they did against J’onn’s people. That is what they drove us to.”

“. . . Is there a point to all this?”

“I’m saying I think I understand a little why the Straw Hats are so cynical, if they faced somebody like Hercules. I’m also saying that if we let ourselves get bogged down with doubts, we’ll never get anywhere. Keep an open mind, while keep moving forward and supporting each other. We’ll make mistakes, but so do even the gods. What matters is that we don’t give up trying to make the world a better place.”

Now she shot him a knowing look. “And I know you don’t care what people think about you.”

Smirking back, he gave a nod before his face became a mask again. “So,” he neutrally asked, “what do you think we should do next?”

“Well,” she mused, tapping her chin, “there’s one thing I’ve been wondering about.”

“Oh?”

!JUSTICE!

Later

“Me? Join the Justice League?”

This time, all seven members of the team were present to see Sir Justin as he recovered in the hospital.

For an instant the knight hesitated, before solemnly nodding. “I would be honoured.”

“Well then, welcome to the Justice League,” Superman grinned, offering his hand to shake. One by one the others did the same.

Off in the corner, Hawkgirl quietly whispered to John, “As much as it seems like a good idea to expand the League to help handle problems like the Straw Hats, some people are going to think we’re making an army. And some villains will escalate.”

“We know,” Green Lantern agreed. “Doesn’t mean it’s not the right call; we’re dealing with another gang that’s already proven it can give us a tough fight, so we’ve got to adapt.” He gave her a light frown, “Besides, you agreed to this too!”

“I know, just making sure you understand too,” she shot back.

Inwardly however, Lieutenant Shayera Hol of the Thanagarian military, wondered how her superiors would react to this report. Maybe approach the Justice League for an alliance as they proved how capable they were?

“I’ll admit,” he gruffly said, “that while the Straw Hats don’t seem like they want to conquer or destroy the world, we should still take our confrontation with them as a warning that we can’t handle every threat. Besides, we’re taking on more and more duties now.”

“True, although like Flash and Wonder Woman said, having more members might hold us more accountable, help us through tough decisions.” Honestly, she was not worried about that herself, yet felt like playing Devil’s Advocate.

Green Lantern threw his arms up in the air. “Oh not that again! We’re not going to turn into supervillains!”

The rest of the team left the two at it, as they had all hashed that out before without any real progress. Batman of course was listening with half an ear, and memorizing their voiced thoughts to go over later. Right now though he was approaching the bed to be the last to welcome Sir Justin to the ‘club.’ “Sorry I couldn’t make it here before.”

“Tis nothing,” assured their newest member. “I saw in the news what Gotham’s going through. Though from thine presence, might I assume tis eased some?”

“A little. I’ll have to head right back to investigate further. If I may offer some advice,” and Sir Justin nodded, “I’d recommend spending some time with Diana. Both of you went through some culture shock, seeing how much Earth has changed over the centuries. And it turns out that despite hating men and spending all their time training to fight, they’ve come up with a lot of philosophy over three thousand years.”

“Thank thee, I shall,” grinned the knight of Camelot.

“Just helping you settle in more,” Batman said without a shift in his expression.

To the side and shamelessly eavesdropping, Superman popped a little smile of his own. Glancing to see that the rest of the League were busy –including John and Shayera getting into an argument over government responses, and Flash was missing, probably flirting with the nurses— he stepped closer to Diana.

“Batman told me what you two talked about,” Superman softly said to her.

“Oh?” she murmured in surprise.

“Well, it was not so much as what he said, as what he didn’t say, but yes. He can be a softy at times, even if he won’t ever admit it. Though the thing is, yes, a lot of people think what we’re going against is impossible. That we’ll fail. We’ll either die as heroes, or live long enough to become the villains we fight.

“Except the thing is, all of us here,” Superman jerked with his chin to encompass the expanded Justice League, “are here because deep down we know we can win. And so many people do believe we can succeed. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”

“One day at a time,” Wonder Woman smiled. “We will get through this. We will bring Justice to the world. Like heroes.”

“You know it,” he grinned back.

“Hey!”

Flash zipped back into the room.

“Uhm, how’re we going to fit Shining Knight’s big horse with wings onto the spaceship?”

“Uh . . .”

Chapter 10: Blackbeard

Chapter Text

"Mind telling me why the silent treatment?"

A little surprised, Poison Ivy turned to look at Sanji who was being uncharacteristically serious. Well, serious for him when talking to a woman at least. No swaying around, and no calling her name adoringly and intimately. Something he did even when she made her contempt clear.

They were standing in one of her personal rooms within the ever-expanding underground complex. Walls lined with some of her more . . . exotic hybrids. Muscular, humanoid plants with toxic spines that would fight to protect their mommy or plant-life in general. Such darlings.

For whatever reason, the Straw Hats largely respected her privacy, with only Usopp or occasionally Robin joining her in tending to her babies. Even then, those two did nothing to stop her from amassing her own dangerous, little army. With any other people, she would conclude it was because they were so arrogantly confident in their power that they believed she was too cowed to ever possibly consider betraying them. Except right now she could not deny the feeling it was simply because they trusted her. Which was a new and strange experience for her. Someone actually trusted her without being an idiot or arrogant. Or Harley, who was not quite an idiot.

After some thought, she chose not to abuse it. Yet.

Still, it remained somewhat unusual that one of the others would seek her out like this, much less Sanji. "Mind telling me why you're violating my solitude?"

With careful deliberation he stepped forward into the greenhouse/lab. "I decided if a woman was going to tear out my heart, I'd rather she do it without Mosshead blundering in."

With a soft "Hmm," she checked another of her children. Good. The newest variant of the toxin is coming along nicely. It had been Robin who suggested using different strains for each individual plant, trading greater effort on her part, in exchange for a lessor chance of Batman developing a general vaccine or antidote. He always was terrifyingly adept at that.

After ignoring him for five minutes, his silent presence finally made her resolve wilt, and she told him. "I'm still angry at you for what you did to Harley." Seeing his confusion, she elaborated. "What you did to Joker, while I'm glad it pushed her into leaving him, you also endangered her life by doing so. Who knows what he's capable of now?

"Not only that, she's now forced to live here with all your madness, and the entire Justice League after us all. Even if we left right this instant . . ." she trailed off.

Sanji sighed. "Sorry. I had kind of an idea of who he was, which is why I made him unable to smile, only nothing specific. I know more now, but yeah maybe I didn't think it through enough."

"You should've killed him. For all we know he'll come after her now."

"I'm not that kind of guy, and I'll protect her if he does."

"Man up!" she hissed. "Your or Batman could've killed him anytime, and you haven't! He'll be a threat to her for as long as he lives!"

The chef gave an unapologetic shrug. "While I've killed before, in the heat of the moment against guys who're too weak for my kicks, it's not something I'm in the habit of doing." Pulling out a cigarette, he lit it before finishing, "I grew up with people who were into that, and I've no intention to doing the same. I've seen what it makes them become, and selfish or not, I've no interest going down that road."

At that, she leapt at him for snap-kick that could knock down even Joker's toughest thugs, except Sanji did not even seem to notice the blow. "You have no idea what he's capable of!" Poison Ivy yelled at him.

To her surprise, he backed off, and plopped down on the edge of one of her planters. "No, I don't. Otherwise I'd have made sure he was too afraid to even think of coming near her again. Which is why I need your help protecting everyone."

The sudden humility in a man who tended to act so openly and perverted threw her off. Especially from a man in general. Although, from day one I've known how different they are, she fiercely reminded herself, unsure if she was trying to warn herself or defend them.

In truth, with the Straw Hats and Harley, she felt . . . safe. Happy. Maybe not as happy as she had been as 'Pamela Carlyle,' when she had created her own artificial family until Batman ruined it, yet still happy.

Happier than she had been since then.

Of course, that was not to say she did not have hidden plant replicas of her and Harley within her little garden. If the pirates started showing a darker side, the two of them would switch out and make their getaway.

"For what it's worth," he continued. "I think you're underestimating Harley."

"No I'm not!" she snapped back. "She'll bloom fresh and stronger than ever here, I know that. I also know that with you people, you'll continue to draw in greater and greater threats in turn!"

Another reason for the Human-plant clones stashed away.

!JUSTICE!

Sighing to himself, Sanji took another draw of his cigarette. He knew that Poison Ivy was right in that sense. Every one of the Straw Hats had a tendency to draw in opposing powers. Stronger and more dangerous each time. Their Captain approved of that. No, he was the ringleader calling out a challenge to them all. The only question was if their nakama could remain tougher and more resourceful than whoever came their way. Still, that was not a productive argument with Poison Ivy.

After all, it was Ivy who had dragged Harley to them in the first place. Because they were both so scared of the Joker, which also answered why the redhead did not do in the madman herself. That and the fact that Harley might never forgive her if she did . . .

Trying another track, he said, "We're all lying low for the time being, so that should be good. Nothing to draw attention to ourselves."

"Oh, didn't you hear?" she asked with mild surprise. "Another job just popped up."

Surprised, Sanji took his cigarette from his mouth. "What kind of job would let Nami-swan change her mind?" he queried.

Ivy shrugged. "Robin got a tip that someone's hunting whale sharks. I'm a little tempted to go too, but I'm more for saving plant life, and I agree that I shouldn't advertise our little team-up yet."

He relaxed and resumed his smoking. "Ah, say no more." If Nami had been approached about a job against people endangering animals, she would have refused. However, even if those animals were actually sharks, they were close enough, and it was in the name, to upset Brook. So she would have said it was up to Luffy to decide, and he likely would have agreed. Especially since not only was Jinbe a whale shark Fishman, they were also the species he was most connected to, making it a no brainer. "I'm sure they'll have fun."

Despite herself, she smiled at that. "I'm sure they will."

!JUSTICE!

In another part of the base, the away team was finishing prepping Franky's custom jet.

"All set!" chirped Chopper, confirming he had various life jackets and other buoyancy devices ready. Like many other things, they were all more advanced than what they had back home, with a variety of additional safety features.

"All right," Brook said, dropping the cheerful attitude for that of a warrior preparing for a crusade. This was personal.

"From what Karrade told Robin," growled Jinbe, "if we take the jet we should get there just before the poachers do."

"Honestly," Brook noted, "it's stuff like this that really makes the Justice League's condescension towards us puts my nose out of joint. If they were doing their jobs properly, it wouldn't even be necessary for us to have to deal with stuff like this! Not that I have a nose of course, Yo ho ho ho~!"

"Yeah," grumped Chopper (still adorably). "Why doesn't Aquaman do something more about this! Doesn't he talk to fish or something?"

"That's unconfirmed," Jinbe neutrally said. "It could be just the ability to control them, not talk to them. And from what I've read up on him," –because of course Jinbe would ask Robin for everything she had on another underwater kingdom— "he has indeed made an impact. He has taken to task many of those who have endangered both the oceans, and those who live beneath the waves.

"It's just that he's claimed sole responsibility over too vast a region for one man to handle. It's 70% of the surface of the world, and to all appearances he's chosen to be the sole protector and enforcer of it all.

"His flaw is his refusal to delegate the job of watching over the seas. On top of that, he has to handle ruling his people directly, and apparently he's trying to be a husband and father as well."

"Tsk," the skeleton shook his head.

"Even Luffy knows you're supposed to let other people do the jobs they're good at!" cried Chopper. "What is wrong with the guy!?"

"Well said," nods Jinbe, booting up the jet.

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Base

Volcana smiled as she brushed Maureen's hair some more.

The once limp and pale girl was now full of life, chatting away about her newest adventure with the Straw Hats. They were all such a . . . interesting group, that there was always something new and fun going on. Listen to Brook's singing, helping Usopp tinker or work with plants, laugh and prank with Luffy, etcetera.

Volcana just kept a loose eye on the girl to make sure she did not get involved in anything too serious. Like stealing Zoro's sake, or Sanji's cigarettes. Not that she thought they would hurt Maureen, it was just that the older woman was unsure how well the young teen would handle getting swept up in it all.

Most the Straw Hats were about her age, or a little older, yet they were all also a lot more, hmm, ‘tougher’ was not the right word. More how their own layers of scars had given them some extra cushioning, and Volcana wanted to help the girl be strong with as little pain as possible.

Well, without more pain, Volcana admitted to herself. I'd still prefer her to not have to endure those sorts of scars though.

Zoro had one over his chest that should have killed him, and he was missing an eye. They did not seem that old, and he was only twenty-one.

At age nineteen, Luffy had a burn scar over his chest that should have left him dead.

The pyrokinetic knew this, because she had killed people that way.

This young girl she was pampering deserved more from life than that. Just a little longer.

"-ana?"

With a blink she realized she had gotten distracted, and Maureen was looking at her in confusion in the mirror.

"Sorry!"

"What's wrong?"

"I—" she hesitated, and looked away. Brutal honesty seemed the way to go. Half-truths and deceit were all she had known as a teenager herself after all. "I was just worrying about you."

"Why? I'm safe here! Besides, Luffy an' the others'll protect us!"

"Not always," warned Volcana. "They're strong, but you can't trust them to always be there every time to save you." A false belief like that was too dangerous.

"I just," she paused once more. "I want you to be happy too . . . And I'm so sure that you will be if you get totally sucked up into the life of Luffy and the others."

While most of them were younger than her, they were all so powerful and charismatic it seemed almost inevitable. Even now Volcana knew that she might never leave. Not unless it was for Maureen maybe, or something else as important. However she felt it might be best for the brunette to be able to do so more freely.

Especially since to this day she had no idea what their final agenda was. Even Luffy was surprisingly close-mouthed about where they were from, or what the purpose was behind all those thefts and schemes. She knew there was some greater plan behind it all, and she had no idea what would happen once they succeeded. Only that whatever it was, the need to accomplish it was almost all-consuming for them at times.

Oh, she had suspicions of course. It was merely that for someone like her, all those secrets put her on edge, despite how wonderful everything else was.

Instead of becoming upset or confused, the younger girl turned around to pull the shocked super-villainous into a surprisingly warm hug. "I'll be fine . . . Big Sis."

Nothing more in her life shocked the redhead, and then catching the searching, hesitant look she was getting, returned the embrace. With interest. "I know you will. I just worry, Little Sister."

Now the teenager looked awkward, and changed the subject. "And besides, I can fight too if I want!" Instantly the room cooled and snowflakes whirled around them. In answer Volcana called forth her fires and evaporated them all, making Maureen giggle.

"Hey, Volcana?"

"Yes? Why do you call yourself that? I mean, so do most of the others. Stuff like Clayface, Poison Ivy, even for Harley. Should I go back to being Permafrost?"

"NO!"

Maureen jumped back at that, and Volcana quickly elaborated. "Our names, our titles, they're our way of saying we're no longer a part of society. Distancing ourselves from our past lives. You don't have to make that choice yet."

Not to mention how when Maureen had been at her most vulnerable and unstable, she had heard ‘voices’ calling her that ominous name. For her own sake, it was best not to go down that path. Ever again.

"What do you mean not a part of society?"

It only just then dawned on Volcana that no, it was not really clear to her little sister that everyone in her new family was some sort of criminal. Of course not. They were all her heroes.

Right.

Well.

With a pained sigh, she elaborated. "You know how everyone here doesn't really like the superheroes?"

"Well, I don't think Luffy cares. Neither does Zoro. Sanji loves the women like he always does. Robin seems caught between amusem*nt, and well, something else, and—"

"Yes, yes, but what about the law then?"

"Oh, they all treat it as a big joke. I don't get all of Harley's jokes though."

A word might be necessary with the mad blonde.

"Well, Maureen, it's because we're all wanted by the law."

"Huh?"

"We're criminals."

"Oh. . . . Why?"

"That's a long story. For each of us. The short version is, the law caused us all pain, and then tried to blame it all on us."

The ice-user was silent for two minutes, before giving a firm nod, and even firmer hug again. "Well, they aren't taking any of you guys away from me! That's a promise!"

Once more Volcana felt herself melting into those arms. The irony. Who knew this could be her life?

Without another word they went back to sprucing each other up, when they realized two more people had joined them.

"Robin, Nami," grinned Maureen. "What're you guys doing here?"

Both women were dressed in sweatshirts and sweatpants, and were smiling at the younger (although only by a few years in Nami's case) girl with happiness. She was a bright new light in their lives, without the usual stress that accompanied it.

They also looked like night and day right now.

Nami's orange hair and yellow clothes made her look like the sun.

Robin on the other hand, had taken a curious approach to Goth.

Some days she fully embraced it, and others she was back to wearing bright clothing. Today was the former, with her wearing black clothes, lipstick, and eyeliner, with her shirt reading in red, 'How Is Your Blood?'

Well, she still makes a great 'aunt' figure for Maureen, Volcana allowed. Then their outfits fully clicked in.

Faceplaming, Volcana nodded. "Right, it's time for more sparring practice, isn't it?"

"Yes," smiled Robin, while Nami just sighed in resignation.

Not that Volcana had a drop of sympathy.

"Don't you dare give me that look," she groused, catching from her peripheral Maureen's sudden concern. "You pack away just as much of Sanji's delicious food as we do, and never seem to gain a pound!"

"Oh," Nami stuck out a cheeky tongue. "You and the other ladies starting to put on weight?"

A wordless growl was the best Volcana could muster, while Maureen giggled a bit. "Are you getting fat?"

"No!" The other unfair thing was Maureen continued to need to put on more weight after being homeless for so long, so Sanji freely plied her with mounds and mounds of mouth-watering foods, followed by glistening desserts.

Still grinning, Nami patted her toned, flat stomach. "Guess you gals will just have to up your game then! And yeah, exercise is a pain, but overall worth it!"

Glaring daggers, Volcana stalked towards the downstairs gym. She was still wearing her regular super-villainous uniform (which was not getting tight around the waist! At all.), and that was good enough to train in.

As they were walking off to the underground gym, Volcana remembered another 'danger' to keep her charge away from. "And Nami, no more trying to drag Maureen into your insurance scams!"

"It's insurance against Luffy and whatever chaos he causes! Everyone'll be buying it eventually, and we can just run off with the cash!"

"No!"

!JUSTICE!

Harley Quinn gave a depressed sigh, chin resting on her fists. "At this rate, I'm goin’ to feel insecure!" Her fellow super-villainesses gave reluctant nods of assent.

In front of them, Robin and Nami were doing their own training, their utterly beautiful bodies rippling with hard-toned muscles as they moved faster and stronger than any of the other ladies present. Light glistened off the sweat coating their bodies.

Robin was doing a series of kicks with weights on. From some cryptic words she had said, and some other comments her crew had made in response, it seemed like there had been an occasion where her arms were bound, and had been unable to use her powers. Hence her desire to expand her repertoire as a precaution.

Overseeing her was Sanji, who was taking the matter so seriously that he was not even complimenting her shapely legs as his keen eyes swept over her every movement. Clearly whatever the past incident had involved, it had been serious business!

As for Nami, she was sparring against Zoro. She was wielding her unique weapon, expanding it into a staff of different lengths, or contracting it into a baton at incredible speeds. While she was showing incredible skill with it, and developing new combinations with her versatile little 'toy,' Zoro was casually matching her with one sword. He was not acting bored however, as he assessed her thrusts and swings with an analytical focus to match Sanji's, and his own verbal critiques and praises were just as piercing.

In comparison, the various super-villainesses who were so feared by law enforcement, felt slow and bloated. Except for Poison Ivy to an extent, whose all vegetarian diet at least managed to keep her smugly slim.

"It's not just that they're supermodels who're also hard-core," Volcana noted. (She would have made a comparison to Lara Croft, except she was persona non grata within hearing distance of Robin . . . which appeared to extend for at least a hundred meters any direction). "It's how fast they get stronger. I mean, I dropped by last week, and Robin's weights were at least five pounds lighter then."

"Which makes sense," Cheetah admitted, gesturing over towards two pairs of clone arms of Robin's. One pair was doing bicep curls with weights, while the other was exercising the triceps. Clearly she was able to gain muscle mass this way. Although since she was not using more arms for it, the scientist had to wonder if the brunette also felt the fatigue from such exertion.

"It's literally not fair," Harley dejectedly nodded. It took the others a few seconds to catch on, and once the egg-headed psychologist turned seasoned fighter saw the comprehension, she continued. "All of the Straw Hats learn and get stronger faster than the rest. You can see it happenin'. It's like they're anime protagonists or somethin’."

Then Harley blinked, and slapped both sides of her head. "Stop it! I'm wanted in twelve states, and I've taken down Bats before!"

Narrowing her eyes, she grabbed the massive hammer at her side to rest it on her shoulder, and fluidly stood up. With smooth precision, she stalked towards Zoro and Nami, her faithful hyenas, Bud and Lou, growling and snickering as they stalked by her side.

"Hey!" Both fighters stopped to look at her. "When's my turn!?"

She almost regretted it as she saw Zoro's feral grin, yet Harley's determined expression never faltered. She had seen worse. Much worse.

Nami's smile was much friendlier. "Go at Zoro with everything you've got. He'll give you some tips, and then you and I can start sparring."

"Your dogs fight with you?" checked Zoro, mistaking them for actual canines.

"Bud and Lou, sic 'em," was Harley's only reply.

With that, she and her 'babies' leapt into the fray.

!JUSTICE!

The rest of training went very well from there.

Poison Ivy had started up her own kicking regime alongside Robin, with Sanji giving helpful advice. At the same time, Volcana kept shooting fire at him, which he continued to casually dodge. Not once did he give a compliment unrelated to their progress.

Cheetah had gone against Nami, only taking a break once she had been worn and beaten down to the point she had trouble moving. The redhead had generously carried her aside, only giving a single sharp rap on the noggin when Cheetah tried a surprise attack after playing possum.

On Robin's advice, Clayface had separated himself into two independent parts to fight each other, something he was embarrassed he had not thought of before, despite having had the ability for so long. Now one of them had shifted to look like Batman, to practice fighting against his greatest foe.

Off on the other side of the massive underground training room, they could hear constant crashes.

And screaming.

"What's going on over there?" Poison Ivy finally asked.

"Luffy and Usopp," answered Sanji, dodging another burst of fire. "Usopp's been working on a skill called Observation Haki, and it's best developed under stress or duress. So Luffy's—"

BOOM!

The ground shook.

After a moment, the sounds of chasing resumed, with the screams reaching an even higher pitch.

"So Luffy's giving Usopp incentive," deadpanned Sanji.

"I think I'll pass on learning this Haki anytime soon," muttered Volcana, with Ivy giving a quick nod of agreement.

"Eh, who knows," Zoro unexpectedly cut in. "One day you guys might get to the level you can actually use it. One day."

"We'll get there," moaned Harley Quinn, lying exhausted on the ground, her hyenas curled up beside her. Zoro had given her a real workout, with Nami was coming up with a water bottle for her blonde friend. The ex-psychiatrist looked over at the only remaining pair here.

In a brutal, pseudo boxing/wrestling match, Grundy and Franky were trading blows. While the former was clearly the stronger, he lacked the skills and experience of the blue-haired man, and was getting pointers. After always being treated as dumb muscle, Grundy was finally learning how to actually fight for once.

"Huh," grinned Harley widely. "A zombie vs. cyborg match-up in a secret pirate base. Who woulda thunk it, huh?"

!JUSTICE!

After everyone's workouts, Luffy carried in a beaten and battered Usopp over his shoulder.

Weirdly, they were both grinning like loons, even if Usopp kept wincing in pain.

Waving off any concerns of the super-villains, Luffy carried the sniper upstairs, saying he just needed a breather. Feeling rested themselves, everyone went back upstairs to do their own things.

!JUSTICE!

Later

At an abandoned warehouse a few blocks from Franky's lab, a series of large transport trucks drove into another desolate yet expansive building.

All of the drivers were familiar hands with this now, calmly got out of their cabs, and walked over to the line of suitcases in the middle of the room, each sporting one of their names. As one they opened them up to confirm their payment as they counted the pile of bills, including a little extra to pay for a taxi cab home (it was the small things that made them so appreciative), and they walked out.

The next morning they would return to pick up their now empty trucks, and go back to their regular jobs until they were contacted again to move heavy and mysterious shipments that none of them felt tempted to examine.

Up in the roof beams and shadows, a camera recorded all, and deep in his lab Franky grinned as his newest pieces of heavy machinery had arrived.

With this latest delivery, he had enough supplies for months if necessary, as he struggled to find a way back home! Alright, maybe weeks. Still…

A SUPER good haul!

After all, it took a lot stuff for the work he was doing.

The unfortunate fact of the matter was that none of them, including Franky, really knew what they needed as he basically invented a brand new scientific field on his own.

His latest project was trying to study the Vivre Cards they had brought with them, except instead of moving towards whomever they had been made from, all they did was sit there, shaking back and forth. Various scans were not providing any useful clues, and Franky vowed that once they got back home he was going to figure out how to make one, and how exactly they worked.

Not only were a lot of resources eaten up in trial and error, more than a few times they had made a daring robbery for equipment and materials, only to later discover that it was all a dead end and what they had taken was now useless to them except for selling.

Which was also why their financial costs were so high, requiring such massive heists.

Well, that and having to feed our SUPER captain of course, Franky fondly smirked.

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Jet

Thank you for coming by the way, Chopper."

Blinking, human-reindeer hybrid looked up from his latest notes at the musician's voice. "Oh, no worry," he quickly assures them. "I'm happy to help."

"Even so," Brook somberly says, "I know that this is difficult for you, and I appreciate it."

Usually Chopper would get all worked up by the compliment, except he knew how sensitive whale hunting is for the skeleton, and both knew how uncomfortable talking to animals is for Chopper.

Well, on this world at least.

Back home, he could have whole conversations with them. Of course, he preferred talking to his fellow Humans more, and not just because of the possibility that whoever he had just connected with might later end up on the dinner table.

The other Humans (if you could call some of them that) tried not to think about how even fish could have full-length discussions if you spoke the right language.

Even Luffy tried his best to be sensitive about it.

Of course if they had just asked Chopper, they would have been surprised to learn he was perfectly accepting of it. Being eaten was just part of how the circle of life worked. The animal kingdom understood this, even if they would do all they could to stay alive. So long as the ones who were killed were eaten to rejoin the cycle, they were fine with it. Wastage was another story entirely.

Like hunting whale sharks wholescale, just for their oils and such, and killing even pregnant mothers.

Hence why it was personal all around.

Things were of course different in this new universe. For instance, while there were some similar animals (i.e. cats and dogs), there were also some missing, like carnivorous rabbits.

(Luffy and Usopp had been horrified to discover dinosaurs were extinct here, and had seriously considered for a bit to send some back when they went home. No place should be without dinosaurs.)

(Fortunately —for this world— Luffy decided to stick to his policy of as minimal exchange as possible. Treating it as a terrible, if necessary burden in this case.)

To his dismay, Chopper had also discovered that none of the animals here were remotely as intelligent as the ones back home. Granted, back when he had been a so-called 'normal' animal, Chopper had been incapable of even concentrating on stuff like medical treatments, yet he had still been self-aware enough to recognize what his lifestyle was like, and remember personal details. Some creatures were brighter than others as well.

All these animals here were just dumb. As in, nothing remotely worth talking about. Unless of course you wanted to be sure they were alright, and were willing to endure a stilted, painful conversation to learn more about their circ*mstances.

It was not recommended.

Except for dolphins and whales. He could still have a pleasant chat with them. Which only made Humans targeting them all the more disgusting!

"How is your research going?" Jinbe asks, changing the topic.

"Oh, pretty good!" Chopper lights up. "I've been learning so many things here! Especially in researching about the Humans. There's been so much I've learnt, and so many questions to explore now!"

When they had first come to this universe, one of the first things they had done after realizing they were on a different planet, and Luffy got them back on their feet, was do some further research to verify their speculation.

There had been some initial confusion from details like how their system for determining blood-types was generally different from what Chopper was used to, but other than that, everything checked out. An entire planet of normal Humans! Except for the meta-humans. Which were a relatively new thing according to history of this planet, give or take a few decades . . .

Not that Chopper had had any chance to examine 'normal' Humans with his crew itself, and he was not just talking about their ability to survive trauma which should have at least required brand new organs. Frankly, they should all be dead already. Many times over. To name a few examples:

Zoro could chew and swallow razors, or survive on poisonous food and water.

Sanji had trained himself to be immune to fire.

Luffy . . . Where did Chopper even start!? Devil Fruit aside, Chopper was coming to suspect that his friend was subconsciously using that same technique that CP9 had: Life Return, complete control over one's bodily functions. He also seemed capable of converting food and water to heal himself at a frankly absurd rate.

Franky was surviving on Cola. Which made no sense for a cyborg. Never mind the energy requirements for powering all his gadgetry (for which engine oil or something made more sense), but when Chopper had stopped to think about it he realized that the soda alone could not maintain a Human body. Certainly not for the stunts his friend would suddenly be capable of by inserting a bottle inside himself. Except if it was not broken, it was best not to pry into matters too much. So how in the seven seas cola produced enough energy would remain a mystery for the ages. Thankfully they (Robin) had started a company producing the exact same brand he was used to, so as to ensure he never ran out. And it was very popular with youth of today. A SUPER drink for a SUPER day.

And do not even get him started on Brook!

As near as Chopper could theorize, while Brook's skeleton was moved and powered by his soul and will, it had limited energy to do so. Hence why he felt tired, and took the time to actually sleep, all to 'recharge.' . . . If that made a lick of sense.

The rest appeared psychosomatic, in that despite everything Brook 'knew' he needed to eat, could poop (yes, yes he did. The skeleton could stink up the bathroom as much as anyone, and Chopper had samples to prove it!), or be drugged if he 'knew' from seeing others fall unconscious that he should too (they had not really tested that one, except it had happened at Punk Hazard). Although it also appeared that food could provide additional energy to the soul, so when it went down his throat where food was supposed to be digested and broken down into said energy . . . it just did. Plus he could convert milk into fixing bones, because Brook 'knew' that was what milk did.

In theory, the only restrictions Brook had were energy and what limits he let his mind place upon himself. Except given how fragile his mental state had been left after fifty years of isolation, amongst other traumas, it was not something to be experimented with. At all.

Chopper shook his head to readjust his thoughts.

"What's been most incredible," the doctor went on, "is learning about what they've discovered about the Lineage Factor, or DNA as they call it here; the blueprint of life." He had been most interested to learn from Sanji about Doctor Vegapunk and Vinsmoke Judge's discovery.

Yes, Vinsmoke Judge, not 'father.' Their friend had made it very explicit that 'Vinsmoke Sanji' had died at sea years ago.

Regardless, the Germa 66 and Caesar Clown's developments with it had made learning more an obvious priority. Especially as they were at war with Kaidou and his army of artificial Devil Fruit users.

"I know that they're further ahead than us regarding the Lineage Factor," Jinbe said, "so I'm guessing you've figured out what's different between Humans here, and Humans at home?"

"That's just the thing! And weird at that. I can't find any significant difference between us and them! Not only are all the organs the same and everything, I can't find any real genetic dissimilarities between us. Metahumans like Volcana, Cheetah, and the others, are the only ones genetically divergent from Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Nami, and Franky!"

(Readings from the Devil Fruit Users were still too confusing.)

"So I don't understand why regular people here have a limit to how strong, fast, and tough they can be, and why Zoro's Zoro, and not killing himself with just his exercise regime!" He took a deep breath, and continued more calmly. "I think that what gives us the ability to grow so much is something environmental. Maybe intensifying the further we go down the Grand Line."

"Well, that's fascinating," said a shocked Brook. "It's generally accepted that the reason people get stronger is because their enemies become stronger as they are funneled through the Blues into the Grand Line. Only the strong survive, which means their opponents become increasingly strong as well."

"Indeed," said a distracted Jinbe as he thought it over. "While the growing ferocity of the wildlife is explained by them needing to be tough enough to survive the weather conditions that only worsen the farther down you go. Now though you're saying it might be something else . . ."

None of them were sure what exactly the ramifications of this revelation were, yet they all knew they would be significant. For instance, learning to harness this mysterious outside force that affected people so much.

In this place, barring radiation, magical artifacts, or advanced technology, no Human could beat Superman with their fists. In the Straw Hats' world, theoretically anyone could become as absolutely terrifying as 'Red Haired' Shanks, or 'Hawkeye' Mihawk.

"Any other world-shattering revelations or questions?" Jinbe asked, a drop of sweat on his brow. Brook poured himself some tea from a thermos; he had a feeling he might need it.

"Well, more weird and suspicious than serious," admitted Chopper.

"That doesn't really narrow it down."

"Yo ho ho ho~! That's our life right there!"

Rubbing his small beard, Jinbe pondered further. “Questions and questions. It is clear however we are dealing with two separate worlds, where the inhabitants are so alike, and yet so different, in very curious ways. To the degree this fact is in itself suspicious.”

The others nodded in agreement. "Well, we're certainly learning more and more here," Brook said with a happy tone.

"Yep!" clapped Chopper. "As much as we need to get back home, I'm still having fun learning so much! I can't wait to tell others about all of this! Like Law!"

!JUSTICE!

"So what was last night's film about?" asked a fully recovered Usopp (Luffy had been going easy on him really). He had been so busy yesterday with some new potential plant hybrids with Poison Ivy, the two of them had lost track of time and missed it. Or at least he had. Poison Ivy only joined them for movie night if Harley dragged her along. Or Luffy.

Usopp figured she would be joining them regularly in the near future.

Besides, it was not exactly a project they could leave unattended. Their newest product of delicate crossbreeding required regular attention to ensure it did not eat the other flora. Or cement.

. . . I'm going to double-check Maureen knows not to go into that greenhouse. . . . Or any of them for that matter.

"Oh, it was awesome!" panted Sanji. "It was about these three beautiful angels who go around beating people up and being spies and totally incredible! I'd be beaten up by them any day!"

That might explain a few things, Usopp sweatdropped. Well, no. Sanji did not get off on pain, just attention from women. Especially pretty ones.

Coughing, he redirected his focus back to safer topics. "Oh, right, now I remember hearing about it. 'Charlie's Angels,' right? I think Harley said they work as private investigators for a guy named Charlie."

"Yeah," Sanji flatly said, pulling out a cigarette. "There was something about that going on." His gaze became lustful again. "Imagine me having ladies like that working for me! Oooh, or maybe—" he paused to check no one native to this universe was in earshot "—some of the ones we already know!

"Like Pudding!"

The master actress, charming and blushing her way through the crowds.

Three eyes narrowed in careful concentration as she ruffled through the mind of her unconscious mark.

Glaring with a sharp, chilling beauty as she shot her way through a horde of goons.

Princess Charlotte Pudding!

"Viola!"

Dancing tantalizingly before a large assembly of men, every eye on her.

Seeming to be staring out into open space with her hands over her eyes, reading the details of critical documents from four kilometers away.

Dancing through a crowd of men, except this time with a knife in either hand.

Princess Riku Viola!

"And Viv—"

"Bon-chan!" cried Luffy.

The tall and proud transvestite making his way through any party and fortress disguised as one of their officers. Finding excuses to touch the faces of others so he could turn into them as necessary.

Being in a judicial court wearing someone else's body, as he gave a tearful 'confession' to send a criminal mastermind to jail for life.

Laughing as his Ballet Kenpo tore through all the muscular tough guys trying to stop him.

Bentham, a.k.a. Mr. 2 Bon Kurei.

The newly arrived Luffy continued to chatter on. "And they could be Sanji's Angels, going off to do totally awesome spy missions together!"

Usopp ducked under the table to cover his mouth. If Sanji caught him laughing . . . he was a dead man.

Twitching in horror as his brain tried to kill itself at the images of the Okama dancing alongside those two lovely, real angels, Sanji managed to regain a semblance of sanity.

Fighting his urge to puke, he grabbed his Captain by the shirt collar and dragged him through the air. Wrenching the door open, the cook threw him at the first person he saw. "Clayface! Take this sicko someplace else and keep him entertained before I kill him!"

Glancing down at the giggling teen in his muddy arms, Clayface did the prudent thing and beat a hasty retreat.

!JUSTICE!

With a concerned frown, Nami knocked on the door to Robin's private office.

"Come in, Nami," the owner called out.

Totally unsurprised that her best friend and surrogate sister knew who it was, she walked right in.

Nico Robin's private office was not what many would expect for someone of her reputation and status.

Master assassin. Beacon of hope to the Revolutionary Army. The puppet master who managed the Straw Hats growing financial empire and intelligence network.

Because above all else she was the Straw Hat's archaeologist.

Which meant she was supposed to know any relevant history.

The small room held only a single desk and two chairs, with thick books piled everywhere. Stacks of paper covered the desk, yet right now she was sitting with her fingers laced together, thinking.

At the tender age of eight, the older woman had earned the distinguished title of Scholar, this world's equivalent of a full doctorate professor. Ergo, memorizing and bringing together stray pieces of data in her mind was literal child's play for her. What some called a Mind Palace.

As a fellow prodigy, Nami could properly appreciate all that.

Plopping down into the comfortable seat, Nami placed amongst all the papers her own contributions: a thick folder, and an animal encyclopedia with a few sheets of paper tucked inside.

Opening her eyes, Robin looked at Nami's expression, and sighed as she saw confirmation written there. "I see." The concern on her face made the redhead a little nervous.

Ever since they had reunited after that painful, two year separation, the raven haired woman had become far more open about her emotions. That said, her response to ominous news was generally a smile, and a cheerful suggestion as to how it could get worse. Or grim threats of her own. Serious, contemplative silence was now out of character.

"Robin, what do you know? And, well, how long has this being going on?"

She was well aware that there were many things Robin did not tell them back home, except that was okay since none of them really cared about what she had done when she had been on her own, or about the ancient secrets she kept safe. They were, as hard as it may be for an outsider to comprehend, unimportant.

Now though, it was apparent that there were details warranting further attention by her and the rest.

"Nothing concrete," Robin said. "Just a growing list of coincidences that I cannot explain."

She picked up the folder Nami had brought, and looked through it in surprise, as it was full of sheets and sheets of paper covered in fine, precise equations. "What is this?"

Now Nami perked up a bit. "Well, y'know how I'm the best navigator there is? Period?"

(Or close enough. Besides, at the rate they were going, by the time they were done claiming the One Piece, most of the rival pirate crews would be crushed along with their own navigators, probably under the heels of the Straw Hats, so there went the competition.)

(Or had been going, since now they were stuck here and not in the New World!)

"Of course," Robin genuinely smiled. "I daresay, you even taught the people of Weatheria a thing or two."

"Maybe," she cheekily grinned. "I certainly left with all their secrets."

(Not that it had been hard. The nice old men there had not even been trying to hide them.)

Her expression became harder, "As well as some of their deepest questions and concerns. They've been studying meteorology all over the world, and still had some pretty serious mysteries. Since coming here, to this place, and learning what they know, when I first started figuring out their meteorology, a lot of it made no sense at all."

"Because our worlds are so different?" offered Robin, except that Nami knew her well enough to know that even without this context it was clear there was more to that question then readily appeared.

Rubbing her forehead, Nami confessed, "When we first got here, we thought this place was messed up. Because it didn't follow the rules we were used to. Except I knew that there had to be some sort of fundamental similarities between universes, or else we wouldn't be able to survive here." She groaned at the memory of all her work. Learning all that new information, including entirely new fields of study, had been incredibly trying for even her genius intellect to soldier through. "Honestly, if it wasn't for Franky doing similar stuff to get us home, I probably would've given up already."

"I've talked to him about it," Robin quietly said. "Their understanding of the underlying structure of the universe, of so many scientific fields," she shrugged, "it's impressive."

"And forced me to consider," she sighed in turn, "that looking at things from their perspective might be the right idea. That the truth was that we do not fully understood our own world . . ."

Silence reigned for a minute, before Robin gently touched her arm, jolting out of her reverie. Coughing into her fist, Nami gave her report:

"On some level, they are the same. The Blues," the four calmest and oceans, "are pretty much what we've got here on a global scale. Their explanations for how the weather works though were big surprises, and it took a lot of work," she gestured at the thick pile of sheets, "to figure out how to merge Weatheria's equations with this world's."

"Oh?" Now Robin looked more impressed. Which she should. Proper Navigation was not just an art, it was a science too.

"Yeah, for example, my first big surprise —and this is apparently pretty basic knowledge here— was that the moon's gravity influences tides." The archaeologist did look surprised at that. While Robin was no expert, she had been forced to learn how to navigate herself over the years, and had never heard of that before. Especially since . . .

"Yeah, I know. I guess Haredas and his fellow weather scientists just spent too much time looking down from their sky island, and never up. I've gone over the equations though, and it checks out."

"So that's why you've been so busy lately," Robin concluded. "You've been teaching yourself all the relevant math for this."

"And a pain it was too. Especially since . . ."

"Especially since we have seven celestial satellites," Robin finished. "Clover and the other scholars back home in Ohara had a big model of the planet in the middle of the library."

While a little thrown off by the carefully precise words, Nami nodded. "Uh huh. And you know how useless they are for trying to navigate."

Those seven bodies, much smaller than the local moon here, skimmed through the night sky at irregular orbits (which she now believed was from their individual gravity influencing each other) which not only made them impossible to use to navigate at night, but also kept blocking off the stars. One of the various reasons travelling by the star-charts on the Grand Line had never really caught on.

"I couldn't be precise," she admitted. "But I plugged in what I could remember about the satellites, and made some estimates about their composition and mass, and other stuff. Needed Franky to build me a computer to help, but the results do vaguely confirm it."

Yes, 'Cat Burglar' Nami was just that much of a genius. Live with it.

Robin looked impressed again, yet Nami cut in before her friend could say anything. "Confirms for the Blues at least.

"They do nothing to explain why on the Grand Line you can go from bright sun and no breeze to dark clouds and full-force tornadoes in literally three seconds flat —and yes, we both know I am unfortunately being perfectly accurate about that—, nor the Calm Belt.

"The best I can figure there is that somehow all the gravitational pulls are cancelled out near the equator, which contributes —and this is obviously not the full explanation— to the lack of currents or tides in the Calm Belt. Except then they're somehow concentrated and amplified within the Grand Line?

"Ugh! It makes no sense!

"Seriously! I just finished reading up about the magnetic poles of this world, and apparently they have a 'North' and 'South' one, one positive and one negative, meaning there is only one 'North.' For whatever reason, we seem to have two North poles back home. Or two positive magnetic poles. So while a compass to the North of the Grand Line points North, if you were under the Grand Line the needle would point straight south. If you ignore how this violates fundamental rules of physic, it helps explain why a compass is useless smack dab in the middle with the Grand Line, as the needle is being pulled simultaneously in two different directions! And that's without getting into the issue of how the individual islands there are all individual miniature magnetic poles as well!"

She stopped to suck in a deep breath, and Robin calmly said, "And that is why proper Navigators are so prized. I honestly don't fully understand how the Barto Club has lasted as long as they have."

Snorting, Nami said, "Well, as Luffy proves, something special looks after fools."

Giggling, Robin offered, "Or by their hero worship of him, some of his luck has rubbed off onto them."

Then the archaeologist became serious once more, "What is your overall conclusion from what you've learnt?"

Tilting her head back, Nami stared up at the ceiling.

.

.

.

After five minutes she blew out a breath, and looked Robin square in the eye. "It's completely insane and implausible, and the more I learn, the more I don't understand how our planet even exists.

"Sometimes it even seems like we've come from some sort of fantasy lands, with islands in the skies, magical fruit, mermaids, princesses to rescue, and all the rest of it."

Her expression hardened. "And that is without a few other little tidbits I've come across that's been bugging me. Ones you should know about."

Sighing, Robin nodded. "Like how our seven moons back home are called: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan? The exact same names as some of the planets of this solar system, and the two most well-known moons?

"Or are you talking about Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto?"

Slowly Nami ticked off her fingers. "Uranus and Pluton, two names of the Ancient Weapons back home."

"More precisely," Robin corrected, "Neptune is the Roman name for the Greek god Poseidon, the name of the third Weapon. Moreover, the name of our world, Gaea, is an older name for this one: Earth. Also from ancient Greek."

Despite already knowing all of this, archaeologist was visibly concerned by this knowledge.

Nami could sympathize.

The Three Ancient Weapons; each able to destroy entire nations with ease. Named after deities of old to reflect their power.

Deities supposedly from their world! Not this one.

How was it that two different universes, with (supposedly) no previous connection to each other, develop the same names for myths and legends?

It strained all credibility.

"Our worlds have likely interacted before," she softly concluded.

Robin solemnly nodded.

"There's more, isn't there? That's why you had me look through this encyclopedia on animals, and list every breed of Mink I saw."

(The moon Moon was the one that empowered their furry allies, as well as being the one that a certain crazy, wannabe god had wanted to reach. Which made sense as it was the biggest, brightest, and closest to the planet. Could that even be the basis for prevalent myths about werewolves in this universe?)

"Correct. You had more time to meet everybody. Still, from what I observed, each and every one of them was based upon lions, dogs, giraffes, monkeys, and other species found on Earth, yet none of them exhibited traits of the more exotic creatures of Gaea. Like Cloud Foxes, Linear Foxes, or the Komainu of Wano.

"It is the same with the many Zoan Devil Fruits. Between what I've memorized of the official catalogues, what we have all experienced ourselves, and even the SMILE Devil Fruits that we fought on Wano, I am fairly familiar with that class of Devil Fruit. All of them are based solely on animals that are also found on Earth. Even the results of Ancient Zoan Fruits could be found within the paleontology here, and the Mythical Zoans have connections to local mythology as well."

Rubbing her forehead, Nami tried to think of any alternatives. "What if it really is just the result of two different planets developing similarly in some ways?"

Forehead actually showing creases now, Robin shook her head. "There's many other examples, if not as dramatic. Moreover, there are growing questions about our own world. For instance, I've been confused about how our entire planet has the same language, even isolationist Wano having only a few differences from everybody else to the point we easily blended in there. In contrast, Earth has dozens and dozens of them. There's . . . too many questions."

". . . We're going to have to tell Luffy about this, aren't we?"

Both of them were well aware that while their Captain was far from the smartest book on the shelf (and given his level of education it would be a miracle to see him actually read a book), he was still a lot smarter than he appeared.

Which was not to say they would not have to simplify their long, long, loooooong lectures for him. One that would have to be more substantial than: 'This mystery means our world makes no sense. The end.'

". . . Yes."

!JUSTICE!

Clayface was rather proud of his choice of movie to watch with Luffy.

Make no mistake, film selection was both a critical and risky enterprise with these sorts of critics.

Zoro rejoiced in bloody violence, while the others complained. Romance was a no-go, with Nami leading the pack in mocking the (often comedic) attempts to form a relationship.

Then there was Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider . . .

He shuddered in memory in a way that even Batman had never managed to make him feel.

When Nico Robin had seen one of each film, right then and there Clayface knew she had not been bluffing about once having been actively complicit in the attempted murder of thousands of people.

Darkly livid, each time she had chewed out the 'so-called archaeologists' who kept 'destroying precious ruins,' in clipped, coldly precise terms that left everyone else shivering.

If not for Harley and Chopper's puppy-dog eyes, she would have even banned the original Star Wars films just because Harrison Ford was in them. Now that would have been a tragedy.

(It was clear she had still given serious thought to tracking down all the cast and crew for both Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider, making them suffer for the crime of 'teaching impressionable children that it is fine to destroy priceless historical artifacts!')

Still, Clayface felt justifiably proud with his latest pick: Pirates of the Caribbean.

After making their escape from Sanji, he and Luffy were watching the third one, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

As anticipated, Luffy had loved the idea of freedom loving, pirate protagonists.

So both of them were chomping through a pile of hot dogs and bags of popcorn, having the time of their lives.

It gave Clayface a funny feeling in his chest to feel so at ease with someone else once more.

One thing did catch his attention though. "Hey, Luffy?"

"Yeah?"

"Is your whole body rubber? Even your teeth?"

"Huh? That's right! How'd you guess?"

"I was just wondering why you chose to swallow your food so much."

Annoyance flashed across Luffy's face, yet Clayface knew it was not directed at him. "Ugh, uh huh. It was a real pain when it first happened, since they couldn't really bite anything. I figured out how to get my jaw just right so I could chew again, which I like. Heck, I bit through steel bars once! It's just that it's still nice sometimes to just swallow whole and taste it go down like that." He co*cked his head. "Were you the same when you were first made into clay?"

Sighing, Clayface nodded, realizing he should have known this would bring back bitter memories. "Yep," he simply said, before turning his attention back to what Captain Jack Sparrow –Although Johnny Depp's overrated, the ex-actor knew—was up to.

They were nearing the climax of the film as the Nine Pirate Lords were assembled to decide what the Brethern Court was to do. Jack was advocating they fight a war against the approaching fleet of the tyrannical East India Trading Company.

Captain Barbossa, Jack's ex-friend and temporary ally derided that suggestion, saying that Jack always ran away, leading to a little comedy routine until the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea claimed:

"I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that here now that is what we all must do: We must fight . . . to run away."

The other pirates quickly broke out into shouts of agreement, until Barbossa ruined their fun.

"As per the code," said he, "an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the Pirate King."

What followed was an extended scene as the book containing the pirate's code was brought forth, but Clayface missed it as a snort of contempt caught his attention. Looking at Luffy, he was surprised by the derision on his usually sunny face. Like he was watching a bunch of children merely playing at being pirates.

So confused was Clayface, that he merely missed the next major part, as the French Pirate Lord spoke up. "There has not been a King since the first Brethren Court, and that is not likely to change!"

"Not likely," agreed the intimidating keeper of the Code.

"Why not?" said Elizabeth Swann, played by Keira Knightley, an actress that the man who had once been the famed star Matthew 'Matt' Hagen, also thought overrated.

Gibbs, whose character generally served to provide exposition, dutifully answered, "Because the Pirate King is elected by popular vote—"

"—and each pirate only votes for hisself," finished Barbossa.

"Turn it off," scoffed Luffy.

Really surprised now, Clayface still just paused the movie. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Tch. If you have to ask, then you also don't know anything about pirating," Luffy dismissed, looking for an untouched bag of popcorn.

"Hey now! I take exception to that!" snapped Clayface. "When I was an actor, I always made a point to carefully research my roles to get into the proper mind for them. That includes being a pirate!"

"That so?" mumbled Luffy, clearly not really paying attention.

"That's right! I studied all the famous ones, especially the ruthless and bloodiest like Blackbeard, and—"

Clayface looked Death in the eye.

Gone was the cheery, and easy going, so-called 'Captain' of the most powerful band of super-villains he had ever met. A guy who seemed to only hold that title because he was the strongest, and maybe because people like Robin and Zoro were humouring him.

Now he saw the Monster.

Dark, expressionless, with eyes that stabbed into his very soul while emitting an aura of violence that scared him more than he had ever known in his life.

This,

This,

This was the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Here and now he knew why people might hear the title 'Straw Hat' and know not mockery, but fear.

A relentless presence that would never stop in search of its goal, and heaven help any who got in the way of him or his family.

His nakama.

"What did you say?" asked the emotionless voice.

For all that the Gotham supervillain towered over and out-massed the teen before him, he was now overshadowed by a relentless force that crushed down all that came before it. Throat bobbing, it took him three attempts before he could find his voice. "I-I studied famous pirates like, like Blackbeard?"

"Who is that?"

"The m-most f-famous one! R-real name C-captain T-Teach!"

He blinked, and Luffy was gone.

!JUSTICE!

Precisely one minute later

Never had Luffy ever called together an emergency meeting, so Robin and Nami both knew the world may very well be ending.

The utter cold fury on Luffy's expression was the next clue this was Serious. They only saw him like that when people were insulting Ace, hurting siblings or their own crewmates, slavery in general, pointless deaths, Akainu, and of course Blackbeard.

That Clayface was literally doing his best not to collapse in terror in the corner of the kitchen where they all met, was the other hint. The other supervillains seemed nervous too at the transformation that had taken over the Captain, even though Robin knew they had all known Luffy was very powerful. It was only now that they were coming to terms with the terrifying Will behind that power.

To the inhabitants of Earth, he gave a single, flat order:

"Tell me about every pirate in the world you know of. Not actors or stuff like that."

So the names spilled out, especially when privateers (which sounded a lot like the Seven Warlords' system) were added in. Certain ones quickly came to stand out:

Captain Drake.

Captain Kidd.

Captain Hawkins.

Captain Bonney.

Captain Teach. A.K.A. Blackbeard. Except his full name was either Edward Teach, or Edward Thatch. Robin was fully aware that the former Fourth Division Commander who Marshal D Teach had murdered, had been named Thatch. Not to mention how Whitebeard's true name had been Edward Newgate.

The other names were those of fellow members of the Worst Generation. The newest era of rival captains who had thrown the status quo of the Golden Pirate Era into such turmoil.

Most of them are the same surnames, with the exception of Eustass Kidd. Except his epithet is 'Captain' for reasons that were never made clear. Hence, 'Captain Kidd.'

"What does the name 'Trafalgar,' mean to you?" Robin asked.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! I know! Ask me!" cried Harley, jumping up and down with her hand raised, throwing off the grim atmosphere. Of course, living with the Joker probably meant she was fairly resistant to it.

"Yes, Harley?" smiled the historian.

"It's the name of a famous naval battle!"

"How famous?"

"Super famous! Like, I don't know how you don't know about it! It was for the Napoleonic Wars and junk!"

"I see. 'Capone'?"

"Famous gangster. Like, the most famous."

For the rest of the Worst Generation, Killer's name was too generic, and nothing concrete was gained for Apoo or Urouge. Still, it was more than enough to see the pattern.

"Robin," Luffy quietly said. "I need answers."

"Yes, Captain."

Like a switch, the sunny Luffy was back, and he turned to Clayface. "Sorry about that. You wanna try a different movie instead?"

"Uh, sure. Uhm, uh, maybe something light like Disney?"

"Oooh," now Maureen was getting involved. "Me too!"

"Me three!" waved Harley.

Chuckling, Luffy nodded. "Of course you guys can come! C'mon Mauri, let's make some more popcorn!"

With that, Robin slipped away.

!JUSTICE!

A slaughter.

Fish in the barrel.

That was what it was like for the band of whalers.

Laws, licenses, and bribes meant nothing before the rage of Brook and Jinbe.

And Chopper too obviously, but frankly he was a candle compared to the inferno of his friends' wrath.

"P-please!" whimpered one of the poacher captains.

"Silence!" hissed Brook, before knocking the man unconscious. As tempting as it may be, while the ships would be scuttled, the men would be left alive. An investigation would be conducted afterwards, and doubtless evidence of the extent of their poaching would be uncovered. Of course, Brook was not so naïve to assume that whichever authorities did do said investigation would not be the very same ones Robin had reported had been paid off; however he was confident that said crooks would not want a similar 'visit' if they did not report the proper truth.

Green activists had watched the savagery with open-mouthed terror, having come to protest and record the crimes against nature. Instead they had gotten a demonstration of Nature's Champions.

They were equally stymied by the sight of Chopper talking to the whale sharks, and giving slow, measured, and repeated directions. It even seemed like the whales were listening and talking back!

"Who are you!?"

The regal demand carried across the waves, and the Straw Hats turned to see a muscular, blonde man standing half out of the water.
Aquaman.

Jinbe was not impressed.

Far from it.

He had grown up under King Neptune, and more importantly had seen the greatness of Queen Otohime. Compared to what she had accomplished for peace, Aquman was a spoiled child. One who chose to dictate through threats of violence to the United Nations, oblivious to what kind of future that led to.

The Darkness that it created within one's own people.

"Those who were forced to do the job you were incapable of doing!" he barked, before turning his back. With a quick command to a remote, Franky's jet settled down beside them, ramp lowered to board.

With a splash, Aquaman leapt out of the water to land in front of him—

—so Jinbe grabbed him mid-air and tossed him aside.

Landing lightly on his feet, Aquaman glared daggers at them, steeling himself for a fight. In all likelihood he had only meant to get in their faces to continue dictating to them, yet Jinbe was in no mood. The mission was complete, and it was time to go.

Besides, maybe a taste of humility might be of help. For all that he was a pirate, he owed it to this world's oceans at least.

So he stopped to stare at man, while Brook and Chopper casually boarded and prepped the plane. "Who do you think you are?" Then turned to walk up the ramp himself.

"I'm the King of the Seas!" roared Aquaman.

Jinbe never looked over his shoulder as his calm voice fired back, "Then act like it!"

With a roar, the jet took off, leaving only a glaring monarch behind.

!JUSTICE!

Robin had retreated back to her room to think, trying to put all the pieces together.

All she knew for sure was that they were past the point of mere 'coincidences.' The signs were adding up like a glaring message.

Or maybe a sick parody.

Either way, she was not sure of the entirety of what it was trying to convey.

At the very least, she knew that when they had first arrived to this alternate dimension, Luffy had been explicit that they should minimize contact between their two realities. Let them remain in their natural state. As time had gone by though, they had found more and more interesting discoveries, and decided that some should come back with them instead. On their terms.

Now it was looking like they were not the first.

That someone had crossed over at some point, and a terrifying exchange had been made. There were just too many possibilities however.

Were Devil Fruits really magic in origin? They were the only things that resembled it back home, yet here there were many signs of it.

Did the super-advanced Pluton originally come from here? Or even an alien civilization, landing on this world in the past, and appear for the shipwrights of Water 7 to claim as their own?

The power of Poseidon was strongly reminiscent to Aquaman's, which begged the question of how deep the possible parallels between Atlantis and Fishman Island went.

Neptune?

The names of the Worst Generation that concerned her so much were largely family names, so maybe it was possible that an ancestor took up that name in honour of pirates and criminals they knew and respected? Maybe even passing down some of that history?

All this and more fired through her mind, yet the darkest and most terrifying stayed at the forefront.

. . . Is it possible that Marshal D Teach is from Earth?

Everyone had always assumed he took his name as a reference to Whitebeard, and he was not the first to do so either. But what were the chances it was also the name of the most infamous pirate of this dimension?

From what she had already learnt about Earth's Blackbeard, he was rather dissimilar to the Emperor they knew. Except, Earth's had been romanticized after his death, and became the inspiration for an archetypal pirate in works of fiction across many genres. Maybe that was the basis of Marshal's choice of identity?

His past was a complete mystery. Perhaps his entire name was a fallacy.

More importantly . . . He was capable of feats beyond what anyone should be capable of. To be able to harvest and use multiple Devil Fruits, his supposedly 'odd' biology, and a few other curious, or even supposedly impossible, feats.

It's not impossible, Robin thought as she admitted her greatest fear. That he could be from this world . . . and a metahuman.

Someone with powers beyond just that of the Devil Fruits and Haki.

If so, what other secrets might he have?

There were so many mysteries piling up, that Robin did not even know where to start.

Then her resolve hardened. This was an issue of history, and she was the archaeologist of the Straw Hat Pirates. She would find the answers for her Captain.

No matter who or what got in her way.

!JUSTICE!

Silently the stolen government stealth jet came to stop on the beach.

From it came two terrifying villains:

Parasite, one of Superman's greatest foes.

Scarecrow, the master of fear.

However, even they were nervous in the presence of the figure in front of them.

"Alrighty, let's get this show on the road."

Chapter 11: Injustice for All Part 1

Chapter Text

A dark night has fallen over Metropolis, held at bay by the lights of the skyscrapers rising high into the air. Towering above them all was headquarters of Lexcorp, and on the penthouse floor, an eerily, alien green light was pulsing.

“So this is how it ends,” Lex Luthor casually said. He was resplendent in his signature business-suit, expression almost bored as he looked at the glowing, green stone of Kryptonite in his hand. A small piece, only about the size of his fist, yet so utterly decisive. “You know I’ve carried this around for years, waiting for just the right moment. But now that it’s here, I almost feel . . . a little let down. Almost.” He looked down at the figure before him:

Superman.

Writhing on a couch in agony at the radiation burning through him. Unable to speak as he grunted in pain, barely keeping himself from falling onto the floor.

It was anti-climactic really, after the numerous plots to kill this insufferable alien. All that money, those misguided fools and pawns with powers and weaponry, and other such schemes. Even just a few weeks ago he had tried doing it himself with a giant, remotely operated robot, only to fail. In the end, Lex had simply invited him over to ‘discuss’ something, and now it was all over.

Oh, there was still the Justice League to contend with, except he knew from his sources the rest were all occupied with some incident or other in Asia. Doubtless Batman would try and investigate, but there would be no evidence to be found. Hmm, maybe I’ll plant some so it seems the government is responsible? That way they can catch Batman snooping around their so-called ‘secret’ bases? It would be simplicity then to push for official censure of the whole team of do-gooders, if not prison time. Or perhaps something for that annoying Supergirl to find, sending her off in a violent frenzy to the point the League will be the ones forced to stop her? Ah the irony.

Meanwhile, I’ll be able to advance my other projects. Especially with a new handy corpse to tinker with.

With a little ingenuity, he would have world conquest within a year. By that point the only question would be if he wanted sheep-like masses none the wiser, or cheering his name. Decisions, decisions.

“Oh, and weren’t you supposed to be at the Metropolis General Hospital tomorrow?” he mocked. “Something about flying a kid dying of cancer around the world as his last wish?” Grunts were the only response, yet he could tell Superman was drawing the strength to say something. “Any last requests?”

“Luthor,” weakly managed the Man of Steel, raising his head and a hand slightly. “I have to know. Those weapons you sold to the terrorists, how—”

“How did I get them through customs,” interrupted Lex, a hint of contempt in his eyes. Honestly, nosey to the very end. Predictable really. Ah well, sniveling and begging would almost . . . cheapen the satisfaction. “A gift here, a bribe here,” he idly gestured. “When money talks, people listen.” He turned his back on his arch foe to walk away while tossing the Kryptonite from hand to hand. The view of the Metropolis from the window was most pleasant –a reminder of what would soon once more be entirely his. Moreover, a final message for how little he thought of Superman. “Like Stavros at the shipping company. Or Schneider the Interpol agent who looked the other way.”

“Sounds you’re going to have company in prison,” cut in an ethereal –yet chillingly familiar— voice.

Whirling around to see who it was, Lex saw Superman standing tall and impossibly recovered!

Panicking, he rushed over to hold the green stone closer, believing he had gotten too far away.

Folding his arms unfazed, Superman merely glared.

“It can’t be!” cried Lex, staring at the glowing stone for some kind of defect. “The Kryptonite!”

“Won’t protect you any longer,” ‘Superman’ said in that strange voice, until his form blurred and shifted into that of Martian Manhunter.

“NO!” shouted Luthor in shock and horror. Why would he—!?

“You’re usually more careful, Lex,” a hated voice said, revealing the entrance of Batman. Behind him, hovering and with his Ring held ready, was Green Lantern. “You slipped up.”

“And you’re going down hard,” declared Green Lantern, aiming his Ring and forming a Construct which snatched away the Kryptonite, with Batman snagging it to put away into a pocket of his utility belt, cutting off the light and radiation.

They can’t do this! raged Lex.

Except deep down he knew he was in significant trouble. Before, he had always escaped serious legal investigations only partially thanks to bribes and coercion –which had become increasingly difficult, with Superman flying about, as closeminded, straight-laced officials realized they could go to the alien to snitch about it, or how they knew others receiving gifts or being threatened. The other major reason being there had never been sufficient evidence incriminate him. Or that anything stolen from him would be inadmissible in court, thanks to his lawyers. Unfortunately, it was obvious these ‘heroes’ now thought they had what they needed. Never mind the necessary effort and planning to make him believe the Justice League was elsewhere, he knew Batman would not have made such a brazen move until he was confident he had all the angles covered.

Moreover, Superman would not be involved unless he was sure it would work. For crying out loud, in the past Lex had openly boasted to the alien that all necessary evidence had already disappeared, knowing it would always be the ‘heroes’ word against his! Lex had threatened him when they first met! Because he could!

But I just confessed to aiding terrorism, and they have the names of two accomplices. Those weasels will squeal to Batman if the pressure’s on them! And once they have that, they can keep pulling the thread to unravel more and more!

“Mission accomplished,” Batman said into a radio. The three heroes advanced on Lex as he backed away.

“So much for your image as a benevolent businessman,” stated Martian Manhunter. “This is the end of an era.”

Defiantly he exclaimed, “The end ofyourera, maybe.” He whipped out a remote, and pressed the button. He always had contingencies.

An automated escape craft appeared outside the window, and began firing upon the intruders.

!JUSTICE!

Later

“Good to see you,” nodded Hawkgirl as Batman entered the room. He had just arrived in his Batwing, and seemed unhurt. Not that something as insignificant as pain or injuries would stop him. Not for this.

“Any problems?” he brusquely asked.

“None. The FBI Director was satisfied with your recording of Luthor’s confession, and got three judges to sign off on it. His hand-picked teams are already helping tear everything of Luthor’s apart. Interpol’s also coordinating, and sweeping up his international holdings.”

That had been one of the critical steps in their whole strategy. For American law, evidence acquired by following a trail illegally obtained is inadmissible in court, and outright requires the defendant to be released, the charges dropped. Usually Batman’s methods of breaking-and-entering as part of his regular routine were overlooked by Gotham’s Police Department, and while the District Attorney had been initially opposed to it, she had come around in supporting him. (Being kidnapped by his Rogues Gallery had helped there). As the Justice League’s successes grew, so did the willingness of certain parties to overlook any irregularities. The catch was that most of the time this was for clear-cut cases of dangerous criminals, while Lex Luthor was known to the public as a highly successful businessman, who regularly made very generous charitable donations.

Moreover, the complete fiasco with Cherry Blossom Medical, dampened enthusiasm for such tactics.

“Good. How was Flash?” Batman had never been concerned about Hawkgirl’s role, as she had helped him map out their plan to take down one of the greatest criminals alive. As blunt and direct as she was in the field, she was also a brilliant strategist—he had yet to beat her at chess. Thankfully, the upper members of the FBI, and the local District Attorney, had been suspicious of Lex Luthor for years. Lack of evidence aside, they had been concerned that if the man was arrested, it would create a power vacuum in the criminal underworld would do. Without Luthor keeping things orderly, crime might actually escalate as some thug tried to take the man’s throne. Superman could not be everywhere after all.

And yes, intentionally causing just that sort of crisis if he fell from grace, was exactly the sort of thing a sore loser like Luthor would conceive of. Especially since his insufferable ego had taken an increasing pounding over the years at the hands of the Man of Steel.

Hawkgirl had dismissed such concerns over the void left by Luthor as the officials being lazy and negligent, while Batman had more diplomatically (relatively speaking) contributed his own insight from his experience of Gotham City being in exactly that sort of situation. He had taken out his share of crime bosses and madmen after all. The trick lay in anticipating how people would try and fill the vacuum, and prune them accordingly. Done correctly, law and order would actually spread.

That was not to say it would be easy, but they had plans and contingencies in place, with law enforcement having just been briefed. Working together, they would all pull it off.

“He did well,” she assured him with a flicker of what could have been a proud grin. “Didn’t let himself get distracted, kept things moving during the meeting, and broke the tension whenever it came up.”

Content to hear the speedster did his job, Batman turned his attention to sorting out his files for his final briefing for the Director. Afterwards it was back to LexCorp to begin pruning everything rotten there, and exposing all the other infestations. As much as Luthor was a genius, he refused to believe that there was no physical evidence lying around.

co*cking her head in curiosity, Hawkgirl said, “I know you brought Luthor into custody, so where’s Superman?”

“He’s busy,” he grunted. “Luthor tried to escape, and might’ve even gotten away, except he suffered some kind of attack that made him collapse. Possibly a stroke. Superman rushed him to a doctor.”

“Really.” She seemed a touch dubious and resigned. “Isn’t the man his worst enemy?”

No, that would be Darkseid, Batman knew. From a few, careful verbal probes, he knew that the New God of Apokolips was perhaps the only being that Superman outright hated.

As much as Luthor was a persistent, homicidal, apathetic, megalomaniacal thorn in the side of the Man of Steel, he was still . . .

“He still sees some good in the man,” admitted Batman. “Or at least regrets the good Luthor is failing to do with his life.”

Truthfully, while Batman thought that was being overly naïve, it did nothing to diminish his respect for his frien—teammate. Indeed, it was that very idealism that made him into the greatest hero of them all. For all that Clark called what they did a 'never-ending battle,' he had also shown Batman that Justice did not have to come from the darkness.

Misreading his silence, Hawkgirl observed, “Sometimes I don’t understand why you two get along so well. Sometimes I wonder if his powers make him forget how vulnerable other people are. How they can be hurt by people like Luthor. That’s he’s too alien to understand.”

At any other time Batman would have kept quiet. Here and now though, well, she was a member of the Justice League, and as exhausting as it was working with other people, a little sign of trust might help the team. Even if he was only a part-timer. Besides, she had to understand about Superman.

“No,” he corrected. “In many ways, in his civilian life, he is the most Human of us all. Then . . . he shoots fire from the skies, and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him.

“He grew up separate from the rest of the world, learning every day as he grew up how different he was from the rest of us. That he has the power to tear the world apart with just his pinky. And yet . . . every day of that childhood, every second . . . he had a choice, and he chose to be more. To prove to everyone that heroes do exist. Just maybe one at first . . . except now more and more of us are stepping forward.”

Despite herself, Shayera was impressed. Not only at this proof that Superman could inspire even someone like Batman, but also that she could swear that was the most words he had spoken at once since they first met.

Although even I feel myself moved by what he can do. Who knows, maybe he could’ve even found a way to end our war with the Gordanians before it went too far.

Still, a dead enemy is also one who doesn’t come back to cause trouble.

!JUSTICE!

Pointedly standing off to the side in Luthor’s office, Green Lantern watched the FBI techs going over the businessman’s personal computer. Now that they had a search warrant, they were looking for evidence to further indict the man. By the sounds of it, they had already found enough to begin freezing his bank accounts.

Truthfully, the League was not confident they would find all of either the money or potential evidence. Superman and Batman both agreed the mastermind would keep his most sensitive files off-site as precaution, as well as numerous, off-shore accounts under various aliases. Indeed, Batman had been very clear that he suspected that even if Luthor did not have a photographic memory, he would have memorized all of the most incriminating details possible. His mind being the safest, most trusted place for his secrets. Whatever records could be found, would more likely to be to show other people for various reasons, ranging from instructions to his scientists and henchmen, blackmail, or helping convince people he knew what he was talking about.

Nevertheless, the heroes were still expecting to find enough to arrest regular crooks, crime lords, senators, prison guards, corrupt cops and judges, etcetera.

So Green Lantern’s job was to keep watch, and ensure no ‘accidents’ happened to all those computer files. Just in case someone wanted to hide something, or got greedy at the thought at what Luthor would reward them with.

After all, this was not just to tear out Luthor’s criminal empire, but to make sure he was locked up for life as well. They needed to have solid proof beyond a recorded confession.

While they did not know why Luthor had suddenly collapsed while nearly escaping Superman, Green Lantern suspected it was a ploy to get help sympathy for the jury. Which only made it all the more essential to lock down any other legal loopholes from the man.

One of the most persistent problems for Batman in Gotham was that while he was able to keep apprehending criminals, the worst of his Rogue’s Gallery would not receive the life sentences in maximum security prisons like the police or District Attorney wanted. Why? Because since Batman was not a recognized agent of the law, people like the Joker or Poison Ivy were sent straight back to Arkham Asylum in the hope they would be able to complete their rehabilitation.

Although I can’t say I’ve ever heard of that place having a success story . . .

Mentally shaking off that distraction, he resumed his work.

!JUSTICE!

Lex Luthor came awake with a flutter of his eyelids, before focusing upon the one person he hated above all others. “YOU!”

Unfazed by the loathing being shot at him, Superman started talking about the doctor beside him, while memory flooded back to Luthor as he remembered his blazing escape from Lexcorp. It should have been perfect, with his hyper-advanced plane armed with missiles that could hurt even Superman!

Except . . . his had chest had started stabbing with pain . . . until he blacked out . . .

Any memories of Superman saving him from crashing were dismissed as hallucinations.

Automatically processing what was being said around him, he realized that the doctor was standing beside him now, trying to tell him something. Probably related to injuries from his failed escape that he could frame Superman for. He was half-naked for some reason after all. “No, I’ve got something to tell you! Whatever I said to the Martian won’t stand up in court!” He held up a fist and began counting off fingers. “I’ll get the best lawyers, the best witnesses, the best—!”

“LEX!” shouted Superman in an insultingly familiar manner. “None of that matters anymore,” he said, sounding almost sad. “Listen.”

“Mr. Luthor, you had a seizure,” said Dr. Patel as he came over. “Has this happened to you before?” Turning his silent glare onto the probable hack questioning him, Lex said nothing, inviting him to give away more. Predictably, “My tests indicate you have a rare type of blood poison.”

“Impossible,” he stated, taking the proffered clipboard to read the notes.

“Remember that chunk of Kryptonite you carried around for years?” Superman said.

“What about it? Kryptonite only affects you,” he said with contempt, pointing with the clipboard at the Kryptonian.

“Actually,” said the doctor, “we’re finding it affects Humans too, but only if they’re exposed over a long period.”

Eyes widening in horror as he realized the truth –how had he not considered that about radiation!? Run some tests!?— and knew the seizure that had made him collapse before would happen again. It was very likely he was dying!

Breaking out of his stupor, he yelled with hate, “This is your fault! All of it!” Throwing the clipboard at Superman impotently. “What’s the treatment?” he demanded of the doctor. “Radiation? Chemo?”

“Unfortunately,” the doctor looked away, “there is no cure.”

“Then find one!” he ordered. “Price is no object.”

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.” He met Lex’s eyes to confirm his worst fears. “It’s terminal.”

The weight of those words stopped him, and made him bow his head in contemplation. The truth of it all quickly became clear though, as he defiantly raised his chin, and flared his eyes to glare at his nemesis. “Happy, Superman?”

“Lex,” the alien said, coming around the hospital bed to get closer. Sanctimoniously, “If there’s anything I can do—”

“You’ve done more than enough,” he cut him off, crossing his arms and closing his eyes to think.

He would find a way. He always did.

!JUSTICE!

Later

Flash, a.k.a. Wally West, hummed to himself as he went through Batman’s latest updates. That he was actually sitting down to handle a task, as opposed to goofing off and/or eating, might surprise people who did not know him well. The truth was, he was fully aware how important their jobs were. It was just that unlike some people (*cough* Batman *cough*), he also knew the importance of letting yourself live a little, to keep yourself from snapping.

Although Bat’s is already a crazed loner, so no luck there, he joked to himself.

Still, he had definitely been putting in more effort ever since his little bout with Luffy. As much as he knew the young man was a swell guy, the fact of the matter was that he had almost effortlessly beaten Flash. Worse, everyone else nearby had been too busy to help. His life had been totally and utterly in the hands of a self-proclaimed pirate.

That . . . had been an eye-opener. Now it was less goofing off, and more doing his best to pitch in. A little bit at a time.

Besides, as boring as reports might all sound, he admitted to being curious as to what Luthor had done with his company after he had woken up. Apparently he had left his chauffer and bodyguard in charge of it all!

Superman had been flabbergasted at that, as apparently the woman –Mercy Graves— had been neck-deep in everything alongside her boss. It was only when the big Boy Scout stopped to think about it, did he realize it was because she was the only one Luthor trusted to give back control of LexCorp to him when he ‘cleared his name,’ or whatever. Ergo, as his contingency, the man had ensured that nothing could be tied back to her. She was free to walk. Although the longer she’s in the top seat, the harder it might be for her to give it back, Wally hoped.

With a sigh, he flipped through a few more pages, memorizing the important parts, before picking up the next file. I’ll let GL and the girls know the main stuff later.

!JUSTICE!

Superman was also catching up on some work in the Watchtower, within the Monitor Room. Although in his case he was looking through some of Luthor’s personal files. Batman had confiscated a lot of it, yet left copies of psychological profiles on the Justice League. The Kryptonian suspected his friend had done so to leave a certain message, unaware at the time of how serious the billionaire’s condition was.

Despite everything, it was painful to think about Luthor’s upcoming death. All that potential just wasted. Even at the end, he apparently preferred withdrawing into bitterness, instead of taking one last chance to leave a positive mark upon the world. A stab at curing cancer for one.

Sadly, with the man shutting everybody out, there was nothing Clark could do about it. So best to turn to his own responsibilities. Such as his new reading material.

Even considering their source, he knew the value in an outside opinion, and tried to stay objective. After all, following the fiasco with Cherry Blossom Medical, Lois and others had been critiquing his actions more, and pointing out ways he could be doing better. Indeed, their subsequent encounters with the Straw Hats, had led to him, Diana, and some of the others to self-reflect more on the League’s methods and outlook, which he believed to be important. Keeping an open mind, and learning where to grow, was essential for anybody, hero or not.

Using his own investigative skills, he could tell these files were mostly written by Luthor himself, with some proclaimed ‘experts’ contributing a little. Given some of the references made, some even worked for the US government. The way it was written up, he assumed it was meant to help convince readers to not trust the heroes, probably geared for an audience of politicians, meaning there was an undeniable bias in the words.

Although that might be me too, he reluctantly acknowledge. Of course, that doesn’t mean I enjoy reading about how Luthor thinks I’m an egomaniac! That I'm only a hero to feed my ego. That I only don't kill people like him because I love the 'cheering children,' and 'swooning women' too much.

All this time, and he still doesn’t understand me.

What is really so wrong with wanting people not to die? For people to have the chance to make the world a better place. If giving up my powers would accomplish that, I’d do it in a heartbeat!

With a sigh, he put the files down. Truthfully, he did not put a lot of stock in psychological profiles, or psychiatrists and psychologists in general. In fact, he did not know any hero who did. The fact of the matter was that masked individuals were all extremely reluctant to open up their secrets. Not to mention how if they entered into this line of work, they did so because they were confident they could handle any issue, including their own mental ones.

Besides, look at how many psychologists turned super-villains! Clearly it was too risky.

Fortunately, a distraction appeared in the form of an incoming communication. From Atlantis?

I hope nothing’s wrong down there. Not like them to actually call us. A few keystrokes, and a familiar blonde and bearded face appeared onscreen. “Aquaman,” Superman said with a warm smile. While they may have butted heads in the past, he knew the monarch was a good man.

“Superman,” the King of the Seven Seas greeted over the video screen. “How are you?”

“Pretty good,” he admitted. “We just caught a major criminal. You’ll be glad to hear that, given the amount of water pollution some of his companies were involved in. Other than that, the rest is still good.” He co*cked his head. “If you don’t have a crisis going on, maybe you’d like to drop by Metropolis later to talk?”

“I can’t guarantee that,” deflected Aquaman. “But I do hope you help me with a little mystery. I understand you’re familiar with the Straw Hats?”

With a sigh, Superman nodded. “I’m guessing that they’ve done something either sort of good, or something fairly bad, with a definite side of chaos.”

“You could say that,” snorted Aquaman. “They took care of some poachers going after my whale sharks.” He glanced aside momentarily, obviously a little embarrassed. “I’d already been in a bad mood rushing over to help, and when I got there I saw a bunch of strangers finishing the whalers off, doing my job, and I got defensive and yelled at them.” Now King Arthur’s mien was a prideful royal once more. “Their words were insulting, so I tried to be assertive with them. Unfortunately I misjudged their strength, and got knocked back, and insulted more before they flew off in a jet.”

“Interesting,” mused Superman. “I’m glad they saved the sharks.” Indeed, that painted a better picture of them given their recent attack on Shining Knight—even if it did not excuse it. Aquaman knows he was in the wrong in how he first reacted, except unfortunately he can still be too arrogant at times, and he escalated the situation. Although it doesn’t sound like the Straw Hats were willing to talk anyways. “When and where did this happen?”

The king gave some coordinates, and admitted it happened a few hours ago. “I was hoping to learn more about them on my own, except there isn’t much it seems. Although, the environmentalists who had witnessed everything said that one of them was unfamiliar. Sending you a picture.”

And I guess they assumed you’d tell us directly, so no need to send us word themselves, Superman quietly chastised. Which is why we’re only hearing about this now. Not wanting to start an argument though, he kept his peace. Doubtless the monarch would, or already had, come to that same conclusion. Pointing it out would only anger him.

Looking at the image that came in, he raised an eyebrow. “This is a new one,” he said. “Given his size, possibly one of the ones involved with a recent bank robbery. Thank you, this helps a lot.”

Then he noticed that Aquaman still seemed a little uncomfortable. “Is there something else?”
With a sigh, King Arthur pushed aside his own ego. “If there’s a chance, I’d like to thank them for saving my subjects. Moreover, it seems that one of them, Dr. Chopper, is able to talk with sea life. The pod was already heading off on its own, and from what I can gather, he had instructed them on how to get to someplace safer.”

That was probably the closest Aquaman would get to an apology.

“I understand, and I’ll see what I can do,” he promised. “By the way, how’s Mera and your son doing?”

A warm smile graced the monarch’s face, breaking through his usual attitude. “Very well. Just yesterday, he—”

!JUSTICE!

Later

With nothing more to accomplish down on Earth for now, the rest of the Justice League reconvened aboard the Watchtower to go over the rest of their findings, as well as prepare for future events.

J’onn was consulting with Shayera and John about the technology they were using for their space station, as well as possible improvements.

“What do you mean by incorporating more alien technology?” she questioned.

“Maintaining our advantage,” the ex-marine deduced. “The stuff we’ve got up here is some of the most advanced on the planet, and we need to maintain that edge if we’re going to stay effective.”

“Indeed,” confirmed J’onn, shifting through computer files showing various schematics for equipment like enhanced sensors. “While Martian technology is very advanced, Humans have made impressive strides as of late. However, that also includes Luthor, as well as the Straw Hats.”

“Who may be aliens themselves,” reminded Shayera. “They’ve already proven capable of medical advances we still don’t fully understand after all, and that would explain it. Which means they may have technology we ourselves do not understand.”

“Yet,” interjected Green Lantern.

“Anything is possible,” allowed J’onn. “For now though, especially with our connection to S.T.A.R. Labs, and Wayne Enterprises, we maintain an edge over every other nation, and nearly every other super-villain. Luthor has been taken out of the picture as well. With this advantage, we are better equipped to detect and defuse crime.”

Flash appeared before them in a blur. “Bats is doing a meeting in an hour. Just thought I’d check that you’re all up-to-date on what he’s been finding out.”

“What’ve you’ve got?” asked Green Lantern. They had already brushed up on stuff during the flight up here, but they may have missed something. Besides, he wanted to encourage his friend’s improvement.

!JUSTICE!

“I hear that Luthor’s going to die.”

Glancing over, Clark saw that Bruce had appeared at his shoulder as they walked to the conference room. “Yes. Although,” he gave a tired smile, “you probably already read the medical reports.” The smile fell away though. “It all seems like a total waste.” Firmly he added, “And I hope you’re being careful with that piece of Kryptonite you carry around with yourself. We don’t want to lose you too.”

“You sound like you’ll miss him,” Bruce softly said, yet the Kryptonian was not fooled. Everything Batman did was carefully deliberate.

“Not in the way he’d like to think,” he dismissed. “He had to be arrested before he did any more harm. Metallo, Bizzaro, and all those other threats he was responsible for. Probably others we don’t even know about. To say nothing about how despite owning the world’s largest, multinational corporation, he chose to engage in illegal weapons development, extortion, industrial sabotage, and arms trading. We’ll be finding terrorists and despots with his weapons and tech for years!”

He blew out a breath, before softly saying, “I only wish . . . Imagine what we could’ve accomplished if we’d worked together to help people?”

“Then he wouldn’t be Lex Luthor,” Bruce simply said, seeming reassured. “You aren’t to blame for his failings.”

“I know that,” Clark smiled to reassure his friend. “Doesn’t mean I can’t feel sorry for him.” He grimaced, “Especially since we have to lock him up, while being free with his own resources would be the best way for him to find a cure for himself.”

Now Bruce outright snorted. “Most likely hurting others in the process.”

!JUSTICE!

“—and that is all we have on Luthor so far,” concluded Batman.

“And he’ll be dead by his own paranoia soon,” added Hawkgirl, not even bothering to hide a little grin.

Green Lantern said nothing, but they could tell he was hardly upset, nor was Diana. J’onn was impassive, while Flash was a little uncomfortable, if not as much Superman.

“He chose his path, and thus the consequences,” their newest member firmly said.

Shining Knight.

Sir Justin’s helmet and chainmail hood were off, yet his ancient golden armour did not look out of place in the advanced space station. His inherent nobleness letting him fit in anywhere.

“Now we can focus our efforts onto the Straw Hats,” Batman said, changing the subject. Everyone straightened at that. Their relationship with the pirates was best described as ‘complicated.’ For while circ*mstances with other criminals tended to remain black and white –stop the people trying to kill others, and/or conquer the world— these newcomers’ tactics were relatively benign. Relatively. The consequences of their robberies could not be ignored, and they had proven willing to resort to violence, as attested by Shining Knight.

(Some members had glanced at him at the reference to the group that had hospitalized him, yet his only response was the slightest tightening of his eyes.)

They had also proven powerful enough to be a genuine threat to members of the Justice League, which was no small feat.

Unfortunately, members like Flash and Wonder Woman also found themselves empathizing a little with some of the pirates. They were convinced that the group was made up of fundamentally good people, who had been so badly hurt in the past, they had become too cynical and insular to appreciate the harm they were doing to others, or what the Justice League was trying to accomplish. Not that the duo would let their feelings interfere if it became necessary to take the pirates down.

Superman was still hoping for a peaceful resolution to all of this.

The others had a few flickers of doubt, if not nearly as much. None of the heroes could deny though that the Straw Hats had gone to lengths to avoid killing, and displayed no interest in world domination, which made them far better than the likes of Luthor, Joker, or Darkseid.

So yeah, they may be criminals, but not evil criminals.

Personally, Batman would be quite happy to figure this all out once the Straw Hats had all been locked up in a nice, secure jail cell. “Our first concern is that they do not try and step into the criminal power vacuum left by Luthor’s arrest,” he continued. “However, without having to clean up after Luthor’s messes, or defend ourselves from his plots, we will have more time available to search for them.”

Green Lantern leaned forward. “We just took him down, so they probably haven’t had time to make any moves yet.”

“True,” agreed Batman. “We and the police will remain vigilant though. Given their interest in high-grade technology, and previous corporate manipulations, it remains a distinct possibility they will try something. Mercy Graves, the new CEO of LexCorp, has been firmly instructed by the authorities to inform them and us if they contact her in any way.”

That was the simplest and most basic of the contingencies that he and Hawkgirl had devised to prevent such a catastrophe.

“We have also benefited from Luthor’s files on them.”

Now Superman looked particularly interested. “They were robbing from LexCorp too, weren’t they?”

“Exactly.” The Dark Knight pushed over sheets of paper detailing lists of cash and resources stolen from Luthor. Even at a glance it was considerable. “He was likely covering it up to maintain his image, and probably to find a way to use them against us. In the process though, he also created profiles on them. While most of it contains the same information we gave to the authorities, there are a few new details.

“Luthor tried making contact with the Straw Hats, in order to recruit them, and was rebuffed every time. Given the amount of power and resourcefulness they displayed though, he was confident they threatened to become a serious threat to his operations. Especially if left unchecked.”

“Anything useful?” inquired Hawkgirl.

“Bits and pieces. For instance, he believes that Nico Robin runs the day-to-day goings of their criminal and financial empire, under the alias ‘Miss All-Sunday.’ He’s actually complimentary about her work, in a backhanded way. He had a list of some of their other, smaller-scale, business holdings, yet he also strongly believed that it was only a portion of it. My recommendation for how we handle those interests is to just restrict ourselves to surveillance for now.

“He also attempted bribing them individually at various points, only to be rebuffed, despite offering hefty sums. Except in one case with Dr. Mikan, who tried to con him out of more money until he realized she was faking interest. The only other real piece of note about the Straw Hats specifically, is that Luthor is convinced that their leader’s childish behavior is all a façade to conceal a fellow criminal mastermind. That just being strong would not explain for how he has gathered such powerful followers, or geniuses like Dr. Chopper or Nico Robin. Or why Luthor’s attempts to suborn his employees failed.”

“I dunno about that,” grunted Green Lantern. While he did not say it aloud, he could not help think that the pirates’ supposed ‘leader’ seemed more like Flash than someone like Luthor.

“You said ‘specifically,’” put in Superman. “Does this mean that the others working for them aren’t counted as core members or something?”

“Maybe just allies?” offered Diana. “They supposedly are aliens after all.”

“While Luthor’s lacking important details, he noted there was a clear division within the overall gang. The Straw Hats are the ones in charge of it all, the inner circle. The rest are super-villains who are either their subordinates, or people they hired on,” explained Batman. “From what he managed to uncover, they’ve definitely recruited Poison Ivy, Clayface, Cheetah, Volcana, and possibly more. Thanks to Aquaman, we have a description of another new player, although we don’t have any ID on him.”

“So Volcana is with them,” Superman said with sad surprise. “I wouldn’t have thought she could be a team player. Given her past.”

The Man of Steel was coming to the increasingly uncomfortable conclusion that years from now he would be looking back on the super-villainess as one of his greatest failings. Instead of offering protection, or therapy and help rehabilitating, he had imposed solitary confinement to a deserted island upon her.

If he had simply offered her genuine help, could it be possible she may have been sitting here today, as a true, full member of the Justice League?

“I’ve checked it over,” Batman brusquely said, “and his evidence appears genuine. We finally have independent proof that the Straw Hats have been recruiting other super-villains.”

“I thought you already did?” queried Shining Knight. Ever since his defeat at the hands of Roronoa Zoro, he had been trying to go over the available files, except he was still recovering. Indeed, the only reason he was up and about was thanks to treatments developed by Cherry Blossom Medical, and his magical armour.

“No,” Flash answered. “While Star Sapphire claimed to have intelligence that they did, it was faulty. She didn’t even say anything about those guys.”

With a few keystrokes, Batman brought up a set of mugshots on-screen. “These are the ones Star Sapphire identified as joining the Straw Hats. They turned in Killer Frost themselves after a disagreement about killing guards. Deadshot was already in prison at the time for the attempted assassination of Aquaman, and when we questioned him, he said he was rejected. We’ve found Copperhead, and he said the same. Nothing concrete on the others she named.”

The rest of the founding Leaguers remembered how the snake-based villain had squirmed after Batman was done interrogating him.

“With one possible exception,” he added. He brought up security camera footage from the bank robbery that Shining Knight had failed to interrupt. The screen focused upon one particular cloaked individual, with various measurements of their form scrolling by to show their height and width. Beside it was an image of Solomon Grundy doing the exact same pose, with similar numbers shown.

“You think she was right about Grundy being a member,” concluded J’onn.

“Yes. He has a habit of being recruited as dumb muscle, and he’s been off the radar for a while now. Except he’s bad at laying low, so we should’ve had some sightings if he was acting on his own.”

Hawkgirl gave a small smirk at that. No surprise given how dumb the zombie was. Although given how strong he also was, it was not really a laughing matter.

“So they’re definitely assembling a lot of firepower,” Green Lantern darkly growled. “Including known killers.” Like Volcana.

“Ones who have been taken advantage of in the past,” rebutted Superman, stroking his jaw. “I find it noteworthy they’re also passing up on recruiting other killers like Deadshot, Copperhead, and Killer Frost.”

“Personally, I find that even more worrisome,” growled Batman. Seeing their confusion, he explained with visible impatience. “They’re already involved with some serious crimes, and have increasingly clashed with us and other heroes as well. But they’re also turning away some of the most dangerous super-villains on the planet?

“That says they’re confident enough that they don’t feel they need them. That those people were not good enough.”

Now the rest of the League looked concerned.

!JUSTICE!

Brook was sobbing and crying as tears came down like waterfalls from his eye-sockets.

Delicately if awkwardly, Grundy patted him on the back while offering a fresh tissue for the skeleton to blow his . . . nostril slit into.

“Oh, it’s so beautiful,” moaned Brook. On the big screen TV in front of him, Disney’s Fantasia 2000 was playing the whale scene for the umpteenth time. Once again the baby calf was reunited with its parents, with the whole pod of whales then flying up into the air to dance through the sky and into outer space. Throughout this, Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi was playing as a wondrous symphony.

“Very beautiful,” agreed the zombie.

!JUSTICE!

Elsewhere in the base, the rest of the Straw Hats and their allies were sleeping.

In the woman’s section, Nami and Robin were sharing an Empress-size bed as was their want, although they were also nuzzling Cheetah between them. Originally the cat-woman had been too stunned at how comfortable they were up-close with her —even as a fuzzy pillow— to give more than token resistance, and was now even secretly enjoying it.

In the same room was a queen-sized bed that Poison Ivy and Harley shared. While they had an invitation to the larger bed, Ivy preferred to be on her own. Unless it was with Harley, who sometimes slept in her own room. Regardless, both were wearing matching turquoise and green pajama shirts and shorts.

Maureen had her own separate room, filled with her own personal possessions as part of helping her develop her independence—which was also why Harley had one. Although the teenage, ice user slept on her queen-sized bed, she always kept her door open so that Volcana, sleeping next door, could hear her if she had any nightmares. After the complete violation of her privacy by the government through her teenage years to adulthood, the fire-user treasured having her own space. Although Volcana’s room was practically bereft of personal affects, with the exception of dirty laundry and awkward pictures drawn by her ‘little sister.’

Anyone looking in on this (and surviving being caught peeping), would note how they all appeared like sleeping angels; beautiful and graceful.

Now the guy’s quarters . . .

One big room that was a mess of bunkbeds, hammocks, single-beds, waterbeds, and bean bags, with everyone nabbing whatever they felt like whenever they stumbled in yawning. The snoring alone should be a health hazard.

Jinbe was collapsed onto a reinforced waterbed, with Chopper sleeping on his rising and falling stomach, a little blanket covering him.

Slumped back into a beanbag, Franky was scratching his chest in his sleep, and inadvertently kept turning his nipple searchlights on and off, making an otherwise comatose Zoro reflexively cuff him with a pillow to make him turn them off. And repeat.

Sanji was spooning Luffy while laying on a mess of pillows on the floor, and the former would undoubtedly wake up and be traumatized. Again.

Usopp luckily snagged a hammock, with all four limbs hanging out.

Clayface was resting on a bed in the corner, something he took particular pleasure in since when he was originally transformed he had been unable to sleep. Due to how much he enjoyed it, and knew it would help his sanity, eventually he had figured out how. However these days, he did so as far away from the lot of them as possible. It was not that he felt discriminated against, it was actually worse that they were too comfortable with him. More than once, one or even two of them had rolled over near him in his sleep, and started grabbing onto his body to snuggle into him! He honestly had no words to describe how that made him feel, outside of wrong.

Looking in on this, a viewer would wonder how this mess of people had not killed each other every morning . . .

The ladies wondered the same thing.

!JUSTICE!

“No, no. C’mon, Luffy’s not like that!” cried out Flash.

“How would you know?” bit out Batman. “You had one conversation with him, and we’re supposed to believe he was completely unable to recognize you and your powers? Despite being the leader of the most powerful gang of criminals in the world? Obviously he was fooling you!”

“I wonder,” Sir Justin cut in, before pausing. Seeing the inviting looks of the others, he continued. “I wonder if they are really as young as they look. They’ve taken on the roles of adults, yet in my time of Camelot, we had to grow up fast.”

Superman and the others blinked, and then looked at the images again.

For J’onn, their appearances meant nothing, while the others were only now fully —and embarrassingly— registering what the knight was getting at: the majority of the pirates only appeared to be in their late teens, early twenties.

“Might be just a coincidence,” dismissed Green Lantern. He knew from personal experience that alien races could age differently. “They’ve certainly done things worse than most adults.” He was visibly conflicted though. Their medicines had saved a lot of lives already after all, and they had chosen to do so. As much as he knew they had to be stopped, things were not adding up.

“But not overly so,” cautioned J’onn. “We have no evidence of them doing anything as malicious as Luthor, or others of his ilk. They are a threat, yes, yet perhaps needlessly so. As Superman has said, it’s possible we may be able to resolve things peacefully.”

“If they’re as young as they appear, perhaps they’re just being misguided? Or possibly a culture clash if they’re really from another planet,” offered Wonder Woman.

Green Lantern and Hawkgirl were clearly dubious, and Batman was sporting his usual scowl, which could mean anything. The rest though seemed a little more optimistic now.

“They did spare, and then save my life,” conceded Sir Justin.

“Only after endangering it in the first place! Do you really think that we can get them to turn things around?” John skeptically asked. “After everything they’ve done?”

“Redemption is not impossible, and on strange new worlds, mistakes can be made,” offered J’onn with practiced serenity. “At the very least we should try. After all, they have yet to cross a line we cannot forgive.”

None of them had any response to that.

!JUSTICE!

Idly, the super-villain known as Ultra-Humanite poured himself a two fingers of expensive scotch. He swished it around his glass in thought while his gaze danced over his surroundings.

(Yes, his ape fingers were larger than a Human’s, but he needed more anyways to truly enjoy the buzz.)

Exquisite artwork, a computer perfectly serviceable for even his advanced intellect (after a few personal modifications of course), comfortable furniture, classic literature, fine liquor, and other basic necessities.

It was also a prison cell.

Except of course he was perfectly comfortable in here, despite how cramped it could be. Honestly, he was content to spend the next few years in here. The only wrinkle in that plan was something the guard bringing his lunch –Granted, the food here is frankly plebian, he acknowledged— had let slip to their ‘model prisoner;’ that his upcoming neighbour would be one Lex Luthor.

For years, the knowledge that the man was more than an honest businessman had been an open secret throughout the upper strata of the criminal fraternity. It was no surprise that he had finally slipped up and been utterly exposed. What was of interest was that apparently the man was ill. Terminally ill, and would be living beside another super-villain who was in his own right a super-genius. At one point or another he will approach me with an offer, knew Ultra-Humanite. Offering me as much money as he can, and knowing the wealthiest man alive, he will have plenty of it safely tucked away. Desiring at the very least his freedom, or perhaps even my own expertise in helping him with his condition. So the only question is: do I accept?

He mulled it over for a few more minutes before coming to a decision, and downed the drink before heading to bed for an early nap. It was in his best interests if Luthor was further off-balance, so he would force a confrontation by staying up late with the TV volume up high so the other man could not sleep.

Worst case scenario, I will get to enjoy more of the Culture Network, which is in itself well worth it.

!JUSTICE!

For all that his face maintained its glower, Lex was utterly seething beneath his mask.

The indecent haste at which he was being carted off to prison without even a trial, made it abundantly clear that whatever judge had signed off on this had been suitably cowed by Superman. In all likelihood there had probably even been enough evidence to help sell it, preventing Luthor’s lawyers from getting their say. Oh, there would be a trial eventually. Indeed, if circ*mstances were any different, he would be smugly secure in the knowledge that he could sue the US government for their brazenness.

Unfortunately he was dying, and every spare moment counted. The ticking hands of his mortal clock.

Clearly it’s time for me to get serious about killing Superman. As well as the rest of his merry band.

Of equal importance, I need to find a cure. Fortunately, I know just who to ask. Now the only trick will be tracking down one Dr. Chopper, formerly of Cherry Blossom Medical . . .

Chapter 12: Injustice for All Part 2

Chapter Text

Lex Luthor was dangerously close to finding someone he hated worse than Superman.

(Alright, maybe not that extreme. Maybe as much as Batman.)

It was not enough that he was imprisoned in some humiliating prison cell—insinuating he was a common criminal! That he had been sent here without a trial, implied that aside from Superman’s pressure, the judges had been provided with very incriminating evidence. Not even bail had been accepted. That alien again! If he was free from prison, he could be devoting himself to finding a cure!

Instead, he was locked up here dying! While his empire was being shredded into scraps!

Oh, not all of it. There were too many bank accounts memorized by his photographic memory, except even he needed physical records to refer others to. For blackmail, bribes, or to display to morons to prove something or other. Plus law enforcement might even get lucky and uncover a few more that way.

What was perilously close to pushing Lex over the edge however, was that his neighbour was blaring opera music at 2am!

Futilely he tried wrapping his pillow over his ears, so he could sleep so he could think in the morning!

Why were the guards not doing anything! Were they enjoying his suffering!? They would pay in turn! With interest!

Snarling, he got up to hit the wall the music was coming from. “Hey, keep it down! Can’t a guy die in peace around here!?”

No response.

Glaring, he walked over to his own TV set, while pulling out a shiv he had secreted away. Using it, he tinkered with the electronics, barely having to concentrate on his work it was so mundane; repurposing parts for functions they had never been designed for. In a few minutes, he had re-configured the TV to send video feed to his accursed neighbour. Sure enough, his own screen flickered with static before showing the figure lounging on a (decidedly non-prison regulation) green armchair. He resembled a white gorilla, if not for his visibly oversized cranium, containing one of the largest and brightest criminal minds around. Ultra-Humanite.

“Humanite!” snapped Lex. “How can you stand that caterwauling!?”

“Music is one of the meager pleasures I’m allowed in here,” returned Ultra-Humanite, his voice oozing with sophistication. He gave no sign of surprise or irritation at the intrusion. “Along with a few other necessities,” he added, gesturing off-screen. Doubtless he was well pampered in his cell. One could only wonder who he had bribed or sold-out to earn such privileges.

“You should try the culture channel,” Ultra-Humanite smugly added. “It might improve your disposition.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my disposition that a little freedom wouldn’t cure.”

co*cking an eyebrow, the other supervillain retorted, “That’s not what I hear.”

There was a beat as Lex processed that word of his impending fate was spreading fast, as well as forcing himself to acknowledge the reality of his situation. The person he was talking to was a fellow genius after all, who would not only have his own possible solutions, but a lab and resources secreted away. Right now, all of Lex’s local ones were suspect until he confirmed they were safe, or were too far away. Since another seizure could strike at any moment, he had no time to waste. “I need your help. And I can make it worth your while.”

Spreading his hands questioningly, “What do I need with money?”

“Everyone needs money.” Lex narrowed his eyes knowingly, “The only question is—”

BOOM!

The explosion rattled the prison, followed quickly by the unmistakable sound of screaming and laserfire.

“Well now, that’s unexpected,” allowed Lex, squinting in thought. “I wonder who they’re here for?”

“Indeed,” acknowledged Ultra-Humanite, also frowning. While supervillains usually did escape before serving their sentence, the frequency of it was decreasing as the Justice League locked up more and more of them. Especially as security became increasingly advanced and restrictive, with time added to your sentences. At some point you had to wonder if it was worth breaking out. Moreover, it was usually one or two at a time who got away. Of course sometimes they figured letting other prisoners free would cover them in the ensuing chaos. A break-in was something rarer. Especially so brazenly. Few had the resources or allies to be rescued from the outside.

Unless of course these invaders were here to kill someone.

!JUSTICE!

Star Sapphire gasped as her cell door swung open.

The information she had provided Batman on the Straw Hats had lowered her sentence to ‘only’ life imprisonment, but she had no powers here. She was helpless before this man.

Quicker than she could react, he was leaning over her. Jolting back, the massive restraints around her hands and forearms fell away. Gaping in shock, she looked back up to see him handing her a set of keys—one of which he must have just used to release her.

Anything she may have said was brushed aside at the sheer rush caused by the energy of her gem re-connecting with her, coursing through her veins once more.

“Find and free Tsukuri,” he ordered her. “I’ve got a job I rather think you gals will like.”

!JUSTICE!

Deadshot lazily looked up from his newspaper, quirking an eyebrow in interest. He had been in here since his failed assassination attempt of Aquaman.

“Got a job for me?” he asked. While he knew this man could likely pay his (exorbitant) fee, it was the principle of the matter. As arguably the world’s greatest marksman, killing for free was beneath him.

“Of course.”

!JUSTICE!

Copperhead barred his fangs with pleasure as he stepped outside of his cell, elongated tongue flickering out of his mouth.

Word had gotten out that he had tried to join the Straw Hat gang, so Batman had hunted him down for questioning. It had been galling to be forced to talk, even if he really had nothing concrete for the hero. Only that Cheetah had been involved in contacting him.

“Well now,” he grinned. “This is nice. ‘Suppose you want me for something?”

“How astute.”

!JUSTICE!

The eyes of Killer Frost –having only recently been thawed out after being dropped off at a police station—glittered with death as she stomped forward.

With but a gesture and without a word she killed several of the incapacitated guards. Only then did she turn to her rescuer. “I’m in. Don’t care what it is, I’m in.”

“Don’t worry, I’m certain you’ll enjoy it.”

!JUSTICE!

Lex slipped the shiv up his sleeve, and placed a make-shift hand-taser made from TV parts into a rear pocket.

The sound of resistance from the guards had slackened off—

—While their screams grew ever louder and prolonged.

They move quickly, whoever they are. I still hope they had the sense to jam any calls of distress to the League. Unless they’re trying to draw them here of course.

*Knock. Knock.*

An eyebrow quirked at the light rapping to his cell door, before it slowly swung open.

Seeing no one there, he accepted the invitation and stepped out, noting the obviously, generic, heavily armed goons standing to attention along the wall across from him.

Glancing to the right, he took in some familiar faces.

Copperhead, a metahuman very skilled at infiltration and murder.

Deadshot, the master marksman holding two handguns at ease.

The powerhouse Star Sapphire, hovering above the ground.

The swordswoman Tsukuri, with no signs of the scars from being cut down by the Straw Hat, Brook.

Killer Frost, always ready to kill with her ice.

Opening the cell door for Ultra-Humanite was Shade, his Nightstick in hand.

Parasite, a dangerous enemy of Superman’s, who Lex had pointedly never tried to recruit.

Scarecrow, the fear master of Gotham.

An impressive assemblage of some of the most dangerous supervillains in the world. Such a team could theoretically defeat even the Justice League if they took them all on at once—and the Justice League rarely had all its own members assembled together.

They were also all looking to Luthor’s left.

Turning himself and his full attention that way, he took in the mastermind of all this:

Joker.

Or rather, the man who had once been the Joker.

His face was wrapped in bandages, proving the rumours that Sanji Kuroashi of the Straw Hats had reshaped it.

It’s impressive that he can even stand, given the beating he was supposed to have endured only a few days ago. Heh, I’ll bet he was forced to use to use those very medicines made by Cherry Blossom Medical.

Mentally reevaluating the other criminals, he started to understand how the dynamics were working here. Normally it’d be difficult to keep someone like Parasite in line, given how in his last team-up, he betrayed Livewire to steal her powers as well. Together they had overwhelmed Superman, except once the power-leech had thought the hero was on the ropes, he had turned on Livewire, planning to keep her captive so he could take her lightning abilities again and again at his leisure. Unfortunately for him, Superman had been too familiar with Livewire’s weaknesses, which Parasite had also acquired, leading to his defeat. Afterwards, both the alien and Livewire had spread the word of what Parasite had done, ensuring no one would ever willingly work with him again. Except Fear Toxin is a handy stick to make even someone like that compliant, while Scarecrow is probably ironically afraid of his fellow Gothamite criminal. Or at least Joker would know what to offer him.

As an ex-psychologist, he probably even made up profiles on everyone here to suggest how to keep them in line as well. Know their weaknesses. Not that any of what the crackpot came up with would help against me.

“Well, Joker, it’s been a while,” Lex courteously said, standing straight and proud.

“Indeed it has,” agreed the Clown Prince, hands in his trench-coat pockets. “I’m here to make another deal with you.”

Now Lex raised an incredulous eyebrow at that. The last time they had met, Joker had offered to kill Superman for a billion dollar bounty, leading to them working together against the despicable alien, and Batman as he tailed along.

When the damage to his personal property, and risk of a legal investigation into oh so minor details like armed Lexcorp robots trying to kill people, Lex had had enough. It became time to cut his losses before he became connected to it all. He had lured Joker in to get the rest of man’s large block of Kryptonite, kill him, and claim that he had come to ‘investigate’ the factory to find out how his own equipment could be used so criminally. Mercy, his handpicked bodyguard, would kill the perpetrators ‘in self-defense.’ Not Lex himself of course, as he abhorred violence.

Unfortunately he had misjudged how resourceful the Joker was, as he had anticipated the betrayal, and casually disabled Mercy . . .

!JUSTICE!

[Flashback]

Duct-taped to a chair within his gigantic, and heavily armed Lexwing airship, Lex had to endure the Mad Clown’s hysterical laughter over Harley Quinn’s paint job to the craft. Now the crescent shape was sporting crude, smiling teeth.

"Very amusing," Lex flatly said, before snapping, "So how much is it going to cost me to get out of this!?"

“I’m not a material guy, Lexy,” Joker cheerfully said, somehow frowning while grinning. He got up closer, now showing all his teeth in his smile. A hungry shark would have been more pleasant. “No, what I want now is for you to know what it feels like to lose everything you have. Everything you ever built! Like I lost everything to old Bat-boy!”

Lex could only stare in horror as he realized the enormity of how much he miscalculated. Even the knowledge that the instruments then warned Superman and Batman were approaching the factory did nothing to reassure him.

It only got worse as he realized that ‘everything you ever built,’ extended to half of Metropolis!

[…]

Joker cackled endlessly as the Lexwing rained down missile after missile on every building with “Lexcorp” labeled on it, while he could only futilely glare in hate at his captor.

There was no sense to it! What had he done to justify such retaliation! Nothing! The man was just insane!

"How's it feel, Lexy-boy!? Everything with your name on it is going to be rubble!"

Even random building were targeted, killing those inside, even as debris fell down on the screaming people below. Even if he survived this, the lawsuits would be a nightmare!

!JUSTICE!

Present

Frankly, that little business transaction had been a bad idea from the start. Never mind all the destruction Joker had caused, he had very nearly incriminated Lex as an accomplice beyond what even his lawyers could have saved him from.

As it was, the fallout of all that had been incredibly costly. Foremost among those expenses were his best robots, a laboratory, hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs, more hundreds of millions in lost income while doing said reconstruction, more money in various bribes to keep the District Attorney off his back, and what should have been a profitable business relationship with Bruce Wayne went down the drain as well!

And to cap it all off, despite the Joker being stuck in his personal Lexwing that had been wracked with internal explosions before even crashing into the ocean below from a high altitude, and then exploding into a massive fireball, the clown still had not had the simple decency to just die!

The final straw was how it was Superman of all people to save Lex from that.

Oh, and Mercy had suffered serious injuries, inconveniencing him for weeks.

Ever since later hearing that Joker was alive and back in Gotham, Lex had kept a loose yet distant eye on the madman, learning what he could about him. The more he found out, the more he was convinced the only reason he had agreed to that deal, was because he had been suffering from some sort of subtle, mind altering substance at the time.

(Early symptom of Kryptonite poisoning perhaps?)

One of the most dramatic examples he had learnt on how insanely dangerous this man could be, was over a bid for a bomb that could have wiped out the entire city of Gotham—Lex had very carefully checked there were no more of those lying around, and ensured those who had misplaced it were charged with gross negligence. Joker had won the bid by walking into a room full of armed, millionaire crime bosses, and left with the super-bomb by threatening them all with a regular bomb.

None of those crime bosses doubted he would cheerfully blow up not just him and everyone else in the room, but risk killing ten million more people, just to get his way. Then after getting the bomb, he had plotted to blow up Gotham City regardless.

Honestly, as much as he despised Batman, Lex was grateful he kept the Gotham criminals both in check, and obsessing over him, so they did not sweep over the nation. Otherwise he would probably be forced to put those mad dogs down to keep them out of his business.

Of course, he had also covertly greased a few legal wheels to help ensure Joker continued to escape the death penalty due to his insanity, because frankly Batman remained the greater threat. Even if the lunatic continued to fail to kill the mental-case in a black facemask, he at least kept him too occupied to get into Lex’s business again.

“I do hope you have some guarantees it will not end like last time,” he smoothly said.

“I’m sure I can accommodate you,” was all Joker said.

It was only at that moment Lex recognized that something was very, very wrong.

The Joker he remembered would have been giving a large shrug of his shoulders at that, getting into his personal space with some over-the-top reassurances, or whatever. The body language of the man in front of him –who was unmistakably the Clown Prince of Crime— was too restrained. Tight. No childish dramatics.

Lex felt a drop of sweat run down his forehead as he realized just what sort of situation he was in now. He knew that if he glanced back at the other supervillains he would see them all openly nervous. Even the just-released Ultra-Humanite would be picking up the signs by now. While the ones who had come with him, or had been broken out to help subdue the guards, would have also been made to understand why they should obey the Joker. Or else.

For this was not the Joker the international underworld knew and feared.

This one . . . was not laughing.

He’s lost his identity, Lex noted as a chill ran up his spine, as for the first time he fully contemplated what kind of monster Kuroashi had created by making the man unable to smile.

The Joker had long been a textbook example of why vast majority of the human race were sheep. Here he was, clearly a psychotic clown who made it very clear that he killed for the fun of it, and everyone let him live because it was the law.

Hilarious.

Oh sure, there had been a few attempts by those so rabid with grief at the loss of their loved ones, that they had tried to strike out at a bloodthirsty wolf, but those failures had been as sad as they were inevitable. Like the time an orderly at Arkham Asylum was bribed to poison the ‘special’ inmate, only to inadvertently provide the Joker with a weapon to ease his next escape.

This inherent meekness and stupidity was not isolated to the ‘proper’ civilized people either however. Oh no, criminals of all shapes and sizes were willing to work with, or under the man, in hope of petty profit. Dressing themselves up like clowns, while willfully blinding themselves to the fact they were associating with someone who would kill them if it struck him that it would be funny.

Particularly if their deaths were original.

Yet still his raw charisma, sheer presence, and flair had drawn in moths to the flame. A seemingly endless army of gullible henchmen.

But right now I’m dealing with a Joker who’s lost his ability to amuse himself with murder. Whatever grounding he once had, whatever restraints, how can I be sure they’re still there!?

No. They aren’t there.

Rapidly Lex calculated every possible outcome of this meeting, and concluded that trying to kill the Joker right here and now was a death sentence. The only guarantee was that it would not involve destroying everything he had ever built again, and only because that would be ‘re-using a joke.’ Besides, he was dying already anyways, along with his ‘extra-curricular’ activities exposed, so why go to all this trouble only to hasten it? No, the clown needed him alive for something, so he would play along. For now.

“I presume you’re offering me a way to cure myself,” Lex said as calmly as possible. “My freedom does indeed go a long way to ensuring that. What do you want in return? Money?”

“No. I need your help with a few things.” Now the Joker started stalking forward. “Plastic surgery for one, to help me with my . . . condition.”

“Not my specialty, but I can get you in touch with people who are,” acknowledged Lex, fighting the urge to back up.

“I also need your expertise to double-check someone else’s work.” Now Joker was dangerously close.

“Alright.”

Now Lex was forced to tip his head back as the Joker pressed his face almost into his own, eyes burning with hatred and madness. “But most of all, to help me kill those bloody Straw Hats!”

!JUSTICE!

A few hours later on a (stolen) military jet, Lex found himself walking into Joker’s secret underground base.

It was a large space within a hollowed-out mountain. Given the condition it was in, location (i.e. across the country from Gotham City), and how little time had passed since Joker’s sudden Snap, Lex assumed it belonged to some other supervillain. Possibly a dead one.

Right now, various regular goons were setting up additional temporary buildings throughout the place. Living spaces, workshops, and labs at a glance. What caught his eye the most was the large, metallic complex at the center. Waiting for him by the entrance to it was the Joker, who he had not spoken with since that little reveal back in prison. Right afterwards the man had turned around, and silently led them to the waiting jet. Now though it seemed it was time to talk.

So this is all about revenge is it? Not surprising given how the Straw Hats ruined his life. Even if a little sad to be obsessed with matters. Although it’s entirely possible they’ll never even see it coming.

The Joker’s very madness had always been his strongest asset, and not only because it allowed him to escape the death penalty an equally insane number of times. He was far too unpredictable in far too many ways too count, constantly surprising whomever he dealt with. Sometimes he did stupid things like fixate on harmless gags, and other times he demonstrated a genius for chemistry, computer hacking, manipulation, underhanded fighting tactics, you name it. And of course his sheer force of personality that kept drawing in small, disposable armies.

In a way, it made him similar to the Straw Hats. Or rather, had made him like that. Past tense.

From what Lex had uncovered, this Monkey Luffy was also charismatic, with such an open ‘zest’ for living his life as he chose, that it was compelling for the disenfranchised, ostracized, rebellious, feeble-minded criminals and lunatics he had recruited. Leaving them dazzled and submissive by his flamboyance, power, disregard for any authority but his own, and of course his own genius intellect.

(For how else could he have assembled his own formidable team of supervillains?)

It would almost be a waste really, for the ‘pirates’ to die. They were too entertaining for one thing.

After all, it was thanks to them and Cherry Blossom Medical, which had set in motion what would in the long-run be the watershed moment inevitably leading to Superman and the Justice League’s downfall. One simple mistake by Superman and Batman, leading them to misread the situation and cause the collapse of the world’s most popular medical company. A situation that Lex had exploited of course, yet the ‘heroes’ seemed to fail to recognize the greater truth of the incident.

The people will laud a hero, but a hero who makes mistakes –and thus proving they are Human. Mortal. Fallible— will be cursed and painted in the vilest colours imaginable. That’s Human nature. The fear of beings more powerful than them, of the vigilantes who refuse to comply with the laws and accepted customs of the tyranny that is society. For after all, if they make a mistake now, their next ones will obviously be worse, with lives and property lost!

Ah yes, so predictable.

Granted, he was already planning to kill Superman and the rest of the Justice League anyways. It was just the principle of the matter.

That was not to say he was not wary of the Straw Hats and their potential. After all, the group had several powerhouses and bright people that he could definitely find some use for as profitable employees. He would even be willing to let their leader work for him, so long as he dropped that mask of being a childish idiot.

Honestly, he’s overplaying it really, especially given all of his more impressive attributes. Only a moron would ever believe that such a fool, no matter how strong he might be, could command the loyalty of such a team without being rather clever himself. Indeed, the charade only damages his reputation. That, or he is a patsy for others, like Miss All-Sunday, or Nico Robin as she also calls herself. Or was there some other purpose to the charade, that he was missing, he pondered.

Although he also had to consider certain reports Batman had given to certain officials regarding his suspicions that they were aliens similar to Superman. Which would explain their bizarre and inhuman powers and actions.

Honestly, was Earth not polluted enough!?

That is not to say I am worried about them—especially not with a team of supervillains like this available. As powerful as they are, they also show signs of being soft and sentimental. Indeed, their main accomplishments are creating a medical company, a hidden financial empire, and escaping from the Justice League. As impressive as it may be to avoid those ‘heroes,’ the only one they’ve actually beaten is Flash. I, however, have taken out several of them at once!

No, they would only be an issue if given time to continue growing, so I’d have had to annihilate these aliens as well anyways.

So while there were many points Lex found actually admirable about them, he was quite willing and able to help Joker dispose of them if necessary.

Truthfully, the elusive ‘Dr. Chopper’ had originally been one of the people Lex had considered approaching for a potential cure. After all, he was a proven medical genius of a caliber that even Lex had to respect. Granted, his attempts at bribing the pirates had failed in the past, yet greed was a fundamental way of life, and it was only a question of how much money it would take. Now of course, plans had changed.

Still, even if the little furball could not be kept alive and coerced into manufacturing a cure, Ultra-Humanite should prove satisfactory.

With a gesture, Joker led him into the building, with the rest of the supervillains hurrying to join them.

The first room was filled with corpses strapped to chairs, faces contorted into smiles like the Joker had once sported, obvious victims of Joker Venom. As well as jagged lacerations all over their bodies.

“They failed to make me laugh,” Joker said by way of explanation.

Knowing he had to show he was unintimidated, Lex said, “There’s something else I want if I’m going to help you take down the largest crime syndicate, now that mine has been dismantled.”

“Well, I’ve got some ideas in mind.” With a brutal tug, he wrenched off the bandages around his face, displaying his perpetual frown. Despite this, he was starting to become increasingly animated once more. “So many, many, many ideas! Of course, I’m still trying to think up something personal for that minx Harley, given how she ran off to join them like that. And especially because she’s the one who made that,” he broke off into inarticulate gibberish as his rage denied him words to describe Kuroashi, before abruptly calming down.

“Anyway, it’s her fault that I’m like this now, so I’d like to kill her hyenas in front of her, but I also want them to eat her limbs a bit.” He threw Lex a sad*stic look. “Do you think you could make them into zombie cyborg hyenas?”

Lex continued to walk beside him, refusing to dignify that with a response. He was reassured though as they re-entered familiar territory. So long as it is directly about killing the Straw Hats, eh?

“Ah, you’re no fun. So I assume you and Ultra-Humanite had plenty of time on the plane ride over to discuss your plans to cure you?”

“Yes we did,” he allowed. “He has come up with plans for a containment unit that should stabilize my condition. He just needs to run some tests and build the necessary equipment.” The idea he could then use the Kryptonite radiation poisoning to actually power a battle-suit was highly intriguing. “However, I also have something in mind I’m sure we both desire.”

“What I desire,” the Joker said, “is the heads of all the Straw Hats. Smiling of course. And mutilated pre-mortem.” He drew Scarecrow aside, and sotto whispered in his ear while the man shivered. “That’s fancy talking implying I tortured them before killing them you see. Preferably after they’re begging for me to kill them. And I say no. Just for laughs.”

“I see,” was Luthor’s flat response, stopping in place, arms crossed over his chest. “That’s what you want, and you know what I want.”

“Blah blah blah,” Joker shook his head. “You want Superman dead. Probably the rest of the Justice League too.” He tapped his chin. “I really should add Batsy’s head to the wall, just to get that out of the way so I can worry about the bigger issue.”

Interesting, so he’s still obsessed about Batman to a degree. Just as a secondary priority, Luthor assessed, well aware he remained on shaky ground. The Joker’s insanity had clearly developed more psychosis than he initially thought—with different degrees of variation between each one. Moreover, he suspected the man was switching back and forth between them from one moment to the next. Alternatively, it was equally possible that he was acting as he remembered how he used to behave; playing a role of insanity he could no longer genuinely do after his mutilation. Suffice to say, it was going to be difficult to find some sort of pattern, or ‘rules’ to it all, to get by without getting killed.

“So I help you kill the Straw Hats, and then you help me kill the Justice League?” offered the former businessman.

“Lex~, Lex~, Lex~,” sang Joker. “You think too small! Straw Hats, Justice League, it doesn’t matter.” Eyes blazing, “We’re killing ‘em all!”

Raising an intrigued eyebrow, Lex prompted, “You have a way to do them both at once?”

!JUSTICE!

Harley Quinn giggled as she brushed Lou. Off to the side, Luffy was giving Bud a belly-rub as the hyena cackled with joy.

It was a rare, peaceful moment at home. She could hear Poison Ivy and Usopp discussing plants, while Robin was drawing something, Zoro was napping, and Nami and Volcana were going over clothing fashion. Although Nami was also making a few pointed comments about how Volcana still needed to lose a few pounds, making Harley try and hide her snickers.

“He really likes that,” noted a bright-eyed Chopper to her, jerking a hoof at Lou.

“Yeah, I’ve always made sure to treat my babies right,” she grinned. “I gotta say though, I’m positively jealous you can understand them.”

The little guy immediately looked away in embarrassment. “Ah! Don’t go trying to flatter me you idiot!”

“Oh, don’t say that!” She nabbed him in a one-armed hug, nuzzling her cheek against his. “You’re not just the cutest guy here, you’re also probably the coolest!”

“I mean it! I’m not going be fooled!” he cried out in the most adorable manner possible!

A flash of light, and they both turned to see Cheetah smirking and holding a camera. “Definitely for the album.”

“Oooh, I wanna see!” cried Harley.

!JUSTICE!

Smiling, Superman silently floated through the hospital room window.

Seeing the sleeping child in his arms, the doctor put a finger to his lips to confirm they should be silent. With infinite care, they laid him down into bed, and reattached the IV tubes, and made sure he was comfortable.

Outside in the hallway, the doctor let out a long breath. “Thank you Superman. That must’ve meant the world to him.”

His smile a little sadder now, Superman nodded. “He fell asleep as I was coming back across the Atlantic Ocean.”

“Still, to fly him around the world like that, as a last wish, it’s, well, thank you. Again.”

“No problem,” the hero softly said, looking back towards the room. “I only wish I could do more.”

!JUSTICE!

“So, when I first started thinking of how I’d go about killing the Straw Hats, I knew I’d need some more muscle. Just in case,” Joker said, signaling the beginning of a long-winded speech. Although Lex was admittedly curious as to what else the madman had accomplished in such a short period of time. “So first I decided to assemble a team of fellow free-thinkers with a perchance for destruction.”

My, my, I’m feeling rather predictable, Lex thought with a dash of self-recrimination. After all, even before he had contacted Ultra-Humanite, he had already been planning to assemble various super-powered mercenaries. Indeed, some of his potential recruits were trailing behind him and Joker right now.

However, bringing together a supervillain team was not as straightforward as most would assume.

At first glance, working together to counter the might of the Justice League with their own team was a logical decision. In practice, it was terribly dangerous. Their line of work encouraged independence, and discouraged trust. Not to mention rampant egos. Altogether, especially given the abilities they all possessed, any examples of alpha posturing would quickly escalate into full-blown violence.

The Rogues in Central City had their own group, yet Luthor considered them a rather sad example of criminals. Even then, it seemed to work via a code of conduct they all swore to.

That witch Aresia had managed it. Although that was due to her Amazonian powers, charisma, and most of all the inability of her male minions to think rationally when a pretty woman talked sweetly to them. In the end, she had betrayed the men all to release an airborne allergen that had come within a hair’s breadth of causing global extinction. It’s a pity I failed to convince the State Department, or the International Criminal Court, to have her executed. He was not the sort of man to let himself be driven by anything as petty as revenge, but he did take exception to someone nearly wiping out both Humanity and himself. If only she had first managed to successfully kill off five-sevenths of the Justice League . . . Anyways, her treachery served as a warning to anyone else wanting to join a supervillain team; it makes you vulnerable.

Regardless, the only other gang of supervillains that seemed to work was the Straw Hats, and aside from the leadership skills of their boss, the dynamics of that group were still a mystery to Lex. Even then, it seemed a single powerful, charismatic genius was the one holding it all together.

Personally, Lex preferred the intimidation of his mind, along with the promise of cold, hard cash. Greed was so much more predictable.

Now I just have to use that carefully with this lot, without alerting Joker. Because there’s no way I’m going to work with him without a way to double-cross him first.

And this time I’ll do it right.

Throughout this introspection, Joker had continued blabbing on, showing more and more of his old self.

“Mind you, I didn’t think of you Lexy, until I remembered that whole kafuffle where the Justice League fought that giant robot.”

The mastermind remained impassive at that little tidbit. He had deliberately taken extensive steps to keep his involvement there secret. Another demonstration of just how unnervingly competent the clown could be when he put his mind to something.

Regardless, he had pitted a massive robot against the entirety of the Justice League at once, and decisively defeated Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern before it was overwhelmed. While regrettable, he had accumulated invaluable data that would make his next attempt be successful.

(Including the importance of ensuring that in future, if whatever he is remotely controlling is destroyed, said destruction would not cause a feedback loop that would literally blow up in his face.)

“With that in mind, I remembered how resourceful you can be, and just knew you would have a thing or two to contribute to the little party I’m planning! Or maybe even properly appreciate what I’ve got in mind!”

Almost dancing on his tippy-toes now, Joker led them through a door into an observation room, with the window in front of them blackened out. With a press of a button though, they could now all see what was in the neighbouring room.

“First of all, here are the Parasite’s batteries,” preened Joker.

“Impressive,” Lex sincerely praised with an uplifted eyebrow. Indeed, this explains more how he’s keeping Parasite in line. A little carrot for him. As well as how he was able to contribute to the prison break-in.

Gazing at the six unresponsive captives with their valuable powers, the ‘batteries,’ many things were becoming clearer. Parasite can spread out his powers, keeping up the rush by draining a few at a time while the others ‘recharge,’ or all of them at once for as big a boost as he can manage. For this kind of offer, he’ll play along for now, and doubtless Joker can terminate them all if necessary. That’ll be difficult to outbid.

More importantly, the identities of most of the captives, made it child’s play to deduce the broad strokes of what Joker was planning. Although one he did not recognize.

The next room was full of screens for security cameras, showing the massive weapons stockpile Joker had going, labs that were being furnished, and crates of industrial machinery being unpacked. One place seemed to be manufacturing replacement armaments for Deadshot.

“Parasite’s ‘battery room’ is not covered here,” he noted. “Separate security?”

“Ah, Lexy-boy, so sharp! Yes indeed, a few rooms have their own . . . private arrangements, shall we say?”

With a few more twists and turns through the building, they walked through a few other rooms that did not impress Lex, although he was taken aback a little as recognized one particular trophy.

“Is that—?”

“Hmm, oh yes, Gorilla Grodd in the flesh. Although he’s a little stuffed these days!” Joker tried to force himself to laugh, except it only came out as a guttural cough. Murder flashing through his eyes, he cleared his throat. “Ahhhh, yeah, when I approached him, he tried messing with my mind. Can’t have that now. Pity, because he did know his stuff.”

In a blink, Joker was practically wrapped around Lex, as if he had something private to say. “That redheaded battery babe with the pink dress? Used to be an ape he turned into a metahuman woman!” At Lex’s incredulous eyebrow, he raised a hand as if swearing an oath. “No joke!”

While Lex would hardly mourn the demise of Gorilla Grodd, it was still disconcerting to witness proof of the first incident of a top-tier supervillain killing another high-classed one.

!JUSTICE!

In the next room was another surprise.

“Dr. Victor Fries,” stated Lex with a touch of surprise and regret. He acknowledged fellow –if more limited— genius after all. It was regrettable that—

“Lex Luthor,” was the reply, and despite himself, Lex’s eyebrows raised in surprise. After all, the man more commonly known as Mister Freeze, was now literally a head in a jar.

“I’m impressed that you’re still alive,” he admitted.

“Don’t be, it’s a bitter existence,” was the flat, icy response. Somehow the head was still speaking despite being bereft of a respiratory system, encased under a glass dome. Now he could see mechanical, spider legs moving him about. “I will still do my part though,” he continued. “I will show the world the cold reality of life as I help strip away their dreams. To make everyone feel my loss.”

Clearly the stories about his descent into nihilism after his failure to be reunited with his wife were true.

Ominously behind the Gotham super-criminal was a large exo-suit, coloured black and blue. Even at a glance, the craftsmanship was impeccable. Definitely as resourceful as ever.

Impressive, Lex repeated to himself. While he had his own plans for survival, and had a rather ‘intimate’ attraction to actual breathing, the fact of the matter was that without a body that would fail on him, and his signature technology to ‘freeze’ age, the other man was now functionally immortal. Something to be explored later in depth. Even if only as a final contingency for if other, more palatable means of eternal life failed.

After all, as much as it pains me, the truth is that for all my struggles to make my mark in life, for all I've accomplished, in just a few short generations my name will be forgotten. Even the greatest of us can't compete with time . . . and death.

But as these last forty-eight hours have proven once more, as I learn I am dying, but then I’m rescued by Joker of all people, there’s no way to really tell how it will end. That’s why I stay in the game. To see where it’s all going.

And why I will win it all!

!JUSTICE!

They continued down the main hallway towards what he figured to be the center of the building, and indeed the entire base.

“Now this up ahead is my pièce de résistance,” Joker exclaimed in a horrific French accent that made Lex internally wince. “Truthfully, not sure if I mentioned this, having you here to . . . fact check, shall we say, is a big reason why I need your help. She knows what happens to the ‘batteries’ if she tries anything funny that doesn’t make me go ‘Ha, ha,’ but I need you actually tell me if she is doing that.”

“Ah yes,” Lex mused as he put all the final pieces together. “I see what you mean. Ambitious, except you don’t want it exploding in your face.” Behind his intrigued facade however, Luthor was deeply concerned. I’ve got to keep a handle on this, or he’ll try and infect everyone with Joker Venom to see if it can make him laugh again, making it all pointless.

Fortunately for the Joker, and no doubt intentionally, the potential of what he was offering remained too great to dismiss. Certainly more than the relief of pre-emptively disposing of the Joker. So far.

Of course, the fact that Lex was surrounded by other supervillains who were currently doing whatever they were told was another reason to restrain himself.

Giving a conspiring wink, Joker followed up by rubbing his hands in anticipation as they reached the last, and heavily fortified, room. Locked from the outside if course. To the side was an open doorway showing what looked like another observation room. Probably the other place for independent security.

Joker squinted as if in concentration while entering the access code, warbled like a demented duck for an audio check, scanned his retina, spat out a saliva sample, and then turned around to moon a final scanner as it read the impression of his buttocks and . . . well, how the skin on it looked.

Ugh.

Grimacing, Luthor bit back a flat denial he would ever do that himself. He was still unsure how Joker would react to being told something was ‘not funny.’

Then his face lightened into a self-satisfactory grin as the door opened. “Beautiful,” he drawled, knowing how it would rankle the room’s sole occupant.

Shackles around her wrists and ankles, giving her only enough slack to reach the chemicals and papers laid out before her, was the woman who had poisoned half the world, and killed nearly the entire League by herself.

Lips pulled back in a snarl, Aresia the rogue Amazon, looked on at her captors with hate.

Chapter 13: Injustice for All Part 3

Chapter Text

Lips pulled back in a snarl, powerful shock collar around her neck, Aresia gazed hatefully at her captors.

A twitch from Joker however had her glancing at the video screen showing her five Amazon sisters unconscious and chained to a wall, along with an unknown woman. With that reminder, she dropped her gaze to the floor like a 'good girl.'

Passive and submissive, like all men wanted their women.

!JUSTICE!

Flashback

She was in the USA air force hanger where her plans had been torn to shreds

"So you see," revealed Queen Hippolyta, "for all your hatred of men, it turns out you owe your life to one."

!JUSTICE!

Present

Ruthlessly she clamped down on that traitorous memory. It was not like the Queen knew what the ship's captain had planned for her once they reached land. Certainly she had admitted she had not thought him important enough to mention until that fateful night.

No, Aresia knew the truth as her sister Amazons had taught her over all those years. The stories they had told her of the evils of males, and their role in all the suffering upon Gaea.

(Except of course for the male Gods, who had allowed the Amazons to be blessed with eternal youth, and a paradise.)

!JUSTICE!

Flashback

"Alright," Star Sapphire nervously said, ignoring the downed bodies of Copperhead and the other male supervillains. Dying proof Aresia's allergen worked. "Look. I'm giddy at the idea of a bunch male scumbags I know dying. Really. Like seriously, that's going to be great. It's just, if you kill off all the men, then Humanity's done for! We need them to reproduce!"

Confidently, Aresia walked over to the woman who would become her sister. Just like Hippolyta would have if she were here, she placed a soothing hand on her cheek. "Do not worry, that will not be a problem. If you like the idea of men dying off, you'll love what comes next."

Seeing Star Sapphire's growing confidence, and glancing at Tsukuri's stoic patience, she elaborated.

"Once I was a normal girl from Man's World. Men destroyed my life and left me to die. By the grace of the Gods though, I washed upon the shores of Themyscira, home of the Amazons."

"Like where Wonder Woman's from?" clarified Star Sapphire.

"Precisely. They raised me, taught me, and gave me the same gifts as the rest of them. They taught me how men have corrupted and poisoned this world. Unfortunately," and her genuine regret shone through, "both time and the peaceful life of our paradise has dulled their fire. Isolation keeps them from truly understanding how the world has changed, and become worse. How man's weapons of cruelty had grown over the centuries.

"So it falls to us to correct this!

"We will wipe out mankind, and when the Gods look down upon Humankind and see who remains, they will bless all the woman we've liberated with the strength and eternal youth of the Amazons!"

"Just like you," Star Sapphire slowly said, as the true enormity of it all dawned upon her.

Knowing they would follow her now to finish her Great Work, Aresia smirked. "Exactly. Like. Me. With the world born anew into one where we are all sisters."

!JUSTICE!

Present

Pax Amazonia!

The world would know true peace, and the women who had raised her would hail her as a hero.

The End.

A shadow entered her vision as footsteps approached. "My, my," drawled the bald newcomer. "I see you're starting to regret trying to kill me and half the world."

Gritting her teeth, she kept her tongue.

"Well, we can always discuss that later. After all,” he lightly tapped her collar, “there's so many people angry at you out there. Many men were too old and sickly to survive what you did to them, or collapsed in dangerous circ*mstances without any heroes around, getting themselves and others killed. There's many grieving women who'd like some words with you too."

It would've been worth it, she reminded herself. Remembering the destruction of her homeland. The pirates who had killed what was left of her world. The tales her saviours had raised her on.

"I see you're working on a new and improved variant of Joker Venom for worldwide, airborne dispersal," the man continued, delighting in her silence. "I'll be checking your work by the way. Something to remember."

With those parting words, he turned and left. Behind him, the heavy door slammed shut with finality.

On the screen, she saw the man she knew as Parasite –if only by reputation, and what her captors had told her—approach her Amazonian sisters. They fidgeted in place, yet by their eyes she knew they were not truly aware of what was happening to them. Parasite put one palm on the forehead of Myrto, a beautiful blonde who loved the sea, as fearsome a warrior as any, and even through the haze of drugs she screamed in agony as crackling light played over her body and into her tormenter, along with her power.

Satisfied, Parasite turned to the next one, and Aresia forced herself to look away from the reminder of what would happen if she failed to cooperate.

With all the strength of will of an Amazon, she fought back any traitorous tears. Oh my Queen, Princess Diana, why did you two betray me?

Why are you leaving us here to suffer at their hands?

!JUSTICE!

After that little session, Lex found himself feeling a bit more optimistic about working with the Joker.

Well, 'working with' was stretching it. In the past, the best they had managed was 'tenuous allies,' with it ending in mutual betrayal. As it was, he had only cooperated this long because he knew that refusing Joker's so-called 'offer,' equaled death. Probably a physically torturous, and personally humiliating one.

Out of the corner of his eye he glanced once more at the madman—a madman who had become even more twisted than he would have thought possible. While still wearing his trademark purple suit, his face continued to be frozen into a permanent frown, robbing him of the ability to laugh. A loss to his identity that driven him to greater heights of insanity and violence.

The mutilated corpses near the beginning of the tour of this secret base were a testament to that.

So he would play along for now, and dispose of Joker properly before he decided to unleash an Aresia enhanced Joker Venom globally.

Overall though, despite that dangerous issue, and his own failing health, he was feeling optimistic. So many possibilities for him to take advantage of here!

"Alright," he began. "You don't only need my scientific brilliance, or experience fighting the Justice League, you need me to ensure her own research and development is genuine. Not only to create whatever Joker Venom variant you have in mind, or an improved version of Aresia’s earlier allergen, but to ensure that whatever it is can circumvent whatever countermeasures the Straw Hats possess." Because if there was anyone who could anticipate her to such a degree, by all accounts it was Dr. Tony-Tony Chopper. Doubtless his own respectable intellect had led him to create means to prevent a repeat of that fiasco. The equivalent of vaccines and pre-existing antidotes to handle any new concoctions of the one enemy to warrant the Straw Hats going out of their way to personally deal with.

"Precisely! With her newest brand of poisons—"

She uses allergens, silently corrected Lex, irritated at how he had just told the man that. Hmmm, maybe he's ignorant enough of what he wants me to do, for me to find the proper angle there.

"—we'll have the perfect tool necessary to take them out! Although we've got to keep it all hush-hush."

"Oh?" Lex raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I would've thought you were planning to use her as bait for both them and the League. Neither would tolerate letting her running around free." Frowning, "In fact, why hasn't the Justice League put out an alert for her?"

"Because they don't know, silly!"

"What? But Wonder Woman—"

"How's about I start at the beginning? Y'see, there I was preparing for my Halloween jollies, and wearing a hazmat suit to be safe. When all my henchmen start falling down around me, I investigated, and caught up as our honoured guest was being taken away back home with Bird-Brain, Wonder Chumpette, and mommy. While they were preoccupied, I snagged a little tracker inside their ride. They took her to prison, and then the same Javelin later took her to the home of the Amazons. Ol' Batsy must've been still recovering to have missed it, and by now it'll have disintegrated. It was small, so small signal, except I already knew they were around the Mediterranean, and thought it a prudent investment to pop on over to take a look. Got the coordinates, and later decided to pay a little visit. Their jail cells are kept isolated from the goody-goodies, as in on the other side of where everyone else lives, and from what Parasite dragged out of her guards' minds, we've still got about a week or three until their relief toddles along with fresh supplies."

One part of Lex's mind noted how Joker continued to act more like his old self, despite the permanent frown, the more animated he became about his plan to kill the Straw Hats. The rest of him was amazed at the sheer incompetence involved on behalf of the Amazons. Granted, he was proof of how porous American prisons could be, yet they were not that bad! So much for promising to keep an immortal jailed by fellow immortals! If she'd simply been executed for war crimes, I wouldn't be in this mess!

Superman, you sentimental fool, if you truly believed in Justice over making nice to your adoring fans, you'd have killed her on the spot!

"Does . . . your former associate know about this?"
Predictably Joker began ranting again on how he wanted to torture his ex-girlfriend, with the upshot being she was in the dark. Harley Quinn had been running errands at the time in preparation for Halloween.

"Very well," allowed Lex when the maniac ran out of steam. "That said, outside of using Aresia's former guards to empower Parasite, it hardly seems worth the risk of having her around. Even with her countrywomen as hostages, she may still betray us out of fanaticism, if nothing else."

"True, although that's why I wanted Scarecrow onboard. Not only does he keep Parasite's little toys all drugged up so they can't resist him," –for one of the drawbacks of Parasite stealing memories, was that his target could overwhelm him in turn and take over his body— "is to keep up a psychiatric assessment of her. Shock collar seems to work, but I’m not taking chances. A little Fear Toxin laced into her food, observing her behaviour, you know the drill. Heh, she doesn't even know how her guard system was supposed to work, so she thinks the Amazons already know she and others are missing and unable to find them. Every day they don't show up, kills a little more hope. So altogether I'm keeping her so carefully afraid for her people, she'll do whatever we say."

"Diligent of you," complimented Lex. Unfortunately he was still trying to convince Joker that she and her work was expendable, and even a liability to be disposed of. One more push, and if no success, I'll drop it. For now.

"I still don't see why you feel you need her," he smirked with genuine anticipation. "With a team like you've assembled, we're sure to take down the Justice League and Straw Hats!" He was very careful not to say "I."

Joker snorted.

"I beg your pardon," Lex calmly asked, partially insulted, partially concerned he had pushed too far, while also letting slip his ambitions too much.

"You really have no idea who we're messing with, do you?" sighed Joker, his frowning face fitting with the grim words. "The Straw Hats are a lot more powerful than they let on. For example, the profiles the League's been putting out? They think that big burst of fire from when I was taken down was that Volcana. Or maybe some bomb of mine. The kids were too terrified to be good little stoolies, crime scene was too disrupted by amateurs, and I got away fast enough. They think Blackfoot only has enhanced strength, not flaming powers too. Besides, I've been pounded on enough times by Bats that I know when someone's holding back. Not to mention that level of . . . control." His face spasmed in memory. "Sure, maybe Batsy's suspicious, but a control freak like him won't tell people about mere speculations."

Lex thought back over all the reports he had read, the videos he had watched. "You think they're holding back. Hiding their true strength," he thought curiously. "Yes, I can see Luffy pulling off something like that. Why, I bet even his alias is to help us underestimate him. All part of a much grander scheme."

To his surprise, Joker twitched, before leveling a long look on Lex. Slowly he nodded, "Yes of course. That old conniver Mr. Luffy. What a mind," he said with a knowing glint in his eyes.

For some reason it almost seemed like he was being sarcastic.

"Anyways, what my point in all this is, we can't guarantee beating 'em mono-oh-mono. Even with this team. Our own little, hmmm, Injustice League."

"Hence the chemical warfare," conceded Lex. "Infect the male majority of them, while we take out the rest."

"Precisely! Even if it's just the women left healthy again, well, we're sure to take 'em with this kind of muscle."

"Very well."

They walked in silence for a few minutes as Lex turned over details in his mind. Possibilities and opportunities. Some of the other supervillains trailing along were not so reserved.

"So where are we?" asked Star Sapphire. She had pointedly made no reaction to Aresia being a prisoner.

"Oh, something Grodd hollowed out for his own master plan. We all know how that turned out for him."

"Those workshops we saw, I'll need to make some new guns," said Deadshot.

"Go right ahead."

After a few more minutes of their blathering, they split off to take care of business. Or to make space from their new boss. Whatever. With them out of the way, Joker led Lex and Ultra-Humanite to a private lab for them both, inviting them with a grandstanding gesture. "I'm sure you'll find everything you need here to help you, Lexy."

"If not, then I'll just make whatever equipment's necessary," he lightly boasted.

"Good, good." Ultra-Humanite quietly began preparations for his plan to handle Lex's Kryptonite poisoning. Obviously he was eavesdropping, even if Joker said nothing about that.

"Now that they're not around, are you sure it's wise having Aresia's former henchwomen here?"

"Bah, they're of no concern. Well, alright, they would be a concern if they had the spine."

"Ah," nodded Lex. "You have the others keeping an eye on them."

"Well yes, but also I doubt they're going to want to side with the loser. That's why I let them see her on camera in chains and all. They're smart cookies, and more interested in their own skins. Dangle the temptation of being part of the team to kill the Straw Hats and Justice League, along with all the cash they can nab afterwards, and that'll smother any other temptations to be naughty. So long as we keep an eye on 'em, and keep up security on Parasite's pretty batteries, they'll be no trouble at all."

He nodded to indicate he was satisfied. For now. He had not forgotten how Star Sapphire and Tsukuri had been actively complicit in helping Aresia try and kill him, along with the rest of Humanity. There would be a reckoning.

Changing the subject, he projected a sense of interest. "Do you by chance have any blood samples of the Amazonians handy? I would love to study them."

Giving an exaggerated shrug, Joker said, "Of course. Although you'll be disappointed to know only Swimsuit Woman can fly for some reason."

"Curious." Luthor stroked his chin in thought. "Is it because she's royalty?"

"We're going to kill her, why'd you care?" deadpanned the clown.

"Oh, I'm sure you know how the little details can have big consequences," Luthor casually said. Truthfully, it was very possible it was irrelevant, yet you never knew. "Regardless, maybe I can learn something from their genome. Replicate it."

"I confess," Joker slowly nodded, "that would be very . . . very . . . very appreciated. The strength to do whatever I wanted to some of those . . . people. Even sickened by our little biohazardous gifts, even when they're helpless, it'll be hard to actually hurt people that tough. To cut 'em. Like Superman I imagine. Regardless, once they're strapped down, I want to be able to be strong enough to do whatever I want. Because guys and gals like 'em? They think they know what suffering and pain and evil are all about, but I'm going to educate 'em. Slowly. Teach them what the world's really like."

Shrugging, Lex gave a small nod. "Indeed, despite what they've already achieved, they appear rather . . . sentimental overall. Oh, yes, the blue-haired one, Roronoa Zoro, and Miss All-Sunday can be fairly ruthless at times, yet they're in the minority. Not something appreciated by the rest. Otherwise they wouldn't have taken such pains to make the majority of their crimes as victimless as possible. Or," briefly pausing to give Joker a pointed look, "leaving you or those heroes alive to continue pursuing them. Hunting them."

While the Clown Prince's eyes narrowed, his frown twitched so much you knew it was meant to be a smile.

!JUSTICE!

The escape of Lex Luthor from prison had not gone unnoticed. Especially given how many supervillains had gone with him, and the number of corpses left behind.

Batman was the last to the Watchtower, having been held up with a hostage situation back in Gotham, along with a host of other serious crimes. Ignoring the other members of the Justice League, he stormed into the monitor room, and started pulling up surveillance footage from the prison, showcasing the break-in.

"I thought they took down the security cameras?" asked a puzzled Green Lantern.

"This is my own private system," was the terse reply. "I installed them after the interview with Star Sapphire about which villains she believed the Straw Hats had recruited. While we later confirmed that Deadshot and Copperhead had not been accepted, given the degree of loyalty the pirates had already demonstrated for each other, it was possible they would attempt something similar. Or try and recruit from other prisoners. So I installed my own surveillance."

"Again with that going on about them. And aren't you being a little paranoid, Bats?" complained Flash. They all could see he was a little impressed though.

For his own part, Batman ignored the man's blathering. The speedster failed to see how the threat the Straw Hats posed was not just a physical one. Not precisely.

In Gotham, a large part of his success lay in the image of himself he was able to create within the minds of the people, particularly criminals. The 'myth' if you will, that he was Vengeance in the Night for the Innocent. That he could not be beaten. Could not be stopped. They could not escape him. It creeped into their hearts and minds. That sheer terror kept those lowlifes in a state of mild panic. Made them sloppy. Gave him that little edge to win against all odds.

For the Justice League, the myth needed to be that they were heroes, and ones who would always save the day, no matter the odds. Enough to not only ensure that the citizens of the world and governments would endorse what was a team of super-powered individuals, but to also help convince villains they should not even try. Because why bother going to all that effort when you knew the Justice League would win?

The Straw Hats were a threat to this belief. The sheer possibility of being able to defeat the League in combat, including even Superman, was bad enough; the fact remained that in all their clashes so far, the pirates had won. They had gotten their money, and made a clean escape without repercussion. A pattern that more and more people were taking note of.

Worst of all was the fact they did not leave behind as many victims or corpses as traditional villains –which, yes, was appreciated— meant some were romanticizing them as criminals. People like that overlooked the destruction and havoc they always left behind, and he knew the scope of their crimes would only escalate. It always did.

Although they're not the biggest concern right now, he grimly acknowledged.

Aloud all he said was, "This is how I knew Star Sapphire was going to attempt to escape last week, and sent Superman and Green Lantern to head her off. This time I was taken by surprise." Seeing how that little tidbit had taken the wind out of any righteous indignation for now, he turned his attention back to the video footage.

Silently they watched the whole thing, as Batman's system even had audio.

"—most of all, to help me kill those bloody Straw Hats!"

"Well," Flash managed after watching the supervillains walk off-screen, "this isn't good."

"No joke," growled Green Lantern.

"Hera," whispered Diana. While she had not battled with some of those criminals herself, she was well acquainted with their records. As for their leader . . .

For Batman, there were no words for the scope of this disaster. While a part of him wanted to boldly declare he would take the lead on this, he knew it would be suicide.

"This isn't going to be easy, even for us," remarked Superman. Turning to their resident expert, he asked, "Any suggestions of how to find Joker?"

". . . No," and how he hated that hesitation. "Not if he's gone this far out of character. Even at his most insane, there was always some sort of overall pattern to it all; even if only in hindsight. Now though, he’s already changed his objective and methodology. He's gone bigger. When we find him, he's going to have to be our priority target. Along with Luthor of course."

Despite their veteran experience, the rest of the League was slightly nervous by what the Dark Knight had both pointedly said and not said. For if the Joker was someone even Batman was wary of facing, it spoke volumes of how dangerous the madman had become.

With one exception.

Heedless of the challenge before them, Superman remained as confident as ever, which tampered down the tiny flickers of concern in the others. Helping them acknowledge the threat so it would be to their advantage, as opposed to a hindrance.

This may very well be the greatest test the League had faced since they had first come together to battle the Imperium, and they would rise to the occasion.

No matter the personal cost, they would protect this world from the madness and evil of men like Joker, and those now following him.

"So what's the plan then?" Superman asked. "Gather more information first?"

"Precisely," nodded Batman. "Whatever Joker's planning, it'll be big, and that'll leave a trail. People going quiet, or making lots of chatter. Getting resources. We'll start by checking our sources. Updating local authorities. We'll also need to see if he's recruiting other supervillains."

"We know the drill," Hawkgirl sharply said, ready to get to work.

"We should work in teams if we're going to risk bumping into that kind of firepower," threw in Green Lantern. With a huff, the Thanagarian went to a computer terminal to begin pulling up other supervillains at large.

"Y'know, we should probably warn the Straw Hats," popped in Flash. "Like, make it public, or at least drop a note at one of those companies we suspect are theirs, to at least give 'em a head's up they're Joker's target."

"And risk them seeking out Joker themselves, and tearing up a city as they fight it out?" snapped Batman. "No."

"But—!"

"No."

"Let's first see what we can find out ourselves," Superman diplomatically interjected. "Hopefully we can sort this out ourselves before it goes any further."

"Fine!" sulked Flash.

"It's possible they'll go hunting anyways," warned J'onn. "They were the ones to mutilate Joker in the first place, and may wish to pre-emptively handle him."

"Nothing we can do about that," grunted Green Lantern. "Let's first worry about what the mass murdering psychopath's doing next."

"What about Joker recruiting more criminals from Gotham?" asked Wonder Woman. The chaos in that city was ongoing despite the help she had been giving, as gangs battled for domination. Batman refused to let any other Leaguers in, and she was only there because she ignored his refusals. It still seemed reasonable for Joker to strike Arkham Asylum to grab more allies though.

"He would have done so already if he was planning to," dismissed the Dark Knight. "Besides, at this point, the majority of supervillains and mob bosses left there would shoot at him, and make enough of a ruckus to tell us where he is." She frowned a little at his acidic tone, yet nodded at the wisdom of his words.

"At least we know it'll be confined to the US, given that's where the Straw Hat's operate," Flash cheerfully pointed out. "Plus, with Shining Knight we've got an even number of people."

"So glad to be of service," the man smiled good-naturedly.

"Enough talking and get to work," growled Batman as he stalked out.

Right behind him, Superman, "Alright, sounds like a plan."

!JUSTICE!

One activity that Maureen and Volcana particularly enjoyed bonding over was the ancient and sacred art of shopping. Given their respective histories, being able to freely stroll about in public to buy whatever they wanted was a luxury beyond words.

Oh, granted, it was not perfect. Nami was hardly going to give them sacks of cash to spend after all. Although Volcana's pay cheque, and Maureen's allowance, were quite respectable. Also, to throw off any potential pursuit, it was necessary to only do it in cities other than where their base was located. Plus, as a wanted felon, it was necessary for the pyrokinetic to disguise herself.

"That's pretty cool," said Maureen with awe.

"Practice makes perfect," Volcana proudly smiled, adjusting the last hairband. "I can teach you if you want."

A point of pride for her, was her long mane of red hair, stretching down to her ankles. Unfortunately, she had been forced to accept that it was a tad too distinctive, the sort of thing that led people to find her, even during her time as an involuntary government assassin. So she had taken the time to master the Secret Womanly Arts of Hairstyling. Her time imprisoned by Superman on that island had led her to experiment more with braiding her hair, making it her newest preferred method. Now she could compress the whole mass into something much smaller and more manageable, if still artistic, and then cover that up with whatever suited her. Voila!

(Washing the whole mess of it was a painful, if necessary, price to be gorgeous.)

Today's choice of a finishing touch was a turquoise scarf over her head, which went perfectly with the autumn weather. While the sunglasses she put on next were not as seasonal, their rich green tint disguised her red eyes without making it seem obvious, like the dark shades she used to favour, while making it seem like an act of vanity. Well, they did make her look more beautiful, except that was beside the point.

"Hey! Can I come along too?"

Looking around, they saw a beaming Luffy jogging up to them, waving his hand even though they could clearly see him. "You and Mauri are going shopping, yeah?"

"Yep!" chirped Maureen.

"Can I come along too?" repeated Luffy, all but hopping around.

"I thought you were the one who said we had to lay low?" pointed out Volcana, trying to resist his charms. It was like a puppy wanting to go out and play. All bright and innocent. Also, she had a feeling he would be tagging along regardless of what she said.

Deflating at that, he gave a sullen response, "I know. I just want to get out for some fresh air and see some interesting stuff. Besides," —his mega-watt grin was back at full strength— "you and Mauri and can help remind me to keep out of trouble."

"I'm not a babysitter." She diligently did not look at Maureen, who she knew wanted Luffy to come along. Worse, there was good reason too, for while he not the best role model, he did know how to help someone who had been tormented by loneliness for too long. He was friendly, outgoing, and knew just how much physical contact to give to someone who had been touch starved. He always seemed to know just the right time and place to rest an encouraging hand on her shoulder, wrap her up in a hug, and other actions of warmth for someone who not too long ago would have risked freezing him to death for such gestures.

Fortunately —and predictably— the ice user’s control of her powers had improved with Chopper's medications, and being allowed to feel safe and comfortable once again.

Succinctly, his wild habits aside, Luffy was good for Maureen.

Or so Volcana would like to believe.

"Awwwww, c'mon," he pressed, hopping from one foot to the next, still smiling ear to ear. "It'll be great! When's the last time it's been just the three of us?"

Despite his sunshine routine, Volcana hesitated. Recent events had been an eye-opener for her regarding her boss. Her . . . friend?

While he was not a danger to her and her charge, intentionally, the fact remained that the mysteries surrounding him and the rest were continuing to grow. Moreover, for all of Luffy's authority, the core members of their gang preferred to keep an eye on him.

Were Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and the rest letting him go with her as a way of demonstrating they trusted her?

"Does anyone else know you're coming along?" she hedged.

"Nah. They were arguing over what sick pig I would do best with, so I left them to it. Besides! It'll be fine!"

Maureen looked at Volcana with a confused look, her nose crunched cutely, and mouthed, "Sick pig?" and Volcana only shrugged helplessly, eyeing the still-beaming Luffy. It was probably something to do with food. It was always was with him.

Faced with that wide smile and faith, she could only do the same. As had been happening increasingly lately, there was also a strange warmth in her chest.

Yes, it'll be fine. I doubt they'll even notice we're gone.

!JUSTICE!

It has been remarked that a bored Luffy is a terrifying thing.

An unsupervised and bored Luffy is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. An immutable law of physics. Somehow made worse by the fact he does not go looking to cause chaos, or be malicious about it. It is simply an inevitable consequence.

So obviously, one would assume the rest of the Straw Hats would be keeping their customary close eye on their Captain. Alas, they were all a bit distracted by events going on in the rec room.

Robin and Brook were playing what was probably the most epic game of ping-pong ever. She was currently sporting eight hands, each of them wielding a paddle. In contrast, he only had one, yet the speed and precision of his arms honestly surpassed even Zoro—if not the man's power and skill. Regardless, it was a duel of quality versus quantity as the ball rocketed back and forth between them, while a small audience cheered.

Franky, Chopper, and Usopp were in a lively argument over which Houses the Straw Hats would be sorted into if they went to Hogwarts.

(Hogwarts = Hog + Warts = sick pig = yucky meat.)

Luffy had wandered off after they had concluded he would be a Hufflepuff. Not because they discounted his staggering commitment to his ambition, bravery (although Usopp had argued it was less courage, and more that he literally did not understand fear, so it did not count), or surprising chivalry. It was merely because of how they perceived him as the warm glue that held their nakama together, and treasured his friends so fiercely; ergo, Hufflepuff, and they were confident that was what he would choose if Sorted.

The easiest ones to Sort were Robin and Nami, as both of them were Slytherin to the core, with a touch of Ravenclaw. Nami would have all the ambitious little brats under her complete control, assuming possession of all their assets, while as a side project she would manage the whole school budget—probably even finding the money for better teachers, so as to not waste her tuition fees. Nor would she tolerate Voldemort's attempts to 'poach' her minions! During all of this, obviously Robin would be the puppet-master, pulling strings from the shadows. Although Usopp had argued she may try to go to Hufflepuff to disguise herself as innocent sheep, until he was overruled by the 'Dark Lady' herself, when she briefly paused her game. "I think black and green suit me better," she said with mysterious smile that made everyone but Chopper shiver a little.

(About half an hour had been lost in an argument over whether being proficient in Haki, otherwise known as "ambition," indicated you held strong traits for Slytherin within you, with no conclusive answer.)

Their present argument was a down and dirty one on whether Zoro belonged in Slytherin for his own ambition, or Gryffindor for his reckless need to charge into danger. The man in question was studiously ignoring them, including Franky's impassioned speech that his bravery was merely a reflection of his commitment to his SUPER Man's Dream.

As for Luffy, the debaters assumed he had gone to join the crowd watching the ping-pong game, or entertain himself with the chess game. Not the game of strategy itself of the course, but the show that was the players themselves.

After all, everyone else was crowded around the match going on between Harley and Sanji. They were surprisingly evenly skilled too. While Harley was insane, she was also brilliant enough to use that to her advantage, making bold, seemingly random, high risk plays that could pay off spectacularly. Not to mention the ex-psychiatrist was good at getting into the heads of people, with this game being an excellent example. For example, while usually the pirate's resident tactician would rather gut himself than 'beat' a woman in any manner, this time she had promised him two kisses if he won. Because she wanted a good competition.

(She never specified the kisses would be from Bud and Lou the Hyenas, or where.)

For a prize such as that, Sanji would do everything short of selling his own soul to win!

(Although the only reason selling his soul was not an option was because Nami had forbidden the Straw Hats from doing so.)

!JUSTICE!

[Flashback]

"If anyone's going to be selling any of your souls, it's gonna be me!" declared Nami.

"""NOOOOOOO!""" screamed Luffy, Brook, Chopper, and Usopp all together.

"Tch, that just proves you're a witch," went Zoro.

As he was out of arm's reach, and Sanji was absent (he was informed of this new decree later), she merely stuck her tongue out at him while winking.

"Although," and now the swordsman's expression lit up with interest, "it might be interesting to fight the Devil in Hell."

"Eh," dismissed Luffy, "place's overrated."

"Heh," grinned Grundy. "Good one."

"Huh?"

"Your joke about being in Hell," clarified the zombie. He was proud of his improving sense of humour thanks to Brook.

For a moment Luffy looked confused, before a series of emotions flashed over his face too fast to identify. "I've broken in and out of Hell," he flatly informed them.

The recruited supervillains looked at the man they knew to be incapable of lying, and eyes widened in shock and no small amount of fear. They also caught how the rest of the Straw Hats clamped down on their emotions . . . and failing, as however briefly a haunted look still shone through for them all. Even Sanji had mysteriously appeared.

Needing to be sure, Cheetah carefully asked, "You were in Hell. The actual Hell. Like the whole levels of torment?" She meant 'circles of Hell,' yet was still adjusting.

"That's what I said!" Luffy snapped crossly. "I had to go down there."

Luffy went thoughtful, which was very strange. It made his words weigh more. That was until his words were finally and fully registered.

"YOU— . . . You wanted to get into hell?"

"WHY?"

"HOW?"

"No, why? WHY? JUST WHY!?"

Luffy had a very fierce look in his eyes, tainted with sadness and regret.

"I just had to."

The other villains wanted to demand some kind of explanation, yet not only was there Luffy's expression to consider, each of them suddenly felt a heavy hand on their shoulder's from a Straw Hat standing behind them, and the death glare the other Straw Hats were giving them, made them think better of it.

"It was easier getting in, than getting out," Luffy finally announced.

No one dared even comment about that. The atmosphere was suffocating.

Suddenly he beamed a grin once more. "In fact, that's where I met Jinbe!"

They all could breathe again.

The Earth natives turned to the massive, beastly being. A flicker of sorrow went through his eyes, before a glint of mischief took place. With a solemn nod he confirmed it. "Indeed, and I was most surprised to see him in the deepest pit of it!"

"Yeah! Glad though, 'cause that's how we met!"

"Indeed, that remains a special moment for me."

"I also met Iva-chan there."

Sanji had sudden coughing fit. He didn't even have his cigarette in his mouth; choking on air.

"Who is that?" Cheetah asked dreading the answer.

"He is the Queen of the Okama! Uhm, or is it king? . . . I think it's the Queen. Right, Sanji?"

Sanji's coughing intensified.

"What does he do?"

"He's some kind of miracle worker. Oh, and if you annoy him enough, he can turn you into women! Or into men, and then turn you back again."

"Hell has okama? And they're important there?" whispered Poison Ivy. The man-hater had honestly never given much thought to transsexuals before.

Then a new, potentially horrifying question arose:

Was Sanji originally a woman?

What. The. What. Huh!?

Brain stalled, she nearly missed Volcana's question.

"I have a question. Is the hell hot or cold?"

"What? Why ask that?"

"What?! Some say that hell fire will burn you, and some say it'll freeze you, so which is it?"

Luffy answered with shrug "Both. All. There was fire, boiling blood, ice cold, like so cold I almost froze without Iva's help, and there're plants that cut you up, beasts, and . . . the bastard hydra was hard to beat."

"Hydra, as in the serpent-like monster with three heads? That Hydra?"

"Yeah, he was a real pain!"

"Do you think it's too late for me to change my path and become a good law-abiding citizen . . . ?" wondered Clayface mournfully.

"Eh, don't worry," Luffy said with a dismissive gesture. "I'd just break in, and get you out."

That finally stunned the supervillains into complete silence.

The moment stretched on, with no one knowing what else to say. So, feeling bored, their leader declared, "So what's for dinner?"

With that, Luffy skipped off to find Sanji.

The rest of the Straw Hats followed after him, with Nami pausing in passing long enough to delicately close Cheetah's open mouth.

!JUSTICE!

Present

So Sanji stuffed tissues up his nose for every time Harley batted her eyes at him, and committed himself to victory. Chopper gave up on trying to stop him, despite the risk of a repeat of the disaster of meeting the mermaids.

(He had been stockpiling bags of the man's blood since then anyways, to help prevent a repeat. With enough enthusiasm to make Usopp speculate Chopper had become part-vampire during their two year separation—which of course Robin considered adorable.)

Zoro was having fun jeering at Sanji, because he figured win or lose, he would be seeing the chef moaning in despair.

Good times, good times.

!JUSTICE!

It was a long drive to the neighbouring city, and Volcana's will broke down about halfway there.

Luffy and Maureen were in the back, talking about anything from TV shows one minute, to giggling together about Usopp's latest prank against Sanji, and the inevitable retaliation.

"Y'know, Luffy," the older and definitely more mature of the three of them finally said, "if I didn't know better, I'd almost think you guys could be heroes. Like the Justice League."

"Huh," he responded, puzzled. "Why?"

It was a fair question. Indeed, one that she and the other new recruits had danced around in the past regarding the Straw Hats. Except then something would happen, like Robin giving hints to her own bloody history. The kind that would have someone charged with war crimes if they was ever traced back to her.

She had known for a while there was a darkness of sorts in their pasts. The evidence lay in not only scars they bore —and she knew they would have more if not for Chopper's miracle cures— but in the ease with which they slipped into violence. The bloodthirsty expression on Zoro's face at even the mention of possibly fighting strong foes, and the hardness which entered the eyes of the others. The combat training they threw themselves into with sweat and blood. The familiarity and preference in committing crimes.

However, she was inclined to believe it had been circ*mstances which had pushed them into such lifestyles. Some were born into loving and comfortable lives without any threats to them, and other people . . . were not so fortunate.

Like herself. And like her, the Straw Hats had raised themselves above that, meaning any gestures of pity would be taken as the insult they were.

None of her business either.

Until Clayface had mentioned Blackbeard.

The very mention of that name had raised an incandescent rage in the usually happy-go-lucky, self-proclaimed captain, which had been terrifying in its intensity as it strained against its leash. Moreover, she and the other newbies continued to have no idea of what really triggered it. What was it about ‘Blackbeard’ which provoked him?

Up to that point, she had thought she had understood Luffy.

While immature, he was good with people. Selfish, yet incredibly kind at the same time without it seeming like a contradiction. More of a selfish desire to see those around him be happy. Dumb . . . yeah, he was an idiot most of the time. Except for how he had been smart enough to surround himself with some pretty bright people. Whimsical, even if he stuck to whatever had caught his fancy.

Strong. Yes, very strong. She suspected it would take her hottest flames to seriously hurt him. Moreover, whether it was because of that power, or something else, people felt compelled to obey him when he was serious and giving out commands. Something that made him stand taller than everyone around him, making them trust he knew the right thing to do.

Definitely a complicated mixture once you really got to know him. Despite this, after a life of having to know exactly what kind of people she was dealing with, Volcana had believed she had gained his measure. Right up until she had seen another side to him when the name of an infamous pirate was uttered.

For all that Luffy wore his emotions openly on his face, it was patently clear there were hidden, dark currents to him.

Dangerous currents.

But . . .

For all that . . .

For all her justifiable concerns, including why she did not want Maureen too involved in their activities . . .

The Straw Hats make Volcana feel safe and warm. She laughs without scorn or malice as she has not since before her parents sold her to the government. Sees them helping Harley and Maureen heal, letting Clayface and Cheetah know the wonder of acceptance, and even prickly Poison Ivy is lightening up when she is supposed to hate all Humans, particularly men. A gang of highly aggressive control freaks on the run from the law and capes, finding themselves able to relax for days on end.

(Before they had all been on their own, and Volcana knew nothing else would have brought them together into being this strange band of friends.)

The type of people who might rob and steal from the banks one moment, and the next rise to the defense of the weak being bullied.

(So long as the injustice was right front of their faces; they would not go seeking it out. They were not angels.)

For crying out loud, she knew they could have found ways to make a legitimate profit other than making wonder medicines, or they could have gouged their prices higher for that matter!

Luffy may be a criminal, but he was also a kind one. The first she had ever met. Which should be impossible, since 'criminal' and 'kind' should not go together, as this was no Robin Hood story. Except with him . . . it felt right.

No, what she was now coming to suspect was the Straw Hats had all been supervillains —or worse— at one point in their lives (even if she had never heard of them before), whom Luffy had sought out and brought together. Helping them reform into people they could be proud of once more. Providing them with a home. Companionship. Family. Which felt in a way, just like what he was doing for her and the other newbies.

Gently guiding and encouraging until they were what she could already see herself, and Cheetah, Poison Ivy, Harley, and all the rest becoming . . .

All of it had been so confusing that it had been one of the reasons she had thrown herself so much into her combat training lately, trying to put the stress aside. Not that it had successfully stopped the thoughts from bouncing around.

"It's just . . ." Volcana hesitated as she tried to find words to suffice without confusing him. "All of you, seem more like the type to protect people, to help them. Not abuse or take advantage of them. Nami acts greedy, and she is, yet I've also seen her slip money to the homeless who are honestly trying to make a living, and don't do drugs. When we were slipping by that apartment window and heard that abusive husband, well, it was probably the angriest I've ever seen Zoro when he went to deal with the man. I don't know why you're all into this theft and secrecy, even if deep down I know a big part of what you're doing is for the sake of each other.

"Honestly, all together, I wouldn't be surprised to see you guys going around as caped heroes. Or vigilantes at worse."

Maureen dutifully nodded, while Luffy seemed to think it over before shrugging (with his thin, thin shoulders she knew hid a strength that could crush steel) and gave a sigh. "We just do what we want to do. We're not heroes though, because we're not giving up our meat. Or our booze. Or gold."

". . . Huh?"

"Heroes are the kind of guys who if they have a bunch of meat will share it with others! I'm not that kind of guy!"

"No, that's not it!" she hotly rebutted. "Heroes are . . ." Words failed her as she trailed off as she tried to elaborate.

What does make a person a hero . . . ?

Taking her silence as an answer, Luffy gave a cheeky grin. "See what I mean? I'll leave that sort of stuff to Superman. He's seems the type to share his meat around."

"Or leave you trapped on an island," she muttered, before clearing her throat. "He still fights to save the planet though. People look up to him."

Unfortunately, she knew there was more to being a hero than only that.

A part of her marveled that a part of her still believed in heroes after everything that had happened to her. The true depravations and cruelties mankind was capable of. When she escaped the life of a government weapon, she had been branded as a villain.

The world was not as black and white as Superman believed.

"Or," she managed to force out, "simply helping people out. Er, guess you don't need powers. It's what actions you take . . .?"

"Well," now Luffy's smile was kinder as he stared at Volcana, carrying a hint of the young man's hidden core of wisdom, "if a hero is measured by protecting people and being someone to be admired, then you'd be a hero too."

A glance in the rear-view mirror at Maureen's adoration and Luffy's naked respect was more than she could stomach. Gulping hard, her eyes swiveled back to fixate on the road ahead.

Volcana was quiet for the rest of the drive, while after a few minutes Maureen and Luffy went back to talking about everything and nothing.

!JUSTICE!

"Surprised you didn't have an aneurysm over taking her queen," mocked Zoro. Indeed, Chopper was clearly observing, clipboard at the ready as he took notes to record the chef's medical condition.

"Shut. It. Mosshead," growled Sanji as he put aside Harley's former chess piece. Although maybe if I asked her for psychiatric counseling because I was 'traumatized' by it? Alone? And then we could—He banished that mental though. It had only been a few days really since she had broken away from the Joker. Let her heal at her own pace.

A rumbling voice carried over the room. "Good, very good, Grundy." Glancing over, they saw the zombie and Jinbe now playing air hockey. "You need to use precise strength to play properly, and can still have fun at it too."

While it was a little funny given how tiny the Fishman's arms were in comparison, Grundy's beaming smile on his pale, cracked face, was a thing of beauty.

By the massive big-screen TV, Usopp was sorting through various films they had 'liberated' at one point or another. "No, not Romeo and Juliet," he finally decided. "Don't get me wrong, I trust you if you say it's a classic."

"It really is," said Clayface. "So what's wrong?"
"The romantic tragedy part. When we're all supposed to be crying, Robin'll be giggling, and that's always all sorts of creepy."

"Ah. Yes."

They sorted through some more, aiming for something they would all enjoy.

(Every pirate film was conspicuously absent.)

"Zombie thriller?" offered Clayface. "I doubt Grundy'd mind."

Shuddering, Usopp shook his head. "No thanks. Brings back bad memories."

"Y'know," commented Cheetah, lounging on a nearby couch, "I know you guys are private about your pasts, but sometimes I wonder if we'd even believe you if you did tell us it all."

Snorting, Usopp shook his head. "You have no idea. Everything from a fish that eats islands to Luffy running around carrying beautiful princesses."

Both Earth natives twitched at that last one. "Should we be worrying about mini-Luffy's running around?" Cheetah cautiously asked. While he had mentioned before there was a woman who wanted to marry him, she was only know struck by the disconcerting possibility there might be more than one woman who felt that way, and there were more, well, Luffy’s running around.

"AH HA HA HA HA HA! NO! Don't you worry, even if Luffy knew how to make kids, Sanji'd have strangled him already! Ain't that right . . . Luffy?" The last bit was broken off in a painful whisper as Usopp whirled around.

No Luffy.

A chill racing up and down his spine, he brought up his Observation Haki, and looked around in every direction with his enhanced vision and growing senses. Cheetah and Clayface were clearly curious as he ignored them.

If he ever got around to making a rulebook on being a Straw Hat (which would be filled with a long, long, loooooong list of Things Not To Do), the first rule would be:

Nakama forever.

Rule #2?

Always make sure Luffy's supervised.

Rule #3 was don't leave Luffy supervising the food. Not unless you wanted to starve.

Robotically he drew his slingshot, snatched up a new seed he and Ivy had developed, and fired it at the chessboard.

A tentacle monster of vines burst out and snatched up the game, with Sanji swooping up Harley and pulling her safely aside.

Poison Ivy, Cheetah, Harley, and Clayface's eyes all bugged out as they realized the perverted man had crossed the distance faster than they could process.

Silence fell for a moment as tensions spiked across the room. Robin caught the ping-pong ball out of the air.

"Where's Luffy?" asked Usopp in a dead tone.

All Straw Hat's mobilized themselves to confirm their Captain was missing.

Which, frankly by this point in their adventures, was embarrassing.

As in, bribing and coercing all witnesses to forget about all this so as to not tell anyone how they missed that Luffy was off on his own!

Wait.

"Volcana and Maureen are gone too," declared Zoro, both eyes closed to focus on his Haki.

"But you haven't explored the rest of the base," pointed out Harley, shrugging out of Sanji's unresisting arms.

"No, he's right," said Sanji, which was shocking in itself. "They were planning a shopping trip."

Instantly the facts clicked together.

Nami shoved her hands under her shirt and between her breasts, and after some fidgeting, pulled out a bulky phone and dialed it. "Hello? Volcana?"

"Hello," came back the reply over the speaker phone. "What's up?"

"Where are you!?" Usopp called out, with Franky's little toy easily picking him up.

"In the car of course. Why else would you call the car phone?"

Holding up an imperious hand to her nakama, Nami retook control. "Is Luffy with you?"

"Hey Nami!" Well, that answered that.

"Where are you?"

"We're just pulling up at the mall now."

"Just some shopping," assured Volcana.

"We're aren't having to turn around, are we?" a pleading younger voice broke in, quick enough on the uptake to see where this was going. Even Nami's resolve wavered before it. It was hard to put down the dreams of someone like Maureen. Especially since she was showing the strength to keep on moving despite what life had thrown at her. "Just. . ." she hesitated. "Just don't do anything that'll make the news."

With that said, she hung up before anyone could say something to jinx them all.

"Sooooo, we're not going after them?" clarified Brook.

"If they're already at the mall, it's already too late," groaned Nami into the palms of her hands. "And Volcana will take it as an insult if we run over there."

"Eh, whatever happens, Luffy'll handle it," Zoro grunted. Probably.

"It would take the jet to get there fast enough anyways," pointed out Franky, "which would risk blowing our cover."

"So we stay and wait," Nami outright moaned with dread. "And later tonight we're giving everybody a full lecture on the Rules. Maybe with a test. Essay format."

!JUSTICE!

Despite Nami's parting words, Volcana still felt vindicated by the faith they were showing in her. Oh, granted, Luffy's disguise was not going to win any Oscars. From out of nowhere he had pulled out a fake and oversized white mustache and beard get-up. Large, dark sunglasses, and a fedora of all things he had on top of his signature straw hat, which was hanging from its string on his back.

“Luffy—” she began with a pained voice at the amateur disguise attempt.

“Lucy.”

“What?”

“Call me ‘Lucy!’”

Well, it was not the worst alias, but still . . . “Do you really think all that will keep people from figuring out who you are?”

He co*cked his head as if in thought, before grinning again. “Yep! Worked before!”

She figured there was a story there. She also figured that it involved ludicrous amounts of property damage.

Well, alright, as ridiculous as he appeared, and certain to garner attention, there was no way to recognize him like this. Now it was just a matter of him keeping his big mouth shut, a responsibility she was more than ready to assist with.

With that happy thought, they all walked into the city's large supermall.

As they walked in, they missed the suddenly piercing attention by a man in a drab, grey trench coat as he studied Volcana's face for a second. Without missing a beat he looked away, and humming a pop tune, continued on his way to the parking lot.

He had a phone call to make.

!JUSTICE!

Later

Nami of course had been the one to first push for the idea of helping build Maureen's self-confidence via shopping. Well, more specifically she had flipped through a psychologist textbook for the proper terms, and phrased it as "an outgoing experience with simple, low-risk decisions in quick succession to reaffirm her confidence in her ability to act and chart her own life." While everyone else was trying to figure out what she meant, she, Robin, and Volcana, had slipped out with Maureen for a "practical demonstration."

Really, supposed to be laying low or not, Nami really, really liked shopping. Volcana had to step in a few times to keep her from overwhelming the ice user, with stuff like trying to dress her up in all sorts of outfits the older teen picked out for her.

"Awwwww, I used up my allowanced already," whined Luffy, looking at his empty pouch.

Giggling, Maureen shook her head. "You spent it all on treats, silly! Were they good though?"
"Oh yeah! Except not as good as Sanji's obviously."

"Obviously."

The younger woman only had a few purchases, and not only because they did not want to draw attention with a whole pile of them. She remained fairly frugal at this, even if she was collecting more and more stuff for herself. Although while she had tried to hide it, Volcana knew she had bought a few more picture frames. Collecting pictures of us? Or maybe to give away as presents? Cute.

Maureen's stomach rumbled. Immediately after, Luffy's took the cue to do the same, despite the candy he had been getting as they browsed along.

Glancing at her watch, she realized that yes, time really had flown by. "Time for lunch I guess," she smiled.

"Food! Food! Food!" Luffy eagerly chorused before spinning around to point in a specific direction. "Food court's thataway!"

Giggling some more, Maureen was both amused and impressed. "You always know where the food is, dontcha?"

"Of course! Besides, we still need to fill you up some more."

While Maureen was doing much better, she remained in her early teenage years, and thus her body demanded lots of food. While she was much healthier and well-fed since she had gotten off the streets, even Sanji's miracle recipes could not cure that damage overnight. Fortunately, Chopper was confident his treatments would keep her growth from being stunted.

Sticking out her tongue, "Well I'll just steal from Volcana's tray to help her cut back!"

"Hilarious," deadpanned the older woman. "I'll have you know I'm already back to my old trim self."

"Only because you worked yourself to the bone in the gym. An' don't think I didn't see you fighting to ignore Sanji's usual spread."

"Yep," nodded Luffy. "Cheetah and Harley were doing the same for some weird reason. Oh well, more for us!"

"Yeah!"

Smiling in resignation, Volcana could only shake her head. Although she dared not breathe a word to the other women, creating fire helped burn calories as well; if not fast enough for her satisfaction without regular exercise. "Just you two wait until you're older, and can't eat whatever you want anymore. Then you'll see what I mean."

She burst out laughing at the look of absolute horror plastered over Luffy's expression.

!JUSTICE!

It was a fair-sized food court, with lots to offer. Made sense given how it was basically the only real mall in town.

Luffy loaded up his two trays with Chinese food, heavy on the meats. Maureen got a thick burger and fries, although she was nudged into getting a salad from a neighbouring vendor. The third member of the group chose Chinese as well, skipping on the sauces. She may or may not have also chosen some things she knew Maureen also liked, as an invitation to get a little extra to eat.

Out of habit, Volcana chose one of those tables that had both a booth and chairs. They sat in the booth with its back to the wall so no one could sneak up on them, and providing a view of everyone else. They deposited their purchases in the chairs, although the one opposite Luffy was empty so he could put his feet up on it (Sanji never let him do that). In unspoken agreement, Maureen was maneuvered into the center where they could protect her best.

Fortunately, Luffy showed some discretion, and did not scarf his meal down like usual, taking the time to savour it and eat it at a normal, Human pace. From the happy sounds he made, he obviously enjoyed the food. Although, Volcana suspected he would be content even with squirrels roasted on a skewer, as meat was meat for him, and all good things involved meat and 'nakama.'

Suddenly he co*cked his head to the side as if in thought. "Hmmmmmm."

"What's wrong?"

". . . Nothing," he finally said, although he looked a little conflicted. "Maybe."

!JUSTICE!

A sharply dressed man walked up to one of the food vendors, and politely ordered a tray full of food.

He paid in cash, and thanked them for the service, leaving the employees a little happier after their day.

!JUSTICE!

Something caught the corner of Volcana’s eye, her stomach dropping as she recognized mall cops calmly yet quietly urging people away from the food court.

"It's fine," Luffy grunted through a stuffed mouth.

Before she could demand an answer, someone stepped in front of their table. "Excuse me, may I sit here?"

Carrying two very full trays of food, was Superman.

Blue suit, red cape, and all.

"Sure," grinned Luffy.

"Thank you." Ignoring the heated glare Volcana was shooting him, while her plastic fork melted in her hand, he gestured at the chair in front of Luffy, who belatedly remembered to take his feet off it. The hero pulled back the chair with his own foot, and sat down in front of her boss. He selected two hot dogs and a drink from the pile, and pushed the rest towards Luffy. "Here. I bought extra 'cause I know from Flash how much you like to eat."

"Thanks!"

Chapter 14: Injustice for All Part 4

Chapter Text

Something caught the corner of Volcana’s eye, her stomach dropping as she recognized mall cops calmly yet quietly urging people away from the food court.

"It's fine," Luffy grunted through a stuffed mouth.

Before she could demand an answer, someone stepped in front of their table. "Excuse me, may I sit here?"

Carrying two very full trays of food, was Superman.

Blue suit, red cape, and all.

"Sure," grinned Luffy.

"Thank you." Ignoring the heated glare Volcana was shooting him, while her plastic fork melted in her hand, he gestured at the chair in front of Luffy, who belatedly remembered to take his feet off it. The hero pulled back the chair with his own foot, and sat down in front of her boss. He selected two hot dogs and a drink from the pile, and pushed the rest towards Luffy. "Here. I bought extra 'cause I know from Flash how much you like to eat."

"Thanks!"

Without a second thought, Luffy reached over with one hand to pull the new food towards himself, while the other yanked off the now useless beard and sunglasses.

Except he was not smiling. Instead when she briefly glanced over, there was an expression she remembered all-too-well from when she had first met him. Been judged by him.

For all the heated glares Volcana was shooting at Superman, she dimly knew it was largely bravado as sweat broke out on her lower back. He was here. With her and Maureen. Both her former jailer, and the man lauded as the Earth's Greatest Hero.

Trying to hide it behind a napkin wiping her mouth, she took long breath to calm herself. Not because she was afraid of him —she was not!— but because even if the Man of Steel would not want to intentionally hurt Maureen, accidents happened in full-scale fights. Especially if somebody, just speaking hypothetically here, started tossing fire around. So despite what she oh so wanted to do, she had to keep her cool.

Unfortunately, her environment was not conductive for ‘keeping cool.’ Although what she seemed to be seeing right now could (hopefully) be attributed to an overactive imagination.

The air between Luffy and Superman seemed to crackle with barely restrained energy—yet . . . not violently. As if in simple recognition of two Titans meeting at last. For all that she knew them on a personal level, right now they appeared too otherworldly and alien for her to comprehend . . .

With a mental jolt, her brain rebooted, and she started thinking more rationally. After all, Superman was a literal alien, and Luffy was . . . well, just strange. Although it did highlight for her the striking similarities between the two men; ones which went beyond the superficial, and into who they really were.

Most of the time, Luffy was so childish and laidback that he was easy to overlook. Here and now though, his blank expression was neither aggressive nor placid, yet held an intensity that was unnerving to behold. For all the food court was large and empty, his presence seemed to be filling it up to the point of being nearly suffocating; while paradoxically not threatening either. A figure that all eyes would be instinctively drawn too. An Alpha who dominated without effort.

Superman was the same.

Maybe it was because he was an alien, or perhaps it was something inherent to him that would remained the same on Krypton. Like a magnet, his own presence drew people to him. Made them believe in what he had to say. She knew this from personal experience, with only her awareness of the whole unfairness of her imprisonment making her resistant to his charm; and even then she had been suffused with knowing he was simply trying to help her.

Or so he honestly believed at any rate.

Regardless, despite how scrawny Luffy was, he was every bit as larger-than-life as the hero. The only difference was that the pirate could, deliberately or not, hide what he was. Even if he tried, she doubted Superman was capable of making people overlook him.

You could not truly understand unless you met them in person; how they swept up people in their wake, and led them to believe their Dreams. Make them believe those Dreams could be –and actually were– reality.

Justice.

Freedom.

!JUSTICE!

After a few tense moments, Superman finished a hot dog (in the same time, Luffy had just thrown back four into his mouth to gulp them down), and rested his hands on the table.

“First off, Luffy, I’d like to start with something you should know,” began Superman. “The news reports about Joker breaking Lex Luthor out of prison a few days ago are true. Along with Ultra-Humanite, Killer Frost, Deadshot, and Copperhead. Star Sapphire and Tsukuri who your friends Nami, Robin, and Brook fought before when all us men got sick, joined them as well. Joker already had Parasite and Scarecrow with him, and a bunch of regular, non-powered crooks. However, what wasn’t reported, and until now only the authorities are aware of, is that Joker’s gunning for you and your people specifically, and recruited all those people to help him do it. Knowing him, there’ll be even more that we’re not yet aware of; he never does these things simple, and Luthor’ll only make it worse.”

Despite her more informed inkling of just how powerful her new friends were, Volcana still had to repress a gulp at the thought of such powerhouses and specialists all working together. Aimed straight at the Straw Hats and everyone around them.

“Huh. I’d’ve thought Star and Kuri would’ve learned their lessons,” hummed Luffy before throwing back another wiener. “Or the Mingo wannabe.” From the way he was behaving, you would think he either had already known this, or was utterly unconcerned.

The reference to whoever had that ridiculous name, or nickname, did nothing to help. Calling yourself ‘Mingo’ was hardly going to terrify anybody after all. Volcana wondered what the original name was before Luffy decided to shorten it to Mingo … She secretly wished he would give a ridiculous one to the Man of Steel.

Given how he was calling Maureen ‘Mauri’ now, she knew it was not something he did solely to his enemies. Either he did it simply on a whim, or he really could not be bothered with saying names ‘too complicated.’ . . . No, it was both.

Pausing in stuffing his face, he squinted at Volcana. “That is the guy whose face Sanji messed up, right?”

“Joker? Yes.”

“Thanks. But yeah, he was being a jerk like Mingo, same name even, and at the same time wants to be a clown? Weird. Too bad Buggy’s not here; he’d be way better at being a clown and being dangerous than this guy by the sounds of it. At least Buggy got the nose right.”

Superman opened and closed his mouth, unsure of how to properly answer. Frowning, he focused a little harder to see if Luffy was trying to unbalance him, to take control of the conversation.

No, he thought with mixed feelings as the teen continued shoveling food into his gut. He’s genuinely interested, and making observations he deems strangely relevant.

“No idea though why this Rex Losor has you so worked up.”

It took a painfully long time for Superman’s brain to fully process ‘Lex Luthor’ = ‘Rex Losor,’ and despite himself he choked on a laugh. Only then did his eyes widen he realized that for whatever reason, the head of the Straw Hat Pirates considered neither Joker nor Luthor as threats. Only deserving of mockery.

Was it confidence? Or blissful ignorance? Given his suspicions of their origins, it could be both.

He was positive however, that this would not be the last time during this conversation he would be taken by surprise. For all that the hungry guy behaved as if he was simple and straightforward, it was obvious there were layers of surprising depth to him. For one, he caught on that ‘Rex Losor’ was who personally concerned Superman most. Was that me being sloppy, him being that sharp, or something else?

“He means to say, ‘Thanks for the warning and peace offering,’” Volcana dryly corrected before she could help herself. Something flashed across the hero’s face, making her think he was surprised and approving of her speaking up to Luffy like that. Why? It’s not like Luffy’s the type to get mad about something like that. Or wait . . .

Scoffing, she shook her head. “Did you really take me for some damsel that needs to be rescued from the big, strong pirate captain?” The hero flinched a little at that. “I’m here because I choose to be, and can walk away whenever I want.” Theoretically. At the very least she knew Luffy and the others would not be trying to stop her, which was basically the same thing. Her mind flashed to when they first met.

!JUSTICE!
Flashback

"What I want," Volcana finally said, hand still on fire in silent threat, "is a fresh start, where no one can control me, imprison me, or judge me because of my abilities, or my past from when I was too powerless to control my own destiny."

No one laughed.

"Same here," Clayface quietly agreed.

She ignored him, hand still raised to scorch the interviewer if he did not choose his following words with great care.

Unfazed by his imminent death, the apparent man in charge tapped his chin in obvious thought, before giving a serious yet kind smile. "I'm sorry for what I said, and he's right, that is a great Dream! I totally agree with you!" Then a megawatt smile appeared. "It's pretty similar to my Dream too!"

"Glad to have you!" Both his hands shot out to grab one of hers and Clayface's, and shook them in welcome.

She didn’t had time to even react when she saw his arm extend catching hers, and then shaking it enthusiastically making her whole body vibrate, with unnaturally wide grin on his face. Not to mention heedless of the fire still lighting up her palm!

!JUSTICE!
Present

“They’re better than that,” she softly finished, yet her eyes remained lit with a cold fire towards Superman.

Settled now, he nodded in understanding. Or what he thought was understanding, as he did not really know who Luffy is. Oh, she knew he had theories, speculations, and what not, but that was all. It was going to be fun to see him reacting to Luffy’s personality up close and personal. Volcana knew it was going to be a blast to be the spectator this time!

Unfortunately though, now the man’s attention was focused solely upon herself. Measuring her. When he flicked a glance at Maureen, she immediately placed an arm in front of the girl, tendrils of fire licking up her forearm in silent warning. Belatedly Volcana realized he might assume Maureen was a prisoner of some sort, yet no accusations escaped his lips.

Still keeping his hands flat, he bowed his head briefly in apology, or maybe reassurance. “I don’t mean to upset anybody, or give insult. Further insult at that. Especially you, Volcana.” Now looking embarrassed, “Truth be told, I only expected you to be here, our tip said nothing about Luffy. The reason I came though, was because I also owe you an apology, for how I treated you before.”

An apology!?

“That all?” she hissed with heated indignation.

“No,” he shook his head. “I imprisoned you upon that island in hopes it would keep you safe, and others safe from you—because you were endangering innocents in trying to stay ahead of the government. Except at the same time, I failed to consider how I wasn’t really doing you any justice. That I was merely making things worse for everyone.”

Whatever else she wanted to say was choked off in her throat by sheer indignation.

Taking this distraction, he regarded Maureen again for another few seconds, before passing over his last hot dog. “Here. You look like you haven’t been eating much until lately.”

The younger girl glanced up at Volcana, who made an irritated gesture. “Go ahead. He’s not the type to poison food.”

“Yep,” nodded Luffy, with an absolute certainty which was slightly baffling for the adults. Maureen merely gobbled down her extra food with the enthusiasm of those who had once known starvation.

It was obvious from Superman’s interest, he was tempted to speak further to the teenage girl, except he could also read how protective the other two villains were of her. Visibly, he put the matter aside for now, and turned his attention back to Luffy. “Speaking of injustice, how we handled Cherry Blossom Medical was that as well.”

“SHUT UP!”

Pausing, he gave Volcana his full attention. “Yes?”

“You, of all people, don’t get to waltz in here like you can, can, ARRGH! Like an apology makes up for what you did!? You arrogant, condescending—”

“Hypocrite?” finished Superman, throwing her off. “Maybe so. But that’s why I’m here. To make up for something I wish we hadn’t done. With more than just empty words.”

Luffy leaned over to Maureen. “What’s a hippocricket?”
Whispering back, “Pretty sure it’s when someone says you should live your life one way, except they do the exact opposite.”

“Ah. Thanks.”

The two adults blinked at them for another moment before Superman visibly reorganized his thoughts. Intentionally or not, the younger man’s question had definitely eased up on the tension that had been growing. “That’s something else I want to get into. About you Straw Hats being on Earth.”

Luffy’s eyes hardened. “Huh?”

Now Superman’s voice somehow became firm as steel, yet somehow remained compassionate and kind. “I get what you’re going through. Several of us in the League do. You’re on a strange new world, and you’re confused. My questions are, are you here to stay, and what’re your intentions?”

Panicking, the dangerous Pirate Captain frantically looked away to the right, sweat breaking out over his face, lips pursed and in the same direction as his eyes, while holding up one hand as if block or cover his mouth without really doing anything (the hand part was frankly weird). “No we’re not! We’re Earthlings from Earth! Honest! Really!”

A heavy silence fell, with the ladies too surprised to comment, while Superman looked decidedly unimpressed with the obvious lie. Seeing a criminal so terribly bad at it, it was so surprising that a part of him felt almost amused. An eyebrow fractionally rose, and in face of such obvious disbelief, Luffy caved to the reality that he was not fooling anybody. Groaning, he planted his face on the table. “Nami’s going to kill me for this after keeping it secret for so long.” Glancing up, he looked somehow both despondent and defensive. “You weren’t supposed to know. How’d you know?”

“Batman’s pretty bright.” Although honestly, Superman had not been certain the Straw Hats were aliens until that sad attempt at deception. “So, what’s your answer?”

Unbeknownst to Volcana and Maureen, there was far more going on right now than they could see. The hero’s super-senses were straining for the slightest clues from Luffy; searching for signs of falsehood. In turn, he was being carefully examined via Haki, particularly by the other’s innate and instinctive talent at sensing the emotions deep within others.

Sighing, Luffy shook his head. “We want to get home. Need to get home.”

The emotional storm within Volcana intensified at these words. Now she knew what it was all about. The final goal her employers, her friends, were willing to take on the world for: to leave.

Following this same line of thought, Maureen gasped in shock and a touch of fear. Hearing this, Luffy patted her shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it work out.”

“So, we can come with you?” she softly asked.

Groaning, Luffy pulled his hat up from his back and onto his head, fingering it restlessly. “Is this what Shanks felt? Or was it because I was a kid?”

“Huh?”

“Shanks?” asked Superman, hoping for more details.

“The guy who taught me about being a pirate. Wouldn’t let me come with him though, saying I was too young then. And I guess he was right, ‘cause that’s what I’m feeling now. Like he said, the path to becoming the Pirate King’s not safe.”

A crease formed in Superman’s brow. “The ‘Pirate King’?”

Beaming, Luffy nodded. “That’s right! I’m going to find the One Piece and become the Pirate King!”

Before the alien could speak, Maureen gushed with awe and a touch of idolatry. “COOOOL! What’s the One Piece!? Part of your quest!? Is it treasure!? It’s treasure, right!? So that’s what you need to prove your King by finding it or proving yourself worthy!? Does that mean you’ll lead all the pirates!? You’ll be, like, the pirates’re all fighting and quarrelling, but you’ll stand before them and yell,” she sucked in a deep breath, “‘I AM YOUR KING!!’ And then they’ll all bow down to you?”

“Uhm, no? Why would they? And why’d I yell like that? That’s the sort of stuff those Celestial Dragon bastards would do! Yuck! No, being the Pirate King’s about being the most free.”

“. . . I think there is a language issue here, with some confusion in the translation,” offered Superman. Luffy only gave him a blank look. “At the very least, you don’t act like how people on this planet generally understand the term ‘pirate.’ Alright, so you want to get back home, I respect that. Hawkgirl wants the same thing. The thing is, the Justice League can help you.”

“Don’t need help!” declared Luffy, grabbing for one of the few remaining hot dogs. “We’ve got all the help we need!”

Shaking his head a little in denial, Superman said, “Look at it this way: stealing people’s money, and causing all that damage, isn’t helping other people’s freedoms. You’re actually making it worse.”

Volcana and her boss merely grimaced, while Maureen was puzzled.

Now Luffy seemed strangely uncomfortable. “I’ve seen what it’s like in Gotham,” he admitted. “Robin told me why it’s happening. I didn’t expect that.”
“It’s the first time you’ve seen the consequences of your actions,” realized Superman.

Shrugging his shoulders, “Usually those we hurt, it’s because of what they did to us or our friends, so they got what was coming to ‘em. This is new.” co*cking his head, “Except it’s the other guys who chose to go there and make trouble. And we’re not the ones who said we’re heroes and promised to protect the city. Because that’s what a hero does: saves the day.” With a sardonic smile he tacked on, “Besides if we kept solving everybody’s problems, they’d never know how to do it for themselves.”

“Some things are bigger than that,” refuted Superman. “Sometimes you’ve got to stand for people when they can’t stand for themselves. Especially since more people wouldn’t need to stand for themselves if you and your friends didn’t do what you’re doing. It’s not the wealthy going hungry whenever you rob a bank.”

Seeing the signs of the young man’s conscience, the hero was doing all he could to remind him of his responsibilities to others.

Alas, Luffy was already clearly looking bored at this sort of philosophy.

Recognizing this, Superman switched tactics, “Why did you attack Flash before? Is your hat really that special to you?”

Placing a protective hand over it, he simply said, “It’s my treasure.”

Understanding bloomed. “It’s from someone important to you.”

“‘Course.”

“Well, I know Flash wouldn’t have taken it if he knew how much it meant to you. He’ll want to give you an apology, when he sees you next.”

Beaming a grin, “Well then, I’ll have to apologize for hitting ‘im so hard!”

“Quite. Something else about Gotham, is it true you’re staying out because of hearing someone ate spoiled meat?” There were two reasons for why he was asking this. First, as professional reporter he knew that seemingly simple questions could help verify answers for more important ones, as well as help relax whoever he was interviewing. Second, the idea sounded so ridiculous that there was an informal betting pool (mostly food stuff) set up by Flash over whether it was true or not, so he really wanted to know who won.

“It was disgusting!” he shouted, with a fervor more suited for condemning sacrilege within a church. “What kind of place lets people sell food like that!?”

“I have to admit, I don’t really eat there,” confessed Superman. “For just that reason.” However he would be eating out tomorrow at a nice restaurant chain that was also in Metropolis, thanks to a gift card Flash had wagered.

“So you get what I’m saying.”

“You confused the heck out of Batman when he found out your reason.”

co*cking his head in confusion, Luffy blinked a few times. “Why would he care?”

“Well, he really likes knowing all about people.”

“He sounds like a pervert.”

Superman coughed a few times into his fist.

“On a more serious note,” he continued, once his throat was clear, “There are concerns about how several of the people you’ve taken in, are wanted criminals.”

Without missing a beat, Luffy blankly said, “Huh? Why’re you being stupid about that? We’re wanted criminals too.”

It was not the rudeness that made Superman pause, but the matter-of-fact manner of the statement. Luffy knew he was a criminal, and that was all there was to it. Also an uncharacteristic lack of ego for an upper-tier supervillain.

For her part, Volcana stifled a chuckle behind her hand, not wanting to derail the entertainment by distracting her boss.

“Alright,” Superman nodded as he rallied himself. “My point being, that those same people have hurt and killed others in the past. You ‘pirates,’” —apparently he now had a different interpretation of the term than Luffy— “may have done a lot of good with Cherry Blossom, have not killed anybody, and it is understandable you may have trouble adjusting to living on Earth. However, your continued association with Volcana and the others, complicates that.”

Hearing the implied threat, Volcana once more saw in Luffy’s eyes the shadow of the Dragon. Hunched over his pile of gold, ready to pounce in its defense.

With icy precision he gritted out, “They’re my friends. Don’t mess with ‘em.”

Superman stiffened in turn, only for Luffy to suddenly relax and turn his attention back to his food for a moment. “‘Sides,” he added while chewing and swallowing, “they didn’t do that to anybody I know or care about, so it’s not a problem.”

Superman’s eyes narrowed dangerously, only to be distracted by the next bit. “Also, you should get to know ‘em better. They’re pretty cool!”

“That,” sighed the hero as he deflated a bit, “is also part of why I’m here. And what I’ve seen.” A sharp look pierced Volcana, even as he gestured towards Maureen. “While your past records remain an issue, I recently noticed that you and the others have not been committing the same felonies as before. No further reports of people being burned alive for example.”

She willed him to catch fire with her mind, with no success. Yet that strange feeling in her chest came back as under the table, Maureen put a reassuring hand on her knee.

“At first I thought it was because Luffy was keeping you guys on a tight leash. Except the woman I knew before would never show genuine concern for anyone else. Much less be protective.”

Eyes flashing harder than ever, unbidden Volcana’s cheeks even flushed a bit. Another new experience for her.

“Would I be right to assume the others are mellowing out a little too?”

HOW!? she wailed inside, catching the flicker of satisfaction across his face as he read her own. Was her defending and praising somebody, and defending a kid really such a drastic change from how she was before!?

Oh.

Right.

Hrrm.

Okay, maybe it was not so absurd for him to make a guess like that. Maybe even an educated guess.

In contrast, Luffy looked confused, and frankly disgusted. “What’re you talkin’ about? A leash? Why’d I do that to ‘em? And they were always awesome, you just never gave ‘em the chance to show it.”

“Yes we did,” stressed Superman. “In fact we gave them a lot of chances to do so, and they kept hurting people. They still need rehabilitation for them to rejoin society. What’s different here though, is that you actually seem to be doing a better job of it than anyone else before. They’re still committing crimes, yet now they’re behaving much better overall. Showing positive behaviour they haven’t displayed in years, or ever to our knowledge for some. You actually are giving them that second chance that is making a difference for them!”

He paused to see Luffy’s response, who did appear deep in thought—you could tell by the pained expression on his face. Finally he shrugged and smiled, “Huh, I guess they’ve changed a bit. See, what’d I tell ya?”

Weirdly, Superman looked a little sad at that. Looking to the side in resignation, he confessed, “I’m sure you’ve heard already Luthor’s terminally ill. Despite it all though, all those years we fought while I struggled to expose him, I never stopped wishing he’d make a change for the better. Using his genius for good.” His eyes pierced into Volcana, “Except I fixated on him when I should’ve been thinking about others. Finding ways to be a better hero. Hopefully now I can start doing that properly.”

“Good to hear,” said Luffy with a massive smile and all cheer. With that, he piled his empty trays, and everyone else’s, atop each other, and stood up with them. “Good talk, and nice to meet ya. We won’t hold you then while you’re working on that second chance thingy.” Having said his piece, he got up from the table, and strolled over to the trash cans to pile them with all the other discarded ones. “Hey, Volcana, do we have time for some more shopping?

“Volcana?

“Helloooooo~! Are you listening?”

Bewildered, Superman threw her a look, to which she gave a lazy smile as her brain rebooted. “Yes he’s serious, and yeah, this is pretty much the norm.” Looking back at her boss, she called out, “He’s here to arrest you, Luffy!”

“Oh,” realized Luffy with a start, having forgotten about that possibility. “Right.”

Coughing into a fist again, Superman said, “Not exactly.” Getting out of his chair, he angled himself so he was facing both Luffy and the ladies. “There’s another option on the table.

“Come work with the Justice League.”

“You’re joking,” deadpanned Volcana on reflex.

“Hear me out. If you work alongside the League to help save people, stop criminals, and even redeem them, you’ll be pardoned for your past actions. In turn, we’ll be helping you find a way home. It’ll be a second chance to make a difference for all of you. Everyone wins, and your friends and allies you leave behind will have a new place in this world.”

Frowning again, Luffy tilted his head to say something, yet a bitter laugh cut him off.

Shaking with humour at the ridiculousness of it all, because it was that or rage and cry, Volcana shook her head. “That’s the only way, isn’t it? Why there’s no real ‘reformed supervillains’ out there? Because the system’s so rigged against us, we can only manage it with a high and mighty hero giving their approval of us?”

The Man of Steel opened his mouth, only to then clench his teeth in frustration and understanding. This conversation had not gone as expected, including how much of an eye-opener it had proved to be for him. “You may have a point there,” he reluctantly admitted. “Except, doesn’t that make it all the more important to work with the League? To first prove it’s possible to reform?”

Flinching, she took a step back. He had a point. Maybe he really was trying to find a better solution to keeping her and everybody else safe. The government could hardly nab her if Superman vouched for her, right? Had the League protecting her. Would it be better for Maureen?

A prickling sensation made her to turn to see Luffy regarding her with a heavy expression. “It’s your choice,” he promised. “Whatever you decide, it’s up to you to find your own way to your Dream. We can let the others know too.

“As for me,” bringing his attention back on Superman, “sorry,” —he did not sound remotely like that— “my answer’s no.”

Those words washed over Volcana, and she found herself strangely relaxing. Of course he would say that.

While his body language stayed relaxed, Superman’s eyes sharpened a little. “May I ask why?”

Sighing, Luffy scratched his head again. He was generally not one for wasting time on long explanations, yet he liked the guy, so felt he should at least try to help him understand. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m honoured. I love heroes. You’re a hero, and I can tell since you shared with me your meat. But I’m not a hero ‘cause I don’t share my meat, and the world wouldn’t accept me as one either. So I’d rather just explore and have fun with people. Unless they have something we need to get home. ‘Cause I’m a pirate, and we take what we want by force, including all the meat. Obviously if they don’t have anything like that, and aren’t trying to stop us, then we’ll leave ‘em alone or see if they want to be friends.

“Since at the end of the day, what’s right and wrong doesn’t matter, only doing what we feel like.”

His eyes hardened knowingly, glinting with an intelligence and personal experience he had not shown earlier. “Besides, the bigshots wouldn’t actually accept us. They like everything shiny and clean, so they can feel good. They’d demand we work for you, to reassure ‘em. Because nobody’ll trust us.” Superman opened his mouth, yet he plowed on. “No, I know that’s not how you’ll want it to be; it’s just that it’ll still be that way.

“Plus, I’m a Pirate Captain, and work for nobody, so you’d have to work for me.”

With those surprisingly eloquent words, Maureen quietly got out of the booth, and went to hide behind the nearest cover.

Smart girl.

The line had been drawn in the sand, and Luffy had responded by tossing down the glove.

Slowly Superman nodded, turning to look at Volcana. “What’s your answer?”

Resigned, she shook her head. “You think he’s an alien, while I’ve been wondering if he’s actually a devil who broke free from Hell. Regardless though, I’m in it now, and I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to.” Fire lit up her eyes. Literally. “I will not abandon my nakama.”

“I see,” he softly said, before raising his fists, getting ready to fight. “I’m sorry it has to be like this then. You all really seem like genuinely good people underneath. Hopefully we can work something out afterwards. At the very least, this’ll help keep you safe from Joker.”

A haymaker smashed down on Superman’s head before he could react, collapsing with a heavy thump.

“Y’wanna bet?” sneered Parasite, reaching down to suck him dry.

!JUSTICE!

Luffy frowned in anger at this guy who had blindsided Superman like that. Whoever he was, he was seriously fast, as Luffy had only picked him up at the last second. Although in fairness, it was not too surprising he missed him. After all, Observation Haki was directed more towards threats to oneself, and he had been focused on Superman too much to pick up on anybody else. Particularly somebody targeting only the hero.

That was stupid and careless of him.

Nevertheless, now he was fully focused, and tapping into his true abilities. To see what was happening around him . . . and what was going to happen.

The purply-man sneered as he reached down to touch Superman, who crackled with a visible glow. The mystery glow then went into the new guy, even as the still-unconscious hero shuddered in agony.

Nope.

It had been a nice conversation, no matter how weird it was at times, and how dare Purply and his friends butt in like this! Especially after he gave Luffy food like a proper hero!

“Gum-Gum Stamp!”

Foot striking out, Purply blocked it by crossing his forearms over his chest like an ‘X,’ taking the blow in the center. Fortunately, despite his reflexes, he was off-guard as Luffy had timed it for when the man was leaning over to touch Superman, unbalancing him enough to be knocked through a wall, and down several floors below.

When they had come here to eat, Volcana had not been the only one automatically and unconsciously considering their environment.

“Volcana, there’s two more, but they feel weak. Can you handle ‘em while I deal with this guy!?”

(Another reason he was angry at the interference, as he knew enough from Volcana’s stories about her history with Superman. She had the spine to confront him, as proven today, and he was happy to see her fighting her own battles, yet he knew things were not over between them, and now all this mess was interfering with her settling it.)

“Go ahead,” she nodded, facing where he had pointed, holding up two burning fists. She was still wearing her long coat, scarf, sunglasses, and the rest of her (failed) disguise, yet he knew all that would not hamper her. Even better, she knew it too.

Feeling her confidence, Luffy leapt through the hole to join Purply below.

!JUSTICE!

“Overly optimistic of both of you,” drawled a figure as he stepped out of the shadows.

“Shade,” identified Volcana. Pale faced, with a black skin-tight outfit, top-hat, shades like the name, and a stick which controlled darkness, he was more dangerous than he looked.

“And little ol’ me,” grinned Killer Frost maliciously, already chilling the room with her ice powers. “How’s it going?”

“Guessing you’re Joker’s little advance party then?”

“Ah, so the League knows and told you. No matter,” nodded Shade. “He’ll be mighty pleased once we bring back your new boss, drained and helpless.”

Suspicious, she gave a slight shake of her head. “You wouldn’t send in just Parasite for that. Not with the sort of team Superman said you had.”

“How insightful. You’re right, we were originally here for only you.”

“What?” she blinked in surprise through her tinted sunglasses.

“Yes, apparently someone identified you, and informed the League. We found out, and tailed along, and learnt who they were expecting.”

Great, so no one saw through Luffy’s crude disguise, while mine failed. I’ll never hear the end of it.

Prattling away, “So of course we planned to capture you. I’m sure Joker would’ve had a few questions for you. However, if I was in your shoes, I’d hope for Parasite extracting what we need. Less messy.”

"Nah," said Killer Frost , while she stalked over. “I’ve got a better idea.” There was something off in her eyes. “Not after you people,” she gritted out, “froze me. Made. Me. Feel. Cold. Me!

“So instead we’re going to kill you,” and now her evil smile stretched further, “and take the kid with you to see Uncle Joker. Or maybe just keep her for myself.”

Raising a palm, she unleashed a blizzard.

The old Volcana might have needed Maureen’s help to counter this oncoming mini-avalanche. Even with all the time she had spent secretly honing her skills while stuck on a dinky island with little else to do besides sunbathe, and practice braiding her hair.

The ‘old Volcana’ being who she was before meeting the Straw Hats.

With far less concentration than the old days, a roaring inferno bloomed from her hands, turning the storm of cold and ice to steam.

“You’re not touching her!” she snarled, the rest of her lit up on fire. Her overcoat, scarf, and hairbands ignited, her long, wild mane breaking loose.

!JUSTICE!

Ducking and dodging, Luffy continued to leap backwards from a flurry of punches and kicks that tore up the floor and walls of the mall. However, the blank-faced youth was not fighting back, instead he was focused on his Observation Haki.

Luffy activated Gear Two and used Gum-Gum Jet Gatling, Purply cries out in pain as the punches hit his chest and face, and start to beat him.

Until —like every other time— he manages to grab one of Luffy’s arms, and then Luffy cries out in agony.

That was where said future would lead. Whereeveryvariant of Luffy attacking him would have led to, if he had not changed his mind after seeing the results, and aborted that future. Again and again he tried something, only to stop and rethink.

“This is annoying,” he grumbled to himself. In terms of raw power, he could tell that he was the stronger of the two, and by a fair bit. However, this guy was a lot tougher than pretty much anyone else he had met on this strange planet. Speed wise, even Flash — “Huh, I should probably forgive him for taking my Hat. He didn’t know,” he muttered aloud— would be in trouble. There was also a surprising amount of skill in those movements, including an awareness that spoke of experience.

Luffy activated Gear Four: Snakeman, and started safely punching him with clean blows.

He hesitated though.

First of all, he could not be entirely sure that he would win, as his foresight did not extend far enough to see a definite victory. Gear Four: Bounceman could probably do it quickly, if only by wrecking even more of the mall.

Second, he had not survived as long as he had by being totally careless against powers he did not understand.

Third, and most importantly, he did not want to reveal the power of Gear Four. Like Conqueror’s Haki, it was a trump card for emergencies. If he would not bring it out right away against Doffy —as Traffy had also done with his glowing, green, energy knife-thingy— then he would not do so here, in a world they were stuck in for who knows how long.

“Huh,” he repeated. “That’s weird.”

Yes, it was slight, yet there. The guy’s aura, which showed his strength to Luffy’s Observation Haki, dimmed a little for no good reason. Why?

“Maybe his strength is too draining for his stamina? Or maybe he can’t handle his own power?” he wondered aloud. Fortunately his musing was inaudible to Parasite, over the sound of debris, and his own frustrated cries.

Deciding to test this, he broke a storefront window, and grabbed a bunch of coloured balls that he recognized from that game ‘pool.’ Which was a weird name, since what did water have to do with hitting a bunch of balls with sticks on much-too-easy-to-tear green cloth?

He looked to the future, found it intriguing, and started throwing the balls at Purply as fast as he could. “Gum-Gum Gatling Cue!" For the second time, he saw the guy block each ball perfectly with his forearms. Familiarly. Just like Wonder Woman on those video clips Sanji re-plays over and over and over and over.

Frowning now, he studied Purply’s movements more closely. Were they a little less smooth than they had been before? Was he moving like his body belonged to a woman? A normal person would have missed this easily, while Luffy’s fearsome instincts and battle experience finely honed since his grandpa threw him at a pack of monkeys, were something else altogether.

“Hey!” he shouted, making Purply freeze. “You fight like a Not-Amazon!”

“Huh!?” The guy shook his head. “What’dyah mean!? Of course I fight like an Amazon!” He flinched at his words, and shook his head. “Heh, nice one, you really played me there. Luthor was right about you. Yeah, I stole these powers and moves from some Amazons. What’re you gonna do about it?”

Grinning wildly, Luffy gave his stock answer. “Kick your butt of course. Gum-Gum Pistol!”

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Base

The locals to Earth were becoming increasingly nervous by the outright agitation the pirates were displaying.

Some concealed it better than others, except Usopp was on his hands and knees muttering about how Luffy was right now probably fighting off an insane, immortal demon, and his shadow army. Brook, Chopper, and Grundy were buying into it, shaking with fear as his descriptions became increasingly detailed.

“Is it really always this bad when he’s off alone?” questioned Cheetah.

“Well,” hedged Nami. “Not always. Mostly. Sorta.”

“Maybe not ‘bad,’ per say,” said Franky. “But certainly SUPER chaos!”

“I suspect he and the others are dead by now, along with a major city,” sighed Robin, resting her chin on one palm.

“ROBIN!” cried her more hysterical friends/family.

“Might be a good time to go over the rules,” decided Nami. “Try and make something good out of this.”

“Rules?” echoed Grundy.

“Yes, rules to help prevent Armageddon.”

This was rather surprising to the villains who were theorizing about Luffy’s possible connection to the underworld. No one said it outright, but they were 80% present sure he was a devil, or the descendent of one. You would think that would mean he would want to cause the end of the world! Unless he was a rebel in more ways than one? That might fit . . . Might.

Regardless, it was obvious the rest of the Straw Hats firmly believed that Luffy was never to go around without supervision by one of them.

“Alright, Rule #1: Nakama Forever. Rule #2—”

“Oh please! Stop being so melodramatic! Volcana’s got a level head, and Maureen’ll listen to her. They can keep Luffy in line until they get back,” interrupted Poison Ivy with a huff, before turning her attention to her baby —or Usopp’s too arguably since he had helped her make the hybrid plant, except she was hardly going to acknowledge that— with its steely-grip on the chessboard. It provided a plausible excuse to avoid meeting Nami’s Death Glare. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Immediately Nami, Usopp, and Chopper’s expressions became thousand-yard stares, and whatever they could see brought tears to their eyes.

“She just said it. She said it. We are doomed. Doomed, I tell ya,” Usopp sobbed, collapsing onto the floor.

Brook choked on nothing, breaking out coughing.

Ever courageous Franky was glancing around nervously.

Robin giggled.

Zoro sighed.

Sanji pointedly did nothing that might show he was upset by a lady’s remarks, while fumbling for another cigarette.

Sweat broke out on Jinbe’s brow.

Pulling herself together, and groaning in anticipation of the headache to come, Nami walked over to the TV, and turned on the news.

“—eaking headline as the mysterious criminal Luffy battles it out with—”

“You had to jinx it,” she moaned.

!JUSTICE!

Grimacing, Parasite blocked another punch with his wrist, and invulnerability or not, it still hurt.

The little twerp had switched from running away, to an actual fighting retreat, throwing out single punches so fast he could not get a grip on him. Or alternating between chucking stuff.

He understood what it was all about of course, he was currently working with the strategic and tactical minds of five Amazons, who had spent thousands of years fighting and training for war. He knew what the guy was doing! Honestly, this rush was better than Superman’s in some ways, despite the lack of powers like flight or heat vision. The sheer fighting talent he was riding on made up for it!

With the might of them stacked on top of each other, he was now five times stronger than Wonder Woman, and more than a match for Superman in a straight-up fight! Even better, before the day was over, he would have Monkey’s power too!

Where was he? Oh, right!

So yeah, this rival supervillain —who had both the Joker and Luthor in a tizzy— was trying to drag out the fight in the hope Parasite’s powers would wear out. Not a bad plan, especially since it had taken some time getting here too, draining him some more. Fortunately, he still had more than enough juice to finish this. All it would take was Monkey making one single, little mistake.

If he could grab the runt! C’mere!

Rushing forward, he threw another succession of punches, followed by a sweeping kick to take out the legs, yet the freak danced between them all, and leapt safely back. While that had been closer than the last few times, it was getting really frustrating.

Alright, time for a change of plans. Stopping to look around, he realized there was a depressing lack of hostages. Dang, they all ran off . . . already . . .

“You were stalling for the first part, so the civilians could finish getting away safely,” growled Parasite. Despite what he personally thought of him, the mental imprints from the Amazons indicated they would be even more impressed if they were in his shoes.

Shrugging like it was nothing, the guy stopped to—stick a finger in his ear!? That’s disgusting! Ugh, look at him twist it! What, was he raised in the woods by wolves or something!? Suddenly he was a bit less enthusiastic about absorbing the twerp. Oops, he was saying something. “Eh, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.” Frowning a little, “You’re a pretty annoying guy though. Haven’t fought someone I couldn’t let touch me since crocodile.”

What about crocodiles? Whatever. Snorting, Parasite started to circle around for a better angle. “Like you’re one to talk. I could take on Superman like this, and you’re just ducking and dodging away. S’no fun for me.”

“Hmmm,” co*cking his head in thought for a moment, he shook his head. “Nah. Superman might make mistakes like putting his underwear on outside of his pants, whatever Franky says about him being a SUPER pervert, but he’s pretty strong. Stronger than you right now I bet. Not too sharp though, if he let you surprise him like that.”

Pausing briefly in shock, Parasaite resumed repositioning himself. “I’d think I’d know what he’s capable of better ‘en you. Although I’ve no idea about the underwear bit. Anyways, you won’t accomplish anything if you don’t start hitting me more.”

“I want to,” sighed the punk. “It’s just that I don’t want you grabbing me, so it’s taking longer.”

“The longer you stall, the more my friends up there are hurting your little friends.”

“Nah, Volcana’s fine.” There was so much confidence in those words, the super-villain wondered if he was right.

No, it’s gotta be a bluff. It’s two on one!

“Honestly, there’s this technique I’ve been wanting to learn that’d be perfect for you, that my teacher and this big guy knew, where you throw a punch that knocks people away without hitting 'em. I’ve been trying to learn it sparring with the others, but I haven’t gotten anywhere with it yet.”

“So you’re going to try suddenly learning it against me,” sneered Parasite.

“I’ve been trying! All I do is hit you like regular! Gum-Gum Rubber Spread!”

As if to prove his words, he sent another punch with that weird thing of yelling what he was doing, and once again, Parasite blocked it with one arm while trying to seize the stretching limb with the other. That his arms were like rubber, or that his fist would turn black, was only a surprise at the very start. He had seen weirder.

Unfortunately this time the pain from the punch made him flinch a little more than last time, stalling him just enough to barely miss his chance.

Hopping back, he massaged his aching wrist, wondering why it was hurting so much when he was so tough. Oh, right, it was still his wrist, and it was stupid to block a punch like . . . that . . .

Parasite felt like hitting himself when he finally realized the problem.

Amazonian martial combat fundamentally relied upon using their armbands —a symbol from when they had been enslaved by Men— to deflect blows. Even when something like bullets would have merely bounced off their flawless skin, it remained engrained into them to block. For a warrior should take no chances. Especially since said armbands were magically indestructible, able to repel anything from arrows to a bolt of lightning.

Slight problem: he did not have those fancy bracelets! Meaning his borrowed reflexes were having him block there, when intellectually he wanted to dodge or do anything else!

Worst of all, he understood now all those punches were intentionally targeting the wrist to maximize damage!

“That’s it,” he snarled. “Time to get rough.” Calling upon the power of his sixth battery, Giganta, he swelled in size, becoming bigger, tougher, stronger, and, best of all, with massive hands to grab a certain someone and end this!

!JUSTICE!

With a yelp, Shade threw himself away from another fireball that barely missed him. The sheer concussive force of it making another fair sized hole in the wall, with the blast sending him rolling in another direction. Clearly, there was more to those powers than just a little heat.

Shaking his head, he then poked it up over a low wall to take in the scene of the food court.

It was a mess.

Broken tables and chairs littered the place, along with fire and ice. Although, more fire and water than ice now, he noted sardonically. That blast that nearly killed him had not even been aimed at him.

Killer Frost was running for her life from the burning punches and kicks of a woman who now appeared to be literally made of flames. Or at least on fire herself.

Desperately Killer Frost made a platform of ice under her feet to make some distance, shooting out more ice to stabilize herself as a human flamethrower tried to take it out from underneath her. She tried throwing out another barrage of icicles, only for them to melt once they got too close to her target; it was taking the big guns to even phase Volcana. Mobility was all the sociopathic serial killer had going for her, while her adversary literally and figuratively had the greater firepower.

“Well,” panted Killer Frost. “You’ve gotten better than I’d heard.”

“I’ve been sparring for my life this last week or so, against the most dangerous people I’ve ever met,” Volcana flatly responded. “You’re just an ice cube in comparison, and not nearly as fast as a certain pervert either.” Despite these bold words, it was clear this effort was taking a toll on her as well, as her flames receded back to her regular human form. Her skin-tight, trademarked super-suit of red shirt and pants appeared fire retardant, as they remained intact, while the rest was gone.

Truthfully, this probably would be a good time for Shade to help out, except he and Killer Frost were not really teammates. Acquaintances at best. Fellow unwilling fodder for Joker’s delusions at worst. Plus, she had said she could handle this on her own. No need for him to stick his neck out into that.

“Besides,” Volcana continued with an evil grin, “they also taught me a few new things. RAAARGH!” From both arms another two torrents of fire erupted, and Killer Frost answered with two focused icy storms of her own. The duo powers slammed into each other, struggling for supremacy.

Except fire erupted once more around the redhead, and to Shade’s disbelief a humanoid figure made of flames broke off from her, and independently flew at Killer Frost, hiding behind the glare of the ongoing attacks.

“Look out!” he yelled from where he was hiding.

At the last moment the whole mall lurched, knocking his colleague safely —and barely!— aside from the attack, as she was thrown about like the rest.

“Maureen!” shouted Volcana in concern.

!JUSTICE!

“So we’re not gonna go help?” repeated Harley once more.

“Tch,” grunted Zoro. “Yeah, Curly Brows could probably manage—”

“What’d you call me!?”

“—getting there quick enough if it were necessary, except it’s not. Luffy can handle it. Unless there’s somebody sneaky there. For that, he’s got Volcana.”

Everyone continued to pay attention to the news though, wanting to know what was happening. With the exception of Robin, Nami, Brook, Franky, and Cheetah, who were tapping into the police scanner, and contacting their various sources for fresh info.

!JUSTICE!

“Cool! You can turn into a giant!” gushed Luffy. Indeed, if Purply got much larger, he would break through the roof, and was already putting bigger and bigger holes in the stores here, from simply shifting around.

Unfortunately, some people just cannot take a compliment, and Purply roared with anger as he brought a massive palm down where Luffy had just been. He was in Gear Two now, not wanting to take any chances. For as fast as his baseline speed was, this guy was now impressive enough to be taken seriously.

Besides, he had liked this mall, and now it was being trashed. Not to mention how he had promised Volcana he would keep a low profile, and while this was not his fault, it changed nothing that he was getting pretty irritated. He liked a good fight, but against someone like this was different. Purply rubbed him the wrong way. It was a little like when he had been capturing Caesar Clown. Someone with a lot of power, and knew how to use it really well, while having little experience or understanding of what fighting really entailed. Someone playing at being a fighter, while people around them got hurt.

So yeah, time to end this.

What was that?

Volcana had yelled Mauri’s name!

Yep, definitely time to end this. The trick was doing it without bringing down the building.

In a blur he was right in front Purply’s head. “Gum-Gum Jet Twin Rubber Spread!” he roared as he punched the guy in the eyes.

Screaming in pain and even more surprise, Purply stumbled back clutching his face with both hands.

With another burst of speed, Luffy jumped through one of the holes in the wall to the outside, grabbing the edge so his rubbery body swung around back up over the roof of the mall so he was hanging over the big window –or was it called a skylight? Whatever— up there, looking straight down at Purply now that he was in position. Coincidentally, he was now back near the food court.

Biting his thumb, he blew air into it, making his bones swell up. See, he could be a part-Giant too! “Gum-Gum Elephant Gun!” Enhanced with Haki, he easily broke through the glass and brought his fist right down on the top of Purply’s head, shutting him up as he stumbled around in a daze—that had not been enough to take him out, albeit on purpose, since bringing him down hard could have collapsed the mall. The next bit would should be decisive enough to finish this, while, again, without bringing him down hard enough to collapse the rest of the mall.

Not finished yet, Luffy reappeared in front of Purply at waist level, and repositioned the air within him while simultaneously focusing his Armament Haki to that new point. “Gum-Gum Jewel Cleaver!” and brought his oversized foot right up and hit oh dear! Uhm, wow. Really. Isn’t that going a little too far? Oh. Right. Pirate. No rules. Still. I mean, yeah. Well, he isn’t going to be growing big again anytime soon . . . bye, bye, family jewels.

!JUSTICE!

Whimpering in so much pain his brain was about ready to shut down and be done with it, Parasite concluded that while he had the pipsqueak on the ropes, he really should be getting back to base in a timely fashion. They had been here too long after all, and enemy reinforcements were probably on their way. Plus he was sure he had left the stove on back at base. He could always come back later and finish the job. Honest.

Shrinking down as quickly as possible, he reached out with one arm to grab onto a handhold near the food court, to pull himself in there.

Shade turned around at the noise, as the mall finally stopped shaking, to see Parasite crawl over the edge of a hole to fall into the food court. His other hand was clamped firmly over his crotch, with him hunched over.

“Well, this has been a bust,” he concluded, shooting out darkness to enshroud him and Killer Frost. Using the cover, the two of them grabbed Parasite and booked it, even as a furiously shrieking Volcana sent tongues of fire lapping after them. Frankly, he found himself missing fighting people like Superman and Batman.

!JUSTICE!

Taking a deep breath, Volcana released her grasp upon her power, and rushed over to where she had last seen Maureen. While she had been doing her best to keep the fight away from the little girl, she could not be certain until she saw her little sister with her own eyes.

Smiling, she saw the young teen was not only alright, she also had an unconscious Superman draped over her while pulling him farther away from the battlefield. Sure, it had probably been more to get him to safety than using him as a living shield, yet it would do.

“Is it over?” Maureen asked earnestly.

“Seems like it. But we’d better not stick around.”

Sharpening, her eyes fell on Superman. Here he was. Defenseless. How many could say they had this sort of chance?

Before she could make up her mind, she heard the slap of sandals against the floor as Luffy rejoined them, fake-beard and sunglasses dangling in one hand. “Leave ‘em be,” he simply said.

Raising an eyebrow, she silently communicated, Are you kidding me?

Sternly shaking his head, he explained as if she were a slow child. “He came here to talk in peace, and meant it. He gave food to Maureen and me. You don’t kick a guy like that when he’s down just because someone else barged in.”

Sighing and shaking her head, Volcana lowered the hand that had been creeping up. He was making weird sense, and her heart was not really in it. Maybe not even just because Maureen was watching. “Right. Whatever.”

“Will he be okay though?” worried Maureen.

Chuckling, Luffy grinned. “Yeah sure! Now, let’s get going.” He turned away from Volcana and bent over. “Hop on!”

“You must be joking!” she snapped.

He gave her a look like she was slow in the head. “We need to hurry.”

Groaning at the humiliation of it all, she wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on. Of course, she had a few inches height on him, which made it somehow even more uncomfortable. Spinning around with her heels awkwardly skidding against the ground, he then scooped Maureen up in his arms like a princess. “Hold on!” he cheered, before running for their car at breakneck speeds.

Legs dangling behind her, Volcana could only scream while kinda-accidentally strangling her boss. Maureen was shrieking with pleasure at the ride.

!JUSTICE!

Downstairs, having just barely avoided some of the falling debris, a man in trench-coat looked up at the hole both Parasite and Monkey D. Luffy had disappeared into. He could not hear any more, so it looked like it was all over.

He honestly had not expected any of this when he had tipped off the League, and then mall security to help get bystanders quietly to safety.

“Fascinating,” was all he said, before stepping back and disappearing from sight.

!JUSTICE!

Later

“You hit him where!?” cried Maureen.

“You fight to win,” Volcana firmly said, even as she drove them home as quick as she could. Fortunately, as one of Franky’s custom vehicles, the paint job was changed with a flick of a switch, along with new license plates in place. So the cops were looking for a red car instead of a blue one, and the windows were tinted. Despite her words, she was a little impressed that a guy had been willing to do that to another guy. Clearly when Luffy fought, he did indeed fight to win.

“Eh,” Luffy rubbed his hair a little shamefully. “It was pretty mean, even if there’s no rules of fair play when criminals fight each other. Don’t worry though, he should still be a man afterwards.”

“. . . I think that was his actual body,” Volcana reluctantly admitted. “As in . . . he didn’t have anything down there.”

Now Luffy looked seriously disturbed. “So he was not a man already?”

“I guess so. Might be what drove him to act the way he is even.”

“Why’s that?” asked a curious Maureen.

“Ask me when you’re older.”

“You don’t want to lose being a man,” Luffy explained regardless. “Like when Franky didn’t want to join us at first, I thought Robin was going tear his jewels right off!”

“WHAT!?” gasped Maureen.

“TMI, Luffy. TMI,” Volcana weakly said.

“Huh?”

“Means, too much information.”

“Oh. Well, she didn’t. And he needed the little push is all. Besides, he really did want to join us, but didn’t want to leave behind his family and responsibilities to ‘em, even though they wanted him to go live his Dream. So we stole his underwear, his only pair.”

Privately, Volcana thought she did not need to know that about Franky. Nor that Luffy had done that. For all that the cyborg might call Superman a pervert, it seemed that the male Straw Hats were in a league of their own. Actually, given how it had all been ‘resolved,’ it was possible all the Straw Hats were.

“And then, uhm, well, uh, Robin let him know we weren’t leaving without him.”

Tapping his chin, in thought for a few moments, he turned to Maureen, “Just don’t do what I did outside of a fight, ‘kay? You can decide when that’s appropriate when you’re more experienced.”

Despite everything, and learning that little bit of personal history, Volcana could only shake her head in resignation and amusem*nt. As weird as it all was, she had already thrown away her chance to leave, and did not regret it at all.

Also, it looks like Robin will definitely make a fine aunt for Maureen.

Aloud, “Maureen? You’re joining us for self-defense classes from now on by the way.”

!JUSTICE!

Back at the Injustice League’s base (Joker had gotten attached to the name he came up with, and to make it official, and to try and recapture his old self, he ordered some minions to paint the name on the walls in chicken blood—the blood of his ex-captives had already hardened) things were not nearly so jolly.

As in, people were waiting to see who would die first.

All of the various supervillains were in a loose semi-circle around Luthor, Parasite, Shade, and Killer Frost, with the Clown Prince himself leading the show.

“Lexy, Lexy, Lexy,” tutted Joker, pacing back and forth before the genius in question. As had become the norm, the perpetual frown made this act of over familiarity somehow more unnerving; a reminder of how much the madman had lost, and the new danger he posed. “I’m disappointed. Truly. You find out that one of the Straw Hat’s little toys are out in the open and vulnerable, and you decide to grab ‘em without asking me for permission. Despite all my warnings. Do you believe me now?”

“Yes,” Lex agreed as smoothly as he could manage. “In our defense, we didn’t know Luffy was there. Otherwise it would have been simple to capture both her and Superman. That said, I must confess, I didn’t believe that Parasite would lose despite all those powers he had. You were definitely correct that Aresia’s creations are the edge we need.”

“Smooth,” grunted Joker. “Trying to pass the blame, suck up to me, while also reminding me of your own importance.” From the way the other villains were shifting, they had missed that, and it would be even harder now to earn their trust in helping him pre-emptively backstab even their homicidal ‘leader.’ The madman was not done either. “Especially since the plan was to scout out for a few more people with powers for Parasite to drain. Maybe those with some sneakier tricks. Except now they’ll be on guard for that. Boy Scout’ll make sure of that.

“Well, anyways, I’m glad you finally got the message,” he sighed. A switchblade appears in both hands, and with another flick they disappear. “Now don’t forget it!”

Shade and Killer Frost gulp, while Parasite actually whimpered. Lex sweated as he feared Joker was only toying with them in seeming to be forgiving. “Yes sir.” The other three quickly echoed him.

“Good, good. Well, aside from all of your pride, the element of surprise, all those glorious opportunities, we didn’t really lose much, did we?”

“With the failure at the mall, they’ll expect us to give up,” pointed out Lex. “Not come back with an even better weapon.”

“Maybe, maybe.” Fortunately it seems like the storm may have actually passed. After all, Joker was already fighting an uphill battle against the Straw Hats, and so needed every edge he could get, and he knew it. Of course, every single supervillain was simultaneously also well aware they were all on very thin ice.

“So how’d you find ‘em anyways?” asked Joker.

“Well,” Shade hesitantly explained, deathly worried about saying the wrong thing, “we were doing the job you gave us, and were heading back when we saw Superman flying overhead. Tapped into to the Police Band, and heard there’d been a sighting of a Straw Hat associate. We called it in, and we were ordered to go try and grab Volcana to pump her for information. Luthor’s the one who answered us.”

Lex made a mental note to later ‘thank’ Shade for doing his predictable best to sell him down the river.

“I see, I see,” Joker bobbed his head. “Well, did you at least bring back what you were supposed to?”

“Oh! Uh, right here!” Frantically Shade pulled at the bag hooked to his waist, and held it up. “We got what Aresia needs. A nice haul of jewels!”

“AIIEEEEEE!”

Spinning, they all saw Parasite rocking on the ground, hunched over his crotch with a thousand-yard stare. A high-pitched note tore past his lips.

Giving the trio of losers a flat look, Joker shook his head and threw up his arms to emphasize how he was done dealing with them. “Next time,” he said with overly forced jollity, “I’d suggest not embarrassing yourselves any further.”

!JUSTICE!

With a groan, Superman forced himself up. To his pleasant surprise, he was resting in one of the javelin’s seats, and there was a gloved hand offering him a drink of water. Off to the side, his reporter’s suit was carefully folded up.

“Thanks,” he said as he took the cup and sipped it. “But couldn’t you’ve gotten involved sooner?” he good-naturedly complained.

“I was ready to intervene from the shadows,” Batman flatly retorted. Superman still smiled though, knowing his friend had indeed been backing him up. “Besides, Volcana and the other girl seemed to have it covered, and definitely Monkey D. Luffy.”

Looking out the window, the Kryptonian grimaced at the trashed mall. “Anybody hurt?” It was an automatic question, since he knew Batman would not be standing around otherwise.

“No, they got away safely. Then the Straw Hats forced Parasite and others to flee.”

“Good to hear. Guess they didn’t need that warning after all.”

“We’ll have to see what they do next,” was the grunted reply.

“Still cranky you got outvoted when the others changed their mind? Anyways,” before the man got too grumpy, “any idea about that young girl who was with them?”

“None. Although at least we know about her now. While she appeared there willingly, she’s still too young.”

“True. Although I’m confident Volcana will look after her. She did keep the kid out of the fighting, right?”

Given her own history, he could count on the redhead to oppose abducting any more young girls for nefarious ends.

“Yes.”

“Excellent.” Rubbing the back of his already healing head —Bruce had ensured the back of it was facing sunlight— he thought on that whole interaction some more. “I’ve still got hope for them. Although we’re also missing a lot of context.”

“You should have pushed harder, mister reporter.”

“No, not then,” he retorted with professional pride. “They were too cagey.”

“Hmph.”

Now Superman shot his teammate a knowing smirk. “So, did you get ‘em?”

Answering his expression with one of his own, Batman held up a miniature computer, showing a grid-map, and a blinking red dot in motion. “Just the one, but tracker planted.”

“Excellent. Now let’s gather up the others.”

Chapter 15: Injustice for All Part 5

Chapter Text

Mountain Base

“I can’t believe you were so stupid,” sneered Star Sapphire.

“Shut it,” grunted Shade, his usual gentlemanly attitude feeling rather strained after Joker’s near-lethal dressing down. Suffice to say, he was not in the mood for anyone else’s attitude.

They were in the Injustice League’s secret base within a hollowed-out mountain, with the other supervillains and some henchmen wandering around amongst the small buildings they lived and worked in. They were lying low while Aresia, the rogue Amazon, finished crafting her newest bio-weapon, which meant none of them had anything to do really. Which meant that while fear of Joker kept them cooperating, all of their abrasive and violent personalities were increasingly rubbing up against each other, testing each other’s limits. For Shade, his recent failure was like blood in the water while surrounded by hungry sharks.

“I mean, seriously, you thought you guys could take Superman all on your own?” the pink-clad woman continued to mock. “Not to mention that Monkey fellow. You should know how strong he is.”

“Why, because his bimbos beat you and Aresia before!?” he snapped back, fists tightening. He had not forgotten how Star Sapphire and Tsukuri had been willing accomplices to Aresia’s attempt to kill off all the men in the world. He had been sick as a dog himself, and the paramedics barely found him in time with the cure.

Her form glowed pink with anger before she composed herself. “You know how powerful I am, and if Monkey’s lackies could beat me that should tell you how dangerous he is!”

“Probably more than that to ‘im,” leered Copperhead, ambling over.

“Tch,” grunted Star Sapphire with a glare.

Now recognizing the growing tension, Shade began to feel nervous. If a fight broke out and Joker thought he was a responsible, straight on the heels of his last warning a few hours or so ago, then he was a dead man. Fortunately Joker had left the common area for one of the buildings, but he could return at any moment. The maniac’s fury so visibly straining to break free, everyone had been afraid of even breathing too loudly in his presence, lest it set him off!

Maybe it was better after all for them to be focusing on him? “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he defended. “When we saw that Javelin fly overhead, we didn’t have time to wait for you lot. Originally we were hoping for Parasite to simply cause a distraction while we nabbed Vol—”

With a gasp he found himself slammed into one of the buildings beside him. Furious words died on his tongue as he saw Joker glaring at him more heatedly than even his usual insanity. Eyes seeming to nearly burn red through the bandages still wrapped around his face.

“What did you say!?” spat the Mad Clown.

“Uh I—”

“Before you said you saw Superman fly overhead, but now you’re saying it was a Javelin!?”

“Well yeah,” Shade managed, even as a foreboding sensation curled up in his belly. “I mean, he must’ve been in . . . oh—”

“A MAN WHO FLIES DOESN’T NEED A PLANE YOU FOOL!” roared Joker. Painfully he turned Shade around, pressing him against wall, nimble fingers searching his body before stopping.

Numbly, Shade turned his head to see Joker holding something small in one hand. It was black, about the same shade as his own outfit. Then the man’s fingers shifted a little, to show it was in the shape of a bat, with a flickering red light that screamed ‘Tracker.’

Now it was obvious. Superman would only take a Javelin –which was a spaceship actually— if he was with somebody who could not fly like him. Like Batman. Who had been hiding in the shadows during the mayhem of the fight against Monkey and Volcana, and at some point planted the tracker unseen upon Shade. Likely with the brightly glowing light turned onto the inside.

Yanking out a radio, Joker made a quick adjustment, and barked into it, “Attention everyone, Batman followed the three morons here to the lair. Regroup and—”

Automatic gunfire cut him off.

!JUSTICE!

Grimacing slightly, Batman pressed one hand against the cut in his arm. Too close.

"I've got him pinned down," he heard Deadshot yell, the master marksman's automatic wrist-mounted guns firing to keep Batman stuck behind a large rock.

As initially planned, the Justice League had covertly followed the three members of Joker's little gang to their hideout. Unfortunately for the crooks, this base was not lead lined, allowing Superman to get a look with his x-ray vision.

The enemy base was hardly ideal territory to invade, as there were lots of places for the defenders to take cover behind, or plan ambushes. Rocky outcroppings, a bunch of temporary buildings for people to hide within (including workshops and labs), and finally a large, solid metal complex in the center.

Nonetheless, the Justice League existed for one reason, and one reason alone. They were not going to back down and let such evil dig itself in even deeper, nor go out to ruin more lives.

Not to mention that while Batman had not been able to overhear much of the fight between Monkey and Parasite, someone else had. The Question, a street-level vigilante, was the one who had recognized Volcana through her disguise, and tipped off the League about her. During the ensuing fighting, he had remained to observe and heard enough to report Parasite apparently had Amazons held captive, draining them for their power.

The look of stunned horror on Wonder Woman's face when she heard that, had been replaced by naked fury that honestly unnerved the Dark Knight.

It only got worse with Superman's chilling report that in addition to five women dressed as Amazons, and sixth unknown woman, Aresia was there as well. Apparently a prisoner within a lab of some sort at the very heart of the whole lair. The sheer wrath the princess had exhibited at that news was such neither he nor Hawkgirl dared make any pointed questions as to why she was not currently imprisoned on Themyscira as promised. Bringing it up would have been counterproductive to say the least, and clearly Wonder Woman was going to be demanding some answers of her own. With extreme prejudice.

With all this in mind, a more comprehensive plan of action was thrown together, and Batman snuck inside.

He would free the prisoners, and thus deny Parasite their abilities. If the heroes were luckier than they deserved, the power absorber might even be running dry right now. Afterwards, Batman would secure Aresia and make sure she remained locked up. That part he was more optimistic about, as he was counting on Joker's irritating and almost contradictorily meticulous attention for detail to ensure the prison could hold the traitorous Amazon. He merely had to make sure it was nonlethal, followed by locking her in securely enough to ensure nobody could break in or out during the battle.

Superman had noted one of several emergency exits, probably a secret to everyone besides Joker, and Batman had snuck in through one after disabling the alarms. As irritating as it was, he could not deny having Superman's vision as support was making the mission go much more efficiently. He had snuck into the complex, sneaking around buildings as he got closer to his target. While infiltrating, he had seen Deadshot, whose lethal quality with guns were a definite concern even if Batman had studied his history, methods, how he moved and fought, etcetera, except the man had been looking the other way and reading a magazine. Everything had been going perfect, until the Clown in question must have discovered the tracker on Shade, and warned everyone.

Alerted, the Deadshot had spun around to scan the area at the worst possible moment and spotted Batman. Without hesitating the veteran assassin had started shooting.

Against a marksman as talented at that, Batman had barely made it to cover, and even then he had taken a nasty graze to his left bicep.

In all likelihood, Superman's x-ray vision was keeping him abreast of how the situation was deteriorating. Of course, it was best to call them via radio to be sure. "They know I’m here," Batman gritted out. "Take 'em down."

With that out of the way, grimly he got to work bandaging up his wound. The others could handle themselves for the length of time necessary to stop his blood loss.

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Base

“Oh, cheer up, Red!”

Leaning against the doorway, Poison Ivy just tightened her arms across her chest, ignoring Harley. In the main common area of the underground base, she watched the rest of the pirates and super-villains milling about while waiting for Volcana, Maureen, and Luffy to finally return home.

Undaunted, the chirpy blonde wrapped an arm around Poison Ivy’s shoulders in an abbreviated hug, yet she refused to loosen herself like usual. “It’s not so bad, y’know.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she coldly stated.

“Findin’ more friends!”

At that, she finally paid attention to her best friend, turning the full weight of her imperious glare upon her. Harley only blinked her soulful blue eyes, beaming away.

“Harles,” she hissed. “They’re not my—”

“Oh come off it!” was the dramatic groan. “You like ‘em! Definitely the ladies, and you even gets along with the guys! I mean, what’re you and Usopp workin’ on earlier again?”

Glancing away, Ivy managed, “Making our plants more resistant to herbicides. Particularly the type we think Batman uses.”

“See!”

“It doesn’t—”

“And look at what you’re wearin’!”

Blinking in confusion, Poison Ivy looked down at herself for a moment, before realizing what her friend was getting at. The blonde wearing tiny red shorts, and a tight, small black shirt was unsurprising, despite it being November. No, what was so uncharacteristic was how she herself was not wearing her customary skintight, dark green outfit, and instead comfortable black slacks, and a purple crop-top which went nicely with her chalk-white skin. For the life of her, she could not remember the last time she had been relaxed enough to wear something like this around other people besides Harles.

Taking advantage of how her bestie had loosened up in surprise, Harley grabbed Red’s hand and dragged her to wait with the others. They arrived just as the trio came back inside.

“Let me guess,” sighed Cheetah with a sympathetic expression, noting the empty hands despite returning from a mall. “Your shopping got trashed?”

“Roasted or frozen solid,” moaned Volcana.

“Don’t feel bad,” said Luffy, patting her on the back. “We can go again later—”

Further commentary was cut off as his head was planted into the ground.

“YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!” raged Nami, hefting her throbbing fist. “AND YOU—!” She turned her glare onto Volcana, only to find her holding Maureen up in front of her as a Human shield. “Oh, that’s low,” she sighed, letting her anger drain out.

“Villain,” grinned Volcana wickedly, lowering her surrogate sister.

Unfortunately for the pyrokinetic, this left her open for Nami’s hand to flash out and grab her shoulder and draw her in close. “What. Part. Of low. Profile. Was. So. Hard!?”

“Be reasonable, Nami,” sighed Usopp. “It was Luffy.”

Groaning and relaxing for real this time, the navigator gave a mournful nod. “True.”

Volcana resolved there and then the others must never know it was her disguise the heroes had seen through; not Luffy’s. Now it was just a matter of properly bribing him and Maureen . . .

Meat and chocolate should do it.

Lots of it.

She hoped.

With that out of the way, everyone else gathered around their friends, happy to see they were home safe and sound. Quirky comments were thrown out, and dry predictions of how long it would be until the trio would be allowed to go shopping next, and under what conditions. Nami could be heard above the rest, lecturing Volcana on how there were rules about being with Luffy, and how he must never go unsupervised. Volcana protested she had indeed been keeping an eye out for him, and Luffy tried to claim he did not need a babysitter—everyone ignored him on that one.

Through it all, Poison Ivy stood at the back of the crowd, arms crossed and a mask of indifference in play.

“You know,” deadpanned Cheetah, “after the way you guys reacted to Ivy saying ‘what’s the worst that could happen,’ I thought you were just overreacting. But Superman, Parasite, and two other villains? All at once? You’re lucky you guys got out of there at all!”

“Nah,” beamed Luffy. “I handled Purply, and Volcana’s pretty strong!”

While the woman in question practically glowed at the praise, she had to add, “Well, you’re even stronger.”

He co*cked his head in confusion. “Uh huh.” Like it was too obvious to even bother mentioning.

The bluntness put her off-balance, leaving it to Grundy to slowly say, “You fight Superman?” Given how Grundy was one of the very few capable of going toe-to-toe with the caped hero, the zombie was very curious as to how his boss compared.

“Nah,” waved off Luffy. “He was just there to talk mostly. Oh right,” he blinked, expression growing more serious.

Reflexively something clicked into place for rest of the pirates. Some of them straightened up, or leaned forward in anticipation, but universally the attention towards their Captain became much more focused. The calm before the storm. A storm which could take any number of shapes and forms.

“Superman and the Justice League know,” Luffy revealed with uncharacteristic somberness.

“Know? Knows what!?” barked Nami.

“They know we’re from another world.”

“WHAT!?”

“How’d they know!?” gasped Chopper.

“Luuuuuffy,” growled Nami, her expression a thunderhead. “Did you tell him!?”

“Noooo~!” Luffy tried to lie as he looked away. Glancing back at her livid rage, he panicked and held up his hands to try and ward her off. “They already knew before I said anything! Which I didn’t! I definitely didn’t say anything to make ‘em know they’re right!”

Fortunately for him, Nami’s shock overruled her need to pummel her Captain for breaking the rule he had decreed. So she raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to elaborate and quickly.

“Batman’s a pervert, and not the good kind.”

“OW! That’s not cool!” boomed Franky. “Not surprised since he shows his underwear like Superman, but him being all shadowy means he’s not proud enough to outright admit it! Probably sneaks around spying on people for it!”

Harley cackled like a hyena at that, and both Ivy and Clayface smiled.

Massaging her now pounding forehead, Nami groaned, “This’ll complicate things.”

“Indeed,” Robin serenely agreed. “The Justice League will be able to anticipate us more in any further raids for materials.”

“Most unfortunate,” rumbled Jinbe, stroking his beard in thought. Brook quietly sipped his tea while observing how the others were adjusting to this new concern.

“So we’ll just beat ‘em up,” Sanji flatly said. “And quit grinning about that, Mosshead!”

Still smirking in anticipation, Zoro shot back, “Tch, you can just stay safe here then. You’ll be worse than useless —as usual— against the lady heroes. Not that you’re of any use any other time.”

“What was that!?” Sanji got right into Zoro’s face, while Zoro unsheathed one of his swords.

The supervillains were all rather stunned by what they had heard. Not Sanji and Zoro’s confidence at taking on the Justice League, as they had come to expect that as much, even from just watching their training sessions. No, it was how the pirates were indirectly confirming what Luffy had blurted out about the Straw Hat’s origins.

Luffy . . . alien? it dawned upon Grundy.

So they aren’t from hell after all? wondered Clayface. Or maybe their own world’s hell? Are there multiple hells? Luffy seemed so serious about it before.

I see, pondered Poison Ivy. If they’re aliens, it would explain a lot. Including how they’re so resistant to my pheromones. Not to mention all their other weird abilities. She frowned in thought. Probably also why they don’t think we can learn haki; it’s simply the fact we’re Human, and they’re not, so they can’t teach it.

Actually, she continued to contemplate, what kind of world would require them to develop such powerful abilities in the first place? Are they the equivalent of metahumans, or are they just so strong here because of the environment like Superman?

Meanwhile Cheetah was making her own conclusion. So that’s why they’re so desperate to find certain technologies and materials, she realized. While bio-sciences were her purview, the whole reason they had recruited her in the first place was for her contacts and familiarity with the legitimate and illegitimate scientific communities. This also meant she was more familiar than anyone else with what they were stealing and keeping, and what they were selling off instead. I knew it was to help disguise what they were really after, but now I know they’re trying to get home to another planet, it’s obvious Franky’s building some sort of intergalactic teleporter!

Cheetah stopped to think about that a bit more, and realized it was strange they were not building a spaceship. Surely that would be easier. Especially since in hindsight Franky was also having to learn the science behind such a more radical means of transport than literal rocket science, and all from scratch. Although . . . Hawkgirl said on the news she got sent here by a mishap with a teleporter, with no idea where her planet is. Is it something similar here? So they’re making a teleporter while trying to lock on to something similar from home, like an energy signature? Or maybe their world’s too far away?

The more she thought about it though, the technology and general scientific knowledge the Straw Hats possessed seemed rather strange. Like how Franky was the most advanced cyborg she had ever seen, while Zoro relied upon simple swords. Chopper’s highly advanced medicinal knowledge, contrasted with his total ignorance of DNA and genetic coding in general when they first met. Originally she had assumed they were from sort of isolated community on Earth, yet now she wondered if this sort of haphazard development was common where they came from.

Privately Volcana was a little amused as she saw the expressions of the others, knowing they were going through the same lines of thought she had been earlier. Trust Luffy to turn everybody’s preconceptions upside down once again.

“THAT,” the Straw Hats turned toward the high-pitched voice, with Zoro and Sanji even pausing their fight (which everyone was ignoring), “IS SO COOL!” gushed Harley. Pouncing forward, she started manhandling Luffy’s rubbery face into different shapes in her excitement. “Why didn’t you ever tell us!? How’d you get here!? Are you tryin’ to get home, or to someplace else!? What’re you gonna do when you get home!?”

“Raftel,” Luffy simply said.

“Is that the planet you want to go to? Where is it? What’s there?”

“It’s a place on his home planet,” cried out Maureen, who had been asking more questions on the ride home. “When he finds it, he’ll be the King of the Pirates! The freest man of all!”

Cheetah, Clayface, and Grundy all exchanged shocked glances, before smiles broke out. Except while they were happy for Luffy, a part of them also felt weirdly uncomfortable. For the three of them, it felt like a lifetime since they had been comfortable being around other people. Intellectually, they had known this team-up could not last forever, it was the super-villain way, yet only now were they truly coming to understand how it was only temporary. How one day Luffy and the others would just . . . leave. An epiphany which was now starting to feel almost painful; they wanted to stay with these whacky, frustratingly mysterious, lunatic, and utterly lovable pirates!

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Poison Ivy’s chilly voice cut in. “Were you just going to leave us all behind?”

Now Harley looked like somebody had kicked a puppy. Not her puppy of course, because then she would be murderous, except it was definitely clear that something fragile inside of her was in danger of cracking. “You weren’t gonna to do that to us, were you?”

“No and yes,” Luffy said with a straight face.

“That’s not an answer!”

“What’s he trying to say,” Brook softly spoke up, “is that when we first started looking for help, we never expected to make such close friends.” While his words mollified the locals a little, tears were still threatening to break loose from Harley.

“You’re friends that we care enough about,” rumbled Jinbe not unkindly, “and that it is the very reason why we are hesitant to bring you along with us. It is a very dangerous place, even at the best of times, which it is decidedly not right now.

“The Throne of the Pirate King will only be claimed by blood and war, and our foes are monsters beyond what you can imagine. And there is nothing like the Justice League either; the champions of ‘Justice’ there would kill you all on principle. To say nothing of how you will be in a vastly different place, with new rules of nature and survival. The simple fact is that even the environment could kill us at a moment’s notice.”

Hoarsely, “Worse than today?” Everyone turned to look at a now very nervous Maureen.

“Oh, we’ll beat ‘em,” assured Luffy, yet with a strange seriousness to him. “It’s just we don’t want to lose anybody. They’re very strong. Nothing like Purply and the rest.”

Seeing the tension within Maureen’s frame, Volcana knelt down to give her a hug. Obviously the girl had been hiding how shaken she was by the recent fight, as well as the threats against her by Killer Frost. Or maybe it was now only coming home to the younger teen, with the knowledge that Luffy’s real enemies were ones he could not guarantee he could protect Maureen from. Or how he and the others could leave and never return, as if they had never even been here. To Volcana’s shock, her little sister pulled away from the embrace to walk towards Luffy.

Slowly, hesitantly, Maureen reached out a trembling hand to the scar on Luffy’s chest, and the Straw Hat’s froze. Gently she stroked her fingertips across the large X-shaped burn scar that covered most of his chest, while he looked down and let her. “Did one of your enemies do this to you?” she whispered.

“Yeah,” Luffy murmured, but everyone heard it. His words dead of all emotion. “He punched straight through Jinbe to get to me. Right after killing my brother.”

Flinching back, Maureen fell down on her rear, starring at horror at the too-old-pain-loss-wisdom’s-price in his eyes. Hiccupping, she let Volcana help her up, and this time accepted the hug; never turning away from Luffy.

Silence fell, with the rest of the Straw Hats refusing to look at the others in obvious shame. Because they had failed to protect their Captain.

Harley looked like she was going to cry for sure now, and Cheetah and Clayface were also stunned speechless.

Grimacing, Poison Ivy took a few steps towards Luffy. “I’m sorry your loss, and for sounding accusing,” she managed.

“You didn’t know,” was all Luffy said, except there was a weight to those words which sent a shiver down her spine. An aura of command and greatness. She knew him as an idiot most of the times, somehow even more immature than Harley, yet now, with the context provided by Jinbe’s word “war,” she felt she now understood what he was truly destined for.

Even how he said it, “war,” felt different from what war meant here on Earth. Poison Ivy was not sure her imagination could truly picture what the term meant when it was describing a conflict between people with equal —or even greater!— strength to the Straw Hats. Less of a clash of armies, and more like monsters striving for dominance, to the point “war” seemed almost too mundane a word to describe it.

Envisioning Luffy as a Conqueror. Striding across the world in the lead of vast armies, crushing all before him. Even worse, she understood deep down the mighty forces following him would do so not out of fear, but reverence and love.

The ultimate twist? She could see it. She knew it. Luffy would have disdain for people pledging themselves to him like that, as people pledging themselves to him were simply another type of chain. Really, it would only for it to goad those people on to even greater heights of worship, because they would be aware of his reasons why. Because for him, the greatest achievement was to be Free.

Even Poison Ivy could not deny the attraction of his unspoken cause, despite everything she knew about the ways of the world and men. When had this grown beyond being simply a job for the pay-cheque? After all, as she had told Sanji a while ago, for all the support and comfort these people brought, it was equalled only by the inherent danger. Should she take Harles and run?

You’d always regret it, a voice whispered in her ear. Not knowing what could’ve happened next.

Gulping, her mind raced to change the subject. “Uhm, so what else did Superman say to you?”

Coughing, Clayface butted in, “Sorry, but I’d really like to know if we should know why you were keeping quiet about where you’re from. Just in case it’s important.”

“To keep it a secret,” Cheetah answered for their employers and friends. Even with his lumpy face, Clayface’s confusion was telling, so she elaborated. “If no one knows they’re from another world, then nobody can follow them back. Plus they can control the flow of stuff between them. Like technology we have that they don’t.”

“Or you could have an army of monsters on your doorsteps!” snapped Nami. “Or we could have Superman butting in, and tricked into working for our enemies! Do you still not understand what we’re trying to warn you about!?”

“So you’re really, truly goin’ to leave us behind?” whimpered Harley.

Nami groaned into her hands, only for Zoro to speak up. “You’ll get to choose if you want to come or not, but not right now, when this has just been thrown at you. The thing is, we also get to decide if we’re going to let you come along. We can’t be responsible for looking after those too weak to fend for themselves.

“But never fear, my dears,” proclaimed Sanji with a flourishing bow. “For those who remain here, we can assure certain gifts from our world which will be available solely to our friends who remain here.”

“That sounds perfectly fair,” admitted Volcana, tightening a protective arm around Maureen’s shoulders. “And you’ll be better judges if we could survive there or not, once you get closer to figuring out how to get back.”

Privately though, the redhead wanted to later discuss what exactly those ‘gifts’ might entail. Who knows, she might choose to carve out a comfortable life for herself and Maureen, along with whomever of the rest chose to stay behind. After all, if Luffy and the others possessed the ability to send goods back and forth, obviously they could also drop by to visit as well.

“For now though,” cautioned Robin, “we wish to keep this as secret as much as possible, for as long as we can.”

“If need be secret, then keep secret,” grunted Grundy. “Grundy and others no ask questions until pirate friends close to getting home.”

The other supervillains looked mutinous for a moment, hungry for answers, until as one they all glanced at Luffy once more.

Stiff. Expression flat. No joy lighting up everyone else.

“Sounds good,” muttered Volcana, with Cheetah, Harley, and Maureen reluctantly nodding.

Poison Ivy looked as if she were going to say something more, before thinking better of it. “Is there anything we need to know about Superman?” she asked instead.

Snorting, Volcana shook her head. “He wanted us, all of us, to join the Justice League.”

Cheetah gave out a rasping purr, while it was a bellyful laugh for Grundy and Clayface. Poison Ivy’s smirk only grew as she saw Harley rolling along the ground in hysterics, pounding her fists. Then it dawned on them how Luffy remained deadly serious. More sensitive to their Captain’s moods, his crew were also impassive as they waited for whatever came next. “Wait, you’re not joking?”

“Well,” Volcana put both hands on her hips, “we’d be junior partners doing what they and the government said. The reason they’re considering it, is apparently they think Luffy and the others are rehabilitating us.”

The supervillains repeated their mirth, and this time the rest of the Straw Hats joined in. It was balm to everybody’s souls to hear Luffy’s “Shishishishishi!” return. “Yeah,” he went on, “why’d we do that? You’re all perfect the way you are!”

“Oh Luffy,” smiled Harley, pulled out of her latest laughing fit, sitting up on the floor. “You can be so sweet. We’re not perfect though.”

“Well,” he said mulishly, “you can think that if you want, but I like you guys just the way you are!”

“Even though I haven’t killed Mistah J?” she asked knowingly.

He waved a dismissive hand. “Words, words. Be who you are.”

Harley co*cked her head with a calculating expression at him, before giving a smile and nod. “You’ve got a nice face,” she said. “No lies or deceptions in it. You’re a pirate and a crook, and scarier than Bats without even tryin’, while he works so hard at it, but you’re a good man.”

“If you say so,” he said, turning around to trot away. “Now, Sanji! Meat! I had a big fight and a long drive! I’m starving!”

“Don’t you walk away from a lady like that!” snapped the chef, despite following after him. The rest of the group silently watched them go, unsure of what to do next.

It took a moment for Harley to realize Zoro was standing beside her, arms crossed across his chest. “Oh hey! What’s up? We don’t talk much do we, huh?”

Eyes narrowed, he studied her for a long moment, before giving a bored shrug. “Y’know it’s your choice what to do with the Joker, right?” Wincing, she looked away as he continued. “Granted, if he gets in our way we’ll cut him down,” which made her flinch again.

Sighing, Zoro scratched his head. “Look, when Ivy first brought you in, Luffy and the rest of us thought you were a weak crybaby.” Harley stiffened, but he went on. “Except we’ve also seen what you’ve been doing since you got here, and we know you’re not weak.”

Once more she squinted at his face to see if he was lying, before softly smiling, “You’re a real charmer with the ladies, aren’t you? Thanks Zoro.”

“That’s the idiot cook’s job,” he murmured under his breath, before giving a quick nod and turning around to follow the others, only to find Maureen blocking his path. While she was still a little shaky, her feet were firmly planted, with one hand holding onto Volcana’s on her shoulder. “Volcana already said I’m taking self-defense classes now, but I really do want to get stronger.”

Face like stone, the swordsman only said, “Why?”

“To protect those I care about. To be strong enough you don’t have to protect me while taking care of the bad guys.”

A small grin broke free. “Sounds good,” praised Zoro. Reaching over, he said, “Just don’t forget you’ve got to also be strong here,” tapping her forehead.”

“. . . You mean more schooling like math?”

“Nah, but education’s another form of strength. I mean that what’s most important is having the will to keep going on. No matter what’s in your way.”

With that, he walked around her and strode out of the room. After a moment of hesitation, the rest of the Straw Hats followed too.

“Wow!” cheered Chopper. “That was so cool of Zoro!”

“Eh, probably his quota of wisdom for the month,” grinned Usopp teasingly. “But yeah, that was cool. Right then he was almost as smart as I!”

“Is he for real?” managed Poison Ivy, remaining behind with the rest of the super-villains.

“Which one? Zoro or Usopp? No, scary thing is, I’m afraid so for both of ‘em,” nodded Cheetah.

Shrugging both shoulders, Volcana said, “Before I forget to mention, obviously Luffy said no to joining the League, and I refused too. Thing is, apparently the offer’s open to you guys though.”

Grundy answered for them all by spitting on the floor.

“What he said,” grunted Clayface.

Harley had been pensively stroking her chin in thought, before smacking her fist into her palm, and started skipping towards the door. “C’mon Red! Trainin’ awaits! I’ll get my new hammer!”

“You’re already training almost every day,” argued Poison Ivy, even if she let Harles drag her off by the hand.

“Yeah, and that’s not good enough! Gotta keep you and the rest shipshape if I’ma gonna be a pirate! Yaaar! Ooooh! Should I gets a parrot? Or a peg leg? Two peg legs sound fun! What about you, Maureen?”

Giggling, the teen chased after the ladies. “Ooh, maybe I can get a penguin?”

“You have to take care of it yourself,” warned Volcana, following behind to make sure things did not get out of hand.

“Not sure it matters, since pirates from their world seem so different from what we know here,” deadpanned Poison Ivy.

“Who cares!?” cried Harley.

“Don’t train too hard or you’ll strain something,” Cheetah called after them. “Maybe come back in half an hour for food?”

“Food!” smiled Grundy, going off to the kitchen to start eating now.

Clayface followed the zombie, and was relieved to hear the familiar, comforting sound of the Straw Hats laughing and squabbling in the distance. Whatever heavy cloud had fallen over Luffy’s head, it had passed.

All was well in the world.

!JUSTICE!

Mountain Base

Like both thunder and an avalanche in one, a hole was torn open in the side of the Injustice League’s base.

Framed by the full moon behind them, hovering in the air were Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern.

“Well, well,” grunted Joker, before regaining his customary swagger. “Knock, knock?”

A red blur and pain as he found himself slammed up against a wall three meters away.

“Who’s there?” Flash firmly said, fists raised. Lenses of his cowl narrowed with a distinct lack of his customary levity.

Coughing as he tried to regain his breath, Joker took stock. The witless other villains remained stunned and off-balance, and he was still recovering from his beating at the feet of that accursed cook. It was only thanks to treatments developed by Cherry Blossom Medical –Oh the irony!— that he was even standing. Stall until the others get their heads out of their—

He blinked and thus never saw Flash’s next punch.

Unconsciousness claimed him.

!JUSTICE!

“Surrender,” ordered Superman, hoping to take advantage while the supervillains were off-guard.

In answer, Luthor drew a laser pistol and opened fire on the hated alien, galvanizing the rest to do the same.

Beams of ice, pink shots from Star Sapphire, and heavy weaponry as the mooks opened fire, while Parasite leapt up at Superman.

In answer the Justice League soared right into the fray.

Being the focus of most of the laser fire, Superman was partially blinded for a quarter-second, allowing Parasite to get in a solid punch. Not off-guard this time though, the hero shrugged it off, only for Parasite’s jump to allow him to keep going past and grab Superman’s red cape and yank it hard to throw him down to the ground in a cloud of dust and debris.

Barely phased, Superman quickly stood up, only to be covered in darkness. “What—! Shade,” he grimly realized. With the growing fighting, even his super-hearing would be strained trying to keep track of what was happening.

Which was when a concentrated blizzard hit, coating him in ice.

“Now!” yelled Shade to Parasite, even as Killer Frost and Mister Freeze poured on their power against Superman. It might not be able to hold him, yet it would slow him down. Moreover, if the do-gooder put too much strength into snapping free, chunks of ice would go flying indiscriminately at those around him, which the fool would never accept.

“One sec!” snapped Parasite, still falling back to the ground.

Only for somebody to slam into him, sending them both flying deeper into the mountain and away from the brewing battle.

!JUSTICE!

J’onn J’onzz’s mission was more discrete than the rest.

From the beginning, Batman had theorized Joker was using Scarecrow to intimidate some of the more powerful members into staying in line. However he was also clear that the fear gas was dangerous to the League as well. That it could be used to infect them, especially within the relatively confined space of this base.

After the heroes’ experience with Aresia’s own concoction afflicting even Superman, none of them were willing to overlook the chance of it succeeding here as well. If it looked like the villains were losing, Scarecrow might even use it indiscriminatly.

So Scarecrow was J’onn’s target. The target of Martian Manhunter.

Even if he were better suited for securing the prisoners and Aresia. He could turn invisible and go through walls after all. Moreover, he was unfamiliar with the Gotham criminal and his ways.

Except Batman insisted.

Superman and Flash were too willing to follow the Dark Knight’s lead, Hawkgirl too impatient and uncaring about covert operations, and Green Lantern preferred having Martian Manhunter closer at hand to deal with the rest of the supervillains after Scarecrow, rather than sneaking into the prison. Manhunter honestly did not know what Wonder Woman would have said, if not for how distracted she was over the fate of her Amazonian sisters, and Aresia not being on Themyscira.

For Queen Hippolyta, Diana’s mother, had sworn Aresia would remain imprisoned for the rest of her immortal life.

One did not need to be a telepath to know the hotheaded princess was itching to run home, exile or no, and demand answers.

Unfortunately, this meant only J’onn had thought to raise any objection over Batman’s mission. Even worse, he knew it would only do more harm than good to actually raise it in front of the others.

He’s the only one of us without special powers. So he feels he needs to prove himself to us; prove that he belongs in the League. Or maybe prove it to himself. Despite how he is a valued member we all rely on.

With a mental sigh he phased through the walls to enter Scarecrow’s lab, where he was staying put, despite, or because of, the sounds of battle happening outside in the main lair. De-cloaking, Martian Manhunter reached out and grabbed the madman’s shoulder and twisted him around to punch—

Gas!

Coughing, he stumbled back, clutching his throat, while Scarecrow snigg*red. “You’re good, but once I knew Batman was here, well, I was on guard. Still, best be sure.” With a flick of a tabletop switch, more green gas poured out of canisters hidden around the room.

The world fell away, and J’onn found himself back on Mars.

!JUSTICE!

“Keep it up!” screamed Shade, as Killer Frost and Mister Freeze continued to shoot beams of ice into his bubble of darkness. His own shadow manipulation would disorient Superman, while adding its own pressure to help. If they could keep the Kryptonian out of the fray until the other ‘heroes’ were dealt with, they could win. Especially since Luthor had disappeared, and from what he had hinted beforehand, the multi-billionaire had something special prepared for his nemesis.

A flash of green, and Mister Freeze grunted and stumbled back. However only out of surprise, as his armour was barely dented. “That would’ve worked against my old armours,” he tonelessly informed Green Lantern.

“Oh really,” the former marine rejoined, firing another blast, only to be blocked by a wall of ice.

“I’ll handle this,” declared Mister Freeze to Killer Frost. “Keep Superman down until I’m done.”

“Oh, it’ll be my pleasure,” she hissed.

“Wait, maybe you should switch,” argued Shade.

“This is my strongest suit ever,” said Mister Freeze, implacable in his blue exo-suit with black trimmings. “Something I’ve kept in cold storage, and more than capable for this.”

With surprising speed for his bulk, he fired down a beam of ice from his hands, and skated across the frozen ground just as his wall shattered. Readjusting his power, he started to rise up on a growing glacier with one hand, while the other fired bursts of ice at Green Lantern. Missed shots coated the walls, with the growing amount of ice beginning to hem in the hero.

“Tch, he’s not all that,” hissed Killer Frost.

Privately Shade conceded her abilities were more versatile. However, Mister Freeze seemed to best her in raw might, and as he shrugged off another shot of concentrated willpower, he certainly had the durability. “Never mind that!” he snapped. “We just need to keep Superman contained.”

He could hear an ominous cracking sound from the bubble of ice and darkness, and wished Luthor would hurry it up already.

!JUSTICE!

“YAAAAAAAH!” Shayera roared out, throwing herself into the fray once more. Embracing the thrill of battle, and the freedom that came from her cover.

Back home as Lieutenant Shayera Hol, military veteran and instructor of espionage back at the military academy, she had to be firm and disciplined. Whatever her passions, duty required she keep them on a leash. If this were a Thanagarian operation, and she were in charge, she would have stealthily infiltrated like Batman, with fire teams right behind her, getting into position and setting up ambushes. Laid out and executed with cold, ruthless efficiency. Because that was how she had been trained and what she excelled at, despite her personal preferences.

However, that was not who the hero Hawkgirl was. She was not a soldier, but an ‘alien police officer somehow teleported to Earth.’ A woman who embraced her passions and took care of her problems head-on! Preferably with violence.

All of which she had ample opportunity for here and now.

Joker and the rest had gathered at least twenty foot soldiers for this operations, and for all their lack of powers, they carried nasty looking guns. Military grade she knew at a glance, and the wielders carried them with a definite familiarity with violence as they charged towards the escalating conflict between supers. Either they were that confident in their abilities, or simply that terrified of Joker’s retaliation if he caught them running away. Probably a mixture of both.

With deft ease she swerved through the air as she swept down on the soldiers faster than they could properly track, and began laying into them with her mace. She had to keep moving though, or they would overwhelm her. No matter. She had faced far worse odds against the Gordanians.

In a red blur, Flash was alongside her, knocking goons down faster than they could react.

She was glad to see that ever since his ‘fight’ with Luffy, he had learnt to take his job much more seriously. Usually he would be laughing and goofing off right about now, leaving twice as many guys still standing. No, what they were seeing here was Flash when he got serious.

Serious as a gang of supervillains led by a man even ‘old Dark and Scowly Bats’ (as their lovable Speedster would refer to the Dark Knight) was concerned about, no matter how much the Justice League knew he would deny it. Which meant Flash was decimating the rank and file with a dedicated focus.

Good. It means he’ll live longer, Hawkgirl happily knew, speaking from long, bitter experience in a war without end. Against enemies for whom atrocities came as easily as breathing.

So why did such a large part of her mourn the loss of Flash’s carefree happiness?

At least he remained as irascible as ever when not fighting or training.

She was not sure how she would handle losing that too.

Having cleared things up a little, she turned to help Superman, only to see the cloud of darkness and ice shatter as he finally broke through. Albeit in a controlled manner, keeping everyone safe from ice shrapnel.

Smirking, Hawkgirl got back to her own job. No need to guess how things were now going to go for Killer Frost and Shade now.

!JUSTICE!

Well away from Superman and all the fighting going on there, Parasite hit the ground with a slight grunt. Him and the hero who had knocked them both all the way over here, were in another, wide open area of the underground base, although near one of the cave walls.

Shaking his head for a moment, Parasite lazily stood up to leer at the hero who had come to challenge him.

Wonder Woman.

“Oh Princess,” he sneered. “Here to avenge your people?”

“What did you do to Themyscira!?” she hissed, fists raised.

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?” he gloated. “We had so much fun with your people after all. And it’s all thanks to you.”

“What!?”

“If you hadn’t sent blondie back home like that, Joker wouldn’t’ve been able to track you taking her there.”

The grinding of her teeth was audible even several meters away.

Grinning wider, he gestured with one hand ‘come-at-me.’

She obliged.

He casually leaned away from her first obvious punch and reached to grab her, only to be thrown over her shoulder as he somehow fell for the feint. Moving on reflex, he rolled aside before her foot came down on his shoulder to dislocate it. Jumping up he took two fists to the jaw and a snap kick which sent him skidding back.

Alright, maybe not a cakewalk like he thought. No problem though.

Quickly Parasite tapped into his new memories, seeing how the Amazons in his possession had fought Wonder Woman before. They had helped train her after all, sparred with her, and would know every one of her moves. Maybe even some suggestions to beat her nice and quick so he could get after Superman sooner. Oh, that was going to be delicious! Once he had those powers too . . . well, Scarecrow’s Fear Gas or no, Parasite would have to start rethinking his relationship with the Injustice League.

Alkyone was one of the latest to test the young princess. She had heard whispers of her other spars, and now she would see it for herself.

Appearing in her late teens, Princess Diana only came up to about Alkyone’s chin, even if she clearly had more growing to do. Calm, yet confidence burned in her eyes.

Time to do something about that youthful arrogance.

Starting with a right hook—

Blocked by Diana’s left forearm. Not unexpected, and leaving her vulnerable to—

A sweeping kick from the teen! Alkyone jumped up, only to be knocked by a series of punches. Quick, ruthless, and with perfect form.

Refusing to be taken down by even a royal so easily, Alkyone ducked, dodged, and blocked, but a few punches were starting to get through.

Alkyone knew she was older, stronger, more experienced—

And it was not making a lick of difference.

A warrior’s fire burned within the Princess, and she wielded the skills to harness it.

When the final punch lifted her off the air to fall heavily and motionless to the ground, Alkyone felt no shame.

Later that night she learnt that only the best of the best of her other sisters could match Princess Diana.

For now.

Surprise made Parasite stall just long enough for a punch to get through and deck him into the air. Exactly like from his memories of Alkyone and the other four.

Unlike them, he was tough enough to recover and flip in the air to land on his feet, rubbing his jaw before taking up a classic Amazonian stance.

Nevertheless, only now did he understand:

He possessed the abilities and skills of five Amazonian warriors . . .

. . . And was facing off against their greatest champion. The Princess of a warrior nation who had fought her way to the top of the pile by her own merit and fists.

“Oh my,” Parasite shuddered with naked greed. “I’m going to enjoy making you into my very own battery.”

With a roar, Wonder Woman thundered forward once more.

This time he met her and bulldozed straight through her moves to send her flying back. Faster than she could recover, he was upon her, keeping up the momentum to slam her straight into the side of the mountain.

“Oh ho ho ho,” he chuckled, pinning her there. He glowed purple as energy crackled away from her. “I’m gonna suck you dry.”

“Hera,” she gasped out, and the name rang warning bells in his head, “give me strength!”

With a roar she shoved him back, and went on the offensive now, throwing out a rain of fists that he struggled to block. Each punch was far stronger than before. Even worse, he was suffering from the same problem against Monkey Luffy, as he lacked indestructible bracelets while using his forearms as his primary defense. Honestly, if not for his stolen enhanced healing factor, and Cherry Blossom Medical products, he would still be recovering from that fight.

“You may think you have the power of the Amazons,” declared Wonder Woman, “but we are the children of the gods, and Hera our patron!”

“Well your goddess,” Parasite spat back, “wasn’t generous enough to make you match me!” He leapt forward to unleash a new combination of kicks and punches, which she met with a scowl. She got in a jab to his gut and right shoulder, which he returned with a punishing knee to her own stomach. Seizing his chance, he grabbed her wrists, only to realize his mistake as he grabbed her magical wristbands, which protected her from his powers. In response, she wrenched her arms up with him holding on, only for her to keep going up as she levitated up and planted both pointed heels right in his chin, sending him stumbling back.

“No flight either,” she reminded him. Born from clay with the blessing of the gods, her own gifts surpassed that of her sisters’.

Her lasso flicked from her hand, and snagged his ankle. With a wrench, he found himself being spun in a circle until she brought him back to Earth with a resounding crash.

Gasping despite his enhanced durability, he forced himself up, and reflexes took over as with a mighty heave he wrenched the lasso out of her hand. With equal skill he snapped it off his ankle and swung it at her. Fists outstretched, she dodged under the magical rope, yet he still managed to sidestep her and get a punch in which made her roll midair. “Not over yet!” he rasped.

She recovered her flight, and came straight at him while he dropped the lasso—not his style anyways. This? This he was finishing with his bare hands.

Once more they exchanged a flurry of blows, moving with a fluidity and assurance from years and years of studying the elegant and graceful art of turning a person into a bloody hunk of meat.

Their limbs were like lightning, with the boom of thunder whenever they clashed together, while the very air shuddered around them. A growing fury fueled them both, as they put everything they were on the line.

Smoothly dropping under another punch, he made a sweeping kick to take out a knee which she merely hovered over, while she did her own right at his head, sending him reeling back once more.

Wonder Woman moved in for the finishing blow, only for him to duck and shoot an elbow right into her face, snapping her head back. A one-two punch sent her flying back.

“Let’s end this!” Parasite bellowed, charging after her as ground rumbled beneath his feet.

!JUSTICE!

Deadshot kept up a steady stream of suppressive fire to pin down the Dark Knight. Yeah, he could not do it forever, but he had a lot of bullets. Moreover, the longer he did this, the better chance the others had of finishing their fights to come help break the stalemate. He was an assassin after all, and knew it was best to play dirty if he wanted kill someone as dangerous as Batman.

Sure, maybe when this was all over Deadshot would claim he beat the ‘urban legend’ in a fair fight. Or maybe it would be better for his rep to say he successfully sniped the man from the shadows?

Blurs flew out from either side of the rock the hero was crouched behind, spinning through the air. Deadshot’s arms did not shift, even as he reflexively assessed the projectiles. Batarangs, except bigger than usual. Well, with those trajectories they were no—

One end of each of them exploded, rocketing them straight at him! Too fast! Have too—!

Bringing both forearm guns up, he shot both Batarangs in the nick of time, shattering them. Desperately he swung the barrels down to aim at the man he already knew was charging at him, only for a ball to burst into smoke in front of him.

“Like I’m an amateur,” he growled at the insult. His mask’s visor automatically switched to infrared to see—nothing. The faint smell hit him next. Rust. Iron! Somehow there was iron in the smoke, blocking his sensors! His mask would filter it out, as Batman probably knew it would, but the main thing was that he was blind.

In a snap decision he set up a firing pattern, trying anticipate his target as best as possible.

Batman hit him from behind, taking him down with two punches and a choke hold.

“A few tricks I stole from a pirate,” Batman dryly said to the unconscious man, before heading off to complete his original mission.

!JUSTICE!

Now the rest of the Injustice League had reached where the fighting was heaviest within the base.

Copperhead leapt down from the roof of one of the buildings to ambush Flash, yet that loud hiss was all the warning he needed to dodge out of the way. Ducking around, he came about to take the guy down, only for an explosion to send him flying.

Shaking his head, he looked up to see Ultra-Humanite approaching, sporting a very large gun that would have fit in nicely for a sci-fi movie.

“I must say,” confessed the urbane super-villain, “when Luthor approached me to make a deal, I never imagined how things would go from there.”

“What can we say,” grinned Flash, “life’s full of surprises.”

“Indeed,” and Ultra-Humanite took careful aim at the prone figure, and fired.

At bare ground.

Turning around he barely saw Flash coming around at him before the fists began to fly, knocking the ape down. His fingers clicking uselessly against the trigger of his gun.

Groaning, Ultra-Humanite looked up to see Flash standing over him, holding the power-pack to his laser rifle. “Stay down,” advised the hero.

For extra emphasis, an unconscious Copperhead was chucked down beside Ultra-Humanite, with Hawkgirl strolling up, hefting her mace menacingly.

Holding up two empty hands, Ultra-Humanite calmly said, “I surrender. In fact, I would like to note that I was taken from my cell against my consent. If I had resisted, Joker would have killed me.”

“Save it for your lawyer,” scoffed Hawkgirl.

“Be what it may, I will cooperate,” he assured them.

“Where are the others?” she demanded.

“I have no idea,” he truthfully said. Although he could make an educated guess.

Openly looking around, Ultra-Humanite confirmed that all of the regular criminals appeared senseless. About a third of the cavern, and growing, was now covered in thick ice as Mister Freeze did his work, yet honestly he would not wager good odds on the rest. Taking on the Justice League was a difficult proposition when you were prepared; taken off-guard as the Injustice League were, and given how strained relations were between members of their criminal fraternity, he doubted victory would be theirs. Thus his priority was safeguarding his record as a model prisoner, and thus maintaining the comforts he enjoyed.

Moreover, all this violence was getting rather dreary really.

Pity I did not have a chance to cut a deal with the Justice League beforehand. Although an extra level of subterfuge may have been necessary with Joker’s involvement.

!JUSTICE!

A drill of solid green Will tore through another beam of ice, only for spikes of it to stab up from the ground at the weaving space cop.

Having studied the League’s extensive files on known super-villains, Green Lantern knew Freeze’s newest suit was on greater scale than ever before.

How was it that a man originally specializing in cryogenics had also created one of the most dangerous exo-suits the former marine had ever faced?

A direct hit from another ice beam slammed Green Lantern backwards, impacting against a forest of sharp icicles sticking out of the side of the cave wall. “Grah!” he grunted in pain, barely keeping up his protective aura. Unreal, that blow alone would have shredded through solid steel!

With a thought, he expanded his shield into a bubble to break out of the ice enveloping him, fired off three quick bursts, before taking evasive maneuvers once more.

In all honesty, he was probably the best suited for this fight besides J’onn or Superman. For someone who regularly flew through space, the chill of this battlefield meant nothing to him. Even Batman would have been struggling to move against the cold, even if he had the necessary firepower. Indeed, when his teammate had fought the madman last, that cruder exo-suit had easily overpowered him. Batman had barely stopped Freeze from, well, freezing over the entirety of Gotham City; apparently as some sort of twisted revenge to make the grim hero know what it meant to lose what he valued most.

Cutting through several more blasts with a massive emerald sword, Green Lantern simultaneously formed a hand to snap off several icicles and chuck them at the cold man. Something was niggling at the back of his mind about that last battle between Batman and his personal villain. At the end . . .

Of course!

Right then Mister Freeze went all out. Leveling both arms, each with a greater torrent of cryogenic power than ever. Enough force to punch through a volcano and freeze it over!

With a grunt of determination, Green Lantern met the challenge head-on. Pouring all his indomitable Will into it, he unleashed a massive force of green right back.

The powers clashed and strained against each other—only this time the space cop was no longer holding back with the greatest weapon of the Guardians of the Universe.

After a few more seconds, and another burst of focus, his beam cut straight through the ice and tore right through Mister Freeze’s chest.

Ending it.

Taking deep breaths, he wiped away beads of sweat from the strain, before smirking ruefully at the irony of needing to do so in such a frigid environment.

Flying down, he saw how the exo-suit’s torso had been shredded, and the limbs were basically useless. However Freeze’s head, the sole remaining part of his body, was just fine. All according to plan. Even better, the smaller, spiderlike limbs he used to move around his head and platform, were also mangled.

“You could’ve killed me,” was the toneless observation. A part of him even sounded . . . disappointed to be alive.

“Not hardly,” scoffed Green Lantern, still shaken by the effort winning had taken. “A suit that tough? No, you’d survive much worse.”

He made a buzz-saw construct to ensure the suit was not getting up again, and flew off back to the sounds of fighting.

Lamentably, once he was out of sight, a second, smaller pair of metal legs popped out of Mister Freeze’s mobile platform.

Without a word, the head began scurrying off. He had been careful to ensure his ice did not cover up one of the base’s several escape routes, which was good. If he was to get out of here, he had a ways to go as it was, and could hardly travel fast either.

No matter. While it appeared the Injustice League was going to lose, he had already caught on enough to Joker’s true scheme to know Batman may still know true despair tonight. Him and his new friends. Their loss in particular, for all that he might pretend only Justice mattered in his life, would hurt Batman all the worse.

!JUSTICE!

Peering around a corner, Batman saw up ahead the room which looked reinforced enough to hold the prisoners. After examining the door, he disabled the alarms and cautiously looked in. The women all appeared weak, and he figured from the familiar twitching they were dosed with Scarecrow’s fear gas. Fortunately he came prepared with enough of the antidote for them all.

Not wasting time, he injected the six ladies to cure them, and checked their vitals. Seeing them starting to settle down, he began to unlock their restraints before leaping aside.

The sword blade swished through where his head had been, as he found himself face-to-face with Star Sapphire and Tsukuri.

Eye-slits narrowing, he dodged a pink shot from Star Sapphire, and knew he was outmatched. He had beaten them both individually before, but the circ*mstances were different. Especially since he would be fighting them both at once.

He had miscalculated in doing this alone.

In the span of a heartbeat he assessed their histories and psychological profiles, and made a snap decision.

A smoke bomb blanketed the room.

“I’ll guard the door,” said Tsukuri, falling back to stand in front of the entrance.

“There’s nowhere to run,” hissed Star Sapphire as she fearlessly floated through the smoke. Her protective aura meant she did not even need to worry about breathing; although she could tell it was simply an ordinary smoke bomb.

For some reason though, Batman was not taking the bait. Plus the smokescreen was already dissipating?

“Over there,” noted Tsukuri, pointing to a hole cut into a wall. Batman had escaped.

“Gaaah!” snarled Star Sapphire, before turning to one prisoner at a time, shoot open the manacles holding them in place. Tsukuri grabbed each woman, and gently lowered them to the ground. They were still out cold, so without a word, the two women left them to race down the hallway.

They had a leader to set free.

!JUSTICE!

An unconscious Shade collapsed down beside Killer Frost, and Superman looked to see where he could be of help next.

Only to be sent flying backwards in a burst of green and pain.

“I’m going to enjoy every moment of this,” Lex Luthor darkly grinned as he advanced forward. He was wearing a thick set of advanced green armour with a purple trim, leaving only his face and chrome dome visible.

A single shot brought Superman to the ground, with the familiar weakness of Kryptonite washing over him.

“Why so surprised, Superman? It's a basic rule of business. Turn every weakness into a strength." Even in his dazed state, Superman understood what his nemesis was referring to: Luthor had been mortally poisoned by Kryptonite exposure, yet somehow harnessed the very radiation his body had absorbed to power Krytponite based weaponry. "Of course," continued the lecture as beams of green energy brutally hammered home, "that's a lesson you might not live to appreciate."

The Man of Steel could only weakly scream in agony.

Cold steel flashed, and Luthor’s right gauntlet blazed. “GRAAAH!”

Through sheer will he fought through the pain and glanced at the palm he was holding in front of him, seeing the emitter had been cut. Activating the jets on his feet, he leapt back and hovered in the air to glare down at Shining Knight. “How dare you!” he raged.

“I dare,” was the stoic reply, hefting the sword for his next strike. “I apologize, Superman, for my tardiness.”

“No worries,” Superman managed, glancing back to see they seriously could have made their entrance more accessible for their newest member. Especially since his flying horse, Winged Victory, was slower than the Javelin they took to get here, and could not fit aboard either. Although truthfully, they had been a little concerned about bringing him in the first place. Not because of his skills, but the fact that he had been hospitalized only about a week ago; Sir Justin was only on his feet thanks to more —Oh the irony!— products from Cherry Blossom Medical. “Shouldn’t have made it so difficult for you.”

Almost growling, Luthor fired another blast at Superman with his left arm, except this time the alien was ready, taking it on a forearm and not backing down. His heat vision flared red, and the jets were fried, bringing Luthor down painfully on one knee.

Shining Knight charged forward, slashing with the tip of Gearradh on Luthor’s raised weapon, ruining it right as it fired. The ensuing explosion sent the sword flying, and Luthor reeling back, yet the knight recovered first. His magical golden armour gave strength to his blows which sent his craven foe staggering back more and more. Alas, he would not fall.

Thus Shining Knight grabbed one arm, and forced it behind Luthor to lock it and him in place. Unable to pass up on the invitation, Superman delivered one final punch to bring Luthor down.

“Well,” grinned the knight, “that was far easier than my fight with Roronoa Zoro.”

“I bet,” agreed Superman, although he did not smile. Truthfully he knew they had gotten a bit lucky. Doubtless given more time, Luthor would have made the exo-suit far more dangerous.

“We must aid the others.”

“One moment. Luthor’s slippery, and I want to be sure he doesn’t get away while we’re gone.”

!JUSTICE!

“How is this possible!?” snarled Parasite, panting a little and ignoring aches and pains all over. “I’ve still got five Amazons to your one! Even if you were better than them individually, I’ve still got all their skills, power, and experience amplified!”

Hair disheveled, bruised, swelling keeping one eye half-shut, a fire still burned in Wonder Woman’s gaze he remembered from so many years and years of memories.

Scoffing, she maintained her combat stance, loose yet stable, fists raised and ready to go the next round. “You really don’t get it, do you? My sisters did indeed spend century after century perfecting their skills, but only against each other.”

“. . . What?”

“Aside from the best of us, if you keep fighting the same people again and again, no matter how hard you try and prevent it, you fall into a pattern against each other. A rut.”

As much as it hurt to admit it, she had become forced to admit her sisters were the greatest warriors in history . . . from a time lost to history. Against modern warfare, without extensive retraining, only the Amazons divine gifts and discipline would give them an edge.

“While I on the other hand,” she smiled grimly, “have been fighting against aliens, monsters, and madmen here in Man’s World. Some of them have been even stronger than I, and yet here I stand before you. So in other words, for all that I love my sisters, they have nothing on my experience!”

Seeing him flinch as he recognized the truth, she roared once more as she soared right at him.

He tanked her first series punches before knocking her arms aside and head-butting her. Even with her tiara on her head, she whipped back in pain. Unfortunately he remained more durable, and in such a short fight, his amped up stamina was starting to tell as he recovered faster. Four punishing blows took her to her knees, and he yanked her up by the hair to dangle in front of him. “Experience don’t mean squat against overwhelming strength, darling.”

Parasite’s purple aura manifested as he fed off of her strength to make it his.

Face screwed in pain as she fought not cry out, Wonder Woman spat in his eye, making him flinch for the second needed for her to tuck in her knees and plant a double-kick to dislocate the shoulder supporting her weight.

“GRRAAAAH!” he screamed, nerveless fingers loosening on her hair as she shot out of his grip before even a single strand was ripped free.

Flipping around, she flew right back at him, only for him to push aside the pain with Amazonian mental techniques, and snap-kick her right in the shoulder. Spinning in the air again, she came down on her face groaning.

“GaaaaaAAAGH!” Parasite howled as he forcefully fixed his shoulder. Battlefield medical knowledge in his head knew he would need it to be properly looked over by a professional afterwards —surely one of the eggheads was ‘doctor’ enough for that?— but it would suffice temporarily.

Lifting one foot up, he was going to plant her head down into the stone until he knew she was not getting back up.

One way or another.

“AHH!” he cried out at a sudden stinging sensation, and he looked down to see a bunch of black things sticking out of his body. Huh, they looked almost like . . . bats. With rapidly beeping red lights. Oh dear.

The ringing explosions overhead nearly pushed Wonder Woman fully unconscious, yet she managed to force herself up to her elbows.

While a singed Parasite was stumbling back, she knew he was so tough that he was mainly off-balance only because he was surprised.

“Experience,” she grimly said as she stiffly stood, “also taught me to not fight alone if possible. Especially not against someone such as you. So I had to stall you.”

“HIIYAAAH!”

Turning his head at the war-cry, Parasite had only a moment of comprehension before Hawkgirl’s crackling mace took him right in the face.

A green hand of light grabbed the mace as it spun through the air, and tossed it back to the owner from where she had thrown it. “Thanks,” huffed the winged hero.

“It’s over Parasite,” declared Batman, handing back his teammate’s lasso.

“Yes it is,” agreed Wonder Woman, adrenaline pumping as she prepared to finally finish this.

“Hold back,” ordered the Dark Knight.

“I’m fine!” she snapped back.

“You’re our back-up,” Green Lantern diplomatically said. “He’s still powerful.”

“You’re darn right I am!” snarled Parasite.

“I doubt it,” taunted Hawkgirl. “Not after princess here’s been softening you up. Not to mention the beating Monkey just gave you. By the way, from the way I hear it, you might not even qualify as a man anymore after what he did to you.”

Something buzzed in Parasite’s mind at the reminder of that humiliation. The Pain. The realization of how people saw him as a laughing stock now. All on top of his failure to score an easy victory over Little Miss Perfect. He co*cked his head at her, and said very, very calmly, “Y’know, I don’t actually need your wings. Just your strength. So I’m gonna rip ‘em off first. Then your head.”

“Come and try,” smirked Hawkgirl.

Parasite knew she was trying to make him too angry to think, yet he was well past that level of utter fury and had passed right into deathly calm. He knew if he was going to win this after the change in the odds, he needed to strategize. Even with his latest dose from Wonder Woman, who despite bravado had been nearing pure exhaustion herself, he was starting to feel a bit winded. He needed to nab one of them to restore himself. Ordinarily he would target Batman as the most vulnerable, maybe take him hostage, except his enhanced sense of tactics told him it was too obvious.

Silently he rushed Green Lantern, who threw up a green wall he slammed into, cracking it badly. Gambling, Parasite used his powers on the construct, and was delighted to discover he could siphon energy off of it. He did not understand how to use it, but he was recharging!

Bullets of sweat breaking out on his brow, Green Lantern reformed the wall and growled as he thrust with all his Will, slamming Parasite down into the ground. Knowing the risk, he then reformed the construct so it was now like a vice, pinning the criminals arms to his sides, with his hands just out of reach of the glowing green.

“You think this can hold me!?” snarled Parasite as he strained to stand and break through his bonds, already beginning to push it open with his incredible strength.

“Just long enough!” a familiar and hated voice rang out.

A golden lasso fell around his arms, and pulled tight while a relieved Green Lantern dropped his creation. No longer being pushed down, Parasite accidentally sent himself leaping into the air, only to quickly yanked to the side by the magical rope as Wonder Woman began spinning him one-handed around in a circle. Faster and faster.

Obviously Parasite knew how this was going to end, and had to trust he could weather the impact well enough to get right back up again before they started throwing stuff at him. Unfortunately, unlike before, the darling princess was holding on as she kept twirling him about, building up for maximum impact, and he was starting to feel sick. So sick he failed to register the change to the plan.

Hawkgirl had flown away from her teammates, however it was only to make some distance before soaring back as fast as she could, building up as much momentum as possible. She timed the swing of her mace perfectly as it hit Parasite head on with all the strength she could muster. Her precious weapon was nearly torn from her hands, yet it did its job as with a massive BOOM his eyes bugged out and fell to the ground below.

Except not even that was enough as the super-villain painfully, stiffly, shrugged out of the now slack lasso, and half-stood. “You. Tink. Is. Over!?” Parasite rattled off at the shocked super-heroes. Half-drunkenly he stood up, but with fists raised and murder in his eyes. He only needed to grab one of them, and then he’d—

A sharp prick to his neck, and a shadow whispered from behind. “Pretty much.”

Whirling around he saw Batman stepping back, only for that sharp movement to send him off-balance as he fell and the world slipped away into darkness.

“What was that?” Wonder Woman asked, limping over to retrieve her lasso which had been torn out of her hand by the impact, and began tying the criminal up with it.

“A powerful tranquilizer,” he answered, holding up the oversized syringe. With a flick, it was gone from sight, and he helped her finish wrapping up Parasite. “Enough to put out several elephants. Or whales.”

She eyed him for a moment, before comprehension dawned. “My medical tests when we first came to the Watchtower. I was surprised the needles were actually able to draw blood from me. That any metal from Man’s World could.”

“Something impossible in ancient Greece,” he nodded. “Or Themyscira for that matter.”

“Well, good to know,” she smirked. “Now, what about your mission?”

The lenses of his cowl narrowed. “Less ideal.”

!JUSTICE!

Mars. Beautiful Mars.

Until J’onn J’onzz realized the true horror of it all.

The silence. The devastated cities as he turned around, and the sight of the Imperium ships flying away.

Leaving him.

Alone.

The last Martian left alive upon a dead world.

AloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAlone . . .

Wait! Earth! Yet when he looked up he could –Impossibly!— see the blue and green world he now lived in being consumed by fire as the alien conquerors reached there too. He failed! He never reached there to warn the Justice League –Except he had!— and they never stopped the Imperium!

(The Imperium burned!)

Alone with only him alive under this pitiless sun!

AloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAloneAlone . . .

Why was he left alive! Why only him!?!? The last of his people . . .

What was he supposed to do!?!?

(Be a Manhunter like his precious My'ria'h would want him to be.)

Where was there hope for someone as forsaken as him!?!?

(There was always hope!)

“ENOUGH!!” roared Martian Manhunter as he broke himself free of the hallucination, so that Mars faded away and he found himself back on Earth in the underground base, and a certain madman’s lab.

“No! Not you too!” gasped Scarecrow in horror as he saw the delicious terror in the alien’s eyes fall to righteous fury. “How! How do you do it!?”

Glaring, Martian Manhunter’s only response was a devastating right hook to knock the super-villain out in a single blow. He had to remind himself at the last moment to check his strength though—he was no longer a soldier in a genocidal war his people were losing.

He was a hero. Pledged to inspire others to be better.

Panting, he collected his thoughts after being exposed to the Fear Gas. Impressive really, how Scarecrow, like Aresia, had indeed made it work on aliens.

Reaching out to his surroundings with his telepathy, he realized that more time had passed than expected. Obviously a side effect of the hallucinogen. Which begged the question why he was unharmed.

Glancing down though, he saw a scythe lying beside Scarecrow. Possibly the man had been trying to kill him while incapacitated, except he had been unable too. Possible the Fear Toxin had made him instinctively phase-shift, making the weapon pass right through him. No matter.

“J’onn!”

Turning around, he saw Superman and Flash speed up to him, with Hawkgirl and Shining Knight right behind. “Are you alright?” asked the speedster.

“. . . Now I am,” was all he said. It could wait for later. “Unfortunately we have another problem.”

!JUSTICE!

A few minutes earlier

Freed from her shackles and shock collar, Aresia stood before Star Sapphire and Tsukuri, stretching out her arms before her as she stared at the six freed women. Five of them were her fellow Amazons, while the sixth with red hair was a stranger. With their help, she, Sapphire, and Tsukuri could succeed in their earlier plan to wipe out the Men of the world. “Sisters! We are free! Come, we must take our leave of this place.”

The Amazons only rubbed their wrists, still shaky from prolonged exposure to the drugs and their overall captivity. None of them would meet her eyes, until Alkyone, the Head Jailer was the one to straighten up and spear Aresia with look of pure contempt which chilled her spine.

“While we are grateful for our freedom, we are going nowhere with you!”

“But why!?” gasped Aresia. “Can’t you see now how the evils of Man’s World have grown!? Even Themyscira has been invaded twice this year! If women are to prosper, and this beloved planet is to be saved and thrive, we must take the fight to men while we still can!”

“No.”

“Why not!?” cried out Aresia, knowing she was sounding like a petulant child, yet even after her captivity she could not help but see these five women as part of her family. As her older sisters. For the Amazons had raised her after the murder of her mother and the rest of her family. They had even proven their love for her by making her an Amazon in body and spirit.

“You closed your ears to our reasons when you received your sentencing,” Alkyone viciously said, “because you did not wish to hear the truth of what you had done. Those very same crimes you committed are why we did not listen when you tried to whisper honeyed words from within your jail cell, trying to convince us to release you. Because you betrayed us all!”

“You taught me the evils of Man! I merely did what you wouldn’t!” she spat back. “What is wrong with killing them!?”

“And do you still have no comprehension of how many women and girls you killed at the same time!?” bit out her jailer. “Killed in tragic circ*mstances by a plague upon the land. That we did not teach you. That way is of Man’s World. Nor does your behaviour excuse taking our Queen Hippolyta hostage! The very woman who took you in when you washed up upon our shores!” she screamed the last bit, naked loathing in the Amazonian’s eyes.

Recoiling as if slapped, Aresia rallied herself. “I wouldn’t have harmed her! Not really!” she shouted, trying to make them see. “I’ve been telling you this whole time, she would have understood in the end when the Men were dead and the gods remade all our sisters into Amazons!”

“How can you be so ignorant of the gods!?” snarled Alkyone. “If nothing else, you never try to force their hands!”

Star Sapphire and Tsukuri exchanged glances at that, understanding now that eternal youth was not in the cards after all. Not that the truth made them back away from their leader. Well, not right now while freedom beckoned, and they retained some trump cards to play.

Ignoring that point, Aresia tried a different track, trying one last time. She knew seconds were precious if they were to escape either Diana or the Joker. She and the other liberated prisoners were in no shape for a fight, and no matter which side won, the women were outnumbered.

“Don’t you see how history is repeating itself!? Amazonians imprisoned by men jealous of their gifts and abused!? It will only get worse!” Raising her arms once more, she implored, “We need to fight back! Together!”

“No, Aresia,” Myrto softly said, finally meeting her gaze with a sad expression. “You’re talking of revenge, and hatred is not the Amazon way.”

Stunned in silence, Aresia could only gape for precious heartbeats, until she finally screamed, “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE TEACHING ME THIS WHOLE TIME!? MEN ARE EXACTLY DESERVING OF OUR HATE!!”

Now it was the Amazons shocked into speechlessness, and Aresia furiously turned away from them to the stranger who had yet to speak up. “My name is Aresia,” she gently said. “What’s your name?”

“Uhm, Giganta,” the redhead managed. “I, Grodd, he, and then,” tears began to build up, “Joker killed him, and—”

“Hush,” Aresia stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t you worry, it’s over now.” Stepping back, but keep her hands on the Giganta’s upper arms, “Do you want to come with us?”

The woman risked a look at the Amazons, then with hardening determination, nodded to Aresia. Her saviour. “I do.”

Without another word or concern for the Amazons, the four women —survivors of the modern age of Man’s World— hurried through the hole Batman had left in the wall.

“I’m guessing Joker had a bunch of secret exits,” said Aresia as they ran.

“You got it,” grinned Star Sapphire. “Once we’re out, I’ll fly us elsewhere!”

“Perfect,” purred the rogue Amazon.

“What about Joker?” asked Tsukuri.

“What about him?”

“He and Luthor have been studying your notes for a new allergen,” pointed out the swordswoman. “What if they make something like that themselves?”

“No worries there,” Aresia smugly assured them. “I concealed the magical component of it with a lot of bogus chemistry. What? What else do you think I needed those gems for before? Every jewel contains a trace of magic.”

!JUSTICE!

Moaning, Shade rolled over and painfully pushed himself up to his elbows. He had to get up and out of—

Someone slipped his sunglasses off.

Blinking, he turned around to find himself face-to-face with the scowling and bruised Joker, eyes wild with insanity.

Before Shade could speak, Joker’s knife slit across his jugular.

Leaving the dying man behind, the Clown Prince picked up the now ownerless Nightstick—the source of Shade’s powers.

Giving it a little spin, he skipped along at a surprisingly fast pace to where Luthor was awake and glaring. The bulk of his suit had been torn off, leaving him with only the containment unit he and Ultra-Humanite had devised to keep him healthy despite Kryptonite poisoning. “Just a sec,” Joker said, banishing the bloody knife.

Luthor had time to process what was happening and squeeze his eyes shut.

Only for nothing to happen.

Wait.

Flexing, he discovered the ropes which had tied him up were now slack, and he stood up to face his rescuer.

“Why?”

“I daresay we should run first,” pointed out Joker, jerking a thumb in the direction of where their jet was stored.

Without another word, Luthor complied. As they boarded however, he noted Joker pulling out a remote and punching in a key-code. Realizing the implications, fear added haste to Luthor as he punched in the emergency activation sequence he had installed earlier, and the jet took off like a rocket.

“Dare I ask?” he dryly remarked.

“Oh, just a little Open House Party gift.”

!JUSTICE!

The Justice League re-assembled where the Amazonian prisoners were still standing, seemingly lost—and not just because they were still recovering.

“Aresia?” demanded a glaring Wonder Woman.

“Gone, Your Highness,” grimaced Alkyone in shame. “Her companions freed us. It was not right for us to stop them.”

“Well, which way did they go!?”

Superman was already out the hole in the wall, looking around the immediate area with his x-ray vision, and saw nothing. Being experienced with people trying to escape him, he also looked down in case of tunnels. Which there were a few of, even if nobody was in them. Although—

The rumbling boom of a jet taking off coincided with him focusing on something in particular.

Blanching in horror, he zoomed back down to the others. “Bombs!” he barked.

“I can—” began Batman.

“No time!”

Flash had already disappeared the moment he heard the b-word, and Green Lantern made a green bubble to scoop up everyone but Superman and J’onn, who both tore down the prison wall to make it easier for him to do the evacuation. Speeding as fast as they could, the heroes met up with Flash who had already gathered all the criminals together in a convenient pile for Green Lantern to grab at once.

“More bombs by all the escape routes!” yelled Superman, racing at top speed at a blank wall away from the other bombs, fists raised in front of him to smash right through, his Martian friend right beside him.

None of them stopped running until they heard the massive explosion behind them as the whole mountain detonated. More ominous was the thick clouds of smoke roiling out of it.

“Joker Venom,” Batman darkly identified as Green Lantern lowered them all to the ground.

“Sorry,” the space cop apologized to Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl. “I wasn’t sure if you could keep up after all your fights earlier, and there was no time to ask.”

“Apology accepted,” Wonder Woman politely said, except her attention was on her Amazonian sisters. Once they had a minute, she was intending to have a serious discussion with them.

“I could’ve handled it,” blustered Hawkgirl. Before he could angrily snap back, she added, “But thanks.”

A little thrown off, he merely nodded.

“Where’s Luthor, Joker, and Mister Freeze!?” demanded Batman of Flash.

“Gone,” he helplessly shrugged back.

“I heard a jet taking off,” offered Superman. “I’ll go look, but I think they’re too far gone now.” He waited for Batman’s response, only for the Dark Knight to scowl in thought.

Finally, he concluded to the surprise of the rest, “We were played.”

!JUSTICE!

“Something wrong, Zoro?” asked Robin.

Grimacing, the man shook his head. “I felt a great disturbance. Like there was an awesome fight I could’ve been a part of, but it’s already over.”

Composing himself, he leaned back against his chair in the kitchen. “Eh, probably nothing. I’m just getting bored sitting around doing nothing. Aside from beating up that Shining Knight guy, I haven’t really been doing anything except rob and train. At this rate I’m going to get rusty.”

Sipping her coffee, Robin nodded in commiseration. “Well, I might have brought you something that’ll make you feel a little better.”

Organic and cybernetic eyes flicking over to her, he patiently waited for her to continue.

She passed over a folder for him to look at. “Something that Harley said the Joker was trying to find. Working with her and Karrde, I’m pretty sure we found it first. It’s a US government facility for abducted metas to be turned into loyal super-soldiers.”

“Hmph,” grunted the swordsman as he looked over the few pieces of paper inside. Besides the location of the base, there was not much available. Although it was clear they were using teenagers or even kids for this, and busting them out seemed like a nice way to beat the boredom. Who knows, maybe he would even get to do some fighting!

“Sure, sounds good. Franky’s getting restless again, working all the time on the portal, so I’ll drag him along. Maybe Jinbe too.”

“He’s a Fishman, and it’s a desert,” chided Robin.

“Exactly. He needs to see the beauty of the place. Especially a desert not full of vicious and cunning creatures. Random sand storms. Oh, and I can trust him to not keep eating hallucinogenic cacti.”

“. . . Alabasta?” she hazarded.

“Ugh. Vivi kept forgetting to warn us about what kind of horrors were in her homeland.”

Anyone else may have missed the barest flicker of darkness in her eyes, yet he was a Straw Hat. “I’m sure when we see her again, she’ll be happy to meet you for the first time,” Zoro said, doing his best to project his sincerity.

Surprise blossomed, before a warm smile returned. “Thank you,” she softly said.

Feeling it was getting too mushy, Zoro looked back at the file. “So why bring this to me first, instead of the group? And aren’t we supposed to be lying low?” With mixed success.

“Well~,” she hummed and grinned wider, and a foreboding tingle went up his spine, “I figured that the chance for violence and saving children would be something you’d appreciate. You know, as an early birthday present~?”

“Huh?” Then he remembered what was happening in three days. “Oh yeah, that,” he muttered, acting unconcerned, while she giggled back. They both knew Luffy would be throwing a huge bash for him.

“Hopefully there’ll be booze too at this secret base or whatever.”

Chapter 16: Injustice for All Part 6

Chapter Text

Somewhere in America

"So," Lex mildly said as he piloted the stolen, military stealth jet. "Mind telling me what this was really all about?"

"Oh, what tipped you off, Lexy?" Joker tried to croon through his ruined face.

"You got sloppy," was the simple retort. In truth however, it was only the madman's exit which made him put the clues together. Particularly how the whole base was set to self-destruct like that, and on such a short timer for that matter, along with a certain stick Joker was now carrying. Anger would not serve him here though, so he maintained his professional, cool demeanor of a successful billionaire.

"This was never simply about forming your own supervillain team, it was about stealing all their abilities for yourself," he calmly said, with a gesture at Shade's Nightstick. "You've got that now, and I'll bet you had surveillance in all the labs and workshops to learn as much as you could of their secrets. Once you had that, you'd lure the Straw Hats to the base with the threat the team posed, and blow us all up."

Scarecrow's Fear Toxin for one.

Mister Freeze's advanced cryogenics and cybernetics.

Deadshot had needed Joker's facilities to make a new pair of his custom built, highly specialized, and effective signature wrist guns.

Doubtless Joker had gotten off with samples of Parasite, and scans of him while feeding off the prisoners all those times.

In his place, Lex would be doing the same for Star Sapphire's ability, especially given how similar it was to Green Lantern's.

People dismissed Joker for having no powers? Hah! In some ways he hadbecomethe Injustice League!

"Ah Lexy, you're thinking too small," chided Joker. "Honestly, Plan A really was what I told you about. If I was really planning what you're accusing, why'd I save you?"

Luthor paused.

"Y'see, this really was my way of getting together the best of the best to do in the pirates and heroes, if not for Shade's utter stupidity ruining it for us all. If, however, Aresia refused to be . . . properly motivated, then what you're suggesting was one of several alternatives. Regardless, right then I needed to get out of there with the crooks I could grab who showed the most promise. Except of course that left only you."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," was the steely retort.He's got Aresia's notes as well, he knew.She was holding back, and there are enough discrepancies to make me wonder if magic was involved. Despite that, I'll bet there was still enough there for him to improve his Joker Venom. Plus samples from her and the other Amazons, and that Giganta. Maybe even Grodd's telepathic brain. Even if he only gets the chemical and technological stuff working for himself, he'll be much more of a threat.

There was a gun concealed under the dashboard which Lex was highly tempted to use. One shot to the head, and the threat Joker posed to the world —and one particularly brilliant billionaire— was no more. Less than an hour ago, he probably would have fired it already.

However . . .

"You want us to remain allies," he stated with a hint of incredulity.

"I need my revenge," rasped Joker. "And I will have it. OnMisterKuroashi, and my dearsweetHarleen, and all their new little friends." A whisper of a chuckle forced its way out of his throat and past his damaged lips.

Grimacing, Lex looked away. That gun was looking more and more tempting.

"Besides," Joker went on, "I'd say tonight was very informative.

Deigning a glance at the mad clown, "What're you talked about?"

"How did the Justice League win?"

". . . Blind luck thanks to Shade and the others foolishly exposing all of us.” Lex paused and became more thoughtful. “Flash being more aggressive than before. Recruiting a new member I wasn’t used to," he slowly teased out. "They changed the rules of the game."

"Exactly! Next question: why?"

"You can't possibly expect me to believe that it's because of the Straw Hats." Honestly, the obsessions of some people.

"Not directly, oh no. You'd know Stupidman better than I, and if he wasn't going to bend those rules over you, then he wouldn't for these newbies. No, no, no. It's because the pirates can't bedefinedby those so-calledrules. They're changing the game like ripples in a pond!"

The whole thing sounded utterly ridiculous to Lex. Oh, sure, there were some grains of truth to it. Possibly. But not enough to explain it all. However, it was not enough to risk violence with the clown, and he was morbidly curious enough to play along. "A chaos factor. I thought you liked that."

"Only when it'sfunny!" hissed Joker with poisonous hatred.

Only when you're the one doing it, mused Lex.

In a blink the clown composed himself. "Besides, what'd we really lose? Parasite and the rest will have a little free vacation in prison, and next time we'll be ready for them."

"We lost Aresia," scowled Lex. He had to admit she had . . . potential.

"Ah, Lexy~boy. Do you really think I didn't learn my lesson after a certain little minx ran away?" Joker fished out a small device, with a screen showing a moving red dot on a map. "I put a little microchip on her spine while she was asleep. Not as sweet as some things I have planned out to play with later, but good enough for now. I can find her or kill her as I please."

"Hmph, you'll have to deal with her on your own," decided Lex, choosing to not shoot the clown. A wildcard which continued to be aimed at the Straw Hats might be in his favour after all. Keeping both of them distracted and out of his business. Plus, he did have to admit Joker seemed to be handling things well enough.

"Heh, no worries," Joker said, eyes glowing with an inner madness —the type of madness that was truly single-minded in its obsession to the exclusion of anything else— and cheeks twitching in an attempt to smile. "Aresia will become my little Harley soon enough."

!JUSTICE!

Town near the Injustice League's former base

"No sign of them," growled Green Lantern, as he rejoined the rest of the Justice League. Coming up behind him and also disturbed, were Superman and Hawkgirl. Understandably, as Mister Freeze, Star Sapphire, and Tsukuri were in the wind, to say nothing of Joker, Luthor, and Aresia. It especially burned for Green Lantern and Superman though, blaming themselves for failing to properly secure Mister Freeze and Luthor respectively.

"We should call it quits for now," said Superman. Batman stiffened as if he was about to argue, only to be cut off. "We've been working non-stop without rest for almost twenty-four hours, and we've already done a lot these last few days. Luthor's a wanted criminal, a major band of villains have been arrested, learnt a lot more about the Straw Hats, and had our biggest fight since the Imperium. We need a break, and to take stock."

Silently Batman glanced at Green Lantern, who shook his head. "I sent the images of the Straw Hats to Oa, even the one of the new girl we got thanks to J'onn. Nothing. No records of them of any kind, nor any matches to their homeworld from the hints that they dropped."

"Just like with me," Hawkgirl said. Privately, a part of her wondered if the pirates' story was as much a lie as her own. Claiming she was an alien law enforcement officer from such a remote part of the galaxy, that neither Superman nor a Green Lantern could simply investigate where she was from and fly her home.

"At the very least we have a better idea of what their intentions are," pointed out Martian Manhunter. "Although I remain unsure of what exactly they are trying to accomplish in how to get home and become the 'pirate king.'"

"Some of what we know they stole could be used to make a spaceship or, in theory, a portal to another world," acknowledged Batman. "Except there are inconsistencies. Even if they stole unrelated items to sell or hide their intentions."

He left unsaid some additional information he had received only a few minutes ago, which he wanted to review himself before presenting it to the others. The street-level vigilante known only (so far) as the Question, was the one to originally tip them off that Volcana was at that mall, and just sent a more detailed report a little while ago. Although the very fact the man had known what number to dial to reach the Watchtower's supposedly discrete alert hotline, automatically made the man someone to investigate. Personally, he seemed a bit too tightly wound —which Batman was self-aware enough to admit was saying something— and there were various pieces of speculation in the report which sounded more like conspiracy theories. Despite this however, while Question had been unable to overhear everything during Luffy's fight with Parasite, he had memorized everything he was sure of, and one particular point caught his attention. Luffy had said, "Haven't fought someone I couldn't let touch me since crocodile."

From what Batman and League had already speculated, and Luffy had admitted to, the Straw Hats were more humanoid aliens. So why the reference to an Earth based animal? Or was it somebody whose name simply sounded like "Crocodile," and it was all a coincidence? Similar to 'Apokolips,' and several of the names found there? Plus far too many other questions, like what precisely he meant by "pirate king," "celestial dragon," and a few other odd points.

"Bats, like Supes said, give it a rest," cut in Flash, getting up in Batman's personal space with an easy-going grin. "Just for a few hours even. 'Sides, sun's rising in Central City soon, and I gotta get to work!"

A glare made the man back up. Nonetheless, while he remained as stiff as ever, the Dark Knight relented. "We'll debrief later," he said. "Go over the mission and what else we've learnt." Struggling for a moment, he added to Flash, "Good job with Joker." Then before the man got a swelled head, "Next time do better at securing him."

"And next time don't go in like a lone wolf like that!" Hawkgirl snapped. "Yeah, I said it. J'onn would've done better for the infiltration, or could've gone along with you!"

Stepping in between them, Superman firmly yet gently said, "We can discuss this later." With a huff, Hawkgirl nodded, while Batman remained silent. Privately, Superman agreed with her, but also knew his friend had intended to prove his worth, despite lacking powers. Nonetheless, this needed to be handled diplomatically, encouraging Bruce on how valued he was, without being accused of being patronizing. Thankfully, he knew Alfred would be of help.

While Superman was thinking this, Batman already knew the Boy Scout would be dropping by later to try and reassure him everything was alright. Well too bad. While everyone else was relaxing, and Superman was bugging him, he would be doing what needed to be done. Responsibilities like checking in with Batgirl and Robin on how the ongoing gang wars in Gotham were going; figuring out where he could help with said gang wars in just a few hours before getting some sleep; check in on how Mary Dahl's treatments at Wayne Enterprises were going; start planning how he was going to track Freeze and Joker, especially Joker, when they inevitably returned home to his city; compile a list of locations where Aresia could find more of the exotic ingredients she used last time, while cross-referencing for recent similar robberies; and two dozen similarly vital tasks.

Sleep was overrated anyways.

"Hey, yeah, mistakes were made," said Flash. "What matters is nobody died, we're all going to learn from this, and we did our jobs as heroes. Nobody's perfect, but despite some bumps we still did pretty well as team here, and we'll do better next time, right?"

"Right," Wonder Woman firmly said.

"Indeed," agreed Shining Knight, with Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter also affirming.

With a huff, Hawkgirl nodded with a grimace. "Sorry," she said. "Just frustrated over Aresia."

"We'll find her," Batman replied, and everyone knew the "we" and the implicit reference to acting as a team, was the closest they would get to an apology in turn. While it irritated her, she accepted it. So long as he went on to admit his mistakes at the debriefing later.

"Well, now that that's settled with," and everyone glanced a little nervously at the cold fury in Wonder Woman's voice, "Hawkgirl and I have other business to attend to."

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Base

"Hey, Usopp, you got a minute?"

The sniper in question glanced up from a slingshot explosive he was tinkering with, to see Volcana sauntering over. "Sure. What's up?"

"Well, it's something else from what Superman said."

"Uh huh?"

She paused as she thought over her words. "He was right about one thing," she slowly said watching him closely, "about how we've been changing since we've met you people."

To her surprise, it was his very lack of reaction which was so telling. "You know!"

With a deep, put-upon sigh, Usopp nodded and glanced away for a moment. "I wasn't always a brave warrior of the sea. To be honest, I was a complete coward and liar. But then I met Luffy." He started fiddling with the highly-volatile explosive as he continued. "The thing is, the people he cares about, he believes in them so much, you find yourself doing whatever you can to do better and live up to those expectations. Changing yourself, so you can prove to him he was right. Except, at the same time, youdon'treally change. It's like he can see the real you deep underneath everything life's thrown at you, the part of you which's almost like your inner child still, with great Dreams you want, youneed, to accomplish. That's the part you have to bring up, and with him having such faith in you, it almost seems easy."

Now looking at her head-on, he finished, "And youknowhe believes in you. That you'll achieve your Dream."

A shiver went up and down Volcana's spine, and she licked her lips. "What did you have to go through before you realized this?"

"Uhhh," now he looked awkward as he scratched his head. "Well, not until, well, these guys were going to kill me . . . . Ahhh, you see . . . we kind of picked a fight . . . oh no, they picked a fight with us. Anyways, there were a lot more than me and stronger . . . . And usually I'd run, because why fight a losing battle . . ." he trailed off again, until coldly saying, "But then they insulted Luffy's Dream." The look in his eyes made a shiver run down her spine. He seemed to be living that moment when those fools dared insult his Captain's Dream. After a pause, he continued casually, as if his face had not been a rictus of fury a second ago, "And I couldn't let it stand. Didn't really sink in until after . . . I made a big mistake." She hesitated, caught between being curious, and respecting how this was obviously a very sore subject for him.

"I . . . left my nakama for a while. Let my emotions blind me . . . and it nearly cost me everything."

"I see," they pyrokinetic softly said, even as she wondered just how much went unsaid there. "Thanks for sharing."

"Don't mention it. No seriously, don't."

"Of course."

Again though, with the mention of Luffy's Dream.

She remembered the sparkle in Luffy's eyes when he announced,"That's right! I'm going to find the One Piece and become the Pirate King!"Those words had impacted everyone around them, making him swell with something she could not describe.

"What about Luffy? I know you guys don't want to talk much about your own world, it's just that, what exactly does he mean by being the Pirate King? Why does he want to be the Pirate King? No, before that, what does it mean to be the Pirate King?" She thought that maybe Superman's idea about a language issue was the likely explanation.

She didn't wait for an answer as she continued. "How does being the King of Pirates mean being free? Why are people fighting a war over it to the point you're afraid to bring us back with you?" For all that she had said nothing when it was brought up at the mall, she had been as confused as Maureen and Superman when Luffy mentioned that. Alright, maybe her silence had been from said confusion.

"It's a long story . . . . Okay, so there's this huge treasure called The One Piece, no one even knows how huge is it, and there are myths and legends about it, but the only thing we really know is that it's real, and was hidden away by the first and only Pirate King, Gold Roger."

"So it's a treasure and title if you find it?"

"It isn't exactly about the treasure, only finding it. Maybe. Y'see, hardly anybody left really knows. There was this person that knew a lot, and I mean a lot, 'cause he was the one of the ones who hid the treasure . . . and when I asked him for information, even to see if it was really real . . . well, Luffy was furious with me . . . . Like really angry," he said lamely. "Only other time I'd seen him that angry was when some of us were really hurt. For others, it's about the wealth and fame, while for him, it's about the journey, I think."

She shook her head in frustration. She did not really understand. Maybe because they were from another world, with different values and—? No, that was not it. Nami was at least normal, she could understand her obsession over money, and . . . it was probable the Straw Hats really were as crazy as the rest of the crooks here. Or possibly Volcana was the crazy one really, trying to understand the walking paradox called 'Luffy.'

She shouldn't have asked.

Nor did it change her decision to stay.

Blatantly changing the subject, Usopp said, "Where's Maureen?"

"Getting some sleep still. It was a pretty long and hectic day yesterday."

"Hah! Sure sounded like it!"

"You're not upset?" Volcana asked with some confusion. "I thought we were trying to lay low? Instead we've had a bunch of incidents with heroes in the last few weeks."

"Oh, yes. In practice though, despite how Nami acts, we weren't really getting our hopes up too much. It was only a matter of time." He sighed in resignation, "With this bunch, nothing ever goes as planned, and Luffy's a walking chaos magnet. If anything, it's a good thing we've got stuff to keep us, though mainly him and Zoro, occupied a little. Especially since nothing's been traced back to our hideout."

"Ah, I see." A part of her recognized she would have been more concerned about such a flippant attitude when she first joined up. Then she remembered something. "By the way, do you know where Harley and Ivy went? I haven't seen them since training."

"Oh, they had a job they were talking to Robin about earlier."

!JUSTICE!

Metropolis

It was nighttime when Mercy Graves, newly instated CEO of LexCorp, steeled herself and sat down for the first time behind the desk in her expansive new office.

She was confident that given enough time she would stop thinking of it as Mr. Luthor's.

All those years of loyal service to him, showing her gratitude for him taking her off the streets by doing all those dirty jobs, had finally paid off in spades. Out of all the people in the world, when all his dreams collapsed and he was sent to prison, it wasMercyhe had left in charge of his precious company. His way of saying "thank you," and showing how deep down he really did care about her.

As the only other person aware of some of Luthor's emergency passcodes, as another display of trust and probably preparation for this day, it had been easy for her to put into place new passwords. With complete control over the computer systems, she could now do whatever she wanted. But where to start? How was she going to run this company? Well, she would definitely start with getting rid of all those projects to kill Superman.

"Well, well, somebody's moved up in the world, eh?"

Mercy flinched in surprise, especially when she realized she knew and hated the owner of that overly-chirpy voice.

Snapping upright she vaulted over the front of the desk for more room. Facing the now-open balcony doors, she raised her fists for her rematch against Joker's pet, only to pause at the sight before her eyes.

Harley Quinn had gone from jester to pirate.

A loose white shirt which displayed a generous amount of her cleavage, with a type of corset right under her breasts. The corset had wide black and red vertical bars, and two horizontal belts, which made it as ridiculous as it was eye-catching, even ignoring how her belly was totally exposed. The loose sleeves ended at her elbows, although she had a tough looking red glove on her right arm, and black on her left, both reaching mid-forearm. Her skirt was short and also provocative, split so it red on the right again, and black on the left. Leggings with vertical black and red lines on the right, while black and white on the left, ending in short leather boots with (guess which colours) red and black accents.

Her typical face make-up and mask were there, with blonde ponytails up and visible even under a red bandana with a classical white, skull and crossbones on it.

Drawn and resting horizontally across her shoulders, with both hands on the overly long handle, was a hammer. Instead of her typical, oversized gag hammer, which she was admittedly skilled with, the head was an actual war hammer. About twice the size of a sledgehammer, and sleek as one end was shaped more like a cone, it was perfectly functional and dangerous. On her hip was a gun-belt, except it resembled a stereotypical cowboy one. The gun was larger than normal, dark-green and with a texture which seemed more like wood than metal, while the ammunition loops held bullets about as long as her finger; overall it reminded her more of a flare-gun.

Yet through it all, it was the knowing smirk on the ditzy clow—pirate'sface which made Mercy sweat.

Even worse was the sight of Poison Ivy in her traditional outfit, hand resting on one hip, and a cool grin. Given her presence and law enforcement reports Luthor had received, and that new outfit . . .

"Let me guess," sneered Mercy, while shamefully hoping Superman showed up. "Your little pirate friends want LexCorp now that Luthor's out of the picture. Bet you volunteered for another crack at me!" The last time they had fought during Luthor and Joker's doomed alliance, would have ended in a draw if Mercy had not heard Harley collapse afterwards. Plus, she had spent the time since then honing her skills. Unfortunately, she was unarmed, and there were two of them.

"Ooooh! Notta bad guess, Mercy," Harley cheerfully said, skipping into the room from the balcony, with Ivy sauntering behind. "Sorry though, you're wrong. I mean, sure, they wouldn't mind it, but too high-profile. So I convinced them to settle for denyin' your company to Baldy. He's been a bad boy, makin' friends he shouldn't."

"You mean Joker. How's he doing?" baited the former lowly chauffeur, only to grow worried at the reactions. The mixture of anger, fear, sadness, and who knows what else from the blonde proved she was insane as ever. While the flash in Ivy's eyes promised violence.

If Mercy survived this, the first thing she was doing was hiring better security. Luthor had had her as a bodyguard, so she should have one too. Scratch that, given how many times she had been hospitalized, and that this was her first day officially as CEO, she was getting a wholeteam.

A lock and alarm on the balcony door would be a worthwhile investments too.

"Yes," hissed out Ivy. "Still, we'll settle for making sure him and Luthor don't get his company back."

Frowning, Mercy demanded, "What're you talking about? It's my company now! He gave it to me!"

"Ah, Mercy~, Mercy~, Mercy~," crooned a new recovered Harley. "He didn't give it to you tokeep, he gave it to you because when he comes back, he's expecting you to return it to him."

Mercy's heart froze. "No. No. He wouldn't! He—I mean, he—!"

Hewould.

"He'll probably even expect you to thank him for it," Harley warmly continues, twisting the proverbial knife. "Thank him for taking back the burden that 'is poor little chauffeur was woefully unprepared for."

Thatsnapped the CEO out of it. "What do you know!? I can so run this company! And better than he can! Dragging us out of the hole he dug us into with all those twisted schemes of his!"

Blood roaring in her ears, she paused at shock at her own words, having voiced aloud something she had barely even daredthinkbefore.

"Glad to hear it," Harley continued to grin. "World needs more strong ladies in power."

"Like you'd know anything about that!" hissed Mercy, her growing hate making her rash. "Luthor actually said how Joker lived up to his name with you. He took a young and genius woman psychologist, right out of school getting some of the most prominent placements, and made her into a walking joke for the world to laugh and crack about!"

Poison Ivy started to stalk forward, only for a blank faced Harley to stop her with a raised hand; that lack of expression was actually more unnerving for Mercy. Slowly, yet with growing confidence, the new pirate managed to get out, "I . . . deluded myself into seein' him as a tortured soul, cryin' out for love and acceptance. A lost, injured child tryin' to make the world laugh at his antics, with Batman determined to make life miserable for an innocent angel."

"Wow," deadpanned Mercy. "You reallyareinsane. Who knew?"

"Oh, I know," Harley bitterly smiled. "It's only been a recent breakthrough to reach that point. Like, really recent. Sometimes I still wake up thinking he's not a homicidal madman who'd kill me for fun. Ivy has to restrain me those mornin's."

Suddenly she was all sunshine and murderous rainbow unicorns again. "'Cept then a real charmer told me I really was gettin' stronger, so I started thinkin' of other ways to do more. And then I got the idea of helpin' other people like me!"

"What?"

"Y'know, stuck in abusive relationships. Like you are."

"I—I'm not!" sputtered Mercy.

"Ohplease, honey. Anybody can see he treats you like his dog."

Blood drained from her face as she recalled telling Superman how she was Luthor's 'dog' during that time they teamed up when Brainiac had abducted her boss. Former boss. How could Superman have told this psycho about that!?

Belatedly common sense kicked in as she realized it was only a coincidence, and that it had distracted her long enough to miss the tentacle-vines coming up behind her. "Whaa—! Let me go!" she screamed as the plants tied up her arms and legs, hoisting her up in the air.

"Relax," Harley soothingly said, adjusting her hammer onto her back. "We're just goin' to have a nice little sit down, while we talk about stuff like your feelin's. Includin' takin' back your control from a guy even though he's all strong and confident, and you think you owe him everything despite how he treats you."

She leaned in so her face and grinning smile were all Mercy could she, the very picture of cheerful innocence, and sang out, "Don't worry, Dr. Harley will make you feelallbetter~!"

!JUSTICE!

Unknown Location

Strapped to a metal chair, the man could feel sweat running down his face and eyepatch.

He had been a handsome man once, with even the eyepatch giving him a roguish look, however now it had been robbed from him by both terror and burn scars. All he could do was stare at the dark wall before him, while a hot light shone down on him from overheard.

"Well, Kurt," a voice suddenly spoke from behind, making him shake in his restraints. "It seems your failure and treason are now complete."

Walking around him, was a short, plump, and plain looking African-American woman. Her choice of dress was bland, and her short haircut gave her an unattractive if professional air. Her eyes were devoid of any compassion.

They knew each other from when they had both been running different metahuman projects for the government. Over the years, there had many such organizations, programs, and research divisions in play, acting under orders from the President, senators, generals, 'special interest groups,' and other such parties. Honestly, it had gotten to the point they were working cross-purpose with each other, with nobody truly knowing what was going on; the right hand ignorant of the left.

However, in the time after his group had gone rogue when funding had been cut, Kurt knew the rest had all been ruthlessly unified under one roof. Even while on the run after Superman ruined everything, he had heard rumours of the forceful retirements, demotions, and outright murder, as well as whispers of the woman who had risen to the top of the rubble.

Amanda Waller.

It figured. The woman was cold, devoid of any sense of mercy, and now with the sole exception of the Oval Office, her authority in matters regarding metahumans was absolute. Although as much as he quietly loathed her holier-than-thou attitude, he acknowledged her patriotism and loyalty was sincere.

"First," Waller continued, "you let Project: Firestorm get away. Then when you lost your funding, you got it illegally, lying to your superiors. When you found Volcana, you planned to sell her to a rogue government, one at odds with the USA, and in the process alerted Superman to the possibility of such secret projects. In the ensuing battle between you, Superman, and your escaped prisoner, they destroyed any samples or records you had of her, so we don't even have that available."

He said nothing, trying to ignore the beads of sweat running down his forehead. While no government agency was appreciative of treason, she was particularly unforgiving. For that matter, she did not look favourably upon what she perceived as incompetency, even if you actually were loyal. The only thing that could save him was if—

"And now we've just gotten confirmation that she's joined up with the Straw Hat Pirates. Criminals who are causing millions in damage, including a massive crisis in Gotham, who would be labeled as terrorists if not for their apparent lack of political agenda, and who continue to highlight our government's failure to locate and apprehend such people! Even better, according to our new reports, she's gotten stronger than before, when in the past she was already tough enough to put up a fight for the likes of Superman and Supergirl!" She leaned in. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Kurt could only try and swallow with a dry throat. Even before Waller's agents found him, he had seen the news reports of the strange new gang who had even the Justice League, who hadSuperman, concerned. A gang which now includedherof all people.

He tried to speak, yet nothing came out until he slumped over in defeat. There was nothing more he could give.

His single eye closed, he never saw that signal, and barely had time to register the large, rough hands grabbing his head from behind where he had sworn nobody was, just as his neck snapped.

!JUSTICE!

Themyscira

The island nation of Themyscira was in turmoil as its warrior woman rushed around in a frenzy with drawn blades. This was a state they had found themselves in more times in the last few months than the last few centuries.

Like last time though, the cause was internal, and caused by Aresia. The relief guards had arrived at the isolated prison, only to find her missing, along with the sisters watching over her. Their weapons and armour dumped behind. As near as the Amazons could tell, they had disappeared days ago, with no sign of them on land.

"My Queen, are you sure of this?" asked Antiope.

"I am," Queen Hippolyta firmly said, readying her personal pegasus. "Man's World and the Justice League must be warned of Aresia's escape. As she is our responsibility, I and your squad will be part of the hunt for her."

"And what will you do when you find her?" Antiope pressed with as much respect as she could manage.

Hippolyta's hands paused over the riding harness. She was saved from answering by a distinct and unfamiliar sound roaring through the air. Philipus ran over, "Your Majesty, something is flying towards the island!"

Hurrying to a higher vantage point, Hippolyta recognized it as a Justice League 'Javelin,' coming at an approach that made it more visible. As one, the Amazons knew that one way or another, things were about to come to a head regarding Aresia.

The aircraft did not choose to land on any of the flat open spaces in the city like before, instead choosing to land at the beach in shallow water. While some of her sisters murmured their curiosity at the odd choice, with a sinking heart Queen Hippolyta knew the reason all too well.

The ramp lowered, and bless the Gods, Alkyone and the others filed down it. They were wearing what looked like snug men's trousers, and shirts of some kind, similar enough in design to what those airbase female soldiers had worn. What was surprising was how none of Hippolyta's sisters would look at her, turning their faces away in shame. While they appeared uninjured, there was a tiredness and gauntness to their faces which told that their trials had been harsh indeed.

Concern rising, she opened her mouth to demand what had happened, when someone else appeared at the entrance. It took Hippolyta a shameful heartbeat to recognize her, and her blood ran cold.

Someone had tried very hard to kill her beautiful, fierce, and strong daughter. Her Sun and Stars.

Almost every scrap of visible skin was mottled with purple or yellow bruises. The rest was covered with wraps and bandages of Man's World, some of it even visibly going under her armour. Her right arm was in a sling, and between the way she held herself, and some of the items on both sides, it was clear several ribs had been at least fractured. The covering on her nose meant it had been broken, with her face swollen and swathed with even more wraps. Despite this, the one eye not swollen shut, filled with a burning spirit they all knew so well, hailed her as Princess Diana of the Amazons.

The queen's breath caught in her throat as she met the gaze which seemed to pierce straight through her, only for Diana to look away. For a moment she quailed at the dismissal, only to realize it was to look at the others, and she understood what was happening. Finding her voice, Hippolyta assured, "The invaders hurt no one else."

Relief flickered in Diana's eyes for a moment, and knowing her people were safe lifted the slightest tension from her shoulders.

Oh, Hera, what a Queen she would have made!

The thought also reminded her of another duty she had to address, particularly as she heard some murmuring and shuffling from behind her, as the warriors remembered a cruel truth. Visibly looking down at the bottom of the ramp which remained in the water, Hippolyta said in a voice she knew would carry to the rest of the Amazons, "The Gods decreed you were to never again set foot upon Themyscira. I pray they will respect this technicality."

Even if she had been banished for bringing men to Themyscira in order to save the inhabitants, and prevent Hades himself from escaping his imprisonment from Tartarus.

"I'll take my chances," Diana bit out. Her expression softened momentarily. "It is good to see you, mother." Before Hippolyta could voice her own relief, the visible face hardened, "Now please explain what happened here."

Fortunately Hippolyta was used to such defiance from her daughter. "We discovered hours ago that Aresia and her guards were missing. From what signs we could find, we knew it was days ago, and they were gone from the island. I was about to set out to warn you, and help find them myself."

"Alkyone warned us they might not know," said Hawkgirl as she stepped forward beside Diana. Well, at least she was not trying to sneak into Themyscira like last time, even if it had been to uncover the possibility of a rogue Amazon. Given the current circ*mstances revolving around a confirmed rogue, the irony would be almost amusing in different circ*mstances.

"Daughter, the men who invaded our island, and Aresia, what happened to them?"

"One escaped, two are in prison along with others, and Aresia escaped as well."

"Those two men should be brought here to face judgment!" demanded Artemis, only for Hippolyta to raise a hand.

Her attempt at diplomacy failed miserably as Diana hissed, "The Amazons are in no position to make such demands, not after we've dishonoured ourselves! Our Queen swore upon the Gods that Aresia would remain imprisoned for the rest of her immortal life, or until she repented what she had committed!

"Except bare weeks after that promise, the most dangerous woman in the world is free! In mere hours, Aresia killed thousands upon thousands of people! More than the entire Amazonian population. What reason does Man's World have to trust us now!? Trust the Justice League!?"

"Or trust you," Hippolyta said, doing nothing to hide the pain in her voice. She took the briefest breath to settle herself, confident only the sharp-eyed heroes would notice, and said, "Then as we lend our aid in finding Aresia—"

"No."

That single word snaps like a whip, and far beyond how her Sun and Stars had ever before addressed her mother and sovereign.

"The rest of the Amazons will stay away from her," Diana thundered on. "They,we, havehurther,failedher, and done nothing more than continue to do everythingwrongwith her!"

"Hurt her!?" cried one sister. "We raised her!"

"Yeah," Hawkgirl derisively said. "Raised her to hate men, and when she acted upon that, she was slapped down for it." Shock at the sheer audacity of the winged woman silenced the Amazons, letting her get out, "Queen Hippolyta, have you told the others yet about the ship's captain? The man who saved Aresia's life when they both washed ashore on Themyscira, at the cost of his own life?"

Ripples of shock echoed through the crowd, and ashamed, Hippolyta bowed her head. "No. No, I have not. I was ashamed of my actions, and put it off. Trying to find the right moment, when things had . . . settled."

Because she knew that her own failures aside, trying to make her people acknowledge a man's heroism would be forcing her people to confront a contradiction in their civilization's way of life. A contradiction she was guiltily aware she had been hiding from, and for some time now. If she succeeded in making her people accept the possibility they were wrong, at least in accepting that notallmen were bad (she knew many of them already struggled to accept how male heroes had helped defeat both Faust and Hades), it would pitch their civilization into its first major period of discord in centuries. An inevitable upheaval which Hippolyta was unsure she should cause when Aresia's crimes still lay heavily on their minds . . . or if it was actually the best time to do so.

Well, too late now. Pandora's Box was open once more.

Snapping her gaze up to Diana, she forcefully said, "Yet you bare none of the guilt, Diana. You grew up here as a child alongside her."

"I grew up amongst all the lies, and didn't care to notice them," was the harsh answer.

"'Lies'!?" cried Orana. "Princess, what have these," she gritted her teeth, before spitting, "peoplebeen pouring into your ears!?"

"And what, Orana, do you know about them?" demanded Diana.

"They'remen, and they—!"

"When was the last time you met a man!?" snapped Diana. "When was the last time any of you met any men!? The answer is Faust, who deserved his fate, while it was four others who came to save us all! There are evil men, that is true, but there are more good ones. You can't judge them all by a rotten few. Superman and J'onn may be aliens, but Flash and Batman are just as much men as any other! Those are the men you should consider given how it has been thousands of years since you saw any! This world has changed, while none of you have!"

The crowd was shifting as some of those warriors began to back up as their beloved princess and fiercest warrior raged at them.

"Then Aresia washes up on our shores as a child, having lost everyone she loved and suffering, and what do we do!? Whisper words of hatred towards men in her ears, while telling her the Amazons stand forpeace and love!So instead of healing her, we gave her pain a target for her to lash out at, and now she's personally responsible for more deaths than any mortal alive! Do you even understand how manywomenshe killed while lashing out!? Don't you understand that instead of saving her, you've placed adeath sentenceupon her!?"

Silence rang.

After over a minute of stunned silence, waiting to hear if any of the others would speak up, Hippolyta knew . . . no. No, she did not know what she was to do. All she could manage was, "We hear you Diana,Ihear you. I'm just not sure yet what to do."

Openly now she sucked in a deep breath, and attempted a less controversial topic. "For now, would you indulge your mother and tell me who injured you?"

Emotions warred over what was visible of the princess' face, before relenting. "His name was Parasite, one of the three who invaded here. He stole the strength and skills of Alkyone and the rest for himself."

"Hera," whispered Hippolyta. "Was he then as strong asfiveAmazonians together?"

"Darn right," smirked Hawkgirl. "Still didn't do him any good."

"Incredible," gasped Antiope. "And you did it all on your own?"

Gingerly shaking her head, Diana said, "No. I fought him to a standstill for a while, but he was overpowering me just as my friends arrived. Mymalefriends, and Hawkgirl here."

"What?" teased Hawkgirl. "I'm not a friend?"

"Of course you are," smirked Diana back. Becoming more serious, she looked back at the Amazons. "Alkyone has my and Hawkgirl's reports on what happened. They may be missing some details, yet the main stuff's there." Dutifully, the woman held up a bundle of papers, still not meeting her queen's eyes.

"From what you've mentioned, Aresia's definitely escaped then?"

"Yes. Along with her old crew, and a new recruit we don't know much about."

Sighing, Hippolyta had to ask, for appearances if nothing else, "Is there any chance of Aresia being returned to our custody?"

"Sorry," and Hawkgirl's mouth quirked, "Themyscira has no extradition treaties with the other countries." While the term was new, the meaning was quite clear.

Truly this conversation was becoming the most emotional and simultaneously draining Hippolyta could recall. Moreover, she knew with a touch of dread it was certainly not over.

Marshalling herself, Hippolyta simply asked, "What happens now?"

"Good question," said Hawkgirl, stepping forward of Diana. "For better or for worse, Themyscira is part of the rest of the world again. And before any of you start pointing blame, Faust found you all on his own, and if it weren't for Diana leaving, she'd still be a statue like you lot."

"If she were fortunate," Hippolyta grimly agreed. Hades would have either been particularly pitiless and sad*stic in torturing her daughter. Or arguably worse, he would have sought to corrupt her.

"Agreed," continued Hawkgirl. "Except since then, an Amazon made a major terrorist attack against the world, but was allowed to be put into Amazonian custody as opposed to being tried before the world courts, due to certain promises made. Promises which have now been broken. What are you going to do about it?"

Having ruled as an absolute monarch for millennia, Hippolyta had to squash down embers of rage at that presumptuous attitude from someone not her daughter. Moreover, while she heard angry rumbles from her sisters, she could also hear the shame in the more clear-headed ones. Because unfortunately, it was the truth being aired. Given Hawkgirl's interactions with the Amazons last time, and how this threat had reared its head again, her insulting manner was even understandable. Somewhat. Nonetheless, there were expectations to uphold. "I suppose you have some recommendations?" she tested.

"No, that's your job as Queen, mother," Diana firmly said. "But whatever happens, the world knows about us now. Regardless of our feelings, we cannot stay isolated any longer. Not without killing every man who washes ashore, and that will end in our ruin."

For a terrible moment, Hippolyta feared what role her daughter would play in that "ruin."

"Darn right," said her teammate.

"Very well, then as Queen of the Amazons, I name Princess Diana as our official representative to Man's World."

This at least surprised her daughter, whose jaw dropped even. Hawkgirl blinked, before turning to lightly pat her on the shoulder. "Congratulations, ambassador."

"I," Diana stopped herself to rearrange her thoughts. "If that is your will, mother."

"It is," smiled Hippolyta. "In truth, it is something I'd been considering since we last met. I'm not sure if we're ready yet for an 'ambassador' from Man's World in turn, or what else we will have to do, but this seems like the proper first step."

"You might start getting used to accepting it's not justMan'sWorld out there," Hawkgirl bluntly said, only for Diana to lightly elbow the other woman.

"I will think of ideas for others coming here, mother. Do you have any other requests?"

"That depends. What is the current plan for tracking down Aresia?"

The heroes exchanged a glance. "Nothing specific yet," admitted Diana. "The League's going to reconvene on the Watchtower in a few hours, and in the meantime, we're waiting to hear back from government officials."

"In that case, for now, extend our humblest apologies, and update me as you can."

"Understood," Diana bowed her head, "Your Majesty."

It hurt Hippolyta more than she anticipated, to hear such formal words.

Putting it aside for future meditation —along with everythingelseabout this conversation— she turned back to the rest of her subjects. "There's no need for us to all stand around and stare," she gently ordered. "And Alkyone and the rest need to get to the healers."

With a jerk, her sisters got moving. From the looks in their eyes, Hippolyta was pleased to see they remained in the grips of lingering shock. Good. Hopefully many of them would be doing some deep introspection tonight. Maybe not as many as she wished, but it was a good start.

"Your majesty," someone interjected, and Hippolyta saw it was Alkyone. "May I have a word in private? About your daughter?"

With a gesture, the others gave space around them, and Alkyone leaned in to whisper in her ear.

Frowning, Hippolyta nodded. Looking back at the flying craft, "Diana, I need to talk to you alone. About something other than the Amazons, or Aresia."

Her visible eyebrow furrowing in concern, Diana nodded. Hawkgirl left the ramp to give them space, and mother and daughter went inside their transport. The alien was planning to entertain herself by telling the remaining Amazons the story of how Parasite got kicked in the balls.

After closing the door, Diana turned to silently wait.

"Alkyone tells me," Hippolyta said without preamble, "that you mentioned invoking the blessing of Hera to give you strength in battle with this Parasite."

"Yes, mother. I know you warned me about doing it, except there's been no trouble so far. I started it with the Imperium when the League first came together, and—"

"Diana! I failed you in properly explaining it before, so I will try and do better now. The Gods are well deserving of our worship, especially given this paradise they have provided us.However, bringing their attention to mortal affairs isnotsomething you should invite upon yourself! You already tread a dangerous and chaotic path, and further intervention and interest by the Gods may not go as you hope."

Seeing the look in her mother's eyes, Diana remembered how her mother had once dated Hades of all people —a thought she generally repressed for all manner of reasons!

"I understand. I won't do it again if possible," she softly promised.

"That relieves me more than you can know."

!JUSTICE!

Watchtower

"So, first order of business," declared Superman as the members of the Justice League sat down at the table. "A certain bet, I believe? About why certain pirates are staying out of Gotham?" he smirked knowingly. Chuckles and groans circled the table, while Batman glared daggers at the unrepentant alien. In a red blur, Flash deposited a gift card before him. "Thanks."

"No problem. Worth it though to hear how Luffy thinks Batman's a peeping-tom pervert!" guffawed Flash.

"Of course," Batman silkily said. "Idohave to spy on people."

Flash's laughter was nervously cut off at the quiet threat, and killed everyone else's sense of humour, Batman let it drop with a subtle air of smug satisfaction. Still got it. Alright, maybe Kent was right that he did not have anything to prove.

Cutting off any further discussion, he addressed Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl. "Government officials and the United Nations want to keep news of Aresia's escape quiet. They are concerned about a mass panic, and are hoping to find her before she does anything."

Frowning, Wonder Woman still nodded. "Personally, I don't agree with such a position, but I admit it'll make it easier for me as Ambassador of the Amazons."

"Wait, Ambassador?"

"Didn't I mention—?" she began, only for the others to break out into applause. Even Batman politely clapped, even if he was already planning on lecturing her about keeping that job separate from being a Leaguer.

"Congratulations!"

"No one better!"

"Yes, you'll do very well."

"It's about time!"

Embarrassed, she waved a hand to settle them down. Coughing into her fist, she got them back on track by asking, "So I presume we'll have full government support for our efforts in locating her?"

Still happy for his friend despite the grim topic, J'onn nodded, "Of course."

"It's a gamble," commented Green Lantern. "If she does something before we find her, and it gets out we didn't warn anybody, we'll lose a lot of faith."

"You're worried about public image?" snapped Hawkgirl.

"Public perception of what we do is what makes it possible for us to be more than vigilantes," he angrily retorted. "And in this case, they'll say she could've been found if more people were looking for her, and worse they might be right!"

"We've got some time," soothed Flash. "She's on the run, without a lab, and we've got some pretty smart people in this room. She's as good as caught."

No one was interested in addressing the issue of what would happen after they caught her.

"Agreed," said Superman. "And regardless, this request was made by the government, and we remain accountable to them."

"Precisely," grunted Green Lantern. J'onn, Diana, Hawkgirl, and Flash gave their own gestures of ascent, while Batman remained silent.

"I've started to go through our records on the previous allergen Aresia released," said J'onn. "As well as our copies of the books she studied in Themyscira. Unfortunately, we have to assume she is working to create something brand new. Something to overcome any vaccines or other preventatives either we or Dr. Chopper devise."

"According to what the people we arrested are saying, that's precisely what Joker had her working on," warned Green Lantern.

"Yes. But it should not be easy even for her, and will hopefully buy us some more time.

They went back and forth about matters regarding Aresia and the Injustice League for about another hour or so. Only when they were satisfied with those points, did they allow themselves to address the issue that was not so . . . black and white.

"Luffy and the Straw Hats," Superman said, "are definitely unlike any other super-people I've come across. People like us, be it hero or villain, tend to be pretty straightforward. What you see, is what you get. But he doesn't care about any ideas, code, responsibility, personal pride and glory, or even money. He just wants to go home, and doesn't really care about what happens in the meantime. Or so he says."

"A disinterest in fighting for greed or ideals," noted Batman. "Although you seem skeptical."

"His actions still indicate a set of morals he follows, which is good. Some of which I can appreciate, and makes me feel we really could work with them, if not for their distrust."

"Distrust, and the fact we must act within the constraints of the law," J'onn stonily pointed out. Of course, some would argue the heroes were vigilantes if not for UN endorsem*nt, yet they had all started out as that.

"Are they really a threat though?" demanded Wonder Woman. "Especially with Luthor, Joker, Aresia, and who knows else out there? While we know what she's after, all we know for Joker is he's not going to stop going after the Straw Hats, and we already know he doesn't care who gets hurt in the process."

"For all that he's got a set goal," Batman grimly agreed, "he's escalated his methods, becoming more unpredictable than ever. Given what happened at the mall, when Parasite was apparently acting against orders, we also have to consider that if Joker and the pirates clash again, when he's actually had the chance to bring his plans to fruition more, it'll most likely lead to even greater collateral damage, with lives lost in the process. We need to prevent that before it can happen. As for Luthor, we've no idea what he's planning, including if he's going to continue working with Joker for some sort of mutual revenge against both us and the pirates at once."

"Uh huh, no doubt about it, it's a big mess," chimed in Flash, arms folded behind his head. "All in all, the Straw Hats aren't the guys we should be worried about."

"I disagree about them not being a concern," Sir Justin flatly said. "That said, I must also say we have more serious priorities."

"We can go looking for them later," said Green Lantern, arms crossed over his chest.

"Let's be real," smirked Hawkgirl. "Guys like that will show up again. But yes, for now we got a clown, blonde, and egghead to find first."

J'onn and Batman nodded their agreement, and Superman closed the conversation. "Alright, we'll put the Straw Hats out of mind for now. Who knows, maybe they'll find a way home before we can go looking for them."

"So we just dump responsibility for them on someone else?" said Green Lantern.

"No," said Batman. "From what we've gathered, they've some sort of political system wherever they're from, as well as individuals strong enough to enforce it. They'll be fine."

"We really should find out where their world is," noted Hawkgirl. Her superiors woulddefinitelybe interested in knowing that.

"Of course."

Flash rested his chin on one hand. "Still a bummer that we kinda, sort of, y'know, shut down their legitimate businesses, forcing them to rely more on crime. I know, I know!" he waved off concerns from the others before they could voice them. "That's like excusing Luthor. It's just the fact that they're good guys except for how they're breaking the law. Doesn't excuse it, but still doesn't make it better either."

"That's unfortunately true," Superman reluctantly agreed.

"So what do you suggest we do about it?" Batman darkly asked, and everyone could hear how he was testing the speedster.

Beaming a bright smile, Flash simply answered, "Like Supes said, let's worry about the bigger problems and do our jobs. Y'know, lock up the guys who want to ruin things for everybody else, handle natural disasters, and other stuff that's about being a hero!"

!JUSTICE!

Unknown Location

Amanda Waller found herself at her desk, brainstorming on what to do next.

Despite what many of her peers might think, she was not actually opposed to the rise of metahumans. Her aggressive stance was necessary to reassure those politicians, bureaucrats, military and intelligence types, etc., who were apt to panic over being 'replaced by the superhumans' and make short-sighted decisions that would cause no end of long-term nightmares. The more rational ones she dealt with, simply conceded the importance of a steady supply of 'contingencies' in case anything untoward happened. Just in case.

So to be more accurate, Waller supported the rise ofAmericanmetahumans. Loyal ones.

Unfortunately, the majority of them turned either to crime or vigilantism. Moreover, the presence of the former served to justify the latter, claiming that since the cops could not handle those with superpowers, that meant those who did have the abilities and the 'heart of a hero,' or whatever claptrap, had to fight them. Never mind that they could just join the local police force. Or that their presence actually undermined law enforcement by highlighting how they were unable to bring justice themselves.

Not that 'Justice' was really a universal possibility. She was a realist.

It was just that it was better if people did not focus on that too much. It prevented the statesmen from working to make things better for all.

But yes, Waller would be quite satisfied if people like Superman chose to just be a Metropolis cop. Or join the military to handle alien invaders, or be sent on relief work as part of a coordinated plan. As it was right now of course, she admitted he was doing a good job.

For now.

Except that incident when he had been brainwashed by Darkseid and made it abundantly clear that if he ever decided he should rule the world, there would be little to stop him. Support for her programs had skyrocketed overnight.

Her job was to even the playing field, and she would. As quickly as possible.

Obviously the military and other groups had been working for years to produce their own 'heroes' who were properly loyal to America. Or ways for Humans to stand up to the strongest of metahumans, without resorting to carpet bombing major metropolitan areas, or nukes. Unfortunately, despite the protests of several politicians cleared to know what she was doing, Waller had failed to find an acceptable long-term solution, particularly in handling alien threats, or the rescue work now expected of 'heroes.'

Although she was starting to get a few potential pieces together. Metahumans and other talented people who she would be able to use in America's interests in the not-so-distant future. After all, as the Straw Hats had proved, the Justice League did not have a monopoly on powerhouses. Or teamwork.

Starting with an alert of a sighting by Cadmus agents of Mister Freeze, she had ordered all local operatives to take him into custody while he remained just a head on spider-legs. Yes, she knew a few strings she could pull with him.

And there was that ongoing project approaching its next stage . . .

Refreshing herself on the details, Waller opened a particular folder, and gazed at the picture of a young teenage girl with black hair, and empty obsidian eyes.

Chapter 17: Royal Flush

Chapter Text

On ground cracked with heat from the blistering sun, pirates were on the move, far from their native, watery turf.

While they lived beneath a warehouse by the docks, and liked to go out and enjoy the water now and then, most of the time they considered it to be . . . bittersweet. It was just simply not the oceans they knew and loved. These ones were too tame in comparison, and all mapped out over centuries, removing any surprises. This was done even by satellites!

In a fit of boredom, they had tried the infamous Bermuda Triangle, hoping for some unspeakable monsters, hidden ruins, or horrifying supernatural currents (yes, even Nami, Usopp, and Chopper, that was how bad it was), only to be disappointed. So yes, a desert was a surprisingly welcome diversion.

The six wheel semi-truck roared through the Arizona desert at over two hundred kilometers/hour. It was noticeably, if not suspiciously, bigger than most semi-trucks, which was to accommodate its loud and proud designer and driver, the cyborg Franky. As befitting the man, the colour-scheme was panels of blue and red, with flames of red and blue respectively painted on as well.

Franky was bobbing to heavy metal playing into his ear phones, laughing away as he kept them on track with no road. The upcoming birthday boy, Zoro, was napping and riding shotgun, with little Chopper resting on his lap with the air conditioning blowing on him full blast. Crammed into the deceptively large back was Jinbe, traveling through a desert for the first time, his massive form taking up most of the area. Brook was able to angle his long, lanky body around so he was comfortable, while Robin carelessly lay on Jinbe’s thighs due to lack of space, reading the latest edition of the Daily Planet. The others had chosen to remain at home.

Luffy was semi-officially grounded (but since he was Captain, it was more like a combination of begging, distracting him with food, and a new TV cooking show marathon to watch with Sanji) after his trip to the mall a few days ago had ended in disaster. Nami had sworn off deserts unless it was Alabasta, and even then only with Vivi. Usopp had said the same, although with the additional caveat that only if they got their friend to warn them more about the desert beforehand next time. Sanji had also agreed, crying for the princess, who definitely missed him more than anyone else.

Granted, this was an entirely different type of desert from Alabasta, lacking any of its sand dunes, or lethal flora and fauna, yet it was impossible to not make associations with their adventures there. Franky, Brook, and Jinbe had joined later of course, and after her talk earlier with Zoro, Robin refused to let any lingering bad memories slow her down. Zoro was here because it was his treat, while Chopper wanted to be able to help any of the prisoners if they were in a bad way.

Also, being adrenaline junky pirates, none of them were wearing seatbelts.

“Anything interesting, Robin?” asked the skeleton. It was interesting to note how most of the ‘adult’ (when they wanted to be) members of the crew were present right now.

“Yes, actually. It’s a more detailed report by Lois Lane on everything that happened at the mall with Luffy and the others. Plus the League’s follow-up fight with this so-called ‘Injustice League,’ including promises that there’s no way Lex Luthor will buy his way out of jail. She also interviewed Superman on what happened there and at the mall.”

“Hmph,” rumbled Jinbe. “Good to see the League’s still doing some good. How fearfully did she write about us?”

“Nothing special. Just how we’re criminals,” perfectly accurate, “and dangerous,” unquestionably. "She's done more research than most though, as it seems she figured out a good chunk of those robberies we’ve done.” Anticipating their next question, Robin reassured them, “Nothing that would give anyone a pattern as to what we’re after. Honestly, Lane’s mainly concerned about how easily Luffy handled Parasite, and how Volcana, one of our Deckhands, handled two other notable supervillains.”

“I beg your pardon? Deckhands?” blinked Jinbe.

“Oh, it came out in an earlier article. I guess it didn’t come up before,” said Robin with a slight grin, tapping her chin. “They’re calling our friends our ‘Deckhands,’ since they’re signing up as junior members and all. A nice play on us being pirates.”

“Huh.”

“It’s all too Human to want to put names to everything,” hummed Brook. “Still, I’m surprised it took so long for an article about what happened to come out. Particularly from such a major newspaper."

“Because Miss Lane had a larger goal in mind,” Robin said with a wry grin. “She let everybody else rush into putting out news reports, while hers is far better compared to others, as usual. More accurate, more detailed, covering several important angles others missed, and she cites her sources in ways regular people can reasonably confirm. This is the article readers will remember over the earlier ones which were rushed out. While yesterday, what she wrote about was filled with interviews by people about the Justice League.”

She waited a few moments for the other two men to catch on. “Ah,” nodded Jinbe, jostling Robin a little. “She’s working to help manage and protect the public perceptions of the heroes, without looking like it. Clever.”

“That’s what I believe too. Although, when she writes about them directly, she comes on pretty harshly. It reminds me of the first article she wrote about us after we lost Cherry Blossom Medical, giving them a scathing critique for how they handled it, while also laying out all the genuine issues with our company.”

“You think she is trying to disguise her intent?” queried Brook. They were all well familiar with how the World Government worked censorship, especially with only one newspaper which covered the entire globe.

“Possibly,” she answered, turning a page to keep reading at the same time. “I think however she sees it as her own way of helping them, by setting them a high standard she believes they can live up—”

In shock, Robin cut herself off as her eyes caught something.

Patiently both men waited, and sure enough, “They think we’re aliens.”

“Pardon?”

“Aliens like Superman. Luffy said the League had figured out we’re from another world, except he assumed Superman knew we were from another dimension. Instead, they think we’re from this dimension, except from out in the stars!”

“That does make more sense,” Jinbe ruefully admitted.

“Except our comrades, pardon, the Deckhands may believe the same,” pointed out Brook.

“Hrm, we should leave it for now,” decided Jinbe. “At the very least, it won’t hurt our secrecy. We’ll tell the others of course, and decide how to play from there.”

“Yes, of course,” nodded Robin, scanning for anything else of note. Any further talk was cut off at the sound of blaring music as Franky pulled off his headphones. “We’re just coming up now,” he yelled back, which woke up Zoro and Chopper.

Sure enough, they rounded a clump of rocks to see their target up ahead. It was only a grey blur at the moment, yet it was surrounded on all sides by open space so no one could sneak up. Pressing a few buttons, the front window of the van shifted and magnified to give a close-up look. Tall and intimidating, with a more futuristic look than most buildings on this planet, it was clearly harsh and unforgiving in appearance. All in all, it fit perfectly with the stories Volcana had shared about her own painful childhood as a Human Weapon. There was a good reason she was not with them.

“Looks more like a prison,” muttered Chopper.

“Which means we’re in the right place,” leered Zoro.

“We’ll have to take out those communication dishes,” pointed out Franky. “Our jammers should handle anything else.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” assured the swordsman.

“Actually,” the shipwright’s grin was positively maniacal, “I’ve got something else I’d like to try. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.”

“There will be more guards inside,” pointed out Brook.

“Tch, whatever,” grunted Zoro good-naturedly.

They drove on in companionable silence for a few more minutes as they approached.

!JUSTICE!

“All good?” asked Cheetah, as she hopped out of the back trailer. It was roomier there, and she felt her bosses deserved some ‘alone time.’ Plus the trailer came with a mini-bar. If she was going to take a break from her lab, and keep from getting rusty, then at least she could travel with the appropriate creature comforts.

Looking around, she could see they had parked a few hundred meters away from their destination, with the trailer blocking the crew itself from sight.

“Indeed,” said Jinbe, taking a long swallow from a barrel of water he got from the bar.

“So how’s your first desert going?” asked Zoro. “Besides hot.” Even with Chopper hogging the AC, they had been driving in a comfortable environment since before hitting the true heat here.

With a snort, Jinbe shook his head. “Hot. Although nice to see something so new. I’ve only had glimpses of them before from the coast. Given the stories you told earlier though, I have to wonder how many deserts were as exciting as the stories you’ve told me of your own adventures in them.”

“Alabasta was something else,” admitted the swordsman with a grin. “Though given how we came all this way, I sure hope it’s as least as ‘exciting’.”

“Would be a mighty poor gift otherwise,” said Robin, fanning Chopper a bit as he adjusted. Fortunately he was already adapting quickly.

“Ooh my, how precious,” gushed Poison Ivy, darting past them to a pair of beautiful, pink flowers poking out of the ground, the only plant-life in eyeshot. "Oh,” she cooed, “you’re such a survivor, aren’t you!?”

“Well, she’s happy,” said Cheetah with a slight smile. Apparently Ivy had passed on travelling to deserts before, which made sense given how pale her skin was. To keep from burning up, she was wrapped up in a full-cover hijab. She had borrowed it from the feline doctor, who hadbeen strangely relieved to be rid of it, and whose face had made it clear not to ask any question about how she had come to own one.

Franky took a long gulp from a large bottle of chilled cola, and passed around some drinks to the others to enjoy as well.

“Grundy is hot,” panted Grundy, lumbering out too. Given reports the League had lately been giving out to regular law enforcement, there was no reason to keep hiding he had joined up with the Straw Hats.

“Hot enough to dry us out and kill us,” agreed Brook, wiping his forehead with his handkerchief. “Oh wait—” he began as the zombie lit up.

“We’re already dead!” they chorused.

“Yo ho ho ho~! Skull joke!”

“Ha hah hah hah! Zombie joke!”

With a groan, Cheetah turned her attention back to the pirates. “So now what? We storming that place,” and glancing around the side of the trailer she could see lots of soldiers jogging towards them, and what looked like some turrets on the walls aimed them as well, “or not?”

“Oh don’t you worry!” cackled Franky. “THIS!” His arms flexed above his head in his signature pose. “WILL BE! SUPER!”

!JUSTICE!

Hustling, the soldiers advanced on the vehicle which had no good reason to be here.

They were not opening fire already, as it was entirely possible they were simply very dimwitted travelers or tourists, yet they would still need to be taken into custody for interrogation to be sure. This facility was for a top-secret government program, and no possible threats to it could be tolerated. Not even they knew what was going on inside, keeping all information carefully compartmentalized.

They were about twenty meters away when the semi-truck suddenly pulled forward a little, and shifted.

Seams appeared and it split apart as machinery extended out and adjusted themselves. It lifted up as things continued to rotate and move around each other with loud clangs of metal against metal, clicking and whirling, all accompanied by an alien humming sound which nearly drowned out Franky’s loud cackling, still in his super pose.

Higher and higher it rose while unfolding, until they registered it was standing on two legs while arms stretched out and a head rose from the top. Red and blue with the flame marks still there, chrome steel limbs, and a small yet clear Straw Hat Jolly Roger icon proudly upon its chest.

A phwmph sound, and the trailer ejected a massive rifle the figure caught without even looking, priming it up with an ominous hum.

"Freedom is the Right of all Sentient Beings!" roared from its faceplate with the voice of Peter Cullen, and the metallic being opened fire.

The first laser blast slagged the communication and satellite dishes, which honestly was barely noticed by the criminals.

“SO COOL!” gushed Chopper with stars in his eyes.

“I shall never doubt you again, Franky!” cried Brook, wiping tears of joy from his eyes.

“Fascinating,” murmured Jinbe with clear interest.

“Optimus Prime,” gasped Grundy with childlike wonder.

Zoro just grunted with his arms crossed, yet remained fixated upon the spectacle.

“You made a Transformer,” deadpanned Robin as she turned a look mixing exasperation and resignation upon her crewmate.

Their resident dryad glanced up from her plant, only to roll her eyes and go back to crooning over it. Cheetah was equally unimpressed, shaking her head. “If this gets out, it’ll just mean another of those terrible Michael Bay movies.”

“Hah! Maybe we can threaten the studio so we get more awesome robot time, and less about the whiney Humans!” crowed Franky. “Behold! The SUPER OPTIMUS PRIME!”

Machinegun fire from the guards did nothing against the pseudo Optimus Prime. The artillery was more of a threat, yet the armour held long enough to blast them in turn.

“Hmm, I admit that’s a good way to test out your own upgrades,” conceded Robin.

“What can I say, I’m not just a pretty face,” winked Franky. “Being able to manufacture more wapometal, and use the tech we’ve been stealing here has been a treat! Mind you, I was already experimenting with building more vehicles like the Black Rhino, except able to blend in on the streets, y’know? Seeing those films gave me all the inspiration I needed!”

Clearly I need to keep a closer eye on his pet projects, Robin ruefully thought. Needing a break from trying to learn how to build a portal home is one thing, but this is a bit much. We also need to be more responsible in monitoring what he is watching.

Holding his massive arms up to his mouth, Franky yelled, “Super Optimus Prime, make a hole for us to go through, and then go to sentry mode!”

“I will defend the line,” rumbled that massive figure.

“Is it intelligent?” asked Cheetah. If the man had created a fully functional, transforming android in addition to whatever top-secret project he was usually working on, then that would be . . .

“Nah! Just some pretty basic stuff, and lots of cool dialogue. Even if I could make it sentient, which basically means 'Humans, aliens, and robots who are people,' which is an important distinction, make no mistake. Ahem, anyways, like I was saying, not sentient, and I’m not sure if I’d want to make him that way even if I could. Not ready to be a dad and all.”

“And it would be weird to be riding your kids,” Zoro jabbed. “Or worse, being inside him.”

“Whoa! Not cool!”

“Well then,” said Jinbe, “Operation: Alcatraz is a go!”

!JUSTICE!

“Can’t you get an alert out!? Contact the nearest military base, or even a satellite!?” yelled Direction Wholeson. He wore a crisp, grey jacket and pants with his black turtleneck, a scar just under the glass orb which replaced his right eye with no eyebrow, tightly trimmed mustache, and bald head.

“Nothing, sir!” cried one technician.

A guard ran into the command center. “Sir! It’s the Straw Hats!”

“They’re here for the assets. They must be here to take them away!” snarled out Wholeson. Obvious really, why else would they so brazenly attack a government facility without provocation? Well, they would have another thing coming! This would be the perfect time for those ungrateful brats to prove their worth to their country!

. . . But should he unleash Ace?

He grimaced as he considered protocol for just this type of scenario, and if it was wise for this fiasco. While she had not yet achieved her full potential, she remained incredibly powerful thanks to the training and assistance they had already given her. However, she was not suited for fieldwork within a place like this, especially if the Straw Hats split up. Unless they could lure them into one place with her, or they could set up some TV screens, they would risk exposing one of America’s most valuable assets to being blindsided by one of several powerhouses. Was that too much of a risk? More importantly, he knew Waller had plans for her. Crucial, long-term ones. While she would not kill him for failure, or for showing initiative, he could not get over his fear of disappointing her.

Plus the other four were pretty strong anyways . . .

Coming to a decision, he gave brisk orders for repelling the invaders, and to keep Ace secured for now. Also for a vehicle to be prepared to evacuate her if the tide turned against them. Or he would just unleash her upon their enemies. He would decide which one as the battle unfolded. With that handled, he went to the elevator.

A few minutes later he was walking through several armed checkpoints which were always manned. While there was no sound of the fighting at the outer walls, reports were coming in of the guards being overwhelmed.

Finally he came to a long corridor with four rooms on his right. Each was locked, and with barred, steel doors.

The resemblance to a prison was not entirely coincidental.

No turning back now.

He stopped in front of the first cell, which had a large #1 on the wall beside it. Inside was a toilet, standard military bed, and a small table bolted to the wall in the four-by-four meter cell. No privacy.

“What’s up, Headmaster?” grunted Ben Tennyson with something barely resembling respect. Brown skin rippled over thick muscles which took most people years of hard labour and athletics to achieve. Wholeson knew the wannabe teen rebel had never broken a sweat in his life.

“The facility has been invaded,” he said with icy control. “This will be a true test of your worth.”

For an instant there was a hint of defiance in Tennyson’s eyes, before he looked down and away, the motion rattling the chain necklace around his neck.

Good. He knew his place. A reminder might be necessary after today though.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was in the next cell, sitting straight and proper like a proper soldier, and bald as his ‘headmaster,’ and his light green sweater, and grey pants making him seem the most professional of the whole. Of course, he was nothing of the sort. “So we kill them, we pass a test?” he curtly asked, and a stir of interest could be heard from Tennyson and the last cell over.

“Correct.”

“Well now, that shouldn’t be too hard for us,” smirked the next teen. Emma Frost was admittedly gorgeous for a teenager, with her shoulder-length blonde hair, necklace, white halter top, and jean shorts. Personally, Wholeson figured it proved it was a mistake to allow the teens to keep the kind of clothes they had worn before they had been requisitioned.

“Yeah, yeah,” sneered the last one. Daniel Jackson was slumped over as was his habit, white t-shirt with red sleeves, and jeans. “What’s the catch?”

“Win by any means necessary. Or else.”

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Base

“But he wouldn’t do that to me, would he!?” muttered a frantic Harley Quinn for the umpteenth time, wringing her hands.

Clayface rolled his eyes, and turned his attention back to reading a journal article on Shakespeare. It was an interesting analysis with a few new observations for him, yet he was not convinced of their arguments. Although granted, it was hard to concentrate while also paying some attention to his companion.

Initially Harley had taken the whole bit about Joker teaming up with Luthor and some other villains fairly well. Once the news had broken about the true scope of the ‘Injustice League,’ and the clown murdering Shade, the confidence she had shown after Luffy returned from the mall, or her ‘visit’ to Mercy Graves, had popped like a punctured balloon. For over a day she had locked herself in her and Ivy’s shared room. Which was a shame, as Clayface enjoyed her new pirate appearance and persona.

When she had finally emerged, it had been to discover her best friend and roommate had already left with the others, and so she had sought out her fellow Gothamite criminal. He figured she did not want to have this talk with their employers, lest she seem like a ‘weak crybaby’ again. Even if they knew she was getting better.

Also, Sanji had been the one to set everything off.

Except, well, everyone in the Gotham underworld knew she kept saying she was through with Joker, only to crawl back to him later. Ivy had been acting a little off even beforehand, so he bet she figured having to deal with this once more was a bit much, hence why she had taken off to the desert of all places.

He looked at the clock, and decided she had talked herself in circles long enough. “Joker’s whole scheme was for killing us all, and he probably blames you for what happened to him in the first place,” Clayface said, doing his best to not sound unkind. “And honestly, that scares me, since he’s targeting all of us. Including Ivy.”

It seemed like he was getting through to her as she slumped over.

“Luffy and the others might not care about you fighting him or something like that to prove you’re over him, but he is going to try and come after us.”

“Sanji will handle him. Or Zoro,” she whispered just loud enough to be heard.

“Or Luffy,” he nodded his lumpy head. “For all the captain isn’t the type to go around killing his enemies, he’s also not the type of guy to tolerate someone like Joker running around when they’re right in his face.”

!JUSTICE!

Government facility

The Straw Hats had broken through the outer wall to enter the main facility, only for Warden Wholeson and his people to have an unexpected reprieve from a rather embarrassing mistake the pirates had made: they had forgotten to account for hallways.

Specifically in their rush to get to the prison, they had not considered how so many of those coming along were, well, quite frankly too tall.

At 7 feet and 10 inches, Franky was a little hunched over as he went inside, while Brook and Jinbe did not even bother entering.

“Grundy stay with Brook.”

“Happy to have you along. If we cannot go in, shall we go up?”

“Sounds good,” said Jinbe, leaping up dozens of meters without another word, and the skeleton and zombie followed. Atop the roof of the ‘secret’ facility, the two heavyweights destroyed what was left of any communication gear, and began exposing the interior below by ripping off the ceilings. Along the way they noted how there appeared to be a variety of training grounds placed up there with them. A good way to let people outside, without really giving them the chance to go far.

After some searching, they tore their way into a room full of people and important looking computers, showing various camera feeds, and what looked like status reports. Perfect.

“Oh my, this looks important,” commented Brook, tipping his hat to personnel still managing the command center. “Good afternoon, chaps. Would you mind answering some questions?”

“You’ll never take us alive!” yelled one security guard, opening fire at the figures looming over them.

Jinbe idly dodged every shot without his massive frame ever seeming to move. Grundy tanked it with a grunt, while Brook hopped aside and pulled out his violin. “Nemuriuta Flanc,” he intoned, and with a burst of music from his violin, and the staff were all asleep. “Well, that was easy.” A big thud made him turn around. “Oh, sorry Grundy.” It took a few pokes to wake their friend back up, while Jinbe sorted through the prisoners.

Grundy looked back and forth between the pirates for a few heartbeats, before saying, “Brook and Jinbe no like killing at all.”

Despite the desert, the area around them chilled as Brook calmly said, “The dead should understand how precious life is. As for Jinbe . . .”

“My first captain taught me the importance of not lowering myself to the level of my enemies. Taking lives only fuels further tragedy."

“Well said. Fisher Tiger was indeed a wise man. Now then, who do we have available to question?”

Jinbe moved to one side a few people in military uniforms with more decorations than the rest. “These seem to be the senior officers present. Do you by chance have one of those computer hacking things?”

“Ah, no, I do not. Robin and Franky do though, but we can’t call them.”

“An oversight we’ll have to correct in the future. We’ll do this the traditional way then.”

“Yo ho ho~! And the unconventional way! Grundy, if you would guard my body?” With that Brook dropped to his knees, went white as bone, clothes and all, and his soul flowed out to the shock of his protégé.

“Brook!”

“No fear, no fear, I haven’t shown you this before, have I? After all, if you can’t go through the hallways, just go through the walls! Yo ho ho~!

“Be sure to also ask these fine people after you wake them up, how to work the intercom. We can direct the others that way.”

“Right.”

!JUSTICE!

It was a strange, furry pair making their way down another bland, metal hallway. All svelte and curvy Cheetah with her fangs and claws, while Chopper was in his blocky Kung-Fu Point.

They had run into a few guards who were handled with minimal issue, and had been quick to assert they knew nothing of importance, including whatever the facility was for, because of ‘security reasons.’ In fairness, it really did mean they had nothing they could give up while under the threat of violence.

Afterwards though, it had just been empty corridors, and neither of them could hear or smell anyone nearby. There were no maps either, so Cheetah was proving her worth in other ways.

“It’s in the surveillance layout, including visible and hidden, and the wiring and ventilation,” she explained, prying open another wall panel to inspect the innards. “If you know what you’re looking for, they’ll point straight to the most important rooms. Particularly the ones where they like to keep all the most secured stuff, or a panic room, or being able to isolate biological contaminants, or any combination really.”

“Cool!” Chopper gushed. “You’re so good at this! I bet Nami’s learning a lot from you.”

Tail twitching in embarrassment, and praying he would not smell it on her, she managed to say, “We’ve exchanged some tricks. So, uhm, what do you think the chances are we’ll find any research Clayface or I can use?” That was a safe topic, and a familiar one too, given how much time Doctor Tony-Tony Chopper and her had been working at it.

Although their initial work had been impeded by how despite his own brilliance and self-experimentation, and how advanced the Straw Hats were in certain scientific fields, Chopper had never really studied DNA before. Oh, he had managed some impressive chemical alterations to his own biology, particularly with those Rumble Balls, except he had not truly known how they worked. He had only heard of it as the ‘Lineage Factor,’ without knowing anything more specific than how it was the blueprint of life itself, found within all organisms. Oh, and that people could manipulate it. The way he had mentioned that bit, as the usually cheerful doctor and (mad) scientist tried to suppress his anger, had raised the hairs on her back. She decided then and there she did not want to know.

Whatever had made the little herbivore so livid was not her business.

At all.

With some effort she shook off that memory, and returned to the more comfortable subject of her becoming Human again. Because her brilliant colleague and friend had learnt fast about DNA, and there was honestly little now she had to teach him on the subject, doing whatever he could to help her find a cure for herself and the former actor. Plus doing new studies of his Rumble Balls to understand precisely how they altered him when used.

As she had expected, they quickly found themselves comfortably discussing their current research, and doing some idle brainstorming on what they could do next. It was thrilling really, stalking together for answers.

It was almost a disappointment when they came to an extra-reinforced, stainless steel door which just screamed “secrets within.”

“Hmm,” hummed Chopper as he took in the width and height of the hallway. His Heavy Point should be able to break through, except he was worried about having enough room to properly wind up his punches in that large form. He would also be a big target if people behind the door started shooting. Ah well, his Kung-Fu Point would manage.

“Hold up,” said Cheetah, putting a hand on his shoulder. “If this is someplace important, if we start breaking down the door, they might have booby-traps set up. Including ones which destroy any files. So long as it stays secure though, they might hold off. Let the professional go first.”

Without another word, she sauntered up to a ventilation vent in the wall, and used her claws to unscrew it. In a single, sleek, smooth motion she was into a crawlspace much too narrow for any regular Human.

The Straw Hat settled down to wait, and sure enough less than two minutes later the door popped open to a smug feline face. Inside, he saw the floor littered with bleeding guards she stepped around and over as she went back in. With a quick assessing look, he knew she had also made sure they would survive. That was nice of her. And like Zoro, a further testament to her skill.

Honestly, it was stuff like this which was why Chopper did not just respect Cheetah for her brilliant mind. You would expect having so completely altered your body, especially without a Devil Fruit, would hamstring your ability to function, and yet she had pulled it off. For all how she was far weaker than him and his nakama, only a fool missed how she remained very dangerous for this world. Like her namesake, she moved fluidly and silently, and was always aware of everything and everyone around her. And always prepared to fight for what was hers. Whatever that may be.

“I was right,” she was saying, pointing at a blinking computer. “They were prepared to wipe this if necessary, keying it directly to the door if it was broken open. Looks like it is the central hub for all their research notes. We still need a password, but let me see if I can crack it.”

!JUSTICE!

“Incoming,” said Jinbe, jumping out of the hole in the ceiling onto the roof of the base. Sure enough, two teenagers were charging at them with hostile intent.

Body tucked under Jinbe’s arm, Brook felt the motion and returned just in time to see several jeeps being thrown at them. Well now, while he may have been unsuccessful finding anything inside, something had certainly found them.

“Whoops!” he cried, making space from Jinbe. Not that he was too heavy for the Fishman, why he was all skin and bones! Oh my no! All bones! Yo ho ho ho~!

Serious calculation took over as he assessed that being free to move was more important here. The ‘African American’ one seemed to be only interested in Grundy and Jinbe though; possibly wanting to match his own muscles against them. Which left him with . . .

“You’re going down,” gloated a blonde teenage girl, wearing a shirt and dress he was very appreciative of.

“Am I?”

“Yes you are, you skeleton freak! Bad luck for you, I’m the strongest of the lot.” She paused, before grumpily adding, “Alright, one of the most powerful.” She actually looked like she wanted to sulk about it. Nothing to impress him about her maturity there.

“Well now, that’s quite something,” praised Brook, leaning two hands on his cane a bit. “I have just one question for you.”

“What, begging for mercy already?” she sneered, and metal framework seemed to rip itself out of the walls and reshape into spears pointed hovering in the air at him. “Sorry, but this is where I prove myself.”

“May I see your panties?”

The improvised spears dropped to the ground in her shock, before wrenching back up as she screamed, “DIE, YOU SICK PERVERT!”

“Oops, oh no!” he cried, running away. “I might actually be killed. Oh wait, I’m already dead! Yo ho ho—whoops!”

He had to duck aside from one particularly close spear despite his speed.

Her powers are surprisingly fast. Only metal though. Coincidence given where we are? Or magnetism? To be safe, I’d better not show my cane sword just yet. Although I will have to be careful in turn of the chance that she can sense it, and still use it against me. If she can’t concentrate on me, it should help keep her from manipulating it though. So for now it will be a contest of speed.

Grimacing, Jinbe shook his head. “It appears we’ve found the ones they are holding captive here to turn into Human Weapons. Even if they’re older than just kids.”

“You bet you found us,” boasted the muscular teen facing off against him and Grundy. “Just your sorry luck, but don’t worry, I’ll make it fast!”

Grundy sidestepped the punch and grunted out, “Why’re you fighting Grundy? Grundy and friends here to rescue super kids here.”

“He doesn’t care,” sighed Jinbe, also stepping up. Honestly, they should have expected something like this. “He just wants to fight someone. Anyone.”

“You know it, old men,” sneered Tennyson. “You’re dead meat!”

“Hah!” barked out Grundy. “That all Grundy is!”

The zombie humour threw off the teen just as Grundy launched forward with surprising speed.

“Monday Punch!” his fist slamming into Tennyson’s face.

“Tuesday Hook!” now his left fist digging into the ribs.

“Wednesday Knee!” Right to the gut.

“Thursday Clap!” Both palms smacked Tennyson’s ears, rattling his brain.

He grabbed the chain necklace and yanked the teen close. “Friday Head-butt!”

“Saturday Elbow!” Snapping the head back again.

Dazed and shaken, Tennyson could not do anything as Grundy hefted the smaller man up and over himself. “SUNDAY SUPLEX!” he roared as he reared back, arching his body like a bridge to bring Tennyson down headfirst. The roof shattered beneath them, and they broke through the ones beneath as they went through ten stories before landing in a sub-basem*nt, cratering it with Grundy landing on top.

“Grundy Weeklong Mayhem,” he grinned. “And end of you.”

Only to be sent stumbling back as with an angry yell Tennyson hefted himself back up. “Hah!” Tennyson tried to laugh out. “That won’t work! I don’t feel pain, and I’m stronger than anybody! Even Superman! And I’ll prove it by kicking your butts!”

“Will you now?” Jinbe calmly asked as he landed beside Grundy. He trusted Brook to handle his own opponent.

“You bet I will!”

Jinbe cracked his knuckles and sighed, “Be it below, or on land, always hotheads.”

!JUSTICE!

“Alright, listen up!” ordered Warden Wholeson to most of the remaining guards, having donned a helmet and flak jacket himself. “The assets have engaged the intruders! We’ll provide support, flank ‘em, and clear ‘em out! Understood!?”

“Sir yes sir!”

!JUSTICE!

Grimly, an isolated squad of security guards steeled themselves, before popping out of cover to open up with their automatic weapons.

Franky grinned in response.

It was not a malicious one, as intimidating as it was, yet entirely satisfied.

While this place was certainly behind in terms of ‘super-powered’ individuals, it was more advanced than Gaia in weapons technology. The sort of stuff he had adapted with aplomb into his body.

‘Modern’ armour-piercing bullets ricocheted off the improved plating beneath Franky’s skin, and his left arm came up as barrels clicked forward from behind his knuckles and unleashed a barrage of laser fire.

The guards went down screaming as the shots burnt through barricades, armour, and flesh. It was not even necessary to properly aim at them, since the explosions were as good as any of his pre-Earth missiles. He gave the downed men a cursory glance to confirm there were no fatalities or serious wounds, and continued on his way. Just because his metal nose could not pick up the scent of cauterized flesh, did not mean he wanted to stick around.

Now then, where were those imprisoned kids?

Robin was walking behind him, using him as a walking, talking, cyborg-shield of awesomeness. Truthfully, she could have cleaned out this whole place by herself, except she did not want to showcase her powers in front of all those cameras.

After a few turns, and him ripping metal doors out of their frames, they found some computers. “This should do nicely,” said Robin, slipping past him into the small room. She inserted a black market portable hacker, which started chugging away at the government firewalls to give them access. Not Franky’s work, although he could probably figure it out if he had the time. Instead it was something they had bought from the info broker Karrde.

The mini-hard drive beeped just as his burgeoning Observation Haki sent him a warning. Too little, too late, as he could not move in time.

“Unh!” he grunted as hot impacts hit him in the back.

Only for him to brace himself against the wall with one massive hand to catch his balance, and turn around grinning. “Not bad,” he said. “At one time that might’ve actually hurt.”

Because one of the all-too-few perks of being here on Earth was the freedom to have Chopper and Usopp finish armouring up his back where he had never been able to reach before.

Two young men were facing them, one bald with an outstretched hand, and surprise sketched out on his face at seeing Franky shrug his shot off. The other had a goatee and his arms and torso were swelled up in a way which reminded him disturbingly of Luffy’s own rubber powers.

“My, oh my,” murmured Robin as she stepped up beside him. “Things are certainly getting interesting. Hopefully Zoro’s having his own fun. This is a birthday present for him after all.”

!JUSTICE!

Zoro scowled as he raced through the halls of the complex, trying to get near a fight. Any fight!

While his Observation Haki let him know where his nakama and enemies were, this fiendish facility’s security kept rearranging the corridors to keep him from reaching them!

(After things had calmed down back in Water 7, the witch and Chopper had sat him down to yell at him for being ‘reckless’ and ‘nearly killing’ them and such, with various threats if he ever tried to reach someplace by cutting through walls and ceilings again, barring the direst emergency.)

(A guy who was the walls and ceiling like Pica counted in his mind).

So here he was running around trying to reach the ongoing battles before they were over. Especially since he could sense the people his crewmates were up against were strong enough to maybe be interesting. That was important, because he had been sustaining himself mainly on sparring and training, when he needed serious life and death battles if he was to truly grow as a swordsman.

Skidding to a halt, he belatedly remembered he had other options now. Concentrating a bit, his cybernetic eye switched to x-ray vision to see through the walls. Except . . .

“Now I can’t tell what’s a wall or not!” he growled, swiveling his head around. “Dang it, Usopp! This thing’s—”

His face went blank as he froze, looking in the distance.

A flash of light, and Wado Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu were in his hands, cutting a hole through the wall. And the next.

Implacable as a storm, Zoro advanced in a straight line.

Through the next hole he emerged among several platoons of guards, who opened fire with heavy, automatic rifles. A wall of hot lead for the man suicidal enough to fight modern soldiers with swords of all things!

In answer his blades wove through the air to deflect every bullet as he implacably advanced. Disciplined shouts became cries of concern as he got ever closer, and next thing they knew he was hacking down whoever entered his reach. Some tried to flank him, only for him to flick a blade and cutting winds mowed them down. Only those who turned their backs to him and ran were spared.

Never once did the Pirate Hunter look anywhere but straight ahead. He did not even notice those who lay bleeding at his feet.

One eye burned with an artificial fire, except it was kinder than his natural one, which promised all the savagery and wrath of Humanity at its worst.

And it was only the beginning. Blood drenched the hall, and more was to follow.

!JUSTICE!

It had taken Cheetah some time, yet they were logged in now, and looking through the scientific records here.

Only the more Chopper read, the faster he started flipping through pages, fury contorting his expression.

These people were as bad as Caesar was! Never mind how brutally they had treated their ‘subjects,’ some of the experiments they were performing, and planning to perform, could kill these people!

A noise caught his sharp ears, and he shifted forms to leap over a table, and slam open a door. A shivering scientist was cowering in the closet, pointing a gun at him.

!JUSTICE!

Franky fired his laser blasts at the stretchy one, only for him to manage to barely shift around them and get up close. He would have done something about the bearded twerp, except his buddy was shooting energy blasts from his hand again, and this time putting some real effort into it, shaking the cyborg a bit from the impacts.

Jackson leapt at Robin, figuring he would take out the weaker one first. His body flattened out wider as he jumped at her, planning to envelope and suffocate her, only for her to dodge aside.

Fists enlarged and arms stretching, he threw punches at her which also missed, putting craters in the wall. No matter, she could not be lucky forever.

“Shame to have to do this,” grinned Jackson. “Honestly, if you were a decade younger, I’d probably try to make a deal with you!”

Robin’s eyebrow twitched.

Franky roared with laughter. “Boy! You’ve gotta lot to learn about women!”

“What do you mean, gramps? I’m just saying she’s—”

A massive hand grew out of the wall to squash him flat against the other.

“Honestly, that was for your own good,” cackled Franky, leaving Shackelbolt shaken.

Robin walked up to Jackson, the tip of his head and ears still free, with her digits effectively keeping his rubbery jaw dislocated, adding to his sense of helplessness. His slightly bulging eye jumped with fear as she delicately laid a hand on his head. Just like a mother gently chastising her child who had made a mess, but knew he had done something seriously wrong. "Now what to do with you? Pluck out your eyes? Stretch you out for the vultures to feed upon? Tie you up and turn you into a basketball? So many things, so little time. But do not worry, in this you will finally serve a purpose in life: being a warning to other foolish young men on how to behave."

In sheer terror, Daniel Jackson's balls shoveled themselves deep inside himself.

"Or," she sweetly said, breathing into his ear, "we could talk about how we felt like coming over here to rescue some kids from being forced into being Human Weapons. Which do you prefer?"

And for Zoro’s birthday of course. Although her nascent Haki gave her the impression he was strangely satisfied with the lowly guards he was handling.

To make sure the other punk got with the program, Franky ramped up the power to his new Radical Left, and took careful aim so the shots just missed him.

Shackelbolt only had time to widen his eyes at being on the receiving end of high-energy shots, before finding himself abruptly face-planting at the massive cyborg’s feet.

Shaking and sweating, he looked back to see the metal floors and walls behind him were a red hot mess. A warning shot which could have killed him instantly.

“Gonna cause trouble?” drawled the blue-haired man.

“N-no sir!”

“Smart kid,” nodded Franky. Especially seeing as how he had replaced his old machine guns so that each of the lasers in his hand were now as strong as his old Franky Radical Beam had been!

Granted, he had needed to boost up his cola reactor’s efficiency, yet that had been another example of the personal advances he had made with the tech available here on Earth.

Unfortunately, it did not take a SUPER genius like him to figure out these kids were more messed up than they had been hoping. Man, they should have brought Luffy with them; he was good at stuff like this. Of course, his methods tended to involve either tear-breaking displays of kindness and compassion, or to drive the person into such rage they snapped out of their issues on their own.

Eh, they were pirates, not heroes, yet letting people getting locked into this sort of life never sat well with him. Plus, getting their heads on straight would make things unpleasant for the government, which was always worthwhile. Given Robin’s act of restraint, he figured she felt the same way.

!JUSTICE!

The rooftop to the facility was now filled with so many holes, and had so many impacts by improvised projectiles, a part of Brook was concerned about the integrity of it all.

“You’re going down!” Frost snarled again as she threw more and more metal at Brook. Hating him for dodging, hating his chirpy manner, and hating him for not taking her seriously!

Brook was actually taking her seriously though, finding a genuine opponent useful for him to hone his Observation Haki. He was still working at it, yet the warnings it occasionally provided made all of this nearly unfair. There was another reason he was not attacking of course, as he chose to wait for her to tire out a bit for some actual conversation.

"I'm sorry," he said with sincerity, "but I'm not really feeling it. I've fought many people over the years, and you don't have quite the right tone." He tilted his skull, projecting an aura of concern. “What are you so afraid of?”

Again her metal weapons stumbled in the air, and he saw the flash of fear in her eyes.

With an audible sigh he sat down on a part of the rooftop he had been leading towards for an improvised seat. “Would you like to talk about it?”

“I-I don’t need to be afraid of anyone!” she sputtered.

“So why are you here then?” asked the musician. He gestured at her fine clothing, “You look like you’d rather be at a mall shopping, or flirting with boys, instead of being in the middle of the desert, helping a bunch of soldiers.”

With every word more of her co*ckiness was stripped away.

!JUSTICE!

It really was no contest for Jinbe and Grundy.

Maybe their opponent had strength equal to Superman like he claimed, and had some training, except he was also inexperienced, and had none of the hero’s other powers. The zombie alone was able to match the Man of Steel’s fists when they fought, and with Jinbe’s own might, skill, and Observation Haki? No contest whatsoever. He did not even bother to use Armament Haki.

Tennyson stumbled back gasping, as he clutched his stomach with pain he had not felt since he got his powers. This can’t be happening! Why’s it hurt if I don’t feel pain anymore! I’m the strongest! I have to win!

“You are indeed formidable,” admitted Jinbe, hefting a fist. “Unfortunately for you, punches from Fishman Karate pass through the skin to hit the organs within. Something it appears you can still feel after all.”

“Shut up! There’s no way you guys can stop me!”

Grundy slipped in behind Tennyson and put him into a Full Nelson, while Jinbe grabbed his feet to deny him any leverage.

Their captive squirmed and struggled for a minute before Jinbe simply pointed out, “If you are so strong, then why do you remain in this place?” There was nothing like a slave collar on him, yet Jinbe knew not all chains were so conveniently obvious.

At those words, Tennyson lessened his struggles a little, even if he still seemed a bit rabid.

With a heartfelt sigh, Jinbe said with as much empathy —not pity!— as he could manage, “I’ve had much experience with people who were once slaves. Stolen from their homes, put through horrible experiences, and forced to do things they could never have imagined themselves doing. Even when logically they should have been able to rise up against them.

“One of our friends back at our home base, she managed to escape from a place just like this, yet it took her years to do it.”

Ah! Progress. While there was still anger and a corrosive resentment, he was listening.

!JUSTICE!

At last Zoro reached his destination. Behind him was a straight line of ruined walls and violence.

Before him was something more akin to a bank vault, yet with his enhanced vision he knew what lay beyond. Wado Ichimonji was already in its sheath, and now Sandai Kitetsu followed, for while it would be trivial for him to get through on his own, this called for something more . . . diplomatic.

Yes, he was capable of diplomacy!

Hefting up one arm, he held up the guy who acted like he was in charge to the keypad. “Open it.”

Shuddering, Warden Wholeson raised a shaking hand. He was a loyal son of America, but he could not find the courage within him to resist. Not after what this monster had already done to his men. Not with that horrifying look in his eyes, which seemed to promise the pirate would eat him if he did not comply!

The fact he could feel those inhuman fingers digging divots into his steel helmet, did nothing to calm his trembling nerves.

So he punched in the combination, and the door popped open. “Good.” With that, Zoro slammed his prisoner’s head against a wall to put him out like a light.

See, threats and violence against people other than the ones he wanted to meet. Diplomacy!

!JUSTICE!

Ace just sat on her hard bed, hands in her lap as she stared out the barred window, even as the sounds of violence began to die down.

What did it matter to her?

No surprise or alarm entered her heart as her cell door slid open. At least not until she saw the man, tall and muscular, with a glaring red eye, splattered with blood, hands raised and reeking of violence.

Impulsively she used her powers in case he attacked her.

!JUSTICE!

Never let it be said Zoro was a fool. Well, alright, a lot of people ignorantly called him that, but he was alive, and lots of dangerous people who had come after him over the years had lived to regret it. Or not. Whatever. The point was, he was a survivor, not a fool.

So when he walked into the room of someone who the people here had been so afraid of that they gave her such a thick door, and possibly had been too afraid to use against his crewmates, he was on guard. He raised his hands to show they were empty, while his Observation Haki was primed and ready.

Except she looked just the same as he had seen with his X-ray vision: a girl no older than Maureen, with black hair, pale skin, and an uncomfortably blank face. While his Haki warned him she was planning to . . . aggressively glare at him? That was it?

Her eyes turned yellow, sparkling with moving circles, and only then did he understand as the floor gave out from underneath him.

“I told you, you were weak against women,” reprimanded the Copycat Marine Lady, her head on the harpy’s body, while the sun shone and the snow fell. She might have said something else, if not for the butterflies that came out of her mouth.

He tasted colour and saw sound.

There was a baby in a diaper, but he knew it was Hawkeye from the goatee and mini-sword he used to beat up marines.

Luffy at Raftel finding the legendary One Piece Bathing Suit, and trying to put it on, while again the sun shone overhead.

Only it was not the sun, it was two suns. Pulsing as they stared down at him from on-high as he—

DEATH! CUT! KILL!

Zoro snapped back to reality as the sense of bloodlust washed over him. A mad craving for battle, bloodshed, and slaughter. An impulse so strong it would drive its own wielder to their death just to satisfy that insatiable hunger. With his mind and spirit being torn apart, this new sensation cut through it like a hot blade, disrupting the first mental influence driving him insane.

In a flash the world returned to normal.

Panting, he stared at the girl as sweat beaded down his forehead.

Scrambling atop the bed, she pressed herself into the corner as she tried to disappear through the wall. “You broke free! How? How!?”

He said nothing, not daring to raise his hand from where it had fallen atop the hilt of Sandai Kitetsu. As his mind had begun to shatter, the cursed blade had deemed him unworthy and planned to kill him. Only that physical connection and sensing the curse had broken him free. Plus of course, his own good luck remained as strong as ever.

Slowly, he pulled it, Wado Ichimonji, and Shusui out of his sash, still in their sheaths, and laid them down on the floor. A gesture of trust he hoped this time she would catch. Not that he was defenseless, as he now understood what her power entailed. With his strength and speed, plus the forewarning of Observation Haki, he was safe. Sitting cross-legged, he waited to see what she would do.

. . . Which was not much. From the look on her face she had retreated inwards, completely shaken and expecting him to kill her.

No matter, he could wait.

.

.

.

It only took about ten minutes before she softly raised her head to look at him.

“You . . . What do you want?” she whispered, clearly out of her depth.

“My name is Roronoa Zoro. You can call me Zoro. What’s your name?”

“. . . Ace. Just Ace.”

He hid any reaction to that name, since a name was just a name. Unless of course it reminded you of someone who had asked you to do something special. Important. Something you had failed at.

“Having a dumb little brother, makes an older brother worry. He probably gives you guys a lot of trouble, too. Take care of him for me . . .”

“Ace, huh?” he smiled. “I knew somebody by that name. He was a good guy.”

Silence. Her expression remained blank for the most part, yet he could see the confusion and wariness, and trickle of possible, if desperate, hope. Something he had seen all too often as a bounty hunter tracking down criminals, and finding their victims. He had also seen what they were capable of doing to their former abusers if given the chance. So he knew without a doubt that this girl, even if she did not have any other tricks up her sleeves, was very, very dangerous.

“You’re not afraid of me?” she finally managed.

“Should I be?”

“Everyone else is. Always.”

co*cking his head. “Do you want them to be?”

That stumped her for a bit, trying to work out a foreign concept, before admitting, “No. Except they are. So they want to control me.”

“Huh.” This sort of stuff was not really Zoro’s specialty. What would the Witch or Robin do? Or Brook? Heck, even Luffy or the Idiot Cook. “Can you tell me more about yourself?”

So slowly, hesitatingly, she told him her story. And once she began, the words came pouring out.

How she had as a little child unknowingly driven her parents insane. Of being taken by the government, and given a headband which made her completely compliant until they no longer felt they needed it to make her do what they want. How they told her she was here to protect her, when really it was to protect themselves. To use her.

Of the 'games' the scientists had made her play to test her abilities. Training her. How she would wake up strapped down to an operating table as they implanted wires directly into her brain.

How they would try and reassure her that turning her into a weapon was necessary. For her good and everyone else’s.

How it was for “justice.”

Ace said that word much like how Zoro would have imagined Luffy’s Ace would have.

!JUSTICE!

“Is that it?” hissed Cheetah, claws tickling the throat of the top scientist.

“Y-yes!” he whimpered.

Chopper’s hooves flew over the keyboard as he looked through the records. “So you hadn’t started these,” he choked, “procedures yet!?”

“No, no! We were planning them for next week!”

The reindeer let out a heavy sigh of relief. If they had done those . . . things they had planned for this person —Ace, the piece of filth had called her— might have gained immense power. He was not entirely sure, but he was confident it would have also eventually killed her. An aneurysm probably, and only in a few years.

What good was the ability to warp reality, when you would be dead shortly after? To say nothing of robbing yet another person of their childhood.

Seeing Chopper slumped over the console made the professor regain some of his courage. “J-just go already, she’s of no use to you! She can’t be controlled! And the government will hunt you down eventually, like the monsters you ar—urk!”

Blood beaded down Cheetah’s claws, yet she held off on tearing straight through, looking to Chopper for guidance.

He laughed.

He threw back his tiny, fury, adorable head and laughed! “Yes,” he cried out to the heavens. “I am a monster! And proud of it!”

Turning he lunged forward and head-butted the ‘scientist,’ sending him flying into the wall to collapse unconscious.

Panting briefly from emotion, Chopper headed for the door. “C’mon, we need to find the people held prisoner here, especially this Ace. She needs a check-up! A proper one!”

Obediently Cheetah tailed behind, before her curiosity got the best of her. “Chopper, do you really mean it?”

“Huh?”

“Thinking you’re a monster?” He who was so cute and cuddly, and wanted nothing more than to cure the world’s sicknesses. Especially since she would have been the first to call that scientist back there a monster.

“I used to be just a reindeer who wanted to become Human,” Chopper answered, too distracted by what he needed to do, to really register his own words. “Because I wanted to have friends and be with people, only to be hurt and hunted as a monster. Except when I did get friends, people who meant everything to me, I learnt I would have to embrace being a monster to help protect them. So I did.”

Lost in his thoughts of how to help the victims here, he missed the way Cheetah, a woman who had been Human until becoming too much like an animal and getting rejected for it, stared at him in wonder.

Every time she thought she knew these strange and wonderful people, they pulled a surprise like that on her . . .

!JUSTICE!

“Franky?”

The cyborg in question answered the radio in surprise. Zoro’s voice was coming from all the radios the guards wore. He admitted he had not expected his friend to think of that. “Sup, bro?” he boomed into it. “Smart idea! Impressed you got this working,” he teased.

“Eh, convinced one of the people here to do it,” said the swordsman. Ah, that made more sense. Good to know everything was right in the universe. “I need you at, uhm, where are we? Okay, the main detention block. Uh, maybe it’ll be on a map? Do they have maps here?”

“No sweat,” he assured. “I’ll just track your radio there in a flash!” Actually he would be following the GPS implanted in Zoro’s eye, but no need to mention that. Of course, once he and Robin got closer (those two kids were told to go meet Jinbe on the roof), they just followed the trail of destruction. Hmm, maybe make that a ‘line’ of destruction was more accurate, given how unnervingly straight it was? Especially since it was Zoro they were talking about after all.

A few minutes later, he found the swordsman standing in the doorway to an armoured room, and he walked right back in when he saw them.

Popping his head in, Franky saw a young teen in a black blouse and long black dress, short, sleek raven hair, and staring at some sort of golden, metal ring lay beside her like it might bite her if she touched it.

“It’s a control collar,” Zoro explained aloud. “They put it on her head to make her obey them.”

“Ah,” grunted Franky in anger. That was pretty disturbing alright. Just another reason to be getting back to Gaia. “So what do you need me for?”

“Well, once she picks it up, I want you to help her take it apart. And put it back together.”

At that utterly insensitive idea, the kid’s head snapped up to stare at Zoro.

“Ah,” said Robin as she got it. She sat down beside the younger teen, without touching her. “Zoro wants to give you control over it. But also teach you so that you can dismantle it and other such devices in the future. I’ve met former slaves, many of whom have become excellent lock pickers after they got free.” She gave her nakama a smile. “Good idea.”

“Thanks,” Zoro flatly said.

Comprehension dawned, and now with a dark resolve and satisfaction, the girl snatched up the collar, and stalked towards Franky.

“Are you afraid of me?” she asked, craning her neck to look up at him.

In answer he leaned to the left, bending that knee while straightening his right the other way. Throwing back his head, he raised his arms over his head to lock the wrists together, back-to-back, and cried out like a proud lion, “AOW! Life’s full of things to fear! Why else would we head out to see ‘em!? That’s the only SUPER way we can make them not so scary!”

For some reason she appeared utterly confused by that piece of sage wisdom. She squinted one eye at him, and carefully held up the headband to him. “Help me. Please?”

“Sure!”

Chuckling, Robin came over and put on a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “There are many things to fear in life. Things we ourselves have spent years being afraid of. Only to learn that when we are together, it does not have the strength to rule us.”

“We’re pirates,” grinned Zoro sharp and dangerous. “And we bow to no one, and nothing!”

!JUSTICE!

It took a few hours before they were all ready to leave back to the semi-truck.

Chopper made sure all the four teenagers who had attacked them were all in good shape, and the pirates were definitely taking them along. They might not exactly be the type of people Luffy liked to have hanging around, yet the kids deserved it.

More importantly, their presence would make it easier for Ace to adjust, and they were definitely keeping her. In her own quiet way, she had already won over their hearts.

Robin remained plastered to Ace, despite the girl barely reaching her shoulder. If anything, it almost seemed like a mother working to shield her child, with one arm around her shoulders now.

Brook entertained her by pulling his violin out of his ribcage (she liked that), and began playing Binks’ Brew as Franky showed her how to dismantle and put back together her enslavement again and again. Until she could do it with her eyes closed.

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

Zoro had never strayed out of Ace's sight from the start, always being there for her.

~Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew.~
~Sea wind blows, to where, who knows? The waves will be our guide.~
~O'er across the ocean's tide. Rays of sunshine far and wide.~
~Birds they sing, of cheerful things, in circles passing by.~

"Ace," Zoro spoke up. "Do you have a Dream? Something you wish to do above all else?"

~Bid farewell to weaver's town, say so long to port renowned.~
~Sing a song, it won't be long, before we're casting off.~
~Cross the gold and silver seas, a salty spray puts us at ease,~
~Day and night, to our delight, the voyage never ends.~

Without hesitation she looked up at Zoro while snuggling deeper into Robin, a small smile lightening up her face. "Yes.

~Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew.~
~Pirates, we eternally are challenging the sea.~
~With the waves to rest our heads, ship beneath us as our beds,~
~hoisted high upon the mast, our jolly roger flies.~

She pointed at Brook. "I want to go with you to be a pirate on seas like that."

~Somewhere in the endless sky, stormy winds are blowing by,~
~waves are dancing, evening comes, it's time to sound the drums.~
~But steady men, and never fear, tomorrow's skies are always clear.~
~So pound your feet and clap your hands 'til sunny days return.~

This startled them, until Zoro's smile somehow became all the more fierce and proud. Robin pulled out a satellite phone, and dialed one phone number.

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

Ace repeated her story over the phone to someone, with strange sounds in the background. Like whoever was listening was also eating. The words flowed out easier this time. They poured out like before, yet it was not as painful. Like she was setting aside a burden she had been carrying, making her feel lighter. Freer. At the end she asked one question.

~Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew.~
~Wave goodbye, but don't you cry, our memories remain.~
~Our days are but a passing dream, everlasting though they seem.~
~Beneath the moon we'll meet again, the wind's our lullaby.~

"Shishishishi," laughed the listener. "Of course! Besides, even Roger had Shanks for a Pirate's Apprentice! Rayleigh had lots of stories about that! Oh, and Buggy. But yeah, the future Pirate King should have one too! If Zoro and the others say you're up for the job, then welcome aboard!"

~Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew.~
~Sing a song, and play along for all the oceans wide.~
~After all is said and done, you'll end up a skeleton,~
~so spread your tale from dawn 'til dusk upon these foamy seas.~

A single tear ran down her face. It had been so long since it was worth crying, she swiped it up to look at it in confusion.

"Well, Ace," Robin softly asked. "Are you ready to leave this place?"

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

"Yes," said Ace, taking one last look at the headband laying on her lap.

Under her gaze it twisted and crumpled up.

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

~Yo-hohoho, Yo-hohoho~

!JUSTICE!

“So you’re the new meat, are you?” Poison Ivy said in greeting as Tennyson, Jackson, Frost, and Shackelbolt. She was carefully loading some more flowers aboard the truck trailer, planning to replant them elsewhere. She figured circ*mstances would not remain favourable around here for much longer. “Welcome aboard.”

“Thanks,” muttered Tennyson, who seemed a bit resentful, while mostly eager. For the rest, there was an unabashed hunger she could see dancing in their eyes. The type fueled by the hope of finding a new place to be, where you could be safe and appreciated.

The sort of eyes she was seeing increasingly often directed towards the Straw Hats.

“New meat indeed,” she muttered too quietly to be overheard.

Ivy said nothing more after that, although she raised an eyebrow at the sight of Ace, who had seemed to somehow step beyond the invisible bubble from being a mere Deckhand, and to being a full-fledged Straw Hat. Luffy’s reaction would be interesting.

A part of her chest hurt briefly before she dismissed it. Although now for some reason she was wondering if the others would feel jealous, especially at how fast it happened. Hmm, especially Maureen, who was about the same age . . .

Chopper loaded aboard all the research he and Cheetah had uncovered. Even if the means to discover it were reprehensible, it would be wasteful to just dispose of it.

‘Optimus’ transformed and folded back into a truck to the awestruck eyes of the male ex-prisoners, yet before they all got in to drive away, Zoro said, “Hold up.”

For the second time since coming to this accursed world, he drew all three swords, and took a firm stance.

The swords in his hands were held horizontally pointed left, with the one in his mouth the opposite direction, his body blurred to fast to be seen as he roared. "One Hundred Eight Caliber Phoenix!"

A blast of wind and violence and the government facility was torn apart as if tornadoes of blades had been fired into the very heart of it, destroying it all entirely.

“There,” he said nonchalantly, sheathing his blades. “Now we can go.”

!JUSTICE!

As they drove away, Zoro could not help but draw Sandai Kitetsu to stare at it. That had been too close. If not for his luck brushing his hand against the cursed artifact . . .

However now it made him curious as to what else there was to his swords. What more could he learn from the blades themselves? Was there more to them than Hawkeye had told him, wanting Zoro to discover it for himself?

Black blades. Cursed blades. How are they made?

!JUSTICE!

It was sunset when Waller’s helicopter arrived, her pilot already calling for reinforcements and medical help for the survivors. She could only stare down with a face like iron as she calculated who could be responsible for this.

Later they would be shocked to discover there was only a single fatality: the warden himself, who could have survived if he had been treated in time.

They also learnt who was responsible for this attack.

Just when I was planning to step up my plans for the assets here. Did they somehow know? Is this Straw Hat somehow two steps ahead of me?

A cold fury eased through her veins. Now they have a whole team that is supposed to be able to take on the Justice League, or most of them at least, all for their own. And who knows what they’re planning next!?

Chapter 18: A Knight of Shadows

Chapter Text

“I have something of interest,” grinned Talon Karrde, sliding over a folder. They were enjoying a pleasant lunch in an upscale restaurant which valued discretion and privacy. Well, he was eating a nice lunch, she was too cautious to even sip a glass of water.

“Why thank you,” smiled ‘Dr. Nami Mikan,’ opening it up. As usual, the information broker and his people had a new and surprising tidbit for them. Justifying the time and expense Robin had put into their business arrangement with him. After all, it would have been incredibly difficult for even her big sis to set up their own major intelligence network, particularly while also trying to lay low.

Oh, they had a small one of their own, especially thanks to their newfound friends on Earth, but it was a small organization overall. Hardly up to catching the sort of details she was reading now.

Harv Hickman. A former archaeologist who had suddenly left that line of work to publish those magazines Sanji had enjoyed until she had banned them. Not that she was one to take issue with how women chose to use their bodies, or for Hickman engaging in such an obviously profitable enterprise, or for boys to be boys. No, it had been because the excessive drool from the chef had gotten too much.

That said, Robin would probably break Hickman’s bones on principle for abandoning his previous career like that. Or at least scare the life out of him.

Karrde had been less interested in the man throwing away his previous, professional career, and more into Hickman’s sudden and meteoric rise to wealth, despite lacking the apparent talent, background experience, or, of special interest, the previous financing. Recently one of his agents had made a breakthrough, apparently getting close to him by acting as a high-class ‘escort.’ Or maybe she really was one, and regularly sold tidbits to interested parties. Either way, through the man’s drunken boasting, she had learnt the truth:

A magical stone.

By making wishes upon it, Hickman had amassed his fortune.

“I’m guessing that something like this is a bit too big for you, yes?” she asked.

“Correct,” he nodded, popping in another piece of juicy steak. After swallowing, he elaborated. “Hickman’s gotten by for years with it, yet sooner or later someone who actually knows how to use magic will come after him. Or other dangerous individuals. I don’t want to draw unwanted attention to me or my organization. However your group is rather struggling at being discrete as it is, while also being talented enough to successfully use this information.”

Noting the subtle warning, Nami’s eyes twinkled. “Robin and I am the only one who knows the specifics of our meetings, and we value our relationship with you. Here is a token of it.” Gently she passed over a briefcase full of cash, which Karrde did not even bother to count. He was aware the Straw Hat’s needed his expertise too badly to shortchange him. Even if at the last moment it seemed physically painful for the redhead to let go of the case. And of course he would have it counted later to be absolutely sure.

She finished reading through the notes on Hickman, memorizing everything. “We will look into this,” she promised, and got up to make her way out.

“Give my best to ‘Miss All-Sunday’,” he called after her. “I do miss our little games.”

Once outside, Nami drew her Clima-Tact from her cleavage faster than the regular Human eye could perceive, and performed a Mirage Tempo to make her invisible, while leaving an illusion of herself walking down the street. Karrde’s people had placed other forms of surveillance up beforehand as well, yet she had already subtly sabotaged all four layers of it. Partially, thanks to Cheetah’s training, her own ingenuity, and a little device Harley had provided. Something Joker had invented, and in turn taught his ‘girlfriend’ how to make, who then gave the designs to Franky to improve upon, which would scramble any cameras or gadgets trying to scan her. So when ‘she’ disappeared, the info broker’s operatives were stumped once more.

Good, Robin would hate to think her absence meant the psychological warfare going on between her and Karrde was on hold.

Back in the restaurant, the man in question chuckled to himself as one of his people came back with the disappointing report, and raised his wine glass in a silent toast. Ah, mysteries like this made life interesting.

!JUSTICE!

He very nearly does not go in.

Even at a glimpse it seems to be an open-shut case of thugs breaking into the rare book shop, and hurting the elderly owner in the process. The sort of thing the police can handle with ease, while he has been running on too little sleep after dealing with the Injustice League and the follow-up investigations, maintaining Bruce Wayne’s public appearances so he would not be connected to a certain vigilante, keeping up with Wayne Enterprises, and hunting down leads on the Straw Hats, and most of all trying to find where the Joker is. All on top of keeping the peace here in Gotham.

He was willing to, reluctantly admit that Wonder Woman had been . . . not unhelpful in suppressing the city-wide gang war which had sprung up. Except she was on enforced medical leave right now, and someone had to keep up the pressure.

So yes, he very nearly passed on by to head back home.

Only to remember his oath. What Batman was supposed to mean. To represent. Not to the superstitious criminals, but to himself.

So with that, Batman forced himself to go about with his usual professionalism.

A convenient skylight let him slip in, and with a flashlight started to look around. While most of the inventory was still here, books were strewn around in a manner to suggest someone was searching for something. Moreover, from the corner of his eye he saw the cash register was untouched. So it was for something specific then, and clearly not your usual break-in after all.

There was also a sensation that made him think he was not alone. Still surveying the area, he came to decision, and went to one book in particular which was laid open on a table, with a page visibly torn out. “The Philosopher's Stone,” he read out from the preceding page.

"According to legend, it was a gem from the hilt of Excalibur," a voice spoke up. A familiar man slipped in through the front door, his short hair a distinctive shade of dark-red, with a white streak down the center. “And the true source of the sword’s fabled power.”

“Hello, Jason,” greeted Batman. It had been a while since he had seen the occultist and old friend. The last time had been when he and Tim had helped free Jason Blood’s inner demon, Etrigan, from enslavement, and returned him to his host, although they had kept in contact since. It was always good to have a source available on the supernatural.

Although Bruce did not trust the man like he did Zatanna.

Or rather, he trusted Jason, but not Etrigan. Even if it was prudent to stay on good terms with the demon.

“I assume you’re not here to browse.”

“I’m a friend of the owner.”

“You mean that old man?”

“He’s thirty-two years old,” Jason calmly said, and Batman could not keep his eyes from widening at that revelation. Someone or something had aged the man at least fifty years then. “He’s also an expert in Arthurian lore.”

Hefting the book, Batman said, “What’s this all about?”

“Morgaine le Fay,” grimaced Jason. He turned aside to lean against the table. "When Camelot fell, Merlin was able to hide the Philosopher's Stone from her. Now she's returned to track it down again."

“Impossible.”

The occultist just turned to give him a look that was both heavy, pointed, but above all resigned. Clearly there was a story involved there. “You of all people should know better.”

Accepting that point, given his association with aliens, immortal women, etc., Batman got back on track. “Why does she want the gem?”

“With it, she can resurrect Camelot, and place her son Mordred on the throne.”

“Okay,” said Batman, unable to hold back a touch of skepticism. It was like he had stepped into a medieval fairy tale. Or a piece of history over 1,500 years old. “How close is she to finding this Philosopher’s Stone?”

“Too close.”

“And this book gave her the last clue,” concluded Batman. Decisively, “We’d better get going then. The Batplane’s nearby.”

“Thank you,” nodded Jason. “Ah, just one other thing,” Jason said with a grimace. “Sir Justin.”

“Also from Camelot,” nodded Batman. “I’m guessing you two know each other?”

The ancient man eyed the Dark Knight for a long moment, clearly wondering what he knew. While the man had told his tale to Tim about how Merlin had summoned a demon to defend Camelot, and after the kingdom fell bound Etrigan to one of King Arthur’s noblemen in service of Humanity, Bruce had noted how carefully he had worded that story. Not as if telling what had happened, but what others believed happened.

Reaching a decision, Jason said, “Yes. Centuries ago. Morgaine le Fay deceived me, allowing her to destroy Camelot, and kill King Arthur. Sir Justin knows this, and will be honour bound to kill me. While he will want the witch dead as well, I would rather he did not go after me and Etrigan first.”

“And you have the most experience fighting her,” nodded Batman. “Alright, I’ll keep him from being involved.”

Hopefully his companion was not emotionally compromised over this. Later he would have to do a fact-check with Shining Knight though.

!JUSTICE!

Watchtower

There was a special part of the Watchtower which seemed ironically alien on the space station.

Near the highly advanced landing bay, was an actual stable. Full of hay, a water trough, and finally a horse with wings.

Winged Victory, the white stallion was appropriately named.

His owner, Sir Justin, also known as Shining Knight, was giving his faithful steed a nice rub-down. It always served to relax him, while also showing his appreciation. Especially since he knew living here was hard on the horse. Unfortunately, it was impractical to have his partner living down on the planet, when the Justice League could be deployed anywhere on Earth. Far better for them to travel with the team in a javelin until they reached their target.

At least Winged Victory had a lot of room to walk and fly in the landing bay, and Superman and Wonder Woman regularly stopped by to help out as well. Apparently they were both familiar with horses, and liked them too. Flash of course kept wanting a ride, no matter how many times he was told “no.”

His loyal companion was not for the entertainment of others.

While his sword, Gearradh, never left his side, Justin was wearing jeans, and a loose if hardy shirt, perfect for working on a farm or with a horse. He continued his work, until Winged Victory huffed, and walked over to his big bucket of oats.

“Ah, you want to eat now then,” smiled Justin. “Very well. I admit, I’m glad of the chance to just sit here.”

Resting on a stool he kept there, and which Winged Victory respected and stayed away from, he sat down and closed his eyes. He embraced the quietness, and while the station was unfamiliar, the sound and smell of his most loyal companion balanced that out. The knight’s heart settled along with his breathing, and he let his mind drift back to that fateful day.

To Roronoa Zoro.

"'Duty,'" the word was sneered back. "Don't you mean 'Justice'?"

"Your sword is heavy with conviction," the villain conceded to the hero. "Except mine's greater."

A message left behind, written in the hero’s own blood.

"A true swordsman carries no wounds on his back. Also, a true swordsman is one who has learned how to not cut anything."

Sir Justin had thought of this often of course. Almost every day since his life had been spared. Which made sense, given how it had been less than two weeks ago. He was only even up and about because of, irony of ironies, products from Cherry Blossom Medical.

Now when he trained and sparred, he tried to imagine being back in that fight again, visualizing the pirate as his opponent.

He particularly enjoyed trading blows with Diana. While she had no interest in using one in battle, she was trained in the way of the sword, and her superior speed and strength made her an able substitute for Zoro. It was very good of Batman to recommend they do that.

Now though, he hoped to settle his thoughts more, to re-examine those words once again.

The first part was straightforward, and fit with theories the League had already discussed.

The second . . . was interesting. Realistically, while ‘conviction’ in a fight was indeed essential, strength, speed, skill, luck, and many more factors contributed to victory. Indeed, it was undeniable Zoro had held all those traits squarely in hand. So why did he so genuinely seem to believe that the strength of one’s feelings were more important? Was it something like Green Lantern’s Ring?

He would have to discuss that more with the others.

For how a swordsman should have no scars on his back, spoke more of the code of conduct Zoro had. As well as how he acted out of a sense of pride.

The last part though . . .

He honestly could still not figure out. The closest he could manage, was that Zoro was goading him to reach a level where he had complete control over his blade, and what it could and could not touch.

The pirate wanted another sword fight. Moreover, he wanted a challenging one. Which fit with both that vulgar bloodlust he excluded, as well as the aforementioned pride.

With a sigh, he dismissed those thoughts while he ran his hand through his hair. Unfortunately he feared he would be meeting the Straw Hats again in the not too distant future, and while he was making progress in further honing his talent, he knew he still had a long way to go to reach such a level.

Oh King Arthur, what would you do in my place?

!JUSTICE!

Straw Hat Base

Being responsible adults, Robin and the others had called ahead about their new companions, not entirely sure Luffy had passed on the word.

Which was understandable, if unnecessary, as Luffy had been quite happy to tell everyone that there were four new Deckhands (yes, that term had also been introduced by Robin and Co.), including a new Straw Hat pirate.

What.

Just. What.

It was a genuine toss-up over who was more shocked by the news. The Straw Hats themselves (besides Luffy), who had never gotten a crewmember before with such relatively low drama —"relatively" being the key term to describe the destruction of a government facility— or the senior Deckhands at learning a teenage girl had in a single day crossed that invisible line none of them had ever managed.

Harley had broken the glass she was holding, before pretending nothing had happened.

Volcana had been upset as well, except in her case it was more at hearing about more kids being used as human weapons. That aside, Maureen mattered more to her than her employers.

Finally they were home though, breaking a few speeding laws to be back just in time for Zoro’s birthday. Not that Sanji would really eat the cake himself if ‘Mosshead’ did not show up for it.

The massive, transforming truck pulled into a concealed entrance, and then through a tunnel which was also hidden, for the long ride to the pirate base. There were also some decoy passageways for added concealment of where exactly they lived.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for them upon arrival, and they all ambled out to meet them.

“Hey, Red,” said Harley to her friend, striving for nonchalance. “How was your trip?”

“. . . Peaceful,” Ivy answered, fighting against the tension in her brows.

Harley eyed the five new kids. “. . . Right . . .”

Any chance of decorum was promptly ruined by Luffy leaping over, sweeping up Ace in his hands to heft her up, and look her in the eye. “So you’re Ace, huh?”

She flinched a little in surprise, even if she recognized his voice. He just seemed so . . . ordinary, that she had overlooked him at first, trying to figure out who could possibly lead someone as awesome as Zoro, Robin, Jinbe, or Brook. In fact, he, and a bunch of the others, looked no older than her! Maybe even younger than Tennyson and the others?

However, now that he was in her face, she was starting to understand.

“Idiot!” snapped Zoro, whacking his Captain on the head with a sheathed sword. “Don’t startle her like that!”

“But I wanted to meet her!” he whined.

“Then do it nicely!”

“Captain,” Robin gently scolded, “please don’t upset her.”

Nami kneaded her forehead into the palm of her hand, except her going over there as well to take the idiot rubberbrain to task would only further crowd the younger girl. She straightened with surprise though when Maureen hurried over.

Ace tensed at the sight of the girl her own age coming towards her. Knowing she was intruding on her space, and her people—

“Hi!” chirped the cryokinetic, holding out one hand. “I’m Maureen! It’s great to have someone my age around here!”

Blankly Ace stared at the proffered offering for a moment, before accepting the handshake with a small smile. “Uhm, thanks. I’m Ace.”

“Nice to meet you. Oh, that over there is Volcana, the best big sister in the whole wide world. You know Luffy already. That’s Nami, she’ll want to get to know you more later. Sanji here is the bestest chef ever. Usopp’s the best shot with his slingshot, but it’s not like any slingshot you’ve ever seen before. Harley Quin’s the blonde there, and she’s got the best jokes.”

The brunette seemed to miss the hard look Harley was giving Ace.

“Clayface there, he does the best impressions, and uh, that’s everybody.”

“So they’re all the best?” Ace weakly joked.

“Yep!”

“Uhm,” Ace fiddled with her hands, before pointing at her fellow former prisoners. “That’s Kingsely Shacklebolt, Ben Tennyson, Emma Frost, and Daniel Jackson.”

“Hi!”

Sensing the mood in the room, Maureen started to drag Ace away. “C’mon, we got a room for you all settled up already. New clothes too if you want them, but Nami’s already planning to take us shopping later. Anyways, let’s let the older guys chat.”

They left the room, and went through a few hallways, before Maureen gave Ace a concerned look. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure? You seem all stiff.”

“I, wait,” Ace stopped, and gave Maureen a wary if befuddled look. “You really want to be my friend?”

A shrug. “Like I said, everyone else is a few years older than us. They’re still fun, except they don't always have time for us. So I’m hoping we’ll get along”

“So you don’t mind having me around? I mean, some of the stuff I heard on the ride when they didn’t think I could hear, you’re not upset I’m joining you all? Being an actual Straw Hat?”

“Well,” Maureen scratched her chin, and admitted, “a little bit. Just a little though. They warned us how dangerous it would be going home with them, and I don’t think Volcana wants to take me there given that. And, Luffy might be the best big brother ever, except I’ve still got Volcana, the best big sister ever, and that’s more important.

“So yeah, I’m fine with it.” She grinned. “So what are you the best at?”

The older teens and adults had all watched the girls leave, and Robin held up one finger while she eavesdropped. Ben, Emma, Kingsely, and Daniel all shifted awkwardly.

“Well,” Robin finally said. “I must confess that went better than I feared. I was a little worried Maureen might be a little jealous.” They had honestly not considered that about her little adoptive niece, until they were already on the road from the rubble that was once a prison. “She—”

“Well, we’re the ‘jealous’ ones!” cried out Harley, making sarcastic finger-quote gestures. “What gives!?”

“What do you mean?” asked Luffy quizzically.

“Wait,” broke in Usopp, palms raised. He gestured at Poison Ivy, Cheetah, and Grundy. “Did you guys not ask about this whole sudden new Straw Hat issue, during the trip back?”

Grundy looked sheepish and awkward, while Cheetah’s tail twitched about. “I didn’t want to be the one to raise a fuss. Seemed better to just wait until we got back after we learnt what was planned for Ace.”

“I didn’t care,” said Ivy, yet they could all see how stiffly she was holding herself. Even Chopper was barely fooled.

“Well you should!” shouted Harley. “Luffy, why’re you makin’ her, what was it, a cabin girl, and you’ve only just met her!?”

“Pirate Apprentice,” he said neutrally, as if it were no big deal.

Except of course to him, it probably was, which only fueled Harley’s growing rage and pain.

“Why!?”

“Why what?” Luffy said, maintaining that attitude.

“Why her and not us!?”

“You didn’t ask.”

The sheer bluntness and unfairness of his statement made her recoil, and the other ‘senior’ Deckhands flinch.

Because he was right. Even if they were still adjusting to the sheer scale of the information dumped on them, it had been a few days. More importantly, deep down something kept them from immediately saying, “We want to go.”

“We—” Harley paused, and Robin gently intervened.

“You don’t know yet, and that’s fine. However, hesitation will get you killed where we’re going, and she showed none of it. The world is so very different there, and a lot of things you take for granted are not there. No cities or technology like you are used to, for one. Completely alien governments and cultures.

“The closer you travel towards the ongoing struggle for the throne of the Pirate King, the less things like common sense, or natural laws, are applied.

“Seas where the weather can turn upon you in a blink of an eye as tornadoes tear apart your ship, savage sea monsters to devour you whole as you burn within their stomach acids. Impossible creatures out of myth and legend which cannot die. Once lush islands which are now only scorching fire, or frigid ice, with poisonous air.

“The worst of course are the people, where the weak serve only to be prey for whatever the strong desire. Many of whom have abilities beyond your imagination. You think you are freaks and monsters here? That you are powerful? Giants, beastmen, dwarves, fairies, fish-people, all of that and more. Your fairy tales don’t even begin to scratch the surface, and you’d be swallowed up without mercy if you don’t become stronger than you are now.

“All of that before we can even speak of our enemies, and the terrible prices we have already paid in our ongoing battles with them.”

Throughout that entire speech, Robin’s voice never lost its kindness nor warmth.

The ‘Demon Child’ had no trouble walking right back into such a nightmare. Smiling.

Meanwhile, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper were huddled together in a corner, sobbing and hugging their knees.

“She’s right!” wailed Usopp. “It’s all of that and worse! I mean, think of what Kaidou’s people want to do to us!”

“I’ve been turned into artwork before,” moaned Nami. “And that was just by a lackey of his lackey!”

“So many horrible things!” cried out Chopper.

The Deckhands were horribly disturbed now.

“Wh-why do you want to go back then!?” blurted out Kingsley. “Why not stay here!? You guys are like, top dogs! You could take this planet and rule it you’re so strong! Or even just a part of it if you want!”

A hand like iron gripped his throat, and as Nami crossed the room in an eye-blink and dragged his face down so he was gazing right into her pitiless, burning eyes. “What. Did. You. Say?”

Terror seized him up, and he knew here and now was where and when he died, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Usopp threw in. “That’s the only thing worse!”

“Yeah!” snapped Chopper, equally angry.

A distant part of Dr. Harleen Quinzel’s mind was deeply concerned about such emotional whiplash.

“You don’t want to be here,” realized Clayface with dawning comprehension.

“Obviously,” said Luffy, eyebrows knitted together. “We told you we’re going back home. Our Dreams are there.”

“No, no,” the former actor waved his hands. “It’s more than just that. You hate it here. More than what’s waiting for you back home.”

“Not hate,” said Sanji, lighting a cigarette. “More like completely and utterly loathe this place. Well,” he took a breath of nicotine, and blew it out, before appearing kneeling at the feet of Emma with a rose held out to her, “not everything.”

“Tch, quit freaking her out,” ordered Zoro.

“Can it Mosshead!” raged Sanji, kicking at him.

Jinbe however shouldered his way in between them. “This is not our world. We do not belong here, and neither do our Dreams.

“Without our Dreams,” hummed Brook, “what is the point of living?”

“And we’ve got friends back home too, who are counting on us!” added Luffy, still uncharacteristically serious.

“Family,” added Nami. She then gave a huff, “And even if I did stay here to rule Earth as your empress—”

“And all shall love her and despair,” Usopp muttered aside to Chopper, who had to stifle his giggles. Cheetah’s sharp ears caught it too, and it helped shake her out of her shock.

“—but how long do you think these idiots would last without their voice of sanity?”

The new Deckhands just kept quiet, while Emma resisted the urge to step back behind the others to make some space from Sanji. It was not like she really trusted her fellow ex-prisoners to really help her after all.

For the more senior members, they were only slowly shaking off how stunned they felt.

“I’m sorry,” said Cheetah, trying to keep any pity from her tone. “I didn’t realize how . . . painful it was for all of you.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Luffy with a shrug.

“But knowing all that, is it really alright to bring Ace along with you into such a mess!?” protested Volcana, choosing to ignore that little remark.

“Eh, she’ll be alright.”

“She’s just a scrawny kid!” protested Harley, still feeling some jealousy.

“Oy!” said Zoro with a touch of warning. “Yeah, she’s pretty slow right now, and definitely scrawny, but what you seemed to miss before when we called, is that she was winning against me.” His grin was an unfamiliar one to the Deckhands, being more proud than bloodthirsty. “That’s no small thing. There are a lot of people back home she’d be very dangerous to.”

That put the Deckhands off guard, and even the other Straw Hats were surprised. Sure they had heard the report, yet even after so much time had passed, they had not really internalized it. Especially since Zoro was addressing Ace as an equal in this, not as someone who had been caught off guard by a trick.

Taken aback, Harley tried to rally some other point, only for Ivy to coolly get her piece in. “She didn’t fight back though,” she said, arms tightly crossed across her chest. “That was your reason for why you didn’t want Harley to join originally. What’d Zoro call her again? That’s right, a weak crybaby because she didn’t fight back against Joker.”

A gesture at the new teens, “None of them did. Including Ace!

“So don’t tell me it’s all about her power, and her asking to come along!”

Ivy fought not to fidget as Luffy continued to stare at her with a blank face which did not belong where it was supposed to be sunny smiles, and yet seemed to be piercing the entirety of her soul. Seeing what she refused to voice aloud.

Zoro broke her gaze away from the Captain with a resigned sigh which somehow was heard across the room. He bowed his head in thought for a few moments, before frowning in frustration, and turning to Robin. “How would you word it?” he irritably asked.

Instead though, it was Nami who spoke up.

“Because she never lost sight of Dreaming for something else, as bad as it got,” the redhead answered neutrally. “She could still believe in something.” Nami’s shoulders shrugged. “And Robin, Brook, and Zoro want her to come along. She wants to come along. What else matters? Lot less screaming than when we got Chopper—”

“I was terrified of you!”

“—Or Franky’s nonsense—”

The man in question hunched over with a whimper.

“—And we got lucky with Jinbe showing up with us like this. Or any other silliness—”

The others recalled an assortment of blackmail, harassment, and outright declarations of war, and had to reluctantly agree.

So yeah, if anything this is all better.”

“Just like that?” Ivy said challengingly, ignoring Luffy now.

Nami’s level gaze never flickered. “I wasn’t much better off when Luffy found me, and he and the others saved me pretty much from what happened to Ace. And these guys.”

“. . . Every time I think I’ve got you guys figured out,” said Harley awkwardly, “you throw in a bomb like that.” The rest of the Earthlings were equally disturbed by the implications of the fiery, independent woman being in such straits.

“Not all of us had happy lives before we found each other,” was Nami’s cryptic response, with a faint, and decidedly not nice, smile.

Once more the Straw Hats were quiet in an unnervingly tense manner.

With a groan, Luffy stretched his arms back. “Talk, talk, talk, again! Sanji! Is Zoro’s party food ready!?”

“Just about, Captain,” Sanji dutifully said.

“Great! Chopper, Usopp, we’ve got to finish the decorations!”

“Tch!” hissed Zoro. “Don’t go overboard, idiots!” he said, pacing off after the giggling trio.

Coughing into his fist, Jinbe said, “We really should get settled in, and ready for the party. That way we can all get to know each other better.”

“Ugh, fine, whatever,” groaned Harley into the palm of her hand. “I’ll drop it. I’ll even find some time for therapy for them later.”

With a snort, Tennyson spat on the ground. “We don’t need no therapy!”

“Anyone who says that, definitely needs therapy,” Harley declared, not at all offended by his attitude. Honestly, she did not even blink if Joker went around leaving bleeding corpses all over the furniture. “Yep, extra special treatment!”

“Just don’t tie them down,” said Volcana, not wanting to give a bad first impression to some kids who she figured were in a bit of denial.

Honestly though, some counseling would probably do them a world of good. Goodness knows, having the chance to relax, talk, and work out some issues had done miracles for her and the rest of the Deckhands. A home where they could be themselves, and not suffer for it. To say nothing of basking in Luffy’s (mostly) unconscious kindness.

Although right now the recently escaped ex-Human weapons and lab rats were looking a tad concerned.

“Only if they don’t show up for their sessions. Or if I have to do a surprise one.”

“No surprise sessions.”

“It’s for their own good!”

“Ambushing people and tying them up, before demanding they talk about their feelings, is not healthy!”

As this exchange continued, Usopp blandly told the wide-eyed newcomers, “Last chance to run while you can.”

!JUSTICE!

Fortunately, Jason Blood knew where to go.

With his directions, Batman flew his Batplane to a scenic, medieval castle in England, which had since been turned into a museum.

“The Stone was concealed within Merlin’s ark within Castle Branek,” explained Jason. “Magic hid the whole place for centuries, only to be recently found and excavated after World War Two. At a guess, when the Germans were bombing the nearby city, they accidentally destroyed parts of the ward array, and dispersed the glamour.”

“And you never looked yourself?” asked Batman.

“I completely missed it,” he admitted. “During the war, I was busy keeping Nazis occultists from summoning demons, and did not hear about it until a few years later. The possibility of magic was dismissed by more ‘enlightened’ minds, and various explanations were brought up. While it was interesting from a historical perspective, nothing noteworthy was reported found either. I only just recently put the clues together.”

He shared a few more details about the properties of the artifact, so Batman would know what to look for. Afterwards, there was no further conversation even when they arrived, and Jason directed them. Batman appreciated the silence, even as he picked the various locks, and disabled the alarms.

Unerringly, he led them to a long hall, with empty suits of armour lining the sides. At the far end, Batman’s flashlight illuminated what looked like a large, stone coffin. Or perhaps a vault of some kind. Regardless, it was openly displayed for whoever entered the room, and Jason’s aim.

They lifted the lid, only to their dismay to find it completely empty. Jason placed his palm down on the bottom, and moved it around a little until it lit up in a bright yellow light beneath his fingertips.

Magic.

“She’s been here,” he reported, “but she doesn’t have the Stone. Yet.”

“How can you be sure?”

As if in answer, the door to the room slammed shut, and the weapons on display along the walls lit up with the same coloured glow as before. They flew up into the air, and then fast at the two men.

“Get down!” barked Batman, shoving Jason aside, before jumping himself. He grabbed a sword from a suit of armour, and ordered, “Jason! The door!”

He shielded Jason with his body, while once more the weapons flung themselves at them. With his own though, he deflected them so they harmlessly impaled the floor.

Unfortunately they kept coming, and he could feel the strain to his muscles, even as Jason called back, “It’s sealed shut!”

To make matters worse, the suits of armour were also now silhouetted in yellow, and began to advance, weapons raised to kill.

Ducking aside, Batman parried more strikes, kicked one down, and wrapped up another in a wire.

He turned to see Jason backed up helplessly against a wall by two suits, and dashed over to kick one down. A leap into the air before the second could strike him, and he came down to grab its head for him to use his own momentum to throw it into a pack of others.

Grabbing an axe, Jason struck at the one at his feet until it could no longer move.

The rest were back up and on the move, and despite how light all that exertion had been, Batman fought to keep his breath even.

The door crashed open, sending Jason flying to the ground.

Shaking his head, he looked back up to see what had happened—

—and his eyes met those of an old friend.

Sir Justin.

Shining Knight took in the fight before him in a glance, before catching sight of how he had unfortunately knocked someone down in his entrance. While Gearradh remained drawn and ready, he looked down to offer his apology before joining the fray, when he felt a spark of recognition.

No.

Impossible.

It had been centuries, it could not be.

Especially not with Batman.

Except he could see that familiar face go pale as he leapt to his feet. How the person knew him in turn, and was afraid. Which they should be, if it was—

“YOU!” roared the Last Knight of Camelot. “JASON BLOOD YOU TRAITOR!”

Uncharacteristically hungry for violence, his blade rose and fell like lightning.

Desperately Jason used his axe to deflect a blow and stood, only for a shoulder to send him sprawling to the ground a few meters away. With a groan of pain, he knew he could not win.

Of all the Knights of the Round Table, only Lancelot and Arthur had surpassed Justin in combat and tourneys. With that armour enhancing his strength, and his mystical sword able to cleave anything before him, there was no hope.

Not like this.

It was bitter irony that it was the very woman who had destroyed him, who now saved him.

Morgaine’s animated suits of armour were too simplistic to wait for Shining Knight to finish off Jason, and attacked him too. Only one was left to fight Batman, but he was still on the other side of the room.

With a cry of rage, the newest member of the Justice League cleaved them down, carved them into too many pieces to rise again, yet that was all the time needed.

“Gone, gone the form of man. Rise the demon, Etrigan!”

With those words intoned in greater haste than in years, a familiar hellfire roiled out of Jason Blood, and his form shifted and changed.

His body was hunched and muscular, with a skintight red suit which covered his torso and upper legs. A black belt, and white and black bracelets, and a purple cape. Most striking was his bright yellow skin, the inhuman features, red eyes, short horns on his now-bald head, and ears like fins.

With a growl he bared his fangs, and snarled at the pretentious oaf.

“I see,” said Shining Knight with false dispassion. “So you sold your soul to a demon. Yes, this explains much.” He hefted his blade. “Now today, you pay for your uncountable sins.”

“Justin, wait—” said Batman, only for his words to be lost in the wordless cry from the knight as he leapt with a thrust.

Only for Etrigan to casually leap away several meters with a standing jump.

Again Shining Knight gave chase, and Etrigan just growled his displeasure as he evaded.

Having fought the demon before while under the control of Klarion, Batman knew how significantly out of character this behaviour was. Which made him stop and watch instead of intervening. So far.

“Coward!” raged Shining Knight, which finally snapped the other out of his silence.

“So self-righteous!” snarled Etrigan. “But where were you when Camelot fell!? You could have stopped it!”

“None of your concern,” glared Sir Justin. “Only that it was by order of my king that I left for an important mission.”

“I see,” nodded Etrigan with narrowed eyes. “So he had you hide it.”

The Philosopher’s Stone? wondered Batman. But he said Merlin hid it.

Barring his teeth, Justin raised Gearradh once more.

“This is pointless! The witch Morgaine le Fay is after the Philosopher’s Stone!”

“So I will kill her lackey and be done with it!”

“Wait,” said Batman in a harder tone this time, stepping between them. “Jason Blood is an old friend, and has led me to find le Fay.”

“A deception!”

“Then who cast the magic on these suits of armour to try and kill us?” Batman asked in a reasonable tone of voice. “She is responsible for this, and we can’t risk her getting her hands on something so powerful.”

He craned his head to look back at the demon. “Etrigan, could you let Jason back? We need to work together, and Shining Knight won’t hurt me.”