Disclaimers: Batman created by Bob Kane, Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston. All three are owned by DC Comics, Justice League: The Animated Series. I own the story and any original characters; no copyright infringement is intended.

Synopsis: JL-animated fic; Someone or something trying to kill Wonder Woman. As the JL attempts to deal with public scrutiny being directed at them in the aftermath of the Kasnia incident, the Amazon Princess becomes the target of several seemingly random but potentially lethal "accidents". It falls to the Dark Knight Detective to discover who wants her dead and why. But as he does, he must come to terms with his feelings for Diana.

Shadows and Scars: Part VI

Though based primarily in Gotham City, the multi-billion conglomerate Wayne Enterprises operated numerous satellite facilities in cities all across the world, from Sydney and Athens to Star City and Coast City. The facilities dealt in everything from medical development to technological advancement. Others like the Metropolis branch, dealt with astrological research and aviation assembly.

It was in the Metropolis facility that the Javelin-7-A had been assembled the previous week and where the Dark Knight Detective now found himself living up to his profession of investigation, observation, and detection, searching out potential clues into why the newest Javelin-7 craft had fired on a member of the Justice League.

His physical search, however, had yielded little to nothing.

He had gone through stacks of paperwork, lockers, tool kits, etc. All he had found out of the ordinary was a “Girls Gone Wild” twelve-month calendar, abnormal to his eyes not just that it was two years out of date, but the month that he had first flipped had featured an …interesting take on Diana’s Amazonian costume.

While Tim and Dick would most likely be amused at something like this, the Amazon known as Wonder Woman would most certainly not be – nor was the Batman, even though the closest he had come to seeing something what had been on the calendar had been weeks earlier at the beneficiary in Paris after Diana’s dress had been totaled following the terrorist attack. He had eschewed love and human desires in favor of The Plan – and he would continue to do so until the day that his mortal coil was extinguished.

A rare smile came to the facial projection of the cowl.

Bruce had, even before his parent’s deaths, never quite fond of Shakespeare, yet he had indulged Alfred’s occasional quotes alongside his almost nightly reprimands towards his employer on his line of work.

And speaking of which…

He tapped the communications transmitter built into the interweaving of kelvar and nomex fibers.

“Computer, commence uplink with Cave.”

“Uplink established.”

There was a momentary silence as the Batman knew his colleagues on the other end were preparing to open an audio channel.

“Batgirl here.”

As a rule, the Batman never addressed his fellow fighters in the war on crime by their real names and vice-versa.  It was more than simply because of the risk of identities being exposed. The reason lay in the travels of his youth when had met a shaman that had taught him the art of the mask and how it symbolized shedding all aspects of the original identity and assuming the persona of that new one as long as the mask was worn.

Sadly, Dick, Tim, and most certainly the Flash failed in that concept and in his personal case, it was more of the other way around.

“I take it the physical search’s not going well.”

“It’s not; what have you found?”

He knew Barbara liked to think of herself an oracle of information, especially given how limited her chances to operate in the field as Batgirl were becoming. True, she was long out of college, but the hassles of her daily job and her father’s health were making it difficult. Nevertheless, she always enjoyed the opportunity to run the Batcave’s mainframe with the ease she had always employed.

“Nothing from my end either.”

As the Green Lantern known as John Stewart had been told three years previous, the women of the Amazon race were born for war and lived for the battle. Unfortunately, it was hard to wage war on non-Amazons and the League’s assorted collection of costumed rogues when one was confined to the Watchtower sickbay.

Needles to say, the inactivity was driving the daughter of Hippolyta absolutely crazy.

She had tried to find other methods to pass what was sure to be her remaining hours in the sickbay until J’onn discharged her and the cellular regeneration was complete. So, she had spent the time trying to catch up at first by watching a show that Princess Audrey of Kasnia had recommended to her, a series called Stargate SG-1.

The series was typical of the programming that she had seen over the last three years in Patriarch’s World: overblown and hard to understand, especially compared to Greek drama. However, she knew of the Egyptian gods very well and found the show’s concept that these gods like Ra and Anubis had been in fact alien parasites called the Gou’ald, initially disturbing yet strangely fascinating at the same time.

Perhaps that was why Audrey had recommended it.

Yet, she had only been able to get through one or two episodes, so had instead opted to continue an experiment she had begun in examining Greek culture as seen through the eyes of Patriarch’s world. This juncture consisted of reading the works of the poet Homer, most notably The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Her mother had known of Homer and had, when Diana had been a child, newly formed from the clay that had been given life by a gathering of gods and goddesses, but the tale she had told Diana over the years was far different from the one she was reading, namely the story’s portrayal of certain events and individuals – but this was understandable, especially considering the Hades of myth and the Hades that the League had fought two years previous.

Still, there was one thing that remained consistent in both versions of The Odyssey and that was Odysseus, a selfless and noble man who performed many miraculous deeds using only his cunning and natural talents.

For these reasons, when she read of Odysseus, she could imagine Batman in that role. Of the men she had met since arriving in the world outside of her former island home he most--

”Argh.”

A shadow had fallen across the pages of her copy of Homer’s epic. It was if someone was blocking the incoming sunlight from the view-port.

Maybe it’s Batman.

She found herself uncharacteristically giggling slightly. The idea of the Batman coming to her in bed was well amusing and since he had proven that he could appear and disappear at will--

Diana’s smile dropped as she glanced out of the view port and saw the cause of the shadow.

Oh no...

The Watchtower had been designed with state-of-the-art maneuvering thrusters and gyro-stabilizers that kept the station’s movement to a minimum as it orbit high above  the blue, green, and white sphere of the Earth.

Needless to say, when an explosion rocked the Justice League’s base of operations, something like that certainly didn’t go un-noticed.

In the Monitor Womb, Superman grasped the handles of the chair of command, Flash and J’onn struggling to hold onto the shaking bulkheads. Alarm klaxons began blaring and the viewport blast-doors came crashing down.

“J’onn, status?!”

The last Martian scanned his board and frowned.

“I’m not sure exactly. As far as the sensor array shows, the Watchtower has suffered a hull breach.”

“Exterior or interior?”

“Exterior.”

“Where exactly?

He glanced at the board again and the color drained from the Martian’s typical dark green complexion.

“Level 12, Section 31.”

Flash’s eyes widened as even his often-slower-than-average brain put two and two together.

“That’s sickbay!”

None of the others listened to Flash as their eyes were drawn to the display monitors from one of the exterior holo-cameras recording Wonder Woman flying out of the breach in sickbay, despite her attempts to hold onto

Less than a second later, the control room was empty, devoid of all sound and movement save for the beeping of the alarm klaxon, save for that same monitor showing all members of the Justice League that were capable of unaided survival in space now pulling their comrade back from the vacuum of space and into the Watchtower shuttle bay.

Batman stood atop the hill overlooking the facility once again. He could call down the orbiting Batwing at any moment and return to Gotham City. But he couldn’t, at least not yet. Ultimately, neither his physical analysis or Batgirl’s technological abilities had yielded any new clues into the mystery of the Javelin’s malfunction.

Maybe that’s all it was, just a malfunction. Maybe he was too tired to clearly see all of the facts. Perhaps even--

“Batman!”

The Dark Knight snapped to attention, his face looking in any and all directions, a hand on the utility belt compartment containing his seemingly endless supply of Batarangs, ready to discharge the bat-shaped shuriken at his opponent, at the common or super criminal that disturbed his privacy and his solitude.

It was, however instead of a common thug or insane rogue, the Green Lantern. But as he was descending towards the hilltop, Batman could clearly see that John Stewart had a haggard look upon his face, instantly alerting him to the fact that something bad had happened.

“There’s been another accident, hasn’t there?”

Stewart nodded as he touched down in front of his colleague.

“Hull-breach in sickbay; it looks like an asteroid collided with the hull.”

The Batman’s eyes narrowed

“Is Diana alive?”

“Yeah, but just barely; Superman wanted me to get you.”

Batman struggled to find words for a moment as his mind reeled.

First the Javelin had fired on Wonder Woman and now an asteroid had breached sickbay while she had been recuperating.

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Let’s go, now!”

Had either the Detective or the Emerald Knight stayed where they were for just a few moments before the former was ferried by the latter’s emerald energies towards the heavens, they would have seen that they were not alone.

They, as well as the Batman’s search through the facility, had been carefully observed and watched by a figure hidden in the shadows of the nearby buildings on the air-field in a manner that rivaled the Dark Knight’s camouflage techniques.

This shadowy figure stayed in that position until the sun began to rise in the dawning skies and his dark recess began to retreat from the onslaught of the light. The figure smiled through the remnants of the inky darkness. Yes, the Amazon had survived.

But that had been expected.

In fact, that had been part of the plan in the first place. And what a plan it was.

Everything that had happened this far was nothing  compared to what would follow next and this figure knew that the others who had helped to shape this stratagem would agree.

But it was far from over.

In fact, none of these heroes, not even the Batman, had any real idea as to what had begun there this day.

To be continued…

Author’s Comments

Sorry it took so long to get up this next chapter. As always, I hope you enjoyed it. Based on Diana’s conversation with Princess Audrey in Maid of Honor (where Princess Audrey teased Diana for having “feet of clay,” and Diana’s responsed with, “You have no idea”) I’m going with Diana’s post-Crisis origin for the animated Justice League.