Chapter 77 Brother Eye.

(General P.O.V)

"Gotham residents this morning of December the 16th, woke up to a shocking discovery. Half of their city was in rubble."

The newscaster said, an image of collapsed Skyscrapers, shattered streets and smog appearing beside her.

She continued articulately,

"The outskirts suffered minimal damage in comparison to the origin of the massive explosion. One that caused a reported casualty of close to 50,000 dead, over 100,000 injured and millions missing. Emergency services quickly set up and begun evacuation."

"Then in a surprising but welcome turn of events, Gotham was brought back whole. Most of the dead were resurrected with the exception of over 10,000 people. The authorities are still looking into the matter."

Wonder Woman tapped an icon on the pad before her and the news report paused.

"We failed."

She sighed.

The meeting hall was silent. All available League members sat around the large table for the debrief.

"The 10,000 civilians we couldn't save...they were sacrificed to Trigon to increase his power."

Zatara informed them.

"Without Davian and the girl, Raven...our losses would have been greater."

He added.

"That's not really saying much when she was the one responsible for this catastrophe in the first place."

Captain Atom spoke up.

"But then she tried to undo her mistakes. She died to bring back a lot of people. The blame doesn't lay with her."

The Flash countered.

"Who does it lay with then? Batman?"

Superman sighed.

"He is one of us. And we know he's had...problems with the boy. What happened when you confronted them, Zatara?"

Superman's question made the magician similarly sigh.

Then Zatara proceeded to explain everything to them. The whole interaction between Batman and Davian, the animosity each displayed towards the other, the lie that broke Gotham...

When he was done, Wonder Woman punched the table, making the metal dent.

"This time he has gone too far!"

"I should have foreseen this."

Superman sighed, running his palm across his face.

"We let this happen."

"No we didn't. It's true that we saw the signs. Bruce was mind controlled. That usually leaves scars. We chose to trust that he would overcome that trauma but the incident only increased his Paranoia. He needs help, not persecution."

Black Canary defended him.

"He indirectly caused the deaths of over 10,000 people. Does that mean nothing?"

Wonder Woman demanded.

"Will the families who lost their loved ones accept that he needs help?"

"And he has also saved millions more." Canary countered getting off her seat, to glare at Wonder Woman.

"We know there wouldn't be a Justice League without Bruce."

The hall immediately devolved into arguments.

The two Legionnaires outside the hall looked at one another in consternation.

"Huh...it doesn't usually get that heated. Any moment now and they will calm down."

Shazam told them from where he was leaning on the wall.

"Probably."

He added as the shouting increased.

"We understand. All teams must argue, it's how you know they care enough."

Dawnstar assured.

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"You should see our annual general meetings. Someone usually ends up shoved through a wall."

Karate Kid added.

******

"Hal is dead."

Stewart said, Killin the argument going on.

"But you would rather argue over a man who is not even conscious to defend himself. When did we get so... unfocused?"

The Lantern questioned morosely.

He looked at each of them. The faces of the League reflected back at him showed shame, anger and worry.

He stood up from his seat.

"I need to go arrange his...send off. I also need to contact friends and families."

He turned to Red Tornado.

"Could you inform me when Batman wakes up? The Guardians will want to speak to him."

Then he flew off. No one stopped him.

******

"See, I told you they would calm down."

Shazam spoke up once the arguing stopped.

"So..you guys are from the future huh?"

The Champion of the gods asked nervously.

Karate Kid smirked, sharing a look with Dawnstar.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone your secret."

"Oh...thanks."

Shazam breathed out a sigh of relief, then he stood up straighter, tapping his ear piece as communication came through.

"They're ready for you."

Shazam informed the two Legionnaires.

******

Dawnstar couldn't believe she was inside the Justice League's famous Watchtower.

It had been destroyed and rebuilt so many times in the future it was crazy.

They stepped through the entrance and found themselves the object of every Leaguers attention. She shared a nod with Karate Kid before stepping forward.

"My name is Dawnstar and this is Karate Kid. We're both from the 31st century."

She formally introduced the both of them.

"31st century? That's a long way from home. How are the others?"

Superman asked.

Out of everyone, The Man of Steel was more familiar with the Legion of Superheroes from the future. They had called upon his assistance many times before.

Karate Kid reached into his pocket, withdrawing a small triangular object.

"Bouncing Boy says hi. He also told us to give you this."

He threw it at the Man of Steel who grabbed it and turned it over in his hands. The object had the symbol of the house of El.

"What is it?"

The Man of Steel asked with a frown but both Legionnaires shrugged in ignorance.

"He didn't say. Only that you're apparently the only one who can open it."

Dawnstar replied.

"Thank you."

The Kryptonian nodded in gratitude.

"Now then, I'm sure you didn't come all this way to deliver just that."

Green Arrow addressed them.

"We didn't."

Dawnstar agreed.

"We were sent back here to warn you of a catastrophe. One that will make the Gotham incident look tame in comparison."

Her words filled everyone with trepidation.

"15 years from now, a virus one created by an Artificial Intelligence called Brother Eye, manages to wipe out half of the human population."

She started off grimly.

"That was the original timeline. The virus will be unleashed sometime this year."

At this, the already low mood plummeted even lower.

"You can't be serious."

Shazam said, a wide eyed look on his face.

"I wish she wasn't, but it's true."

Karate Kid replied with a shake of his head.

"How do we stop it?"

Wonder Woman questioned, getting right to the heart of the whole matter.

"Before I get to that, you need context."

Dawnstar cleared her throat.

"Brother Eye was supposed to be an artificial intelligence designed to monitor the world of priority Alpha threats. Then it would deal with them incase the League was occupied or unavailable."

She explained.

"Who created it?"

Zatara cut in.

Karate Kid and Dawnstar shared a look.

"Wayne enterprises."

Dawnstar answered.

"Why am I not surprised?"

Wonder Woman bit out, looking towards Canary.

"This only proves my point."

The latter said nothing, merely sighing and turning to the Legionnaires.

"There must be a reason why. We all know Batman, he wouldn't do something that risky without a good reason."

"You're right." Karate Kid crossed his hands together.

"This involves a few things we're not allowed to say, lest we change the future."

"You being here has already altered the timeline."

The Flash was quick to remind him.

"Yes and no."

Dawnstar replied before her colleague could. She held up her hand, on one of the fingers was a ring with a stylized L on the signet.

"This is a legion ring. Apart from the flight capabilities, Braniac 5 fiddled with the settings so anything not concerning the reason why we came back is out of our capabilities to change."

"The rings are shielded by a temporal matrix that aligns probability with every major time point of the original timeline."

She concluded.

"In other words, even if we tell you what threats you might face tomorrow, you won't be able to change anything. The words might come out garbled and nonsensical."

Karate Kid simplified.

"That makes no logical sense. You've already shifted the timeline by being here. You're not in control of our actions..."

Green Arrow debunked.

"That is true. But you're missing the point."

Dawnstar answered.

"Braniac accounted for our presence. The time and place for our arrival was meticulously calculated as to have a 0.000023% effect on the 31st century's timeline. That number goes up exponentially with every major spoilers we give you."

"The kind of intellect it would take for someone to make all those calculations is... unimaginable."

The Flash marvelled.

"Well, he's not the only 12th intellect level being in the universe for nothing. Braniac is smart in all caps."

Karate Kid told him.

"Back to Brother Eye, if you won't tell us why Bruce creates a genocidal maniac, at least tell us who unleashes it."

Hawk-woman told them.

Dawnstar had a downcast expression as she answered.

"That we don't know. The only thing we're sure of, is that it will happen sometime in 2010."

"There's a way we can find that out."

Red Tornado's robotic voice cut through the atmosphere.

Everyone turned their attention to the android.

"Batman reported a break in at his home. According to the report, the culprits were led by Talia Al Ghul and seemed to have accessed information from the Batcomputer, before Batman was able to stop them."

"That gives us a lead. The information they accessed might have something to do with the Brother Eye project." Superman addressed the room.

"If we can find Talia and her organization then we can hopefully stop this before things get dicey."

Canary agreed with the Man of Steel.

(Elsewhere)

Sasha Bordeaux stood on the roof of a building overlooking the site with a pair of binoculars.

This was a bad idea. A massive, terrible, stupid, dumb idea.

But she was a soldier. Following orders was par the course.

She tapped on her ear piece.

"Target spotted."

She informed command.

"Affirmative. Confirm location is out of the blast radius?"

A voice said from the other end.

Sasha swept her gaze out at her men.

"We are. Do it."

She gave the go ahead.

"Initiating attack."

With those ominous words, the sky lit up.

Then a ray of red energy fell ontop of the Junkyard just as Davian stepped out of the pocket dimension, through the rusted car door.

He looked up and saw the brilliant attack headed for him and all he could say was,

"Huh?"