to: Dragonscorch, miss-meowness, aquablue15, and Ameliasiobon: Hope you like this one ;)

to: TheImaginativeFox: sorry this isn't your suggestion...at least, not yet ;)

Notes:I won't bother you with my excuses so, do enjoy the story.

Dick lay back on the reclining seat and tried for the umpteenth time to relax. He was surrounded by hundreds of movies and video games still in their unopened boxes - but he can't get himself to take any of them down. The still unused complete gymnastics equipment gleamed off to one side, while the entire room still smelled of new leather.

And all the while, the almost-hidden outline of the main entrance silently laughed at him from the corner of his eye.

It started when Watchtower picked up the signals of a small fleet of spaceships heading for Earth. When hails from the Tower were ignored, Supes ordered a quick check of the incoming aliens.

The fleet's sudden acceleration preceded Manhunter's revelation by two seconds; he declared that the aliens were of a race that frequently ran the gamut from thievery to intergalactic kidnapping and slavery; driving other aliens to steer clear of dealings with this particular race. With such a bad rep, it could only mean one thing: they were hostile aliens and they mean to do bad things.

All the League members currently in the Tower were sent on yellow alert while attempts were made to assess the fleet's combat-capability - and their intentions, for Superman was almost always an optimistic guy. But it didn't take long to figure those intentions out.

When the fleet changed course so it was approaching the Watchtower instead of Earth, Martian Manhunter came to Dick and told him of a remote access hub that would help direct the League members outside of the Monitor Room. Dick, thinking that Batman must have had a secondary computer system built in case the main one was compromised, followed the Martian.

The only clue he had that things weren't as he expected was when J'onn dematerialized as soon as the door was shut.

"J'onn?"

I'm sorry, Richard, came the mental message, this is Batman's protocol.

"Oh no, he didn't," Dick ran to check on the door to confirm that yes, he'd been locked in and yes, Batman had installed security programs on the panel that wouldn't even allow him access. Who the heck speaks broken Latin laced with binary?

Dick groaned, slammed a fist at the shiny wall (ouch! Okay, not gonna do that again...), and sprawled at the nearest reclining chair. He then spent the next couple of minutes checking on everything in sight for possible alternate escape routes but so far, no such luck. Even the air vents were locked with that same Latinary code.

He was well and truly trapped in this place while aliens rushed the Watchtower. Oh, Bruce was gonna hear it from him good when he got home later.

So here was Dick, stuck in this freakin' panic room, bored to death despite all the amenities the place had to offer. He didn't even have live reports of what was happening outside and-

The door blasting inwards broke Dick from his thoughts.

His first impression of the figure that stomped in was hulking, armoured, and armed with a mean-looking blaster. It was enough for him to be on his guard when the alien approached and aimed the blaster at him.

The lizard-like head curled back its lips to show an impressive row of sharp teeth and spoke in hisses and clicks. Its gold-coloured armor almost immediately translated, "This is what the Police League wanted to keep safe? Huxi is not impressed."

"Well, we certainly didn't build this just to impress you." Dick retorted, his hands already reaching for his eskrima sticks.

The lizard's lips widened even further. "Not to impress, no. Just to keep Huxi out."

And the alien pulled the trigger.

But Dick was already moving. The stuffed armchair he'd been sitting on burst in a controlled explosion, missing Dick by inches. He dove to one side and brought out his eskrima sticks while rolling to his feet. The alien tracked him with its blaster and he rolled again to the other side to avoid the second blast.

"Keep still!" The alien scolded him. "Huxi will show Police League is stupid to keep little human safe."

"Yeah, like I'd make it easy for you!" Dick jumped over another blast, feeling it burn close to his hip. But his zigzagging pattern had brought him to just a couple of steps away from the alien. And it was turning to aim at him again. He dropped into a roll and kicked out at one of the alien's ankles.

It gave a startled cry and staggered, the blaster's nose aiming away. Dick shoved up and struck at the alien's head, dropping it to the floor.

"Thanks for opening the door," he told the stunned alien and started to exit the vault.

But that was when he felt something bump into the small of his back - then his entire body came painfully alive with bursting lights and burning fire. It felt like hours had passed, but when he could finally unscramble his brain enough to make sense, he realized the burst had taken only a minute or two.

And it felt like a freakin' lightning strike; like hundreds of fireworks exploding inside his body and breaking his thoughts into pieces. So by the time he could finally take input from his senses, he was staring at the floor and wondering why he was upside down.

Oh right, that's because another alien had hoisted him over its shoulder. A weak tug confirmed that his wrists were restrained behind his back.

"-stupid Huxi," the second alien was saying, "Captain said no destroying Police League's valuable. And look what Huxi do. Huxi should be happy Issri come by and check."

"Huxi had control." The first alien replied. Dick could only see glimpses of it through the corner of his eye walking beside the second alien. He couldn't move his head in any direction, and his muscles kept twitching and sending throbs of pain every second.

"Stupid Huxi. Doesn't matter if Police League valuable hurt or not; when Captain says no destroying valuable, no shooting everything."

The first alien made a clicking-grumbling sound but Dick wasn't paying any attention to the aliens now; because he'd just spotted a bright red cape lying limp on the ground.

"S-Sshuuup..." It felt like trying to talk with a huge wad of cotton in his mouth.

"Quiet, human," the alien carrying him growled and jolted his leg with a short burst of electricity. This time, the pain was localized to his leg and Dick focused on it to force the rest of his body to respond.

"Little human must be very valuable," The first alien hissed. "Police League keep wanting Issri to stop hurting human."

"Issri not impressed," The second alien answered with yet another jolt to his leg. "Little human is weak. One sparking and human is down."

"Stop...stop that...!" That was Superman's voice. A little weakened, but it still brought Dick relief to know that the hero was mostly alright.

"Stop this?" There was a smirk in the second alien's voice. Another jolt came and Dick jerked at the pain. He could move better now but he was still mostly paralyzed and oh how he hated not being able to move.

Then, the climate around the entire area dropped in temperature. It happened so quickly that the aliens paused to look around.

"Now you've done it." Sounds like Flash's speedster healing managed to get him conscious and talking at least. Dick hoped Wally's healing would be fast enough to help fight off these aliens.

"What done?" The first alien asked.

There came a cut off shriek from deeper within the Watchtower.

The first alien took up its blaster and went on alert. But there were no other sounds from the other aliens in the Watchtower, and this time, the second alien had to drop Dick to take up its own blaster.

"Oof!" Dick's breath got knocked out of him and he spent next couple of seconds getting it back. When he could breathe normally again, he gradually twisted his torso so he could sit up and see what was happening.

"You okay, 'Wing?" Flash had edged close to him in concern, unnoticed by the two aliens who were still scanning their surroundings in growing nervousness.

And that was when a dark shadow loomed over them all.

Both aliens aimed their blasters at the shadow's source but it was standing just beyond a corner, out of sight and out of the line of fire.

Dick however, knew that familiar shadow. And he also remembered that someone had stayed behind so Dick needed to get to Watchtower to upgrade the security protocols, and that someone still felt the lingering effects of a certain anti-inhibition virus.

So he tilted his head towards the aliens and called out, "They hurt me."

Dick didn't think it was possible but, he swore the temperature dropped even further.

"Hoo boy," Flash remarked, "looks like it's the Bat-glare of DOOOOOM (because one O isn't enough)."

And the lights went out.

What happened next, only Superman could say with any clarity. There was the sound of a blaster going off, followed by a shouted, "Stupid Huxi! Stop shooting!" Then the sounds of metal hitting metal, metal hitting the ground, two tazers going off, and finally, a couple of heavy thuds.

For a moment, there was only silence - broken by Superman's sheepish, "I'll just...get the lights."

There was a large presence standing just beside Dick. And even if he couldn't see it, he knew the hands that were helping free his wrists and the soft growl of, "How bad?"

"Just some bruises and maybe a couple of taser burns," he answered Bruce as he was helped to his feet. His muscles still twitched occasionally in reaction but it was fading. "How'd you get here?"

"Martian Manhunter contacted me as soon as he left you in the safe-room."

"You mean the Vault." Wally quipped from nearby.

"Oh yeah, speaking of which," Dick said, eyeing the shadowy figure that was Batman, "What's this new protocol of stuffing me in a friggin' Vault during a crisis?"

"A safety precaution." Batman replied without expression.

"A precaution for whom? For me? What makes you think-"

He was interrupted as the lights came on and Flash made a quick getaway with the words, "I'll leave you two to catch up." He left with a quick breeze in their faces.

Dick turned back to Batman. "So."

"So?"

"I heard the aliens had a Captain..."

"Already taken care of," Batman explained. "The artifact they used to breach the Vault's defences and subdue the League was weakened trying to open the Vault. It was easy for Martian Manhunter to crush it via telekinesis. After that, Watchtower was back in my control."

"Uh huh. And...?"

Batman looked at him blankly. "And?"

"And you're gonna dismantle the Vault, right?"

"No."

"What? Are you kidding me? Afterwhat just happened?"

"Obviously, the Vault's power source needs to have a reserve to reroute to. It was what allowed the aliens to enter. I should check on the latest from Thanagar..."