Hey everyone! I'm back with a fic request for dargeon on Tumblr. They're awesome and had a really cool prompt. Here it is for everyone to enjoy!
Being a founding member of the Justice League had introduced Wally West to many strange situations over the past year. He'd fought aliens, been to Themyscira, met Bruce Wayne, and almost been killed a lot. There was also that one time they went up against an alternate version of the Justice League, the Justice Lords, who became evil after the alternate version of him died.
This may have been the strangest thing that had happened to him so far though.
It had started out as a normal day, or as normal as it could be being a superhero. Wally had woken up, gone for a run around the city, stopped a few crimes, gone to work, stopped some more crime, and finally been teleported up to the Watchtower for the weekly meeting.
That was about where his version of normal flew out the window.
The Watchtower was in chaos when he appeared. J'onn was at the control panel, but as soon as he saw Wally appear, he floated away and towards the chaos that was the rest of the Watchtower. Every member of the Justice League was engaged in fights with robots (they were actually pretty fantastic looking, to be honest).
Wally took a few seconds to take in the sight, then again, at the speed that he was already starting to process information, the seconds were really milliseconds. He joined the fight, pushing a robot's gun just enough to the left so that it wouldn't hit Diana. He stole a gun from the robot aiming it at John, quickly phasing his hand through the outer shell and destroying the inner workings.
He ignored the gun pointed at Clark. He doubted that any laser guns of obvious human origin would do any harm to the alien. Just as Wally started to run towards Shayara, he heard a strangled yell from Clark. Wally skidded to a stop and turned around swiftly, but it was too late; Clark disappeared before his very eyes.
Then he heard Shayara yell a curse, and he realized he hadn't stopped the gun that had been aiming at her from firing. She was gone too. Next was John, driven to a fury. Diana, before he could do anything. J'onn was next. Then Bruce. Finally, Wally was cornered, unable to dodge, and he was hit. Nothingness.
Wally woke up slowly, feeling sick to his stomach and kind of like he'd been squeezed into a hug by Bizarro. The kind of hug that left broken bones, not good feelings.
"-vitals are normal for all of them," a voice said. A very familiar voice. "Best guess is they're from an alternate universe."
"Alternate versions of people we know, huh," another voice said, this time unfamiliar and much younger. Probably a teenager. "I've had enough of that to last a lifetime after my last trip."
"Our last trip was rather… tasteless," another person said, voice very young and accented with something Wally couldn't quite put his finger on. Metaphorical finger, since his wrists were bound at the moment.
"I was dead," the second voice said. Was it a girl or a boy? It was hard to tell from the soft voice. Could have been either. "I'd say it was more than tasteless."
"Let's focus on the problem at hand," a fourth voice said, definitely a guy like the first and third voices had been. "We've got another Wally here, another Clark, another Diana, another John, another J'onn, another Shayara, and another Bruce. Are they evil like that one time or not?"
"They can't be," a new person, a girl said, and this time it was definitely a girl. "Or at least, I don't think they are. It just seems like that's a little too easy. Hey, how did you convince the League to let you bring them to the Batcave instead of leaving them up in the Watchtower?"
"He's Batman," a deep voice said, somehow grudging respect and dislike emanating from those two words. It was impressive. "He can do anything."
"Not anything," a slow, stilted voice said. A girl whose words sounded like they might possibly mean English was her second language. If these people were right and he was in an alternate universe with the rest of his League, then how many people did Bruce 'I am the night' Wayne work with?
"Guys," a sharp voice snapped over a comm system, judging by the crackling. Another woman. "Focus."
"We are," a new voice said, a guy. "Or at least I am. By the way, Wally's about to phase out of his cuffs and run over here."
And that was unnerving because that was what Wally had just started to do. Oh, well, may as well follow through.
Right before he ran into the room next to the one he'd been laying down in, he heard someone, the second voice, groan: "More warning next time, Duke."
"Who are you gu-" Wally cut himself off because he was right, the first voice he'd heard had been Bruce. This was a different Bruce though. From what little of the face Wally could see, this Bruce was older by about fifteen years. Also, the room was filled with people.
A man in a black and blue uniform with a wide smile not hidden at all by a small mask. A teen in a red and black uniform with a cape, scowling slightly. A young boy, couldn't have been more than ten, who looked extraordinarily like his Bruce and he'd guess this Bruce as well. Next to the young boy and sitting on a table was a girl in purple and black, bat-symbol over her chest and blonde hair sticking out of her cowl. On the other side of the room was a tall and bulky man in body armor and a red face mask. Next to that man, leaning on that man, was a tiny girl in all black, even over he head. Sitting on the only chair in the room was another teen who had darker skin and a golden suit.
"I see you are awake, Master Wallace," a voice said from behind him. Wally jumped about ten feet in the air and spun around, only to see Alfred.
"Where am I?" Wally finally asked.
"An alternate dimension," Bruce promptly answered, still wearing his cowl. "We've determined none of you are threats after having Martian Manhunter scan you while you were all still unconscious. You're the first to wake up."
"And you brought me to the Batcave?" Wally asked. He would have said Bruce's name, but most of these people might not know it. For all he knew, they were members of this Justice League and here for training or something, except the youngest, who was obviously Bruce's child.
"It was the most secure place. I'm also aware all of you know my identity of Bruce Wayne."
"And all these… these others do too?" Somehow, Wally had a hard time believing that. Bruce, sharing his life with others? Unhead of.
The man in the red face mask snorted. "Best person in the world at keeping secrets except when it comes to his own kids."
Wally nodded absently. He would freak out once he'd seen the rest of his League and made sure they were alright, he was sure.
"Are the others awake yet?"
The teen in gold shook his head. "Not yet. They'll be up in about ten seconds though and bursting in here."
"Well then, I shall prepare some tea," Alfred said, disappearing.
True to the teen in gold's word, his teammates rushed into the room together, only to stop short at the sight of him safe and sound, surrounded by a Bruce look-alike and the gaggle of bat brats.
"Alternate universe?" Wally's Bruce asked, relaxing his stance slightly. The others shifted behind him.
The Bruce with kids nodded his head curtly. "Yes. Slightly different vibration confirms it. We have Vibe on his way to send you back within the hour."
His Bruce nodded. "Good."
There was an awkward silence, and now that Wally was preoccupied worrying about his team, he couldn't stop his brain from racing, mostly about this universes Bruce's kids. Well, apparent kids.
"So, just to clear a few things up, you're all his kids?" Wally asked. "Like, his kids."
Wally's Bruce looked sharply at the others in the room, eyes roaming until they landed on the youngest who looked the most like him. And then Wally's Bruce froze. The rest of the League also seemed to share his disbelief.
"Yup, they're his kids," the blonde girl said cheerily. "I'm not. Neither is Oracle, the one on the monitor. The rest of them are though."
"I would disagree. Red Robin is not my father's child," the youngest said snobbily. "He's merely a nuisance who got lucky."
"Gee, thanks, kid," the teen in the red and black uniform said dryly. "It means a lot to me, Robin."
Okay, so the youngest was Robin and the first teen was Red Robin. Not very creative, but who was Wally to blame them? They grew up with Bruce.
"You have children," Diana said eventually, sounding caught somewhere between reprimanding and impressed. "Six children and two others who are not your children." She turned to their Bruce disapprovingly.
"In B's defense," Wally said quickly. "This is an alternate version of him, granted, an alternate version of him about fifteen years older. But it's not possible ours will have this many kids; half most of them are older than fifteen."
"Have ya ever heard of adoption?" the biggest bat, the one with the red face mask, asked, voice dry. "It's this thing where you pick up a kid that isn't yours and pay for their food and housing. I'd say he adopted Nightjerk over there about fifteen years ago."
Nightjerk (that couldn't have been his real fake name) smiled again. He was the man in the black and blue uniform with a bird on the front.
"And I've loved him ever since," Night-whatever said, sarcasm evident, but his words were quite obviously true too.
Wally saw Clark pale out of the corner of his eye. "Fif… wait, are you saying Batman could get a kid any day now? Batman could raise kids?"
"Those poor children," John agreed.
"Hey, I resent that," Red Robin said. "Hood was the only one who got the short end of the stick."
Hood, the big guy with the red face mask, growled: "I died, jerk-face. How is that the short end of the stick? Died."
"Died?" Shayara asked skeptically. "You died?"
"About seven years ago, right?" the teen in the gold uniform asked. Hood nodded. "Seven years ago."
Somewhere in some small corner of Wally's mind, he wondered why this universe's Batman wasn't putting a stop to his children's antics, especially since they seemed to be driving his Justice League slowly insane, judging by the gaping jaws. Heck, even his Batman was at a loss for words.
"Anyway, we've got to head out, patrol, you know?" the blonde girl said. "It was nice to meet you, or these versions of you at least. And by the way, I'm Batgirl."
"Red Robin," Red Robin said. "In case you missed it. Bye."
"Nightwing," the smiling one said. "This is Red Hood, Black Bat, Robin, and the Signal. Anyway, we'll leave you with B. Some on, guys."
With that, Wally and his team were left alone with this universe's Batman.
"Vibe will be here any moment," Batman said, smiling a touch. And that may have been the craziest thing. Batman, smiling. Wally knew he would definitely faint when he got home, no holds barred. If some of the looks he saw go around his friend's faces were any indication, they'd be doing the same.
"I'm definitely ready for that," John said faintly. "This place is weird."
"I would concur. This world is… strange," J'onn said, sounding whatever the Martian equivalent of perturbed was.
"Indeed," Diana agreed. "Indeed."
"I think I'm ready to go home too," Bruce said.