WonderBat Keywords

Theme: Balance
Rating: K
Word Count: 2,311 words

Note: This story will take place in an AU of sorts that branches off from Batman V Superman.

The Flying Fox felt hollow as it cut through the air at sixty thousand feet. Soaring smoothly over the clouds, Bruce piloted his prized plane with the expertise that he'd honed for years, and the concentration of a man who reveled in being as antisocial as possible. He sped through the night so that he could meet the sunrise just as it rose over Gotham, with roughly four thousand nautical miles to traverse between New York and Moscow that warranted his undivided attention. There was still six hours of airtime and refused to vacate his pilot seat for a single second of the voyage.

Especially when there was a fuming Diana somewhere on board.

Bruce could hear her infuriated shouts echoing in his head from the argument they'd had before the mission even began. She had been adamant that they didn't need to visit the desolate village he had considered an international threat. He, being one of the only mortals whose stubbornness rivaled the Amazon's, refused to see her point of view after learning that the radioactive hub on the outskirts of the town was the epicenter of his investigation into what he referred to as 'hellions'.

As a woman who claimed to have killed things from other worlds before, he had assumed she'd be thrilled to join him on this mission.

Instead, Wonder Woman scolded him about his lack of self-preservation and willingness to coordinate with the League properly.

The League that he had compelled her to help him form.

"How much longer until we arrive?" Asked the very woman who was on his mind. Her voice drifted into his ear and cleared the fog that he was lost in, replacing his mindless thoughts with a swift reply.

He answered her over his shoulder without ever turning to face her, "Six hours, maybe less."

"Hm." Was her meager response, punctuating the sound of her dropping into the seat behind him, off to his right. Knowing that Diana was in the cockpit with him now and presumably intending to stay was more unnerving than he'd ever admit to.

Bruce gazed at the weather radar and allowed himself to become hypnotized. He needed to center himself if she was preparing to argue with him after the disappointing results of their trip. In his eyes, the information they gathered was monumental to his study of the hellions. But surely, because she wasn't given the chance to punch something into the ground or act as a battering name in the name of justice, Wonder Woman would have more to say about her disapproval of the Batman's methods.

She acted like the governess of not only the League, but of him as well, providing him with unwarranted checks and balances as the criteria for his style of operations. Coddling him at times when he was certain of the action he had to take. No one had ever serviced him while simultaneously challenging him the way that Diana did. Unwilling to be placed under her thumb any longer, Bruce stated a little too pridefully, "Alfred is looking over the information we gathered now and we're working on locating their real base of operation."

"That's possible?" She questioned with a sleep-induced drawl.

He immediately reined himself in, feeling like a bully for antagonizing her while she was trying to sleep. "We'll send out a search for their signature. Since they move around while infected with so much radiation, it shouldn't be difficult to-"

"Bruce," she called to him.

"What?" The abrupt shift in conversation made his jaw snap closed very aggressively at the end of his retort.

Unbothered by his ever present antagonism, Diana brushed passed his tone of voice in a way he nearly admired as she asked, "You're going to need more than the accessories on your belt to defeat those hellions."

Now, it seemed as though she was antagonizing him. "They're clearly monsters of some kind, with an origin in science or possibly mythology. The hellions I've seen have taken on an almost chimera-like appearance while looking as though they're made from stone," He stated the facts of their situation so that she couldn't find a single word to dispute. Then, Bruce leaned into his irritation so that he'd motivate himself to turn on autopilot as he spun around and faced her to finish off his explanation. "I'm aware that they can't be stopped by a tranquiliser or a taser."

"Then what was your goal here?" inquired Diana. Her legs were tucked underneath her rather informally compared to the statuesque posture he had imagined her in while his eyes had been fixated on the sky. Prim and proper no matter the situation he was in, it was odd to witness Wonder Woman snuggling into her seat at the Flying Fox like she was at a slumber party. The pale white lights that lit up the cockpit managed to highlight the pale complexion on her face and though he couldn't understand why she looked so worn, Bruce knew she still had some fight in her based on her question.

Confidently, he bit back, "I told you - we needed to determine if this was the place they were originating from."

Diana sighed, "Did you expect them to originate from a hive mind? Did you think it'd really be so simple?"

"No." Bruce growled.

"Then what?" her tone grew harsher as she sat up in her seat. "If your technology is so great, why did you and I risk our lives by coming here? We were in Russia for almost two days and all we did was spectate their behaviours at one of their nests and evacuate a village when they started turning on each other and ripping themselves to shreds."

Bruce thought he was hilarious when he answered her with a great deal of attitude, "I'm sure those villagers said thank you in Russian."

The fire in her eyes sparked instantaneously and her feet slammed onto the floor with a heavy thud. Furious, unimpressed, Diana scolded him just like he expected her to. "We should have told Barry where we were going, or asked Arthur to join us. We are sitting on this plane right now due to luck and nothing else. Not your skills, or mine! We are lucky they never paid any attention to us or who knows what would have happened."

"We didn't need reinforcements if we were only observing their behaviour and studying their base." Bruce pointed out.

"Victor would have been better suited than either of us!" Diana argued, the volume of her voice rising.

Behaving in a reactionary fashion caused his voice to grow louder as well. "If you don't like the calls I'm making, then you can decline my invitations for these missions. I'm not twisting your arm to make you come with me, Diana."

"You're absolutely maddening!" Now, while shouting at the top of her lungs, she had risen to her feet and glared at him with a ferocity that told him she was prepared to beat the argument out of him. "These creatures we saw rip each other apart without much provocation and you cannot see how unjustified you were to come here without anything but your pride to guide you? Your kevlar suit would only make it more of an exciting challenge for them to do the same to you, had they caught you snooping around their base!"

Though she wasn't incorrect, his mortality wasn't what their clash was centered around. Bruce stayed absolutely still when he sought her conclusion, "What's your point?"

"My point," she contended, "is that you may be scared of what these hellions are capable of, but throwing yourself at them is not the solution. If there is a plan of action that needs to be made, it must be considered by the entire team."

"Not everything we do is a League-related matter." He rebuked her perspective entirely.

Diana was not having it, however. So exhausted with him and his point of view, she looked him dead in the eye and dared him to explain, "Then why did you extend an invitation to me?"

That, he could not address so easily. While concocting his plan for the mission to Russia, it seemed only logical that he bring a metahuman with him in case things did in fact take a turn for the worse. For someone who had such a difficult time relying on the people in his own city, inviting Wonder Woman was the easiest pill to swallow when compared to the other options he had before him. Not only that, but the trust he had in Diana was incomparable to the lukewarm relationship he had with Arthur, or the distance he kept from the skittish Barry unless his presence was absolutely necessary.

Diana also didn't know that Victor was on standby for Alfred's call back in Gotham already.

He watched her turn her back on him and return to her seat when he didn't maintain the speed at which their conversation was flying. He took the chance to observe the way her shoulders had fallen and the way her long black hair outlined her hunched over posture. Something about this entire scenario had stolen away a great deal of her energy for reasons he couldn't understand. Nevertheless, he knew that arguing with him tended to wear out even the best of people.

Like her.

Bruce decided to throw off his cowl and run a gloved hand over his face in an act of frustration. He knew he needed to answer her, however, it took much longer than he expected to find the words he needed to justify his decision-making process. Finally, just as she tucked those long legs of hers underneath herself once again, he blurted out, "Because no one is as desperate to keep me alive the way you do."

It was a sarcastic remark. Despite how the entire temperature of the cockpit had cooled, Bruce had genuinely intended to rile her up even more so with his insensitive words. After all, they weren't off the mark. Whether she tried to reprimand him before taking off to Russia or she was forced to carry him out of the village in one arm and a panicked Siberian Husky in the other, he could always rely on her should he need it.

Should he.

To his surprise, Diana laughed at his childish teasing. It was only a couple of giggles, but he managed to make her smile. When she finished taking in a rather deep breath, she whispered, "I suppose that's true. So you're admitting I was roped into your chaos due to my own sentimentality?"

Bruce was flabbergasted once again by her indirect accusation. He chose to check on the sky for any glimpse of the sunrise as a type of distraction that would have allowed him some time to think. This time, his attempt at humor was more friendly, in a surface level kind of way, "I'm sure you would have complained about me going alone, too, so it was more efficient to let you scold me on the trip there and back."

"Hm, I suppose that's true. But remember one thing, Bruce," He never heard her voice grow louder in his ear, however, he felt her hand when it landed on his shoulder the instant she said his name. The contact would have made him jump had he not been trained to rid himself of such primitive reactions to shocking moments such as this. Though his skin did indeed crawl beneath his kevlar suit when she finished her warning to him, "I can pilot this aircraft if need be, so you might want to be wary about how much you provoke me."

"Again," Bruce smirked up at her, his brows furrowed with a devious intention. "You're only proving that I was right to bring you along."

The wry smile she gave him in response lit up her face so completely, it truly felt like she was the yin to his yang when he thought about the meaning behind the type of grin he was showing her. Mockery versus honesty. Snide amusement compared to genuine delight. Whether they were at one another's throats or in agreement, they always managed to play the roles of day and night - the perspective of optimism challenged by the darkness he seeped into every interaction.

There was most definitely a delicate balance in their partnership.

If the familiar sounds of his dashboard blaring at him didn't pull Bruce's attention away from her in that moment, he had no idea how long they would have been gazing at one another. Tearing himself away from her, he spotted a handful of colors lighting up the right side of his weather radar, warning him of an upcoming storm. He flipped a switch inside of him and commanded her without hesitation, "Sit down, I have to deal with this."

Diana didn't answer him with words. He could only assume she obeyed him when she removed her hand from his shoulder and kept quiet. Presumably, she'd try to finally take that nap that their argument interrupted. Once he assumed she was out of his personal space, Bruce got to work and reclaimed control of the Flying Fox. He had flown through many storms in the past, to the point that his hands squeezed the sides of the yoke with mild excitement.

Bruce wasn't all too preoccupied with the thunderstorm that he was approaching, if the truth be told. He was more interested in the way that the sunlight that was grazing the darkness of the night that he was sailing through at sixty thousand feet. Considering the height he was at and distance they still had to travel, it wasn't lost on him how ironic it was to see the daylight meet the night after the conversation they just had.

Author's Note:

This chapter marks the beginning of the WonderBat Keywords event, where each day is assigned a word that pertains to the WonderBat relationship! Here is the list of themes and their corresponding days:

July 22 - Balance

July 23 - Adoration

July 24 - Passion

July 25 - Tension

July 26 - Intelligence

July 27 - Honesty

July 28 - Commitment

Feel free to join in, and PM me with a link to your story if you want me to share it with your fellow WonderBat fans! You could contribute for all themes, a handful, or even one - any and all WonderBat love is one hundred percent appreciated! Or, sit back and enjoy this story as it unfolds throughout the week. ~ Maiden