Terrific, we need you in the conference room.

J'onn, is this important? thought back Mr. Terrific. By this point most leaguers knew how at least make their thought conversable with the Martian. We have a developing situation in Dakota, Steel and one of the visitors went down.

I'm on my way up, I'll handle it. But we need you in the conference room, you need to hear what the girl has to say. Grab Blue Devil too, and Green Arrow if you can find him. I've already contacted most of the leading members, they'll be there too.

All of them? J'onn, what exactly is this?

There was no reply, and Mr. Terrific simply turned from the console with a sigh. "Stargirl, STRIPES. Get in there and provide backup for Steel if he needs it."

"Something going on?" Green Arrow questioned as Terrific strode for the door.

Shrugging, the other answered. "Apparently, that one girl has an earful. They're calling in all the important ones. You too, for some reason. Come on."

"Me?" Arrow arched an incredulous eyebrow as he fell behind the scientist. "Hey, I'm the League's resident hippie. Whadda they want me in there for?" The two passed a silent Martian. "J'onn, what's going on?"

"You'll see," came the tight-lipped response. "Better hurry. Terrific, is Flash still searching Gotham?"

Terrific offered a short nod. "Still no sign. He says he'll keep it up, though."

"I'll tell him to search harder. It's more important than ever that we find that boy."

-------------------------------------------

"Do not try to run, boy."

"I don't run," snarled Sasuke, struggling upright to face this new upstart. He spat blood on the ground. "Not from anyone. Who are you and what did you just do?"

"I am Uriel, angel of..." The red-haired man stopped and appeared to think for a moment. "I am the Spectre." He finally decided. "The angel of vengeance."

"Are you now." Momentarily, Sasuke wondered when he'd learned what an 'angel' was.

"As for what I did," continued the green-clad man, "just now I teleported you out of Gotham and healed your wound. And bestowed True Hearing upon you." He added as an afterthought. "It will be useful for you to understand your surroundings for the next couple days."

Sasuke merely arched an eyebrow. "You have a poor idea of vengeance."

"I am more than that," replied the other. "But I think you will find my ideas to be quite enough for you."

This time, Sasuke snorted. "I do not need your help. I shall revenge my brother's murder on..."

"You misunderstand me." The sheer ice in the angel's voice caused even Sasuke to pause. "It is you I am here to deal with."

-----------------------------------------

"You're sure? It's one of your friends?"

Neji gave a clipped nod without breaking stride. "One of my missing companions. Tenten, a team member of mine. She's due north of us."

"That's around the blast origination point. A whole block of the city's torn up from the explosion." Steel glided overhead, one hand clutching his massive hammer. "You think she was the one that hit us?"

"Doubtful. Tenten's chakra capacity is far below norm, and her talents are mostly in weapon management. Unless she has somehow acquired a rocket launcher of some..." Neji's voice trailed off as he caught sight of something ahead.

Steel saw it too. "Heads up!" He cried, swerving in mid-air, just barely dodging the bolt of green energy that smashed into the building just behind him. Neji, who had not waited for Steel's order, came out of a roll and broke into a celestial spin, just in time to deflect a charged shock of lightning.

"Damn!" swore Steel, still hovering. "What're THOSE two doing in Dakota?"

Neji didn't bother asking who 'those two' were. Constant practice had heightened his Byakugan's attention to chakra-less signatures, and these two malefactors were QUITE evident. One was large, skeletal, and nearly entirely composed of metal; the blue-haired lady beside him crackled with a disturbing amount of raiton energy.

Most importantly, though, they were both clearly in pursuit of Tenten. He could see her now, struggling to lift up some other figure off the ground. There was no way she could escape them. "Steel...!"

"I see her now, kid. Sonofa... she's got Kid Flash with her!" Putting on a fresh burst of speed, Steel called back, "Listen, I'll hold them off! You grab the others and get back to the Javelin!"

The hero shot away before Neji could argue. Though a part of him sincerely doubted whether the other could take on both the attackers, the more practical side of him squashed that feeling. The mission comes first, he reminded himself grimly, trying not to think of his experience in the Sasuke retrieval mission.

Neji dashed down the street, pushing aside pedestrians, vaulting over speeding cars, running over buildings in his hurry. Chaos swept around him as citizens fled from and police rushed toward the scene of destruction. Far ahead, his enhanced vision saw Steel plow into the two villains, sending the woman flying with a single blow from his massive hammer before engaging the enormous cyborg in hand-to-hand combat. The sight only made him run faster—Steel didn't look like he could hold for long.

He was dashing through the shattered buildings now, and the lack of obstacles made things easier. Sure, flaming buildings were still crumbling around him, and the terrain was a little tricky, but at least he didn't have to worry about running anybody over.

There! In ordinary vision, Tenten was a blob of burnt black and brown against the flaming debris, in Neji's eye, she was a gleaming beacon of chakra. In either perspective, she was clearly weak and in pain.

"Tenten!"

A pair of wild eyes flew up to meet him and something whizzed past his left ear. "Neji!" she gasped, lowering the weapon she was carrying. "What... you're... how did...?" Her eyes hardened suddenly. "Is this a genjutsu?"

"Don't start." Neji dropped just alongside her. "We need to go. Now. My friend is dealing with your pursuers, but..."

"Haven't had genjutsus yet... bald guy didn't know about chakra... Is it really you, Neji?"

"Yes. We have no time to discuss this." Neji stooped, picking up the tattered form of the red-yellow teenager at her side. "There. Come quickly, there's a..." Neji searched for the word 'jet' in Japanese, "...vehicle waiting over here."

"I... I..." Tenten swayed and collapsed.

A hiss of nervous frustration escaped Neji. With difficulty, he stooped and shouldered Tenten's limp body, letting the gun fall from her hand. He struggled to his feet and made back toward the city as quickly as was safe. Steel looked to be doing better now, but Neji wasn't taking any chances. Once in the city, he could hope for police back-up, and the Javelin probably had some defenses he could use. Besides the League had to...

Pain seized his muscles and wrenched them in. Every nerve in his body was burning, throbbing, shriveling with a kind of frenzy. He barely even felt himself hit the ground, and even as the pain left, his arms and legs refused to move.

"Hiya, kiddo!" A pair of feet materialized before him. Pushing through the pain, Neji forced himself to focus on his attacker—a tall, pale woman with electric blue hair. Hadn't she been slammed across the city? "Not a bad run, but going toward the city was practically the worst thing you could do." She smirked as her hands crackled with energy. "Not that it makes that much difference."

----------------------------------

"Does that feel any different?"

"Yes... yes. Much better, thanks." The faceless man appeared somewhat distracted. "Yes, thank you. Thank you very much."

"You're... welcome?" Ino had thought that characters like Sai and Lee had long ago used up her capacity to be freaked out, but this guy took the cake. Even apart from the fact that he HAD NO FACE, he kept muttering all sorts of things under his breath, things that didn't make sense even in English. "So long as you're feeling better."

"Yes, I'm feeling better. That wasn't a Zoroastrian ritual, was it?"

A blink. "Uh... no. No. Who're the Zorro Asians?"

"Excellent." The man laid back on the bed. "Zoroastrians use natural energies to merge with the psychic web and seal souls. Could end up in the Macy's nail clippers line. Zoroastrians..." His face achieved a new focus. "Zoroastrians have connections to Mayo clinic and Fisher-Price line of children's toys. Remember to avoid. Bad for..."

The woman at the end of the bed cut in at this juncture. "Don't mind him." With a nervous laugh, she offered, "He's had a bit of a shock just now." She patted the man's hand with a purple-gloved palm, trying to smile and bite her lip at the same time.

Ino's eyes narrowed. True, she didn't know this couple, and certainly not this man, very well, but she DID know gossip, and her 'juicy-story-detector' was blaring. Something was going on here. She could... but no. J'onn had expressly told her never to use it for private ends. And truthfully, she felt a little afraid of releasing her newfound abilities, now that she'd finally managed to corral them. She'd used them in the battle, sure, but sending messages to open minds was immensely different from prying information from closed ones.

So instead, she just shrugged and put away her medical kit. "Yeah, Sasuke has that effect on people. He's just lucky he didn't get hit with any major genjutsus, could've driven him insane."

"HUNTRESS!" The man sat up straight suddenly. "47% of children conceived in Gotham become steady customers of the Starbucks coffee chain! Wireless signals employed by the company affect..."

"Later, baby. Later. It'll be fine." Huntress patted the man's hand again.

Pausing in her work, Ino frowned doubtfully at the patient. "Maybe I ought to get J'onn-sensei. Sasuke might have tried something..."

"No, no, he's fine. He's always like this." Again Huntress offered the girl a nervous smile. "You can go now."

Ino's eyelids tightened in suspicion a few more millimeters. "No, I think I should stay." She smiled. "After all, you said you weren't feeling well either. Maybe if I had a look..."

"No, no. That's quite all right. I don't want to be a bother. You can go now."

"Oh, it's no bother," assured Ino, moving past the stretcher to the oddly nervous Huntress. "I mean, you told us where Sasuke was, so we kinda owe you anyway. And since I'm here..."

"No, really, it's fine." Huntress backed up a few steps, knocking into a tray of instruments.

"It'll only take a few minutes, I promise. I just want to make sure..."

"Don't let her!" Question suddenly ordered from the bed. "Teleporting ninjas have proven links to the Mayan hair salon! Techniques probably involve energies from Tibetian alien artifacts, could prove harmful to the child."

"VIC!" Huntress nearly screamed, eyes wide in shock and embarrassment.

"What?" Ino glanced from one to the other. "Child?"

Suddenly, her medical training kicked in. Unfit condition. Morning sickness. Child.

Ino's hands flew to her mouth it unleashed a squeal. "Ohmigod you're pregnant!"

--------------------------------

"Me?" Sasuke turned, with just the slightest roll of his eyes. "You're here to deal with me? Of course you are. Everyone is, it seems."

"That is merely one of the matters we will have to address," commented the Spectre.

"We will address nothing." Chakra sparked about Sasuke's hand as the sound of chirping filled the air. "I've talked with enough idiots today, and I've just decided not to bother anymore." His remaining eye flickered to red as he charged forwards.

The tall pale man in the green trenchcoat didn't flinch. He didn't gesture. He didn't even so much as roll his eyes. He just stood there, burning green orbs staring at Sasuke as the teenager charged for him.

...Sasuke was dead, his mutilated carcass lay on the floor in a thousand pieces, each piece individually alive and full of pain...

...an eyeless corpse lay on the floor, a pensive Madara above it. Sasuke felt both holes in his head, he felt the stone-cold death filling him...

...the fires crackled and chuckled as they shriveled their way through his skin and muscle...

...alive, alive now, but in the thousand tortures of a genjutsu-induced nightmare...

...the raspy warmth of wood thrust through his heart...

...bits of bone dug into the soft flesh of his brain, freeing it to the chill of air...

...water slowly bubbled through his lungs and smothered him....

...Sasuke was dead...

"Now that we have established who will be deciding what," continued the Spectre calmly, once again in front of a very-much-alive Sasuke in the gloomy alleyway. "Let us address the first of those matters I was talking about."

---------------------------------

Elemental affinity. Neji reviewed mentally. The aptitude a ninja has for jutsus involving a certain element. In his case, lightning. Though it did not, theoretically, limit the ninja to jutsus of that single element, training usually focused on strengths, so few learned jutsus outside their affinity, apart from a few low-level ones for emergencies. Kakashi-sama was an exception, as was Sasuke. And, of course, kekkai genkai users like Yamato-san, but as most people only had one affinity, most only learned jutsus of a certain type.

Neji was rather regretting that training fixation at the moment, as his body lay rigid on the city street. Elemental jutsus were ALREADY hard enough in this world, it seemed, and the few wind jutsus he knew barely did anything to this... electric lady.

Fortunately though, as a lightning type, the shocks wore off quickly. Even more fortunately, this lady seemed rather talkative.

"Metallo thinks he's all that, y'know? Like, 'ooooh, I'm the big bad robot guy who beat up Superman.' Psh. That's not so hard, the guy's powered by a chunk of Kryptonite. Any two-bit thug can take out Superman like that. I just about took out the whole city. CITY, kid."

"Most interesting." Neji could finally move his jaw.

"Yup." The lady nodded, seemingly oblivious to the police gathering at the other end of the street. "Sucked energy out of the whole place and let it out into Superman. Gave him the headache of his life, I'll bet. And then the jerkass had to go and wear rubber gloves." Suddenly blasting a lightning bolt in the direction of the police squad, she frowned at Neji. "Does that seem like cheating to you? It sure does to me. When I was a newscaster... well, not newscaster, but I was a radio personality..."

"I can believe it." grunted Neji. Feeling was coming back into his legs.

"...well, I woulda knocked him for unfair play. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. Metallo. Idiot." She gave a small nod of satisfaction. "I mean, they tell us to stop Kid Flash, and the guy's like, 'okay, Livewire lady, you stay out of this and let the man handle it.' And he goes and fires his enormous big meta-beam, cause that's TOTALLY going to work, and the kid just dodges it, because helllloooo? Fastest thing alive? But me, I'm lightning fast. Like, literally, I AM lightning. So I just shoot through the electrical system, catch up with the kid, and shock him through the leg. Piece of cake. Nothing Metallo could do, because that guy's an idiot..."

"So you've mentioned." His hands were working now too. Slowly, imperceptibly, he collected chakra in his palms, molding it, focusing it.

"...No, you don't get it, though. I mean, he's a REAL idiot. I've got Kid Flash down, right? And yet, he has to go and shoot AGAIN, because, you know, he just wouldn't be macho if he couldn't let loose an incredible burst of pointless power." She snorted, sending sparks from her nose. "Men. Anyway, he does that, and of course he blasts out half a block just with it. Completely misses the kid, somehow hits YOU guys instead, and limits me incredibly because he knocks out all the power lines in a mile radius. I mean, a city is my HOME. Tons of power lines, tons of batteries, tons of electricity just SITTING around waiting for me to up and grab..."

Neji shot up. He rolled forward and jabbed out with a fist laden with chakra, aiming straight for the woman's midsection. It connected...

And the sheer shock knocked him backward. Livewire's skin was, predictably, charged.

"You BRAT! That hurt!" The lady was at his side in what seemed like no time at all, hands, skin, eyes, even hair crackling with anger. "That is IT! I don't care HOW badly Luthor wants you idiots alive, I'm going to..." Her voice trailed off as the crackling around her died slowly down. Perplexed, she stared at her hands. "Okay, what the hell just happened?"

A solid block of concrete landed on her, neatly missing Neji by inches. A few minutes later two steel girders and an enormous tank of water crashed over that.

"Ha! Take that!" The new voice made Neji look up. A few feet above him in the air, a dark-skinned boy in a flowing blue jacket and a strange mask was pumping his fist. His teeth were bared in an enthused grin, and his dreadlocks flowed in the wind. He stood on what appeared to be a floating trash-can lid.

Flying. Neji allowed himself a small sigh. Of course he can fly.

"Another of you brats?" Livewire was back, crackling into life a few feet away now. "Scram. Don't you know not to poke your nose in other people's business?"

The flying boy's eyes narrowed. "Hey lady, I'm Static." His own hands began to crackle with a now-familiar energy. "And Dakota City IS my business."

-----------------------------------

Silence closed over the room like the lid on a coffin. Assembled heroes, aliens, and demonic-like incarnations stared in disbelief at the two ninjas at the end of the table, who simply writhed with embarrassment. From his position just behind them, Superman did his best to keep his face confident and impartial. He was the leader, after all. It was up to him to keep things together.

For the moment, though, he had to get the two teenagers out of here. They'd been through their story three times now, and Hinata, who'd borne the brunt of the shock and disbelief, looked about ready to burst into tears. Naruto was holding up well enough, but even he might explode if this kept on for much longer.

"If no one has any questions for our two ninjas..." he paused as several heroes lifted their heads, "...any URGENT questions, then, I think we'd better dismiss them."

"Half a moment." Green Lantern spoke up. "You two kids are SURE you can't remember where you met this weird guy of yours? Or who the old man with him was?"

"No." Hinata squeaked.

"Uh... nah. Nah," confirmed Naruto, much less convincingly.

Superman shot Green Lantern a look. Let it go for now. The dark man frowned but shrugged and leaned back. They could get J'onn to probe later, right now it was obvious they'd get no more out of the two. "Anything else then? No? Okay." Glancing back at Lantern, he continued, "GL, take these two to Deck 9. Lodge them in the guest quarters and get some people to look after them. The others too."

He didn't need to spell things out for the ex-Marine. Neither Naruto, Hinata, nor any of the other ninjas were to leave the base until the League had decided what to do with them. For the moment, they were essentially prisoners. Superman couldn't tell whether the two ninjas picked up on that, but it made little difference. They had to stay here.

He waited for the door to whoosh shut behind Lantern and his charges before turning his gaze to the gathered heroes. "Blue Devil. Dr. Fate. Etrigan. Zatanna. Was that information reliable?"

Zatanna, a slight figure dressed in a show magician's uniform, toyed with her lip nervously. "The Spectre exists, I can tell you that much. Never really seen him as a human, though, so I can't answer for that."

"The girl's words have the stench of truth to them," growled the half-demon Etrigan. "However, it is unusual for the Sword of Vengeance to walk incarnate. That he should choose to do so, and to this girl in particular, is troubling."

"I knew there was somethin' weird about that one. Can't ya just have Wonder Woman use her lasso thingie on them?" Blue Devil jerked his head toward the Amazon leaning against the wall.

"We could try, but I'd like to reserve that. Using it would give them the impression we don't believe them."

Blue Devil snorted brimstone. "From the sounds of things, we don't."

"We have enough votes from you guys, I think we can take their word for it. For the moment, anyway." Superman cast a long glance around the room. "Now. Time to discuss what to do about it."

------------------------------------

"We have much to discuss, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Go ahead then." Sasuke snorted, feeling his leg. "Talk all you want."

"I see you do not plan to listen, then."

"There is no need," shrugged the ninja. "If you are here to punish me for killing Itachi, then nothing that you do will make my life worse. If you are here to turn me from avenging his death, then you are simply wasting your breath. If it is anything else, I am not interested."

Spectre sighed. "That is the key matter for discussion, Uchiha. You constantly think that everything in the world revolves around you and your petty revenge. You lack... perspective."

Then suddenly Sasuke felt a great rushing sensation, and became aware that the ground, the city, the world itself were shooting away from he and the strange red-haired man. He caught just a fleeting glimpse of his body, lying in the alleyway, before they were above the buildings, and had barely time to appreciate the size of Gotham before they were moving through the clouds. Then they were somehow out beyond the clouds even, and the ground below them shrank and shrank until it became a great green globe, floating against a star-spangled background.

And still they went rushing. They swept past another great globe, and another and another. The circlet of planets disappeared into the great blackness and they began to shoot past stars. They dashed past a great swirling blue globe, and the remnants of a dying star, with the fragments of a disintegrated planet about it. Upward and outward they shot, out into the depths of space, and Sasuke caught a glimpse of the great whirling pattern of stars beneath them. Other groups of stars appeared. They shot past them, above them, going farther and father out, until even the galaxies were becoming dim dots.

Finally his companion spoke. "This is a fraction, and just a fraction, of one universe, Uchiha Sasuke. Tell me, where, in all this universe, is your vaunted destiny? Of what importance is your exalted vengeance? Where are you, even?"

Sasuke glared and did not answer.

"Think you that the universe of your world is smaller? That you are somehow 'greater' or of more impact in that one, than you are in this one?" The red-haired man turned on him. "You could die in this instant and the universe would continue to operate. All of earth might be destroyed as we stand here, and yet, the difference would not be noticeable."

Leaning closer, the man let his burning green eyes bore into Sasuke. "You, Uchiha Sasuke, are but one pitiful mortal upon a tiny planet in an eccentric universe. I am far older and far more powerful than any being you can comprehend, and I tolerate your existence only because my Lord demands I must. Yet, it is not said that I must tolerate you as you are."

An even more violent rushing sensation seized Sasuke, and before he could blink they flew back through galaxies, stars, planets, and cities, back to the alleyway, and he once again was sitting on the ground of the alleyway. Strangely exhausted, he collapsed against the wall, panting slightly.

------------------------------------

Ohshitohshitohshitohshiiiiiiiiit...

Virgil Hawkins was not, by any standards, a coward. He'd faced down everything from flaming smog monsters to giant armadillos to world-destroying computers. And really, as far as scary factors went, an electric lady with blue hair was really pretty low on the scale. Especially one as hot as this one.

In fact, if he wasn't fighting for his life, he might try to ask her out.

Static controlled electricity. He could pull energy from wires, batteries, even from latent charges hidden in everyday objects. Used properly, he could direct it to induce magnetic forces and manipulate metal. He constantly lived with the sense of the titanic power throbbing through the city, feeling every spark and charge in the world about him. Under certain circumstances, he'd even made giant Bat-Signals out of lightning. Electricity was Static's toy.

Electricity was this woman's LIFE. It coursed through her veins, shot from her fingertips, crackled from her spores. She could shoot through metal or anything else that could conduct her. And from what he was feeling, she generated more lightning than a hydroelectric dam.

The electrical field flared as he felt her pull lightning from the power lines and send it shooting at him. Some he deflected with his abilities, some he dodged (inasmuch as that was possible), some he just took—electricity didn't hurt him much, after all. He felt about in the sea of churning power and touched the latent charges in the metal poles of a chunk of concrete. It went whizzing at the lady, missing her only by inches as she leapt away. Growling, she turned on him and sent a bolt of lightning straight at him. He whipped up his shield and felt the charge dissipate.

Man, he wished he'd paid better attention during Gear's briefings on villains. He kinda knew this lady—or at least remembered hearing about her. Wire something. Came from Metropolis.

Metropolis. Dangit, he was fighting one of Supes baddies! He wasn't getting paid enough for stuff like this! (Momentarily, the thought occurred to him that he wasn't getting paid at all, but he brushed it aside). Superman-level brawlers were supposed to stick with Superman! Or the League! Where was the League on this one? If they expected him to take on this one solo, they BETTER be ready to finally let him in to that flying space station of theirs. Heck, they'd been keeping him out of the League for years because he 'wasn't ready' and yet he was somehow ready to handle somebody like this? C'mon!

The charge slamming into Static's shield suddenly abated and he sensed her, shooting off again deeper into the city. Glancing over, he saw a speck of white dashing down the street at breakneck speed.

Here we go again, he sighed mentally, dashing after the villain. She's after White-Eyes.

Maybe that white-eyed teenager scurrying on the ground was Justice League. Ran freakishly fast. Virgil doubted it though. Sure, the guy had been trying to help—chucking daggers and smashing lampposts and generally knocking the lady off balance—but mostly he'd just been trying to get away with those other two teenagers.

Whoever that guy was, the lady was clearly after him. She wasn't really focused on Virgil, she kept trying to block the one guy's path. Static might've felt insulted by that if it hadn't been one of the main reasons he was still alive. In any case, the white-eyed guy was nearly as good at dodging her as she was at blocking him, and so far he'd made some good headway through the city—quite impressive, seeing as how he was carrying two bodies and all.

Anyhoo, between that his dodging and Static's attacks, they'd given Wirewosshername quite the run for her money. He didn't know where the guy thought he was going, but so long as he kept Miss Electricity distracted, Virgil didn't really care.

There! He sensed the surge in the electrical system moments before the woman materialized in White-Eyes path. In a fluid path of motion, the teenager below him dropped both passengers, went into a spin and leapt into the woman, ending with a solid blow to the woman's midsection.

"Sonofa-" The woman doubled over, giving the teenager enough time to leap back, grab the others, and leap over her. Virgil couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw the guy leap off the telephone pole.

Unwilling to think about that more than he needed too, Virgil focused on the electrical field, finding latent charges in a water tower atop the apartment building. Need to be tricky with this lady. He reflected as he sent it crashing over into the street. Can't just zap her like I do with most baddies. Of course, it would help if he knew what specifically he SHOULD do against her.

The tower hit the pavement with a resounding CRASH, sending water exploding in every direction. Virgil felt electricity flare through it, briefly, as it met the woman's lightning.

And then the woman was throwing the lumber off her, a new fire smoldering in her eyes. "You little BRAT!" She screeched. "I am seriously getting T.O'd with you!"

Again the shock blasts shot at him from every direction. But Static couldn't help noticing... they felt weaker than before.

-------------------------------------

"Finding Luthor was already a level-one priority..." Superman paced up and down in front of the long table, "...but now finding Sasuke is up there too. Whether this 'Moon's Eye Plan' they describe could actually work here, its link with the Anti-Life Equation makes it important. Agreed?"

A series of nods answered his question. Just the faintest glimmer of a smirk wavered over Batman's lips, but Superman ignored it. "Obviously, the other ninjas are our next priority. If their 'chakra' does provide some kind of guard or weapon against this thing, then we're going to need them as a last resort, at least."

"We already agreed we needed to keep them under League supervision," pointed out Hawkgirl. "If we stick to that, we should know how to use them when we need them."

Wonder Woman was shaking her head. "I don't think that's all there is to it anymore. If these children are supposed to help us, then they need to trust us."

"Good luck with that." Green Arrow snorted.

"More than that, they'll need to know how to fight alongside us." Diana threw the archer an annoyed look. "We need to train them to work amongst the League, so that if worst comes to worst, they can help us."

"Right, right." Sighing, Superman ran a hand through his hair. "That's going to be a picnic, I can see it now."

"Not so bad as you might think. They've been working with the Titans for a few months now, and J'onn's been teaching the one girl. By this time, I think they'll be more receptive to the idea of working with us."

Superman shook his head. "No, no, that's not the issue. They should go along with it alright." He took a deep breath. "What I'm wondering is how, in between searching for Luthor and Sasuke and everything else, we're going to find time to train all these kids."

Shrugging, Hawkgirl answered, "We have plenty of League members...."

"But none of them are exactly instructor material, or at least very few." Superman pressed his fingers to his nose and gave a pinch that could have shattered steel. "Half of them are free-lancers who we're still trying to teach ourselves."

"Your talent pool is smaller than you think." Waller's voice rang from the assembled metas. "I can perhaps get the public to swallow this idea of 'cooperation and restraint' you have, but they're not going to be satisfied with you shelving our dimensional demons onto some junior members. Not after today. Any kind of program you're going to be doing will have to be public and high-profile."

Another sigh from Superman. "Founding members, then?"

"With the exclusion of Hawkgirl. She's still too unpopular for her to publically teach anyone. I can tell you this, though, you're going to have to be the one to teach Naruto."

Heads swiveled in a universal stare. The heavyset woman snorted. "Oh please. Superman is the only one they'd trust to actually hold him in rein, and also the only one they really trust, period. Naruto is the leader of the ninjas, if you want the public to believe in this image, you need to have the two leaders together."

"I'm... I'm not the leader..." Superman protested.

"The other, less important ninjas, can probably be shunted off onto whoever you think makes the best trainer. I suppose you could have some kind of sponsorship program set up, where one of you simply oversees the training another is giving, but officially, at least, the teachers should be founding members." Waller sat back, with barely a hint of humor on her face. "Now, that should get you some idea of where to start."

Still rubbing his forehead, Superman tried to think. "Okay, okay. I can take the Naruto kid... maybe a few of the others... not much of a teacher, but I guess I can give it a shot." He heaved a deep breath. "So. Founding members. Which of you feels up to teaching a dozen teenagers how to fight crime?"

There was a short silence.

"I don't care how long you all stare at me, I'm not doing it." Batman said flatly. "I'm absolutely no good with kids."

A smirk curved Hawkgirl's mouth. "Bats, you're the only one here who actually HAS kids. Or... apprentices, anyway."

"Hey, I trained Speedy!" Green Arrow protested.

"Robin was a special case." Batman thought for a moment. "As was Batgirl."

"The fact remains that you trained them on your own." Despite his attempts to remain solemn, Superman found this almost funny. "You, Green Arrow, and maybe Green Lantern are our best qualified trainers here."

Batman sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I'm not doing it." He repeated. "If there's anyone in this room those ninjas hate, it's me. I attacked them. Remember? It'd be impossible to win their trust back."

"Never stopped you before." Diana grinned at him.

"We'll discuss this later, maybe," compromised Superman, deciding to give Batman an escape route. "Figure out which ninjas fit best with who. In the meantime, we'll find rooms for them and schedule a press conference to let the public know what's going on." Waller gave a nod of approval. "Terrific, talk to some of the other kids, see if they can give us a clearer idea of what this 'Moon's Eye Plan' is like. Arrow, give him a hand with that, the kids seem to trust you."

"Try the Sakura girl," suggested Batman. "If she's sober."

Superman decided not to ask. "Right then." He nodded. "Let's get to work."

---------------------------------

Deaths whirled and swam in the darkness before Sasuke's eyes.

A screaming man fired again and again into a prone body on the floor of a gymnasium. Trains barreled toward the light figure of a woman, tugging frantically at her trapped foot. Atop a tall building, a smiling elderly man in a business suit suddenly felt the railing behind him give way, and he plunged into the empty air. The whine of a hospital monitor announced the failure of a heart. A young boy stepped away from a corpse on the floor, gazing in horrified fascination at the blood-soaked claws on his hands. In a quiet kitchen, the young lady broke into spasms of laughter as her dining partner suddenly clutched at his chest and keeled over, gasping.

"Is there some kind of point to all this?" asked Sasuke, annoyed. "I'm a little beyond horror movies."

"Vengeance, Uchiha Sasuke. These are all works of Vengeance." The figure beside him was no longer a pale man in a trenchcoat, but rather a half-naked glowing figure in a long green cloak. "Surely you, as a self-proclaimed avenger, can empathize?"

"Tch. Why should I?"

"Indeed. That is partly what makes you such an effective avenger. And, at the same time, what makes you not much of one at all."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow at the angel.

"You lack empathy. On the one hand, that makes you a merciless killer, but on the other, it makes you completely unable to understand your opponent. More importantly, it keeps you from becoming an avenger, instead making you a bearer of grudges." Spectre snorted. "Hardly worth considering."

"I fail to understand you."

"Exactly."

------------------------------------

Damn these kids! They just didn't know when to stay put and be fried!

Livewire wasn't really having a good day. Okay, so it was better than molding around in Luthor's boring compound all the time, but seriously. First having to put up with Metallo, and now this brat kept dumping water on her. Even that might not be so bad, if it didn't somehow disrupt her charge everytime he did. And that sewer line he'd dug up had simply been uncalled for.

So she'd decided to teach that flying kid a lesson. Sure, Luthor wanted the girl, and probably the boy who was carrying her too, but it wasn't like they could actually escape her in the city. She'd catch up to them in no time once she finished off Dreadlocks here.

The only problem was, Dreadlocks didn't seem to want to be finished yet.

"Stay still, damn you!" She ripped electricity from the vehicles and shot it at the kid. He whizzed away from the bulk of them, countering a few others with some blasts of his own. A few of her tendrils hit, she could feel it, but he seemed to shrug them off. Perhaps a wince, and his trashcan lid wobbled a little in mid-air, but he kept right on.

Sparks shot from his fingers and snagged a car, hurling it at her. With a derisive snort, she shot lightning straight into the battery, overloading it and exploding the car in mid-air. Hah. She thought, as the brat went flying backwards. That'll teach him. She wasted a perfectly good opening by flipping him the bird.

There were some cops roaring around the corner—SWAT this time, from the sound of it. Dakota city had seen its fair share of metas, so they might have some fancy equipment. Nothing at her level, though. Livewire spared just enough concentration to zap the cars into oblivion.

Now for the brat. He should still be spinning from the blast, one good hit would be all it would take to...

Pain exploded through her chest as a phantom heart burst apart and reconstituted itself in a second. It was becoming a disturbingly familiar feeling.

"DAMN it!" She choked, coming back up from where she'd fallen. "You again? Where's the girl?"

The white-eyed boy before her didn't even flinch. "Where you'll never find her. Now, I believe we have unfinished business."

--------------------------------

"You should rest now. Some people will come by later to bring you anything you need." Green Lantern said as he stepped out the door. "Try not to go anywhere, we're having trouble getting all you guys situated. Okay?"

The blonde shrugged. "Sounds good. Where are you going to put the others?"

"That's what I'm going to work out now," smiled John, palming the door lock. "Probably close by. Sit tight, and get some rest."

The door whooshed shut before Naruto could argue, and John's smile vanished. Quickly he tapped on the keypad outside the door, and a number of electronic locks slid silently into position. The door could be charged if necessary, and there were sleeping gas canisters in the ventilation system. Guests at the Watchtower tended to be powerful, and with Batman's paranoia, each 'guest' room had been designed to incapacitate its resident if necessary.

Lantern wasn't worried about the girl, she seemed meek enough, and far too cowed to try anything. The blonde, however, was patently unpredictable, and obviously powerful, so he had taken some additional precautions. Turning, he addressed the men he'd brought with him. "If he starts anything, get in there and take him down fast. He's a hard hitter, so your best chance is to take him by surprise. We don't need a situation in Metropolis."

Metamorpho, Black Canary, and Vixen nodded. They weren't the ideal face-offs against a demon-fox with explosive powers, but they would buy some time for the rest of the League.

"Good." Feeling slightly more at ease in his mind, John turned and strode back down the hallway, reaching to his ear. "Guests secured." He reported.

"Good." J'onn's voice came to his ear. "I'm allocating rooms for the others now. In the meantime, head to the hangar bay. Communications in Dakota City have blacked out. We may need to send in more backup yet."

"Affirmative." John let his hand drop from the communicator and heaved a sigh. This was turning into an interesting day, no doubt about that, and he had a sinking feeling it was only going to get worse. He supposed it was long overdue; off-world visitors ALWAYS caused problems eventually, and off-dimension visitors couldn't be very different. But these... Lantern shook his head. If that blonde got angry again, John didn't know if they'd be able to stop him. And the other kids were no picnic either, especially if they decided to work together.

He just hoped Supes and the others didn't expect him to help the kids assimilate. He was NOT good with kids. If he had to train any of them...

"Excuse me sir, but I was looking for Sakura-chan and I... OOOOOOOH!"

Green Lantern looked up to meet a pair of very round eyes covered by very bushy eyebrows under a very conspicuous bowlcut. The teenager had bandages over a good deal of his body, but even so Lantern could see he was clad in green spandex.

What he COULDN'T see was why the teenager was staring at his Green Lantern costume like it was some gift from heaven. "Can I help you?"

"YOSH!" exploded the boy. "Your costume explodes with the fire and vigor of youth! Truly your spirit is fueled by the Will of Fire!"

Lantern, feeling just slightly nervous, activated his ring , shielding himself behind its green glow.

If possible, the boy's eyes grew even wider. "YOSH!"

------------------------------------------

"Let me provide an object lesson." The Spectre's hands moved slightly and a scene unfolded before their eyes. A weathered workman, jogging casually along a construction zone, tripped suddenly, stumbled down an embankment, and landed directly in the path of a steamroller. Sasuke and the angel watched the ensuing drama dispassionately. "That," said the angel as the horrified workers gathered around the carnage, "was Fred Kronger, also known as the Family Man. A serial killer. He has just experienced partial vengeance."

"Partial?"

"Only the kind of vengeance I can give. He shall soon pass on to other kinds." For a second, a terrible smile glimmered over the angel's face, and then it was gone. "That is my vengeance. True vengeance belongs only to God, yet I can impart some, to ease the pain of the world. Yet in order to wreak vengeance upon the sinful, I must understand their sin, inasmuch as an angel can. Only when I properly understand the sin, both in the light of God's righteousness and in the darkness of human understanding, can I wreak proper and fitting vengeance upon the sinner." He gestured at the construction zone before them. "Kronger, for instance, preyed upon the weak and frail, particularly those that seemed to be multiplying."

"Families." Sasuke's voice was toneless.

"Hence his name. He believed the weak should not make families, they should not multiply. He attempted to squash his conscience by telling himself that certain people must be paved over to make the road to the future." There was just a flicker of amusement in the angel's eyes. "They will probably pick up most of him, unfortunately, but I'm sure there will still be a part of Kronger for the future road to pave over."

"Hm."

The scene shifted and now it showed a woman clad in purple spandex, leaping around a warehouse, shooting arrows into the thugs rushing at her. "This woman, Helena Bertinelli, considers herself an avenger. She is not, for as I have said, true vengeance belongs to God. However, she is a sort of one, as humans go. Death for death. Wound for wound. Eye for eye."

Sasuke scowled at the remark, hand trailing up to feel at the empty socket. The woman looked vaguely familiar.

"This woman has little of the light of God's righteousness to understand sin in. However, she measures it with her heart, acting upon instinct. A crime against another is a crime against her. She understands the grief of the victim, and therefore avenges, easing her grief by lessening others."

Again a shift of scene. Now there was a young man in a room, sloshing some kind of liquid about on the floor. Another man lay unconscious in a chair just across from him, his sock sinking in a sea of the liquid.

"The man with the gasoline is called Ethan Brunet," said the Spectre. "And he is killing Roland Gamston, who murdered his sister in Chicago last year. Ethan sees himself as an avenger, but in reality he is simply an angry young man. He does not try to understand Roland, he does not try to understand others, he does not try to understand God. Ethan knows nothing except that he is in pain, and seeks to ease it by killing the man responsible for that. He is not an avenger, he is merely a sick man in search of release. In all likelihood, killing Roland will not satisfy him, and he shall move on to those who resemble Roland in one aspect or another."

Sasuke snorted, watching with disinterest as the shapes shifted and contorted, finally becoming a dark, dirty alleyway, where a scruffy man huddled over a pistol.

"This man does not consider himself an avenger, or indeed much of anything." Spectre observed. "Yet he is most like you. He does not seek to understand the world or the people around him, he pays no regard to God or man, he cares only that he is in pain, and blames the world at large for that. And thus, without even seeking to ease the pain or remove the cause, he lashes out at anyone less miserable than he." As Sasuke and the Spectre watched, a small boy ran into the alleyway, just a few steps ahead of his richly-dressed parents. The man swung out in front of them, whipping out his gun. The boy froze, the mother screamed, the father moved forward...

Shots echoed against the alley walls. As if punched, the mother and father crumpled over, and the man took to his heels, not even bothering to despoil the bodies or pick up the pearls that lay in the woman's blood. Only the boy was left, sobbing in disbelief over his parent's bodies.

Sasuke's face tightened perceptibly. "And where is justice in this?" He hissed. "You are the angel of vengeance, you say, yet you let this man get away. The only way justice shall ever come of this is if this boy grows to avenge his parents' death."

"An interesting comment," observed the angel. "Let us examine this boy, shall we?"

A rush of images sped past them, showing the boy moving through life and the world, studying how to fight, how to think, how to search. Years lengthened him, hardened him, he grew into a great man and...

Sasuke's remaining eye widened slightly as the rush of images slowed to a new scene—the thug, now an old man, sat comfortably at a desk, unaware of the figure approaching from the shadows behind him. The boy, now a strong, resolute warrior, was clad all in black, with a wide, sweeping cape and a sable cowl that masked his eyes. His belt bulged with all manner of equipment, and the symbol of a bat adorned his chest.

--------------------------------

Neji hated feeling useless. After all, he was an acknowledged genius, a Branch Member Hyuuga, and a fully capable jounin. There was no, repeat, NO reason for him to feel useless.

And yet, as he crouched behind a handy block of concrete, that was precisely how he felt here. His Jyuuken had no effect. His lightning jutsus were worse than useless. Even his famous Byakugan were barely helpful. The flying boy and the electric lady were throwing lightning at each other, and he was relegated to distraction position.

Like now. The woman's focus was utterly fixed on the flying boy, she was charging up an attack. Quickly Neji dispelled his henge, dashed across a few meters of ground, and delivered a solid Jyuuken strike to the chest, leaping back even as he did so.

"Gaah! Oh, you dirty little sonofaBITCH!" The woman rounded on him, just long enough for the flying boy to shatter a fire hydrant next to her. "Gagphltbth! And now YOU! Oh, when I get my hands on either one of you..."

But Neji was already gone, now underneath a handy bus, under the cover of a henge. He and his erstwhile ally hadn't exactly met to plan a strategy, but they had worked out a system. Neji distracted her, the other soaked her with water. Or, on occasion, the flying boy distracted her while Neji smashed open a water tank or something.

Why water, of all things, weakened the woman, Neji didn't pretend to understand. It was all backwards. WIND was supposed to weaken lightning, not water.

A screech attracted his attention, and Neji risked a peek out from the car. He blinked. It seemed the woman had finally lost it. She was shooting from power line to power line, leaping after the flying boy, sending all sorts of bolts at him. Under that barrage, he wouldn't last long.

No time now. The woman looked distracted enough, it would have to do. Neji leapt from under the car...

And it exploded behind him. He rolled with the blast and glanced up as he dashed for the nearest building. Apparently the woman wasn't as distracted as she looked, now lightning bolts were landing all around him, too.

Neji grimaced. This wasn't going to be simple.

Leaping onto the smooth glass of the nearest building, he sped up it, weaving from side to side in an attempt to dodge the blasts raking the windows around him. Running right up around the corner of the building, out of the woman's eyesight, his fingers flew in a flurry of seals. Raibunshin no jutsu! A clone easily formed out of the energy in the air and dashed off back around the corner, still dodging the blasts.

Now to take advantage of that. Neji continued running on the far side of the building, tracking the woman's movements with his Byakugan. She seemed distracted enough, dividing her attention between his clone and the other boy, but still this couldn't last long. That lightning clone had nearly used up all of Neji's chakra, this had to finish things.

Still on the far side, still running along the wall, he leapt from one building to another. She was swiftly coming up on the roof of this one, still flying, still bombarding both fighters with lightning. Putting on an extra burst of speed, Neji flew up the wall and leapt into the air over the roof just as she reached it.

Neji's Byakugan caught the split-second widening of her eye before his strike hit.

"Four palms!" Neji shouted, caught up in the moment as his hands flew into the woman. "Eight palms! Sixteen! Thirty-two!" His fingers screamed with the sensation of shock, but he didn't let up, continuing to pummel her, all the hundred feet back to the ground. He reared up with the last strike "Eight trigrams... Sixty-Four Palms!"

They smashed into the ground, kicking up pavement, dust, and—Neji vaguely noted—steel. Water was on him too, soaking into his garment... had they hit a water main?

Then he wondered something else. Why hadn't he broken any bones? And what on earth was he doing now, floating above the ground like this? Didn't you normally hit the ground when you fell?

Was he dead?

"You are some serious kind of crazy!"

A girl. A flying girl, of course. That rod she was waving at him must be the reason why he was floating.

"Crazy!" she repeated. "If I had been a split-second later, you'd have hit the ground with that lady and probably broken your neck or something! Didn't even have time to catch her... oh man, if she's dead, you're seriously going to hear it from..."

"Stargirl?" The flying boy had come over. "Man, 'bout time the League showed up. You know this guy from somewhere?"

The League. That penetrated Neji's fog. "Stargirl... Steel... he went off..."

"Dad went to help him," nodded the girl. "We split up as soon as we saw the situation. Holy cow, Metallo and Livewire... you guys are lucky to be alive, you know that? You especially. If I hadn't grabbed you with my star rod..."

A fresh explosion made three heads turn downward. There, crackling in all her fury, was Livewire.

"Aw man!" whined the boy. "Now that just ain't right."

Lightning flashed up at them. Stargirl and the other managed to dodge. Neji, helpless in the air, did not.

---------------------------

Mr. Terrific and Green Arrow walked down the hallway in thoughtful silence, each avoiding the other's gaze. "Well," said Arrow at length. "That was an... interesting account the girl gave us."

"To say the least." Terrific grunted.

"Maybe she wasn't quite sober yet..."

"I examined her. She was perfectly cognizant, and fully in earnest about the plan to turn the moon into a giant weapon."

"Hm," nodded the Archer. "Well... I suppose there have been crazier world domination plans. And hey, it's not like SHE came up with the plan, she just heard about it. The other ninjas and her are probably perfectly rational, it shouldn't be that hard to work with them."

"Arrow, they believe in a man who defeated a gigantic floating eyeball thousands of years ago and purportedly fathered their two most powerful clans." Terrific groaned, three robotic probes circling anxiously about his head as he walked into the lab. "And, moreover, that he will return, identifiable by a pair of special eyes."

"Look, does it matter what they believe?" Close behind the scientist, Green Arrow him an annoyed glance. "It brings them to the same goal as us. The point is, they're being honest with us now. They trust us completely, and so far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter what they believe, so much as they REALLY believe it."

"You would think that, wouldn't you." Terrific muttered, tugging open a drawer. "Never mind that such a belief indicates a tenuous grip on reality which could make cooperation with them EXTREMELY difficult in the future."

"They've got a firm enough grip on the situation. Heck, we've got more deranged kids in the League than them. Creeper, for instance."

"Somehow, I am not reassured." Shrugging off his fingerless gloves and replacing them with long white latex ones, Terrific reached toward a small cooler sitting on the table. "The only thing that DOES reassure me is that their actual 'belief,' or worldview, is more closely tied to this 'Will of Fire' that that Naruto keeps spouting off about." Popping open the cooler, he reached inside. "At least THAT sounds more like a rational philosophy and less like something out of a fairytale."

"See? Not so bad. Doesn't matter what their history is so long as their behavior... is..." Green Arrow eyed the object in Terrific's hands. "Is that... an eyeball?"

His own eyes intently studying the bloody mass in his hands, Terrific answered, somewhat distractedly: "They call it a Sharingan, but yes, it's an eyeball. According to them, a most remarkable one at that. The one Naruto kid ripped it out of the Uchiha's head, Batman was thoughtful enough to recover it from the battlefield."

Arrow winced slightly. "And we have it... why?"

"It's the thing that brought them here." Terrific's eyes slid over to meet Arrow's. "Could give us a valuable hint on how to send them back, to say nothing of getting a complete genetic profile of the Uchiha, which makes him substantially easier to track."

"Really? The genetic part I get, but the eye itself looks a bit too banged up to do anything with."

"That's mostly just extraneous flesh surrounding it." Terrific set the eye down and reached for a scalpel. "The organ itself is largely untouched. If anything critical IS damaged, I can try and grow a new one from the genetic data."

"The kids know you have that?"

"Not yet. But if they want to get home quickly, they'll agree to it." Terrific looked only slightly smug. "Better to ask forgiveness than permission."

"Hope I'm not interrupting." Both men looked up to meet Question's blank features. "Terrific, where are the test samples they took of Huntress' blood?"

Terrific didn't even blink. "In that fridge over there, probably, that's where they keep all the samples. They'd be in the middle rack on the top drawer, since they're so recent."

"And the ones they took of me when I was out?"

"Same place, I'd imagine."

"Thank you." The detective crossed over to the fridge, opened it, scanned the tubes lining the shelves for a moment before selecting a few, then walked over to the sink and poured them down the drain.

Green Arrow arched an eyebrow. "Uh... Q?"

"Must destroy all traces of bodily material." Question replied in his even tone. "Could be used in Mayan transformation sequence, Tibetian voodoo ceremonies. Too easy to access here, need to destroy evidence." He frowned at the fridge. "I should probably destroy them all, but if others choose to walk in ignorance, that is their affair." Cracking the tubes between his fingers, he tossed them into an incineration chute. "Where is the medical records office?"

"Down the hallway, third door on the right." Terrific replied, still not blinking. "Be sure to let Batman know you're deleting files again."

"Thanks. I'll remember that." With barely a nod, the detective vanished through the doorway.

The two heroes stared after him for a moment before exchanging a glance and a sigh. Terrific bent back to his work, but Arrow walked to the door and glanced out into the hallway. "You know, he's an excellent analyst and all, but he seriously has a few screws loose. I don't know why they keep him in the League."

Terrific's mouth twisted in a small smile. "Oh, come now, Arrow. Does it matter what the man believes, so long as he truly believes it?"

--------------------------------

"Many years passed before the man called Batman finally found Joe Chill, the murderer of his parents." The Spectre's cool voice sounded over Sasuke's shoulder. "Chill had grown to be a crime boss of sorts, and had changed much since that night, but he still was a hardened man, neither understanding nor caring to understand the world around him. Batman found him and cornered him."

"And killed him." Sasuke nodded.

The angel remained silent, and Sasuke was forced to watch in disbelief as Batman moved away from Chill's chair. He stepped into the light. He drew close to the desk. Hands came to his mask and peeled it away, revealing once again the enraged face of the boy from so many years ago.

But he did not touch Chill. No batarangs sprouted from his fingers, no exploding pellets whipped out, no traps popped up to stop Chill as the gangboss fled out the door.

"He's letting him get away?"

"Batman could have sent Chill to jail for nearly any crime, except the one he wanted," explained the Spectre. "The murder of his parents. He deduced the only way to obtain a confession would be to shock Chill into making a mistake." There was a sudden whooshing noise, and Spectre and Sasuke swept after the fleeing criminal. "And Chill did."

They entered a wide room, just in time to see Chill shouting out to his thugs of the story of how he was the source of Batman's quest. The assembled criminals sprung to their feet in anger.

Then it's your fault he's been on us?

You created Batman?

It's all because of you! YOU!

Shots rang out in the warehouse, and as if punched, Chill crumpled over to collapse on the pavement.

---------------------------

The electricity tore through his system, shredded his nerves, seized up his muscles and twisted them into funny shapes. He barely even noticed when Stargirl finally whipped him out of the lightning's path, didn't even register her frantic apologies. He only came round when she was finally setting him down behind a truck.

"Stay here and rest." She said. "Oh man... I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I just acted on... look, just rest. More League members are on the way. We'll keep her busy until then. Just rest."

Neji couldn't even argue as she sailed away, but inwardly he was raging. Rest? The battle was still out there! The battle was not yet won! He couldn't afford to rest! Naruto wouldn't rest! Not while his allies were still out there.

Unfortunately, that meant very little. Neji's muscles were tied up in paralyzed little knots, and his chakra was nearly exhausted. He couldn't do anything to help the others, even if his Byakugan—and the enormous flashes of light that bounced off the surrounding buildings—told him how badly the fight was going.

With frustrated helplessness, he watched the boy sail through the air over his head, then go speeding back toward the battle, behind the truck.

Neji frowned. Something seemed off about that.

Livewire was forcing the boy back, blast by terrible blast. Stargirl was hurling blocks of concrete left and right, but she was nearly so invulnerable to the blasts of lightning as even Neji was. Slowly, the boy came into sight over the top of the truck again.

Came into sight?

Suddenly Neji realized what was bothering him. His Byakugan gave him complete three-dimensional view, and showed him the battle behind his head, through the semi truck it rested against. But when the flying boy moved from behind the truck, he looked... different.

The Raiton energy. That was it. High as Neji's Byakugan was, he couldn't really distinguish the different elemental energies. Yet, he could see a clear difference between the boy behind the truck, and the boy above his head. The truck, or the contents of it must somehow be blocking the energy radiating from the boy.

Neji didn't know how that worked, or what it meant. But as he felt feeling come back into his arms, he knew what to do with it.

With twitching fingers, he reached into his pouch, feeling about with numbed nerves. Finally he identified the piece of paper and drew it forth, studying the chakra seals covering it. An exploding tag. One of the few Konoha originals left from the fight with Sasuke and the time in the new world.

Feeling was coming back into his legs now. Not enough to run with, not enough to attack with, but enough to do what he had in mind. Sending his last bit of chakra into the tag, Neji slapped it on the side of the truck and threw himself forward, tumbling away as quickly as he was able.

The truck exploded, releasing a cloud of dust particles.

---------------------------------

"Silicon dust." Batman nodded, examining the ground. "Used in resistors and microchips to block the flow of electricity."

"When it caught Livewire in the blast like that, it trapped her powers." Lantern nodded thoughtfully.

Standing, Batman gave a grunt of agreement. "Something worth remembering."

"You going to start making silicon pellets now?"

"In any case, we have her," said Batman, ignoring the smirking superhero. "And Metallo, and Kid Flash, and another one of the ninja visitors. Narrow escape, but quite rewarding." He gave a small nod to the wearied teen sitting on the ambulance bumper. "Excellent work, Static."

Static gave a little laugh and shook his head. "Don't know what I did exactly, Bats. That other guy is some serious kind of crazy."

Lantern snorted. "We know. Still, you matched Livewire in open combat, and held her off long enough for reinforcements to arrive. That's nothing to shrug off."

"If you say so." Static shrugged, but his face glowed with pride. Pausing suddenly, he stood up as two paramedics came forward with a stretcher. "'scuse me for a moment. Hey, White Eyes?" he called, hurrying forward.

A stoic face stared out at him from the bandages. "You fought well," it said.

"Dude, you're some serious level of badass yourself."

A grunt was his only answer. "I am Hyuuga Neji," said the ninja, raising an IV-covered arm.

"Uh, Virgil Hawkins. Static," returned the other, hesitantly taking the hand and shaking it. "Good to meet you."

Some feet away, Batman turned and raised an eyebrow at Lantern. "Have you started training Hawkins yet?"

"Done a few missions with him, like you have, but no. Why?"

"I think he should spend some time at the Watchtower." Batman responded, casting another glance toward the stretcher. "Along with the Titans, if possible. We could use an intermediary between ourselves and the ninjas."

Both heroes glanced up as Superman floated to the ground. "Luthor's base is empty."

"No surprise there." Batman nodded. "Still, this is the second time he's had to move. He's got to slip up sometime."

--------------------------------------

The blackness came rushing away and Sasuke stumbled out of it to crash onto the pavement of the alleyway. Slowly he pushed himself up, feeling strangely weak.

"I have shown you perspective, shown you vengeance, and now I shall show you humility," stated the man coldly. "For the duration of a week you shall be as another human of this planet—without Sharingan, without weapons..." he leaned closer, "...without chakra."

Still panting, Sasuke could do little more than glare at the man.

"More than this I cannot do." The man stepped back. "For though I can show you these things, only you can see. I shall not interfere in your affairs again."

With that, the man vanished, and Sasuke found himself alone in the alleyway.