8

Player One, it turned out, was another kid around the same height as Robin. They were wearing an odd outfit made of some gray-ish leather with an... Unpleasant smell around them.

The hockey mask covering the entirety of their face was almost as equally offsetting as the dented baseball bat in their hands.

If Batman hadn't said they were collecting this person explicitly, Leslie would have first thought 'Villain'.

As it is, he'd only just moved them up the list to 'Edgy antihero' instead.

"Zero-Two. Batman"

"B-Zero-One. Robin"

"B-Zero-Seven. Alchemist."

"B-Zero-Eight. Player One."

Alchemist stepped out of the zeta tube terminal just behind Robin, and ran immediately to the first trashcan he could see.

Several painful moments of dry-heaving later, he was rather thankful for waking up late and missing breakfast.

The experience had been... Odd, to say the very least. It wasn't as bad as a roller coaster, at least it didn't make him dizzy like one.

Instead it almost felt like his stomach had been left behind, then followed a second later and tried to crawl back down his throat.

"I think I'll stick to not doing that from now on. 'Kay?" Batman had moved on ahead towards the building, but Robin and Player One had stayed behind.

"You'll get used to it." The boy wonder sounded absolutely smug, standing there with a familiar grin on his face. "Just try to stay whelmed, Alchemist. Don't want the other heroes seeing barf all over your shoes."

Leslie wiped his mouth. The only thing that came out was spittle, but still.

"Let's go." Player One growled. They were agitated and tapping their foot.

Leslie didn't know where their baseball bat went.

Getting from the discreet zeta tube terminal to the Hall of Justice was a reasonably short walk.

"Why didn't we just teleport straight in?" Player One asked, apparently deciding the walk was not short enough.

Leslie didn't have an answer.

"Because the security on that terminal is tighter and you two would need to be manually added to it." But Robin did.

Not far away they could see another band of brightly colored young men walking up. These, however, still had their mentors in view.

Green Arrow and Speedy, Flash and Kid Flash, Aqua Man and... Aquaboy? Kid? Leslie couldn't quite remember.

The comics of Water Man and his fratricidal brother had never really caught Leslie's interest in his previous life. The story of Abel and Cain could only be rehashed so many times before he just didn't care any more.

That... Was probably going to bite him in the ass, huh.

"Ready to see the inner sanctum?" Green arrow was asking his sidekick.

"Born that way." The younger man answered.

Leslie looked across the assembled heroes. This was all starting to look kind of familiar...

No, no. He was thinking of Batman: The Animated Series. This scene wasn't in it, he was certain.

And this was definitely not the Justice Friends. The pictures he found of Solomon Grundy on the internet had included pants.

A decent pair of pants, at that.

The various heroes and sidekicks were chatting as they continued to walk into the building. Leslie, not being part of the in crowd, caught up with Player One as they were heading in.

"Well, this is gonna be fun." Leslie said in a deadpan voice, clearly meaning the opposite.

Player One stared at him, black eyeholes attempting to glare into his soul.

Under his goggles, Leslie narrowed his own eyes. Something was off here...

Why couldn't he hear their breathing? With that mask against their face, the sound should be even more obvious, not lessened.

Through the doors of the Hall of Justice, and down a few hallways they eventually came to a locked door. No latch, keycard access only. The various heroes handed their sidekicks a plain, unmarked badge each.

Looking at that, Leslie came to a rather unfortunate conclusion.

He was going to have to train these people on infosec.

He was going to have to dig up the dozens of hours he'd spent working in manufacturing, learning about classified information and the countless small ways his company had used to safeguard corporate secrets... And try to use that to explain to children that, half the time, unmarked spy tools are actually more telling than a normal keycard or a badge with a face.

Did the white hats have that hacking expo in this reality? What about the physical penetration experts? He needed to find an outlet and get the wifi password.

Or, Leslie pushed those thoughts down. Or he could just... Not.

He didn't have any sway here. No authority, no history, he was the FNG. Telling other people how to not mess up would, at best, be ignored.

At worst, he'd be alienating his coworkers and the contract he'd signed had the intention of being year long and renewable, but it was still at-will employment between him and the Batman.

"Robin, Alchemist, here are your access passes. Player One, a word." Robin didn't so much as jump when Batman appeared behind them. Leslie definitely and visibly flinched.

Player One just stayed behind as everyone else filtered into the room beyond.

Within the Martian Manhunter stood, poised and incredibly still.

Leslie watched. His chest didn't even expand as he breathed. If he breathed.

"Welcome, everyone, to the inner sanctum of the Hall of Justice. Here you have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked gallery, and of course our library." The alien spoke. It came as a flat monotone, yet somehow still conveyed... Pride?

Either he was very good, or he was using his telepathy to share his emotions where his voice and face couldn't.

That... Actually, Leslie was decidedly envious of that. If he wasn't being sarcastic, caustic or asinine he had a hard time expressing himself the way he wanted.

"Make yourselves at home!"