(General P.O.V)

The Batjet landed a distance away from the village. An open field that was cleared for cultivation due to it being the planting season. Martian Manhunter phased through the interior of the Dark Knight's craft, landing on the soil with barely a sound. A minute later, Batman joined him and they both walked the rest of the way towards the village.

Most of the others like Superman, Green Lantern and Flash had arrived by way of the Zeta tube installed in Africa. One for each section of the continent. One was in Cairo, another in Dar El Salaam, for the south there was one in Cape Town and the last was in West Africa, particularly Côte d'Ivoire in a city called Abdijan. It was part of a planetary safeguarding scheme in case of a worldwide crisis, like an alien incursion. A plan that had become necessary after the Justice League had faced off against the Appellaxians.

A green beam scanned them once they arrived at the scene of where the bio-ship was located. There was a group of locals armed with shields and spears going around the village, fixing up the huts that remained intact from the clearly massive battle that had happened here.

"Hey J'onn, Bats." The Flash said, appearing before them in a burst of speed. He spared a brief look at the pair due to the unexpected presence of the Dark Knight before shrugging,

"You came right on time, we just managed to get the team out of the bio-ship, though they still remain unresponsive. We're hoping you could work some of that martian magic and fix… whatever this is."

The group walked over to the temporary tent they had set up to house the unconscious teens. The general consensus was to wait for the resident Telepath to see what's was wrong before taking them back to the watchtower for further treatment. The aforementioned Telepath stopped before the teens. Only five of whom were present. Superboy was missing and J'onn could feel the worry inside Superman's mind.

The Kryptonian, Wonder woman and Captain Atom landed next to Batman and the others but chose to keep quiet do as to not distract the Manhunter. The Martian's eyes glowed with power, a green flash that disappeared after a few seconds.

"Mmmh." J'onn hummed, calling interest to the rest.

"I can feel their minds locked inside a mental loop, almost impossible for the victim to breakthrough by themselves."

"Can you?"

Batman asked, naturally taking command like he was used to. Superman and Wonder Woman glanced at each other. The Man of Steel shook his head. Despite the misgivings he had about Batman's presence, caused by his earlier confession, the focus was on helping the team and finding the one responsible for the crater in the middle of the village.

"I will need time. The procedure is delicate, else we risk trapping them inside the psyche… forever."

The Martian answered back. There was a wave of palpable concern as Wonder Woman ushered everyone away.

"Take all the time you need J'onn. Meanwhile, we will follow up on anything we find."

The tent flap fell behind the last Leaguer. Once outside, Wonder woman rounded up to face Batman. Hands crossed as she gave the impassive Dark Knight a death stare.

"You have some explaining to do, Batman."

Her tone had a noticeable hard edge on it.

"I'll… I'll just go around and see if we missed anything."

The Flash announced and escaped from the brewing confrontation.

Captain Atom similarly flew up without saying a word. He wasn't escaping. Not really. If anything he was prioritizing. As The Flash said, they might have missed something. Plus, Green Lantern was surveying the scene all alone, maybe he needed some back up.

"Don't you have anything to say Bruce?"

Diana was relentless. She had nothing against the detective. If anything a small part of her admired him. His will to never give up was something she had rarely seen in a mortal. In that, Batman was a step ahead many of the heroes Diana had come across. And she had come across a lot. But therein lies the problem. A willful man like Batman tended to keep his own counsel. It was… annoying and frustrating how much he trusted himself.

"I don't think now is the time or the place, Diana. We have Superboy and missing villagers to find."

Superman played mediator, coming in between them.

"I'll go see if I can pull up the logs from the bio-ship."

Batman spoke up, making to leave.

"This is not over."

Wonder Woman informed him, laying a hand on his shoulder gently. The Dark Knight ignored her and left for the bio-ship.

Lantern Stewart was scanning the ship and upon seeing Batman, he flew down to land next to him. The bio-ship was in its resting oval shape.

"You know, typically when someone resigns it means they, you know… actually resign. How are you doing Batman?

The Green Lantern greeted him easily.

"I'm good, John. What did you find out from your scans?"

The Lantern shrugged.

"Not much I'm afraid. The bio-ship is on lockdown. It's a miracle we managed to extract the team. Maybe a subroutine? It changed forms after the extraction. And going by my scans, only a Martian or a Telepath can get through it's security. Makes sense for such a mentally reliant piece of tech like it."

He explained.

"Her." Batman corrected, to which Stewart looked at him strangely.

"Right…all that means is we don't have as good a lead as I initially thought we did."

The Green Lantern concluded his explanation.

"What about the satellite feed from the Watchtower? Did it capture anything?"

The Dark Knight wondered. In response to the question, Stewart's ring shone with the light of a construct, displaying a green projected screen of the village seen from above.

"Just this…a massive explosion of energy a few kilometers from here. Captured on the feed over 40 minutes ago. I was actually planning to head on over there and see if I can get a reading on what the energy was."

"Mmh." Batman hummed. "Let's go. In the meantime, the others can hold down the fort."

A green platform appeared below Batman and they flew up, with Lantern Stewart giving an update to Wonder Woman.

A short flight later, they came up on devastation. The landscape before them was destroyed. A massive groove had turned the hill leading up to a cave into a cavern with blackened walls and soil.

"My god, what could have caused this?"

Green Lantern wondered out loud. He'd only seen something like this caused by massive weapons under a watchlist of an intergalactic arms oversight board. Each world had a certain level of weapon access that was allowed. Of course like many organizations in space, the board was less than useless. Corrupt and inefficient.

Batman narrowed his eyes.

"Get us down and scan for any remnants of energy signature left behind. Then cross reference that with anything in the ring's database."

Stewart glanced at Batman from the corner of his eye.

"Siryessir."

He said jokingly, causing Batman to sigh a little. He didn't think working with the League again would be this hard. Assuming command came natural to the Dark Knight but he knew he couldn't keep on doing it.

They landed near the cave and a horrible smell assaulted Batman's nose, coming from the entrance.

"Good God, smells as if something died in there."

Batman didn't say anything in response to Stewart's words but he mentally agreed. A torch appeared in his left hand as he studied the walls of the cave. He ran his fingers down the tunnel and it broke off into blackened pieces of soot. Probably as a result of an intense heat.

"Batman…you gotta see this."

Stewart's voice pulled him out of his own investigation.

"It wasn't a weapon as I had initially thought, instead the energy signature bears a strong resemblance to Aden Strong."

(Back at the village)

The Flash had combed through the place ten times already and it was only by luck that he managed to find a certain trail hidden behind two huts with 2 warriors standing guard. The speedster narrowed his eyes. Looking at their vigilant stances, they clearly didn't want anyone accessing wherever the path led to. His hand went to his earpiece

"Flash to Wonder Woman. I think I found something."

Saying that, he disappeared, going so fast the two warriors saw nothing except for a short breeze that ruffled their clothes. They looked at each other and shrugged. The Flash came to a stop when the trail opened up to a beautiful garden.

"Wow. Iris would fall in love with this place."

He commented to himself.

There was a bridge built over a pool that glowed beautifully in the night sky, lush grass on the edges of the empty space and a huge tree with glowing pods hanging from it's branches. Before the tree, a shrine was elected. Barry had a feeling that this place…was sacred. He stepped forward to cross the bridge when a rumble sounded out from below.

"Whoa!"

The Flash shouted in surprise, jumping backwards as vines broke through the surface of the ground.

The vines formed into the shape of a green hulking man with red eyes.

"Leave!"

The giant spoke up, his voice reverberating through the beautiful place.

"So I'm guessing you're the security, right?"

The Flash quipped, his heart racing at speeds even he couldn't hope to achieve.

(Back With Batman)

The pair crossed through the tunnel and found themselves inside a wide cavern. The stench was even worse in here. Batman's mask glowed with a white light as he took note of the strange surroundings. Black walls all around. A layer of soot and ash that Batman wasn't sure what it belonged to. He had a sample on his utility belt for further study.

"I found something."

Stewart said, pulling Bruce away from his thoughts. The former marine flew towards the further end of the cavern where an underground river, now just patches of black stagnant water was located. A flash of scanning light, escaped the ring on Stewart's hands and a second later the results were in.

"That's... interesting."

Not wanting to leave the Dark Knight in the dark, John sent the information packet to Batman's holographic wrist computer.

"Who are the Sconiads?"

Batman asked, after promptly accessing the information.

"40 millenia ago, before the guardians signed a peace treaty with an alien species called The Reach, the Sconiads were a race of bio-mechanic life forms who could intergrate with technology to a scary degree. It's what the Reach based their Scarab tech on. Unfortunately, they were destroyed due to the ongoing conflict at the time and due to their inclination to pursue knowledge and keep a neutral stand. I'm getting two distinct energy signatures here. One of boom tube use and the other, Sconiad technology."