Caterpillar

Starfire

"Why have you gathered us all here today, Batman?" Green Lantern asked.

It was only a few minutes after Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter sabotaged the International Space Station. To prevent anyone from getting their hands on that powerful railgun, they blew up the whole satellite. Everyone else on board - the astronauts and Kaznia's agents too - was taken out and brought to the Watchtower thanks to Green Lantern's power ring. But it was only temporary. They had to take them back to Earth.

All the members of the Justice League were gathered in the conference room; except for Wonder Woman, the rest were looking at Batman, waiting for an explanation.

"Do you remember that alien mercenary that rescued Superman half a year ago? - He's back. He came back to Earth and our Watchtower's radar couldn't detect it all."

"So that was the big emergency?" Hawkgirl scoffed. "Last time we met him, he wasn't a psychopath. He saved Superman's life."

"Appearances can be deceiving. He's dangerous. He put me under an illusion and I didn't even know it until he lifted the spell himself. While Wonder Woman was imprisoned and I was under that illusion, he broke into Vandal Savage's control room and cut off his head."

A momentary silence descended. In their memories, the alien mercenary and his talking fox did not strike them as the cold-blooded killer type. If anything, he seemed like a decent person at heart because he had gone out of his way to save Superman and Supergirl.

It was Green Lantern that broke the silence:

"As far as I'm concerned, good riddance."

Seeing the way everyone was looking at him, he said:

"That madman poisoned the king of a country, destroyed 3 US Navy ships killing almost everyone on board and then tried to start World War 3. I'll say it again, good riddance! Not to mention what he did in World War 2 too."

When presented with the hard facts nobody could retort against his words. Vandal Savage was one of the worst scourges of the Earth.

Batman narrowed his eyes as he spoke:

"This guy is a mercenary. He'll do whatever he's paid for. What if his target was the US president instead of Vandal Savage? What could we have done to stop him when we can't even detect him?"

At his words, everyone finally realized the gravity of the situation, what Batman was worried about.

"We've banded together and created the Justice League after Imperium nearly took over our planet almost 1 year ago. Our purpose, as the Justice League, was primarily to defend against alien threats. If we can't do that, what is the Justice League needed for anymore? We don't need to work together just to keep in check the criminals with superpowers - we've been doing that just fine, solo, long before the Justice League was formed."

Superman nodded and said in support to his words:

"Batman is right. We're not the only ones who took the responsibility of protecting the innocent. Almost every large city has its own local hero or group of heroes that protect it, just like us. As the Justice League, we must not forget about our purpose."

As they started to discuss how to improve Earth's defences against external threats, an alarm started to blare from the Watchtower's control room. Flash was the first to arrive and see the reason: an enormous alien ship could be seen heading towards Earth at a very high speed.

⁂

"Even after all these years, I can't see what you like so much about ramen. The taste is nothing special and there is so little meat. We're also in the middle of a job, aren't we?" Kyuubi's voice sounded in Naruto's earpiece.