Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“So why’d you call us all down here, Spooky?” Green Lantern asked as he used his ring to illuminate the high tunnel ceiling above him. “Some new threat you wanted us to check out?”

“Yeah, I just want to know why we all had to come,” Shazam folded his arms crossly. “I was gonna watch the newest horror movie tonight.”

Flash snorted. “You were going to watch that? Isn’t it R-rated?”

“Yeah? So?” Shazam fired back.

Both Flash and Lantern chuckled, but said nothing. Shazam made a face, which Diana smiled at.

“If you three are done going back and forth, I can show you what I found,” Batman announced darkly, his attention focused on a small scanner in his palm. “A few hours ago, miners were blasting tunnels in search of molybdenum when they stumbled upon an open cavern full of what they were looking for. They also found something that didn’t seem to be from this world.”

“What, you mean like an alien?” Shazam asked, landing next to him and trying to read over his shoulder.

“Possibly,” the Dark Knight replied, keeping the scanner out of Shazam’s sight.

“And where is this thing?” Diana asked as she gazed deeper into the dark tunnel they were traveling through. Occasionally they would come upon abandoned mining equipment, safely shut down while they waited for their operators to return.

“We’re nearing the location,” Batman replied, tucking the scanner away. “Anyone heard from Cyborg or Superman?”

Flash tapped his chin in thought, then zipped away, gone for only a brief moment before reappearing in a red and yellow blur. “Cyborg’s on his way, and Superman’s still at his office.”

“I’m guessing Supes will get here first,” Lantern said confidently, flashing a grin at Flash.

“You guessed right,” There was a large whoosh of air, and Superman appeared next to Diana, smiling pleasantly at her. “So why don’t you fill me in, Batman?”

“We have an unknown alien threat in this mine, and we need to find it.”

“Seems like the perfect nighttime activity,” Superman replied with a smile, obviously in a positive mood tonight.

Shazam grumbled his disagreement but stayed quiet. The group continued deeper into the mine, the shaft slowly becoming smaller to the point where both Lantern and Superman had to land and walk. The darkness became engulfing. Even the light of Lantern’s ring wasn’t helping much, though he claimed he had it as bright as it could get. It bathed everything in a bright green glow, deceiving the hard rock for a green screen. Finally, they came to the place where the rest of the mining equipment had been abandoned, a massive, gaping hole greeting them on the other side. The opening was upsetting, the whole team abruptly on edge as they stopped.

“So I’m guessing this is the place,” Lantern said grimly, shining his ring directly on the hole.

“Watch your back,” Batman warned, and led the way into the dark cavern.

The group entered the black cavity, the ceiling cresting high above their heads abruptly, the walls rocky and crowded with massive boulders the size of cars. Superman and Lantern floated upwards, scanning the cavern with a power ring and X-ray vision. They all halted when they saw the thing that had scared the miners away.

“Holy Moley,” Shazam exclaimed first.

Seated in a mound of boulders on the far side of the cave was a massive, sharply adorned robot a staggering thirty feet, or even taller than that. Its powerful frame rested against the wall, and it was obvious it had been there for a long while, from the thick layer of dust resting on its frame and smaller boulders scattered undisturbed around its body. The robot was a polished silver, rusted bronze embellishing the sharper parts of its armor, its shoulders arching menacingly around its head. A dim purple six-sided star was emblazoned in the center of its chest, the armor on its torso heavy and complex. Its face was tilted downwards, and they were almost afraid to look at it. The slits that would be its eyes were clamped shut, the face portraying an empty expression. The group approached the robot warily, Diana drawing her sword and brandishing it proudly. 

“This thing is so much bigger than I thought it would be,” Lantern thought aloud, shining his ring directly on it, bathing it in an unsettling green glare that made it seem the robot would leap to life any second.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Superman marveled, ascending higher to get a better view, halting when he was level with the robot’s head.

“Nor have I,” Diana nodded. “We should destroy it before it wakes!”

“I’m down! I don’t want to fight that thing!” Shazam agreed.

“No.”

They all turned to Batman in surprise.

“What do you mean, no?” Lantern asked, more than slightly appalled.

Batman was about to respond when Cyborg came flying in, landing and storing his thrusters away. “Hey, guys! Sorry I’m late, I was- Woah.” He froze when he saw the robot, his mouth falling open in awe.

“Yeah, you’re not the first,” Lantern said smugly, wiggling his wrist a little to make the beam dance across the robot’s body. 

“What is that thing?” Cyborg asked, walking up to Batman and looking to him for an explanation.

“We don’t know,” the Dark Knight replied. 

“Eh, don’t worry,” Lantern waved a hand. He flew over to the robot, hovering next to its head. “I got this. Ring, scan and identify.”

“ Initiating scan ,” the ring replied, a complex scanner materializing in front of him. A thin slice of light began sliding down the robot’s frame, inspecting every inch of it. “ Processing .”

“What do you think it will be?” Shazam asked.

“Whatever it is, the ring will know,” Lantern returned confidently.

“ Unable to identify .” The ring finished before it had even gotten halfway down the robot’s body.

Lantern sputtered in disbelief as the ring sucked the scanner back into itself. “Impossible! The ring is supposed to know everything! The Guardians are supposed to know everything!”

“Apparently not,” Superman commented, amused. Lantern fumed as he landed next to the group, wary of Diana’s sword that she was still gripping tightly.

“So what do we do now?” Flash asked. “We can’t just leave it here. We have no idea if it’s alive or not.”

The group fell silent, all pondering what to do. Half of them still wanted to destroy it, but there would be consequences. They couldn’t necessarily destroy it down here; it would collapse the whole mine and anger the miners that had worked hard to drill it out. They couldn’t carry it out; it was much too large and tall, too bulky to fit through the cavity they had entered through. Leaving it here definitely wasn’t an option.

Cyborg walked forward a few paces, lifting his arm to open a small life scanner implemented in his arm. He tapped it a few times, bringing up multiple different readings.

“What are you doing?” Batman questioned.

“I don’t think this robot is offline, or at least completely offline,” Cyborg replied, reading the encrypted results that popped up. “It’s been here for a long time, but it couldn’t have gotten down here by someone else; it must’ve put itself down here for some reason if it can think for itself. If I can figure out whether it is somehow still alive, I might be able to activate it and we can figure out what it really is.”

“Is that really the best course of action?” Diana inquired, lowering her sword. “What if it decides to attack us in this confined space?”

“It won’t,” Batman stated.

“And how do you know?” Flash demanded.

“It’s been offline for a long time; it wouldn’t have the energy nor the strength to focus on small, moving targets. If push comes to shove, we can escape through the way we came, and collapse the tunnel on top of it.” Batman replied informally, his slight scowl warding off any more questions. “What have you found, Cyborg?”

Cyborg frowned deeply, his eyes flicking rapidly across his screen. “There’s not a lot of energy radiating off this thing, and most of its systems are completely dysfunctional. It wasn’t shut down by someone else; it shut itself down.”

“That’s impossible,” Shazam exclaimed. “Right?”

“Maybe,” Cyborg mused. “I think I’m going to see if I can interface with its brain and see if I can access its memory or whatever files directly.”

“Sounds good,” Superman agreed.

“Are you absolutely sure that’s necessary?” Batman demanded.

Cyborg shrugged. “I can only see everything if I can connect with its main files or its brain if it has one.”

“Go for it then.” Lantern encouraged.

Shazam looked as if he was going to protest, but clamped his mouth shut and said nothing.

Cyborg nodded, then activated his thrusters and accelerated upwards to the robot’s right shoulder. He landed there, the sharp, curved armor giving him a nice area to stand on. He approached the robot’s head cautiously, disturbed by its harsh, unsettling facial features. From this vantage point, he could see the intricate design of its head armor, obviously from another place and time. It almost looked sorrowful, like it had many regretful memories stored away. Tendrils of electric blue slid out of Cyborg’s hand and wrist, snaking into the groves of the robot’s armor to connect with the circuitry underneath. He felt a slight jolt, and he knew his robotics were reacting to whatever the robot was made of. He sifted through the information he received in a stream of purple and blue: something called Energon reserves, stasis lock statistics, minimal brain wave activity, offline senses, and guarded emotions he was denied access from. One thing he did know was that it wasn’t man-made. He tried going deeper but was denied access to anything that wasn’t a slight review of its life status. It was obvious whatever it was had shut itself down and permanently prevented it from powering up again. Frustrated, he accessed a snippet of something that nearly flew by in a blur called “meaning of oppression”, and he was abruptly thrown into a memory.

Master! You are alive!

Indeed.

Your new battle armor will take things to the next level, my liege. Together we will reunite all Decepticons and once again grind Cybertron under your mighty heel!

No!

What? Why?

Because I now know the true meaning of oppression and have thus lost my taste for inflicting it.

Cyborg reeled back into the real world with an eruptive gasp, the tendrils abruptly disconnecting from the robot’s circuitry. The group below started forward in concern.

“You good Cyborg?” Flash called up to him.

“Ugh, yeah.” He replied, rubbing the part of his forehead that wasn’t metal. “Just- accessed a really weird file, but I think it was a memory.”

Lantern used his ring to join him on the robot’s shoulder. “What kind of memory?”

“It was from his- the robot’s perspective. He- it was talking to a shorter robot, one with wings on its back. They were talking about… something to do with Decepticons and grinding a Cybertron under someone’s heel. The robot didn’t agree with the shorter robot’s idea, saying that he didn’t want to inflict oppression anymore.”

“Oppression isn’t good, right?” Shazam asked. “Isn’t that what they did to slaves in the past?”

Batman nodded solemnly. “And if this thing is talking about it, that’s not a good sign.”

“But he- it was saying it didn’t want to do it anymore,” Cyborg protested. “I think it’s too early to make assumptions.”

“Is there a way to somehow project what you’re seeing?” Superman asked. “Like a movie?”

“Wouldn’t that be impolite?” Diana queered with the tilt of her head.

“It’s not really a matter of being polite,” Cyborg explained. “We need to know who this guy is and what he’s doing here. And to answer your question, Superman, I can’t do that, because its mind is preventing me from accessing anything to project. I can try to root around a little more, but I don’t know if I can find anything else.”

“What if we just wake it up and ask what we need to know?” Shazam asked bluntly.

When Batman said nothing, the group wasn’t sure what to say.

“Even if I could wake him up,” Cyborg announced after a pause. “I would need an energy source to boot him back up, like a car. He’s been down here a long time.”

“Search for more,” Batman instructed. “We need more information before we decide what to do.”

Cyborg sighed. “Okay, I’ll do the best I can do.” He turned back to the robot’s head, summoning more tendrils than before from his hand and wrist. He plunged them deeper into the armor, the connection process flooding his senses. Many pop-ups of information began to cloud his vision, along with a rapid beeping that became increasingly annoying. His brow furrowed as he tried to find the source of the beeping, only to feel a hot rush of pain shoot through the tendrils into his arm. 

“Cyborg, something’s wrong-” Lantern’s voice came through despite the abrupt pain. “You have to get-”

The moment Lantern touched Cyborg’s shoulder they both cried out in agony as the security systems of the robot reacted to their foreign presence, sending painful amounts of electricity surging through them. Their bodies went limp from shock, and Superman and Shazam shot upwards to catch them before they fell too far. They landed quickly as low groaning came from the robot’s body, dust raining down on the group.

“What just happened?” Batman demanded as he helped Lantern to his feet.

“I don’t know,” Cyborg groaned, leaning heavily on Superman to press his fingers against his temple. “I think, somehow, the robot detected me and shocked us as a defense mechanism.”

“We’ll figure out what happened exactly later,” Diana interrupted, brandishing her sword once again. “It seems we have a bigger problem.”

The group looked up to the robot, whose groaning had turned to a high whine as its limbs and body began to move, dust and debris falling from its frame. 

“Great, whatever you did, it’s waking up!” Shazam exclaimed, backing up as the robot slid off its seat on the large boulder and fell downwards upon them. Batman flung Lantern’s arm around his shoulders to carry him away, everyone fleeing from the slowly falling robot. Flash helped the process by grabbing everyone one by one and setting them at the entrance of the cave, careful not to get impaled by Diana’s sword. The robot’s massive frame finally hit the ground, throwing up a billowing cloud of thick dust. The team had barely enough time to cover their faces before it overtook them. They all coughed heavily as they waited for the dust to settle, Flash waving his arms rapidly to help blow the dust away.

The robot’s eyes shot open, two red slits piercing through the gloom. Its hands trembled and dug into the rock beneath it, seemingly trying to get its arms under itself. The group braced for the worst, taking their defensive stances. 

“What… is this?” It asked in a low, croaky voice that was laced with static, and in English, surprisingly. “I’m... online? Impossible, I… shot down all mandatory systems for absolute-” it grunted, struggling to prop itself up. “-stasis.”

“What do we do?” Flash whispered, casting a glance at Batman. Everyone was still coughing and working to stifle themselves. The robot’s arms were failing, the loud groan of uncooperative joints filling the air. It was spitting all sorts of frustrated words out, not pleased with its face full of dust. 

“Wait to see what it does,” Batman ordered. “Don’t let it see you just yet.”

The robot heaved itself upwards, thrusting itself onto its legs, kneeling with its hands planted on the ground. It cycled in a few unsteady breaths, trying to clear the thick dust from its system. It lifted a hand to its face, squeezing its eyes closed. 

“No… I can’t be online,” it murmured to itself. It lifted its head, looking widely around the cave. “How- where…”

“C’mon, we better do something,” Shazam muttered, bouncing on his toes. Batman shushed him.

The robot slowly climbed to its feet, not having noticed them yet. It stood unsteadily to its full height, its head nearly scraping the ceiling. It groaned audibly before falling back down on a knee, shaking the ground and making many of the group lose their footing. Then, unnaturally slowly, it lifted its head, its bright red eyes piercing the darkness, singling solely on them.

“You,” it boomed. “You, humans , woke me from stasis.” It got down on its hands and knees, lowering its head to the cave opening. The group took several strides back into the tunnel, keeping their defensive stances steady. 

“Okay, it sees us now,” Superman said sarcastically.

Diana suddenly gave a war cry and shot into the air, slinging her sword back as she flew towards the robot’s face. It scowled at her approaching form, and before anyone saw anything coming, it lifted a hand and closed its fingers around her. Diana was then slammed to the ground, crushed under the weight of the robot’s hand. 

“No! Stop!” Batman shouted when he found his voice, shattering the rest of the group’s surprise. The robot snapped its attention to him, baring its fanged teeth. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”

“The robot or Diana?” Superman asked, clenching his fists.

“I won’t be dragged back by meddling humans!” The robot bellowed, rising back to its feet, leaving Diana’s crumpled form in the crater from its hand. It raised its head to the ceiling, momentarily thinking its situation through. The team took this moment to rush over to Diana, who was attempting to sit up with a groan. 

“You guys take care of her, I got dibs on the giant robot,” Lantern announced before using his ring to rise into the air.

His plan was thwarted when the robot began tearing at the ceiling, boulders and debris falling from its efforts. Its actions became desperate, and soon so much rock was falling Lantern was forced back down to the group, who had managed to pull Diana from the crater and back into the tunnel.

“It’s trying to escape by digging itself out. It’s gonna collapse the cave in on itself.” Superman realized in horror. 

“We can’t let it do that. Lantern,” Batman turned to Lantern. “Create-”

He was interrupted by the strangest of sounds, and before anyone could react further, the robot disappeared, replaced by an equally wicked-looking jet, and with a whir of engines, it shot right through the ceiling of rock, and the cave fell into itself with a rush of black.

Chapter Text

The ground began to crack and from the fissures burst a sphere of green, containing the coughing and dust-covered Justice League. Lantern quickly landed them next to the hole he had created, and the sphere disintegrated around them.

“Manhunter!” Batman shouted into his earpiece, wasting no time as the rest of the team gained their bearings. “There’s a giant jet fleeing the area near us. It’s emitting a huge energy signal.”

“I see you, and I see it,” J’onn replied. “It’s headed east if that is why you contacted me.”

“I need you to search my archives for a robotic alien race and possibly the Pentagram. The robot knew we were humans and I need to know how.” Batman switched off the comm and turned to the team. “We need to intercept that robot before it reaches civilization and starts attacking people. Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam; you four catch up to the robot and take it down. It’s heading east, leaving you fifteen minutes before you reach the city. The rest of us will be shortly behind you.”

“What about me?” Cyborg asked as the four fliers nodded and shot off east.

“I need you to download what you saw and send it to me immediately. If Lantern’s ring wasn’t able to identify it, we may have another Darkseid on our hands.”

“Lemme guess, I’m clean up, again,” Flash butted in sarcastically.

“No, you’re my ride.” Batman pocketed the scanner he had been clutching, forgotten in the action. “My jet won’t arrive fast enough to get me to the others, and it may become a liability if the robot has any weapons we don’t know about.”

Flash stared at him in astonishment.

“Tell anyone, and I’ll put a Batarang through your chest.”

The speedster held his hands up in surrender, Cyborg stifling his laughter.

Meanwhile, the four fliers had caught sight of the jet against the dark, starless sky, slits of purple light shining through its armor.

“So what do we do to bring it down?” Shazam asked as they naturally lined up side by side, Superman on his left, and Lantern and Diana on his right.

“I could create a giant wall and you guys slam him into it.” Lantern suggested.

“It is a he or a robot?” Diana questioned. “I thought I heard Cyborg call it a he.”

“Whatever it is, we have fifteen minutes. I like Lantern’s idea; we haven’t done that before.” Superman replied.

Lantern raised two thumbs up. “Alright, giant wall it is! Let’s go!”

They accelerated, closing the distance between them and the robot. They came up to him fast, Lantern raising his fist to begin conjuring the wall. But just as the green light solidified, the robot abruptly dipped and began spiraling downward toward the ground. He, or it, hadn’t gained a lot of altitude when it had burst from the ground, so when he began to fall, the ground came for him fast. The crash was loud and abrupt. The four halted in the air as the robot, still in jet mode, slid across the bare forest floor, throwing up mounds of dirt and debris in its wake. It came to a halt in a deep mound of soil and uprooted trees, the four of them landing near it quickly.

“Did it crash on its own, or did we do something I wasn’t aware of?” Shazam gestured widely in confusion.

Another loud groan came from the robot, and with the same strange sounds from before, the jet disappeared and the robot took its place, collapsing on its back. It sagged into itself, cringing in pain.

“Primus,” it mumbled to itself, too quiet to be heard by the four except for Superman. “What a place to run dry.” It struggled to sit up, brushing dirt and debris off of itself with shaky hands. It heaved itself to its feet with a winded wheeze, only to collapse completely onto its front. Its clawed hands dug into the soil, attempting to drag it out of the mound.

“No, no, no,” it chanted to itself, completely unaware of the League hovering near the debris trail. “I can’t run dry here. Need- Energon-” Its hands trembled in effort, and with a loud heave, it dragged itself out of the trail and fell still. The League waited warily in place, waiting for it to move again. Flash, Batman, and Cyborg appeared next to them, Flash setting Batman on his feet and Cyborg landing to store his thrusters away.

“Is it dead?” Flash asked the four.

“I don’t think so,” Lantern replied, thrusting a green beam into its head. “It was muttering about running dry, so it must’ve run out of juice or something.”

“He needs Energon,” Cyborg announced, the rest of the League turning to him with a questioning look. “At least- that’s what I saw in his head. His Energon levels were too low for him to come out of stasis without an involuntary shut-down.”

“He? It? Which one is it?” Flash gestured wildly to the uprooted trees and deep line it had dug into the ground when it had fallen. “What are we gonna do with it or him now?”

Chapter Text

S.T.A.R. Labs barely had the capacity to hold the robot in its root form, much less restrain it. The scientists and the League settled on laying it flat on its back in a foyer used to test machines and weapons. They secured metal clams around its wrists and ankles once it was transported there by Lantern’s efforts. When it was secured, the scientists thrust themselves into studying it, starting with its height, weight, and age.

“Carbon dating puts its armor around several million years,” Dr. Silas Stone explained, tapping away on his tablet as the League listened to him, J’onn having joined them from the Watchtower. “It’s so old we can’t even get an exact age. And it’s not made from any metal we know of. Not Earth, not Apokolips, not nth. We haven’t ever encountered anything like it before.”

“Is that all you found, dad?” Cyborg asked.

“Height’s at forty-two feet seven inches,” Dr. Stone muttered to himself, scrolling slowly. “Weight is maxing several tones, this thing is an absolute giant. You said you found it in a molybdenum mine? How did it get down there?”

“He put himself down there,” Cyborg replied. Dr. Stone cocked an eyebrow.

“I’ve contacted the Pentagon about this, and they’re sending an agent who apparently knows all about this robot,” Batman spoke up. “He should be arriving soon to tell us confidential information in person, so anyone in this room will be required to leave when he explains.”

Dr. Stone nodded, then hurried away to do more research. The League circled up to talk amongst themselves.

“So this agent knows about the robot?” Flash asked. “Does that mean it’s been here before and we just didn’t know about it?”

“It seems this may be bigger than we realized,” J’onn mused.

“You have to admit, it’s kinda cool,” Shazam shrugged with a grin. “A super old robot that talks like a human? This is more awesome than a horror movie!”

“I’m interested in what the agent has to say,” Diana added.

“I second that,” Superman agreed. “It’s always interesting to learn about what else is living in the universe.”

“It better be good if the Guardians didn’t know about it,” Lantern crossed his arms. “I don’t want this to turn into another Darkseid situation.” 

The lab’s doors were suddenly thrown open, and a very angry older, plump man dressed in a suit came storming through. He had a scowl on his wrinkled face, slamming his walking cane down with every step as he stalked over the League.

“Uncle Sam’s underpants!” He explained, making Lantern and Flash choke on a laugh. “I moved on for a couple quiet years and he’s dragging his shiny metal behind back here!”

“Is that the agent?” Superman asked skeptically.

“He seems… nice,” Diana commented.

“You must be Agent Fowler,” Batman greeted when he stopped in front of them, huffing and puffing. He extended his hand. “I’m Batman, and this is the Justice League.”

“Special Agent William Fowler!” The man yelled as he knocked Batman’s hand away with his cane and jabbed the bottom into his chest. “First it was the nasty purple stuff, then the various relics and fancy experiments; now it’s superheroes and supervillains making the military look like sacks of potatoes! I know who you lot are; you’ve given me and my buddies several lines of crow’s feet that weren’t there when we were younger! Now you’ve dragged Megatron’s fancy face back here to start it all up again! Wasn’t the darker side good enough for you?!”

“Uh, it’s Darkseid,” Flash corrected. “Do you know this robot?”

Fowler turned his fury to him, jabbing his cane in his chest just like he did to Batman. “‘Course I know the “robot”! He tried taking over the planet eleven years ago with his massive warship crawling with goons!” He turned to the robot and shook his cane viciously at it. “You’re supposed to be dead, you menace! Rusting at the bottom of the ocean! Energon pouring out of the sword wound!” He dropped his cane to lean heavily on it, gasping for breath. He straightened, then turned back to the League, tightening his tie. “Ugh, youth. Anyway, I understand Batface called the Pentagon to learn about this menace and why he’s here! It’s about a three-year-long story, so your butts better be ready!”

“Would you like a chair?” J’onn offered.

“I’m just fine, green bean!” Lantern and Flash had to fall back behind the rest of the League to contain their laughter at Fowler’s loud character. “I’ll just make this quick!” Fowler turned to stare down the robot in the center of the foyer’s floor, then began his spiel.

“That is Megatron, former warlord and leader of a group called the Decepticons. He comes from a planet called Cybertron, so far away he and his kind spent millions of years traveling through space just to stumble upon Earth. His race is shape-changing robots who have a root mode as you see before you, and an alt mode, which allows them to travel. He transforms into a Cybertronian military jet, while the rest of the Decepticons had Earth-based modes.”

“Oh yeah!” Shazam butted in. “We saw the jet when we were chasing him!”

Fowler pointed his cane at him. “Quiet, sparkles!” Lantern and Flash doubled over, basically shoving their fists in their mouths to keep quiet. Fowler continued.

“Megatron and the Decepticons sparked a war on their planet when he didn’t get a powerful relic that he wanted: the Matrix of Leadership.”

“The what?” Diana questioned.

Fowler threw up his hands. “Do you want me to explain or are you all going to interrupt?!”

When the eight of them shook their heads, he waited just a little longer before he began again.

“The Matrix of Leadership was a fancy little trinket that granted its host the powers and wisdom of the Thirteen Primes, gods in their mythology. But they were real gods because I saw one! He had a beard, which didn’t make any sense on a robot, but they’re real! Megatron apparently demanded the Matrix, thinking he could use it to remake Cybertron in his image, but it was given to a librarian named Orion Pax, his once friend turned mortal enemy. When Orion became Optimus Prime, ‘cause apparently having that thing in your chest changes your name and the way you look, Megatron rallied his followers and began attacking anyone sympathizing with Prime, who called themselves the Autobots. Cue several thousands of years of war that stripped Cybertron of all its Energon, which are these blue crystals that give both Decepticons and Autobots life while simultaneously fueling their weapons. When Cybertron ran dry, both factions were forced to leave the husk and pursue Energon elsewhere. Earth is apparently Cybertron’s lost and found because there wasn’t only Energon here, but ancient relics from the beginning of the war, Prime-ly weapons that could only be wielded by the bearer of the Matrix, their equivalent of Satan in the core, Decepticon warriors, and Predacon bones, which were giant metal dragons that dominated the planet before anyone else did. When the Autobots arrived on Earth a couple of years before the Decepticons did, looking for refuge, the Pentagon sent me to be their glorified babysitter and clean up any messes they made. Earth was quiet for two years after their arrival until the Decepticons showed up in their big old warship and killed a ‘bot named Cliffjumper. Megatron then arrived from scouring space for purple Energon, called Dark Energon. It’s the crystalized blood of their Satan that I mentioned earlier, Unicron. Not Unicorn! Unicron. Megatron stabbed it into himself and used it to raise an army of dead Cybertronians to try to take over Earth. He failed, obviously, but spent the next three years trying to conquer us. He used Dark Energon over and over, fought the Autobots over Energon mines he set up all over Earth, tried to stop Unicron from waking up in the core during a planetary alignment, searched for and misused the relics from their mythology and warfare, cloned a Predacon that called himself Predaking, and destroyed the Autobot’s base in Jasper, Nevada at one point. I don’t remember all the details because so much happened in those three years, but his shiny self never gave up! He cut off his arm to weld a Prime’s on himself to wield the Forge of Solus Prime and made a purple sword to fight Prime’s Star Saber, tried to cyberform Earth with the Omega Keys, took over Jasper with a reconstructed Darkmount, and more attempted conquest with an Omega Lock stuck to the bottom of his warship. He died, finally, when an Autobot scout named Bumblebee skewered him with the Star Saber, but Unicron resurrected him to use his body to travel to Cybertron and kill the core of the planet that was Primus, their creation god and opposite of Unicron. Unicron failed, Optimus died protecting the Core from him, and Megatron wandered off into the stars, claiming he didn’t want to fight anymore and giving up."

"I don’t know why you’re back here though!” Fowler hollered at him angrily. “You could’ve passed out on the moon instead, but you had to come back here! Idiot!” He sighed heavily, then turned back to the League, a little more settled after getting his story out. “So that’s the just of it. He was a warlord, but after millions of years of war and countless failures, he gave up, and apparently came back here, waiting to die. Was he in stasis when you found him?”

“I believe so, yes,” Cyborg replied. 

“Humph! You multi-colored idiots should’ve left him down there! He probably put himself there as a punishment!” Fowler pulled a handkerchief out of his pants pocket to wipe his forehead and stuff it back in when he was done. “So! Questions?”

The League was rightly baffled by his lengthy explanation, much different from what they had encountered before and definitely not like anything with Darkseid.

“So…” Superman began first. “He’s an alien robot from the planet Cybertron who… eats blue crystals?”

“No, they don’t eat them! Once the Energon is mined, they process it into a liquid they either drink or jab into themselves with a syringe. They used the second method more. Raw Energon is highly explosive, and liquid Energon is highly flammable. It fuels their weapons quite nicely, though.”

“How has absolutely no information about him or the battles he fought on Earth ever been leaked?” Batman demanded. “I know nothing of him.”

“Good.” Fowler straightened proudly. “That means I did my job well. When damage or events happened when the two factions butt heads, me and my buddies cleaned it up quickly and effectively, carefully blaming their encounters on normal and basic things, like earthquakes or meteor showers. When the war was finally over and both the Autobots and what was left of the Decepticons left Earth, they took everything with them and the Pentagon left everything to fade into obscurity. The Autobots aren’t to visit Earth ever again without direct permission from me, and since then, we haven’t had a Cybertronian problem.”

“When was the last time you saw them?” Diana asked.

Fowler deflated and looked crestfallen for a moment. “It’s been eleven years since I last saw the team, and I’ll never be able to see Prime again. It was weird to befriend giant robots who could’ve easily stepped on you without noticing, watch them get knocked over and over again, and try so hard to protect humanity. I miss them nearly every day. I don’t miss that one though! Starscream’s probably lurking around somewhere; that irritating seagull isn’t far from his master.”

“What kind of a name is Starscream?” Lantern joked.

“A stupid one, and- oh, I forgot; he was torn apart by the Predacons he helped Shockwave clone in an attempt to take over Cybertron when Megatron was pushing daisies. He was never very nice to anyone, and it bit him in the behind more than once.”

“Where are the Decepticons now?” J’onn asked.

Fowler shrugged. “Probably punished for what they did and who they followed. I dunno what the Autobots did with them, but I never wanted to get involved with their politics. It was politics that started their war in the first place, and ours are confusing enough! All the important and notable Decepticons are either dead or MIA, so I’m sure things went smoothly.” He clicked his cane down once, satisfied. He then abruptly checked his wristwatch. “Well, I had a limited time here, so I’ll be moving on now. It was awful to meet you all, and I hope I helped you learn about that hunk of junk.” He turned on his heels and retreated to the doors he had arrived from. “If I were you, I’d put him back where you found him, and forget about everything!” He called over his shoulder, then vanished through the doors.

Batman wasted no time and turned to J’onn. “Was he telling the truth?”

“All of it,” J’onn confirmed. “His experience and involvement with the Autobots all happened. Megatron was a vicious fighter and brilliant strategist; I highly recommend we follow his advice and leave Megatron to rust where you found him.”

“But we can’t do that, right?” Flash insisted. “It would be like having a ticking time bomb just sitting under Earth’s surface. And what about all that talk about Satan in the core? I thought the core was molten rock.”

“There are still so many unanswered questions, ones an observer won’t be able to answer,” Diana pointed out. 

“I don’t like the thought of him at all,” Superman added. “He’s too much like Darkseid, in the conqueror way.”

“So what do we do?” Cyborg asked.

They all fell silent, pondering ways to handle the new truths they had just uncovered. Dr. Stone came running over to them from near Megatron’s head, rapidly waving his arms to get their attention.

“League! You must come to see this!” He explained when they all looked at him, then went running back the way he came. They all looked at each other, then followed in his footsteps.

Dr. Stone led them all the way to the other side of Megatron’s body to where his right wrist was pinned by the giant metal clamp. A group of scientists in hazmat suits crowded around the space exposed between his hand and lower arm armor, a laser device burning a thin line in his metal skin. From the line by the laser, glowing electric blue liquid began to seep out, which was quickly caught by the scientists in a beaker. The beaker was quickly filled, another one taking its place. The blue liquid ended up filling up seven beakers before the line stopped seeping.

“The robot has blood!” Dr. Stone exclaimed. “We x-rayed its body and found it full of veins, organs, and anatomy so similar to our own! We narrowed an exposed spot to its wrist, and look!” He pointed excitedly to the line created by the laser. “It can heal minor injuries!” A scientist took a cloth dosed in strong-smelling alcohol and cleaned the line, revealing that it had closed on its own and was fading.

“Okay, this is getting creepy,” Flash drawled. “Fowler wasn’t lying about the liquid Energon.”

“Be careful with your samples,” J’onn warned the scientists. “They are going to be very flammable.”

“It glows! How cool is that!” Lantern exclaimed, smiling widely.

Superman backed up to speak lowly in Batman’s ear. “What do you want to do?”

Batman stood still, but he already had a plan.

Chapter Text

“Okay, I wasn’t expecting this,” Lantern said with his hands on his hips.

He, Superman, J’onn, Batman, Diana, and Shazam were standing at the mouth of a cavern filled with glittering blue crystals. Cyborg and Flash were back at S.T.A.R. Labs readying the place for the arrival of the raw Energon crystals, which the team had been looking for. Batman held a radiation detector along with Dr. Stone’s tablet, studying the readings.

“Dr. Stone’s readings were correct,” He said. “These crystals give off the same amount of radiation as the liquid that leaked from Megatron’s wrist, if not more in their raw form.”

Lantern used his ring to soar up to the crystal clusters jutting out of the ceiling. “They’re so smooth, and they glow too.” He ran his hand down a side, the crystal nearly as long as his height. “How the hell have we never found this stuff if it’s just sitting around like this?”

“Agent Fowler said the Decepticons were the ones to set up mines around Earth, so this cavern must be one that was abandoned.” J’onn joined him in the air, their reflections in the crystal’s surface warped and discolored blue. “The crystals must’ve grown after being untouched for so long.”

“They’re so cool!” Shazam said excitedly. “I want to find a small one so I can take it home.”

“I doubt you will,” Superman replied. “It looks like they grow in clumps rather than individually.”

“How are we supposed to mine them if they’re highly explosive?” Diana asked. “I doubt anyone could survive an explosion.”

“Except for me,” Lantern boasted.

“I agree with Diana,” J’onn said, floating back down to the ground. “I do not want to be present for an explosion.”

“We’re not mining the traditional way,” Batman said. “Those who can are merely going to pull the clusters out of the ground. Surface scans show the crystals have a short base and should be easy to uproot. For safety, we’re going to do the ones growing out of the ground.”

“So you just want us to pull them out of the ground?” Shazam asked. Batman nodded, then went back to tapping the tablet.

“Hey, Supes, how about you help me with this one,” Lantern called, descending to a cluster farther in the cavern. “I’ll scoop it from the bottom and you can pull it from the top.”

“Got it,” Superman replied. He soared over to the one Lantern was referring to, grabbing the two tallest crystals with his fists. 

Lantern formed an ice cream scoop with his ring and dipped the tip into the ground near the cluster. “Ready?”

“Ready!”

With the scoop digging in from below and Superman pulling from the top, the Energon cluster popped out of the ground like a carrot. They were a bit too strong and nearly threw the cluster into the wall, but J’onn rushed up and caught the side before it collided with anything. Lantern flinched, nervously looking down to see Batman’s reaction.

“Not that hard,” the Dark Knight growled.

The three of them carried the cluster out of the cavern and set it carefully near the mouth, the scoop dematerializing beneath it. 

“How many clusters do we need?” Shazam asked as he admired the Energon glittering in the sun.

“There’s no way to calculate the mass of the crystals to liquid in order to match the amount needed for Megatron, but we’ll need around five.”

“Why five?”

“Lantern will carry two with his ring, Diana will have one, Superman will have one, J’onn will have one, and Shazam will have the last. It is imperative that no one drops them.”

Shazam groaned. “So we’re going to carry them back to S.T.A.R. Labs? Great.”

“Superman and I will get one like the size we just got, then we’ll search for smaller clusters to save your back,” Lantern smirked, and went sailing deeper into the cavern with Superman close behind.

J’onn approached Batman, Diana joining Shazam in admiring the cluster. “Are you sure of this plan, Batman?”

“We need our questions answered from the source,” Batman said as he met his gaze. “Megatron will answer them or we’ll put him back into stasis, permanently.”

J’onn nodded his understanding, then floated into the air to assist Lantern and Superman. Batman returned to the radiation detector and tablet, carefully comparing the readings and memorizing the information. Shazam was making faces into the Energon, his reflection warped and blue on the surface. Diana smiled at his antics, and eventually joined in. It took several minutes for Lantern, Superman, and J’onn to find the clusters they wanted, and returned for Shazam and Diana’s help. In under half an hour the team had uprooted five clusters of raw Energon and readied them to carry to S.T.A.R. Labs. Batman pressed a button on his belt, and the Batwing came roaring into view before landing near the clusters.

“Ugh, can’t we just put the clusters in there?’ Shazam complained. “They’re heavy.”

“No. I’m leading the way back, and I don’t trust the radiation with my technology.” He hopped into the cockpit as the team readied to carry their clusters. “Stay a considerable distance away from my thrusters, but don’t get left behind.” The glass roof slid over him, and he directed the Batwing into the sky as the team below grabbed their clusters to follow. 

Lantern formed green spheres around his clusters to effortlessly lift them into the air. Diana used her lasso to encircle her cluster and carefully picked it up so it would hang on its side for the lasso to support. Superman dug his fists into the biggest crystals and carried them beneath him. Shazam hoisted his over his shoulders like Atlas carrying the globe and launched into the air. J’onn shifted into a dragon and grabbed his in his talons, outstretched wings carrying him into the sky. When Batman saw the five of them rising up to him, he shot off, leading the way back to S.T.A.R. Labs.

It would take the team six hours to fly back to S.T.A.R. Labs with the clusters in their grasp. The afternoon sun beat down upon them and made the Energon hot to the touch. No one struggled under their weight, but Shazam still did a considerable amount of complaining. Batman switched off his comm frequency almost immediately when he began. They flew high enough to avoid being seen from the ground and passed a plane or two in the upper atmosphere. Shazam waved at one and nearly dropped his cluster, so he didn’t do that again. J’onn rippled his form to be difficult to pick out so he didn’t frighten anyone on the planes. When they landed in the parking lot near the foyer Megatron was being kept in, Shazam set his cluster down a little bit roughly and collapsed on the ground.

“Uuuuuugh, that was one of the worst things I’ve ever done!” He yelled at the sky.

“I could’ve helped, you know,” Lantern teased as he set his clusters in the spheres nearby and landed. 

The foyer doors opened, and Dr. Stone, Cyborg, Flash, and a team of scientists drove over to them on an open motorized vehicle pulling a forty-two-foot-long flatbed trailer. When the rest of the team had set down their clusters and the flatbed trailer was parked diagonally to them, Lantern and Superman began carefully placing the clusters on the trailer. Flash zipped around handing out food from the vending machines and water bottles, disposing of the team’s trash when they were done to keep himself busy. Lantern formed a roof with his ring over the clusters and trailer, and the team followed it in the foyer as Dr. Stone drove it the way they had come. 

“How are we going to turn the crystals into liquid without an explosion?” J’onn asked as the team entered the foyer and the doors slid closed behind them. 

“My dad had a plan to melt them,” Cyborg replied from the vehicle. “They’ll be contained beforehand, and we’ll do a small sample to start with.” 

The vehicle took the Energon to an area by Megatron’s head, a box with ports for gloves on a rolling desk secured to the floor as scientists bustled around it. A metal furnace sat in the center of the box, samples of Megatron’s Energon in test tubes on another rolling desk. The vehicle pulled up beside the scientists’ setup, stopping with the Energon clusters directly in front of the box.

“This is so exciting,” Dr. Stone said to no one in particular as he, the scientists, and Cyborg stepped off the vehicle and hurried over to the sides of the trailer as Lantern’s roof vanished. “The samples- oh, they’re so big. This is part of an entirely new world, and we’re right in the middle of discovering it all.”

Cyborg smiled at his dad’s excitement, happy to be involved with him again. Batman returned Dr. Stone’s tablet to him, though he took it from him without any thought or acknowledgment as he hurried to dress in a hazmat suit to handle the Energon. Batman walked over to Cyborg as the League hung back to watch the scientists do their magic, stopping to speak to him.

“You seem happy,” the Dark Knight commented.

“Heh, yeah, it’s nice to be with my dad again and watch him do what he loves. I just hope he can keep his head this time and not go overboard like-”

“Like when he saved you with the Mother Box?”

He sighed. “Yeah. At least if this plan goes wrong, we’ll be able to evade danger better with Megatron’s size. I guess it pays to be small sometimes.”

“Hmm.” Batman ended the conversation and went over to J’onn, who stood farther away than the League as they watched the scientists attempt to chip a small sample off the large Energon clusters on the flatbed. He kept his distance often since he was still a visual sore thumb next to everyone.

“Before you ask,” he said as Batman approached. “I cannot read Megatron’s mind. He’s not of organic origin, so I cannot reach within his metallic mind. I tried when I first arrived here.”

“Are you sure you want to be so close to the action in case an explosion happens?” Batman asked. “We haven’t seen the damage Energon can do yet.”

“I am interested to see what the scientists determine, and I’d like to be here if and when we can wake Megatron.” J’onn paused for a moment. “Thank you for your consideration.”

“You don’t get out much, and I know the effect of that. Don’t want you getting bored staring at a monitor.”

The scientists failed to chip off a piece of Energon, so Superman pitched in by grabbing the tip-top of an Energon crystal and snapping it off. The noise startled everyone into silence, everyone fully expecting the thing to explode. Superman withered under Batman’s glare as he handed the piece over, realizing his mistake. The scientists tenderly took it from him and slipped it into the box before sealing the whole thing up. Dr. Stone stepped up to slip his hands into the gloves connected to the box to start the melting process. He placed the Energon in a steel bowl and set it in the smelter, slowly increasing the temperature. Everyone waited with bated breath as Dr. Stone focused on the piece of crystal in the bowl. 

“Heh, what if it melts through the bowl and box and makes a hole in the floor,” Flash jabbed Lantern in the side with his elbow.

“C’mon, Flash, that’s not how smelting works,” Lantern hissed as he swatted his elbow away. “Besides, nothing can melt through steel.”

“Expect Superman's heat vision, Darkseid’s Omega Beams, your ring…”

“Okay, I get it! I meant metal, dingus.”

Diana rolled her eyes at their childishness.

“Nothing is working so far,” Dr. Stone announced after a little time had passed, his voice muffled from the suit. “I’m at one thousand degrees Fahrenheit, and the sample remains the same.”

“So try two thousand,” Lantern said like the answer was obvious. 

The team had a feeling Dr. Stone would've given him quite the look if he could move in the hazmat suit. But nonetheless, he increased the temperature. The scientists hovering around him shuffled to the side a little more to try to peer into the steel bowl. Superman did them one better by ascending just above their heads to watch from above.

“I can see the bowl heating up in ultraviolet, but nothing on the crystal. I don’t think melting it is going to work.” He said after a few minutes.

Dr. Stone sighed. “I have to agree with him. I pushed the furnace to two thousand three hundred degrees, and two hundred more the steel will start to melt.”

“I didn’t even know you could melt crystals until now,” Shazam said.

“We’ll need to try something else,” Dr. Stone announced, and began turning off the furnace and detaching himself from the container.

“Well, great, if we can’t get the crystals into liquid, how are we supposed to wake Megatron?” Flash asked flatly. 

“We need John Constantine.” J’onn suddenly spoke up.

“Constantine? Since when does he do stuff with aliens?” Lantern asked with a raised eyebrow.

“He knows techno-magic.”

“What good will techno-magic do?”

“He might be able to find how to process the Energon by dipping into Megatron’s mind, as Cyborg did, and not to wake him again.”

“Why can’t Cyborg just try again?” Shazam questioned.

“Some defense system detected me, and that’s why Megatron woke suddenly. Magic might be better than hacking,” Cyborg offered.

“Well, who knew magic could trump technology?” Lantern said sarcastically. 

Batman touched his right ear to activate his comm. “Constantine, this is Batman. Do you read me?”

There was a moment of silence, the team waiting on Batman’s response.

“He’s not answering. The line is open, but there’s no one answering.”

“Guess that plan’s down the drain,” Flash said, forming a thumbs down and dunking it up and down. 

“I can go find him,” Superman offered. “Where does he live?”

“Liverpool, England. And this plan won’t go down the drain,” Batman said pointedly at Flash. “We need him, so don’t come back until you have him.”

Superman nodded, then vanished with a whoosh of air that lifted everyone’s capes. 

Dr. Stone approached Batman, now free of his hazmat suit. “Who is Constantine?”

“British dude that helped us, well, Batman, really, when an evil sorcerer in a Dreamstone was making citizens go mad and commit some atrocious crimes back in late 2015.” Lantern explained. “Batman offered him a place in the League, but he didn’t want to join.”

“Zatanna joined us afterward, however. I haven’t seen her in a while, though.” Diana added.

“I haven’t even met the guy,” Shazam added. 

“I don’t think any of us have, officially.” Flash mused. “Wonder what he’s like.”

“Uh, Batman?”

Batman heard Superman in his ear and turned away from the group. “What is it?”

“So, I found Liverpool, and eventually Constantine’s apartment- I mean flat, since that’s what they call it here, but I found the reason why he didn’t answer your comm.”

“Which is?”

“He’s drunk. Like, severely drunk. He didn’t even answer his door, just babbled nonsense at me. He’s lying on his floor right now, absolutely slammed.”

Batman scowled. “Is he coherent?”

“Uh, I would say no. Do you still want me to bring him?”

“Yes, do. I know how to get him sober, but it won’t be the best first introduction,” he said as he turned back to the group, who were waiting to hear from him. “Batman out.”

“What’d he say?” Shazam asked.

“He found Constantine, but fair warning, he’s severely drunk.”

“Drunk? How is he supposed to help us drunk?” Cyborg asked, aghast. 

“I know what will make him sober, but it will make him insufferable,” Batman explained regrettably. “Just prepare yourselves.” 

Though it took Superman very little time to fly to England, it would take over a half-hour for him to return with an impaired passenger. The scientists cleaned up the furnace during that time, wheeling it away to where it had come from and whisking the samples of Megatron’s Energon away to another part of the lab for further study. The League followed Dr. Stone to the far side of the foyer where a staircase led to an open floor with an observatory office. They leaned against the railing and chatted while they waited for Superman’s return, having climbed high enough to see Megatron’s whole body from his feet up.

Flash yawned widely. “Well, I hope Supes arrives soon so we can wrap this up. I need to get home for dinner!” 

“With the current time now, we should be able to get the information on how to process the Energon and turn it into liquid before we wake Megatron.” Cyborg reasoned. “I suggest we wait until tomorrow to wake him.”

“Aw man, I don’t want to wait,” Shazam complained. “I want to meet him now!”

“That’s if we can even get Constantine to do his magic,” Diana said skeptically as she crossed her arms. 

“A Brit that drinks. Who knew?” Lantern grinned.

Batman pressed a finger to his ear. “Superman’s here. Constantine is awake, but unhappy with getting flown halfway across the world.”

“You can say that again,” Superman said as he entered the foyer through the doors Agent Fowler had come through with a slumped and windblown Constantine in his grasp. He carried him by the back of his trench coat like a momma cat as he flew up to them on the staircase and set the sorcerer on his feet. Constantine sagged against the railing, muttering nonsense. “He tried to fight me three times in the air and passed out twice.”

“Bloody ingrates,” the sorcerer grumbled, reeking of alcohol and cigarette smoke. “I’ve about had enough of your tights and capes crew you- fucking gits.” He attempted to stand up but was so plastered he had to cling to the railing to prevent himself from face-planting. 

“Language,” Batman barked.

“I don’t have to listen to you, Bats,” Constantine slurred, glaring at him with unfocused eyes. “You’s probably only sent underwear boy to get me because you need my magic. You never need ol’ John, just the show. Haven’t seen ya since Destiny, but do you care? Not one bloody bit, I imagine. So you can f- ” he dragged out the f sound as he jabbed his finger at him and slumped against the railing. “ -fuck right off. I’m going back to London, and the next time alien boy tries to grab me, I’ll send demons after your asses.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Diana demanded. “We do need your magic and you’re a part of this team whether you like it or not.”

Constantine stared at her before giving a wheezing laugh. “You have it mixed up, princess. I was never on the team and I never will be. Zee joined ya, not me. Too much light with you mugs.”

Batman grabbed his collar and hoisted him up to his height. “How much alcohol have you consumed?”

“None of your facking beeswax, prat!” He jabbed his finger in Batman’s direction, gaze completely unfocused and breath so rancid it made the Dark Knight’s nose wrinkle in disgust. “And don’t expect me to get sober anytime soon! There’s a reason I get this… pissed!”

“This isn’t going very well,” Flash muttered to Lantern.

“Sure as hell hilarious, though,” Lantern grinned.

“What are we going to do with him?” Superman asked Batman.

“Get him sober.” And with those simple words, Batman lifted Constantine and threw him over the railing.

The railing was about thirty feet off the ground, enough to give Constantine’s drunk mind time to register that the man dressed like a bat had thrown him off the stairway and over the railing. He yelped as he fell and opened his signature glowing yellow symbol below him just before he hit the ground. His symbol then appeared next to the League standing on the stairway, and he was dumped unceremoniously on the grooved metal with an echoing clang. Staggering to his feet spitting all sorts of nasty curses, he waved his symbol away and zeroed in on Batman, an enraged expression replacing his bewildered one.

“You prick! ” Constantine shouted before charging blindly at him. The League stepped out of the way, knowing exactly what was coming for him. Batman waited until he got close, then grabbed his torso, hoisted him up, and slammed him on his back like a pro wrestler. The wind was knocked out of the sorcerer’s lungs with a wheeze, and he lay there dazed.

“Lesson learned, dumbass,” Lantern taunted. “Don’t charge Batman.”

“Why the heck did you throw him over the railing?!” Shazam exclaimed when he found his voice after such a show.

“Using magic instantly makes him sober,” Batman said as Constantine heaved himself to his feet, brushing the wrinkles out of his clothes. “He just needed a little push.”

“This is why I didn’t join your bloody theme park!” Constantine spat. “First you break into my flat, send me flying halfway across the world, then ruin the perfectly good hangover I was brewing! What the… fuck could you possibly need me this badly for?!”

“That,” J’onn said simply, pointing to the foyer’s floor.

Constantine ground his teeth but looked nonetheless. He grabbed the railing in his surprise, fury doused in seconds.

“Jesus bloody Christ,” he said out loud, eyes glancing up and down Megatron’s body over and over. “What the hell have you been doing?”

“That is Megatron,” Cyborg explained, stepping forward. “He’s a warlord from a distant planet called Cybertron whose military and political factions failed to take control. His war destroyed Cybertron after millions of years, forcing both the Decepticons and Autobots to leave the planet and fight elsewhere. They came to Earth two decades ago, where he was finally defeated.”

Constantine turned to him, aggressively readjusting his tie. “You kidnapped a bloody robot-alien warlord?”

“Megatron exiled himself from Cybertron as punishment for his war crimes and sealed himself in a molybdenum mine,” Cyborg continued. “We found him today and brought him to S.T.A.R. Labs for examination.”

“So where do I come in?” Constantine gestured widely to the robot beneath them. “I deal with demons, magic, the occasional armageddon, but not bloody aliens.”

“I cannot read his mind, and any of Cyborg’s attempts to read his files awakens him,” J’onn joined in. “We were hoping you could use your techno-magic to learn how to process Energon crystals into liquid so we may refuel and wake him to ask our questions.”

Constantine stormed up to him and attempted to get in his face, but the Martian was too tall. “How do you know I do techno-magic? Read my mind, did ya?”

J’onn hesitated, then nodded. “Batman has me read everyone’s minds when they come in contact with the Justice League.”

Constantine curled his hands into fists, glowing fire beginning to lick his knuckles. “Nobody reads my mind without me knowing; I’ll burn your dodgy eyes out you fucking-”

“That’s enough!” Batman grabbed his trench coat and yanked him away from J’onn. “We need your help, John!”

“I don’t need to help nothing!” Constantine yelled as he stumbled away from Batman and the rest of them. “And I’m certainly not peering into whatever shit show you’re directing next!”

“You’re not leaving this building until we find out what we need to know,” Superman said crossly.

“Or what, Boy Scout? You’ll pick a fight with the man that deals with the dark stuff? Forget Kryptonite, I have something that will make your soul burn.”

“Nobody’s fighting anyone,” Flash countered, racing between the League and Constantine. “Look, I know everybody’s tired; it’s been a long day, with a lot of hard work, and yeah, maybe taking Constantine away from his flat when he didn’t want to wasn’t the best idea, but we have to focus on the big picture here, which is literally laying in the foyer. We don’t know if Megatron will wake up again, or if he’s out permanently since he’s low on Energon. Either way,” He turned to Constantine, who had crossed his arms stubbornly. “We really need your help, John.”

Constantine just snarled at him.

“Tell you what,” Flash smiled as he slung his arm over the sorcerer’s shoulder. “I’ll be the one to take you back to your flat when this is all over, and we can hit up a brewery on the way if you’d like. Drinks on me, and I’m much faster than Superman,” he said with a wink.

Constantine shrugged off his arm, glared at the rest of the League for a moment, then relented with a loud sigh. “Fine. But I’m drinking your pockets dry when this is done, and I don’t ever want to fly anywhere again.” He turned on his heels and headed for the staircase, loudly stomping down each step. The League shared a few glances with each other before following suit.

Dr. Stone hurried to the front of the group to speak with Constantine as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and his lighter. “Ah, Mr. Constantine, there will be no smoking in my facility, please.”

Constantine gave him a pointed side-eye, popping a cig in his mouth, but tucked away the pack and lighter. “Fine, science man.”

“How the hell did he save the world, am I right?” Lantern joked to Batman, nudging his side with an elbow. Batman ignored him, leaving Lantern to fall awkwardly to the back of the group, disgruntled with being dismissed. 

Constantine chewed on his cigarette as he walked the length up Megatron’s body to his head, eyes constantly flicking up and down his form. He stopped abruptly near his side, posture rigid.

“What is it?” Diana questioned.

Constantine didn’t answer for a moment, staring off into space. “This robot- thing, was a warlord, right?”

“Yes. Why?”

He bobbed the cigarette with his lips a little in thought, studying the tall, wispy spirits that had appeared around Megatron’s body, slowly coming in and out of sight. They hovered around the foyer, robotic like him, though missing various parts of their body. Arms, legs, even chunks out of their torso. They didn’t move, just stood perfectly still, like they were waiting for Megatron to wake up. The kicker was they were only dark shades of purple, nothing like the shrouds or spirits Constantine was used to. Constantine looked between the League and the spirits, a little out of place to the rest of them.

“John, what do you see?” Batman demanded.

“No…” The spirits didn’t look down at him or the League, but he couldn’t exactly track their eyes since they were just holes of deep purple. “... particular reason.” He ignored Batman’s question and started forward again before anyone could question his strange behavior.

“Um, what is it exactly that you’ll be doing?” Dr. Stone asked.

Constantine snorted. “Did you hear ol’ Bats? Magic.”

“Yes, but what kind?”

“Oh, well, this must be Christmas for you.” The sorcerer drawled sarcastically. “Techno-magic, magic with technology, technology with magic. What more do you want?”

“I want to know exactly what you’re going to do with Megatron so I can have it logged in my studies,” Dr. Stone persisted, displeased that Constantine saw him as nothing more but an annoyance. “I’m sure the League would like to know as well, seeing as they’re the ones that found him.”

Constantine stopped abruptly to turn on Dr. Stone. “Has it dawned on you that Big M might not want to be woken up?”

“John…” Batman warned, not about to let him try to slither away.

“No, no, I’m being serious this time. How do you know that as soon as you wake him up he doesn’t bring the roof down on you? I’m not sticking around for when that happens, and you can’t make me stay for it either.”

“Just do this one thing and you can leave, I promise,” Superman tried, exhausted by his behavior. Constantine glared at him, gave him the bird, then continued to Megatron’s head. When he finally arrived, he walked right up to the top of his head and knocked on it with his knuckle.

“Hmm,” he hummed aloud. “Expected it to be hollow. Alright, what was it you’re looking for again? Information, memories, yadda yadda?”

“We need to know how to process Energon,” Flash answered.

Constantine leaned back on his heels, studying the flatbed trailer with the Energon crystal clusters on it. “That’s Energon? Eh, I’ve seen weirder stuff.” He laced his fingers together and extended his arms, stretching with a grunt. “Alright, big boy, show daddy the goods.”

Constantine’s hands began to glow yellow as the League internally questioned Batman’s decision to bring him, his symbol rippling into existence in front of him. He raised his palms, and smaller versions of his symbol appeared on them. He then brought his hands forward and backward as the symbols began to spin, the bigger one glowing brighter.

“What Energon?” He asked abruptly.

“What do you mean?” Lantern asked like it was obvious.

“Ugh, what kind of Energon? There are at least four versions here; blue, purple- eugh, nasty stuff- yellow, green, what one?”

“Blue,” Batman responded.

“Alright, blue.” Constantine closed his eyes, and his symbols began to spin faster. His hands paused, and the League waited with bated breath.

“This is strange as hell,” he muttered after a moment. “Bloke shaves the blue Energon into smaller pieces with some… laser device and places it at the top of a… cylinder. No, it’s a processor; the Energon is set at the top, where it gets converted into a liquid and stored in a cylindrical glass container below. It’s the only way to turn crystals into liquid for consumption.”

“Where would we find such a device?” J’onn asked. 

Constantine made a filler noise, searching deeper. “Ah, they had a lot on a ship… several to feed the armada… lots for public use… sensitive equipment…”

“What are you looking at, exactly?” Superman pressed.

“Whatever comes up with Energon; now shut up, there’s a lot here!”

“There’s no way this is working,” Cyborg confessed quietly.

“Hey, you were the one that said magic might be better than hacking,” Lantern teased. 

Constantine’s symbols abruptly vanished, and he clapped a hand to his head, groaning loudly.

“What’s wrong?”

“Agh, nothing, just went through a lot of shit really quickly. This man’s old, like hella old. He’s mean, too!”

“Sum it up, John,” Batman said impatiently.

Constantine scowled as he turned back to them, taking the unused cigarette out of his mouth and flicking it on the ground. “In order to turn blue Energon into liquid, you need the device that holds a glass cylinder below it to catch the Energon when it liquidates. Saw lots of explosions with the same stuff, so you better be right with what you do.”

“Where could one be?”

“What, there wasn’t one in the cave you found him in? Shame.”

“We need a location, John.”

He huffed. “Fine. You can find one here.” He lifted a hand, and a small, glowing 3D image appeared of a large, angular ship buried in sandstone rock.

“Where is here?” Flash prompted.

“Dunno. Megatron hasn’t been there, but it’s on Earth, full of the tech from his planet. I bet money that you’ll find the device there.” He curled his fingers in a fist, and the image disappeared. 

“We can’t search for a ship from a magical image,” Diana argued.

“Oh, you’re so hard to please.” Constantine waved a hand in front of him, and coordinates burned in the air in front of him. “Follow these coordinates, you’ll find the ship, blah blah blah. Can I go now?”

Flash looked at Batman for confirmation, then nodded. “Yeah, I think we have what we need. Still need a lift back to your flat?”

Constantine scoffed, pulled out his cigarette pack and lighter, stuck a new one in his mouth, lit it, and tucked both away. “I’d rather eat what shit you League create. I’m out of here.” He turned to his left, extended his hand, and summoned his symbol. As he walked through it he made eye contact with Superman and gave him a nasty gesture, disappearing before he could react.

Superman let out a breath. “I am so glad he’s gone.”

Chapter Text

The League agreed to call it a night after Constantine left, leaving the search for the mysterious ship to the next day. Cyborg stayed behind at S.T.A.R. Labs to assist his dad and ensure he went to bed at a reasonable time. The League agreed to return to go over their plan and send a team to Constantine’s coordinates. Meanwhile, the skeleton crew of scientists would continue to study Megatron throughout the night, soaking up every little detail they could about him. 

Morning couldn’t have come any sooner, and soon the League began to trickle back into S.T.A.R. Labs. Shazam was unable to return due to school, though Katar Hol answered Batman’s call and joined them in his Thanagarian armor. Lantern greeted him excitedly and they bumped forearms. Batman, Superman, Diana, Lantern, Flash, J’onn, and Hawkman met with Cyborg and Dr. Stone near Megatron’s head, the Energon clusters waiting patiently on the flatbed trailer. Dr. Stone was speaking with his team of scientists and abruptly cut the conversation off when the League approached them. 

“Oh, good, you’re here. Are you heading out to find the ship holding an Energon processor?”

“We are,” Superman confirmed.

“I can Boom Tube us there; I already have Constantine’s coordinates inputted in my navigation systems,” Cyborg offered.

Lantern scoffed. “I’m still surprised the dude was able to find information that Cyborg couldn’t.”

“Who is Constantine?” Hawkman asked.

“Not important,” Flash interrupted before Lantern could start talking shit about him.

“If you have the coordinates all worked out, be my guest, Cyborg,” Batman remarked.

Cyborg nodded, and within a few seconds, a vertical Boom Tube opened in front of them. 

“Please bring back anything and everything interesting!” Dr. Stone stressed. 

Flash saluted him as the League walked through and vanished from the foyer. The Boom Tube dumped them in a hot, desert canyon, making everyone but J’onn and Superman flinch from the sheer brightness of the morning sun beating down from the cloudless sky. In front of them, past a handful of square boulders, laid the dusty, buried ship Constantine had shown them in his hand. Its once shiny black self was now coated in a thick layer of dust and debris, making the metal speckled and old. The eight of them stood in place, awestruck at such a massive piece of alien engineering just lying dead in a heap of rock. 

“This is it,” Cyborg announced and closed the Boom Tube behind them. 

“It’s massive,” Flash thought aloud. 

“I have seen larger ships,” Hawkman said offhandedly. “But none with such a sharp and layered design.”

“Everything Cybertronian-related is so edgy,” Lantern mocked. “Spikes, dark colors; it’s as if they’re all emos deep down.”

“Perhaps the ‘edgy’ only relates to the Decepticons,” J’onn mused.

“Dibs on finding the coolest thing first,” Flash blurted out all at once and took off toward the ship. Batman uttered a disgruntled “hmm” as Diana laughed at his eagerness. 

The League followed Flash to the ship, who zipped back and forth on its surface, looking at everything he could find or searching for an entrance. By the time they arrived at the side of the ship, he had covered every inch of the top, a whirlwind of dust following him. 

“There’s a hole on this side,” he called from the ship’s port side. “Look’s like this is just a stern; there’s no bow!”

“Why?” Superman questioned.

Flash zipped back to stand by him. “I’m not sure, but I think the ship was torn in half, and the bow landed elsewhere.”

“We can worry about the bow later,” Batman ordered. “Right now we need to focus on finding the processor.”

The League nodded their agreement just as Flash took off for the entrance he found. It was less an entrance and more of a giant hole that the Leaguers who couldn’t fly had to be raised up to. A deep, dark corridor met them at the hole, dwarfing them with its dusty, cold blackness. They all lingered at the opening until Batman took the lead, and the rest of them filed in behind him. Their footprints left intends in the layer of dust within the corridor, and soon it was completely dark, save from the glow of Lantern.

Their pace was swift, with Flash darting ahead to try to map out the seemingly endless corridors. His departure caused dust to billow up around his teammates, so he settled with just going their pace to prevent sneezing and coughing. Without Lantern’s ring, they would’ve been in complete darkness. 

Eventually, they came to a large room, surprised to find massive, empty cylindrical equipment dimly illuminated by overhead, circular lights directly across from the entrance. In front of the cylindrical equipment off to the side was a monitor with a transparent, rectangular screen with faded eclectic blue, purple, and red readings. Although everything was lit, the light was faded, indicating low energy levels.

“I can’t believe how big these robots are,” Superman said as he soared to the monitor, landing on the keyboard to try to make sense of what was being shown to him. “Judging by how tall this room is, I’d say the tallest has to be at least fifty feet.”

“Do you think we might be in over our heads?” Hawkman asked. “We have yet to face something of this size.”

“Psh,” Lantern scoffed. “We took down Doomsday, a bunch of tall robots should be nothing.”

“ Superman took down Doomsday, but your enthusiasm is admired,” Diana mused.

“There’s the processor,” Cyborg announced, pointing off to their left.

Sure enough, the processor Constantine had shown them was resting on a small cabinet-like table. It sat on the edge with an empty glass cylinder already placed inside like it had been waiting for them. 

“Damn, that thing’s huge,” Lantern said, using his ring to fly over to it. “Are we going to be able to fit this through a Boom Tube?”

The rest of the team joined him in the air, J’onn assisting Batman up to the table and Flash zipping up beside him.

“I should be able to,” Cyborg replied, lifting his left forearm to adjust the Boom Tube’s calibrations. “We’re bringing it right back to the foyer, right?”

“Yes,” Batman replied, lifting a hand to activate his comm. “Dr. Stone, we found the processor, do you have everything in order?”

“Yes, we do!” Dr. Stone confirmed on the other side. “You’re welcome to transport it whenever you’re ready!”

Batman glanced at Cyborg and nodded. The latter activated a massive Boom Tube above their heads, and it descended upon them, crackling with power. Their dim surroundings were soon replaced by S.T.A.R. Lab’s brightly lit foyer, Megatron resting before them. Dr. Stone came hurrying over from wherever he had been waiting, face turning pale as he saw the processor dwarf all the equipment within his facility.

“Are the Energon crystals ready for processing?” Batman asked, already launching into action.

“Wh- yes,” Dr. Stone studdered briefly, in awe at the size and height of the processor. He grabbed a walkie-talkie from his lab coat and lifted it to his face. “Bring it in.”

From the wall by Megatron’s helm, two large doors split open, and crawling through came a crane carrying the smallest Energon crystal on the end of it. Scientists wearing hazmat suits trailed beside it, several clipboards and tablets in their hands or tucked under their arms. The crane slowly made its way over to the processor, positioning the crystal above it. Superman and Lantern launched into the air to help steady it as it was lowered, guiding the crystal down and quickly unfastening the cables around it. As soon as the cables were removed and the two heroes backed away, the processor audibly whirred to life, and after a moment of everyone holding their breath, a glowing blue droplet fell from inside the glass cylinder. A cheer went up from the scientists, and the crane was quickly driven away to be set aside and shut down.

“How long do you think the crystal will take to be transformed into a liquid?” J’onn questioned.

“We’ll just have to wait and see,” Dr. Stone replied, scribbling away on his tablet.

Over the span of several hours, many Energon crystals were processed, since they needed to be broken into smaller chunks in order to fit atop the processor itself. Groups of scientists came and went, nearly indistinguishable from the hazmat suits they all wore. Flash left briefly at noon to grab lunch for the League from the best burger joint in Central City. They all ate in the foyer together, surveying the operation and the countless shift changes. By the time Shazam joined them in the late afternoon, the cylinder was nearly full, the last chuck resting on top. Flash quickly filled him in from the table he and Hawkman had set up to play card games.

“I think we’re ready,” Dr. Stone announced giddy, the cane rolling away for the final time. 

“How do we plan to get the stuff actually in him?” Flash asked with his face in his cards, trying his best to keep his poker face steady. Hawkman folded with a grunt, and Lantern laid his cards down with a grin.

“What were the methods that Constantine described?” Diana queered, peering over Flash’s shoulder in an attempt to learn the game.

“Ingesting or injecting,” Batman replied instantly.

“Do we even have a giant needle?” Lantern’s confidence was quickly squashed as Flash laid down a superior flush and scooped the pitiful pile of crumbled bills towards him. “Or am I going to have to make one?”

When there was no answer he looked up from watching Flash dramatically counting his win. “Wait, seriously?” 

“It would make the most sense,” Hawkman tried.

Dumbfounded, Lantern looked between Batman and Superman, hoping to find some sense in the two of them. Superman lifted a shoulder and smiled awkwardly, apparently agreeing with his sarcastic comment. Batman merely nodded. Finally, Lantern gave in with a loud sigh, grumbling as he got to his feet. “Guardians of the universe my ass…”

Acting as if it was the worst thing that had ever been asked of him, Lantern approached the glowing processor, lifting his fist to begin bathing it in green light. As he detached the cylinder from the processor, his other hand grasped under his forearm, the cylinder heavier than he expected. Carefully, he lifted the cylinder up and away from the processor, guiding it over to Megatron. Before everyone’s eyes, a syringe formed below the cylinder at an angle, similar to a hampster water bottle. Lantern grunted from strain as he maneuvered the construct to Megatron’s arm, Superman launching upwards to help steady it.

“Thanks,” Lantern forced out, bringing the syringe dangerously close to the crook of Megatron’s arm. “Alright, are we sure about this?”

The League looked at each other in confirmation, before Batman gave the okay. Sucking in a breath, Lantern let the construct puncture Megatron’s arm, and the Energon began to drain.

Within five minutes, the Energon was gone, and Lantern set his construct down a little roughly, the green outline vanishing from the cylinder. The League quickly flew to the foyer’s elevated staircase, Shazam grabbing Dr. Stone and Flash moving Batman. The scientists fell back to the doors at Megatron’s helm, and everyone waited with bated breath to see what happened next.

Chapter Text

They held their breath until they couldn’t hold it in anymore. Megaton didn’t stir, despite everyone’s obvious tension. Five minutes passed, and Megatron hadn’t moved. Ten minutes later Flash realized he was still holding his winnings and nonchalantly began counting the bills, trying to remain inconspicuous. 

“Do you think we need to give him a wake-up call?” Lantern finally broke the silence after about fifteen minutes of watching dust float around Megatron’s form. 

“If he went back into stasis we might have to,” Cyborg mused.

“Could I give something a try?” Shazam asked, striding forward to grip the handlebars.

Superman glanced at Batman, then nodded. “Sure.”

Shazam launched into the air, lifting his hand as yellow lightning began crackling to life in his palm. “Okay then, here goes.”

With a substantial amount of lightning, Shazam thrust his hands at Megatron’s still form, the bolts flying from his grasp. When the lightning struck Megaton’s legs, his whole body lurched and spasmed. It traveled up his body to his chest, where his optics flew open and his chest surged up with a gasp.

The League all stepped back instinctively, Hawkman letting out a curse. Megatron’s frame settled as the lightning finished flying through him, his chest rising and falling rapidly as sparks burst from gaps in his armor. His helm flew from side to side, taking in his surroundings rather aggressively. He attempted to sit up, but found himself unable to so do. He craned his neck upwards, blinking from the bright foyer lights, then focused on the group of humans upon the raised staircase.

“You!” Megatron bellowed, his face curling into a snarl. “What is the meaning of this?!”

“Take it easy,” Superman tried, realizing they were quickly losing control of the situation. “We just want to talk.”

Megatron glared at him as he roughly tugged on the clasp on his right wrist. “I will not be imprisoned by those who ripped me from stasis!” 

With a loud groan, the clasp began to distend under Megatron’s strength, and abruptly snapped free from the floor. The second clasp around his left wrist followed suit, and the warlord was sitting up to tear off the clasps around his legs before the League could react.

“Wait, stop!” Cyborg shouted, the first to find his voice. “We’re not here to hurt you!”

Megatron ignored him as he pulled off the clasps on his legs, taking one of them and chucking it in their direction. They all managed to duck out of the way before it crashed into the staircase and office, sparks flying and metal folding in an explosion of noise.

“Stop him!” Batman yelled as Megatron slid his legs underneath him in an attempt to stand.

The foyer was too cramped for Megatron to rise to his full height, so he lurched forward and went into a roll, smashing through the foyer walls like they were glass. Alarms began to blare, and suddenly all the lights switched from white to red.

“Get him to safety!” Cyborg pointed to Flash and his dad as those that could fly took to the air after Megatron.

“On it!” With that, Flash hooked an arm around Dr. Stone’s waist and launched away before he could protest.

Megatron was barely able to stand and even begin to think of transforming before Lantern came flying toward him, glowing green chains appearing from nowhere to snake around his arm. Halted midthought, Megatron looked down at his arm constricted by the chains, then looked up at the hovering human connected to them. With a snarl, he raised his other fist and brought it down upon Lantern. Lantern yelped, his chains vanishing to be replaced with a shield he raised over his head, only for it to be shattered as Megatron's fist made contact. Superman retaliated with an uppercut to his chin, the warlord flying backward into the building, the wall crumbling under his weight.

“Try to keep the property damage to a minimum, would you?!” Cyborg hollered as Hawkman charged Megatron’s fallen form, morning star raised.

A metal hand shot up from the rumble, snatching Hawkman right out of the air. Megatron slammed him into the ground as he stood up, fury burning in his glowing crimson optics. J’onn and Shazam rushed to his fallen form, only for Megatron to grab Shazam instead, caging him in his claws.

“Hey!” Shazam choked out as Megatron raised him to his face. “Not cool!” He squeezed his eyes shut to gain some confidence, then summoned as much lightning as he could.

Megatron cried out in pain as lightning consumed him, loosening his grip on Shazam, who shoved out of his claws and retreated back to the group. Diana charged forward with a warcry, twirling the Lasso of Truth around her head before sending it flying around the servo that had grabbed Shazam. She grasped it and went to yank it back when Megatron suddenly grabbed it too as he fell to a knee. He raised his helm and snapped the lasso towards him, inevitably bringing Diana with it. He went to grab her as well, but Superman body-slammed one of his fingers and flew under his shoulder to behind his back, pinning his arm there. Megatron roared in anger, and Diana took the opportunity to loop the Lasso around his other wrist and yank it towards her, his arm nearly snapping out of its socket. Lantern raised his fist from his crater and created more chains, which snaked around his torso and held Megatron in place.

Despite being thoroughly restrained, Megatron still snarled and attempted to break free, flailing in Superman’s pin and the Lasso nearly tearing one of his arms off. Cyborg joined Diana in her attempt to keep the Lasso taunt, and Lantern shakily got to his feet to strengthen his constructs.

“Release me!” Megatron roared, falling to both knees but managing to shift his weight upwards. “I’ll kill you all!”

“Hold him, hold him!” Batman shouted, a safe distance away since he was unable to do anything to help. J’onn joined him with Hawkman leaning heavily on him for support. Flash appeared next to them as they watched Megatron struggle under the four heroes.

“Keep moving and I’ll take your arm off!” Superman demanded, still managing to keep his position.

“You wouldn’t dare!”

Superman shoved it closer to his neck, Megatron crying out in more pain than anger that time. Finally, the warlord stopped struggling, his body trembling in effort, seething at the group of five in front of him.

“Well?” He asked after a moment passed. “Going to make a prisoner out of me, are you?”

“No,” Batman replied firmly. “But I think you’ve discovered that we can take you down if we need to, so how about we ditch the formalities and get things done?”

Megatron scoffed, wincing a little at the pressure on his arms.

“Let him go, he’s not going anywhere,” the Dark Knight ordered.

Cyborg and Diana glanced at him to ensure they heard him correctly, then slowly loosened the Lasso. It slipped from Megatron’s wrist, Superman releasing his arm and flying back to the group as Diana looped the Lasso back around her waist. Lantern kept his chains around his torso for a moment longer, just to get a little payback, then relented as well.

Megatron sat on his thighs as the League regrouped, grasping at the shoulder Superman had pinned. If looks could kill they’d all be six feet underground, but as Batman had said, Megatron stayed put. He glared down at them, pride shattered and torso aching.

“If you’re not here to imprison me, then why did you wake me?” The ex-warlord growled.

“We needed to figure out why you were here, and if you were going to become a threat,” Cyborg replied.

Megatron actually laughed at that, dropping his hand from his shoulder. “You went through all that trouble to pull me from that cavern to question whether I was a threat or not? In stasis? Are you looking for a fight?”

“We’re looking for answers,” Batman added. “And we couldn’t think of a better place than from the source.”

Megatron narrowed his optics. “What makes you think I’m going to tell you anything? What stops me from killing you all?”

“Well, you failed the second part,” Lantern boasted. “And you don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Megatron huffed. “I am not a threat.”

“We’ve been told otherwise,” Superman insisted as he crossed his arms.

“By whom?”

“Special Agent Fowler, if you remember him.”

“One of the Autobots’ pets? Surely he has perished.”

“He said it’s been eleven years since you lost the war,” Flash joined in.

Megatron frowned. “Eleven years…?”

“And you weren’t exactly the one to ‘not be a threat,’” Diana said.

Megatron stared at her, then abruptly got to his peds. “What’s over is over, and I’m not interested in Earth anymore. I am going back to stasis, and if any of you try to stop me, I will kill you.”

“Hey, you can’t just up and leave!” Shazam insisted. “Look what you did to S.T.A.R. Labs!”

The ex-warlord raised an optic ridge.

“You’re not going anywhere until we’ve determined your intentions,” Batman demanded.

Megatron exhaled loudly. “I have no intentions.”

Before anyone could protest, he crouched, the League falling into a defensive position only for him to leap into the air and transform, launching into the evening sky, his silhouette dark against the orange and pink clouds. 

The League watched him go, half expecting them to give chase, and mixed feelings arising when they did not. 

Chapter Text

The League returned to the Watchtower to assess injuries and regroup. No one in S.T.A.R. Labs was killed or injured, but Megatron’s escape would cost Dr. Stone a couple million in repairs. He wasn’t all too happy with his newest scientific discovery causing havoc and then flying off without the League intervening, either. Most of the League suspected that to be the reason for their regrouping as they all filed into the conference room, pretty quiet despite all that had happened. 

“What’s the plan, Bats?” Lantern asked first, lacing his fingers together.

“That’s why we’re back here,” the Dark Knight responded. “I don’t have one yet.”

“Surely we have to find Megatron and stop him, right?” Diana asked as the League was surprised by his response. 

“I say we restrain him better and bring him up here for further questioning,” Hawkman announced.

“I second that,” Lantern agreed, and Diana and Flash nodded. 

“But wouldn’t he just destroy the Watchtower if he got out again?” Shazam asked. “Do we even have a room big enough for him? I haven’t been up here much.”

“Well, what do we know so far?” Superman thought aloud. “We can at least start there.”

“Megatron was a warlord who destroyed his planet Cybertron in his efforts to destroy the Autobots, and when the planet ran dry of Energon, both factions fled, and the war rekindled on Earth when they found each other again.” Batman started.

“Megatron tried a bunch of crazy shit to win the war here, but ultimately failed.” Lantern continued.

“Wasn’t he resurrected though?” Shazam butt in. “Didn’t Agent Fowler say something like that?”

“Yes, when “Unicron” used his body to return to Cybertron to defeat “Primus”, though he failed as well,” Diana replied.

“And now Megatron is back on Earth after he claims to have no intentions,” Flash finished.

“Do you think it would’ve been best to leave him be?” J’onn mused. “I know I was not present for his discovery, but he didn’t seem to be doing any harm until the miners found him in stasis.”

“Hmm.” Batman grunted. “I still don’t like him hanging out here. Cyborg, will you send me all that you’ve discovered?”

Cyborg nodded, and concentrated on sending all the footage and information to Batman’s comm. When that was done, Batman stood up, and made his way to the conference room door.

“Where are you going?” Superman asked, baffled by his abrupt departure. 

“To work some things out on my end.” As the door slid open when he got close, Batman threw a look over his shoulder. “I have more important things to attend to.” With that, he stepped through the door, leaving the League grasping at straws in his wake.

“Ah, good evening, Master Wayne,” Alfred greeted when Bruce leapt out of the Batwing after powering it down and pulled off his cowl. “Dinner was two hours ago.”

“Sorry about that, I had a League meeting,” Bruce replied as he made a beeline to the Batcomputer and switched it on.

“Oh?” Alfred approached him from the side, watching as he pulled up his comm links. “Did it have to do with anything with your discovery in the molybdenum mines?”

“Yes.” As Bruce’s hands flew across the keyboard, pictures and files popped up onto the screen, as well as a large image of Megatron restrained on the floor of S.T.A.R. Labs’s foyer.

“Oh dear,” Alfred paled, all thoughts of dinner and leftovers quickly disappearing. “Who or what is that? Is that S.T.A.R. Labs?”

“Yes, or it was a few hours ago,” Bruce responded to the latter. “That is Megatron, a warlord from a distant planet whose war clashed on Earth apparently eleven years ago. The League and I brought him to S.T.A.R. Labs for some questioning, but he escaped after he said he no intentions for Earth.”

“You allowed him to escape?” Alfred looked at him, aghast. 

“Not necessarily.” Bruce pulled up a digital map lined with latitude and longitude. “I put a tracker on him when we were in the process of waking him up.”

“Oh, of course you did,” Alfred chuckled, and Bruce smiled a little. “I don’t know why I was worried. What is the League’s plan moving forward, or should I say, yours?”

“Megatron caused some collateral damage from his escape from S.T.A.R. Labs, but he didn’t kill anyone, despite his threats to do so. And since the news hasn’t exploded with stories about a giant robot anywhere, it’s safe to say he’s staying true to his claim. But,” Bruce hit some more keys, and a red blip appeared on the map, moving quickly. “That doesn’t mean he’s free to do whatever he wants.” He pressed a hand to his chin, thinking hard.

“You missed dinner.” A new voice interrupted his thoughts.

Alfred sighed and staightened. “I believe you are supposed to be bed, Master Damian.”

Bruce looked up to see Damian in his pajamas at the top of the staircase with his arms folded. His dark hair was slightly ruffled and he had an irritated look on his face.

“Nice to see you too,” Bruce said before turning back to the computer.

“Where have you been?” Damian demanded as he descended the stairs. Alfred stepped back as he approached Bruce. “You’ve been gone all day, not to mention yesterday and the day before.”

“I’ve been out on League business.” Bruce retrieved his chair and slid into it before pulling up his advanced search engine.

“You’re lucky Gotham didn’t crash and burn while you were gone,” Damian said as he uncrossed his arms and studied the giant screen before him.
“I’m sure you and Dick could’ve handled things while I was gone,” Bruce responded off-handedly, whittling his way through the Pentagon’s firewalls.

“Who is that?” Damian demanded, pointing at Megatron restrained under Superman, Lantern, Cyborg, and Diana as S.T.A.R. Labs’s security feed cycled through and paused on certain moments.

“Megatron,” Alfred replied lightly, watching as Bruce picked through the Pentagon’s database file by file.

Damian turned on Bruce, hands on his hips. “Care to explain, father?”

Bruce took a moment to respond, eyes darting back and forth as his searches brought up nothing of what he was looking for. “A warlord that came from a distant planet. His efforts failed to win his war and now he’s back on Earth.”

“Back? Can you give a little more detail?”

Bruce paused his search to pull up the security feed of Agent Fowler’s story to the Justice League and hit play. “That is Megatron, former warlord and leader of a group named the Decepticons…”

There was a couple minutes of silence as Damian watched Fowler’s explanation and Bruce trudged through the Pentagon’s databases. Finally Bruce gave up as Alfred deduced the Batcomputer could use some dusting, leaning back into his chair with heavy sigh.

“Agent Fowler was right, he did a good job of making sure there was nothing Cybertronian-related in the Pentagon’s databases. I just went through the last decade of information and nothing has to do with Megatron or his war.”

“He seemed pleasant.” Damian decided with a hint of sarcasm. “What did the League decide to do with him?”

“We tried restraining him in S.T.A.R. Labs for questioning, but he escaped.”

“Escaped?!” Damian exclaimed. “Why the hell would you let him escape?!”

“Language, please,” Alfred interjected as he ascended the staircase back to the mansion. 

Damian glared at his back until he disappeared into the elevator. “Surely you’re not going to let him wander Earth, are you?”

Bruce pressed his fingers to his temples, closing his eyes. “No, Damian, I’m not going to let him wander Earth.”

“Then what do you plan to do, since you’ve let him get away?”

“I always put a tracker on escapees, Damian, you know that. For now, I’m going to find him and lay down some ground rules for his visit on Earth while the League regroups and permanently decides what to do with him. He claims he has no intentions and hasn’t done anything to give away his presence, but I don’t know how long that will last.”

“Let me come with you,” Damian insisted. “I want to help, and see him for myself.”

Bruce smiled wryly under his hand. “I thought you’re supposed to be in bed.”

“It doesn’t matter when there’s a robot wandering our planet! Imagine the damage he could cause, not to mention mass hysteria!”

Bruce glanced at him through his hand, understanding his concern but not quite sure how to proceed.

“If you don’t do anything about it, the Titans and I will,” Damian finally threatened.

Bruce frowned and lowered his hand, standing up. “You don’t get to make the decisions here. It took four League members to restrain Megatron; you’d only be putting the Titans in harms way.”

“You don’t even have a concise plan, father!” Damian protested yet again. “You could at least drive him off the planet if you don’t want him here!”

“There's a lot more to this you don’t understand,” Bruce argued. “Megatron might retailate if we push him too hard.”

“And if he decides to rekindle his war in the time you take to make a plan? Are we even prepared to handle someone of that size, much less a whole army of them?”

“Megatron’s war is over ; he lost .”

“What stops him from trying again?!”

“If I may,” Alfred interrupted quite loudly, descending the staircase with a steaming bowl in his hands. “I think it’s best to turn in for the night and worry about this in the morning. Megatron isn’t going anywhere, and for the moment, it seems he’s content to stay here without causing any trouble. And, ” he continued when both Bruce and Damian went to argue. “You can’t keep both the planet and Gotham safe without a full stomach and a good night’s sleep.” He approached Bruce and extended the bowl out to him, which he begrudgingly took from his hands, inspecting the contects of it. “Now, it’s off to bed for the both of you, and I mean it.” Alfred reached over and turned the Batcomputer off, the cave darkening.

“I’m coming with you in the morning,” Damian insisted as they followed Alfred up the staircase.

“Fine,” Bruce said as he shoveled the chicken and rice into his mouth. “Just don’t aggravate him, and follow my lead.”

Alfred rolled his eyes; at least they were coming to bed, and he could continue dealing with their attitudes in the morning.

Chapter Text

As Megatron fled from the group of strange, multicolored humans into the evening sky, his rage carried him into a near-supersonic speed, cutting through the sky dangerously fast. The pain from both arms almost getting ripped off or the humans' sudden ability to fly and glow didn’t manage to mask his rage as he went over his situation over and over in his helm as the sky darkened around him. Those humans had managed to find him in the deep cavern he had specifically placed himself in so that no one would be able to find him, and the most irritating part was it seemed they had stumbled upon him! He could still recall the feeling of the half-human, half-machine trying to reach his brain and pick him apart from the inside out. And the most frustrating part: his tanks were at full capacity! How had the humans managed to find, process, and refuel him with Energon?! Looking for answers, of course they were; they couldn’t keep their disgusting organic noses out of anything. The frustration of getting pulled from stasis and almost kept captive, not to mention a full tank of Energon, kept Megatron going well throughout the night, as if flying hard and fast enough would burn himself away. 

Morning came many long hours later, and Megatron must’ve circled the globe several times in his rage. Frustrated with everything in general, he landed heavily in the thick forest below, the ground crumbling beneath his peds. He turned his frustration to the trees, grabbing one and tearing it from the ground before attacking the rest around him, swinging his around like a sword and destroying the forest as much as possible. The wood crumbled under his strength, snapping and shattering as he tore through the forest, branches flying and splinters battering his armor, though the organic plants couldn’t do a thing to his Unicron-altered frame. 

Ten minutes later, there was a jagged line carved into the thick forest, so much carnage left behind in Megatron’s frustrated wake. He lifted his servo to study the stripped tree he had used as a sword and flexed his fist, the wood snapping in half. He let the pieces slip from his digits, panting in exertion. He knew he had achieved nothing, and probably left a huge indicator that he had been there, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was still on Earth, still without a plan, and still without a place to go. Megatron turned his gaze to the rising sun, and wished there was a way it could engulf him and rid him of his problems. 

With a heavy sigh, Megatron turned his gaze downward and began trudging through the forest once again, not bothering to tear things apart as he went. When he became irritated with the trees scraping against him, he transformed and launched into the air, no destination in mind.

It took some convincing on Damian’s end to let him skip school to come with him, but ultimately Bruce caved, and they were in the Batwing minutes later to find Megatron, the Batcomputer locked onto his location.

“Does the League know you planted a tracker on him?” Robin asked as he watched the Cabwaylingo State Forest fly by underneath them.

“They should know better than I always do,” Batman responded, lowering the Batwing into a section of forest that seemed to be cleared away as they approached Megatron’s location.

Upon further inspection, the section wasn’t cleared, but torn apart. Trees had been torn down from the top, and stumps and wooden debris littered the forest floor. Batman slowed, and for a good ten minutes, they saw nothing but destroyed forest. 

“Do you think Megatron did this?” Robin asked after a moment of silence.

“I wouldn’t be surprised; look at how everything is ripped apart. Loggers don’t clear trees like that.” He ascended the Batwing out of the section when it abruptly ended, almost to Megatron’s location. 

Just as the Batwing neared the location of Megatron, proximity alarms began to blare, and before either could discover why, a larger-than-life jet rose from the trees and began barreling toward them. Batman was barely able to swerve out of the way as Megatron rattled the cockpit when he shot by.

“Holy shit he’s huge!” Robin shouted as Batman leveled them out and began preparing the Batwing’s weapons systems. 

“Hold tight!” Batman shouted back as he grit his teeth. He snapped the center stick back into a cobra maneuver, the Batwing arching back for him to bring it into a loop and level them out once more, Megatron now in his sights. He dragged his fingers down every lever he could reach, the missile bays popping into view and launching two heat-seeking missiles from each bay, a total of four streaking through the sky to lock onto Megatron. 

Megatron went into an aileron roll as the missiles reached him, each one detonating on his back pair of wings with seemingly no damage when the explosions cleared. Before Batman could fire something more powerful, Megatron accelerated and went straight up at a ninety-degree angle, briefly vanishing against the bright outline of the morning sun.

“Where’d he go?” Robin hollered, straining to find him through the sun’s glare.

His answer came when Megatron appeared directly above them in his bipedal form, having transformed to drop on them like a stone, his arm held over his face as he plummeted face-first through the sky. He collided with the Batwing behind the canopy, and the three of them were sent toward the ground in a free fall. Alarms blared through the canopy as Batman struggled to find the eject button for both of them, the impact of Megatron jarring him immensely. The heads-up display flashed in warning as they got closer and closer to the ground, and just as they were a hundred yards away, Damian found the emergency eject lever under the pilot’s seat and cranked it, the canopy popping off and the two of them shot straight up in the air, the breath knocked out of their lungs.

Megatron stayed with the Batwing as it crashed, crushing it under his weight and igniting the fuel tank, an explosion billowing around him as Batman and Robin attempted to link up during their rapid descent. As the smoke cleared and the duo was able to land in the nearby trees and wrestle out of their flight seats, Megatron stepped from the Batwing’s debris, now nothing more than a mangled pile of metal.

“I know you’re out there, human!” Megatron boomed as Batman dropped from the tree his parachute snagged on and managed to catch Robin before he fell on his face. “No man-made weapon can harm me!”

“What do we do?” Robin asked as they fled from the crash site as Megatron’s booming footsteps shook the forest floor. 

“We have to get him in a position to talk,” Batman replied, mentally sifting through the weapons in his belt that might be able to stand against an enemy Megatron’s size and power. “If he-”

He was interrupted as Megatron stepped in front of them, sweeping the trees out of the way with one giant arm, sending the tops of them toppling behind him. They came to a halt and fell into a defensive position. 

“You!” He snarled as he recognized Batman, fists curling at his sides. “You woke me from stasis!”

“We’re just here to talk,” Batman said quickly, lifting up his hands and craning his neck to even look at his face.

“Says the one that kept me prisoner,” Megatron hissed as he took a step forward. “I will not answer to puny organics.”

“These organics can take you down,” Robin jumped in. “You saw what they could do at S.T.A.R. Labs; we have more than enough power to do exactly what we want with you.”

Megatron’s gaze snapped to him. “Are you threatening me?”

“The Justice League will do what it takes to protect Earth and its people,” Batman continued, debating whether or not to shut Robin up. “That includes eliminating threats from other species. If you do not listen to us and comply with our rules, we will do what it takes to drive you off our planet, permanently.”

Megatron scoffed, then cackled viciously, leaning over a bit to peer down at them. “What gives you any idea that I would listen to you?”

“You have nowhere else to go,” Batman pointed out. “An exile from a failed war effort, leader to none and one banished from his own planet thriving without him.” 

Megatron snarled and with his next step forward attempted to step on them, but the duo managed to roll out of the way. “I know exactly what I am and what my situation is, and neither of our encounters would not have happened if you had just left me alone. With your interferences, you have ruined everything!”

“What did we ruin?” Robin asked as he got back to his feet and straightened, sensing that they were close to cracking him open.

Megatron angrily opened his mouth to explain, then paused. Realization dawned on his face, before disappearing into a scowl. “Fine. I will hear your terms, if on the one condition that you do not bother me again.”

“That will be up to us, since you are too large to ignore,” Batman corrected. Megatron scoffed but didn’t interrupt. “Firstly, you do not cause any sort of damage to anyone or anything. What you have done to this forest is unacceptable, and is a reason for retaliation if you decide to do so again. Secondly, you are not to rekindle the war that you lost under zero acceptions. We have fought in wars before and can handle our own against whatever you decide to throw at us. Thirdly, if you reveal your presence to any civilian, human, or otherwise, you will be imprisoned and sentenced before you can do any harm.”

Megatron roared with laughter. “You do not have the Autobots’ pets. How do you intend to keep my presence a secret?”

“I planted a tracker on you when you were at S.T.A.R. Labs,” Batman replied smugly, the amusement from Megatron’s face falling. “If you are to approach any populated area that does not involve several miles in the atmosphere, the League will interfere. And, even if you were to find and remove my racker, you give off a massive radiation signal that can be easily tracked by satellite.”

“So,” Megatron growled. “I am to be your lab rat if I don’t do exactly what you say?”

“Essentially, yes,” Robin said smugly, crossing his arms. 

Megatron scoffed, then straightened to his full height. “Typical.” He studied the sky for a moment, Batman and Robin taking the opportunity to regroup. “Fine,” he finally barked. “I will stay out of sight, if only to wait out the rest of your existence so that I may go back to what I was doing before.”

“Which was?” Robin pressed, sensing another crack in his walls.

“Withering away.” 

Megatron crouched, and the duo was about burned alive when he transformed and his engine fired in their face, forcing them to grab each together and throw their capes over themselves. When the extreme heat vanished as soon as it had come, the forest floor around them was scorched.

“Do you think he’ll listen?” Robin asked as he ran his hands through his hair to make sure none of it had been burned off.

Batman stared up at Megatorn’s retreating form, a million thoughts racing through his head.

Chapter Text

When Constantine stepped out of his symbol to the supposed location of Megatron, he arrived in a massive underground tunnel riddled with glowing Energon crystals, just like the ones he had seen in Megatron’s head; they illuminated the otherwise dark cavern. The ceiling was at least forty feet above his head, the crystals growing in large clumps, making the sorcerer feel smaller than he had ever felt. Attempting to calm his nerves, he dropped his nearly spent cigarette to snuff it out with his foot and pulled out a fresh one to light. Flicking the lighter closed and slipping it back into his pocket, Constantine made his way deeper into the tunnel.

“Hello?” He called out. “Anybody here?”

He stuffed his hands in his pants pockets, trying to keep his breathing even by going at a steady pace. He didn’t know what to expect when he found Megatron, and was hoping to avoid getting crushed or stepped on. Not that he hadn’t encountered big, angry blokes before, just not ones as massive. 

“Hello!” Constantine called again. “Am I talking to myself here?”

A dull thudding rumbled the ground, coming from a bend in the tunnel up ahead of him. As the thudding became louder and more consistent, Constantine realized they were footsteps, and from around the bend appeared Megatron himself. 

Constantine knew Megatron was tall and more than likely going to be hella imposing, but seeing him on his feet and not restrained made his cigarette slip from his lips. It took all but two seconds for Megatron to locate him and initiate eye contact, his face morphing into a scowl. His footsteps felt like an earthquake, rattling Constantine’s organs in his bones, and he didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up on end. 

“Well, aren't you a big boy?” Constantine smiled despite the massive robot striding towards him, feigning confidence. “How goes it? Nice to see you up and-”

As Constantine suspected, Megatron did not stop when he reached him; instead, he raised his ped and brought it down with the intent to squish him. The sorcerer was quick to do a relocating spell and vanished into a wisp of gold just as Megatron’s ped slammed into the ground. He reappeared a safe distance away. 

“Oi!” Constantine shouted. “That’s no way to treat the bloke that helped ya!”

Megatron’s scowl deepened when he relocated him. “What nonsense is…” He attempted to step on him again, faster than before, causing Constantine to repeat his spell with a yelp.

“Knock it off! Constantine hollered, now just annoyed with trying to be squished underfoot. “I’m just trying to talk with you!”

If Megatron was confused by Constantine’s relocation twice, he didn’t show it. In fact, he paused, and before Constantine could react, Megatron dropped to one knee and snatched him up in a massive servo, squeezing the oxygen out of his lungs.

“Who are you?” Megatron growled, bringing him up to his face. 

“I’d be more than happy to answer that,” Constantine wheezed. “If I could be allowed to breathe.”

Instead of loosening his grip, Megatron dropped him in his opposite servo and caged him with his claws. “How did you get here?”

Constantine sucked in a lung full of air as he was dropped and started coughing as he landed on his ass. “ Oof! Not the most gentle, are you?”

The claws around him flexed, closing in on him. Panicked, Constantine threw up his hands. “Alright, alright! I’ll answer your questions!”

The claws stopped crushing him. “Make it quick, before I lose my patience and kill you.”

Constantine huffed, but didn’t snark. “The name’s John. Constantine if you know what last names are, and I thought I’d pop in for a quick chat.”

Megatron scoffed. “Are you part of that annoying group of humans that tried to restrain and interrogate me?”

“The Justice League? Fuck, no; they wish. Are they tryin’ to find you or something?”

“Why are you here?” Megatron asked instead.

“Like I said for the third time, I came to chat. Can you do that or are you just gonna be a prick?”

The ex-warlord glared at him through his claws, then unexpectedly began lowering his servo. “No.”

Constantine slipped off his servo when he was a safe distance away from the ground to avoid being dropped. “Why not? Too scared to do anything but kill me?”

“If you must know, one of the members of your “Justice League” threatened to detain and sentence me if I were to kill any occupant of Earth, despite their failure to restrain me.” Megatron rose back to his full height.

“What, did you bust out?”

Megatron gave him an unamused look.

“Ah, I figured. Did you put up a fight?”

“They were not worth my effort.”

“Oh, I would’ve killed to see Bats’ face. I bet you just smashed through those walls like they were glass. Hey, where are you going?”

Megatron had turned around after he had finished talking and began walking away. “That is not your concern.”

“Well, it’s a bit rude to walk away when someone’s talking to you!”

“I don’t care,” Megatron responded, already halfway to the bend.

Pissed with Megatron’s lack of social skills, Constantine snuffed his fresh cigarette and redid his relocation spell for the third time, the repeated spell wearing on him a little. He reappeared directly in front of him, a great distance away this time to avoid any stomping or grabbing. “Don’t you have questions? About why the League woke you or how they woke you?”

Megatron stopped when he realized Constantine wasn’t giving up, his face curling into a snarl. “I can determine things myself, worthless flesh! They woke me because they stumbled across me and foolishly decided to see if I was a threat when I was already in stasis!”

“But don’t you want to know how they did it?” Constantine pressed, knowing he had a short chance for his attention. 

Megatron snarled. “Lightning, somehow!”

“And?”

“What do you mean, and?!”

Constantine rolled his eyes. “Don’t you notice that you’re not low on Energon?”

Megatron’s optics widened. “How do you know of that?”

“Because I’m the one that helped them find what they needed to process it. Against my will, might I add; they dragged me from my flat and Boy Scout flew me halfway across the bloody globe just to-”

Megatron fell to a knee and slammed his fist onto the ground dangerously close to Constantine. “ You fool! What gives you the right to give them such information?!”

“It wasn’t my idea!” Constantine shouted, backing up a little with his hands raised as Megatron bore down upon him. “They forced me to!”

“Did you fight them?!”

“I-”

“Do you have any idea what you have given them?! Energon is not something to be tampered with! It is highly flammable and given at the wrong dose or kind could’ve killed me!” He hunched over a bit more, bringing his face closer to Constantine. “What stops me from killing you right now?!”

“Y-you can’t! You said it yourself, the League-”

“Your League isn’t here, and if you’re the reason for my reawakening, then your pathetic body will never be discovered in the mine.” With that, Megatron raised his fist, preparing to make the final blow.

Constantine clenched his fists, a bit tired from all his abuse. With the magic he usually reserved for demons or dire situations, he summoned a great ball of fire in both hands, brought the two together, and lobbed it at Megatron’s face with an angry cry. “Piss off, ya cranky piece of scrap!”

The fireball hit Megatron square in the face, exploding with heat and knocking him back on his knees. Whipping his knife from his trenchcoat, Constantine quickly drew a pattern in his wrist’s flesh, his blood gushing from the deep wound and dripping onto the tunnel floor. He stooped and began drawing a symbol with it, chanting in old Latin.

Megatron recovered from the fire in his face, terrified it would ignite the Energon crystals around him and furious that the human would be so brash against him. He found him hunched against the ground, doing something with his fingers, so he made another effort to grab and crush him. He hadn’t noticed the gold patterns appear around him in a circular motion, and his wrist was stopped as a robe of gold snagged his armor and began wrapping around his wrist and arm. He attempted to rip it off with his other servo, but more ropes of gold snagged his opposite wrist and pulled it down into the symbols.

“What is this?!” Megatron roared as his arms were pinned to his sides and the ropes began snaking around his torso and legs.

“If you’re going to throw a tantrum every time a bloke tries to talk to you,” Constantine began as he finished the symbols in his blood and stood. “Then you’re getting a time out where you can’t break out of.”

Megatron thrashed in his bonds, but the ropes held, digging into his exposed protoform between the gaps of his armor.

“Struggle all you want, but I know my magic, and you’re not getting free anytime soon,” Constantine announced smugly.

Megatron roared in anger, but the more he fought, the more the ropes constricted, and the faster the symbols around him spun. Soon there was so much pressure his armor began to groan, strained under the magic he insisted he didn’t believe in. Constantine's smugness began to bleed into concern as Megatron wouldn’t relent, and finally he stopped the spell where it was, freezing the ropes in place.

“Despite what you’re thinking right now, I’m not here to hurt you,” Constantine tried. 

Megatron growled through his denta. “Then why are you here?! Have you not interrogated me enough?”

“I don’t want to interrogate you!” Constantine admitted. “The League had no right to wake and restrain you, I agree; I just think I might be able to help you!”

Megatron laughed bitterly, shaking his helm. “Why would you help me, after all I have done to this planet and your people? What makes you think I wouldn’t kill you as soon as I’m free?”

“Well, for one, I wouldn’t let you, and it’s not every day that I get to peer into someone’s mind and see an entirely different way of life. Listen, I’m good at dealing with the gray. The way the League operates is just too cartoon-level of good and evil and will never be able to quit pestering you. Hell, I might be able to put you back into stasis, or whatever you call it.”

Megatron went quiet, his optics closed. He had stopped fighting as Constantine talked and had gotten uncharacteristically still.

“Megatron? You alright in there?”

The ex-warlord raised his helm, pointedly looking at the opposite end of the tunnel. “Enough of this. Release me, and you have my word that I will not kill you.”

“You won’t kill me now or ever?”

Megatron didn’t respond, his own fire apparently snuffed. Cautiously, Constantine swept a foot through his bloody symbols, and the ropes around Megatron vanished into golden glitter that winked out of existence. Megatron rolled his shoulders and stood. 

“I do not need your help, and it is best if you leave me be.”

“If I piled everything on you too fast, that’s on me, but I really think-”

“Enough. Forget you ever learned of me, and never bother me again.” He took off down the tunnel, away from where he had come from, his footsteps slower this time. 

Constantine cursed and swept a healing spell over his wrist; he hadn’t meant to fuck up their first meeting this badly, and could only imagine what the League was planning to do to him.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe they talked me into this,” Fowler muttered to his window.

Currently, he sat behind Batman as he piloted the Javelin, Superman in the passenger’s seat and Wonder Woman beside him. They had informed him of Megatron’s… asocial behavior, and were using him as a last-ditch effort to see if they could get anything else out of him before they decided to kick him off the planet or not. It would be easy to do the former, but they hadn’t seen all that Megatron could do or would do if driven away, and there were still no reports of any alien encounters (out of the ordinary) or strange jet sightings, so he was at least keeping his word, whatever that meant. Fowler wasn’t all too happy with the League’s actions and decisions regarding Megatron, not to mention that the last time he had interacted with him directly the warlord threatened to blow the White House sky-high. He wondered if he would even recognize him.

“We’re almost to Megatron’s last known location,” Batman announced. “He disappeared from satellite tracking several hours ago.”

“Probably means he went underground,” Fowler responded.

Superman glanced back at him. “Thank you for doing this with us, Mr. Fowler.”

Fowler rolled his eyes. “Anything to clean up your mess. I told you to put him back where you found him!”

“You must understand the reasoning behind our actions,” Wonder Woman insisted. “You may have known Megatron, but we do not, and we want to keep this planet safe.”

Fowler huffed, turning back to his window to hide his flush; the Amazon was too beautiful to look at without him wanting to stare. “You don’t want to know him.”

“We’re here,” Batman interrupted, slowing the Javelin to land. They landed so smoothly Fowler didn’t know they had until his seat belt unfastened itself and the trio began to stand up. He hefted himself to his feet, politely declining Wonder Woman’s offer of assistance. She led the way down the boarding ramp after it lowered, Fowler following behind and Superman and Batman taking up the rear. They exited to find themselves before an exposed cave; the reddish rock provided a good landing strip before dropping off an incline to the forest floor.

“This was Megatron’s last known location,” Batman announced, studying the scanner he had pulled from his belt. “This is near where Robin and I encountered him.”

“I knew it,” Fowler said smugly. “Ol’ bucket head scurried back to one of his mines.”

“Mines?” Superman asked.

“Energon mines.” Fowler gave him a duh look. 

“Let’s get this done,” Batman intervened, and led the way into the cave.

Fowler made them a lot slower than their normal pace with his cane and all, and as they traveled farther he noticed how they positioned themselves around him in a triangular formation. He sighed heavily; he was getting too old for this. 

They hadn’t traveled far when they found Megatron sitting against the tunnel wall, one leg propping up a forearm with his helm tilted down, optics closed. They stopped a safe distance away, tensely waiting for something to happen. Fowler noticed this and exhaled dramatically.

“He’s just in recharge, you trigger-happy yoga enthusiasts! He’s sleeping .”

“Huh,” Superman relaxed, thinking aloud. “Didn’t know he could do that.”

“Will one of you wake him up?” Fowler requested shortly.

Superman briefly thought of how, then simply picked up a large boulder and lobbed it at Megatron. It hit him square in the chest, where it crumbled into pieces, bouncing down his armor and startling him awake. Megatron lurched forward, optics flying open and searching for the source of the rude awakening. It didn’t take him long, and when his gaze fell on the group he sighed heavily and merely leaned back into the wall.

“Should I even ask?” He drawled.

The trio raised an eyebrow, glancing at each other; his reaction was vastly different from the previous encounters.

Fowler took a couple of paces forward, bringing Megatron’s attention to him. “Remember me, buckethead?”

Megatron’s optics narrowed. “Fowler. I’m surprised you’re still among the living, seeing as a human’s lifespan is pitifully short.”
“Well it’s nice to see you too,” Fowler chuckled dryly. “It’s only been eleven years; I still have a lot left to give.”

Megatron’s face fell, and he pressed his helm against the wall. “Eleven years…” he muttered to himself. 

Fowler frowned; this was a vastly different Megatron than he was used to. Nasty, yes, but nothing more than a single quip? He wasn’t looking forward to this.

“Welp,” Fowler said after a beat of silence, turning to the trio. “This is the part where I ask you to leave. I was given explicit orders-” he pressed on when Batman tried to interrupt. “-to question Megatron outside of the Justice League’s earshot, punishable by law if you decide to eavesdrop,” he added pointedly, glaring at Batman, and then Superman, who knew exactly what he was referring too. Megatron still sat against the wall, continuing to do so as the League departed from the cave.

Fowler sighed, using both hands to lean on his cane. “What are you doing here, Megatron?”

The ex-warlord scoffed, pressing a few digits to his forehelm. “Is it not obvious?”

“I know the war is over and the Autobots are running Cybertron now, but that doesn’t explain why you came all the way back here to Earth. Couldn’t you have, I don’t know, stayed on Cybertron’s moon or something?”

Megatron dropped his servo and glared down at him. “And risk being discovered, only to unintentionally rekindle a lost cause or be put to death?”

Fowler paused. “You would’ve rekindled the war?”

Megatron slammed a fist to the tunnel floor, startling him. “Are you so foolish? If I had wanted to rekindle the war, I would not be hiding like some petrified sparkling in this mineshaft!”

Fowler let out a breath. “So… you’re not going to fight anymore?”

“Yes. How is that so incomprehensible?!”

“Well, you did get an upgrade, and Cybertron was-”

Megatron lurched forward onto his knees, slamming his servos on either side of Fowler, bringing his face down dangerously close. “What Unicron did to me was not something to celebrate, nor was I going to rekindle something that had already been lost with my death. I died, you pathetic creature, and Unicron used my corpse as a puppet for his own agenda! What part of my suffering would make you think I would ever consider restarting the war that was far gone without me ?!”

Fowler gulped, all color draining from his face. “I didn’t know-”

“Of course you didn’t know! You weren’t there!” Megatron roared, digging his claws into the rock and scoring deep marks into it as he sat back on his haunches. He seethed loudly, shredding the rock beneath his claws like tinsel paper. 

Fowler remembered to breathe and shakily sat down on the nearest rock. He avoided Megatron’s piercing gaze as he waited for him to calm down, getting ready to ask the next hard questions.

“Why are you here, Fowler?” Megatron asked suddenly, surprising him. “Where are your Aubotbots to bring me to justice?”

Fowler winced. “I was afraid you’d ask that. Truthfully, when I heard the Justice League had discovered you, I demanded everything to be kept under wraps until I could deal with this myself. I demanded and threatened and begged to handle you personally, which led me to tell the League to put you back where they found you, and now questioning you for myself, though no one expects me to get anything out of you. So, I figured I owed you an explanation.”

Megatron studied him quizzically.

“I know; I’m quite surprised myself, helping the enemy that tried to kill me and my kind countless times. But let’s be honest with ourselves, Megatron; you did die, and were brought back to life against your will, and now you have to face the consequences of the war from the losing side. Your commanding officers are either dead or MIA, and the Autobots had the full victory, fair and square. Now all that is left is to tie up the loose ends.”

“Such as?”

“Well, don’t you want to know how Cybertron is doing?”

“It’s alive again, prospering, wiped clean of all the sins I committed against it. Don’t you think I know exactly how it’s doing, especially without me?”

Fowler slouched with a frown. “Not what I had in mind. Don’t you have any questions about what happened after you ended the Decepticons and left?”

Megatron was silent, but Fowler’s proposition was tempting, and the agent could see the questions forming on the ex-warlord’s face.

“What happened to my commanding officers?” He finally asked.

“Well, Starscream was torn to pieces by Predaking and two other Predacons he and Shockwave managed to clone; they had tried to continue to build an army in hopes of conquering Cybertron in your absence. When Unicron threatened the core they unexpectedly decided to help the Autobots and turned against Starscream when he tried to take the throne on Darkmount. I’m guessing he wasn’t all too nice to them for such a quick decision.”

Megatron chuckled dryly, but said nothing. Fowler continued.

“Knock Out joined the Autobots to save his skin, to no one’s surprise, as did most of the Vehicons. Shockwave tried to continue to clone Predacons, but the three he had already brought to life turned against him as well, and tore his laboratory down themselves. His body was recovered in pieces, as much of it the Predacons had eaten.”

“What about Soundwave?” Megatron asked abruptly.

Fowler thought for a moment. “The Autobots were wondering that too. Reports from maintenance drones said he was last seen on the bridge of the Nemesis, but was not seen during the battle on the Omega Lock or any other on Cybertron. There has been no sign of him since.”

“Is he offline?”

“His body was never recovered, and there was no trace of his life signal, so it is assumed so, yes.”

“And no doubt Prime has erased all traces of Decepticon existence from Cybertron to preserve his pristine future.”

Fowler’s heart sank. “Yeah, about that…”

Megatron raised an optic ridge.

“After you had flown off, it was revealed that Optimus had absorbed the AllSpark to trap Unicron in its container. In order to bring new life to Cybertron, he flew himself in the Core, and the AllSpark was returned to its source.”

Megatron deadpanned. “What.”

“He’s gone. Optimus sacrificed himself to save the future of all Cybertronians. He couldn’t separate the AllSpark from the Matrix, so all of him had to become one with the Core.”

In one second, Megatron merely stared down at the frail human below him. In the next, he exploded with rage, flying to his peds and tearing into the nearest wall.

“LIES! He was supposed to fall in battle, by my hand and no one else’s! TO WATCH CYBERTRON BURN AS I REIGNED VICTORIOUS!” 

Fowler covered his head as Megatron rained punches into the tunnel wall, tearing into the rock with his fists and tossing debris with wild abandon. Great clouds of dust billowed from Megatron’s rage as he tore into the rock, carelessly throwing himself into its destruction. Just as the debris began to fly too close to Fowler, the trio returned, Superman punching a boulder into pieces before it could squish him.

“I WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE TO LIVE WHILE PRIME DIES!” Megatron continued as Batman and Wonder Woman worked to get Fowler safely out of the cave despite his protests.

“Megatron, just stop!” Fowler hollered despite all the destruction around him, determined to stay. “I’m not done yet!”

Abruptly, Megatron did stop, the silence that fell made more unnerving as the dust settled around him. The League quickly circled around Fowler as Megatron emerged from his hole, a haunted expression on his face.

“Don’t you see?” He spoke softly, uncharacteristically quiet. “There is nothing left for me. Not here, not on Cybertron, nowhere; I cannot join the AllSpark because of my use of Dark Energon, and thus there is nothing left but the void. I robbed myself of the one peace I could finally receive in my pursuit of victory, which only dissolved in madness. There is no one left but me, and I abandoned my true cause the moment I destroyed my own planet.” He gazed down at the small group of humans, emotions clashing on his face. “So you ask me if I am a threat? That I might rekindle a war I’ve lost and have not been in the presence of its end for over eleven years? Conquer a planet that finally thrives again?”

“But why are you here, back on Earth?” Fowler pressed, seeing an opening.

“Unicron's superluminal space drive was still activated when I fled, intending to fly as far away from Cybertron as possible, but it only led me straight back to Earth. I inflicted self-stasis when the reality of my loss had sunk in, having nothing to live for.”

“What will you do now?” Wonder Woman dared to ask.

Megatron paced over to the opposite wall, the trio’s gaze following him as he leaned against it and slid down to sit. “What is there to do but wait for you to forget me and return to stasis? Do you think I am foolish enough to return to Cybertron and expect nothing to happen? That all would be forgiven and I could live on the planet that used to treat me like nothing but a slave?” 

“Don’t you think you could try?” Fowler tried.

Megatron glared at him. “The moment I step foot there I would be killed, either by a vengeful Autobot or a scorned Decepticon, and I have lost my connection to the AllSpark. Trying would be a death sentence.”

“Maybe you could try living here then,” Superman suggested. “Try to make the most of the life you still have.”

Megatron closed his optics and hung his helm. “I tried to destroy this planet on several occasions, and doing so would only bring the attention of those who are no doubt looking for me. I will never live with you disgusting organics.”

“Forget it,” Batman suddenly interrupted. “If he wants to sulk until the end of days, let him. We got our confirmation that he won’t do anything, and if he does, we’ll just alert the Autobots.”

“What?” Superman and Wonder Woman asked in unison and disbelief.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Fowler exclaimed at the same time. “Who gives you the authority?!”

“He lost his war, and he has to deal with the consequences. It’s not our fault he decided to run all the way back here, and things have changed,” the Dark Knight reasoned. “We might not be his judge, jury, and executioner, but we are still the Justice League, and we do what we must to protect this planet.” He turned to Megatron and narrowed his eyes. “Even if it means tightening the noose.”

Megatron glared at him to hold his gaze. “Then I suggest you start doing so.”

Batman held his gaze as well for a moment longer, then turned on his heel and swiftly made his way out of the tunnel.

Fowler watched him go, breathing heavily in fury. When Wonder Woman tried to reconcile with him, he leapt to his feet and started after the vigilante, ignoring her. Wonder Woman was quick to follow, and as Superman cast one last glance at Megatron, the ex-warlord closed his optics, his fists clenched where they rested on his thighs. The group left him alone in the tunnel, never to return or question him again.

Constantine sighed and snuffed his cigarette on the rock wall, dropping the butt on the ledge he had been hidden on for the last half hour. He hadn’t known that Megatron could sleep, or recharge, whatever Fowler had called it, and was glad he’d decided to remain hidden while the group had their little social. The dark, wispy spirits were back as well, fading in and out of sight, hovering around Megatron. They hadn’t acknowledged Constantine’s presence, just as before. The sorcerer still didn’t know what they were, and his attempts to interact with them (spells, swearing, and taunting) hadn’t helped him learn anything new.

“Poor git,” he muttered to himself, leaning against the wall on one arm. “I knew there was more than I saw in your head, and I knew the League couldn’t handle you.”

He watched as Megatron got up and trekked farther into the tunnel, down a bend opposite of where he was standing. “Then again, who can handle a fucked-up bastard such as you?” He raised another cigarette to his lips, the smoke curling around his head. “Looks like it’s ol’ Johnny to the rescue, again.”

Chapter Text

“Hello, Megsy!” Constantine hollered as he approached Megatron’s kneeling form, hands in his pockets and spirits a bit brighter than usual. He had planned on visiting Megatron as soon as the League had left with Fowler, but he had been interrupted by the call of nature and then his empty stomach. Now it was a couple of days later, with Megatron in a different mine than before, closer to the surface since the opening of the cave allowed the morning sun to spill in. 

The ex-warlord snarled at him, dropping the Energon cluster he had been inspecting and getting to his peds. “Your kind is truly insufferable.” 

Constantine shrugged. “What can I say: humans are resourceful.”

Megatron scoffed. “You sound like Starscream.” 

He then unexpectedly lifted a servo to a hole in the tunnel wall that Constantine hadn’t noticed before and pulled something out of it. He turned to the sorcerer, lowered his closed servo, and dropped the object in front of him.

“What the hell…?” Constantine stepped back as the object was bigger and fluffier than he expected, flopping on the ground lifelessly.

“You can tell your League that their attempts at spying on me need to be more subtle,” Megatron told him victoriously.

Constantine stared at the object, which was nothing more than an elk, crushed by the ex-warlord’s strength. Its legs were crumbled against its body and its head lay at an unnatural angle, its eyes dark in the dim light of the tunnel. The sorcerer’s shoulders slumped, and he sighed deeply. “I’m afraid that’s not a spy, luv.”

“It was staring at me at the mouth of this mine,” Megatron protested. “I would not be surprised if Fowler planted the idea.”

“It’s not a spy,” Constantine repeated, glancing up at him. “It’s an elk, and you’ve killed it.”

“An elk?”

The sorcerer sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “There are more than just humans living on this planet, you know. Millions of species, in fact. Elk is just one of them.”

“Why was it staring at me?!”

“It was probably just trying to figure out what the hell you were. They can be spooky little things.”

Megatron frowned, and knelt in front of the elk, studying it. 

“You didn’t know there were other species here?” Constantine asked softly.

“If I was aware I didn’t care, and the unwelcome awakening has put me more on edge than I realize,” the ex-warlord admitted, then grumbled, engine rumbling unhappily. “Will the League kick me off the planet for this?”

“Oh, no, I don’t think they will. Not if we bury it, and I won’t tell a soul.”

Megatron glanced at him quizzically. “You bury your dead?”

“Well, yeah.” Constantine shrugged. “We have many ways of doing it, but do you?”

“We didn’t so much as bury our dead, as the layers of Cybertron were- are metal, but we would create tombs deep underground with caskets to seal frames away. The tombs were sacred and…” he trailed off, looking lost.

A feeling of pity settled in the sorcerer’s heart, but he willed it away. “Well, I can go grab a shovel, if you don’t-”

Megatron dug his claws into the rock, lifting up a sizeable fistful to set to the side. The hole he had created was several feet deep from what Constantine could see. 

“That works too.”

Megatron gingerly lifted the elk with his claw tips and set it into the hole before sweeping the pile of rock on top of it, smoothing it with his palm. With that one simple action, Constantine realized how similar their species were to one another, and the ache in his heart returned.

“Did you come to offer help again?” Megatron monotoned.

Constantine sighed. “Not sure, to be honest. Maybe curious as to why you’re still here.”

Megatron stood, and returned to the Energon cluster he had abandoned. “With no means off this planet and no means of going back into stasis, I will just wait until your League moves on or time defeats them. Time is… all I have.”

“But don’t you want to do something with that time?” the sorcerer pressed. “Become something better, or different?”

“And what would you have me become?” Megatron asked bitterly, gripping the cluster tightly until his fist trembled. “A better person? An ex-Decepticon, that sided with the race he tried to destroy in his mad quest of conquest?”

“You can always start trying to be a better person,” Constantine insisted. “Lord knows I know that better than anyone.”

“Being a better person will not get me off this planet. Being a better person will not erase what I’ve done, to both worlds, and especially to Cybertron. My second chance was gone the moment I was run through with the Star Saber and I sank into Unicron’s Anti-Spark, cursed to become a slave to what I thought gave me the advantage to end the war.”

“But that doesn’t matter anymore!”

“It is all that matters!” Megatron roared, the Energon crumbling in his grasp as he turned back to Constantine, tossing the fragments away. “I deserve to suffer! To rust away on the planet I failed to conquer and fade into the void when my connection to the AllSpark was ripped away by my own hand!”

“If you want to suffer, then why didn’t you man up to your actions and face the consequences on your own damn planet?!” Constantine hollered back.

“Because-! Because I don’t-! RAH!”

Megatron slammed his fist into the tunnel wall, his fist creating a deep crater in the rock. Constantine stepped back several paces, cursing that he had gotten so close yet was still so far. Megatron ripped his fist out of the wall and sprinted to the opening of the tunnel, nearly trampling Constantine in the process. Before Constantine could run after him, he transformed and shot off into the sky, flinging the bottom of Constantine's trench coat up and ruffling his hair.

Angrly, the sorcerer whipped out a fresh cigarette and clenched it in his teeth so hard his jaw began to ache. He stuffed his lighter away, gave one final glance to the elk’s grave, and stalked out of the tunnel. 

When J’onn beamed Constantine up to the Watchtower for the first recorded time ever, he was surprised to be greeted with frustration and anger rather than the sorcerer’s regular aloofness.

“Where the hell is your boss?” Constantine spat as he descended the stairs and made his way up to J’onn’s console. 

“Hello, John Constantine,” J’onn greeted politely, even as Constantine’s eyes burned as bright as the end of his cigarette. “What can I help you with? I believe this is your first time to the Watch-”

“Yeah, yeah, first time to the Watchtower, but where is the big three? Bats, Boy Scout, Princess? Are they up here?”

“I believe the three you speak of are not here are the moment, but if you’d like, I can take a m-”

“Save it,” Constantine interrupted, then pulled out his wallet and tossed something at him before turning around and returning to the teleportation deck. “You can take that as a token of my refusal.”

J’onn paused, then picked the object up from the floor. “Your Justice League Membership? Are you saying-”

“I don’t want to be part of your fucking club!” Constantine shouted, throwing his arms out. “The next time the world goes to shit, call Zatanna, not me.”

J’onn considered the card in his hand, then returned to his console. “Shall I send you home, then?”

Constantine huffed. “Yes. Please. And delete my address!”