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J’onn looked around the meeting room.
Green Lantern, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Flash were there, but Superman and Wonder Woman were running late.
There was also the question of the mysterious being, that the others had been talking about since the last meeting.
The others sounded quite scared of him. J’onn did not understand their fear. The creature sounded similar to a form of domesticated pet that was kept on Mars. They ate excess negative emotional energy and psychic residue, helping to keep homes and minds clean.
He was quite excited to see the creature, he would be overjoyed if another being from his home had survived.
The door to the meeting room swished open and Wonder Woman stepped through.
Superman followed just behind her, the being named “Batman” clutching onto his back and looking over his shoulder.
“Sorry we’re late, there was a ‘thing’ in Gotham” Superman smiled as the rest of the League looked at each other nervously. A ‘thing’ in Gotham, that could delay both Wonder Woman and Superman would be considered a world-ending threat in the cities that the otherJustice League members protected.
Aquaman was staring at the beast as if it was something out of his ancestors’ nightmares, a look of visceral discomfort on his face.
The other heroes were looking anywhere but the creature as Superman sat down, the creature flowing from his shoulders to curl up in his lap.
“H-he… seems less energetic this time.” Flash fumbled, trying to lean away as far as possible from the creature.
Superman laughed, causing the creature to let out an angry grumble at the movement.
“He had a long night and he’s not normally awake much during the day.” Superman put a reassuring hand on the creatures back and it seemed to lean into the touch, bumping it’s head against his hand.
“Now, before we move on, I believe some introductions are in order.” Superman gestured to Aquaman, who still looked to be terrified “Aquaman, meet Batman. Say ‘hello’, Batman.” Superman said as if he was asking a young child to say hello to a family friend for the first time.
The creature reluctantly pushed itself up to look at Aquaman.
“Herrro.” It rasped.
To J’onn, it sounded more like videos he had seen of cats ‘talking’, rather than a sapient being attempting to communicate.
The creature yawned, showing off a set of impressive fangs, before curling up in Superman’s lap, tucking it’s head under part of it’s outer layer.
J’onn could tell that it was not one of the creatures from his home planet. He was disappointed, but glad he hadn’t gotten his hopes up too high.
He knew that he shouldn’t look into the creature’s mind, earthlings were so sensitive about that, but he was just so curious.
He reached out and… nothing.
There was nothing there.
It wasn’t a blank mind, like someone who was brain-dead.
This creature, that could move, see, understand speech, even communicate.
Had no mind at all.
Not even the impression of a hidden mind, or the bare emotions of an animal.
Just… nothing.
To make sure his powers hadn’t been affected by something, he reached out to the minds of the other heroes.
Green Arrow was focused on the creature, trying to evaluate if it had any weakness. He was paying half a mind to Wonder Woman, like a student who knew they needed to pay attention to the lecture, but couldn’t focus.
Green Lanterns thoughts were regimented, efficient, he was fully focused on what Wonder Woman was saying as she led the meeting.
The flashes thoughts were almost too fast to read, zipping by in a fraction of a second. He was trying to listen, but his thoughts kept wandering, from what was he going to buy his girlfriend for her birthday, to what he was going to make for dinner tomorrow.
Aquaman’s thoughts felt… damp. There was no other way to describe them. They were warring between the visceral terror of ‘Predator- Flee!’ and the rational mind ‘Superman wouldn’t bring a creature that would eat us…. right?’ combined with pride ‘I don’t want to seem like a weakling by running from the creature’.
Wonder Woman’s thoughts were muffled by the magic that animated her form and protected her from harm. To J’onn, they sounded like something he had never encountered until he reached earth- the sound of muffled voices speaking in another room. If Diana focused and directed her thoughts at J’onn, he could understand them, but otherwise, they were only an unintelligible murmur.
Superman’s mind was the strangest of all. J’onn was glad that humans had remarkably similar minds to Martins and that he was able to read them so well. Superman’s mind sounded like something he had seen on television, a ‘spirt box’. Static, with the occasional word mixed in, which may or may not have anything to do with what was happening.
“SHEEP! ON A TRAMPOLINE!”
J’onn winced at the ‘volume’, case in point. Superman could receive J’onn’s mental transmissions, but J’onn was incapable of getting anything that made sense from Superman.
J’onn’s powers appeared to be functioning correctly, so he reached out for Batman again.
It was like… expecting there to be another step at the bottom of a flight of stairs. The feeling of the foot hanging in the air too long and the painful impact of hitting the ground.
There wasn’t even an outline, an impression of a hidden mind.
It was an unspeakable horror, an afront to the fundamental way the world was supposed to work.
Even a mechanical being capable of interacting with the world to this degree would have a ‘mind’, rudimentary as it may be.
But There. Was. Nothing.
“J’onn?” he was snapped out of his trance by Superman’s voice “J’onn, are you alright? You appear to be… melting?”
J’onn flinched as he realized that in his fear he had behaved instinctually.
He had taken on the colour and texture of the chair he was sitting in and spread himself thin over the surface in an attempt to hide.
J’onn forced himself back into his human-like shape with difficulty.
His throat felt raw and strange, clumsy, as he forced his copied vocal cords to make sound.
“Apologies, Superman. I believe that I am… currently unwell. May I be dismissed from the meeting?”
Superman’s brow furrowed in concern, an expression that was too close to anger for J’ohn’s comfort “If you are unwell, you should go to medical. We do not want our human friends to become ill.”
“No… I believe I am simply tired and stressed. A night’s rest should put me to rights.” J’onn replied as he forced himself out of his chair, nearly having his “knees” collapse from how malleable he was.
“If that is all, you may go. If you are still feeling unwell in the morning, please return to be checked for illness.” Superman replied, as the- the abomination appeared to grow curious and sit up to look at J’onn.
J’onn bowed and swept out of the room, uncaring that the physics of his “cape” probably looked wrong.
The zeta tube dropped him off in a shed in his backyard and he wasted no time in retrieving the key from under the gnome and unlocking the door.
He stumbled through, into the kitchen.
He fumbled into the counter and pulled himself along it to the sink. It took him several tries to active the tap and he splashed cold water on his face, in an attempt to quell the panic that was threatening to overwhelm him.
His cat, Garfield, heard the commotion and meandered into the kitchen, meowing loudly at being distracted from watching over his territory.
J’onn pulled open the cabinet that contained his stash of Oreos, grabbed several boxes and slid to the floor.
J’onn reached out for Garfield and the cat immediately came to his side, butting it’s head against his leg and curling up beside him.
J’onn finally let go of his carful control of his form, allowing himself to look Martian, as he curled into a ball, whining in fear and rocking back and forth.
Eventually, he calmed down enough to pet Garfield and tear open his package of Oreos.
In the morning he would wake up with a terrible Oreo hang-over, the memory of the creature almost dismissible as a bad dream, expect for the file in the Justice League database.
“Name: Batman
Pronouns: He/Him
Species: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Appearance: Variable, see attached images
(image ID: A bat like creature made of shadows, with glowing white eyes, perched on a stalagmite. Image ID: A dark Polaroid picture of a child in a bat costume, face obscured by mask and shadows. Image ID: Two men in suits, standing in a wood paneled room with red wallpaper. The one on the left has a mustache and his hand is resting on the shoulder of the one to his right. They are smiling, but the upper halves of their faces have been obscured by vicious scribbling in black pen.)
Affiliations: Superman, Wonder Woman, Unnamed Caretaker
City: Gotham
Abilities: Unknown
Weakness: Unknown
Diet/Energy source: F̷̲̪̱̆̇̏ẹ̷̝̰̤̈́̉̂ä̴͖̭̏͋̕͝r̴̢̔”