“Only the Butterfly Bandits would be cowardly enough to take me on, ten to one and still need to hold a boy hostage,” said the modern Batman.

(The Butterfly Bandits were created by this author, only minutes ago).

“They haven’t seen us yet. We arrived above them,” said Element Lad, “Can you sneak down and make a grab for the gun he’s holding on Elroy, Lyle?”

“Consider it …. attempted,” said Invisble Kid, appreciating the silence of the flight ring’s operation for the first time since Brainiac Five had invented them to replace the flight belts.

He came up right beside the Butterfly Bandit, completely unseen, and snatched the gun away. The others then flew down rapidly, and Ultra Boy used his super speed to zoom in, punch the bandit, release the man’s grip on Elroy, fly away and put Elroy safely on the top of the building for a while and then ask him to stay there.

“It’s a good thing you came through with your flying capsule that your Dad usually uses to drop you off at school,” said Ultra Boy.
“I knew that I was entering this dimension from one where I was in a high rise building,” said Elroy, “The need to fly a little was elementary to deduce.”

Ultra Boy flew back at the man he’d punched, this time using his invulnerability to resist the next closest Butterfly Bandit’s gun and grab them both.

“The rest are for us, two a piece, including for Batman!” called Timber Wolf, and jumped onto the back of one gunman, vaulted over to the other and grabbed his weapon and flung it with great speed and strength at the hand of the first, causing both guns to be lost in freefall to land in the lake in the park far below.

Element Lad turned two more guns into ice, and then threatened to turn their owners’ wings into ice as well unless they surrendered. Both men complied.

Batman managed to use a modern batarang and batrope gun to snare two more Butterfly Bandits before they could aim an accurate shot at him. Remaining Invisible, Lyle Norg disarmed another two Bandits, and soon they were all captured and secured by Batman’s devices at the top of the same building where Elroy was being reprimanded by Element Lad for taking off and worrying both his family and the Legion, not to mention the Science Police.

“But how does a Batman come to operate in this century?” asked Ultra Boy, “Can events and people be duplicated 1000 years later in a parallel earth? We’re from an earth in another dimension, by the way.”

“On this world, the first Batman was Bruce Wayne in 1939,” said the modern Batman.

“I’ve heard of an earth where super heroes began operating around the time that World War II began,” said Invisible Kid, “This must be the one colloquially designated by the Justice League of America of our 20th Century as Earth-2.”

“I’ve heard it called that” said Batman, “I’m a descendant of Bruce Wayne’s named Brane Taylor, still carrying on his legacy.”

“And the Butterfly Bandits thought they’d Taylor their abilities to deal with you,” said Timber Wolf.

“Cosmic Boy had to send you, didn’t he?” groaned Element Lad, “He couldn’t have picked Mon-El or Lightning Lad or even come himself. It had to be you.”

The Legionaires laughed for a moment, enjoying the banter, and then turned their attentions to getting Elroy Jetson home.

They wished the 30th Century of Earth-2 Batman all the best in his war on crime, and flew back to the rift, to find that Brainiac Five and Saturn Girl had joined the guard detail Legion members at the Jetsons’ apartment.