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Why Was There No Truck?! (38-40) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-10-16 23:23:26
Imported:
2026-10
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Ugh. Sorry this is out a bit later in the day than usual. Lost power for a few hours last night and my laptop has been acting screwy ever since. The keyboard and mouse just randomly stop keyboarding and mousing for random intervals. Which, given they are external to the laptop, probably means something is up with either the USB port or the KVM I use so both my laptop and desktop can run on the same set of monitors/keyboard/mouse >_<.

Anyway, today is the day for the second Author's Choice release of the month! Meaning more of Why Was There No Truck?!! We finally get a meeting between Batman and Overwatch, including some insight into Bruce's mindset and concerns beforehand. Then an audacious plan that no one expected! Not from Alyssa this time, but Batman?!

I'm fairly pleased with how the chapters came out. Though the fighting was a little weaker of a climax than I'd hoped for, mostly because I had to limit the scope of how much I showed if I didn't want it to draw out forever. Still, the overall result achieved what I wanted, I think! Including starting to establish just what sort of Batman we're dealing with...

As usual, the new stuff is attached here. Since this is the final update of this story for October, I will also be updating the Master File in the Pinned Post of Master Threads. Author's notes will, also as usual, be in the comments (once I have a few minutes to write them, at least!). Enjoy more of Why Was There No Truck?! everyone!

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Novus's Fanfiction Works

This comment is for author's notes! Beware spoilers! And if you want to comment on one of them, please do so in a separate comment NOT nested here, in order to keep these orderly!

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Chapter 38: A/N 1: So, I decided one of the things I needed to do with Batman was give credit where credit is do. He IS supposedly the World's Greatest Detective, and he's been actively digging into Star Knight with a significant amount of focus. So if there was anyone who was going to figure out there was something up with her, beyond just the usual identity coverup for a hero, it was him. I also decided to have this version of him be circumspect with that level of privacy invasion, however. Keeping the information as tightly contained as possible, rather than sharing it out. A/N 2: I also used this as a chance to ease up on the version of him a little. Making it so that he's not genuinely harsh, just very...taciturn? Maybe a bit controlling, but with it coming from a place with good intentions, at least, even if others can't see it. Flawed but not to the point that he's doing more harm than good.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Chapter 39: A/N 1: Honestly, the late-night conference room was just me enjoying the idea that a city like Gotham might have opportunists that just decided to cater to all the criminals and crazies that needs late night meeting spots :-p. A/N 2: If it didn't come across, Batman is only offering up this plan because there will be chaos REGARDLESS of what they do. So he's looking to get the most mileage possible from the chaos they can't prevent anyway. A/N 3: For the good boys and girls that are actually reading the Author's Notes...I'm taking suggestions for who to recruit into Overwatch ;-). Though expect me to be pretty choosey. They need to be characters I'm at least somewhat familiar with if I want to write them decently, and that limits things a fair bit...

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Chapter 40: A/N 1: I waffled over how to show the raids. Ultimately, I decided to focus on just those fights in which Overwatch had a member present. This does undercut showing the sheer scale of the operation a bit, but it also gave a focal lens for the fighting that prevented it from dragging on for a Dragon Ball Z number of episodes -_-. I did also use it to establish a few more background details about who is on which teams. Like showing how Beast Boy ended up in a secondary branch of New Wave...and resolving questions some people had about what happened to Panacea :-p. A/N 2: Yes, that was Squealer in the tank ;-). Though she's less a drugie and more just a regular criminal here. No idea if she'll pop back up again or not. Part of me thinks it would be amusing if she doesn't actually have a criminal record and was working mostly legitimately for the mob, so she ends up walking...and getting recruited into Overwatch's development efforts (like Mercy and Winston) or by another team. Another part of me thinks it would be a bit too forced. A/N 3: Thinking on what would actually give Alyssa a struggle, I realized that she really hadn't experienced telepathic combat yet. The fact it also gave me an excuse to plant a couple of plot hooks for later and introduce Black Widow briefly decided me, and thus she ended up with an unexpected fight. A/N 4: Remember, just because they cleaned up a good chunk of the mob in Gotham...doesn't mean the criminals are gone. Independent operators like the Penguin, plus several costumed villains are still around, as are some of the foreign elements. Likewise, there will be a power vaccum that will draw in people trying to replace them...AND they didn't get everyone from the mob families. Not to mention they haven't gotten into the supernatural side of Gotham at all. So there will be some struggle left by those who remain. They made a MAJOR dent, yes. But they hardly managed to clean up Gotham in a day...

Silvereagle21

So I liked the chapters but I definitely think Batman got his flaws reduced a bit more than I would think is normal/realistic. But maybe that is just my dislike of him as a character talking. Either way, I did still enjoy.

Widget

ch. 38: it's kinda interesting that Batman doesn't consider that Alyssa might have read a comic series about him, cause afaik most batmans that deal with multiverse stuff know that his comics appear in other realities. ch. 39: gotta be real, Batman being both agreeable and audacious like this scares me a bit, lol ch. 40: if Batman: Arkham Knight taught me anything, it's that Gotham has hundreds of Surprise Tanks lying low in parking garages just waiting for an inopportune moment

Urbane_Bomber

The surprise Tanks line was funny and on-brand.

Konner Morris

It's common knowledge that it is quicker to switch to your suprise tank sidearm than reloading.

Moon Fellow

Surprise tanks should never be a surprise - merely expected. :) Also, I really enjoyed you having Batman be competent and self-aware enough of his own issues to overcome them to better Gotham.

Sean

I really liked this starting arc. Lots of cool moments and a believable way to show Gotham transitioning to a new normal. I'm guessing the power vacuum is intentional since it lets the story have a sort of villain of the week come into an empty Gotham. I'm excited to see how the Overwatch science division expands.

Widget

talking about characters to bring into Overwatch, it's kind of hard to say because the timeline is pretty fuzzy for MHA, Worm, and Overwatch characters - the timelines for those stories are centered around the rise of All Might, Taylor's awakening, and terrorist action by the Omnics beginning respectively, so we don't currently know who is, like, alive or an adult in this amalgam world. I guess because of that you can just pick who you want, as long as they aren't an Omnic? As far as who to actually pick my #1 and #2 are Elsa Bloodstone and Batgirl. Elsa because the team just got rid of most of the mundane villain capes in one fell swoop which means they're now gonna have to deal with all the evil wizards and cults living in the sewers and whatnot, and Gloom is their only magical cape right now. Batgirl cause my read is she's been leaning towards it for a while and I think both she and Alyssa will want to form a more... competent partnership without the constant dance. Speaking of I'm like 50/50 on Batman himself joining on, since I can kinda see him mentally adopting everyone especially once he learns of Overwatch's secret mission statement. At this point like, all of his rogue's gallery except the League of Assassins and Court of Owls are straight up not in the city anymore which leaves him with little to *do* as his Batman persona. Plus those are huge organizations so joining would let him leverage Overwatch to help remove them. White Tiger is kind of a shoo-in for the team I think especially if Batgirl signs on. Hawkeye I still see remaining an independent for now but it might end up like MCU Spider-Man where Alyssa just kinda "picks" her to give stuff such that it's only a technical separation. Ragman I know literally nothing about so can't comment. Kid Win from the earlier recruitment pitches is probably an easy pickup, and I imagine the Neurochip would work very well with his modularity-focused Tinker skills For others for the team to recruit I'm gonna cheat and say Lucy (Cyberpunk: 2077) should totally be a pickup simply because I think she's awesome, and Cyborg is already an Arasaka fugitive so why not double down? (it's the best way, cosmically speaking, to attract Adam Smasher to Gotham and Adam Smasher vs. Star Knight would be epic) Mei Hatsume (if you make her an adult) would be very easy to attract to their tinker team with Overwatch's startup energy, assuming she hasn't been picked up by Hero Island already (I can imagine they avoided her due to her propensity for explosions) edit: Wow, I totally forgot about Harley Quinn! She got mentioned several times in earlier chapters and Alyssa never followed up on finding her to hire as support staff.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

I'm not a fan of him either, and he's still going to exhibit paranoia and not being a true team player. I just decided to not make him actively antagonistic, as it was both a needless complication for the story and...well...he's generally a well liked character by most people. Just not me, normally :-p. As evidenced by a version of him so far being the only male character to win a poll for Stripper with a System ;-).

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Remember, this reality is an amalgam missing quite a few normal DC elements. He may very well not have dealt to alternative reality events very often just yet. Not enough to consider that sort of thing a probable option. ;-) The Surprise Tank truly is the Sidearm of Choice for Gotham....

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Exactly. Surprise Tanks aren't the Spanish Inquisition, after all. One should always account for them!

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Yep. This allows me to show Gotham actually getting better, while also still providing a constant stream of trouble for the team to deal with as other threats either rise to the surface from where they were hiding under normal crime, or come in from elsewhere as part of the power vaccum trying to fill itself :-).

Novus's Fanfiction Works

I've kept the timelines somewhat intentionally vague so that I can use characters more freely, yes. Though the MHA cast are old enough to be heroes in their own right, at least. Most of them don't have any reason to come to America, but I actually have Pony slotted in on one of the teams somewhere in my notes... Batgirl is someone I'll likely end up running a poll on, to see if she joins Overwatch or not. As a lot of people have commented both directions on her. White Tiger is actually fairly unlikely to join outright, as Selina Kyle is very much not a joiner. Even the versions of her that have gone vigilante generally operated alone most of the time in the comics. Elsa is a definite possibly, as one of the previous potential recruits :-). Same with Kid Win. Hmmmm, not sure I want the timeline to line up for Lucy and other 2077 character to be alive, given we have explict years for them. Will have to think that over. Mei is a possibility for their support team, though having used her in two other fics, I'm unsure I want to stick her in a third already. Harley is absolutely someone I'm going to follow up on :-). Though I'm unsure if she'll be a good fit for Overwatch just yet...

Dominique Brassel

Mh nobody mentioned yet how often you used barabara instead of Barbara....... Also mh expanded team ...... Yeah totally a good idea..... I am all for recruiting some former "villains" to flip them .....like Squeler everyone needs surprise tanks and she could have been courest to work for them...... Also with other reality people actually being a thing with ghost spyder being one your potential pool of teammates is theoretically unlimited so my vote goes to a younger zatana zatara for the team......

BobyCola

thanks for the chapter!

Novus's Fanfiction Works

They honestly both look right to be and the spell checker doesn't highlight them, so they are hard to spot. I'll fix the ones I can find with a search now that someone has mentioned them to me. Unfortunately, Zantana had already been mentioned in the fic and is a close associate of Batman in this reality.

twilightwanderer

Thanks for the chapter, I like this take on Batman, and enjoyed the climax of the mob war.

twilightwanderer

As for Overwatch additions, Tim Drake and Cass Cain are my favorite Batfam members, so I'll pitch them (more below on Tim specifically), and speaking of Tim, really any of the comics Young Justice crew could be interesting (although Cissie would be rather redundant with Hawkeye present). If you want to lean hard into the magic side of things, they could pick up Tim Hunter and/or Illyana Rasputin. Speaking of the X-Men, I always love seeing more Shadowcat, although it seems like she's rather occupied at the moment. Jessica Drew is another interesting one on the Marvel side, although maybe not if Gwen sticks with the team long-term. On the MHA side, I feel like Kyoka is often underutilized (at least outside of relationships), and Nejire is always fun. Besides Kid Win, I could see Assault/Madcap being an interesting team addition (and if Cauldron exists here, Battery's presence could be a good hook for them). If you want to incorporate Invincible, maybe Atom Eve. Honestly I feel like their big need right now is another powerhouse or two, which means my main suggestion is Virgil Hawkins aka Static. He's pretty strong with a lot of potential to grow, he's also highly mobile and can bring teammates with him, he brings a new element to the team (electricity and electromagnetism), and he's pretty smart too, so he can contribute on that side as well.

twilightwanderer

Regarding Tim, here's my pitch for how he could work in this setting: I'm not sure whether he'd be old enough or not, here (I'll assume so for now), and even then, without Jason Todd, he's had no reason to become a vigilante. However, he's also one of the few detectives on the same level as Bruce, and I could see him doing the research (read: "stalking") on the new team in town, and figuring out more than they expect. In the aftermath of the mob takedown, he shows up on their doorstep, offering to help them out on the administrative side of things. In this world, he's probably never primarily boots on the ground, but he likely picks up a few tricks. I see his primary focus being administration and coordination, providing assistance on the corporate side, helping keep the research side organized, working with Alyssa, Victor, and Babs on the computer side, and serving as the guy in the chair, especially when the whole team needs to be deployed, all the while improving his own investigative abilities.