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Diana sat with Clark, sipping the tea Alfred had sent up for them. After Bruce and his kids had left for home, they’d had the League members who had been involved clean up the mess they’d made. Then, despite the protestations, she and Clark had taken on monitoring duty in spite of the long mission they’d just been on. And they’d sent everyone back to their home bases, with the warning they’d be calling them once things had been discussed. And if each member did not accept the call immediately, their continued membership would be drawn into contention.
“This is a mess,” Clark sighed. “I respect his choice to keep his identity secret, but if he wasn’t so paranoid, this might not have happened.”
Diana pulled off her tiara and ran her fingers through her hair. “I can’t say I don’t understand, though. With the hotheads we work with… Bruce was just doing what he thought was best to protect his kids. It wouldn’t have been an issue if everyone had respected his rule to stay out of Gotham.”
Clark gave a humorless laugh. “They’ve all been to Gotham as civilians. They should have known Gotham is not a normal city.”
“So, what do we do?”
“They broke so many rules and protocols, and they don’t seem to care.”
Diana sat back messaging the back of her neck. “What did J’onn say?”
“Green Arrow was the ringleader and instigator. He’s seen Jason as Red Hood with Roy. A while back, when Roy was still living in Star, Jason would visit, and with his reputation…”
“And with Roy’s history, he jumped to conclusions. So, it’s been a vendetta for a while.”
“Yes,” he sat his cup down and refilled it, doing the same to hers. “He’s been waiting on a way to bring Hood in for a long time. Dinah wasn’t on board to start with. But Oliver was able to get Barry and Hal on his side after Red Hood was seen in Central. Hawkman was the only other League member to really interact with Jason, but his actions in apprehending him weren’t outside the realm of reasonable in a standard situation. However, everyone who was on monitor duty would have seen Jason in the cells, which means no one thought to question to validity of him being here or how he was being treated.”
“So, a long meeting reviewing protocols and procedures and why each is in place would be the least of what they’ll be required to partake in.”
“And the four involved in breaking most of the rules?”
Diana laughed. “You know Bruce will want reports from each of them. What if we make them write a report that addresses each rule, protocol, and procedure, and why each has been put into place?”
“And another report on where they messed up.”
“They should be benched until they complete it, and Bruce will need to be the one that signs off on the reports.”
A few hours later, J’onn and Arthur, who had been dealing with things in Atlantis all week, arrived at the Watchtower to take a shift since they were the only ones not on probation. Diana and Clark went to their rooms on the satellite to shower and rest, before they called the meeting. Seventeen hours after everyone had been banished, Clark and Diana began the calls. The League members who had been on the station when everything had gone down were called individually via video call, to their home bases to ensure they were, in fact, at their home bases and not lurking in Gotham. Everyone else just got a general summons.
Within the hour, the full force of the Justice League, sans Batman and Nightwing, was in the meeting hall. J’onn and Arthur sat at the monitors, while Diana and Clark watched the footage of the other members as they arrived. They all had the same question. Why were they being called in for an emergency meeting? And why had they been told to clear the next few days?
Green Arrow sat in his chair, brooding and glaring at nothing. Black Canary sat beside him, carefully warning off anyone who tried to talk to him. Flash and green Lantern were off to the side, whispering to each other.
After an appropriate amount of tension building, Diana and Clark walked into the room. They took their seats on either side of the chair where Bruce usually sat.
“Wow,” Booster Gold said. “Never thought I’d see the day Batman was late.”
Clark stood, pressing his hands to the table. “Batman will not be joining this meeting. Recent events have brought about the need to review our existing policies, protocols, and procedures.”
There was a collective groan.
Hawkgirl scowled. “Isn’t that a Batman thing, hammering on policy?”
Clark let out a measured breath. “Over the last week, everyone in this room has breached protocol in one way or another. Five days ago, a small contingent of our number entered Gotham, without informing Batman or Nightwing, and without invitation. They made an arrest, without following protocols and receiving proper paperwork.”
Oliver sat forward. “Gotham is notoriously corrupt. If we had gone through proper channels, Hood might have been tipped off.”
Clark gave Oliver an intense stare that bordered on becoming a glare. “Which is why Gotham is left to Batman, who is well versed in Gotham’s rogues, its police force, and how best to navigate a city he calls his.” He turned back to the room at large. “Since he’s admitted to it, after Arrow and his cohort made an unauthorized arrest of Red Hood, he was brought to the Watchtower, breaking another policy. And in the event someone should be imprisoned on the station, various other protocols were violated as well.”
Flash and Black Canary, at least, looked a bit uncomfortable.
“The only protocol that was followed properly was by Hawkman in apprehending an escaped prisoner. Upon review of the footage, you followed proper procedure and did not use undo force given his unknown status as a meta.”
Oliver and Hal glared at the man.
“That does not, however, negate you and ever other person on monitor duty ignoring the treatment of a prisoner. Never once was he taken to medical to confirm his meta status nor were his wounds checked or treated.”
“He’s a crime lord,” Hal snarled. “He was trafficking drugs into all our cities.”
“He is a human being with human rights, no matter what his record contains,” Diana snapped back. “You had the forethought to check his file and found it altered, but instead of reviewing it and verifying the change with the one who changed it, you decided it was hacking and used your status as a senior member of the League to assign Cyborg to locate a hack that did not exist. There is a reason every one of us has someone listed as an additional point of contact. And Batman has three of us. Everything involving Red Hood is Batman’s jurisdiction. And in the absence of Batman, he has myself, Superman, and Nightwing listed as people who know his operations.”
“There is a reason we defer to the local heroes when entering a city,” Clark said. “We, as outsiders, don’t know if the locals have operations in place that might be compromised by our blundering in and calling it help. We don’t know what sort of assets might be compromised or killed. We don’t know if there has been months of work going into a case to bring down a drug ring that might be useless with our need to do things loud and fast.”
Black Canary paled. “Batman was running an op on Red Hood?”
Clark glanced at Diana.
She stood. “Batman has had someone in deep cover for nearly a year in the drug ring you crashed into. A year that might have been for nought if his asset is compromised. And you thought it wise to enter Gotham when Batman was off-planet, for revenge. Even if such an operation had been authorized by the League, neither you nor Arrow would have been involved. Sending someone with a personal vendetta to make an arrest breaches our protocols and ethics in general. We have no way of verifying if the excessive force you used in apprehending him was warranted. It very well could have been you justifying getting your licks in.”
“Further,” Clark continued as Diana once again took her seat, “not a single person on monitor duty questioned the methods being used against Red Hood. Simulating sending someone to Arkham for days was cruel and unwarranted.”
Oliver stood. “He knows about our civilian families!”
“Which he clearly already knew and yet, he never spoke of it until you made threats of Arkham. If you read his file beyond what you perceived as hacking, you would have noted he is listed as having a history with the Joker.”
Diana watched as Oliver faltered. “You read that.” She stood again, anger coursing through her. Jason may have his faults, may have made many questionable choices upon his return to Gotham, but he was still the little Robin who fawned over her. He still blushed and turned into a cute kid when she complimented him. “You saw that in his file and chose to use it against him. You threatened him with Arkham because the Joker was there. You used psychological torture on him for three days… knowingly.”
Flash and Black Canary turned to Oliver in horror that Diana took a sliver of satisfaction in.
“So, for then next… however long it takes,” Clark said. “We will be going over each and every rule, protocol, policy, and procedure on out database for ensure everyone knows why they are in place. After which, we will be assigning reports for each member to complete. No, we will not be telling you what those reports will entail until this meeting concludes.”
Diana sat the table, waiting for everyone to arrive for the meeting. Her tablet lit up with a notification from Bruce. The additional reports from Flash, Green Lantern, and Black Canary after their second misadventure into Gotham had been reviewed. They were still on probation, but could return to active duty. Green Arrow had been assigned an additional report on a personal level and was still relegated to meeting and monitor duty only.
Oliver was sitting in his spot, reading what appeared to be a self-help book on parenting and psychology. So, Bruce was trying to help Oliver help himself with his relationship with Roy. It would take more than a report to change anything, but Diana hoped Oliver would put in the work.
The zetas activated and announced Batman. And Bruce stepped into the room. Proper Bruce, no cowl, no armor. Just Bruce in sweats, a Nightwing t-shirt, and a quilt wrapped around his shoulder. He shuffled over to his chair and sat down, gaining a lot of confused stares from those around the room who didn’t know who Batman was under the mask.
“You could have taken more time,” Diana murmured to him.
“I’m bored.” Bruce shifted and winced. He pushed the blanket aside and shifted his arm in the sling to a less painful position.”
“What happened to you, Spooky?” Hal asked.
“Arkham breakout last week. Killer Croc threw me through a wall and fractured my collarbone. I’m benched until I heal.” He looked around at the members of the League who weren’t aware of his civilian identity. “Yes, I’m Bruce Wayne. Yes, I’m Batman. No, I wasn’t planning for you to know, yet, but a higher power locked up my suit, because I’m injured and he thinks I should have told you all by now, anyways.”
Clark chuckled. “Is Alfred wrong?”
“Oh, shut up, Boy Scout.”
“Do you require assistance while you recover?” Hawkgirl asked. Finally, someone asking proper permission.
“No,” Bruce said.
“You can’t leave your city unprotected while you are wounded,” Vixen argued.
Hal snorted. “Gotham ain’t unprotected.”
Hawkman sat forward. “Nightwing cannot be expected to cover two cities.”
“He’s not. Spooky has like a dozen little gremlins running about Gotham.”
That got shocked whispers among everyone.
“No,” Bruce said. “Not a dozen. There’s Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Spoiler, Signal, Black Bat, and Robin. Then there’s Oracle and Agent A but they don’t run around Gotham.”
“And all the rest,” Clark added with a smirk.
“The rest?” Oliver asked. “You mean there’s more than your kids?”
“You’re welcome to come to family dinner when you figure things out with Arsenal. But you should know my son isn’t the only rogue that’ll be there.”
“What?”
“Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn have sort of decided they’re my kids’ aunts. They come by whenever they feel like it.”
Booster Gold stared at Bruce. “You have dinner with four of your rogues?”
Bruce shrugged and then winced. “I have a kid with Talia al-Ghul. Me keeping my identity a secret was just as much protecting you from the chaos that is my life.”
Diana chuckled. “You are quite fond of that chaos, my friend.”
Bruce just smiled.
While everyone was dealing with the image of Batman smiling, Diana started the meeting.