Talking
Batman stood on a rooftop and watched a bank across the street. Rumour was that it was going to get robbed by Two-Face and some thugs. "Hey, Batman." Batman stiffened and gritted his teeth in both anger and frustration. "Hello, Superman." The Man of Steel floated down from the sky and settled on the rooftop next to him. "What are you doing?" He asked with a smile on his face. "Surveillance." He said abruptly. Superman appeared confused and asked, "Why?" Batman growled in frustration at Superman's ignorance. "To stop a crime that is about to happen." Superman still appeared to be confused, "How do you know that it's going to happen?" Batman answered in one word, "Snitch." Superman looked shocked and said, "What? You have informants." Batman looked at him and said, "Yes." He then dived sideways off of the edge of the building. Superman shot forward to catch before catching sight of the giant bat shape that was swooping towards the bank. He shivered slightly, from above that looked creepy as hell. From below it must be terrifying. But he supposed that was why Batman did it. To inspire fear. It worked.
"Can you believe Batman uses informants?" Superman said, with disbelief in his voice, to the Flash. The Flash looked at him and said, "Yes." The other founders in the room looked as shocked as Superman. "He has spies?" Green Lantern asked seriously. "Yes, that must be how he counteracts crime so well in Gotham, he has people telling him when it's going to happen. At that moment Batman walked in, Superman immediately looked guilty. Batman took notice of this and filed it away for later. "You have informants?" Green Lantern asked immediately. Batman looked at him briefly and then turned to Superman. Superman immediately began to squirm under the intense Bat Glare. He then turned back to Lantern and said, "Yes, I do. Why?" Green Lantern looked shocked for minute before saying, "Why? You're having deals with people who are connected to the Underworld and you're asking why? It looks bad on the entire League if people found out that you make deals with criminals." Batman looked confused for a moment before saying, "I never said I made deals with them. I just have informants. There's a difference. A deal makes it sound like I am giving them something in return. I talk to them and they give me the answers that I want." The League all thought about this before Wonder Woman said, "Would it be okay if one of us were to observe you 'talking' to them? Just to be sure that nothing illegal is occurring." Batman looked homicidal for a brief second (a brief second where the Flash had a minor heart attack due to the look) and then it was gone behind a neutral mask. "Fine." He spat, "But only one of you and I get to decide who and when." They all looked at each and nodded and Superman said, "Okay." Batman appeared to relax slightly, "Fine, Green Lantern, meet me at the bell tower in Gotham on Monday night at midnight and I shall allow you to 'observe' me talking to them." And with that he stalked out of the room.
What none of the founders saw was Batman subsequently hitting the steel wall next to him, he then went to the Monitor Room and deleted the video footage that showed it. All the while his thoughts were on the line of 'they still don't trust me', 'they think I am some kind of criminal' and similar. He beamed down to the Bat Cave and went to the gym he had built. He began to pound mercilessly on the punch bag, managing to hurt his hands even through his padded gauntlets. Well, he'd show them how he operated. They'd soon see.
Monday night arrived and Green Lantern prepared to beam down when Superman approached him and said, "You have to be ready to take him down if you have to. He is getting out of control and everyone knows. He hasn't been the same for over a year now. He won't talk to anyone about it and we keep hearing reports from Gotham that Batman is getting rougher and hurting the criminals more. Apparently he hospitalized Two-Face at the bank last week, I should have stuck around but I went back to Metropolis. So, be ready." Green Lantern merely nodded and pushed the button that would send him to Gotham. The button that would send him to the Dark Knight's Domain.
Green Lantern appeared on the bell tower and looked around for Batman, "Hello, John." Green Lantern jumped and looked up. The Batman was perched on the tower above him, looking perfectly at ease. "Follow me." Batman said simply and swan dived off the edge of the building, shooting a grapple as he dropped and swinging effortlessly. He landed on abuilding a few blocks away and turned to see Lantern landing next to him. "Wait here." He dropped to the alley below and waited in the shadows. A few minutes later a nervous looking man entered the alley and looked around. Batman appeared behind him and grabbed him by the shoulder before shooting a grapple to the rooftop and swooping up he then flipped the man upside down and held him by his ankles over the alley. "Talk." He growled. The man began to squirm but then noticed the space underneath him and stopped. "I don't know anything, Batman, I swear. I ain't heard of anything going down. Everything's pretty quiet. Please believe me." He begged. Batman's eyes narrowed beneath his and he then let go of the man's ankles. Green Lantern shot forward and made to catch the man but then saw that Batman had wrapped a cable around the man's left ankle. The man dangled, eight feet above the alley floor. Batman began to pull the man up. When he had done so he said, "Talk." The man was sobbing on the rooftop uncontrollably. "I swear, I don't know anything, you got to give me more time." Batman glared at him before growling, "You have a week." He then shoved the man off of the rooftop where he fell until the wire went taut. Batman then took out a sharpened batarang out and cut the cable. The man dropped the remaining eight feet and cried out when he hit the floor. Batman turned to Green Lantern and said, "See? Talk." He then launched a grapple into the sky and took off. Green Lantern just stared. He then vowed to himself that he would never annoy Batman. Ever.
