It wasn't long before a crowd of heroes was standing in a bitter silence, staring at Jason todd, by all appearances the man who had just murdered superman. Wonderwoman had arrived on the scene as the picture of fury, her eyes full of a rage the others rarely saw in her. "Why Jason?! You will answer me! You will tell me why, or by Hera I swear you will no pain no mortal has experienced." Jason just sat there, not looking at her, not speaking. "why you insolent little…" She drew her lasso up.
"Diana, let me try." Batman stepped forward. "Jason, talk. Now." This time the young man did respond, with a short gout of bitter laughter. " This is hardly a laughing matter."
"You self righteous bastard, " he said, almost under his breath. He had a strange, defeated, bitter sneer on his face, and anger in his eyes. "I should of known. That is SO like you."
"What are you talking about?"
"For any price, right Bruce?
Wonderwoman turned to batman, tense, almost ready to strike." What's going on, bruce. What does he mean."
Before Batman could respond, Jason shouted his reply. "I'll tell you what's going on. It was him, he arrange this. Batman hired me."
"Jason!" Batman shouted, outraged by the accusation, and moreso by wonderwoman's readiness to believe it.
"Deny it, Bruce. Sacrifice me to get what you want. Play both sides and keep everyone guessing. Face it Bruce, you're as bad as any of the criminals you stop. You're as bad as the joker."
"That's enough. I'm taking you down." Batman approached his ward with raised fists, but a voice from behind stopped him.
"Not another step." Wonderwoman was fierce, with her lasso and sword to hand, the latter now pointed toward batman. "You are both going down. If you value your safety, stand down."
Batman turned his stance to wonderwoman. "Diana this is ridiculous."
"If you're innocent, stand down and go to trial."
"I have to investigate. I need to find who did this Diana. To bring him in. "
"Stand down and no one will be hurt."
Batman assumed a stance, dropped a smoke pellet, and bolted toward Jason. E shouldered Jason into a run, cutting his wrist ties in one smooth motion.
"What the hell is this," Jason said indignantly.
"Just move, we'll talk later." He ran beside Jason, dodging through clogged streets and towards the back alleyways Soon they moved from alleyways to rooftops. At first they had to fight past heroes, hawkman, captain adam, The manhunter, and many others. But slowly the fell back, and in the end, even wonderwoman relented, determined to hunt them down at a later date.
At last only nightwing, red robin, green arrow, and blue beetle continued to pursue them. "A plan of attack would be awesome, if you happened to have one," Jason said. Batman nodded, as if to say follow my lead, and then turned on his heel mid run, facing the approaching heroes head on. He pointed the device at blue beetle, launching a small detonator that blew in mid air, releasing a dense polymer foam which enveloped beetle's midsection and legs. As green arrow took aim, batman dropped a flash grenade. The arrow sailed wide of its target, and before arrow could react, batman was on him. A quick blow to the head knocked arrow out, and then it was just him, nightwing, red robin, and Jason.
Jason rushed at red robin as nightwing dove at batman. Tim and Jason fought in silence, but Nightwing wanted answers from his former mentor, and was ready to beat them out of him. Why would you do this! Was it so bad, that we wanted to make the world safer?!
"Dick I had nothing to do with this!? Clark was my friend."
"Batman doesn't have friends, bruce. You don't have friends, you have pawns. That's all Jason, tim, Barbra and me ever were to you."
They shouted between brutal bouts of fighting, but not quite evenly matched. Dick was angry, and the rage blinded him. Bruce held back, observed, and most importantly, listened. He needed nightwing to help him catch superman's killer. He needed to show Dick he hadn't killed Clark. He also had to detain him in case he couldn't be convinced. New evidence would immerge as they investigated, and he wanted his student to see it.
"Dick you were my family, the only family I've known other than Alfred.
NIghtwing hesitated one instant, and then struck back, ignoring the statement as best he could.'You never answered me, what was so bad about this plan? What was it you were afraid of?
I was afraid of a lot of things, things I wanted to avoid. "Batman remained evasive, nightwing ever persistant." I was afraid of the league-of anyone- having that much power."
"Bruce, this was clark! No one on earth knows more about controlling power. "
"And the whole word will believe that? The people will surrender their minds to the league for inspection, and say nothing?" He pressed his attack, slightly. He hit the arms, shoulders, and delivered a shot to the stomach before backing off. By now nightwing knew he was being toyed with. He wanted his answers
"There would be problems at first, maybe, but we would have made it work! What was the worst that could have happened?!" In a final bid for victory, nightwing bounded forward, and ducked low under batman's guard. Batman let him in. As soon as he was close, batman seized his wrist, spun behind him, and took him down to the hard rooftop.
"What's the worst that could happen?! How could you even ask me that!? This is the worst that could have happened!" Dick took the hit hard. The fight had gone out of him, and batman's statement rang through. He knew it wasn't Bruce who'd killed Superman. Batman felt his limbs go slack, and let him loose. Nightwing rose, and stood to face his mentor.
"If it wasn't you, then explain Jason."
"Was that my name I heard?" Jason was walking towards his former comrades, smiling and dragging an unconscious , handcuffed, and thoroughly beaten red robin behind him."All good things I hope. And if none came to mind, I understand." With that he tossed red robin against the wall were some of his captured comrades were starting to come to.
The other two didn't dignify that with a response. "I'm not sure how all of this happened, dick, but I'm going to find out. I would like Jason to help in that. I'd like you to help."
Jason's demeanor hardened then, and after a moment's thought he said "Count me in."
Nightwing looked from Bruce to Jason and back, then let out a sigh. "If I say no, will you let me go back to the league?" Batman's finely honed glare was all the answer he needed. "Guess I'm in too."
By now Arrow and beetle were both awake. They had been listening, too, batman observed. Ollie was deep thought, his eyes trained on Bruce behind his mask. Beetle looked to the older leagues-man for leadership. Batman could see that if Green arrow would help him, so would blue beetle. "If we help you, we're fugitives from the justice league. The military and police departments won't be too happy with anyone helping the primary suspects in the murder of superman."
"Ollie, please. I swear on my parent's grave I did not do this. I need you're help to find who did. I'll nee all of you. This was no lone gunman, this was part of a plan. There is more to come, and I can't stop them in time alone, even without the league on my trail. I can't let Clark's killers get away."
Green Arrow weighed his options, looking from Beetle to Batman and his wards. He thought of the league, he thought of their chances against them. No, on the other hand, he didn't think much of their chances against the league. Still. It had never felt quite right to him that batman would kill superman. In the end, he knew he only really had one choice. Something told him it was the right one. "Fugitives it is."