Muddling though Grey
Chapter Nine: Factions
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of DC, I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
The general milling around and speculation about why a meeting of the entire League had been called stopped dead when Batman and Flash entered the room. Even Batman didn't normally get that fast of a reaction, but with the normally easy going Flash at his shoulder looking equally grim everyone was silenced instantly.
With a flick of his wrist Batman covered the conference table in a flood of pictures and medical images.
Captain Marvel picked one of the pictures up. His eyes darkened dangerously. "The Rogues did that to him?"
"Not the Rogues," Batman stated icily. "Three representatives of the League."
"It's not as if he didn't do his share of damage!" Hawkgirl protested, drawing attention to her and Kyle Rayner's casts as well as Captain Atom's scuffed and dented appearance.
Batman glared at them coldly. "You three ordered a minor, whom you have no authority over and whom you barely know to come with you. When he refused you attacked him to force his compliance. As a side-effect, your actions placed a two-year-old in deadly peril."
"We didn't know about the kid," Kyle protested as Captain Atom stated. "We took measures to protect the children from being caught in the cross-fire."
"You left a two-year-old unattended within twenty feet of a well-trafficked road and a fountain with a pool," Flash pointed out angrily. "Do you honestly need me to explain how lucky it is that little boy isn't dead right now?"
"Superboy joined a group of super-villains!" Hawkgirl exclaimed. "How were we supposed to know he'd be babysitting?"
"Observation? Listening to him? You shouldn't have even been there in the first place," Batman growled. "Your actions were no better than a kidnapper's. You got hurt when your victim resisted. You got less than what you deserved."
Wonder Woman looked up from studying of one of the pictures spread across the table. "There is no swelling associated with the bruising around the eyes," she observed worriedly.
"What does that mean?" Captain Marvel asked.
"It means it's not a black eye. It's a symptom of intracranial bleeding," Batman stated. He turned toward Hawkgirl, his eyes narrowed, "The result of being hit in the head with a mace."
"He's Superman's clone," Hawkgirl defended herself. "It shouldn't have hurt him that badly!"
"He's sixteen. He's a head shorter than Superman and roughly fifty pounds lighter. An idiot would notice that he can't fly. He doesn't have heat vision or X-Ray vision. Neither SuperBOY's body nor his powers have fully matured. Forgetting all that, Captain Atom hit him with red-light energy, weakening him. You might have taken that into account before trying to cave in his skull," Batman growled. "Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado are not here because they're currently monitoring Superboy's condition, if the bleeding doesn't stop soon they're going to have to drill a hole in his skull to relieve the build up of pressure."
Captain Marvel and several others looked sickened.
"Okay!" Kyle exclaimed. "We were out of line. We should have known about the little kid. We shouldn't have let the fight get that out of control."
"Which only happened because Superboy broke Kyle's arm," Hawkgirl interrupted. "We got a little rough after Kyle got hurt, but until then we'd just been trying to contain him. He wouldn't quit fighting."
"A little rough?" Batman demanded angrily. "Three broken ribs, a cracked clavicle, a grade II concussion and a basilar skull fracture leading to intercranial bleeding? If that's a little rough, I'm practically gentle with the Joker. Captain Atom's red-sun energy attack weakened him, but every serious injury he has traces back to your mace."
"The last time we fought something like him Liberty Belle died!" Hawkgirl cried.
"You lost control after Kyle got hurt, because of what happened with the robot," Flash said. "Has it occurred to you that the entire time you were fighting, he was listening to Owen scream?"
"We were wrong," Kyle stated loudly. "But still, you can't stand there and say it's not a problem that someone with Superman's power is switching sides!"
"Superboy was created to be a weapon. He can not be allowed to fall into our enemies' hands," Captain Atom agreed.
"Since when do we detain people for who they associate with or what they might do?" Green Arrow demanded. "Didn't think we lived in a police state here."
"I don't see why there's all this fuss about the clone," Hawkman said. "It's not as if we're talking about a real person here."
The next thing he knew he was flat on his back, with Canary's heel pressing down on his wind-pipe. "Mind repeating that?" she snarled. "I don't think I heard you right."
John Steward used his power-ring to separate the two. Canary stalked over to Batman and Flash's end of room. Green Arrow followed her while Hawkman went to stand behind Hawkgirl. He put his hands on her shoulders protectively and glared at Batman.
"He's too dangerous," the Atom stated then joined group forming around Hawkgirl.
"We've fought highly dangerous enemies before, we will again," Zatara said. "If Superboy becomes one of them we will deal with it, when it happens." He stayed seated. Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and John Steward nodded in agreement.
"I do not consider it wise to leave him with the Rogues," Aquaman said. "But trying to force him away from them only worsens the situation. Beyond that, I know my Kaldur'ahm well enough to know that he will not stand by while you attack his friend for what he may, someday become." His gaze dropped to the pictures scattered across the table and his expression darkened dangerously. "Any of you who raises their hand against Kaldur may consider all of Atlantis your enemy."
After Batman and Flash left the Rogue, minus Cold who had been allowed in the Infirmary to keep Conner calm, clustered uncomfortably in the kitchen. Batman told them he'd deactivated security in the kitchen, lounge and associated bathrooms and to stay out of everywhere else if they valued an intact skin. No one was quite ready to test his warning. No one wanted to start a fight when it would possibly pull the people treating Conner's injuries away from him.
Trickster pulled out his cell phone.
"So how'd the job go?" Piper asked as soon as he answered. "Get anything neat from the safety deposit boxes?"
"Job's old news," Trickster said. "Couple of JLA mingers hurt Con pretty bad."
"Fuck."
"Flasher put a stop to it. He's still our Flash. The other mentors ain't so bad either. Even the Batman, scary dude but he made the three that done it scarper, glad I ain't in their shoes. We're all at Wally's club house, even Owen. The Martian and the robot are patchin' Con up," Trickster explained.
"I'll get Wally to bring me by, be there soon." Piper said. He thought for a moment then forged his way through the crowded halls and made it to Wally's class just before the bell rang.
Piper grabbed Wally by the arm and dragged him out into the hall. "Dude! Mr. Kilm is going to mark me tardy even though he SAW you force me out the door!" Wally complained.
"Playing normal's out. Your almighty heroes in the JLA hurt Conner," Piper stated.
"WHAT!" Wally exclaimed.
"I didn't get the details, but your uncle stopped the fight. He and Batman took Conner back to your base to get fixed up, took the Rogues along. I need a ride," Piper explained.
"There's a zeta-beam platform at Uncle Barry's, but I've got to tell Robin," Wally said even as he started texting his friend. /SB hurt. JLA, IDK who./
/AYS?/ Robin texted back a moment later.
"Talk and walk," Piper complained. "It's faster."
"As soon as my hands are free I'm carrying you. That's faster," Wally snapped. /SRSLY. OMY to MJ. Rs there./
/SYT w/Art. Tell MsM. Out/
Wally tried to call M'Gann but couldn't get an answer. "Let's go," he said to Piper. They arrived at Mount Justice a few minutes later, Wally looking more than slightly winded from the effort of carrying Piper.
M'Gann arrived a few minutes after they did. "Kaldur told me," she said. "Uncle J'Onn's treating Conner. It's... Kaldur's about sick with worry. How could they hurt him like that!" She exclaimed angrily. "How could they! They're supposed to be heroes! Uncle J'Onn wouldn't tell me who did it. But I think it was Hawkgirl, Kyle Rayner and Captain Atom, he's too mad at them to hide it."
"Good to know who the enemy is," Piper said as they headed toward the sounds of other people.
"Yeah, it's getting hard to tell every day," Wally replied bitterly.
They turned the corner and found Heatwave piling flammable in the hall. "Rory, not the time or place," Piper said rolling his eyes.
"Oh it is," Heatwave replied. "That's the main entrance. Anyone I don't like comes in, this hall's gonna give 'em a preview of the fiery depths of hell itself."
"How's Conner?" Wally asked.
Heatwave grimaced. "Nobody's saying. Got his bell rung, hard. The mace-girl with wings," he reported. "Last we were told they're hoping the pressure in his brain goes down for they've gotta do something drastic."
"I'll go see if I can get anything more out of them seeing as I've got heroes to back me," Piper said
"Maybe I'd better stay here," Wally said. "Help Rory with friend-foe recognition, you know... And keep the base from being burned down around our ears."
"I'll stay," M'Gann volunteered with a dark look in her eyes. "Like you said, it's getting harder to tell who the bad guys are. But I'm a mind-reader. No one who wants to hurt Conner gets past me."
"Okay..." Wally said, backing away nervously. He wasn't sure how to deal with an angry M'Gann. He led Piper to the Infirmary and stuck his head in the door. Wally squinted at the brightness of the room and realized a number of full-spectrum lamps had been set up to mimic the sun and strengthen Conner. To maximize exposure, most of Conner's clothes had been removed. Wally cringed at the sight of him, the entire left side of Conner's back and the opposing shoulder were a deep angry purple shot through with lines of black. Cold sat beside Conner, carefully sponging blood out of his hair. Kaldur stood at the other side of Conner's bed his hand resting over Conner's while Red Tornado monitored his vital signs. J'Onn sat cross-legged on the far side of the room, his eyes closed in concentration.
"How is he?" Wally asked.
"Please, not now Wally," J'Onn said without opening his eyes. "I need to concentrate to block out his pain."
Wally nodded and began his retreated.
"Wait. Tell the others that the pressure has stabilized." Red Tornado said. "The bleeding has most likely stopped."
Wally sighed in relief and gave Reddy a quick thumbs up. As he and Piper headed for the kitchen to spread the news they saw Evan moving mirrors and other reflective surfaces to strategic points around the base. "MA, good news," Piper said. "Con's on the mend according to the android."
A quick smiled flashed across Evan's face, "Hell, took long enough for those powers of his to kick in," he said.
In the kitchen, Digger was trying to feed Owen his supper, but after the day he'd had the little boy was fussy. As Piper and Wally came in, Owen shoved his bowl on the floor. "Oh come on now!" Digger complained. "That's the second one to go that way."
"Where's my Con?" Owen whined. "I want him."
"Now I told you, we're still fixing Con's owies, 'member?" Digger sighed.
"Fix now!" Owen cried.
"I wish we could kiddo," Artemis said as she joined them.
"Reddy said he's doing better," Wally relaid as he patted Owen on the head and mopped up the milk and cereal. "Where's Robin?" he asked Artemis.
"Computer room, he saw what Heatwave was doing and said he had a better idea," Artemis replied.
Scudder paused in the middle of positioning a gleaming sheet of metal opposite of the Zeta-beam platform to look over the shoulder of the masked boy who was typing furiously on the main computer. On screen was a list of JLA members, broken up by a number of blank spots.
"What are you up to?" Scudder asked.
"Fixing security around here," Robin explained as he erased Superman's name from the list of people authorized to enter Mount Justice. After he finished deleting names he started working on a new program.
"And that's?" Scudder asked.
"Before I was locking the door against anyone I don't know that I can trust," Robin said. "This is electrifying it against anyone I know can't be trusted near Conner."
Scudder's eyes widened as he realized what Robin's program would do if any of the three who'd attacked Conner tried to beam into Mount Justice. "Not bad kid."
Robin smiled at him, showing teeth. "I'm a Bat, we're not known for being nice."
Clark looked around him with horror, the League was tearing itself apart before his eyes. Splitting into hostile factions.
"Superman? You agree with us right?" Kyle asked. "I know it's not fair that Superboy can't be treated like everyone else, but he's just too powerful for us to ignore how unstable he is."
Clark dearly wanted to join the neutral party and say the clone wasn't any concern of his. That he'd fight Superboy if he became a threat but until that happened couldn't he just ignore Superboy's entire existence?
"He's not unstable, he's angry. Who wouldn't be?" Canary snapped. "He went from being locked in a glass case and treated as nothing more than a weapon to being rejected and isolated by us to the point where he practically stopped wanting to be alive. We created this problem. All of the other kids under our care have a parent or mentor, someone who's specifically looking out for their well-being. Superboy got treated like an after-thought. The obvious person to be his mentor didn't want the job, no one else stepped up. Every one of us just sat around and waited for Superman to get over himself and deal with the kid. You can't just put a kid's needs on hold while the adults get their acts together. But that's exactly what we did. Superboy's damn well justified in seeking out people who'll care more about him than we did."
'And that was why I can't be neutral,' Clark thought, 'According to them my being neutral is the root of the problem.'
"He's not some innocent victim!" Hawkman growled, angry and defensive on behalf of his lover. "It'll be months before Shiera can stand on that leg again."
"Poor her," Green Arrow mocked, always ready with a sarcastic word, always contentious. "Maybe next time she'll think twice before attacking someone for sitting in a park."
John sighed and readied his ring again as Green Arrow and Hawkman glared at each other.
"He was out of control!" There was fear underlying the anger in Hawkgirl's voice. Clark knew she was reliving the death of her best friend at the hands of something that had been given his powers.
"Only out of your control." Batman stated flatly. "We punished him for existing. Now we punish him for our mistakes. Then we demand that he gives us unquestioning loyalty and obedience in return? He has no reason to believe in us."
'Us.' Clark noticed the mentors tended to stress that word. They might hold him ultimately responsible for the situation with Superboy, but they weren't exactly happy with their own actions either. They were determined to make amends and maybe too willing to give Superboy his own way because of that. Clark couldn't believe that the Rogues were as good for the clone as Batman claimed.
Even the mentors who weren't actively feeling guilty about Superboy were still on edge. Clark could see Barry's criminologist training in the pictures he'd taken documenting Superboy's injuries. Seeing one of their kids' friends as the subject of a police report was upsetting the other mentors on a visceral level. Clark wondered if it had been Batman's idea for Barry to take the pictures. It would be like him to know the reaction they'd spark and to use it.
Clark wondered if there was something wrong with him. Oh, if he'd been there he certainly would have stopped the fight. Hopefully before Shiera or Kyle were hurt as well as Superboy. But he wasn't reacting to the pictures the way the others were. If the boy in them had been a complete stranger Clark knew they would have hit him harder. But all he could see when he looked at Superboy was a twisted reflection. Put a picture of himself at sixteen beside one of Superboy and the only difference would be the hair style and the anger in the clone's expression. No child matched their parent that perfectly. Bruce called the clone his son, but all Clark could see was doppelganger, an ill omen. Look what he'd brought them to
The League was splintering, breaking over a boy who never should have existed in the first place. His fault too, because he could have handled it differently. Should never have let it get to this point. 'I hope you know what you're doing, Bruce.' he whispered, the sound lost under the increasingly strident voices of the other League members. Then Superman stood up, everyone's attention locked on to him.
"Several months ago a teenaged boy showed up out of no where expecting me to be his father," Clark said. "I didn't know how to handle it, how to react to him. I still don't. All it means is that I'm human and fallible. It doesn't make him less than human."
Seeing the wind taken out of Superboy's most adamant detractors sails, Flash stepped in for the kill. "I've never been the territorial type," he said plainly. "But a lot of us are, and the League's always respected that. So I'm saying it: Stay out of the Twin Cities. It's not just about Superboy, I have two bonafide Rogues who also happen to be fifteen-year-old boys who are more mischief than malice. They've also got a LOT more intelligence than they have common sense, I hold out hope that they'll eventually out grow that stage. At the absolute least, I intend to see that they have the chance to out grow it. After today, I don't trust you to deal with children. Not my Wally, not Superboy and not Piper or Trickster either. Stay out of my city and stay the hell away from the kids under my protection."
Batman turned to Wonder Woman and the others who'd opted to stay neutral. "If you need us, we'll be available," he said. "But we'll be basing out of Mount Justice for the foreseeable future. Call before you drop in, if I know Robin you've been uninvited, emphatically."
Within a few days of the fight Conner was declared healthy enough to leave, he immediately retreated to Central City and the Rogues' hide out. Batman, Black Canary, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado and Green Arrow shifted their JLA base of operations back to Mount Justice. Having their mentors working out of the same base, Young Justice quickly determined that they'd rather hang-out at the Rogues' hide-out when they weren't on missions. The constant stream of 'Baby heroes' dropping in was a source of endless complaints from Cold, but he never quite forbid them from coming over... even if the Rogues did have to switch to planning their operations around Captain Boomerang's kitchen table instead of at the base.
Time passed. Conner continued living with the Rogues and went back to going on missions with Young Justice, sometimes with Trickster or Piper in tow and Batman made a deal with Mirror Apprentice where he was paid a retainer to keep an eye on particularly risky missions and be available to provide a quick avenue of retreat if need be.
Conner went through a dozen different code-names in twice as many weeks. Then more or less settled on just being Conner for awhile, at least until he'd really had a chance to establish who he was before he tried coming up with an ulterior persona.
With time Conner gradually stopped acting skittish around Young Justice's adult advisors and the Flash. But even after six months he still looked at the rest of the Justice League as if he expected them to attack him or lock him away at any moment. It didn't help that a not insignificant portion of the League continued to watch Conner like they'd watch a rabid wolf. But Conner rarely left Central City unless it was on Young Justice business and all they really saw was that he was gaining skill and experience and that he liked using his freeze breath a lot more than Superman ever had. Nothing to justify their continued wariness.
A crisis or two happened, and everyone was forced to pull together. Gradually the tension eased between the two broken halves of the Justice League. Old habits and friendships began to reassert themselves. Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne went back to meeting in an obscure dinner for pie and coffee every few weeks.
During the seventh such meeting Clark got up the nerve to bring up the subject. "He's still living with the Rogues."
"What did you expect?" Bruce asked. "After what happened I'm surprised that he didn't cut ties with us all together. If things had of gone a little bit worse than they did..."
"I looked into the Rogues' backgrounds, they're not harmless, or particularly nice," Clark said.
"They're pragmatic enough to place limits on how far they'll go, not to play their game with Flash for keeps because they might not want to be a part of society but they do understand how far they can push before their existence becomes intolerable. They're clannish, Conner's like them in that, needing to belong to something but not able to belong with the world around him. He doesn't have to be normal to fit in with them."
Bruce paused to finish his coffee then asked, "At this point your reasons won't change much, it's just my curiosity talking: But why do you fight so hard against having a relationship with Conner? I hate saying it because of the circumstances that brought it about, but having Dick in my life is one of the best things that ever happened to me."
"I hope I'm wrong," Clark said after a long silence that he spent playing with the remnants of his pie. "But my powers with his background? It's not going to turn out well. I think it was too late for him before we ever found him. I can't remember a time when I wasn't being constantly reminded of how frail the world was in comparison to myself. He was 'born' sixteen and programmed to see himself as a weapon."
"'Be careful. Be gentle'?" Bruce asked. "You were a child Clark, it's what you say when a small child picks up anything more breakable than they are. I've still got the Rogues bugged. I hear that refrain every time Owen gets his hands on one of Hartley's rats... Or James' DS for that matter. It's normal for little kids to need to be reminded to be careful of delicate things, the only difference with you was the percentage of the world that was breakable in your hands."
"I home-schooled until Junior High," Clark said. "Recess just presented too much potential for disaster, too much excitement, too much temptation to forget myself. My parents let me got to Junior High, but they told the school I had asthma and couldn't participate in PE. I was strictly forbidden from playing sports of any kind. I was thirteen. I broke the rules. I also broke my best friend's arm, compound fracture, the bones ripped right through the skin. Because I wanted to be normal and forgot how different I was for all of five minutes. All my life my parents told me to be careful, but it took seeing Pete's bones sticking out of his arm for it to sink in. Conner's a lot stronger than I was at thirteen and he's still getting more powerful. He sees himself as a weapon."
"He does," Bruce said. "You were told to be careful. He was told that he was a weapon, a force of destruction. In the end it worked out the same. As long as he's in his right mind I worry more about his tendency to over-estimate himself than about him forgetting how much danger he can represent."
"How can you say that?" Clark demanded.
"I don't think you have the slightest understand of what it means that Conner sees himself as a weapon," Bruce sighed. "You think it makes him more likely to go out and kill people? It doesn't, it just makes him painfully afraid that's all he's good for. If any thing he's more aware of his powers than you are."
Seeing Clark still looked doubtful Bruce sighed. "Forget the cause, look at the effects. You worry about him being careless with his powers, hurting someone because you think he's less aware than you are of how frail human life can be. But Conner spends hours everyday being used as a combination jungle-gym and teddy bear by a toddler... and most of Owen's friends at the park take their lead from Owen in climbing all over him. Conner's never so much as bruised any of them."
"I still don't like that he lives with criminals," Clark said.
"You should have figured out that you care who he lives with while you still had some say in the matter," Bruce said unsympathetically.
