The figures that were gathered around the mahogany table were all immaculately dressed and sat with the confident poise that power and influence gave. At the head of the table was an older man, whose dark hair was losing a war against the grey and onslaught of time. The others addressed him as Judge, and he led their meeting, occasionally banging with his gavel when certain businesses had been concluded.
It was a seemingly normal meeting. They had gone over that month's business transactions went over the profit they had made so far this year, and did a total of their treasury. It was only seven billion dollars, disappointing compared to the seven hundred sixty three billion they had only two years ago. But, it was enough to supply their empire. They had been tentatively scouting other cities to possibly move to, since they had fallen under new scrutiny after the Catwoman fiasco.
Their intelligence had not changed much, Catwoman was formally living with the Batman now, and she was recovering. The only thing that had changed was three weeks ago when the Kryptonian and the Amazon had arrived in Gotham and met with the Waynes. That had appeared to be a social visit though because after a night Superman and Wonderwoman left the city. Besides that, it had been business as usual: Robin was with the Titans, and Nightwing and Batwoman had largely done most of the crime fighting to allow Catwoman to recover and Batman to investigate the court. Luckily for them, his investigations had proven fruitless thus far.
The Judge banged his gavel again and said with practiced authority, "Is there any new business to come before the court? If not I will accept a motion to adjourn."
A young man with a manicured beard sat next to him and held his hand aloofly in the air.
"Yes, Aleister, what business do you have for the court?" The Judge said, almost tiredly.
"You still have yet to call a vote on my plan." The young man replied.
"That is because your idea is preposterous. Even when we were at our prime nearly two years ago we could not have attempted what you ask us to do. The Court has no wish to expand its empire outside of Gotham." The Judge said sternly.
"With all due respect Judge Black," the younger man said with a troubling confidence and power that made the older man's hair stand on end. "Is it not up to a vote from the entirety of the court as to what the court does and does not do?"
"The court shares my concerns." The Judge spoke back.
"Do they?" The young man smiled predatorily.
"Let's hear him out Judge." A voice came from the back, there were nods of agreement from other court members, and the Judge had to let him have his say.
"The Court recognizes Aleister Black." The old man said dejectedly.
Aleister wasted no time; he stood with a theatrical flair and addressed the court. "You all know my work so far. I have sent agents and talons from London to Metropolis and even Istanbul. But, I have not done so to spread us away from Gotham, but instead I have done so, so that we may take our City back. My talons have made contact with," he paused for dramatic effect, "certain influencers and powerful beings all around the world. And all of my contacts in these cities would all benefit from the same thing we would. The destruction of various costumed vigilantes."
Whispers and murmurs spread through the court at these words. Aleister seemed to revel in the attention. "A coordinated attack upon all of these "heroes" in their respective cities at the same time would mean there would be no possibility of their allies reaching them to help. After all, Superman can't help a dying Green Arrow if he is getting shot with a kryptonite bullet at the same time that Batman is being burned alive in his mansion."
The audacity of the plan silenced the room. It was only the old Judge that seemed to be able to talk, but he had gone white at the realization of the mania that gripped Aleister.
"That would take power, precision and timing the likes of which the world has never seen. You fly too close to the sun Aleister! That large of an attack would surely fail! Besides, we have never busied ourselves with other cities of beings before, why should we care about the Justice League now?"
Aleister smiled, but the Judge could see the barely concealed rage in his eyes. He walked next to the still seated judge and leaned on the table next to him.
"I wish for once you would stop living in the past and actually THINK!" He screamed the last word into the old man's face. "If we try and conceal ourselves as we once did we will die, perhaps slowly, but die none the less. When Batman revealed us to the world, we lost our greatest weapon, which was secrecy. Now, if we are to climb back to our former glory, we must step into the light and kill all of our adversaries with one fell blow."
"But we have no quarrel with Superman or any of the other Justice League members!" A voice came from somewhere from the middle of the table.
"I didn't catch who said that," Aleister said threateningly, "but whoever said it is far too stupid to be a member of this wonderful society. Play it out in your heads!" He bellowed to the rest of the court. "If we kill Batman what happens? Nightwing or Robin or Batgirl replaces him and we have to deal with a new Batman, Police Commissioner and Catwoman that are driven to destroy us even more! And if we kill the Police Commissioner, the Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman, and everyone else, then the Justice League would step into Gotham to replace all of them. We have no choice, we cannot get rid of our enemies quietly and one at a time as we used to." He then pointed at the Judge and cried, "His plan to assassinate Batman using the old ways only ended in Catwoman getting wounded and Batman on our tracks! We need a new plan, a new way, and…" he let the silence hang before continuing while looking at Judge Black, "a new leader."
"A coup then is it, Son?" Judge Black said, almost baffled. "Well, it seems you played your hand far too early. Talons!" At his command three of the Court's Talons appeared seemingly from nowhere to stand behind him. "I demand you arrest this traitor at once!" The Judge said, now standing pointing at Aleister.
Aleister merely smiled, and walked over to a nearby liquor cabinet. He poured a glass of bourbon and chipped away at an ice block with an ice pick, getting the ice he needed for his drink. After doing so, he turned around to look back at his father and the Talons behind him, smiling.
The Judge turned back to face the Talons, their unblinking masks showing no emotion. "I ordered you to seize him!" He said, fear no infiltrating his voice.
"They don't take orders from you anymore, father." Aleister smiled and sipped his drink, still holding the ice pick in his right hand.
"Thomas! Percy! Tonya! Help!" The judge now looked around to the various court members still seated at the table. None of them moved though, some out of fear, others from antipathy.
"They won't help you," Aleister said, now walking toward his horrified father. "They no better than to follow blind leaders. Hold him down." With this command the Talons pounced on the old man and held him face down on the table. The force they could exert on him was tremendous, and he was forced to turn his head toward his son. He began to hysterically cry and beg for mercy.
"You see brothers and sisters, this.." and he gestured toward his begging father, "is what keeping to the old ways has done for you. It's left our once glorious court to become aging, babbling, broken, and dead." When Aleister reached his father, he laid the icepick on his father's temple, and grabbed the Judge's Gavel, ready to slam it into the pick and kill his father.
"Here's to progress." He smiled as he reared back with the gavel and drove the icepick deep into his father's head. There was a nauseating crack of bone being penetrated followed by a splash of blood that hit Aleister in a diagonal line from his face down to his chest.
"Take this away will you?" He asked the Talons and they obeyed immediately, dragging the body away, leaving Aleister standing there with the gavel in his hand. He then casually sat down in the Judge's chair.
"Do we need to a call a vote on my plan then?" He asked in an amused tone to all that were sitting there. A hushed tone was all the answer he needed. "Right then! Do I hear a motion to adjourn the Court until our next scheduled meeting?"
"I make a motion Judge Black." A small brunette woman said as she raised her hand.
"Please call me Judge Aliester." He smiled back, "Does anyone second that motion?"
A small man raised a shaking hand and said in a clearly terrified voice. "I second the motion Al- I mean Judge Aleister."
"Excellent! Court is adjourned! You're all at liberty until our next meeting!" He banged the bloody gavel twice on the table, flicking blood to and fro as he did so.
After the meeting, he was driven home by a Talon and began the arduous process of washing his father's blood off of his face and clothes. After a he found his phone and dialed the appropriate number.
"Hello Mr. Luthor? Yes this is Aleister Black, I'm sorry to call you at this hour, but I have great news! Yes, yes, I managed to change the Court's mind about our little business arrangement. Yes, they were so thrilled by the new direction I was voted in as their new leader. Oh, yes I know, exciting times are just over the horizon Mr. Luthor. I'll call you later once I have talked to my other contacts. Yes thank you, goodnight."
As he watched the sun rise over the horizon to greet his city, Aleister was excited. This time, nothing would stand in the way of progress.