Diana laid Superman's prone body on the med bay bed, not looking the least bit strained by the endeavor. Aside from the bruises she obtained from the fight, she looked more like she had been cleaning up a disaster zone rather than making one.

With the hit of a button, titanium restraints emerged out of the bed, wrapping around the Kryptonian's wrists, legs, and chest, making a locking sound as the ends pressed down onto the bed.

Picking up an airgun, Batman loaded it with a dose of the Joker Venom antidote. Though he wasn't positive that Superman been exposed to the toxin, he wasn't going to take any chances. Approaching the restrained hero, he pressed the end of the airgun against his shoulder and squeezed the trigger, injecting the antidote right into his body. Because of the exposure to the red sunlight, the Man of Steel's body didn't reject the antitoxin immediately, allowing it to pass through the normally impenetrable skin. It also helped that they made sure to expose as little yellow sunlight to the man as possible on their return to the Justice League Headquarters.

Teleporting out of the Metropolis subway tunnels did just the trick.

Moving away from the the unconscious man, Batman headed to a nearby computer terminal and activated it. There were a few things that still needed to be done, such as establishing Superman's current vital signs, a tox-screen, and a host of other medication procedures, if only to determine how Kryptonian physiology responded to an Earth-made toxin.

"How could this have happened?" Diana spoke up then, her voice sounding shaky.

Pausing what he was doing, the vigilante glanced towards her. It was apparent she wanted to talk, vent even. He just needed to let her go at her own pace.

"I should have stayed with him," she continued. "Instead we talked ourselves into splitting up. If I hadn't left, this wouldn't have happened."

She was right about that. Batman was fully aware how the rest of the League viewed the Joker's threat. This wasn't a man that could destroy a planet, or conquer one, or represented all the other galactic threats they were used to dealing with. He was just a man, nothing more. What chance did he stand at taking on people with superpowers?

They had underestimated him and it was biting them hard. The physical damage that had been done was equal to the mental damage, if not overwhelmed by the latter. Turning an entire populous against its protector, then using another hero to destroy the city he protected, it was an angle none of these heroes had encountered before.

But Batman had.

He had played this game before, had been consumed by it. There was no limit to the depths the Joker would sink to make his point, assuming he had one. There was definitely a goal in mind, but that was still as mysterious as what the madman's next move would be. In fact, the dark-clad man had no doubt the Joker wanted the League to be second-guessing itself right now, a slight-of-hand trick that blinded them to his next move.

"What's done is done," he spoke up then, earning him the attention of the Amazon Princess. "We can't change what happened, but we can learn from it. No one is by themselves until this ends."

Diana nodded her acceptance. "You told us to do that from the beginning though."

"And now we know better."

That seemed to pacify the woman for the time being, turning her attention to gaze upon Superman. It was several moments before she asked, "What is the point of all this? Why did he make Superman attack Metropolis?"

"You're assuming there was a reason beyond the obvious property damage."

"Isn't that what he's all about, though? There's always an ulterior motive behind his actions?"

If the situation were less somber than what it was, Batman would've smiled. So they can learn. Promising, indeed. Right now that gesture was uncalled for in light of what was going on. "The Joker's actions are less about whom he does them to and more about those that will be affected by it. In this case, us. The people of Metropolis will be affected by this naturally, but their reactions are in the long-term."

"So this is a message to us. Do you know what it is?"

Batman fell silent. He could come up with some educated guesses, but it was likely none of what he thought up would be correct. The only one who knew for certain was the Joker and he would only reveal it when he was ready. It was too early for that though, so he doubted the insane clown would be forthcoming.

Diana needed to be told something though. At least, she needed something she could grasp onto aside from "Just because." That had been the Joker's original reason for burning down a third of Gotham those many years ago.

"Central City, he wanted to tell us no one was safe," he began to explain. "With Metropolis, no one is safe from us—or that we were the ones that weren't safe. Everyone is a target and he will get to them no matter what we do."

"Is that what happened the first time you fought him?" Diana inquired. The sound of her footsteps approached him until she came to stand next to him.

"Not exactly."

The Amazon was quiet for a second before she continued, "Perhaps you should recount what happened. If this man is a creature of habit, perhaps we can better guess his next move."

That wasn't a bad idea actually. Still, the Dark Knight had to compose himself as he recounted that two-week period. "His first attack was to announce his introduction. He wanted the entire city to know of him."

"Similar to his attack on Central City, no?"

That was one way to look at it. In fact, what better way to announce to the whole world your presence than by poisoning an entire city with a toxin you were infamous for? Perhaps Diana was onto something here. "His next attack was on City Hall where he unleashed his Joker Venom for the first time."

"So then he revealed his arsenal," the dark-haired woman murmured out loud, more to herself than to him. "What would he have revealed this time?"

Obviously something that could infect Kryptonians. That was Batman's first thought before he unconsciously raised a hand to his belt, the one that contained the unknown purple stone he had pulled off of Superman following their battle. He had yet to analyze it, which was something he needed to do.

"Did you notice the purple stone Superman was wearing when you fought?" he questioned the Amazon.

That caused her to perk her head up. "Now that you mention it, yes, I do. Do you think there's some significance?"

"Absolutely." He patted the pouch, which caused Diana to focus her attention there. Upon seeing her questioning look, he merely nodded that he did have the stone on her person. "Once we have Superman hooked up here, I'll be going to the lab to determine what it is."

That spurred the Amazon into action. Next to the computer console Batman stood in front of was a small table with various leads and sensors. Picking them up, Diana carried them to Superman's bed and began placing them on his body. One by one, numbers began appearing on the screen in front of the vigilante, readings including his oxygen levels, heart rate, electrical activity, and even blood pressure.

"So what happened next?" Diana then prodded.

That made Batman scowl. "The Joker announced he was sending a bomb full of Joker Venom into the streets of Gotham. As it turned out—"

"They were duds," she finished for him, causing him to look away from the computer monitor to stare at her. "I recall your video logs and that event was one we viewed," she explained.

He nodded his acknowledgement of her statement, resisting the sickening feeling he felt in his stomach. It still caused him no end of grief that there had been uninvited guests in his private base, never mind that it had been the most ideal, if not best place for the heroes to go to following their first encounter. "The Joker wanted everyone to know that no matter what we did, he was in full control of our every action. If he said jump, we did so."

"So we're looking for a distraction." That caused a thoughtful expression to appear on Diana's face. "I wonder what that will—"

Suddenly, a sharp beeping sound erupted from the computer, causing Batman to jerk his attention back to it. Fingers tapping on the keyboard in a heated frenzy, he minimized the program monitoring Superman's vitals while activating the security program. A moment later and a grid for the Justice League HQ appeared on screen. A blueprint for the entire complex was visible, yet it was swept aside, moving to somewhere outside. Right at the fence line surrounding the complex, a red dot blinked over and over.

They had a breach.

"Diana!" he shouted as he spun around, only to see the Amazon had taken flight towards the door. Her boots were the last thing he saw of her as she passed through the threshold.

Giving chase, his cape billowing behind him, Batman raced through the door and down the hall. No matter how fast he could go, there was no way he could keep up with the Princess, who was disappearing right around a corner at the end of the corridor. While he could've called an order for her to slow down, he doubted she would heed his words. Hopefully whatever threat was at their doorstep was something she could keep at bay until he arrived.

Then again, if a trained Amazon couldn't stop whatever this was, what was he going to be able to do?

They were scattered all over the room, pieces of ice with green matter within them. Shayera refused to refer to them as pieces of J'onn, even if that was what they were. It still sickened her to have to pick them up.

Following the end of the fight, Batman had assigned her and Flash to gather up as much of the Martian as possible. The vigilante was operating under the theory that J'onn could be restored somehow, something that Flash readily took too—and if she was honest, herself as well.

She still couldn't get that punch out of her mind though. J'onn frozen in place, Superman winding up, then in slow motion throwing the devastating blow. It played over and over in her head, fantasies of somehow being fast enough to stop it popping in every once in awhile. She would cast those thoughts aside though, for as much as she liked to entertained them, she was a realist at heart—there was no way she could have prevented what happened.

That didn't meant she didn't like to pretend otherwise.

A red blur dashed from one side of the room to the other even as she knelled down to collect another ice chunk. Between the two of them, they had a system going. Shayera was in charge of collecting the bigger pieces while Flash went for the smaller ones. It wasn't a matter of strength so much as that Flash could find and gather the harder-to-find shards faster than she could. With him working on tweezer-detail, she could focus on picking up the more obvious ones.

Finding that she had an armful, the winged woman began trudging over to a large garbage bin. They had moved it from its place outside of the building, using it as a crude collection bin. Reaching it, the Thanagarian poured her pieces in, hearing them clatter against each other and the other chunks that had been previously gathered.

That was when Flash darted by, a handful of shards being deposited in as well. Numbly, Shayara stared into the container, wonder if they had gathered each and every piece. Her shoulders sagged mostly out of feeling energy-less. She may have seen a lot of bad shit in her life, but this was definitely taking a toll on her.

A rush of wind caressed her body then, causing her hair to whip to one side. That was followed by a comforting hand being pressed on her shoulder, to which she placed her own hand on top of. "Not feeling too well, huh?" Flash said.

"Yeah, something like that," she acknowledged his words. "Do you think we have everything?"

"Just a second." Flash's hand disappeared, leaving her feeling empty for some odd reason. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds before the speedster return, standing on her opposite side this time. Holding his hands out over the garbage can, he dropped in a handful of ice, dusting them off a moment later. "That's the last of it," he declared before dropping his hands to his sides.

"About time." Reaching a hand up, she activated her comm link and said, "We're done. Beam us back anytime."

As she dropped her hand from her ear, Flash suddenly remarked, "You don't look too good, Wings."

"Not sure how anyone could," she muttered under her breath.

Clearly the red-clad man heard her as he responded, "Just remember who's really behind this. Superman couldn't help himself."

Shayera knew what the young man was trying to do. Rationally he was right. Unfortunately she was in a more emotional, irrational frame of mind and those words didn't little to comfort her. "Tell that to J'onn," she practically spat back.

Flash, bless the man, took her anger and let it flow right by him. "We're all angry about this. And Supes is going to carry this around his neck for the next hundred years, or however long he's going to live."

"As he should!" Shayera spun around, scowling at Flash harshly. "I don't know what led to him getting Jokerized, but I have no doubt it happened because he was on his own—against orders. We had agreed to pairs and what does he do the moment his teammate runs off? Runs headfirst into a damn trap!"

"It's not the first time any of us has made a mistake," the speedster pointed out, "and it won't be the last. The important thing is that we nab this maniac and make sure he pays for his crimes."

Whatever. The redhead didn't have it in her to argue. Yeah, the Joker was ultimately responsible for what was happening, but this guy needed a lot of luck and help to be pulling off what he was doing. Superman had just given him the mother of all lucky moments by stumbling in unprepared and letting himself get gassed, or whatever it was that turned him into a walking, laughing wrecking ball.

"If there's one person we can trust to be on their own, it's him."

Those had been her words before the attack on Metropolis. Lord, how foolish did she feel now for uttering that statement. Shayera swallowed hard on the bile gathering at the back of her throat. It wasn't often that she underestimated a foe, but looking at the devastation around her she could see just how wrong she had been. Oh sure, yeah, the most powerful man in the world should have no problem with a certifiable whack-job. On paper, it was obvious who should have won that encounter. The reality was so much more different.

Batman had been right to caution them as he had. Why hadn't she listened better? What hadn't Superman heeded his words? They were supposed to be the Justice League, which meant they were above making such boneheaded decisions. Otherwise people got hurt.

Just like J'onn.

Luckily, Flash didn't try to convince or comfort her anymore. For a guy that was happy-go-lucky most of the time, he knew when and what to say in times like this. Unfortunately, that left the winged woman to seethe internally instead of venting, so her last words coupled with the image of a shattering J'onn were going over and over on an endless loop. This did nothing for her temper, which was growing more and more heated with every passing second.

"What the hell is taking them so long?" she growled as she crossed her arms over her chest, one of her feet tapping impatiently. They should've been teleported a long time ago.

Flash only looked at her before he began to raise a hand to activate his comm link. Shayera beat him to it when she uncrossed one of her arms and roughly jabbed at the device in her ear. "Hey, what's the holdup?" she demanded. "We're ready to go over here."

There wasn't a response, not that wasn't unusual, especially since half of their forces were indisposed of at the moment. Yet, she knew for a fact there were still two able-bodied people there unless…

Something was wrong. Glancing to Flash, she could see he was coming to the same conclusion as she was. Quickly, she spoke into her comm link again. "This is Hawkgirl, come in, HQ. Is there a situation?"

Again, silence. Now she knew something was up. In fact, she was half a second away from ordering Flash to get over there when she heard static in her ear. That was followed by Batman's voice coming through the device.

"This is HQ. Stay where you're at; I repeat, stay at your present location."

"What's going on?" the Thanagarian immediately demanded.

It took a moment for the vigilante to respond. "There's been a breach at the outer perimeter. Until it's been identified and dealt with you are not to come to HQ. Understood?"

Shayera couldn't fault the logic there and found herself nodding despite there was no way Batman could see her do so. "Understood," she finally replied. "Hawkgirl, out."

Returning her eyes to Flash, she could tell he had been privy to the conversation. "Looks like we're stuck here for the time being."

Arms pumping at his sides, Batman raced through the halls. A part of him was wondering whose bright idea it was to build so many of them inside of a single building, but then the tactical side of him piped in to remark how useful they would be if an invading force entered. Regardless, it made for a long run that he had not been expecting to have.

Eventually, he found the front entrance, the double doors wide open. Exploding through the doorway, the dark-clad man glanced around, seeing no sign of danger or Diana. There were no signs of battle either, which only fueled his concern.

Considering the monitor had identified the potential threat to be at the west-side perimeter, that's where Batman headed first. If Diana had arrived soon after the incursion, she could have settled the fight before he even left the building, which meant that was the most likely place to find her. Running as fast as he could, he shot around the corner and slowed his pace up.

He could see Diana from he was at, standing up straight and near a fence. Her guard was up, but she didn't look as if she were expecting an attack. Instead her head was tilted downward, indicating she was looking at something.

Jogging now, Batman kept his current pace until he was within shouting distance of the Amazon. "Diana, did you find something?" he asked as he slowed into a walk.

The dark-haired woman didn't even look to him as she answered, "I believe so." Coming up next to her, the vigilante finally stopped and looked down at what captivated the woman's attention.

Lying on the ground next to the fence was a bulky, purple briefcase. It clearly stood out against the iron fence, maintained grass, and a few short shrubberies. Someone had carefully set it here for them to find.

"Do you hear anything?" Batman asked, keeping his eyes trained on the case.

Diana didn't reply immediately, which meant she was focusing on her hearing. "No," she finally answered, "nothing."

Eyeing the lock, even from where he stood he could tell the only thing keeping the briefcase shut were two clasps on either side of the handle. No dial lock, key lock, or any other lock he was familiar with was visible. Further observation of the briefcase and the surrounding area showed no discernible booby traps either. It was as if the case wanted to be opened.

All the more reason it was a trap.

Unfortunately, they couldn't just stand there and wait—mostly because the briefcase wouldn't let them. Unexpectedly, the two clasps clicked open, causing both Batman and Diana to jump, immediately going shifting into defensive stances. Moving with a will of its own, the lid began to open at a crawling speed, slowly revealing its innards.

Most of the briefcase's insides was covered with a metal box, a slot in the middle of the box showing three spinning columns. It was like watching a slot machine in action. The rest of the case was filled with a random assortment of wires twisting and coiling around each other. There was no telling where one wire ended and the others began.

That was when one of the columns stopped spinning, revealing the face of a joker card. Soon after, the second column stopped, the same image showing itself, followed shortly by the third. A loud, obnoxious jingle rang out, followed a recorded voice declaring, "You've won! You've won! Here's your grand prize! You've won! You've won! Here's your grand prize!"

"What is this?" Diana questioned after a stunned silence.

"You've won! You've won! Here's your grand prize!"

The vigilante had no idea either. There was no doubt who had set it there, but the motive for doing so escaped him.

"You've won! You've won! Here's your grand prize!"

Batman felt the vibration first. It went right through his feet and up his legs, the tremor so strong that he was thrown off balance. Head twisting around, he was just in time to see the middle of the Justice League headquarters erupt with flames, spreading out towards the ends of the building itself. A loud BOOM followed by a thunderous roar rang out, the force of the blast slamming into the Leaguers and throwing them off their feet. Batman was sure he cried out, but it was completely drowned out by the explosion.

He was faintly aware of Diana also being blown away as well, but that observation left his mind the moment his back slammed into the iron fence, the section of the fence ripping out and collapsing to the ground. Because of this, the vigilante found himself flipping wildly through the air. With the world spinning, he was unable to orient himself until he landed hard on the ground, skidding across grass, dirt, and leaves. The air in his lungs was forced out, leaving him breathless.

As if to add insult to injury, something rammed into him in his weakened state, causing the vigilante's eyes to widen as he frantically gasped for air. Breathing rapidly, it took him awhile to realize a body had landed on top of him, Diana's to be specific. And like him, she was breathing heavily.

Having managed to calm down his oxygen-starved mind, Batman laid his head on the ground, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to recover. It took awhile, but eventually his respirations began to slow until he was just a man lying on dirt and grass with a woman on top of him.

"Oh, Hera," he heard Diana gasp then, her body roughly moving on top of him as she scrambled to get off. "Superman! John!" she cried out.

Batman knew exactly what was going to happen before it did, which was the biggest reason why he managed to fling his upper body up in time for him to grab onto the Amazon. "Don't!" he barked at her, even as she lifted both of them into the air as he tried to prevent her from charging head first into a...a…

That's when he saw it. Where the Justice League headquarters used to be was nothing more than a raging fire, a colossal cloud of black smoke rising high into the air. He could just barely make out parts of the foundation and outer wall, but they were well on their way into being rubble at this point.

The dark-clad man's attention was soon torn away from the sight when he felt Diana struggling against his grip, damn near pulling away on the first lunge. Gritting his teeth, Batman forced himself to readjust his grip, even as the Amazon drew closer to the blaze.

"Get off of me!" Diana roared as she continued to struggle against him, one of her hands grabbing onto his forearm and began to peel it off of her body. It happened so easily and smoothly that it took Batman a moment realize he only had one arm wrapping over the dark-haired woman's shoulder, the only reason he didn't drop to the ground immediately. Damn it, he hadn't countered on her super strength to show itself, though he should have been. "I have to go help them!" she continue to rage.

"There's nothing you can do," the Dark Knight hissed into her ear, as he wormed his arm out of her grip. With Superman's weakened body and the Green Lantern unconscious and unable to use his ring, there was no way they could have survived that explosion. "If you go in there, you'll only expose yourself to any other traps that are still there."

"You don't know that! You don't!" Diana spat back and bent her arm at the elbow, jerking backwards and into his chest. Pain throbbed at the point of impact, but the vigilante refused to let go. "I have to try!"

This wasn't something Batman wanted to do, but right now he had an irrational Amazon hellbent on putting herself at risk. Shooting his free hand up, he jabbed two of his fingers into her neck, striking a pressure point.

The effect was instantaneous. One moment Diana was hovering in the air, full of power and pride, the next to crumpled against him, causing the two to drop to the ground like stones. Unlike their previous landing, it was Batman who crashed on top of Diana, laying on her back and using his weight to hold her limp body down. Confusion wrote itself all over her face.

Breathing hard, Batman just laid there, burying his face into the Amazon's hair, strands of it tickling his lips, cheeks and nose as it fluttered with his breaths. "Wha...did you...do ta meee?" she slurred after several moments.

"Stopping you from making a big mistake," the Dark Knight summarized, lifting his head up so that she could hear his every word. "I know you're hurting right now; your friends were in there; but now is not the time to be charging in half-cocked. We need to regroup, get organized, and find the son of a bitch that did this and the only way we can do that is if we have you with us."

Slowly, Batman rolled off the Amazon Princess, lying on his back on the ground next to her. The fact that she wasn't unconscious was a testament to her will—or stubbornness depending on your point of view. Regardless, her body wouldn't be able to move for awhile and hopefully the dark-haired woman would have enough time to calm herself before she recovered all of her abilities.

Along with any forgiveness she may have towards him.

Positive that she wouldn't be getting back up for the time being, Batman stretched his head up as he returned his attention to the burning remains of the JLHQ, staring at it upside down. It was going to take some time for the blaze to die down before he could perform an adequate investigation. It also meant the Justice League was without a home, something they couldn't afford at the moment.

That was when he heard a sound. It was low, mechanical in tone, repeating itself constantly. Tilting his head down and pushing his upper body up for a better look, the vigilante spotted what was left of the briefcase, the lid having been forcefully removed during the explosion, not to mention the case itself being tossed through the air, miraculously landing close to where the two Leaguers were. It was from the case that sound was coming from.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…"