A/N:

So I've seen a bit of an influx of favourites and follows of both this and me lately. Thought that warranted getting the next bit in posting condition, my way of saying thanks in return. Show the love and I won't be able to resist! So you know what that means if you want to see Chapter 14 in the next week or two? Hit me up with those reviews! They make it all worthwhile for me!

Oh, and since this is the first thing on FF I've posted since they both passed, I've got to dedicate it to Roger Moore and Adam West. True Icons of their time, who will never be forgotten.

Chapter 13: Breaking the Mould

The full mass of clay was attacking before Wonder Woman could move. The lasso had revealed Clayface's true form, but it couldn't hold him, not when he could just slide himself out of the rope as if it weren't even there. Even if the lasso was magic, it was designed for use on wholly solid beings, not living clay.

Wonder Woman just about managed to throw up her arms in a defensive gesture, but against the mud of Clayface that didn't help much. The glob was instantly knocking her back, her footing not firm, though she managed to stay standing. But worse, it was consuming her, surrounding her, enveloping her entire being within the mud. Wonder Woman was instantly moving, ready to force her way back out again. But it turned out she didn't have to. It was only after a moment that she realised that Clayface's intention wasn't to try to drown her within himself.

No, he was trying to escape.

Sacrificing any kind of humanoid form, Clayface was throwing everything he had towards the commissary exit. All of his mass hit the doors, hard and fast. With the blast doors down, the chances were that they would have normally been able to hold him, so thorough had Batman been when it came to installing the stations security systems. However, normally the blast doors had not been smashed open already that same day. They had no chance, not of keeping Clayface back. He had only to buckle them slightly to get himself squeezed through if he condensed his body through the hole. As things were though, he smashed the remnants of the blast doors clean away.

He was loose. That could not be allowed to last. It didn't matter that he was still trapped on the Watchtower with nowhere to go with the teleporters still down. After what he had done in the Joker's name, after what he had done while wearing Superman's face, he had to be caught. With what he might do next and what he might be able to tell them about the Joker's plan, he had to be caught. To help Bruce, to possibly save Bruce, Clayface had to be caught.

Wonder Woman was residue free as the clay passed through her, surging out into the corridor. That meant that there was nothing holding her back from giving an instant pursuit. And she did not wait around. She took flight, charging after the retreating Clayface as fast as she could. There was no plan in her head, not yet. She just knew that she had to catch him first.

She was not the only one with such thoughts either. She barely listened to GL's shout that he would cover off the hangar bays, but she certainly noticed that the corridor had less space than she had first expected. Shayera's wings practically got clipped by Diana's outstretched fist as both women surged through the air after Clayface. Sparing only the briefest of glances, Wonder Woman saw a determination in Shayera's eyes, so strong that it could even match her own, the Thanagarian mace already sparked into life. Shayera had shown her own emotion at the situation when she had confronted Wonder Woman outside the commissary earlier. Now that fury was being let loose.

But it wasn't just the two of them either. She should have known before she saw the red streak. Of course it was Flash who had darted out in front. With his speed, it was inevitable. Clayface was hardly going slowly, traveling as if he was a landslide incarnate, virtually rolling his changeable form over itself to get the maximum speed possible. It was because of that that he had managed to get a gap on Wonder Woman and Shayera, a gap that was being closed only slowly. Not for Flash, though. Flash had the gap closed in no time.

And that was his big mistake. Clayface had not been doing this blindly or stupidly. He had somehow managed to convince all of the Justice League that he was one of them, Superman at that. Not one of them had seen through it either, or at least not enough to put the pieces together. That meant he knew what he was doing. Wonder Woman had heard that he had been an actor once. He had certainly learned his role this time. Including knowledge of how the key players in the Justice League acted. He clearly knew without doubt that Flash would be the first on him, rushing in at speed. That meant that Clayface was able to take Flash out of the picture in one fell swoop.

The clay paused its retreat virtually the instant Flash was close enough. Wonder Woman saw it go down. Clayface changed his form. No longer was he just a glob of mud, but suddenly he was a barrier, a shin high, solid block. The perfect tool with which to send Flash flying. The speed Flash was running, he had no way of stopping himself either. Wonder Woman could almost feel the pain as Flash tripped, slamming headfirst into the bulkhead. His body then slumped, clearly out cold.

Yet Clayface wasn't hanging around to admire his handiwork. He was rapidly on the move again, charging onwards as if the Flash didn't even exist.

"Keep going, I'll look after the kid!"

It was STRIPE who had shouted. Wonder Woman hadn't even realised that he was there with them, but she was glad that he was. It meant someone was there to look after Wally, enabling her and Shayera to keep on chasing. Luckily, they now had an advantage. Clayface had had to stop to take out Flash, but there had been no stopping Wonder Woman or Shayera. They had surged onwards, now practically in touching distance of the villain.

Unfortunately, he seemed to know it to, helped, no doubt, by the fact that he could literally put his eyes to the back of his head. Perhaps that was exactly why he didn't just keep on running.

Doors meant nothing to Clayface, it seemed. Once again he was throwing himself into one, only this time he was not smashing his way through. By stretching his body out to make it virtually two dimensional, he had squeezed himself through the cracks in it to what lay beyond.

Wonder Woman and Shayera both dropped to a standing position in front of the sealed metal. Wonder Woman recognised where they were, surprised at how far they had travelled in such a short time. Beyond that door lay one of the League's many laboratories. That instantly put Wonder Woman off guard. There was good reason why laboratories were still used on the space station as opposed to on the newer, Earth based Metrotower. All sorts of items and experiments could be in there, dangerous ones at that. If Clayface knew how to use them, or even if he triggered something by accident…

Shayera clearly had come to the same conclusion. She gave Wonder Woman a slight nod, gripping her mace ever tighter and standing ready in an attack posture. The signal was clear. She was telling Wonder Woman to open the door, set to fight Clayface the instant that she did. After all, this laboratory was a dead end, no way in or out other than the one that Wonder Woman and Shayera were stood beside. Clayface had backed himself into a corner, with no way out other than to fight. Shayera was ready to give him one. Wonder Woman was too. She nodded back before hitting the control panel at the side of the door, sending the two pieces of metal whooshing apart. Shayera did not pause in the slightest before she was stepping inside, the energy rippling around her mace, just ready to deal a hammer blow.

It never came. Shayera had been ready as she had stepped over the void, but Clayface had been even readier. Neither of them had a chance of spotting him before he struck, just as Shayera had stepped forward. She had gone with her mace held in front of her, at the ready and lighting up the room with the energy rippling around it. Providing Clayface with the perfect target.

He lashed out from the shadows, having hidden to the side of the room, as if part of the wall itself. Raw mud jumped out from nowhere, latching on to Shayera's mace, hands and all, like a crocodile snatching up a drinking wildebeest. It was as if the rippling the energy of it had no direct effect on there living clay, for there was no recoil. Instead, even more of the mud was forming around Shayera's wrists before Wonder Woman's eyes. Mud that was starting to pull Shayera in, towards Clayface's very innards. It didn't take a genious to figure out what was happening. Clayface was going for the kill. With nowhere to run, this time he was trying to drown her within his own body. And even the immensely brave Shayera Hol was obviously scared.

And it was all happening right before Diana's eyes. She could not allow it to continue.

So far everything had happened in the blink of an eye. That was also just about as long as it took for Wonder Woman to leap forward into action. She had to get Shayera free. Nothing that the Thanagarian was doing was helping her cause. No amount of strength, no amount of energy from the mace was getting her loose. Nothing was stopping the suction of the clay, dragging her in. But then Shayera didn't possess Amazonian strength. Wonder Woman grasped her arms around her friend, catching onto her shoulders. With all of her gods given might, Wonder Woman pulled, trying to drag Shayera free from the clay that she was now up to her elbows in.

Even against Wonder Woman's force, though, Clayface fought back. On the basis of pure power, Wonder Woman was starting to drag Shayera out, slowly but surely. That was why Clayface clearly decided to try and throw her off. He spun, spun fast, trying to twist so rapidly that Diana wouldn't be able to hang on, not caring if he snapped Shayera in two in the process. But, even as they swung away from the doorway in rapid pirouette, Diana's skill meant she did hang on. More than that, she kept on pulling, kept on dragging Shayera clear. However, Clayface had obviously had enough encouragement about his new tactic, since he was trying the exact same thing again only moments later.

This time, though, his action coincided perfectly with Wonder Woman's own. Just as Clayface was spinning them again, Wonder Woman heard the satisfying 'squelch-pop', the sound of Shayera's wrists leaping out of the clay. The mace was nowhere to be seen, clearly still lost within the mud, but Shayera was out.

Neither of them were out of the woods, though. The reverse momentum of Wonder Woman's efforts did not go away just because she had what she wanted. Combined with Clayface's spin, it was enough to send both women flying.

Wonder Woman crashed against the wall of the lab, Shayera crashing even harder into Wonder Woman. For a brief moment both women were instantly dazed and winded. It didn't last long, but it was long enough. This time it was Clayface who could keep on moving while they were temporarily halted, and he too took full advantage of such an opportunity. The mud was rapidly encroaching, fully stretched out to cover floor to ceiling, wall to wall. He had Wonder Woman and Shayera trapped in the corner, a corner whose cubic volume was rapidly decreasing. The clay was closing in. His plan on drowning them wasn't abandoned. He was coming in to try all over again.

Wonder Woman braced herself. Clayface's inhuman visage had reappeared amongst the mud, showing him grinning wildly at the prospect of what he was trying to do. She was not out of this yet though, and neither was Shayera. They both knew that Clayface could adjust his form, that he may possess the ability to prevent even Wonder Woman from escaping from the trap he had made with his own body, but they were damn well going to try.

Or at least they would have done, if the others hadn't chosen that moment to arrive. Wonder Woman may not have been able to see, but even through Clayface she could certainly hear. It took a lot more than mud to be able to completely black out the sound of one of Black Canary's screams.

It was working on Clayface instantly, the strain coming on his literal face of clay. Having seen Canary in action before, Wonder Woman knew full well that her cry could shake things right to their very core. Right now, Clayface was undergoing exactly that. His entire, stretched out body was trembling, with him starting to resemble a puddle in a thunderstorm. The shockwaves of the cry were threatening Clayface's very physical integrity, his consistency. He was having to put everything into just staying together, so much so that he could no longer contain Shayera's mace, the weapon thrown clear of his form and sent scattering across the room. From the ripples of his body, it looked like Clayface was only moments away from being torn apart by it all.

That was almost certainly why he altered his form. Clayface suddenly reverted to his more normal shape, compacting his body in an attempt to stop Canary's assault. It seemed to have somewhat worked too, the rippling reducing despite Canary's screams continuing, now all the more audible to Wonder Woman's ears.

But the damage being done wasn't stopped entirely. It was clear that Clayface was trying to step forward, trying to take Canary out just as he had been going after Wonder Woman and Shayera, but her scream was still hitting him hard enough to keep him back.

Wonder Woman was about to step in, to help Black Canary out, but once again someone else beat her to it.

The trick arrow pounded into Clayface's torso before Wonder Woman had even spotted that Green Arrow had arrived either. Wonder Woman wasn't sure what kind of arrow this one was. She couldn't even see what exactly it did to Clayface, impacting deep into the opposite side of the muddy body. But all Wonder Woman cared about was that it did the trick. She watched as Clayface's body convulsed a whole lot more. A few moments later he collapsed, body solidified into a twisted shape. He hit the ground hard, unconscious before he even dropped.

They had done it. They had caught Clayface. They had caught the man who had directly brought about the deaths of so many of the Justice League's own.

Some of the Justice League's own, including Wildcat and Speedy. Two people who had been very close to Green Arrow and Black Canary…

The same Green Arrow and Black Canary who were standing over the fallen Clayface right now.

The fallen Clayface that was their best lead to stopping this madness by a long, long way.

"Thanks for the assist, guys," Shayera muttered as she pushed herself up, picking her mace up at the same time. Diana could pretty quickly tell that Shayera had had the same thought that she had just had. Still, Wonder Woman took it upon herself to add the actual warning, even if she did completely understand where they were both coming from.

"But you both need to back away now. He will pay for what he did, but you have to leave it to us. Please. We need to know how deep this goes, how badly we're compromised, and what the villains might have lined up for us next. And…we can't resort to the kind of actions that we would regret."

Both Canary and Green Arrow showed no sign of reaction. They were both looking at the fallen Clayface, looks of pain and anger etched to their very cores. They were both looking ready to snap, like they were ready to cross the uncrossable line. Green Arrow in particular was looking murderous, fingers clenching tight around the bow from one hand, the other looking dangerously close to going for his quiver again.

"Hey, I think it's time you listen to the lady," Shayera chirped up again, a note of force and command in her voice. She clutched at her mace threateningly to emphasise the point. "I'll mash this guy into the ground myself for what he did, but we need to wait until we have some answers. We need those answers."

Again Black Canary and Green Arrow acted as if they hadn't heard anything. At first anyway. Then, after a few moments of tension, Black Canary finally moved, putting a flat, calming hand onto Green Arrow's bow. He looked up at her as if betrayed as she pushed his bow down, taking away any kill shot he was considering.

"Arrow, they're right," Canary finally said, sounding as if she was facing a battle to keep her voice from shaking. "I think it's time we took ourselves out of this one. I think it's time that we need to be on our own, to grieve."

For a moment, Canary continued to look up at Arrow, doing so in a reassuring, almost pleading manner, with her own pain far from hidden. It was asking him to accept what she had accepted, begging him to. Finally, Green Arrow's head dropped in acceptance. Then, more than that. He howled in rage, hurling his bow away in fury, sending it crashing against the distant wall. Emotions were clearly tumbling out of him, vast and varying ones. Wonder Woman was feeling his pain with great empathy. Unfortunately, there was simply nothing she could do as Green Arrow gave up the ghost. Without saying another word, he turned and walked away. Black Canary merely offered Wonder Woman and Shayera a knowing look before following after him.

"Well I think that summed this whole thing up," Shayera muttered from Wonder Woman's side as both watched Canary disappear around the corner. "Come on, let's get this…thing some place a bit more safe and secure before he starts waking up. And then we can start with our interrogation."

Wonder Woman could only nod in agreement, eyes now dropping back down to stare at Clayface's rigid body laid out on the deck. Yes, the interrogation certainly would be interesting.

They had to make sure the Justice League and the Watchtower were now safe.

They had to find out what else Clayface knew of the Joker's wider plan.

They had to find out what Batman was facing down in Gotham, just how dangerous things were down there and if there was any way they could help him.

And now that she had the chance to stop and truly think about it, there was another key question that kept occurring to Wonder Woman.

For they also had to find out what had happened to the real Superman.

It hadn't taken them too long to get a modified interrogation room set up. Clayface was safely installed in it before he had begun to reawaken from Green Arrow's attack. The chamber was small, a squat little room complete with an observation window. The best way of containing Clayface was to not give him the chance to attack again. There were no handcuffs, no shackles, nothing of the traditional sort in there to prevent Clayface from struggling against his captivity. Such things would be pointless against a shape changer. Instead, an untraditional method was used. Once upon a time Batman had beaten Clayface thanks to rain water literally causing Clayface to begin to fall apart. Just as Black Canary had managed to subdue Clayface by threatening his consistency, water could be used to weaken him, to make him unable to utilise his shape changing abilities without him falling apart. That water just had to be applied at the right quantity to not simply dissolve Clayface away. Thanks to the fire suppression systems on the Watchtower, precisely such a scenario had been arranged for Clayface's new cell. The moisture levels in the air had been adjusted to be at the precise degree where Clayface was effectively powerless.

Considering all that he had done, Wonder Woman found it rather satisfying to see the look of consternation cross Clayface when he awoke and realised just how trapped he was. She had stood there watching from the moment Clayface had been deposited in that room, just waiting for him to awaken so that they could begin to get their answers. Green Lantern was stood by her side, similarly watching on, particularly with his ring a useful containment tool should Clayface do the unexpected and find some way out of their hold. With the earlier exchange proving that the lasso may well be out of the question in the interrogation, he was also there to assist in asking the questions. Not that Wonder Woman felt she needed the help, but it was the entire League that needed the answers, not just her, and so she had not argued when he had followed her here.

She had actively sought one person to accompany her in this task, however. Of all of them on the Watchtower, Nightwing was the one who knew Clayface the best. From how Wonder Woman understood it, he had never actively engaged Clayface himself. However, as a onetime partner to Batman, he was well versed in all of Gotham's super criminals, meticulously prepared should the need to engage them in the pursuit of justice ever arise. As such, he not only knew of Clayface's physical abilities but also his mental dexterity. Of all of them, it was Nightwing who was best positioned to know exactly what questions to ask or pick up on any slips Clayface might make to get them to what they needed to know.

Unfortunately, it was also Nightwing who had to remain working on restoring power to the Watchtower, as well as making sure there were no more booby traps in the systems just waiting to be triggered. With Clayface revealed, Wonder Woman had decided it was safe to trust all of the others again. Nightwing had spent too much time with Batman in his life to have not picked up the paranoia. He insisted on doing the work himself until he knew better and, as it could well be vital to get the transporters and the comms working again, that was where Nightwing was prioritising. Still, he was proving the old sayings wrong by multitasking. He had kept his comm line open, listening in to everything Wonder Woman said and heard so that he could offer up any words of wisdom and advice he may have, without having to stop his work.

"The good news is Flash has a sore head but Iceberg says he's all right. I've got him busy looking after the civilians, making sure everyone's holding up okay, all things considered. How are things here?"

Wonder Woman glanced back over her shoulder, taking her eyes off Clayface for the first time in a long time to see Shayera enter the observation room to Clayface's cell. Once they had gotten Clayface dumped here, Shayera had immediately gone to check up on Wally, particularly with the Watchtower's current dearth in medical personnel following the loss of Doctor Conway and her staff. Wonder Woman was certainly relieved to hear Flash wasn't badly hurt. Still, it was yet another reason why Clayface would have to pay.

"All quiet," GL answered the woman he loved. "The high humidity is working a treat on our friend. We've been leaving him to stew in there for a bit, let him realise just how hopeless his situation is so he knows his best chance is to co-operate with us."

"And I think we've let him stew for long enough," Wonder Woman added, jumping in on Green Lantern's words. She was certainly ready to get going. Patience, as Batman had pointed out before, was not her greatest virtue. Besides, this night they hardly had all the time in the world to wait around. The lives of all on the Watchtower could depend on what they could learn right now.

The lives of Superman and Bruce could depend on it.

Wonder Woman did not wait for the other two to concur with her decision. She stepped forward, up to the observation window, hitting the button in the panel between it and the door through. The interrogation cell had been built onto the second Watchtower should the Justice League ever need to temporarily hold a criminal deemed too dangerous to be kept on the Earth, at least until a better solution could be found. It had been designed for interrogations exactly like this one, from a room apart, with the observation window capable of being a one-way mirror. In pressing the button, Wonder Woman had reverted it to a two-way, meaning that Clayface could now see and hear them as well as the other way around. Wonder Woman saw as he spotted the glass almost de-frosting, the knowledge of what was about to happen hitting him straight away. He didn't look too happy about it. Wonder Woman leapt on that opening.

"You clearly didn't plan on getting caught," she began, keeping her voice low but also with plenty of power behind it. "You clearly thought that you would be able to keep up your subterfuge until you were able to get away from the Watchtower. But you've failed. We know all about you, Mr. Hagen. We know that you don't fight for the same reasons that most villains do. We know you only want to become more human again. So why are you doing this? Why are you helping the Joker?"

"Nice," Nightwing's voice muttered in her ear, giving his approval to her opening question while Clayface looked up at her through the glass.

"Why should I tell you?" Clayface answered after a second of consideration. He had a force of his own to his voice, a determination. However, there was also the sense that not everything was sitting well with him. A sense of nervousness, a sense that there was something more to him being here than the malicious madness of men like the Joker. A sense that maybe there was something else that Clayface was after instead… "Why should I tell you a damn thing?"

"Because we can give you what you really want," Wonder Woman answered, latching onto the hints of weakness that she had spotted in Clayface. "The Justice League has all manner of resources that you can't get easily anywhere else. We can use those resources to help you. We can use them to make you human again, just like you've always wanted. Just so long as you help us first."

"No deal," Clayface returned, just a little too quickly. "I've grown to like my powers. I may want to be human again, but I don't want to lose them either. Make me human and let me keep my abilities and we'll talk. That's what that gorilla promised me before. That's what you got to deliver now for me to give you anything."

"Perhaps you should reconsider," Wonder Woman pointed out. She adopted a more threatening tone, lacing each word with a subtle anger that wasn't hard to drum up. "Don't forget, we're in space, miles away from the jurisdictions of any nation on the Earth. That means there's no one to determine your punishment but the Justice League. And you can rest assured. We will punish you. You will face justice. You killed a lot of good people today, Mr. Hagen. A lot of true heroes. Good, noble people who deserved so much better. So, unless you start helping yourself, you will get what you very thoroughly deserve."

For a second, Clayface seemed to be considering very closely what she had just said. Then he seemed to have an idea and merely laughed. "Nice bluff, sweetheart, but I'm no idiot. You're meant to be the good guys. You wouldn't hurt anyone like that, even if it was the right thing to do. You've got absolutely nothing to threaten me with that's worse than anything down below."

"Don't be so sure," Wonder Woman again countered. "You're right, we won't hurt you directly. We aren't savages like that. But we can send you to a prison unlike any on Earth, a prison you'll never escape from; the Phantom Zone."

"And what a lovely place that is," Green Lantern added his voice to the equation. "A good friend of mine once spent some time in there, as well as telling me the stories about the experiences of those two Kryptonian warlords who tried to invade a while back. You'd be completely formless, neither dead nor alive, with nothing to do but exist in nothingness. Sound like a good idea to you?"

"Especially with Doomsday still locked in there," Shayera jumped in too. "Even Kryptonians struggle to match him. You really fancy being locked up with him for eternity, on top of all the rest?"

"All right, all right, you've made your point!" Clayface literally screamed, clearly not at all liking the sound of what he was hearing. In fact, he sounded absolutely terrified of it. More information that Wonder Woman might be able to use. It wasn't too surprising, really. Wonder Woman knew that what Clayface most wanted was to be human again. Taking away all physical form completely would only have the opposite effect. That clearly terrified him. "You got a deal after all! I'll tell you whatever it is you need to know. On one condition; I'm not held by you guys! You send me back, you send me back down to Earth. You let whoever it is down there do what they want to me but you lot stay away. You cure me, you make me human, but you don't lay a finger on me otherwise! That's the deal!"

Wonder Woman had to bite her tongue. Her instant reaction was to say no. The desire was certainly strong in her to keep Clayface right here, to allow the Justice League to ensure that Clayface absolutely faced the punishment that he deserved. She was clearly far from alone in feeling such a sentiment. However, it was also a very selfish sentiment for them. One that wouldn't help keep Bruce and Superman safe at all.

"That's a deal we can accept," she said instead, tone lightening slightly. "On one proviso of our own. You'll get to return to the civilian authorities on the planet, you'll get our help to make you truly human again. But you have to talk first. You have to give us actionable intelligence for us to consider giving you anything. Help us to stop the Joker and save lives tonight, then on my word as an Amazon, you shall get your help and your asylum."

"Which means, so long as you don't want me to go fetch the Phantom Zone projector right now, it's about time you answered the original question," Shayera forcefully pointed out before Clayface could state his obvious agreement with those terms. "Why are you in on this, Clayface? Why are you attacking the Justice League?"

"Because of what I was promised," Clayface growled with his last hint of reluctance expelled. "Because of where I was when I was promised it. Hardly a day's gone by that I wish I never had the accident, that I didn't let Daggett turn me into…this. It didn't help things any when you people decided to stick a tonne of fireworks in me and blow me up into over a thousand crisp and tiny pieces, just for helping out that ape. I had to spend months finding them all and getting them all unburnt. Months. Months of scrounging around in all kinds of filth, trying to get myself as whole again as I can get. Even when I had all the bits and pieces, I still felt weak. I had no choice but to go into hiding.

"Look, you gotta understand that I only sided with the ape because of what he said he could get me. He was meant to help fix me. To make me look normal again. But he didn't. He just got me blown up, and left without what I so wanted. That sunk in. That… This… What I am, all of it, makes me feel so damn alien. I'd do anything to be human again. I'd do anything to forget all of this…clay ever happened. That's why I hid, shacking up in a city suburb far from anywhere I'd lived before. I was trying to forget.

"Didn't work. Every time my concentration slipped, I saw what I am these days. No matter how much I pretended to be normal, I could only hide the truth from others. It was always slapping me right in the face. My clay face. I spent a whole night in front of a mirror, just staring at it, looking at what I've become. At what people turned me into. And I realised just how much I hate those people. But even more than that I hate the man who always stops my efforts to make myself human while holding onto my new skills, the man who keeps sending me back to hell.

"Batman. The god damn Batman. Every time I close in on avenging myself, on giving myself a human face again, the Batman gets in the way. Which is what I realised most that night.

"Everything that's wrong in my life, it's the Batman's fault. That was why I couldn't say no the night I had the mystery knock on my door. I never had visitors. I'd gotten myself a solitary life. So the knock on the door right in the middle of the night was quite a surprise. It was even more of a surprise for me to see the clown and his moll standing right there. The Joker and Harley Quinn were at my door.

"No idea how they found me. Nutters like them aren't normally the type I like spending time with, but Joker started talking before I could get rid of him. Talking a lot. The guy had a plan. All laid out with plenty of designs, even if he hardly told me any of them. But he told me a few, a few that he wanted me for, a few that you've just been finding out all about.

"Now, I'm sure you can guess I didn't tell you the whole story for nothing, and it wasn't just to show off that I still got the emotional range. The Joker said he had money, that he could get the funds I need so that I could get myself whatever it was that I wanted. He could too. He could get me what I wanted. I would take his funds. I could try to chase after a new version of the MP-40. But he was going to give me something else I wanted, something his whole plan was designed for.

"Together, we were going to hurt the Batman. Badly hurt him. Everything tonight is designed for that. This whole damn night is to make him truly suffer before he gets finished off for good. All of it. Including what's happened up here on your space station.

"Joker claims to know that Bat better than anyone. Says that making his allies suffer will be a sure way to make him suffer, that every one of you I killed would be another knife in the Bat's guts. The clown gave me all sorts of tools to do it. Data cards to download programmes into your systems, bombs to go in the perfect locations, all sorts. Wasn't hard to smuggle them up when your own body can be made into a container. I just had to time things right and stay hidden, waiting for his signal to start triggering the things. And that came tonight.

"Tonight's the night the Joker brings down the Bat."

Joker. Wonder Woman had known that was coming, but hearing that name still sent the shivers down her spine and the anger rushing up it. There was no more deranged and dangerous man on the Earth than the Joker, a true example of why Amazon's had despised men for so long. And now Clayface and just confirmed that this was all down to him, that this was all about the Joker's plans to hurt Bruce. It was a plan that had to be stopped.

"How?" Shayera pushed, asking the question before Wonder Woman could get it said herself. Diana was relieved to hear that all of Shayera's own rage seemed directed at Clayface and Joker. Even for those who knew him, it would have been easy for people to blame Batman for what had happened after hearing what Clayface had just said, especially in the heat of the moment. Thankfully Shayera seemed to be able to see past that. "What's next? What else have you got lined up between you and that madman? How many more innocents are you planning to kill?"

"I couldn't tell you what's going down in Gotham," Clayface said half-heartedly, almost shrugging it away. "That's not a part of the plan I'm involved in, so the Joker didn't tell it to me. I just know that it'll keep the Bat busy all night, and that no one in that city is really safe."

"And what about the Watchtower?" Green Lantern asked. "Are there any more surprises up here?"

"Just a bit of a set-up to completely knock out your life support systems," Clayface replied as if it were an everyday answer. "A kind of insurance policy to ensure maximum damage was done up here. After getting you guys to put your own people on the ships that killed them, to make your own hands dirty, the Joker wanted me to leave you all to suffer and grieve, to let you stew in the hurt of what you had seen and done, hoping that that would flood back to Batman in all its entirety. Especially from you, Wonder Woman. For some reason, Joker's got his eye on you too in all this. Gave explicit orders that I wasn't to kill you, in fact. Sounded like he was hoping that you would be the one to deliver Batman his share of the grief. Like he was expecting you to have a bigger role to play in his plan as the night goes on. I guess he has something special lined up for you. Especially since the surprise in the life support gear is only set to go off at a time when none of you, me or Batman are still on this station."

"Yo, you guys are doing great. Consider whatever he's got in the life support toast."

Nightwing's voice had rung out in Wonder Woman's ear, but she hardly listened to it. She knew that he would handle things, just as he said. That meant it was safe for her mind to be distracted by other thoughts. In that initial video statement from the Joker that Bruce had found in the training droids, it was clear that Joker knew of her and Bruce, that he was using that as the excuse behind his latest, and perhaps deadliest, campaign. However, Wonder Woman had thought it was exactly that. An excuse. She hadn't believed that it was a reality behind the attack, that all of this could be linked back to her.

She didn't blame Bruce for the Joker's actions, but that didn't mean she didn't now blame herself to some degree. She knew better than to let it control her, but it did certainly affect her. She certainly felt it. However, more than anything it just made her mission clearer, the need to stop the Joker stronger. This night, this threat, it had to end. Whatever it was the Joker had lined up, she could not afford to think about it. She would just have to face it when the time came. She had to focus on the here and now, on saving lives.

And she had to hope that Bruce was doing the same in Gotham, without losing his own. She had to hope that dearly. At least there was one piece of solace on that front. Based on what Clayface was saying, Bruce was still alive. Clayface had said the Joker had a whole night lined up to hurt Bruce. Well, the night was still young. Joker wouldn't have tried to outright kill Batman yet, not from the sound of things. The dangers were there, the chance for plenty of pain and suffering, but he should still be alive.

He should still be alive.

Therefore, he still every chance of stopping the Joker and living to see another day. They all had a chance. Wonder Woman had to believe that too.

Which lead her to her next question. They had to save everyone. Everyone, who wasn't already gone. And in that moment, one of their own was missing. They had to find him, to make sure he was safe and still alive too.

"What about the real Superman? You've been masquerading up here as him. That means you must have been sure that he wouldn't come here and interrupt you're little scheme, which suggests that you somehow found a way to take him out of play. If you're smart, you'll tell me right now what you have done with him."

"I knew it. I knew that news story of you snogging the Bat was a phoney. I always said that Superman was more your type!" Clayface started with a soft chuckle. He clearly thought he'd caught her out, that her desire to help Superman was more than she openly let on. A false and shallow notion so many people couldn't get past. Still, Clayface didn't need correcting. Joker's allies didn't need even more ammunition. It was bad enough that the clown seemed to know the truth. Besides, Clayface was talking, and Wonder Woman had no desire to interrupt. Not with her friend's life potentially at stake. Even the Man of Steel could be killed in the right circumstances, and Joker had proved before he was mad enough to find them. "But to answer your question before you run off to fetch your death ray, I've no idea how the Joker did it. But he did do it. The Joker's got him, got him powerless too. Trapped and weak he is, like an animal at the zoo. An eerie cell bathing everywhere around it in some sort of red light that keeps Superman down."

That was news that Wonder Woman had not wanted to hear, but deep down had known was coming. She didn't need Green Lantern's breathed comment to realise that Clayface was talking about artificial red sunlight. Light that would indeed sap Superman of all of his tremendous powers, leaving him completely at the Joker's mercy. Still, Clayface was still talking, so Wonder Woman let him go on. If this was going to get even worse, they would have to know about it before acting.

"Joker already had him hostage before he recruited me for all of this. Said I was to replace him up here. So I spent days over there, watching him, getting to learn his mannerisms, his natural postures. I studied him, learning him, just as actors do. Just as I used to do before…all of this. And I have to say, it's one hell of a role. It's not every day that you get to be Superman."

"Where?" Shayera stopped Clayface before he could start ranting. "Where is he?"

Clayface continued to look Wonder Woman straight in the eye, despite it being Shayera's question he was answering. "Bludhaven. Close enough to Gotham so that the Joker can keep a close eye on him, but not in Gotham itself so as to be more assured that his presence won't risk upsetting the plan there. I can give you a direct address if you want. But I would say, you might want to hurry. You ought to have noticed that this plan doesn't shy away from killing off Justice Leaguers. I'd hate to think he might be next."

"Thanks for your co-operation. We'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure you'll be very comfortable in there until the Joker's ready for a cell of his own," Green Lantern snarled suddenly, obviously not liking what he was hearing, every bit as much as Wonder Woman. He stepped forward, hitting the button to make the glass frost over again and locking Clayface back to solitary before the mud could even begin to object. Immediately, all three of them turned away as one, not wanting to look at the killer clay any more through the screen that was now firmly back to being one-way. Instead they all turned to face each other, any sounds Clayface was still making lost to them.

"I'll get Vigilante and Shining Knight to keep watch on him," Shayera was the first to talk, her grip on her mace visibly tightening. She was addressing her words primary to Wonder Woman. "I assume you've ditched the quarantine idea anyway, but even if you haven't you're not stopping us. We're going to rescue Superman with you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, we should get Flash in on this too. He has as much right to go as we do. We all stick together," Wonder Woman responded. However, she then turned her attention to talking to someone else. "Nightwing, Bludhaven's your turf, I believe. We could use your help too."

"No can do," Nightwing's voice replied with a surprising answer. "Too much to do up here. I need to get the comms and teleporters up and running again. From everything we've just heard, we're going to need the organisation and safety net of it if we want to be of any serious help down on the surface. For both Batman and Superman. For that, you need someone who can make absolutely sure that the Watchtower is safe again and, without wanting to be too immodest, no one up here is better suited to pulling that off than me. But there is someone else who can help you. A certain sidekick who's been in Bludhaven, learning the sights for the last few days. And since the Joker said he'd blow up all of Gotham if any hero but Batman showed up there, he'd currently be sat around watching and itching to act. He'll help. I'll set you up with a beacon that will transmit him all he'll need to know once your close enough for us to actually get a signal to work. I'll have him ready and waiting for you for as soon as you touch down."

"Robin," Wonder Woman voiced her understanding, giving a reflexive nod. Yes, Batman's young protégé would certainly be of help. The Justice League were learning the hard way today exactly why Batman insisted on his methods against the villains of Gotham city. Having someone who knew those methods inside out would certainly help ensure no more such lessons were learnt. With that decided, Wonder Woman was itching to go. Superman needed their help. There was just one small issue first. "How are you doing on the life support? When can we leave?"

"I found the sabotage," NIghtwing answered. "Just as old Clayface described it. But don't worry. I'll have it neutralised in no time. There'll be no Javelin confirmed as safe by then though, so I suggest you have the Green Lantern put his ring to good use. Man, I've got to get me one of those."

"Thanks Nightwing. Let us know as soon as you're ready."

Wonder Woman finally cut off the comm line at that, looking up again at the other two. They were watching her expectantly, just waiting for the order to be given. Even if they were insistent on helping now, given how all of this had started they were still looking to her to lead. Wonder Woman didn't hesitate in doing so.

"Come on," she said to them, moving away instantly. "Let's get Flash and get to the hangar. There's no time to lose."

And there really wasn't. Wonder Woman glanced back at Clayface through the frosted glass as she walked away. Even for a fiend like him, she felt a pang of empathic compassion that his life should have come to this. However, anger was definitely still the prevalent emotion. Yet it was an anger that she would soon be putting to good use. An anger that she planned on utilising in the fight to save Superman.

And maybe, if things should come to that and if she could find a way to do so without risking millions of innocent lives, an anger that she would utilise to help protect Batman too.

Somehow.