Chapter 19: Return
The plane landed and Bruce took a deep breath. He'd meant to come back much sooner, but events had transpired such that he'd had to go to Coast City and check on something there, and then go to Gotham and speak with Dick and Damian about what they'd been doing, and then finally he'd gotten the chance to return to the Hall of Justice. The doors opened and he jumped out. The hangar was deserted which was odd in itself, usually someone was here, either Victor or Oliver or Hal, but right now it was deserted. He walked down the hallway, typed in the code, and then walked into the Hall proper, and there he found Clark, the man hunched over a map.
"What are you looking at?" He asked.
"The world." Clark replied.
"I can see that." Bruce said. "But what part?"
"All of it." Clark stated. The man then looked up and smiled. "It's good to see you, how was the journey?"
Bruce smiled. "Alright. Coast City is still trying to be New York, and Gotham is slowly getting better. How have things been here?"
"Okay." Clark said, though there was something about his tone that suggested otherwise.
"Where is everyone?" Bruce asked.
"Victor's in New York with Conner and the remaining Titans. Hal's gone to find Barry, Billy's at school." Clark said.
"Barry's still not back yet?" Bruce asked surprised.
"No, when did you leave him?" Clark asked.
"Three weeks ago. We met Deathstroke and then he went northwards and I came back." Bruce said.
"You met Deathstroke?" Clark asked his eyes narrowing. "Why?"
"He had information about what happened to Iris." Bruce said.
"And?" Clark asked.
"Lord was the one who killed Tin McGee, because she was talking to Iris about what Lord was having her do." Bruce said. "Deathstroke killed her, but he insists he didn't take Iris, instead he says that Thawne was the one who took her, so Barry's gone to see if that's true."
"Do you believe him?" Clark asked.
"That he didn't take Iris? Yes. That Thawne took her? No. It would have been another speedster." Bruce said.
"So, what was McGee doing for Lord?" Clark asked.
"Experimenting on humans, trying to create a new bunch of meta-humans that Lord could use to form an Injustice League to deal with us. But that's not the kicker, the kicker is that the Vice President of the United States was involved, and had indeed given Lord the green light to do all of this." Bruce said.
Clark's jaw tightened and then he sighed. "You meant to tell me the Vice President is involved in meta-human trafficking?"
"Not just him, if he's involved it's because the President is too much of a coward to get involved." Bruce said. "I found some of the files that McGee was trying to off load. The experiments they're doing are horrible." He'd had nightmares after reading some of the files, and he had genuinely wanted to throw up after reading one in particular.
"So, what do we do?" Clark asked.
"What do you mean?" Bruce replied.
"We can't just let them keep this going. Lord will know we're coming after him now, and he'll tell the Vice President. They're going to try and shut this down, or they're going to move it. What are we going to do?" Clark asked.
"The League's going to do nothing. I know Australia went off without a hitch, but Arkham didn't, and we need the President to be at ease with what's going on around him." Bruce said.
"So, what are you suggesting?" Clark asked.
"Bruce Wayne will be paying him a visit, and asking for a contract. And I will be meeting Lord soon, to discuss business." Bruce said.
"You don't think either of them will get suspicious?" Clark asked.
"The President's a publicity whore. He needs positive attention or he dies. So, I'll give it to him. He'll do a tour of Gotham, cut some ribbons, shake some hands, kiss some babies, and then at the end of it, I'll donate to him, and he'll give me access to government files."
"And Lord?" Clark asked. "You know he can read minds."
"Yes, and if he reads Bruce Wayne's mind, he'll learn nothing more than he already knows." Bruce said.
Clark shook his head. "How do you do that?"
"Experience." Bruce said with a smile. "Now about Arkham."
Clark sighed. "It needed to be done, we only took the most violent reoffenders. People who stand no hope in reforming."
"Penguin, Riddler etc. Yes, I know, and I agree with what you did. What I'm more concerned about is how you did it." Bruce said. He'd been meaning to deal with those lot for a long time. That they were in the Phantom Zone was a relief, he wished he could have put the Joker in there as well, a long time ago. "Diana hit Oliver so hard he nearly went into a coma."
Clark's eyes widened. "How?"
"Dinah phoned me to tell me. She told me that if she ever saw you or Diana in Star City again, she'd kill you." Bruce said. "And I think she meant it."
Clark's shoulders sagged. "It wasn't meant to go like that. I was going to talk to him and reason this with him. But then Diana lost her patience."
"She lost her temper and Oliver nearly died, is that what you're telling me?" Bruce asked bemusedly.
"Yes." Clark said. "I don't know what's gotten into her. She's far more aggressive than usual, and she's picking fights with everyone. She nearly took out Huntress the other day."
"What do you think it is?" Bruce asked.
"I don't know." Clark said. "But it is worrying."
"Indeed, it needs to be dealt with before we move into stage two. We cannot have someone like Diana go rogue." Bruce said.
"I know. But what are we going to do?" Clark asked.
"We're going to speak with the Gods and sort this out." Bruce said.
