(A/N: Yeah! Reviews! You guys rock so much, it makes me so happy =P I hope you keep liking. Sorry for the pause in updates but I had a bit of Writer's Block. I am BACK now and… here comes BATMAN!
I've been sick on and off recently, I hope none of you catch Squigglitisifarium from me XD lol I got it from someone else~ They know who they are ^-^ Enjoy~)
Batman drove away from the Mountain slowly at first, it was still only mid-day and he hated the feeling of being out in the open, but he didn't start to head home. He knew Clark would probably be calling him anytime now so, instead, he started to head towards the Hall of Justice.
Sure enough, about ten minutes later, the phone in his car rang.
"Caller: Clark Kent," the computer announced, pausing the ringing sound when it did so you could hear its voice.
"Accepted," Batman said in quick reply and the computer let the call go through.
"Hello, Batman speaking," Bruce answered as he continued to drive.
"Bruce, it's Clark," he started and Bruce rolled his eyes, biting back a sarcastic comment on the latest thing called "Caller ID". "I've gathered the entire League. We're having the meeting in about twenty minutes… Should I send you up now or…?"
"I'm almost to the Hall of Justice, besides with my identity out like it is now, I really need a good place to keep my car," Bruce told him. "I'll be there in five minutes, and then you can send me up."
"Alright, see you then, Clark out," Superman finished and, with that, he hung up.
Batman sped up a bit and, as he'd said, arrived at the Hall of Justice in a little under five minutes.
After making sure no one was watching him or following him, Bruce pulled the vehicle around back and entered a pass code into a remote in the car. Then, a door opened in the ground, revealing a ramp that Bruce drove down. It closed over his head once he was in and he went and parked his Batmobile.
Then, he headed over to the place where the elevator was and got out his comm. unit.
"Superman, I'm in the garage, send the beam," Batman said.
"Alright, beam coming," Superman replied, and in the next second a familiar green light surround Bruce and he was teleported to the Watchtower.
Batman's feet landed soundlessly on the metal floor. He almost glided as he walked, making his way to the Meeting Room. He didn't make a single sound as he went, either (as per usual).
Once he got there and went inside, his eyes scanned over the room and he took in who was there and who was absent. Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Red Tornado, Aquaman, Martian Man Hunter, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, and Green Arrow were there and absent was… well too many to list.
Both Flash and Superman looked up when the Dark Knight entered and they instantly came over to him.
"Bruce –" Flash started to say, but once glare from him cut Barry off.
"I still don't need you calling me that up here, and I certainly don't want any pity from ANYONE," he snapped harshly.
Flash just nodded, not saying anything else (but who would whenever being given the Batglare?).
"So when are we starting this meeting?" Batman asked Superman, turning to look at him.
"As soon as Black Canary, Zatanna, Atom, and Captain Marvel get here," Superman told him. Batman gave him a curt nod before heading away. He started messing with his wrist computer just as Green Arrow came over, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Instead of the apology Bruce had expected, Oliver started off with a practically casual, "How's it going?"
Bruce glanced at him once over his shoulder and then looked back at his small screen before replying.
"As well as it can be, I guess," he said in a lower tone. He and Oliver sort of had a different relationship than he had with Superman or Flash. While they were his friends, it was Oliver he was closer with outside of the mask. They both had a lot in common in their other aliases, two rich young men, owners of large companies with adopted wards… They understood each other better than the others could.
Oliver nodded to himself and then glanced at the screen Bruce had up. "Watcha doing?"
"I'm checking up on the Manor, if you must know… I feel like someone is going to attack there at any given moment…" Bruce explained to him as he browsed through the various camera feeds from the camera around the Manor. He muttered under his breath, then, "I can't even feel at ease in my own house any more…."
Oliver squeezed his shoulder in a sympathetic gesture and Bruce glanced back at him again and nodded his thanks. Then, he turned off the computer and turned to face the door just as the last few expected people trickled into the room.
"Okay everyone, take your seat," Superman announced and everyone silently did so minus Superman and Batman.
"We need to include the kids in this too," he told Superman sternly. He sighed but nodded before pulling up the screen and calling the Cave.
The team was looking at them whenever they answered, all silently waiting for their instructions.
Batman spoke first, "Alright, as two of you very well know already, the Justice League has called an emergency meeting to discuss this… situation, and you're now involved, so listen up and only speak when spoken too."
The team nodded and Batman returned the curt gesture before he sat down at his normal seat around the large table.
"You all know why you're here," Superman started then. "If you don't, then I'll recap. Last night, Batman and Robin's identities were uncovered by one Harvey Bullock. He then proceeded to expose them to both the printed press and the live news." Most of the people glanced sorrowfully at the Dark Knight and, while he felt their gaze he didn't make any movement to acknowledge them. "Here is the footage that was shot this morning around six-thirty…"
Superman pulled up the clip and both the League and Young Justice watched in silent anger and sorrow as Bullock spoke. All of them were a bit happy, though, when the Commissioner showed up and fired him. It was a small justice for what he did, but it was still a start.
"Now, while this is a terrible thing, there is nothing we can do to change it, sadly," Superman started again once the video had ended. "We must adjust… Bruce will need to be more careful, we all must. This could lead to the entire League's uncovering if we're not careful, so, while this sort of upsets me, we can't be associating much with Bruce as our aliases, but as this side of us we can."
"Now wait," Batman interrupted, "Bruce Wayne is still the owner of a huge business and is still the richest man in Gotham, whether known as Batman or not, most people are still going to have me going to the big formal events, which means I will end up seeing people like you –" he gestured to Green Arrow "– still because you're also rich, and also people like you –" he looked pointedly at Superman "– because you are a reporter. We can't be changing my life completely just because of this, I won't have it."
"He's right," Green Arrow piped up. "I wouldn't want to change my life completely if something like this happened to me. Would any of you like to have to completely drop us as civvies at any point in your life?"
The League murmured their "no's" and Green Arrow nodded, his lips pressed into a firm line.
"No, exactly, you'd be left with very few friends at that point and, no matter how much we want to deny it, it's true. We all only have a few friends that we know would still like us after discovering our identities when we could have so many more if we stuck together still. We're a team, we help each other through stuff like this, no matter what," he finished.
Bruce's lips twitched in a slight smile as the others voiced their agreements. These people truly were the huge extended family he never had, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it, he cared for them all. His expression instantly hardened again, though, as he now took his turn to speak.
"While this means a lot to me, if people start to try and figure out your OWN identities because of any association with me, I insist that you drop communication with me and concern yourselves only with helping yourselves. It wouldn't offend me at all, this is a major thing. If they start to figure out more of our real personalities, it would be a disaster," he told them all sternly, not leaving any room for argument.
"Agreed, it seems fair enough," Superman said, speaking for everyone. They all nodded and Superman continued.
"Okay, so now onto a different matter here. Bruce," he turned to look at the Dark Knight, "are you and Dick still going to go out and patrol at night or what…?"
Bruce pursed his lips. He'd thought about this once or twice already since this whole thing had unfolded, but he'd never really decided for sure.
"We almost have to," he said. "If the police were left to watch Gotham on their own, no offense to them but the Joker or some other psycho like him would be running the place in no time and I cannot let that happen."
Superman nodded. "Understood, but if you think it's too dangerous to –" he began to say but a rather harsh Batglare cut him off mid thought.
Bruce stood up, palms pressed down flat on the table as he continued to glare at Clark. "Look, just because all of this has happened, doesn't change a thing about me," he growled. "I'm not suddenly weaker or anything just because people know. I'm. Still. Me." He enunciated each word very precisely to put effect on what he was trying to get across.
After he finished that sentence though, his anger finally broke through at this whole thing. Poor Justice League, some of them had just given him the wrong look so now he was lashing out at them... "What don't you guys understand about that? You're treating this whole situation as if Bullock had announced that I'd gotten cancer and I was going to slowly get weaker and die sometime soon, not as if he'd announced that he discovered- what he did! When you come into this job, you know the risks of it, the risks of your family getting hurt, you getting hurt, or someone finding out and while you pray for it not to happen and expect it not to, shit happens sometimes! When it does, you have to adjust and, as Green Arrow so aptly put it earlier, try and live around it, move on but not fully ignore it!
"Of course, even with this in mind I have to admit something." Bruce leaned forward, hands on the table again with his facial expression utterly serious. He'd all but forgotten his son was watching at this point as he spoke his next confession/shpeel.
"I. Am. Scared… I'm scared as heck about this whole thing and how I know it WILL change my life, along with other people's, no matter how much I don't want it to. I can't show my fear though, for more reason than one. First off, I am the Dark Knight, people expect me to be this stoic, emotionless statue which is far from the truth sometimes, and secondly if I start to show my fear over this, the people I am closest too will panic also and I can't allow that to happen. Their needs come before my own and I will protect them at all costs.
"With this in mind, this new situation makes it even harder for me to do that. All of the people who have ever hated either Batman or Bruce Wayne has now doubled and focused on the same person, and it's not the people who hated Bruce that I fear as much as the ones who were out to get Batman. All of those crazed, murdering psychos now know where I live, where I work, and even where my SON goes to school at! No amount of guards can protect him from the Joker and that SCARES me! He and I can't really be safe anywhere, even with our training, they can catch us off guard…
"I can't even get a good night's sleep anymore, not if anyone else in my house wants one. I have to stick through it for them. I will never let those people down who are counting on me, even if it means doing something I'm terrified to do, face something I know I can't beat, or become something I know I can't be, I'll do it because I have more than just myself to think about with every move I make.
"Now that THAT is all out there, I feel this meeting is over. There is nothing else to talk about unless you want to go into the whole 'The-Entire-League-could-be-exposed-because-of-this' thing again. Otherwise, I have more important things to be doing now, things to adjust and change so if you'll excuse me."
And with that, the Dark Knight strode purposefully out of the room, cape gliding behind him, leaving a surprised team and an open mouthed son behind him…
(A/N: I'm sooo sorry for the pause in updates~ I hope you guys liked it, I had to work hard around a Writer's Block for this, but your reviews kept me going! Now, Review, it will motivate me more for the next one ^-^~~~~)