The moment the door to the decontamination room sealed shut behind them, Batman let out a sigh. There was no telling how long he and Diana had been in that room, but it had to have been hours. Raising his hands up, he took hold of the helmet of his hazmat suit and pulled it off, cool air finally touching his face after being covered by the suffocating helmet.

Dropping it onto the floor, the vigilante began stripping himself of the rest of the suit, letting it pool on the floor next to his discarded helmet. Next to him, Diana was doing the same, her face gleaming with a light layer of sweat. It took them a couple minutes to free themselves of the suits, but once they did they left the decontamination room.

It was going to take some heavy-lifting, planning, and stealth to remove the stash of kryptonite here. Already Batman was considering his options on how to do this, though it was obvious that this endeavor would have to be done at a later time. There was simply too much going on at the moment to secure the stash at this time; this place was as good as any to keep it safe until retrieval could be done.

As the last door to the decontamination room closed, the dark-clad man couldn't help but look to the computer in the room. It was one thing he hadn't checked, which he might as well do before they left. There was no telling what the Joker could have been using it for.

As he made his way to it, he heard Diana following, or at least that's what he assumed she was doing. It wasn't until he heard a brief pause in her steps before he heard her say, "This seems like an odd thing to keep here."

Stopping, Batman turned around to regard the Amazon. She was standing over by the cot, holding a teddy bear in her hands. He had to agree, it was strange for a stuffed animal to be left behind, even one that had obvious signs of use to it. Ready to dismiss it entire it, the vigilante began to turn away before his entire body froze.

That bear, it was missing an eye.

"Drop it!" he roared as he swung around and sprang towards the dark-haired woman, who looked at him with surprise. Immediately, he swatted the teddy bear out of her hands, sending it flying towards the wall. The stuffed animal rebounded off the sheetrock, but didn't travel very far, falling to land back on the cot.

A moment later, a green gas spewed out of its mouth, firing a small geyser up into the air..

Wrapping an arm around Diana's shoulders, he forced her to kneel down on the ground while he flung his cape around them. As they crouched beneath the cape, Batman pulled out a small, orange grenade, shoving his thumb on top of a button at its head. Shoving his arm out through an opening in the cape, he tossed the grenade away, already imagining a stream of orange gas being released from it. Pulling his arm back, he made sure his cape was wrapped tightly around him and Diana.

"What's going on?" Diana hissed at him, though fortunately she made no attempt to move away from him.

"Trap," he answered succinctly. That was a good enough answer for her as she remained silent.

That changed several moments later when she asked, "Is that the Joker Venom I've heard about?"

"Yes."

"Do you have an antidote do it?"

That was what the gas grenade was for. It was currently releasing a gaseous form of the antidote, which should be neutralizing the Joker Venom—at least theoretically. The moment the Joker had made his presence known, the Dark Knight had begun carrying the devices in such a case where Joker Venom was being released without any clear exit. Regardless, he did have a couple vials of the antidote just in case.

"I do," he replied.

"Can it inoculate us against the toxin?" Diana questioned.

Now that was a question. To be honest, he didn't know the answer to that. Hypothetically, yes, it should immunize them, but he had never tested it nor wished to. At the moment though, it seemed that this was going to be as good of a time as any.

Either that or they were deluding themselves into killing themselves.

Reaching to his belt, the vigilante pulled out his airgun, handing it over to the Amazon Princess to hold. There was no way he was going to release his hold on the cape, not when he could potentially expose the two of them to the toxin. That just left him with one hand to fish in the belt pouch for one of the antidote vials. The moment he did, Diana snatched it away and loaded it into the airgun, handing it back to him. She even leaned her body so that she could offer up her arm.

Without needing further prompting, Batman pressed the barrel of the airgun into her upper arm and squeezed the trigger, injecting the antidote into her. The moment he pulled away, the dark-haired woman was reaching up to take the airgun. "Now you," she said.

That was easier said than done. Though he retrieved another vial, he had to remove one of his gauntlets with Diana's assistance in order to expose himself for the injection. He winced as he was injected, but thankfully his partner was quick about it, placing the airgun on the floor even as she helped slide his gauntlet back on. "Hopefully this will prevent any unfortunate side-effects from the toxin," she commented.

Oh yes, let's hope so.

Focusing on his hearing, Batman sought out any sound that indicated gas was still being injected into the room. He could make out the hissing from his chemical grenade, but he couldn't make out if the teddy bear was finished. Hopefully it was done, which was a lot better than the sound of the grenade masking it. To be on the safe side, the vigilante fully intended on waiting until the hissing stopped.

It took awhile, but eventually everything was silent. Cautiously, Batman drew his cape away, slowly standing up on his feet, Diana following his lead. The wall by the cot was dyed a sickly green color due to the exposure of the Joker Venom. The floor by the chemical grenade was orange too. Taking a steady breath, Batman smelled a combination of the toxin and antidote; it was strong too thanks to the enclosed room.

More importantly, he wasn't feeling like he needed to laugh; that was a bonus. Either the antidote-filled grenade had done was designed, or the antidote inoculation was effective; perhaps it was both. Looking to Diana, he was more than happy to see she too seemed unaffected. "It's time we left," he said to her, drawing her attention to him.

Her lips drew into a smile then. "I agree." Then she stepped towards him, his cue to begin heading for the door. However, before the dark-clad man could so much as take a step, he felt a pair of lips press against his check.

Startled, he froze in place before he slowly looked to the Amazon. "For your foresight in preparation," she answered his unspoken question. Then she began walking towards the elevator doors.

That was...unexpected.

"Batman? Wonder Woman? This is Flash, come in."

Both of their heads perked up at that. "We read you," Batman replied, pressing a hand against his cowl.

"I need you at my location ASAP. Hawkgirl and I are in a bit of a pickle."

The Dark Knight clenched his teeth tightly. Already he could picture another Joker attack, this one immobilizing two more Leaguers—bodies they couldn't afford to lose. "What happened?"

"Oh, you know, ran into a bad guy who decided my legs and Hawkgirl's wings looked better in ice. I gotta tell ya, I disagree."

Batman shared a look with Diana, one that clearly showed their confusion. "We're on our way. ETA: ten minutes."


"S-s-s-so t-t-tell me again, w-w-why am I g-g-going l-last?" Flash asked through chattering teeth.

Batman didn't even spare the red-clad man a glance. "Because you have a faster healing time than Hawkgirl. She has a greater chance at losing her wing than you do your legs. The sooner we get that wing thawed, the better for her."

Diana looked to Flash, doing her best to give him a comforting smile. She was currently floating right at the top of the hyperthermic tank, helping slide Hawkgirl into the warm waters. An oxygen mask had been fitted over her face, so the redhead wasn't all that concerned about drowning. Slowly, she sank into the water, careful to not bang her ice-entombed wing on the edge.

Once she was sure her sister was in, Diana drifted down to land next to Batman and Flash. Fortunately there were two tank in the cave; unfortunately one was still being used by J'onn. The Martian had long since been removed of ice, but pieces of him were still floating about the tank, something that worried the Amazon.

The second tank, which Hawkgirl was in, actually stood behind the one J'onn resided in, so it was no wonder they had missed it the first time they had been introduced to the machine. Currently, Batman stood at the nearby control panel, entering data into the computer. With a final few tapes of the keys, he then grabbed a large dial and began turning it.

Before her eyes, Diana watched as bubbles began to rush upward and envelop Hawkgirl. A generator powered to life, creating a sound that was almost deafening. The three heroes watched the bubbles right until Batman began turning the dial down. Slowly, but surely, the Thanagarian reappeared, looking the same as she had upon entering the tank.

That was disappointing to Diana—at least, that had been her initial reaction. She almost missed a piece of ice chip off before it was followed by another, then another. Then, to her joy, the ice broke apart, exposing Hawkgirl's wing to the water surrounding her.

"She'll need to stay in there for a little while," Batman spoke then, causing both Diana and Flash to look at him. "We need to make sure she has adequate perfusion to that wing before we get her out."

"Oh, no biggie," Flash responded from where he laid on the ground, the chatter in his voice vanishing for some reason. "I can wait, what, ten more minutes? At least that's how long I have before frostbite sets in. No rush whatsoever."

"Good." The Dark Knight then turned away and began walking to another part of the Batcave, mostly likely to his giant super computer.

"He does know I w-was being sarcastic," Flash said to the Amazon, some concern laced in his voice.

"I'm sure he does," Diana replied. Caring is an entirely different matter, however.


Sitting down in his chair, Batman looked up at the monitor of the supercomputer.

Things were becoming more complicated. He should have known someone would have taken advantage of the current situation in the wake of Superman's rampage. If Superman had been attacking Gotham, he would have expected gangs and other criminal elements to go on a spree of mayhem and carnage while the police had their hands tied with damage control. Criminals would impose their wills upon the shell-shocked citizens, claiming new territories, and taking out rivals. Despite Metropolis' proud proclamations of being the "City of Tomorrow," it was just that, a city. It was not immune to crime, no matter how much it swept it under the rug.

However, just because common criminals didn't make the newspapers, that didn't preclude super-villains. This Monocle seemed to be such a person considering he swiftly dealt with two Justice League members in a matter of seconds. While Batman doubted the man had actually powers—more like he was technologically powered if Flash's account was anything to go by—he was still dangerous and thus needed to be apprehended.

Typing on the keyboard, Batman hacked into the Metropolis bank's security feed and rewound it, stopping when he got a good picture of the Monocle. At least, it was the best one right before the man fired an energy beam that destroyed the cameras. He matched Flash's description to a T. Activating a program, he began running a facial recognition on the man.

"You are sure Flash won't lose his legs, right?"

Turning his head to a side, the vigilante spotted Diana walking towards him, coming to a stop next to his chair. She was looking up at the computer screen, watching the various programs at work. "I am," he replied to her evenly before returning his attention to the monitor.

"Good, though just to let you know, Flash doesn't seem to be comforted by that."

"It took me awhile to get those tanks set up, programmed, and running," he explained to her, leaning back into his chair. "I was in the finishing stages of completing it when I had my first subject and she received a full recovery. That was after a few hours of having her legs covered in ice and without super powers."

Diana raised an eyebrow. "She?"

"She."

"Any reason you're not telling me who she is?"

"Not really. It was Lois Lane, if you must know."

"Oh." A pause. "So does she…"

"Know who I am? Yes."

"How did that happen?"

"Miscalculated how much sedative I had given her." That had been the first of many times someone had found out about his alter ego, though the dark-clad man had taken steps to make sure no one found out as easily as Lane had. "She woke up and recognized someone who was helping me at the time and put two and two together."

"I don't suppose you let her off easily," the Amazon inquired.

"After making sure she wouldn't expose me, she was free to go. I've kept an eye on her from time to time, but thankfully she had someone else to keep her mind off of me."

It didn't need to be said just who had attracted Lois Lane's reporter eye, a smile appearing on Diana's lips before she asked her next question. "If I'm not being too forward, why did you take her to the Dorsey Gala?"

This time it was Batman's turn to crack a smile. "That was mostly to annoy Superman. Never would have thought it would cause the aftermath it did." At this he gave a pointed look to the dark-haired woman.

This in turn made Diana frown. Following her and Superman's arrival at the gala, newspapers around the world had proclaimed them "The Power Couple." No amount of denials and refuting that story had changed public opinion. This had caused no end to the grief the two heroes felt, none more so than Superman. He had a pissed-off Lois Lane to deal with and she was more than capable of making the Kryptonian feel small. In fact, Batman had it on good information that Lane still made snide remarks about it, especially within super-hearing distance.

That was when an alarm from the computer went off, drawing their attention back to the screen. A picture of the Monocle appeared minus the monocle, revealing the man's name to be Johnathon Cheval. His personal information was listed next to the image, along with a last known address, employment, and associates.

Batman's eyes narrowed as he read. It seemed Cheval fancied himself a high-rolling investor if the list of corporations he was associated with and stocks he owned were any indication. He also had a bad eye it seemed as most of his investments went south. The only one that was still standing was a Cheval Optics; though considering that company was currently under investigation by the SEC, it seemed this guy didn't know what he was doing with his finances.

The vigilante knew the type of man Cheval was all too well. There were plenty of his ilk that would show up at the parties and charities he attended, all wanting him to invest in their latest venture. It didn't matter that the last five times they asked, the venture went belly-up, the newest one was always bigger, better, and would never end up like the other "can't miss" opportunities.

It seemed Cheval couldn't resist such offers, which would account for his robbery.

"It doesn't look like this man will be a big problem," Diana commented after a moment. "Assuming he's not smart enough to have a safe house to hide in and not return to his dwellings."

Rapidly striking a few keys, Batman entered a search of Cheval's known residences, finding them all to have a security system in place. Accessing the account, it was quickly revealed only one of the residences had the security code inputted in the last twenty four hours.

"Once Hawkgirl and Flash are back to form, we'll go apprehend him," the vigilante stated.

"You don't think you and I will be enough?" the Amazonian Princess asked, surprise in her voice.

"I rather not take any chances," was his reply.

He received a sharp nod in return, something the dark-clad man was grateful for. Had this been six months previous, he would have been challenged by her indignation at being considered unworthy. Their time training with each other had tempered that mindset it seemed.

Of course, another alarm had to ring out, forcing another change of subject. Much to Batman's delight, the computer had just finished downloading the data from the League's black box. Multiple windows began opening, a couple of which were clearly security footage while others were records and other pieces of data.

"Finally," he said as he began tapping on the keyboard. Glancing to Diana, he then spoke, "It's about time Hawkgirl came out of the Hyperthermal Tank. Flash can go in now."

"I'll get right on that." There was no hint of sarcasm, or disgust at being given a menial task. There was simply acceptance and without further prompting, Diana turned and headed back to the others. That was fine with Batman. Right now he needed to go over the black box recordings.


A dull bong echoed out as Diana rapped her knuckles on the tank's glass. Hawkgirl stirred from the sound, her eyes looking to the Amazon. Diana merely gestured for her to swim upward, the redhead complying. Floating up through the air, the dark-haired woman met her friend at the top, who was pulling her face mask off. Drawing closer, she softly placing her hands beneath the Thanagarian's arms and shoulders. Pulling, she hauled Hawkgirl out of the tank, assisting her down to the ground.

"It's about time," Flash said loudly as he watched. His eyes, however, seemed to focus on them, glazing over. "Maybe I was too impatient," he murmured.

"What are you getting at Flash?" Hawkgirl grumbled at him, eyeing him warily.

"Well...you're wet…"

"So? I just got out of a water tank. That's to be expected."

"And you're getting Wondy wet."

"And?"

"That's getting her wet too."

Diana looked down at herself and Hawkgirl, noticing that her uniform was becoming saturated with the water trickling off her body. She wasn't sure what the relevance of that was, but apparently the redhead did.

"Grow up, Flash," she spat at him, her tone irritated. "Just...grow up."

"Maybe some other time. For now, it's my turn to get into the jacuzzi thing."

"Let him do it himself," the Thanagarian told Diana. "Help me to the med bay."

"Hey!" Flash protested. "That's not fair! I can't exactly climb my way up there!"

"He does have a point," Diana pointed out, earning her a glare from her fellow sister.

Ultimately, Diana did help Flash into the tank, securing the face mask before lowering him into the warm waters. Unsure what the exact process was to power the machine on, she chose not to mess with the controls and instead helped Hawkgirl to the med bay. The moment they got there, the Thanagarian plopped herself on one of the metal beds, pulling off her mask as she let out a sigh. She then looked up to the Amazon and asked, "Any headway on that Monocle guy?"

Diana nodded. "We have his identity and a possible location on him."

"Really? So why haven't you gone and arrested him yet?"

"Batman felt it was best if we waited for you and Flash to be at full strength. He didn't want to take the chance that Monocle would escape or that we both would be incapacitated."

Hawkgirl nodded, her face contemplative. It wasn't often Diana saw the other woman without her mask, but she looked less severe and hardened without it. It was like looking at a more vulnerable Hawkgirl.

"Well, if this guy was dumb enough to go back to his own home, it won't matter if we wait for Flash to recover," the redhead said then, interrupting Diana's musings. She then swung her legs up onto the bed and laid down, moving her arms up so that her hands could rest on the back of her head. "I'm going to rest here. Let me know when we're ready to move."

"Will do." Turning away, Diana floated off the med bay platform and began gliding back towards the supercomputer. Hopefully Batman was making some headway with the black box.


Batman sensed Diana's return long before she actually landed next to him. "Flash is in the Hyperthermal Tank?" he asked.

"Yes, but I did not activate the machine," came the dark-haired woman's reply. "I wasn't sure what to do, so I left it alone."

That was fine. If need be, the vigilante would activate the machine if there was a need for it. For now, the warm waters would thaw the ice out and slowly return sensation to Flash's legs and feet.

"Have you found anything?" the Amazon inquired then.

"I have," he answered her before he pulled up one of the windows. It was security footage of the Monitor Room at it's last recording. Currently fire was bursting through the walls and enveloping the entire room. "Computer: rewind footage to 0800 hours," Batman ordered.

Immediately, the fires disappeared from the frame, showing the Monitor Room as it normally was. Hitting one of the arrow buttons on the keyboard, the footage began to speed up, a time stamp in the bottom right corner rapidly flipping through numbers. It was a few minutes before people showed up in the image, that of the Justice League minus Superman and Green Lantern.

"This is where we teleported to Metropolis," Batman narrated even as the teleporter whisked them away in a bright light. Waiting a few moments, the vigilante finally released the arrow button, allowing the footage to move at a normal pace.

Diana was silent as she watched. He had half-expected her to ask what she was waiting for, but it seemed she had the patience to wait. She was rewarded when the teleporter activated and a bright light flashed. Her eyes widened as she gasped as the Joker appeared on screen.

"How is this possible?" she whispered as she watched the madman glance around the room before he walked off the teleportation pad. A moment later he began tap-dancing in the room, something that caused a growl to escape her lips.

Batman paused the footage, pulling up another window. "I cross-referenced the teleportation logs to determine when and who used the teleporter. At the time the Joker entered the League HQ, Superman's access code had been used."

That caused the Amazon to jerk her head towards him. "Superman would never—" she began to declare.

Only to be interrupted by the vigilante. "He wouldn't normally, but that doesn't mean the Joker didn't get the information through other means. In order to activate the teleporter, the Joker would have needed Superman's comm device. He could have easily snatched it from Superman when he subdued him. As for the codes, he would have needed Superman to verbally tell him and considering he was under the influence of kryptonite…"

"Superman could have told him everything the Joker wanted," Diana finished for him, picking up where he trailed off. She sounded resigned, something that troubled the Dark Knight. Looking at the screen, she seemed to prefer to study it rather than look at the vigilante. It was because of this she spotted an important detail.

"He's carrying the briefcase you and I found outside the headquarters," she quickly said, raising a hand to point at the very object in question.

Batman nodded his affirmation. "Which means he wanted us outside of the building when he blew it up. He has others plans for us it would seem."

"How did he do it though? How did he manage to destroy the Justice League Headquarters?" At this, Diana turned to look at him with a questioning look on her face.

He sighed. "I had to comb through all of the logs, but I did manage to find out what the Joker accessed when he used one of the computers. He accessed the reactor that fuels the transporter and overrode the fail-safes that keep it stable. The reactor was unable to handle the energy output caused by the transporter and began to meltdown. That's what caused the explosion."

The Amazon Princess was silent for several moments, contemplating what she was hearing. "Every move this man makes has multiple layers to it," she remarked. "Using Superman to attack Metropolis not only preyed on desire to protect the city, but it drew us out of our headquarters so he could blow it up. Why would he do that though?"

Batman closed his eyes for a brief second before answering, "To show us there is no safe place we can hide from him."

"Then we have to find him first," Diana declared.

"Easier said than done." At this Batman raised one hand and held it over the keyboard, hitting a few buttons to bring up the transporter logs. "The location the Joker teleported to and from were the same. Care to guess where that was?"

The Amazon genuinely thought about this, though she ultimately ended up looking at the window showing the logs. "The facility where we discovered the kryptonite," she answered at last, her shoulders sagging at this realization.

"Which is where he departed from considering we didn't find him there. Either that or he was able to mask his presence entirely and watched us investigate." Though that was a possibility, it was one Batman didn't like in the least. It meant his intuition was dulling, something he had spent many years honing so that he wasn't snuck up on in the field. Yet, the Joker had demonstrated an ability to go undetected until he wished to make himself known.

Their brief confrontation above the Lazarus Pit was one such example.

The sound of a wet footstep reached his ears then, causing the vigilante to perk up. "Perhaps I can be of assistance," a stoic voice called out.

Batman rotated his chair while Diana spun around to face the source of the voice. Standing a short distance away was J'onn sans his normal attire. His blue briefs and boots were on, but gone was his cape and the red straps that crossed his chest. Fatigue was etched on his face, yet his body stood strong as rivets of water trickled down his green flesh.

"J'onn!" Diana exclaimed with joy, taking a step towards him.

"Welcome back," the Dark Knight greeted him. "How are you feeling?"

"Like my mind and body were shattered into countless pieces," the Martian responded as he slowly made the journey towards the computer.

"Will that affect your telepathy?"

"It is a distinct possibility, but until I use it I won't know the extent of any potential damage."

Batman raised an eyebrow. "Are you proposing to use your telepathy to track down the Joker?"

"It is one option we have not used," J'onn said evenly. "And at this point I am willing to try anything."

"Then it can wait." This statement earned the vigilante the stares of both Leaguers. "You need to continue to rest and we have a criminal that needs to be apprehended before he makes a bigger nuisance of himself. I assume you're aware of the Monocle by now."

J'onn stared blankly at him before he slowly nodded. "I do now. You may be right. I suppose you still intend on taking Flash and Hawkgirl with you?"

"I do. While we're taking care of that business, you can continue sifting through the League's black box data. That should help get your mental faculties up to speed."

Which is exactly what they needed now. Slowly, but surely, they were regaining their forces, even if they would forever be missing two of its members. Delving into those empty roster spots would have to be shelved for the time being. For now they needed to bring the man responsible to justice.


To guest: In this story, you mean? Can't say I have plans for him in this one.