A/N: Second chapter! Nothing really to say, so let's get straight in! *fist pump*

Langley, Virginia. Vice President Lex Luthor, swamped by Secret Service agents, is being held in a CIA safehouse for his own safety following the events in Washington DC.

"Mr Vice President" came a low female voice. Luthor swivelled around in his chair, surrounded by the Secret Service.

"Amanda Waller. Why am I not surprised?" he said, a sneer lighting up the side of his face. "Colonel Steve Trevor, what are you doing here?" Luthor raised his hand and returned his salute.

"It's General now, sir. With my new rank, I have security clearance at this level and felt I could help in this situation."

"I'm surprised you aren't at Shazam's funeral, sir. The whole Justice League has turned up according to Jack Ryder" Waller said, brushing off an agent with a show of her badge.

"Protocol states that, for my own safety, I can't make any public appearances until 24 hours after the death of the man I'm about to replace." Luthor replied.

"Not that you wanted to be there anyway" the General muttered under his breath. Luthor heard him, but brushed off the comment.

"Anyway, you want to push forward your little Justice League bill, don't you?" He folded his arms and sunk into his chair.

"You say that as if we're glorifying them?" Waller pulled out a file and placed it on the desk between them.

"I don't think many people in our kind of positions do. Certainly not at the moment." Luthor smirked, noticing the General's overt dislike of the remark and he and Waller sat down.

"Agreed. Although it'll be very hard to get rid of them, as much as I want to." Luthor pulled the file towards him and opened it.

"We both think this would be the best way to contain the matter with the least amount of collateral damage." General Trevor said, giving a contemptuous look at Waller. Luthor's eyes flicked through the pages, and the silence was finally broken when Luthor looked up in sarcastic surprise.

"I've never known you to compromise, Amanda." She moved awkwardly in her seat, much to the pleasure of the General.

"As I said," General Trevor sat forward, "we want the least amount of collateral damage."

"Very well." Luthor closed the file, "I'm sure given the circumstances there won't be much resistance in Congress. We can get this passed before the month is out."

"And you can give us your word on that?" Waller said. Luthor pointed to the US flag pin on his jacket.

"I'll have the power to do so from tomorrow."

The Justice League Watchtower. Justice League members are returning from the funeral of Shazam in his hometown in Philadelphia.

"This shouldn't have happened." Superman said. The main hall was filled with almost the entire league membership.

"He was a great warrior and he will be sorely missed by us all" Wonder Woman said, putting her hand on Superman's shoulder. There were many small conversations, but the noise level was still surprisingly quiet and sombre.

"I still can't see why he had to be let into the league." Green Arrow said, talking to Booster Gold.

"Yeah I know, I mean he had the Wisdom of Solomon, but he was 10 years old, for Christ's sake." Booster Gold leant against the wall, sipping his beer.

"Apparently it was only a majority vote. Green Lantern and Batman voted against him. 5-2."

"And that was enough?" Booster Gold said probably a bit too loudly. He looked around and waved apologetically. "I mean, we aren't a fucking frat house."

The wake continued for a while in mainly good spirits, until Batman arrived through the teleport. The room suddenly went very quiet. Batman always had that kind of effect on people, but this time everyone turned their heads to watch him. Superman walked up to Batman, arms out.

"Bruce, why are you here? Isn't Tim's funeral today?" Batman didn't even stop, he just continued towards the monitor room.

"It's my shift. Duty calls." He replied. Superman rolled his eyes.

"You don't need to blame yourself for either of their deaths." Batman stopped.

"You're right. I don't." He turned around to face Superman. "Because it's Billy's fault." Everyone went quiet, as if a wave of Batman's anger rippled through the room and silenced them.

"Bruce you can't…"

"Why can't I?" Batman interrupted him, his voice getting louder. "He made the decision to jump up there and blow it up. And it should never have happened because he should have never made it that far."

"It was a majority decision to let him in."

"It was a wrong decision. It was the single dumbest idea you all have had as heads of the Justice League. And because of this, two young heroes are dead." Noticeably irked by this comment, Superman walked towards him, stopping only to square up against the man who he had fought against for most of his time as a hero.

"With all that stuff with Damien and Darkseid last year, I would've thought you would've been used to it by now, Bruce. You seem to go through more sidekicks than batarangs." The only noise anyone could here was the leather of Batman's gloves tightening as he balled his hands into fists.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Batman said, his voice much quieter, "We shouldn't get to make the decisions here, Clark. There are better people to make those decisions. Elected people. People who the citizens of the world trust to make the right decisions. Members of the Justice League happen to have extra-ordinary skills and abilities and that means that they're above all that? We shouldn't be the all-powerful, self-appointed gods of the world."

Superman replanted his feet, resetting his stance and stepping back.

"We can't let the governments of the world control us, otherwise we just become political tools for them? We need to be neutral."

"We need to make sure that we don't put innocent lives in danger. And if one of us does, we need to take them out of action. We're unchecked, unleashed. Some people still call us all vigilantes. Look at Captain Atom." Captain Atom looked quite surprise that he was being brought into this. "He literally controls the power of a nuclear bomb. What happens if he decided to use that in the middle of a populated city?

"I would ne…" Captain Atom tried to say.

"You cannot know that. Any of us could go rogue or submit to mind-control. Any of us could made rash decisions, just like Billy did, that would put innocent lives in danger. And if that's a possibility, which you cannot argue, the fact that we haven't got any proper system in place to stop that is dangerous. To people without god-like powers, that is scary."

"You're just being paranoid, Bruce." Superman said, his calm expression barely scratching the surface of Batman's contempt and bottled rage.

"If you seriously believe that what I'm saying is sheer paranoia at most, then you don't deserve to sit at the head of that table." Batman pointed to the window above them, looking into the Justice League War Room. Superman didn't reply. The heroes around them started looking at each other, astounded looks on their faces. Batman exhaled and brought his hand back to his side. He looked around at everyone, stepping away from Batman as if to address the whole room. "You're all heroes. You all put yourselves in danger to try and save people every day. But if you can't accept that we need someone to keep us doing the right things, then you're just as bad as those that we protect the world against."

"Bruce…" Superman looked down.

"Don't, if you can't see the reality of this situation, then consider this my resignation from the League." He walked past Superman, back to the teleporter. He dialled in the co-ordinates and stood on the transport pad. "Someone will need to take over my shift."

Langley Virginia. The Royale Hotel. Room 1939.

"I know General. You don't need to chew my ear off about it." Amanda Waller said, using the phone by her bed.

"I don't want this to go that far" the General said on the other end of the line.

"It won't do, they aren't idiots."

"I'll hold you to that. Goodnight Waller."

"Goodnight General." She put the phone down, slid into bed, turned the light off and closed her eyes. Within seconds, she opened them again, turned on the light and stood up, holding her previously hidden side-arm.

"What are you doing here?"