[17th September 2010]
[Watchtower, Low Earth Orbit]
"Bad?" he heard Diana query as she took her seat at the table along with the others. Yet another full meeting required and more evidence to him that the current system of the Justice League's operations was less efficient than it should be.
Thankfully Clark was the one reply with a faint nod and a soft 'Bad' in agreement as he himself went about preparing the last pieces of information for the night's...day? it was hard to keep track up here sometimes within one's own mind...quasi-emergency meeting. It was a mistake in his opinion to have one so soon after such the events, but it was one of the few times all schedules had been planned to overlap and several members had been insistent.
"So, what happened exactly to have the mission go so badly wrong? We've got four dead inmates, three dead prison guards, another dozen badly injured, and the sidekicks right there in the middle of Belle Reve when it went down. One of whom is very much responsible for those inmate deaths indirectly, or very much directly in one case might I add...and another who is recovering from her injuries right now. How is you niece J'onn? " the green and black uniformed Jon Stewart queried then glanced at Martian Manhunter who gave a nod in thanks perhaps.
"M'gann is merely exhausted and with rest she will be fine. Killer Frost's attempt to hold her hostage while momentarily debilitating has no long term concern for her. She is somewhat distressed over the events of course"
"Not surprising, Artemis didn't want to talk about it but it's pretty clear she's badly upset, and somewhat shaken, over the way things went down. She shouldn't have been there in the first place anyway, and I don't like the way she was encouraged to be...or what she was there for, and with whom"
Oliver...Oliver was going to be a problem tonight he could tell despite the moderate tone of the green clad archer. Perhaps Canary as well as she'd spent the past few hours with the four members of the Team involved in the rather problematic events that occurred in Belle Reve. Too mistakes had been made again; by himself as much as any of the others and he could already tell some wanted to reach for some easy answers tonight for complicated questions. Still at least Dinah Lance chided her lover slightly over that.
"It was for her sister you know, you can hardly blame her for trying to be there for family"
Green Arrow sighed and sat back into the chair "A family honestly she'd be better off without if the truth be told...she's making a good start in a new life and I hate to see her dragged back down by them..." another sigh and a glance towards him "Do we have the camera footage of the incident? See how this mess got created from start to finish?"
Batman gave the faintest of nods, activating the screen to bring up the surveillance footage that Lantern Stewart had taken from Belle Reve's computers during his brief time inside its walls. Multiple camera angles of course as he detailed the nature of Superboy's and Miss Martian's mission into the facility, then of the nature of Artemis's and Fortune's arrival in the facility with a team of lawyers and armed US Marshals. Not something Queen wasn't overly happy about since young Artemis had only mentioned the basics to him, like she had to Bruce as well.
Something that had been kept off the official schedule he explained as a few queried it, and the nature of the deal Jade Crock aka Cheshire was supposedly getting. While several were unhappy at the nature of it, the information revealed on the League of Shadows made up for allowing the girl to largely get away with the evil deeds she had done. Mostly, and she would be watched of course in the event of a relapse...as would her newly healed mother Huntress; another potential threat for the watch-list and counter-measures.
"Do we, or they, know how Freeze managed to get his cold tech into Belle Reve?" Clark asked as the footage from Warden Amanda Waller's office played and it showed the now deceased Victor Fries free himself, and then the other prisoners. It was something that should not have happen Bruce thought. While he had many issues with Amanda Waller and her supporters within the US government Belle Reve, and all her protocols, were excellent in thought and design. What happened yesterday would not have a simple explanation, and from all indications he'd received in the past months hinted at someone trying to manipulate events to their desired outcome. Nefarious ones he expected, and to be thwarted once he figured out what they were.
"No, I've already begun investigating the matter but with Fries no longer with us the task may not be easy. Both myself and the Green Lanterns will monitor the investigation launched the prisons service, and I possibly by Congress, in the coming weeks" he replied as the relevant footage came to light from a corridor near a meeting room "...it's important to note that Fortune is caught by surprise here and attempts to engage Victor Fries before he is shot by a member of the prison security staff"
"At the boy's encouragement it also must be noted" Giovanni stated as Bruce brought up the footage of the incident and those showing the situation of Superboy and M'gann in their disguises as the Terror Twins. It was true of course, but understandable given the situation even if somewhat undesirable in a prospective member of the Justice League. Still of all the fatalities it was the least problematic for getting through the meeting and any decision making.
"Indeed, but as we can see on the footage he attempted to non-lethally subdue Fries when the bullet wound caused him to go. He then treated the iced and wounded members of his party, followed by evacuating out the civilians, before returning to what he still believed to be the injured Fries. By then it was too late and already deceased due to a combination of one of the bullets cracking his environment suit and another nicking an artery...if it had been treated immediately it might have salvageable. But under the circumstances..."
Most of those at the table accepted that reasoning...most would have done the exact same with civilians to protect and possibility of more meta-humans on the way. But the decision straight afterwards that to arm the guards, and a former international assassin and mercenary, with 'enchanted' anti-metahuman weaponry was much contentious as he'd expected. As they went through the events that followed he could tell that decision coloured the opinions of one or two of their members on the deaths of the inmates called Brick and Devastation by those he was with.
Brick outside the Warden's Office by one of the Marshals, and then the woman called Devastation in the last few minutes with the storming of the female wing when he'd given over two more weapons to Waller and her just freed guards. Leaving Artemis behind before the attempt to free those held hostage, with the reasoning given to her, indicated both good and bad things from the boy.
Bad in the sense that the teenager had clearly expected the situation to have the very strong possibility to go horribly wrong and thereby worked in 'dealing' with the fallout from any potential deaths into said approach. But in his own opinion it spoke well of the boys training and loyalties to his teammates in moving to shield Artemis from what he considered needed to be done. While Bruce himself could not agree with such thinking, it was very close to that of Commissioner Gordon when the situation required it, or the law demanded it.
Fortune as he detailed to the others was legally covered, both from the initial agreement between the two governments and then from a written (retrospective) authorisation from Amanda Waller in the aftermath. Unlike the near debacle with M'gann and Superboy of several hours ago the boy's legal situation was completely above board.Even with the rather dramatic death of Doctor Desmond, aka Blockbuster, as the group consisting of Fortune and the two armed Marshal's attacked the prisoners still awake and between them and the hostages.
This, very unfortunately, included Superboy...who went down to a non-lethal knock out spell alongside the Icicile senior, and junior, and dazed the burly meta-human calling himself Mammoth. It was also something he catalogued away in his mind to explore at a later date as a possible means to contain...certain individuals...in the event of a crisis without expensive alien materials, or potentially deathly counter-measures. Blockbuster though did not go down, shaking his head to clear it on the camera before charging towards the skull masked Fortune and the hostages beyond...
"...at which point it's clear he lost control of the situation"
"And went for a killing blow without hesitation Batman, which is why we need to take him off the team with the other sidekicks. At the very least for a number of months...and then we can look at the situation once again. That the manner of the death is also rather gruesome which does not help matters, nor the fact he armed people with weapons knowing full well they could kill meta-humans with them. Regular folk are just not able for that sort of dangerous power – because we get bloodbath's like this. When all that had to be done was to wait for us to arrive and save them and those taken hostage..." he made nodded as Bruce indicated the issue caused by the presence of Superboy and J'onn's niece "...yes I accept it's an issue the two of them being there as it occurred but we agreed to it authorise it for a reason and we could not have foreseen any of the villains plans were as advanced as they were. I'll also point out the cl...boy was knocked by Fortune and J'onn's niece got hit by his mental attack immediately afterwards. He's just not Justice League material, best we solve the issue now...or at least give him a chance to reform where it won't be dragging down the others to his level"
Clark stated politely, what's worse he wasn't agitated or anything other than calm on the matter. No, that move was a Rubicon that should never, ever, be crossed by any wannabe hero in the Kyrptonian's opinion. Or in truth a point to be crossed by most of those present, Bruce included, but this was a matter of skill and training being required, rather than any seeming bloodlust from the youngster as a few of his colleagues seemed to fear. Telling the difference had really rather easy after coming up against the full-blown madness of the Clown, the lesser madness of the likes of Ivy, or even the more cold vicious vindictiveness of Cobblepot. Unfortunately not everyone agreed with line of think, as Dinah brought up her hand.
"I'll unfortunately have to second that. In the debriefing just before we came up here he expressed unhappiness with the way the mission went of course. Over knocking out Connor, and scaring M'gann, over Artemis being upset, over not planning it out better. Or things like not taking account of this factor or another, especially in relation to the guard Icicle Senior killed, or the Marshal injured by Doctor Desmond,I mean Blockbuster. But he expresses little to no regret over killing him beyond that he had to do it..."
She looked around the table and shrugged unhappily "He sees himself as police officer, or soldier, perhaps and I think time is needed to bring him to a better worldview first before we start doing any more with him and the others. I'm not saying we cast him aside, but move to a situation more like his mentor and government; we train and help and avoid placing him, them, in situations they can't handle like this one. So I second Superman's motion that we should remove him, temporarily, from the Mountain and the Team"
Oliver of course back her up raising his own hand as did Clark "We should have done something after Santa Prisca and this is our fault as well. Artemis is pretty broken up over the thing, even if she won't tell me much or say a bad word about him. Best we try and show some kind of warning to shape up now rather than a few years from now when they want to place him on the table here beside us. Off the Team"
Bruce gave a faint shake of his head "I disagree, his actions even against Desmond were mostly restrained till it spun completely out of his control. Blockbuster shrugged off her mental attacks, the electrical attack and was attempting to kill him up close. It's rather clear the boy utilises his magic to meta-human abilities but don't let that hide the fact he could have been killed when Blockbuster managed to get hold of him. This...Blade of Doom as he referred to it, was clearly a self-defence contingency and he activated it when pressed into a corner. It is an issue of training and perhaps poor judgement in this situation. Removing him will do nobody any good. Stay"
Barry surprisingly nodded and his voice was somewhat more serious than usual "I say let him Stay. It's pretty clear to me he's got lots of murder-powers after reading the files Giovanni showed us on his mentor, and what we've seen from him. Yeah Skullsy gets spooky as all hell with the darkness, tentacles and bow down in fear stuff but if you look at his actions he really tries to follow our guidelines. Like really, really, tries considering how much he whines about it. Letting him off on his own will only make this worse not better, especially since the guards there, probably whole Marshal service too by now, love him for what he helped them do"
"That's the problem Flash..." Giovanni noted bringing up his hand to signal his side of the debate "...he plays with power he barely understands and then used it to forge weapons. If it had just been an accidental death...I could understand, but the using his abilities to create tools to kill others indicates to me a probationary period is in order. We're meant to be heroes and we have to strive to be better than that. Off"
Both the Hawk's shook their heads, though only Shyera answered for both seemingly after a quick nod from her husband "Nothing he did was wrong, illegal or otherwise. It's not Justice League acceptable, but clearly he isn't on the League yet and should not be judged by those standards. On Thanagar this would not be even queried as being somehow unacceptable. Nor are the local authorities anything other than positive in their view of his role in this fiasco. Unlike with ourselves and the presence of his two teammates without their permission...we both vote stay"
Bruce frowned as the two Green Lanterns seemed to confer amongst themselves before nodding and stating a clear "Off the Team..." at the same time before Jordan motioned to Stewart to continue for them "...the death is a problem, and honestly some time to get to grips might best for him. The weapons though are a concern, because it could spark others into copying him and seeing this sort of action as acceptable. There were too many deaths here compared to if we'd been allowed handle it"
Captain Atom shook his head "He followed the law, and there is nothing stopping one being a soldier or police officer and being one of us. Bad things happen and you deal with them, and he did considering circumstances. I vote stay"
"I agree, him Staying would be for the best. Kaldur'am speaks well of him despite some concerns, and while I have my own based on what I see on the footage his weapons are little different than what we do in Atlantis. Except more primitive I expect"
Captain Marvel, Billy who should really not have say on this in truth but that would require Bruce to cross a line he'd prefer not too at the moment gave a simple opinion "Off the Team. It's just for a while and maybe he'll stop with the more problematic and bad magic. Few months then if he cleans up his act alls good again"
J'onnn seemed to consider carefully before answering, raising a hand as Bruce held back a scowl "A period away from the Team might be for the best, for him as well as them. We should not end our association, but a more individualised approach is perhaps a preferable on to take. On the agreement that it is merely a probationary measure I vote to remove him for now"
The synthesised and unemotional voice of Red Tornado reached his ears "Removing the boy would be unlikely to solve the issue in my estimation. Though I admit I am a poor judge of such emotional factors I admit. I vote to for him to Stay. There is little difference here Diana than what was required of you and I during the days of the All Star Squadron alongside the others"
Diana frowned, then shook her head slightly "That was war-time, and we are held to a higher standard now I'm afraid. I do not believe that his actions were extreme, but after other events such as the island it needed to send a message. When I was a young warrior in training I needed those lessons as well from time to time to temper my future behaviour. Temporarily remove him from the Team is my vote"
With her hand raising Bruce focused on mitigating the fallout from this decision. It was mistake in his view, one at best that would alienate several governments somewhat, and at worst force him to prioritise creating counter-measures to handle Fortune and his backup if the situation ever called for it.
Unfortunately none of them seemed to realise that this would sent a rather unfortunate statement indirectly to several nations, especially after the boy's recent publicity in Taipei, that non-American heroes were not needed. Or even potentially worse that the boy was truly responsible for the deaths in Belle Reve and was being removed for such...he could already feel the coming headache and long hours of damage control from this...
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