Wonder Woman had to force herself not to outwardly show signs of amusement and instead appear frowning and irritated, although this was very difficult.
She was currently sitting in the Watchtower meeting room along with her teammates: they all gathered immediately after their defeat inflicted by the world's second most dangerous mercenary, although no one had yet begun to speak.
Once again all the heroes who needed hasty medical attention woke up with their most serious wounds already properly treated and this was confirmation for the Amazon that, just as happened in their first battle and defeat against the aforementioned assassin, it was Renegade himself who personally took care of the heroes who needed medical attention.
That and there was also to consider the fact that Renegade had returned the Green Lantern ring to Hal when he could easily have kept it for himself as well as the Helmet of Fate.
All this only reinforced Diana's trust in the mercenary, although she knew that she would have to be extremely careful with him because it could always be some mind game involving her trusting him and then him exploiting it to his advantage.
Although the deepest part of herself whispered to her that this was hardly the case, or at least she hoped so with every fiber of her being.
All the assembled heroes had deeply frowning, irritated, frustrated and annoyed expressions at how Renegade had beaten the entire Justice League for the second time, including even Hawkman, Red Tornado and especially Shazam and Dr. Fate who were not present in their first battle against the 17-year-old.
Fifteen superheroes, practically the entire Justice League except for a few, and certainly some of the most powerful, against a mere meta-human mercenary only seventeen years old and still they lost.
Wonder Woman knew that she should be pissed off, humiliated and feel other negative emotions just like her teammates but honestly she was not.
The only thing she felt was admiration and respect for Renegade who twice out of two was able to take down the entire JL, even holding back by a lot in both battles.
Of course, the more powerful heroes like her, Superman and Flash obviously were forced to restrain themselves for obvious reasons but still they gave their all without endangering Renegade's life and still he beat them.
It was honestly frightening the extreme level of danger and threat he represented but Wonder Woman, unlike the other heroes -especially Batman-, was not worried about it at all but on the contrary was completely serene and calm about it.
This because she was certain with all her heart that Renegade would never, ever hurt an innocent person but would always kill the worst criminals in existence.
Superman cleared his throat, distracting the Amazon from her thoughts. "Thank you for being all here-"
"Don't start that crap, man!" Green Lantern interrupted him abruptly. "For once why don't you just get straight to the point instead of beating around the bush?"
At his side Flash put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. "Hal, you have to-"
"Don't tell me to calm down." Hal growled, shaking off his best friend's hand. "Since none of you have the balls to say it, I will. How the fuck is it possible for a 17-year-old to kick the entire Justice League's ass by himself for the second time? There's a fucking underlying problem here and none of you want to fucking admit it!"
"You need to calm down, Green Lantern." Batman growled, sending him a threatening look.
The Ferris Aircraft pilot, for once not frightened by the Caped Crusader's stare, was about to respond when another hero suddenly spoke up. "Hal is right." Green Arrow intervened on his behalf, clearly frowning despite his mask. "There is no way that the protectors of Earth and the universe were defeated twice out of two by just a meta-human kid: it should be impossible for him to take down all heroes at once, even the most powerful ones like Superman, Flash, Shazam, Dr. Fate and Wonder Woman!"
"It is not my fault that I am very vulnerable to the kryptonite with which he even coats his bullets." Superman remarked with a heavy frown.
"He has used a tranquilizer on me." Shazam admitted with a shy shrug. "There wasn't much I could do about it."
"The Order would have prevailed as usual if Renegade had not removed the Helmet of Fate." declared Dr. Fate solemnly.
Green Lantern frowned at him. "That's exactly the problem: that damn kid shouldn't even be able to get near you, let alone take off your helmet."
"You're all forgetting one small detail." everyone's attention shifted to Wonder Woman who had just spoken. "Namely, the fact that that ''kid", as you call him, is currently the second deadliest and most dangerous assassin and mercenary in the world."
"That doesn't explain-"
"It explains a lot, actually." Wonder Woman stopped Hal from continuing, sending him a brief glare for interrupting her and then continuing. "According to the rumors circulating in the criminal world reported by Batman, no one would really be surprised if Renegade, within a few months or years, overtook Deathstroke himself, stealing from him the title of best assassin and mercenary.
"Not even Deathstroke would be able to take down the entire Justice League alone twice. Perhaps he would succeed if he had the opportunity to think about strategy plans but even then the outcome is yet to be decided. Instead, twice out of two we caught Renegade during or after one of his contracts and he always managed to take us down, despite being clearly caught off guard. This shows that Renegade, besides being quite possibly one of the best strategists in existence, is equally good at improvisation. Not even the plan devised by Batman was able to fool him." she stated, pointing with a nod at the hero mentioned.
"What do you mean, Wonder Woman?" asked Martian Manhunter, curiously tilting his head to the side.
"To make a long story short I mean that Renegade, between his complete training and superhuman abilities, especially his healing factor and his extraordinary tolerance and resistance to pain, far exceeds our powers."
"That shouldn't be possible, though!"
"I don't question that." the Amazon conceded with a nod to the Star City archer's words. "But it is. Believe me, I don't like the situation either, but we have to face reality face to face: continuing to complain about it will get us nowhere. We have to accept the reality that Renegade is capable of taking us all down at the same time completely on his own, and even holding back by a lot, and even if it hurts our pride, we have to act accordingly, not stand here whining like children."
"You're right." Aquaman nodded, expressing his assent to the demigoddess's words. "Although the fact that a 17-year-old has taken down all of us easily twice hurts our pride, we should come up with another plan to catch him." he finished, wincing slightly at the gash in his right side that had been mysteriously bandaged.
Most likely it was Renegade. Wonder Woman thought distractedly, sending a nod to the King of Atlantis.
"We managed to capture him once but we made the mistake of being cocky, thinking that Renegade would not be able to escape from our cells." Hawkgirl commented, reluctant admiration and respect in her tone of voice toward the mercenary.
"We can capture him a second time but without making the same mistake." Zatanna nodded. "We should be much more cautious with him, given the extreme level of danger and threat he poses."
"Not toward us or the innocent, though." Wonder Woman intervened. "He only kills and will continue to kill only the worst criminals in the world." she reminded everyone in an attempt to emphasize that yes, Renegade was practically synonymous with threat and danger but not toward them and civilians but only toward the scum of the Earth.
"This does not mean that he should not be caught. Fighting crime with murder is not justice and never will be."
The princess of Themyscira cast a hard look at the Dark Knight. "I have never denied your first sentence. However, I will not engage in a dispute of clearly conflicting ideologies. I only stated that Renegade does not pose a direct danger to the safety of civilians and therefore we should focus more attention not on him but on the real criminals who hurt the innocent. Maybe just starting with the Light about whom we still don't know much, despite all the information someone has left us."
"You're right. I had almost forgotten about the existence of the Light until you reminded me." Black Canary huffed. "Lately we've been so focused on Renegade that we've almost overshadowed the Light, a real criminal organization that, unlike Renegade, actually plans to kill us." she pointed out.
"Do you really want to leave the kid alone?" Green Arrow stared incredulously at his girlfriend.
The blond woman shook her head. "I didn't say that. Just to focus more on Light than Renegade. Like, 70 percent and 30 percent."
Batman's growl drew everyone's attention. "We must focus our full attention on both of them. Justice never rests and neither should we. We cannot prioritize one of them when they both pose a world-class threat, regardless of their goals."
"Batman is right." Dr. Fate nodded. "We must stop both Light and Renegade and to fulfill our duty we should make full use of the time and resources we have."
A general murmur of assent spread through the room. Wonder Woman pursed her lips downward, briefly showing her displeasure and quickly changing her expression to one of neutrality, and leaned back in her chair.
If it were up to me, I would focus our resources on finding out more about the Light and stopping the super-villains involved, knowing that Renegade poses no real threat to either the League or the innocents.
"Continuing the meeting, we need to discuss an additional issue, again related to Renegade." Batman continued, his frown still more visible than usual despite the cowl.
"Joy." Green Lantern commented impassively, snatching a few chuckles.
The Gotham vigilante did not even dignify him with a glance. "After our defeat, Agent A reported to me that Renegade hacked into Wayne Enterprises' bank account, embezzling precisely one million dollars from it."
All the heroes, including the Amazon, frowned. "How can you be sure it was Renegade?" asked Flash.
The only sign that indicated the vigilante's annoyance at the interruption was his clenching jaw. "Because Renegade, in addition to hacking the Wayne Enterprises bank account, also hacked the security systems of the cave computer where he left a message signed by him." he raised his holographic glove, activating it. "The aforementioned message reads verbatim:
"Hey Bats! I'm Renegade! You know, the one who just kicked your and the entire JL's ass! I kindly remind you in case you still have a concussion! I thank you for the million dollars easily stolen! If you were wondering why, it's because the original fake contract, you know, the one concocted by you and your friends to capture me that involved both a client and a victim who don't exist at all, was for $500.000.
"Since your damn plan, failed miserably by the way, wasted my precious time, that and the fact that I hate being played, I decided to double the originally established amount that you would never give me. Plus there's also the fact that I think it's a fair and adequate reward for beating the whole JL, don't you think? I think it is but hey, everyone has the free right to think as they want!
"I'm a professional mercenary, you know? Yours was a real insult and mockery towards my career and work. In any case you are forgiven, so don't overthink it! Now I have to go: anyway I'm sure we'll meet again soon and I'll kick you and your friends' asses easily again!
"PS: Dude, you really need to strengthen the security system of both the Batcomputer and Wayne Enterprises! It was so easy to hack them both!
"PPS: Say hello to the entire Justice League for me! Especially Wonder Woman and tell her I can't wait to see her again as soon as possible!"
"Batcomputer?" Superman murmured confusedly but was ignored.
Crashing noises resounded in the room and everyone's attention shifted to the demi-goddess who had placed her elbows hard on the table, which trembled from her strength, and who had her hands covering her face.
Fuck everyone. I will fucking kill him. I swear to Zeus.
Worst of all, Diana felt her cheeks heat up slightly, dammit!
"Is anyone embarrassed?" Flash teased her with a growing smirk.
Wonder Woman looked up, pleased at the disappearance of the previous blush, and cast a cold glance at the speedster, satisfied when she saw him swallow concerned for his own well-being.
"It seems our dear mercenary has a crush on you." Black Canary teased her with a shit-eating grin.
"Aww! It's so cute!" Zatanna stated in a mockingly saccharine and honeyed voice, a dangerous glint in her blue eyes. She elbowed the blond meta-human in the side. "They would make a nice couple, don't you think?"
Black Canary nodded, her face completely serious. "Absolutely."
The intensity of Wonder Woman's gaze increased three notches as she stared at her very bitchy friends, she decided. "I will kill you in your sleep."
The sorceress shrugged her shoulders without looking at all sorry. "It was worth it."
"Such behavior does not suit you." Hal Jordan paused dramatically, his eyes glittering with pure mischief and staring at the Amazon with a smirk so wide that it looked like the Joker's. "Princess."
Wonder Woman's head snapped in the pilot's direction so fast that the heroes swore they heard her neck snap in protest. "Don't. Call. Me. That." she declared coldly with a deadly gleam in her blue eyes, her hand automatically settling on the hilt of her sword. "Got it, Jordan?"
Green Lantern squeaked in terror, color fading slightly from his face. "U-Understood!"
The Amazon stared at him for a few more seconds, prolonging his agony, before nodding and relaxing her stance, ignoring the various whispers and stares pointed in her direction.
I can't explain why but hearing Renegade's nickname for me coming out of someone else's lips... I don't know, it was a strange feeling. Like it was wrong.
It was damn jarring even especially compared to the way Renegade's nickname for her was always uttered in such a genuinely sweet, affectionate and tender voice, confusing her more than anything else in the world.
"As I was explaining before this completely unnecessary interruption," Batman continued, undeterred by everything that had just happened. "this represents a problem for the entire Justice League. Because both the theft of a million dollars from Wayne Enterprises and the subsequent self-signed message left in the cave computer imply that Renegade, and by extension Deathstroke as well, knows my civilian identity and it is extremely likely that this could extend to the civilian identities of the entire team. While this was a huge possibility in the past when Renegade sent us flowers to taunt us a while back, we now have real confirmation of this. The identities of the Justice League have been compromised and, at least for the moment, there is nothing we can do to deal with the situation."
The Princess of Themyscira's mind immediately wandered to the last words she heard before she passed out and to the mercenary's use of her civilian name. However, she was not at all concerned about this, placing utmost trust in Renegade that he would not divulge such sensitive information to anyone for any reason in the world.
Diana knew that it was not at all normal for her to place such a high and unconditional trust in a dangerous and deadly mercenary like Renegade but, analyzing the various factors and the full picture concerning the said assassin, she was anyway.
She was not surprised when the rest of the heroes had a completely different reaction from hers.
That is, total panic.
"WHAT?"
"Oh man, we are so screwed."
"You can say that again."
"And I thought it couldn't get any worse."
"It wasn't enough that the kid totally humiliated us twice, but now we know for sure that he even knows our civilian identities!"
"I don't even want to know how Renegade was able to find out our identities."
"I mean, I can understand him figuring out the identity of Superman who only wears fucking glasses as a disguise-"
"Hey! I'm very fond of those glasses!"
"-and that of Green Arrow who has a stupid blond goatee unique in the whole world-"
"Next time you call my goatee stupid I'll stick an arrow up your ass."
"-but how the hell did he find out the identities of the rest of us? Especially Bats', which is literally the biggest fucking secret in the world!"
"I'll be honest: I am so scared of that kid that I would become his greatest servant if he were to take over the world."
"...You're not exaggerating, dude?"
"Absolutely not."
Wonder Woman merely snorted in amusement at the antics of her friends and teammates, remaining silent.
The meeting continued quietly without any further particularly interesting points: the only thing worth mentioning was Shazam's confession that revealed to all of them that he, despite his adult appearance, was actually a child, then explaining to all of them how his powers really worked.
Diana would have been amused by the comical and surprised reactions of the other heroes if she herself had not been shocked, especially when they came to the realization that Shazam was currently a 15-year-old in his civilian form.
The fact that Batman already knew this for years did not help things at all.
The Amazon no longer knew what to think when Shazam revealed to them that even Renegade in some way that no one really wanted to know was aware of it.
Briefly the idea of suspending Shazam until he came of age was considered because he was currently a damn kid and it was put to a vote: the majority had voted for Shazam to stay.
Diana had hesitated but ultimately voted for his temporary suspension. It was true that she might have appeared hypocritical given her training as a fierce Amazon since she was a child but at least she had remained safe for many years on the island of Themyscira, never entering any real danger until she was old enough to face her own challenges.
It was quite different with Shazam's situation but still the majority voted for her to stay at the JL and Wonder Woman, while still reluctant to the idea of having fought and continuing to fight with a hero who was technically a child, had to reluctantly accept it anyway.
Of course, Zatanna was also technically only a child since she was currently only seventeen years old but she had been trained by the Justice League after her father Zatara heroically sacrificed himself for the world a few years ago and she joined the JL shortly after she turned her current age.
The League urgently needed a powerful magic user since Dr. Fate was not always available given his status as Lord of Order.
In any case Diana was happy when the meeting ended and she was finally able to return to Washington to get a rest she thought deserved.
Only to groan in annoyance when she remembered that the next day she would have another meeting as Ambassador Diana Prince with ambassadors from other nations belonging to the UN.
Simply fantastic.