InsaneJournal

FLASH | Chairman for a week and Flash is pretty sure that he has now completely lost control of the situation. He stands, leaning against the console, in the overcrowded Hall of Justice watching heroes young and old engage in a lively discussion over the matter of J’onn J’onzz secretly being Superman.

DONNA RAYNER | Donna Rayner chimes in, interrupting Wally West. “This wasn’t a choice taken lightly. I don’t think anyone had even discussed it until after we lost the Justice Legion, and it became obvious how serious the problem was.”

CHRIS KENT | “It was only supposed to be temporary. We knew Superman was out there somewhere, and it was just a matter of buying time to bring him home.

OLIVER QUEEN | “No, no!” barks Oliver Queen. “Don’t try to sell that crap! Clark was gone, and we were all thinking it well before the Justice Legion. J’onn is a damn telepath! Who cares when someone finally up and spoke it?! He knew what we were thinking! And every damn one of us thought it, especially after the bombing in Metropolis!”

DINAH QUEEN | “Ollie!” Dinah Queen tugs Ollie back by the arm. Maybe he’s forgetting that they are talking about Chris’ adoptive father.

OLIVER QUEEN | But Ollie wrenches his arm free. “No! Our little secret has come back to bite us in the ass and we’re going to take it! We knew what we were doing.”

ARTHUR CURRY | “What you were doing,” Arthur Curry corrects. He has been a quiet presence up until now. “I told you all this was a foolish idea from the start. But you were all too weak-willed to let it go and give the surface no choice but to figure out how to carry on without Superman.”

OLIVER QUEEN | “Oh, here we go!” Ollie ignores Dinah trying to ward him off again and walks straight up to Arthur. “King Fish is going to lecture us all about secrets. Because I guess lying to friends, family and children is weak-willed unless you do it from a throne!”

ARTHUR CURRY | Arthur steps forward too and glares down, face-to-face with Ollie. ”No, just when you do it because you can’t let go of a dead man.”

DICK GRAYSON | Dick Grayson shoulders his way between Ollie and Arthur. “This is helping explain things. Thanks, guys.”

GREEN LANTERN | Danielle raised her voice - she had to, to be heard over the din of the older generation of superheroes yelling at each other - and yelled at the group. "Could you please stop yelling at each other and explain to us what you're all talking about?" There were more than a few clueless people in this room right now.

NIGHTSTAR | Mar’i didn’t like this. She didn’t like any of this. When it came to matters like this, she was a delicate person and could easily be upset. After learning that Superman wasn’t Superman but... and Caitlin was at... Mar’i didn’t know where to focus her thoughts -- on the elders and her dad or Caitlin who was most noticeably not here. “Dad...!” Mar’i pleads in a voice that pretty much means make things right. Yes, she is putting that responsibility on her father because all the other grown ups are being louder.

OLIVER QUEEN | Ollie glances at Green Lantern and Nightstar and then steps away from Arthur, muttering to Dinah. “What the hell do these kids do up here? Act like they’ve never been in a League meeting before.”

WARHAWK | Ollie bumps into Warhawk, who has stepped up to him much as Arthur just did with the intent of glaring and generally being imposing. “My dad know anything about this?”

DINAH QUEEN | Dinah places a hand on Ollie’s chest and casts her eyes up to Warhawk’s. “John knew. He and J’onn were the ones mainly keeping things in order and searching for Clark.”

WARHAWK | Warhawk remains as he is, glaring over both of them for another moment. Then, his shoulders relax with a shrug and he turns away to go sit back down. “All right.” He’s completely fine with this situation now.

STARMAN | Charlie has kept his thoughts to himself this entire time. The grown-ups might be okay with what they’ve done, but Charlie sure wasn’t. He gives Mar’i’s arm a squeeze as he stares at Rex, unsure of how the man could be okay with something like this. Sure, John was a major factor in it, but come on. They’ve been lied to for years.

“How could you lie to us like this? For years.” Charlie doesn’t like the whole situation, but they should have been informed when it came time for them to start their superhero careers or at the very least when “Superman” actually recruited them all for the Justice League. “And not just us but all the people out there that we ask to place our trust in to protect them.”

His gaze moves to Aquaman and then his own mother. “We could have risen to the challenge of Superman’s absence. I don’t think you gave us enough credit on our ability to handle it.” And now that the genie is out of the bottle, what are they going to do? Are they going to have to carry on pretending that J’onn is Superman? Charlie doesn’t know that he can do that.

WALLY WEST | Wally interjects once Starman’s outrage gets going. “Kid -- by the time you came along, we were looking to keep this under wraps. Not spread it around. And you couldn’t keep your own secret identity under wraps.”

DONNA RAYNER | Donna stops Wally there, again, after he makes another wonderful contribution to this discussion. “What Wally means is...” She gives him to look to stay quiet so she can make his point in a way that isn’t horrible. “At the time, we didn’t have the options we do today to make up for Superman’s absence. The Justice Legion -- they died only weeks after we lost Superman.” And this is another sore topic for many of the people in the room. “Everything was in a downward spiral. By the time all of you were ready for the responsibility... this was already a 10 year old secret.”

REDBIRD | Siena stayed near the edge of the group, leaning against the wall in what is become her usual spot in the Hall of Justice. With her arms crossed tightly in front of her and one of her heels propped up on the wall behind her, she watches the older set argue with themselves and then defend themselves against the current Justice League.

She didn’t see what the older set did as lying per se. It was the hurt feelings and wanting to talk everything out that was getting on her nerves. “What they mean is the decision had nothing to do with us -- it was all way before we were even thinking about the League or growing up to be superheroes. So maybe if we all stop taking it so goddamn personally and act like a League that can handle Superman being gone, we can figure out what to do now.”

WARHAWK | Warhawk sits in his chair with his arms crossed, watching and listening to Redbird make a plea for rationality. “...So is J’onn posing as her now?”

OLIVER QUEEN | Ollie snorts with restrained laughter, getting an elbow from Dinah.

STARMAN | “That’s extremely unfair and has nothing to do what we’re talking about here.” Charlie was victimized and somehow that’s supposed to be his fault? It’s not serving to help out his growing ire here. This situation is really messing with Charlie’s head. He’s looked up to these men and women for years. Now he’s standing against them in this really complicated situation, seemingly alone.

“I didn’t mean us here.” Charlie motions to himself and the other kids that were around here. He doesn’t have the hubris to think that he or anyone else here specifically needed to be let into the secret. “You should have let the people decide what to do with this. Superman’s taught a lot to this world. I know he’s given us all the tools to handle be able to handle something like this.” This is probably making him unpopular in the room but it needs to be said.

DICK GRAYSON | “We hear you, Charlie. We do. But you need to realize that we tried. No one jumped to this decision. We tried carrying on without Superman, but it wasn’t working. There were doomsday cults, villains coming out of retirement...” Dick gets how this must look at first with hindsight, but that isn’t the right perspective to take here.

OLIVER QUEEN | “It’s the god damn people’s fault!” Ollie blurts out, putting a stop to Dick’s attempt at a reasonable explanation. “J’onn came out of retirement to help them, but oh -- no! They didn’t want some green alien as their savior! They wanted one that looked just like them! They wanted Superman! So you know what? We did let the people decide!”

CHRIS KENT | Chris, who has generally been quiet or overridden during most of this conversation, finally speaks up again. “I know I should have tried again to be a hero like he was, but --”

OLIVER QUEEN | “Hey!” Ollie cuts Chris off with there, pointing a finger at him. “Nobody thinks any less of you for not hiking up the red undies. You had a new family to deal with. We told you that at the time.”

STARMAN | Charlie’s had enough of this. What is the point of this meeting then if they aren’t even going to listen to anything. “I don’t see the point of me being here anymore. Let me know when you’ve made another decision for us.” He’ll decide then if he will play along or not. He turns and pushes his way through those assembled, making his exit from this ‘discussion.’

ARTEMIS | Piper shuts down the program on her goggles that had nothing to do with the meeting. She agreed to come to the meeting but that didn’t mean she felt she should participate. After all, she has no relatives or family friends to argue with here. She’s been lied to on the same level the rest of the public has, it sucks but she’s not sure she has the right to take it personally like the rest of them do. It wasn’t like it was her parents here that had lied to her...not that she would have a leg to stand on since being a super hero means she lies to them constantly. Piper watches as Charlie goes for the door, seeing this as an opportunity to get herself out of this meeting. “Does this mean some of us are free to go?” If Charlie can leave then she definitely should be able to leave.

NIGHTSTAR | The urge to follow Charlie has to be squashed because Mar’i wants to know -- “What about Caitlin?” They all talked about the world not being able to carry on without Superman and not being able to handle a green alien as their protectors. Well what about the girl that had been searching for her dad and her identity since finding out she wasn’t Kryptonian but Martian?

FLASH | Flash is about to tell Artemis that it isn’t like anyone is being held hostage here, but Nightstar gets in her question about Caitlin before he can say so and diverts the conversation. “Caitlin’s down at S.T.A.R. Labs Metropolis with J’onn. He isn’t out of the woods, so she’s sticking with him. I guess someone is already talking to her about this? Someone other than Brainiac 5, I hope?”

CHRIS KENT | Chris nods. “Kara’s with her right now. Kara decided she would be the best person.” He isn’t so sure, but Kara was fairly insistent about it.

GREEN LANTERN | Danielle had stayed quiet through the discussion, watching Charlie storm out and privately rolling her eyes at the dramatics. Because acting like a sulky kid was really going to help now. "So now we have to decide what to do now. The League needs to be strong - more than ever - because we're not going to be able to keep Superman being gone quiet for much longer." She looked over at the older generation. "You made your choices, and I think most of us understand why you did. But now we have to live with the repercussions."

ARTHUR CURRY | “Yes, you do.” Arthur looks at Green Lantern and casts his eyes over all the current members of the Justice League present. “We made our decision years ago and care not what some of you may think of it today. This is your reality now. Superman is gone, likely dead.” He ignores the looks he gets from his older peers who might disagree with that last statement. “Our solution to delay the inevitable has finally run its course, and now you may have also lost the greatest hero any of you have known -- whether you realized who he truly was or not. This is your burden. Do better if you can.”