Re: Batman/Maria/Superman
Yes, she was now officially suspicious of his motives; she had spent so much time trying to get him to do what SHIELD wanted, and now he suddenly was offering them anything they asked for, almost before they asked for it? Yeah, she wasn't entirely sure what to make of this new, cooperative Batman, and wasn't sure she trusted it. Or liked it. It would kill her to admit it allowed, but she liked being challenged, and confrontations with him was nothing if not challenging.
"Thirty percent fatality at minimum," she repeated, studying the screens. "Combined with the more than eighty percent - is that an appropriate estimate? - fatality of Joker Toxin." She nodded briskly at his assessment of what someone was aware of while under the influence of Fear Toxin; that, too could go in the report, an argument for what he was or was not aware of. No one could quite call the death "accidental" but it sure as hell hadn't been deliberate, and that made all the difference in the world.
Her eyebrows slowly raised as he described the intention. "Most homicides are committed under similar states," she said. Fear and anger, someone pushed into a corner - literal or a metaphoric snapping point - with no way out except through their attacker, and people found that killing was an acceptable solution: from soldiers on one extreme through battered wives to a usually-reasonable person (or unreasonable) having an incredibly bad day and simply snapping. Even cold, premeditated murder had a motive, a point where someone decided that the solution to their problem was to kill someone.
"What it proves is that he's mortal," she continued. "Which, while an alien with powers, I assume he is in the broadest sense of the word. It proves that he does not stand above us or beyond us, an impartial judge, but as one of us who fears and hurts and in desperation lashes out." For her, there could be no condemnation for someone under fire, afraid and hurt, killing their attacker; she found it hard to believe that anyone else would condemn him for it, either, but then, she would be the first to admit that she didn't understand civilians.
He volunteered still more, and in silent shock, she trailed him down to the sub-level and to the lead-lined cabinet with the lead-lined box, holding a fragment that glowed radioactive green. She scrambled to get the description of what it did, exactly, on record...then figured that it didn't matter. She had the pain on record. Looking at the fragment, she could add her personal experience standing in its presence; the ominous feel of it, even to her, the comments on what it did to him. It would get into the official report because he was telling her now. That was enough.
She folded her arms over her chest as he explained the most likely source. "Something big. Like, say, the death of Superman?" she suggested. "The Joker intended him to die as per an agreement with Luthor; Kal just managed to kill him first. Or at least seriously inconvenience him," she admitted with a shrug. "And if by doing so Kal is hurt, which hurts you...that's his goal achieved. They win," she summed up flatly. "So how do we take that from them and make it a win for us?"