Justice League Unlimited: Cause and Effect

[JME2]

Disclaimers: Batman created by Bob Kane, Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston. All three are owned by DC Comics, Justice League: The Animated Series. I own the story and any original characters; no copyright infringement is intended.

Justice League Unlimited: Cause and Effect

Synopsis: One-shot; Batman and Waller both reflect on the events of “The Doomsday Sanction” and the steps that need to be taken.

Author’s Notes: This story makes references to events from my earlier one-shot, “World’s Finest: Strength in Numbers”. In addition, the musings which spawned this was part of the reason why neither “The Best of Both Worlds” or “Yesterdays and Tomorrows” were updated this past weekend. Thanks for your continued patience on those earlier stories.

Other than that, as always, enjoy!

***

In her many years of service to king and country, Amanda Waller had seen her share of bad days, but this one easily topped all of them. The Doomsday weapon had been set loose by that idiot Achilles Milo -- who had been a mistake from day one, but they hadn’t had any choice in bringing him on board; Kirk Langstrom had refused to continue his research after both his and his wife’s transformations and Emile Dorian had been in a coma ever since the incident on his island -- and that was just for starters.

Despite his valued post as military liaison to the Cadmus Project, General Wade Eiling had always had a ruthless and somewhat psychotic reputation and he had demonstrated this with an unauthorized launching of a kryptonite nuke at San Baquero. While he would retain his post despite the incident, Waller intended very much to keep an eye on him. Like Eiling, she wanted to see the JLU stopped if necessary, but not at the cost of innocent lives and she hated dealing with loose cannons.

But the most personally insulting to her had been not one, but two breaches in her security in one day at the hands of the supposed urban legend of Gotham City, the Batman. He was occupying her thoughts now both because of the earlier incidents and the reports from their mole on the Watchtower.

“Unbelievable. He drops a nuclear missile into the ocean and he’s still alive.”

***

Every time he saw a grin, be it small or wide, Batman saw the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker. It wasn’t intentional, but simply a natural reaction to having faced down the sadistic clown and his never-ending schemes for so many years. But the Joker was no longer a threat to him or to anyone because of what had happened in Las Vegas a year earlier, shortly before the Thanagarian invasion.

But despite that, he was looking at one right now, the one plastered on the face of Alexander ‘Lex’ Luthor against the backdrop of a waving American flag. True it was more of a smirk, but it had a similar effect of generating disgust. In so many ways, Lex Luthor was worse than the Joker and had caused just as much damage to Clark and Metropolis as the currently indisposed maniac had done to Gotham and him.

And now he was running for President of the United States.

Despite the neck brace and his other injuries, Bruce was very much tempted to throw his IV line at the flickering monitor. But he lay back, grunted, and then gave a resigned sigh. Sleep called to him, but he did not allow it to posses him. He couldn’t, not now. So, he instead focused his strength on his mind and thoughts, going back two years to their final battle with the Justice Lords and how it had been Luthor‘s power disruptor that had saved their hides.

Even though it had been necessary in order to defeat their parallel counterparts, he had privately reminded Clark of two basic rules of nature. The first was that old habits died hard and the second was the Newtonian concept that for every action, there was an opposite and equal reaction.

In response to the first rule, he had kept an eye on Luthor following his pardon. Too many times had he seen criminals state they had reformed only to fall back into their olds habits. Lex, however, had played it smart; to all appearances he was completely legitimate now. If he was truly backing Cadmus, then he was doing a fine job of hiding the money; the methods and tricks he had used to hide the funneling of the Wayne fortune into his activities had been of no use in discovering the source of Cadmus’ funding.

In the case of the second rule, he had warned Clark that Luthor’s pardon could and likely would come back to bite them in the ass at some point down the road. And now, not for the first time, he was correct. Luthor’s pardon had sent him on this road towards the presidency and if Waller hadn’t been lying, then the political quid pro quo involved with that pardon was what had spurred Cadmus onwards towards its goals.

***

From the opposite end of Waller’s office there came a light chuckle in response to the Waller’s musings on the near inhuman endurance of the Dark Knight Detective.

“I warned you that Bruce Wayne was a formidable individual, did I not?”

Waller didn’t look up from the mole’s report towards the room’s other occupant. Unlike Batman, the individual in her office had actually been invited at her request in response to the night’s events and had been silent until spoken to. She had meant to speak with him after finishing with Tala, but the sudden implementation of the Doomsday Sanction had prevented that.

“Among other things, yes. And I in turned warned you about smoking in my office, Doctor.”

“Ah, but I haven’t struck a match or lit my pipe, yet.”

“But you could at any time.”

“But I’m not going to.”

“But regardless you could.”

The man chuckled once more.

“You know, it never ceases to amaze me just how obsessed governments are with the concept of the Prisoner’s Dilemma -- especially here at the Project and what‘s supposed to be a quaint conversation between the Project‘s leader and a division head like myself.”

Now Waller finally looked up as he continued. She had played this game with him before; it had become almost like a ritual between the two of them and though she didn’t want to indulge it tonight, she needed a respite, however brief, from handling the damage caused by the Doomsday Sanction.

“By their very nature any government is paranoid of threats both real or potential to its well-being,” she replied. “And the JLU, sitting in orbit with a growing army of meta-humans, financial backing, public support, and no governmental oversight whatsoever, is indeed a potential threat to us all.”

***

By his very nature, the Batman was used to seeing threats all around him. Alright, so it was not on the level of connecting ancient cabals with corporate pop-rock bands that Vic Sage AKA The Question did-- and people said that Gotham’s protector was wound a bit too tight --- but his paranoia had saved his and his comrade’s lives, both in space and in Gotham more than once. In his viewpoint and experience, just because one was paranoid didn’t mean that someone wasn’t out to get you. And now his paranoia, coupled with his deductive and analytical mind, was displaying before him two very real threats that he was now faced with.

On one field there was Project Cadmus, a rogue division of the U.S. Government dedicated to the development of weapons and illegal cloning experiments all in the name of defending the world from its meta-human population should it ever go rogue and attempt to conquer the planet. On the opposite field was the Justice League Unlimited, an organization dedicated towards peace and justice through their super-powered army and an orbiting ray of death -- the last one came out of sarcasm as well as having been one of the highlights of his conversation with Clark.

***

“Hence why governments take steps to either prevent it or allow the cataclysm to erupt. It’s a rather classic example of fight or flight, all things considered. So, enter Project Cadmus from stage-right and its call for the necessary players to act upon this stage.”

Waller couldn’t help but bat an eyebrow to her guest, who had now seated himself in the shadows that seemed to thrive in the forward area of her office despite the illumination.

“You didn’t exactly have much of a choice, Doctor. It was either that or continue to rot away in Stonegate.”

He shrugged.

“If I had, then you would not have learned the truth behind the perpetual pain in both your and my posterior, Madame Director.”

She gave an emotionless stare in his direction.

“Don’t try playing that card. We all but knew who it was under the cowl and the words of a disgraced psychiatrist didn’t exactly sound appealing to me when I read your case-file.”

He smiled and began stroking the goatee that adorned his chin.

“Ah, but facts can be distorted and misinterpreted; your experience in the government has been more than a suitable example. In addition, I recall one of the NSA’s reports on Gotham that you gave me when I joined Cadmus. The writer of said report believed that Robin was acronym for Reserve Officers of the Batman’s Intelligence Network. And let us not forget what he did to the Bruce Wayne tape.”

***

The theory behind the laser cannon that been built into the second Watchtower was to allow the League to hit ground targets that were otherwise too large to handle with the myriad of teams that the membership drive -- or draft as Oliver Queen had called it -- had brought in. If they had had this built into the original Watchtower, then they may have been able to destroy the Thanagarian hyperspace generator in the Sahara without destroying the Watchtower; these stations were expensive after all, even for him. After what had happened with said invasion, he had hoped that the world governments would agree.

And they probably would have until the JLU’s Executive Council had insisted that they keep its capabilities secret so as to prevent orbital attacks on the Watchtower. He had been inclined to agree given the breaches in security that the original Watchtower had suffered. Indeed, before it had been destroyed, they had been forced to play host to the Injustice Gang, Morgaine leFey’s warriors, Darkseid, Dr. Destiny -- in spirit, anyway --, and the Thanagarian task-force.

Worst, he had voted for it, his concerns for security and keeping the world at an arm’s distance overriding any sense of logic that he possessed. And now it was starting to come back to haunt them. Cadmus could use this and other incidents against the League to portray them as the ultimate NGO -- which in essence they had all but become since their foundation in the aftermath of the Imperium‘s attack three years earlier.


***

“Or so you said during your trial.”

“Madame Director, do you really think I would stupid enough to try to scam three of Gotham’s most notorious madmen? And besides, the technology works as the Galatea and Ultimen projects have shown.”

She had to concede that much.

“In addition, I couldn’t help but chat with Hamilton earlier about --”

“About the problems that led to the deterioration of their DNA which can be corrected. But the question is whether or not it will affect the use of the dream machine.”

He starred at her through his thick glasses and chuckled once again.

“Good god, is there anything you government people don’t know?”

“It’s my business to know these things. And I know that your allotted time is nearly up, Doctor. I have a great deal of work to accomplish thanks to that idiot Milo Achilles.”

“Understood, but I did warn you after reading his profile that his security access should have been revoked from the first day. He was, well, unstable; working for Roland Dagget can do that to you, after all.”

“I’ve read the Matt Haggen report.”

“As did I; if you’re going to study your enemy, you need to study his foes and then profile them. Everyone wants something, after all.”

***

And they had. Taking the same steps that Gordon Godfrey had taken during his short-lived talk show, the JLU had been hurt publicly by Cadmus through incidents like the Ultimen business and jackasses like Maxwell Lord. And the League hadn’t exactly helped itself; indeed it had been now as the imprisonment of Doomsday showed, shooting itself in the foot.

But it was the knowledge of Cadmus’ partial involvement in these events that intrigued and worried Gotham‘s champion. Supergirl, Green Arrow, and the Question had all stated that General Hardcastle had boasted that the men and women behind this government conspiracy had a file on each and every member of the JLU. He could have been lying or deluding himself , but Waller’s verbal threats to him both in Metropolis and in her home in DC had validated it.

That in turn meant that there was a very real and likely possibility that Cadmus had at least one mole in the League, either as one of the station’s crew or one of the heroes that had come through the membership drive he had proposed to Clark in Gotham after the Thangarian incursion. He had a few ideas, but nothing concrete and nothing that could implemented until his damm body healed.

***

Waller wasn’t exactly happy with where the conversation was going.

“I should hope that would go as far as to warning me next time he tries to break into my home and interrogates me while I‘m in the shower and --”

“Ah, ah, I did warn you that he would do something akin to that. And it wasn’t based on profiling, it was personal experience; I received my own personal midnight visit from him while I was in Stonegate.”

Waller wasn’t exactly anxious to trade stories of Batman interrogations and the Doctor could see this, so he got right to the point.”

“As I said, I spoke with the good Doctor Hamilton. He believes that the modifications to the meta-human genes should not in theory affect the creation of the false memories for both the next batch of Ultimen and any other creations down the line. If it does, well, there’s more than one way to create a memory.”

“Indeed. You may go now.”

The guest raised himself from the chair and then stopped, his head turning back to look at Waller as he neared the doorway.

“Before I go, I can’t help but offer another piece of advice related to our dear comrade-in-arms, General Eiling. Watch him carefully; the man is the stereotypical military loose cannon and could do as much damage as Milo did as shown tonight.”

Now Waller’s patience truly had run out, despite the face that she agreed with her guest in every way.

“General Eiling’s relation to this organization and his future is none of your concern, Doctor Strange.”

From the doorway, Hugo Strange turned and smiled.

“Of course; I just like to keep an open mind, that’s all.”

***

But if there was indeed a Cadmus mole, then it was just the tip of the iceberg. For not the first time in his life, the Batman was faced with a crossroads and it wasn‘t whether or not these injuries would derail his career -- which they most certainly would not. As much as he would hate to admit it, Waller had made valid points about the threat that the JLU posed to the human race.

And these threats were becoming more and more real the more the Leagur walked the path that the Lords had in their dimension. But he felt loyalty to the League, though less to his association and more with its role in planetary defense. And he had seen the dangers caused by those who succumbed to power firsthand.

He would have to take care as he walked this dangerous path that the JLU faced. Slow and steady wins the race, for one wrong move could send this now international game of chess to either party, to Cadmus and the JLU. And if it came down to armed conflict as he was very much afraid it would, then God help whoever was caught in the middle. For whoever won, the human race would lose.

And the Dark Knight of Gotham City did not like to lose.

***

The End

***

Author's Notes Continued
Governmental/Philisophical Arguments inspired by Steve of Stardestroyer.net.

Episode References

BTAS : “On Leather Wings”, “Feat of Clay“, “Terror in the Sky”, “Cat-Scratch Fever”, “The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne”, “Tyger, Tyger”,

JL/JLU: “Secret Origins”, “Injustice For All”, “A Knight of Shadows”, “Only a Dream”, “A Better World”, “Eclipsed”, “Wild Cards”, “Starcrossed”, “Initiations”, “Fearful Symmetry”, “Ultimatum”, “Dark Heart”

[Steve]

I liked that a lot - decently done - and do I detect some hints of my own commentary being given to the characters?

[JME2]

I liked that a lot - decently done - and do I detect some hints of my own commentary being given to the characters?

I would have focused more on the BTAS/TNBA/STATS/JL/JLU continuity if I hadn't read your arguments in the speculation/talkback threads.

Edit -- I've added a credit for you on the Author's Notes. Thank you once again.

[LadyTevar]

Extremely Well Done! Bravo, Bravo!