Chapter 8

Carrying the limp form of the clone of Speedy, Batman couldn't help but wonder if any of the major League heroes were already compromised.

Worse was the haunting thought that even he himself could simply be a clone going through the motions, unknowing that for all the suffering he had gone through to keep Gotham, and even the rest of the world safe. The real Bruce Wayne. The real Batman was merely on ice or even dead to allow the clone of him go around unimpeded.

"Batman and Red Arrow to Watchtower." The teleporter said as he stepped through the field of light into the central area of the space station that was the heart of the Justice Leagues operations.

But as Batman walked through into the heart of the Justice League he was obviously seen by his fellow compatriots with Green Arrow and the Flash quickly walking over from where they were eating lunch. "Woah Bats what happened with Speedy?" Green Arrow asked obviously concerned for his past protege that had recently been having friction between the two of them.

Batman couldn't help but grunting in frustration at not being able to avoid questions until he had a chance to get Martian Manhunter to check the clone's mind before he was hounded by the very teacher of Speedy/Red Arrow.

"Speedy has been named a clone similar to Superboy by the new hero named Lorde who the Flash brought in yesterday." Instead of allowing Arrow to go on a rant about how his protégé couldn't possibly be a clone and such Batman pushed the still unconscious form of Speedy into Green Arrow's arms making the archer grunt at the weight.

"Lorde has the ability to discern souls and his evidence in how Speedy's soul came from Cadmus in carrying the same birth signature along with the simple size of an immature soul was enough for me to justify having his mind checked by Manhunter... Will you comply?" Batman asked quietly as he saw how Green Arrow's jaw flexed as he ruminated over his thoughts before the man firmly nodded.

"Yeah, let me just go put this... Speedy under some anesthetics so he won't wake up for a while and allow Manhunter to get into his mind easier." Green Arrow said defeatedly but just beneath the feelings of loss for his protégé was a boiling rage that Batman knew he would need to keep an eye out for.

As that was the same drive that sent Oliver Queen/Green Arrow onto the path of a vigilante that saw a number of his city's worst criminals dead or crippled when he first started out.

As Green Arrow took away the clone of Speedy the Flash sighed and spoke what Batman himself was deeply fearing. "Man, now even I have to be afraid of Wally being a damned clone... If they can clone a Kryptonian who is to say they can't give some clones super speed?"

"He will be extensively questioned..." Batman swore before he turned to the Flash and continued to speak. "I need you to take care of the mission that they were supposed to take care of, with that clone. I am going to Cadmus with some backup to get answers... And we won't stop our investigation because of some corrupt lackey pushing us away." Batman growled as he pushed in some buttons on his wrist-mounted computer.

He had messaged Superman and Wonder Woman to meet at the Watchtower for an emergency meeting.

-

"Batman, what did you need?" Wonder Woman asked as she came into the meeting room last and saw the other two men speaking to one another in hushed tones.

"Diana there is bad news," Superman spoke and grimaced as he quickly explained what had happened as Batman was working on a laptop attached to his wrist computer.

"Vile! To repeatedly step into the domains of gods and take the place of women to bring life into the world under the behest of espionage is just wrong." Wonder Woman cursed as she slapped the metal meeting room table in front of her in outrage.

Superman could only wordlessly nod to Diana's outrage as he himself was facing the discomfort of the cloning knowledge as he himself had a clone running around.

"Batman, what will we do then? Cadmus is technically a government facility we cannot just uproot the whole thing as that would get the US government on our backs." Superman asked hitting the crux of the issue.

Batman finally pushed his laptop away from him as he folded his arms over his chest to look at his two compatriots as he spoke. "I see two paths before us at this time. We simply pretend not to know their actions and allow Speedy to go free after we have him scanned by Martian Manhunter while he is awake, calling Lorde's evidence a fabrication and nothing was wrong with Speedy, to allow Speedy to go free so we can attempt to find out who is his handler."

Batman then went silent for a moment as he ordered his thoughts about the other plan until Diana prodded him to continue. "And the other plan?"

"The other plan is to ascertain that he is indeed a clone and once proven have Martian Manhunter, your lasso, and even have other magical means used upon the clone to gather all information on who created him..." Left unsaid was how such harsh questioning would likely prove dangerous to the clone itself.

"I don't like it... I really don't like it, but we cannot allow whoever is doing this to keep at their antics. They must be stopped lest they attempt to create an army of Doomsday clones or some other abomination in an attempt to take over the world or some other maniacal plot." Superman spat as despite his die-hard stance on not killing he has had to do so on many occasions, such as to that very mentioned Doomsday who was conceptually immortal and would return just as Solomon Grundy had his own version of immortality.

Diana nodded as she spoke. "You have my support in this as well. We need to make an example of this situation as Clark's point of extremely dangerous entities being cloned and lost control of, would be devastating if it's not in one of the League's major hitters' cities who can quickly take control of the situation."

As hard as the League works, the world was a dangerous place with some towns simply being wiped off the map every year as some egotistical high school student or wanna-be genius would mess with things better left untouched, like magic or esoteric sciences like the formula that could give someone the speed force.

Batman then stood up with his two compatriots meeting his actions. "Then it's agreed. We will get all the information we can out of the clone and then use the information to launch an alpha strike before whoever is Red Arrow's handler will realize and destroy the evidence."

The founding trio of the Justice League then walked out of the meeting room with grim purpose following their strides as they went to the medical center to question the clone.

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