Son of Justice

Chapter 12

Kaldur felt sick, or at least semi sick. Even when he'd been in his Father's ship, deep undercover, he never felt this stomach turning worry. He really shouldn't be worried. Artemis had this problem years ago, but this felt different. More harsh. Arthur had canceled his dinner outing with his Queen tonight, just to be here.

They all silenced when the doors opened to a middle aged man with black hair, and trailing behind him were a younger versions of himself. Kaldur looked right to Nightwing. They all looked the same, nearly. Nightwing carried himself different. Or he did. Now the man looked pail, almost a green color. The Nightwing stood right next too Kaldur presumed was Red Hood.

They all took up seats and positions on the wall, looking for all exits, poetical threats, and didn't fully relax in the presence of people that should be their friends. Superman coughed pointedly, trying to get everyone's eyes on him instead.

"Welcome to the weekly meeting." Superman started glancing at everyone, "I see that everyone is here."

"Cut the bullshit," Black Lightning called.

Superman sighed, "One at a time for questions. We aren't children." Many hands went up at the same time and Superman sighed, "Black Lighting, your one of our public figures. Ask away."

"Who knew about this?"

"The Bats," Superman started, "The first seven founders, Canary, Green Arrow, and anyone else that Nightwing trusted to tell or anyone who found out."

"Why wasn't it in his file!" Elongated Man shouted out.

"First of all," Superman reprimanded, "Stop acting like a child. Second, if you took the time to notice, your criminal history is also not in your file, or would you like us to put it there for any mole or hacker to find?" The former criminal pursed his lips, subdued for the moment.

Captain Marvel raised his hand hesitantly.

"Yes Marvel?"

"Can I say, from a child's perspective, an adult is a vary influential person in our life at the age Prankster showed the videos at." He sounded sincere but lacked the confidence an older person could have conveyed, "And how is this any different than say, Artemis or Kaldur or Canary? They all have things that could bring this all up. Why are we all in a tizzy about this?"

Captain Atom spoke up, "Because we weren't told."

"Neither was Kaldur when he found out about his father by Aquaman," Marvel pointed out, "And not all of us knew of Artemis's origans until she decided to tell us."

A few of them grunted or sighed in understanding.

"But Sportsmaster is a Mercenary, this is an assassin." Black Lightning parsisted.

"And what do you thing I was?" Batman spoke up for the first time, "What do you think I was before becoming a hero?"

Black Lighting parsed his lips, "Are you saying-?"

"I was trained to be a killer." Batman pressed, "I went down a path of revenge and hatetred. I got out. So I took the people I found, out with me. If you go after Nightwing for a history he didn't chose for himself, you'll have to go after each and every member of my team and a few other people in the League. The League was made for second chances and to bring Justice. Are you going contradict those  ideals?"

"He was-" Black Lightning insisted.

"I was SEVEN." Nightwing finally cut in, "What do you want me to do? Spend time in jail for something I did as a seven year old? For doing something that I did not get a choice in doing. For getting beaten, starved, and/or torchored if I refused. I was seven, with no parents, no home, and a person who drenched me in blood. Are you saying a seven year old was responsible enough to brake chains, walk to the corrupt cops of Gotham, and be put in the system only to be caught once more?"