Caterpillar

Asylum

Two days after the Jump City incident, the members of the Justice League were together in the Watchtower at the request of Superman. The mood in the conference room was stifling and unnatural. Batman seemed more taciturn than usual, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter looked like they had a lot on their mind and Wonder Woman appeared to be distracted, not fully focused on her peers. Flash was his usual easy-going self but strangely enough for the rest of the JL members, Hawkgirl seemed to be in a great mood.

Superman sat up from his seat and opened his mouth to say something but Batman unexpectedly spoke first:

"Before you tell us the reason you called us, I'd like to say a few things. Looking back at what happened, I believe we could have avoided a fight with that alien mercenary. And it was all my fault. I want to apologize."

Momentarily, the other 6 heroes were stunned. They had never seen Batman apologising or admitting he was wrong about anything before - and they've been together for about a year by then. Though no less startled than the others, Superman was the first to react:

"You did nothing wrong, Batman. It was the right-"

"Please let me finish," Batman raised a hand and said. "The truth is that we didn't need to start a fight against him right away. We could have tried to solve our issues with him diplomatically first. After all, he was not the violent type that couldn't be reasoned with. Quite the opposite, he tried to reason with us and avoid clashing against us."

"But I let my ego get the better of me that day and I endangered you all. I have no excuse for that. I would like to temporarily retire from the Justice League and-"

Superman interrupted him once again:

"Absolutely not! That's exactly the opposite of what we should be doing now. We have faced other powerful aliens before but we stood united. Together, we could overcome them all. If we let just one setback break us apart we will be doomed."

"Superman is right, Batman," Wonder Woman said. "Don't beat yourself too hard. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. But we are a team and we pick each other up from the ground when we fall."

Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern nodded and Flash grinned and rushed behind Batman and put an arm around his shoulder as if they were best pals. Flash had expected for Batman to growl at him like usual for getting too close into his personal space but, to his amazement, Batman did not as much as glare at him. For a moment, Flash even entertained the thought of asking 'are you the real Batman?' but he wisely decided to not push his luck too much.

"Today, I asked for everyone to be here because I wanted to talk to you about this: I am thinking of expanding the Justice League."

At Superman's words, noises of surprise came from the other heroes in the room.

"Over the past year, we've been through some tough times together. The last incident, in particular, showed me that the Justice League could use more members, more manpower. There are only 7 of us and the Earth is a very big place. It also looks like the more our technology advances, for some reason, the more often we get into contact with aliens. We have to step up our game."

Martian Manhunter who had been silent until then spoke:

"I whole-heartedly agree with what you said but we have to consider what would the government's reaction be. And not just the US government but the United Nations as well. The Justice League becoming too powerful will no doubt place a great amount of stress on them. Our decision to amass more power could be interpreted as hostile. We are already under the entire world's scrutiny."

While the Justice League were discussing in detail the pros and cons of expanding their organisation, a very loud alarm rang in the Watchtower. They all stood up and rushed towards the control room, with Flash and Martian Manhunter being the first to arrive there.