Learning the Ropes

Chapter 4: The Argument

Special thanks to abranca38

|The Watchtower

|June 28th, 1:15 EDT

|2010

Piccolo was bombarded with exclaims and gasping shouts from all the League members while he sat there in stunned disbelief. Batman wanted him to train the children?! The bizarreness and worry about the situation were voiced by everyone in the room.

The ones against him were the most vocal, unsurprisingly, but what was surprising was the others who agreed with them. His own friends were joining in and exclaiming just as loud as his detractors. Sentences were flung around like "you can't be serious!", "are you insane?!" and "no way this is happening!". Piccolo noticed how many of their eyes were drawn towards Dinah more than the Big Three or even himself. Piccolo knew what was about to come, so rather than let the League prattle on with useless cries Piccolo pushed the conversation forward. "You want me to train your whelps?" Piccolo clarified via telepathy.

The sudden mental message halted everyone mid-sentence. Batman capitalized on the sudden silence to take back control of the conversation. "Yes, we do. I understand everyone's qualms about what we propose. I motion to open a dialogue with everyone here and to share said issues, so that I can alleviate them

"Alleviate them?! Like you can just convince us that harming children is the right course of action" Hawkwoman exclaimed.

"And putting them on the frontline and fighting people or events that can cripple or kill them isn't?" Wonder Woman pointily stated

"This is different!" Green Arrow snapped.

"How so?" The sudden question from Red Tornado turned Green Arrow's ire onto him.

Seeing the hostility, Red Tornado defused it. "It's a genuine question. How is Piccolo's training any different from putting Speedy in danger by facing aggressive and unstable individuals?" he asked.

Green Arrow took a moment to wipe the sneer off his face and take up a calm look. He addressed the whole table. "As we've discussed before, it's not morally or ethically right to have children fight alongside us, but we have no choice. We have the choice to dissuade them, stop them and even arrest them, but it won't stop them. Speedy, Kid Flash, Robin and Aqualad. All of them have the drive for heroism" a small smile appeared on Green Arrow's face as he took a moment to reminisce. "I remember arresting Speedy four times yet he always found a way to get his hands on a bow and stop criminals. Doesn't matter how much I try to stop him, he just wants to do what's right".

The smile on his face faded as he retook a serious look to convey his message. "If I truly had a choice, I'd see Speedy put up his cap and bow till he's at least an adult. But I don't have one. The only choice I do have is protecting him. Showing him how to be a hero, how to act in the public eye and how to handle himself in a fight. I can mediate it. This decision- it shouldn't be a decision. You, I and everyone here has a choice now and we need to choose not to put our protégés in danger"

"And what danger could Piccolo possess to them? He does not want to harm them. I understand that Piccolo's training route is severe and highly dangerous but with moderation-"

"Are you just going to gloss over what happened to Black Canary in 2008?" Green Lantern Jordon interrupted

There it was. The main contention and the sole reason for the League's hesitation and borderline refusal for the Big Three's proposal. The reason why Dinah was his ex-pupil. Black Canary flinched at the topic and Green Arrow drove the point home. "Severe and highly dangerous is an understatement! Dinah almost died under Piccolo's supervision! Multiple bone fractures! Torn muscles and scarred skin! Internal bleeding and hemorrhaging in major organs that put her a coma for 5 months!"