When Worlds Collide

16) Someone Put This Man On the Mock Trial Team

A/N: le long-ish

Nico stood in the empty room, arms crossed as he waited for the door to open. It had been a week since him and Leo busted the meta traffickers and now he had the pleasure of a disciplinary meeting with the JL. He'd shown up an hour earlier, at the time they had told him to be there, but apparently they had to have a meeting before the meeting, so he was stuck waiting in some empty office.

Finally, the door opened and Dick stuck his head into the room. "We're ready for you."

Nico began following his brother. "Why are you here? I thought it was League members only."

Dick glanced at him, probably attempting to read his face for emotions, but looked away after a moment, seemingly realizing that Nico's poker face was nearly as strong as Batman's. "Senior members of the Team are allowed to petition the League for access to meetings that we find relevant. Since you're a member of our team-"

Nico cut him off as they reached the council room. "I'm not a member. I'm a consultant."

Dick opened his mouth to respond, but closed it a moment later, probably knowing that arguing would accomplish nothing. Dick instead just nodded for Nico to continue to the front of the room while he walked over to the other Senior Members.

Nico walked to the front of the room and took one of the empty seats at the head of the table. The large room was silent. He had been told that Superman was the current elected leader, but chances were that he was yielding to Batman at the moment, considering it was now common knowledge that he was a son of Bruce. Little did Clark know that in this moment, he wasn't Bruce's son; he was Batman's contractor— one who acted against his orders.

Clark looked between Nico and Batman, probably expecting one of them to say something, however Batman never talked first and Nico had nothing to say.

Finally, Superman decided that he had waited long enough and spoke. "Ghost King, I believe you were told why we asked you here?"

Nico suppressed an eye roll, not wanting to disrespect Clark that early in the meeting considering he actually liked the dude. "Yes, Nightwing called me the day after the bust to let me know."

"We requested that both you and Technician be present at the meeting," Canary said from her place between Clark and Bruce. Nico remembered Wally and Dick talking about how League elections were coming up and she was one of the top candidates to take over as leader since Clark was stepping down.

Nico nodded. "Yes, however as I stated when I first brought them to the mountain, my contacts do not exist. He was only involved in the raid because someone under his protection was taken."

Black Canary looked like she wanted to press the subject more, but Superman put up a hand to stop her. "Understood. We can accept that for now, however we will have to talk about your contacts at a later date— off the record, of course. Right now, we need to discuss your actions."

"I pulled off one of the biggest Meta Trafficking busts in JL history. Up until now, all of your busts have involved major operations including no fewer than 5 Justice League Meberes, yet we were able to pull it off with two people."

"You got lucky," Bruce said, finally breaking his silence.

Nico kept his neutral face, but he was internally glaring at his dad. "I disagree."

The leaguers looked between the father and son for a moment before the Kryptonian cleared his throat. "Success of the operation aside, you acted without orders. If it had gone wrong, you could have endangered the lives of not only yourselves, but of the children that were abducted."