Bruce Wayne sat in the West Wing, staring at the computer screens until his eyes turned red from the effort and tears formed at the corners of his eyes, Alfred himself standing beside him, reading some of the information on Greek culture and tradition. From what he could establish from the ancient tales, the demigods were capable of great feats and much violence.
While the myths were a stable source of information, as Adonis' tales showed them, Bruce couldn't determine the powers of all of them. And he certainly never expected the demigods to be an organized society. Then there was the fact that they were out of sight of all societies for at least three thousand years. When Diana retired, she reviewed the information she had on every meta documented in her decade and a half of experience, but found no parallels to the powers displayed by the Golden Lady on Starling. Next, he checked the Homeric Poems, a database of Hellenistic culture documented by three centuries of archaeology. But he found nothing about the individual powers of the demigods, or any cases where the information didn't add up.
He then called his shadiest contacts in the occult, who confirmed that the demigods were isolationists, that they didn't interact with the other factions, that it would have taken something very bad for them to intervene, which Constantine—the only person who wasn't really afraid of making enemies—said was a problem if they started coming out into the open.
Later, Kent Nelson recommended a cover-up. Nelson had described all the reasons why it was bad to try to control the demigods. He had recommended not harassing them.
"They're unpredictable!" Bruce reminded him.
—Like every living thing —answered the High Sorcerer, adding that all the intervening moments were reactionary: the Trojan War, the fall of Constantinople, the Black Plague, were responses to the death of demigods at the hands of mortals. And others less known. All these events had been produced by the influence of the demigods. In all, those affected had been historically aggressive populations.
Such an ancient and meticulous pattern induced Bruce to look for contingencies for the presence of a previously unknown target species. The circumstances were particularly discouraging. With so many forms of crime that have appeared, the target market between countries. And, of course, unethical companies such as the Luthor Corporation, Kord Industries; new civilizations all over the world, in the Atlantic the marine kingdoms of Atlantis and the island of the Amazons in the Mediterranean; four separate metahuman dictatorships, which manage the black market and are great political weights in the UN; The worldwide association of thieves whose leader is unknown, volatile magical zones, unstable genetics, and uncontrolled experiments. Such criminal diversity maintained an astonishing form of balance and evolution: a tacit agreement not to break criminal boundaries. More than a thousand territorial division centers. More than five thousand factions.
New factions were being discovered every moment, at a rate that increased year after year, but for a sad reason: most of these discoveries were for crimes, and as the factions aligned, new and sometimes clever forms of crime were created.
So a new faction was perfectly possible. But,
accompanying the excitement of new possibilities was the worrying possibility of more enemies to the world order: the factions were very aggressive with outside attempts at control, and the demigods were described as "uncontrollable." The mildest of their reactions produced the bloodiest war in nascent Greece, or the worst of all, which wiped out half of the human and animal population of the time. Bruce thought it was important to find this new faction, and find a way to either incorporate it into the modern world or wipe it out once and for all.
He watched the rendition of the Aeneid on the screen, and sighed. Maybe Kent Nelson knew something, or maybe he didn't. Bruce certainly couldn't question it. He was a veteran, a founder of the Justice Society, had fought the Necromancer in World War II, led Hawkman and Atom against the Salem Witches, and had single-handedly faced Clarion the Witch Boy. But he couldn't ask for inaction either. He would soon have to present a contingency to the council: he didn't want a feud between powerhouses like Superman and Captain Marvel or Diana's eternal grudge.
He stood up and started walking to the Z-Tube. He didn't say goodbye to Dick, and shared a quick nod with Alfred, who moved to start tending to the mansion. Bruce walked away, off the beach and into the water. If he had to go to the council, it would be
better not prolong such a meeting, and Clark would be unbearable when he finds out about Dick.
He approached the device, a solid circular wall shaped like a spiral. The device already had the coordinates of the Watchtower. When Bruce was in front of the transport he made sure to put on his mask and activated the voice modulator, he didn't want any unpleasant surprises. He turned it on manually and waited for the luminescence to fill the spiral. Even with his experience in instant travel, Bruce could feel his insides churning as his particles decomposed after entering the Z Tube.
The Gotham Bat entered the League's orbital headquarters and advanced through the gray corridors devoid of life. The beep of the systems, processing data, made his eye twitch. It didn't take him long to reach the table, an inverted U for the twelve members. Some of the seats were already occupied by their owners, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Green Lantern—Hal Jordan and John Stuart—and Zatara, dropping the remains of his meal as he fled into the thicket.
Bruce slipped in without greeting his teammates and only exchanged a brief nod with the Kryptonian. He wasn't worried about the meeting: most were blind to his leadership, the only one who would really be a problem is Diana. He was already thinking about what to do about her clear favoritism for the demigods. He himself was wary of her countermeasure to the Amazon, but his teammates wouldn't be very effective against her, of course. Will she get violent if the League decides to intervene? Even that question was complex, this was the first time he saw the princess so closed about a case. He really doubted she would support the League. Bruce growled annoyed. He took a seat, ignoring the expectant looks of his teammates.