Chapter 182: Unforeseen Events Part 1

While Arias was on the move, the Justice League was also in the process of planning for him. Inside the meeting area in the hall of justice, the Batman summoned all the members, with exception to the younger team.

This time around, even Aquaman who hadn't attended the prior meetings was present, with the only absent member being Superman, who was getting treatment at an undisclosed location, known only by Batman and Martian Manhunter.

His situation was known to all the members present, thus the atmosphere was quite tense. All the seated members kept silent and just looked at Batman, waiting for him to start talks.

After heaving a sigh, Batman stood up and showed a serious expression, "As of now, we can consider Arias Markovic to be one of the more important world level threats present on earth."

Batman's words weren't received with much surprise. In the eyes of the league, anyone capable enough of beating Superman was indeed a world level threat, much like Darkseid in the current period.

Following the revelation, Green Lantern raised his hand, "Does that mean we're actively going to go after him?"

Green Lantern's question seemed like it would be the most reasonable route to take after what Batman said but surprisingly, Batman shook his head at the question, "No. As it stands, even if we do successfully apprehend him, he will have to undergo trail in the U.S, but I very much don't see that happening. Worst of all, if Slade Wilson does indeed win in the polls, he has solid ground to provide Arias Markovic a presidential pardon."

This piece of news wasn't at all wonderful to hear, especially to Green Arrow, who was especially hateful of Arias after what he did to Flash and Black Canary.

"So what? You called us here just to tell us we can't do anything about him?" An angry Green Arrow asked while slamming his hand into the table and standing up.

Batman remained silent, not answering the question, which in itself was an answer.

"Tsk. I agreed to join this group in order to do some good, not let dangerous criminals run free just because they manipulated the system. This time it's just Arias Markovic but what if more and more criminals are left to run free?" Green Arrow clicked his tongue in annoyance and decided to walk out first, venting his opinion while doing so.

After he left, the others turned to face Batman who sighed inwardly but didn't show any fazed expression on the surface.

"I know it's tricky to accept but Arias Markovic can not be delt with without us criminalizing ourselves, more than that, Arias has clearly displayed his ability to kill multiple members of the league, this warning shouldn't be taken lightly. I'm not asking us to forget what his done, but instead to act cautiously and figure out how we can deal with him without losing any lives in the process." Batman appealed, bringing forward a reasonable argument regarding why they couldn't act.

Aquaman who had been silent all this time, finally raised his hand and asked, "Is that wise? I mean whose to say he won't become more dangerous with time?"

That was also a reasonable question but the answer to that was obvious, with the one answering it being Black Canary rather than Batman.

"That's very unlikely. All of you saw it yourselves, if his motives really were sinister then as things stand we are powerless to stop him. He is an extremist, willing to go to great lengths to achieve his goals, but as far as we know, his goals themselves aren't bad. So, until a solution is reached, we lose nothing by letting him be. Right?" She cast Batman a glance after roughly guessing what line of thought Batman was following when he reached this conclusion about Arias.

Because unlike other world level threats, Arias didn't show any desire towards negatively impacting humanity, if anything, he was doing the opposite. With the amount of good he did surpassing the bad, it was no surprise that Batman chose a passive route, after all, he was yet to come up with a way to stop Arias.

He could only blame his ignorance of the early signs Arias demonstrated of being a threat. But with his rise being like nothing seen before, it was no wonder that even Batman was caught off guard, left with no choice but to ignore Arias for now and plan contingencies, while also looking to completely deal with the human supremacy group.

Unknown to Batman, by choosing to go down this route, he gave Arias more than ample time to plot against the league, and turn it from annoyance to tool, all while the league's focus itself was on a group that Arias made to fool the entire world, masking both his and the light's intentions.

…

But, even Batman couldn't have been prepared for the next piece of news that reached the world.

Because later that evening, just as news regarding the HS virus was starting to dwindle due to the appearance of a cure, a new headline sprung that caught the attention of the world.

[ Breaking News: Wanted fugitive, Arias Markovic has turned himself in. Just a less than an hour ago, we received a tip that a jet suspected of carrying him had landed at Gotham International. However, authorities were surprised to arrive on the scene and find him already to be custody of airport officials, stating he had turned himself in. The details are still quite vague at his moment but we believe-."

At this time, Batman, who was watching this piece of news from the hall of justice, cut off the feed and left the area he was in.

Immediately he walked out, he was met with some of the members still present at hall of justice, flash, green lantern and Martian Manhunter to be exact.

The first to speak was flash, who upon seeing the strange atmosphere present, couldn't help but feel a sense of worry for the situation, "I take it the news I'm from seeing can't be considered good?…"

He trailed off as he saw Batman show no reaction to his somewhat humorous way of trying to break the ice.

"No, he's planning something, the question is, what? Does he really indeed to go about having a trail and waiting for Slade to win? Or maybe something else."

Batman couldn't see just Arias hoped to achieve by doing this. His immediate thoughts were that he was indeed planning to wait for Slade's bid for presidency to succeed, in turn leading to a presidential pardon.

However that was only the most obvious possibility. But when it came to Arias, Batman learned from his mistakes and wasn't about to just accept the reasonable possibility.