Chapter 7: Hall of Justice

Confidently walking into the wide-open room, Izayoi was met with the image of several people staring back at him; some of them were heroes that he recognized during Darkseid's speech, while others were completely new to him. They all sat around a massive, chrome-like table that seemed to span the entirety of the room's length. Apparently they had been expecting him as the majority of them showed little to no reactions upon his entrance.

Hearing Batman's footsteps walk up next to him, Izayoi calmly glanced over at the caped crusader.

"That's a big table," he commented.

Batman didn't smile, and, instead, simply decided to ignore the blonde teen's joke as he made his way over to an empty seat amongst the rest of the heroes.

Everyone in the room was silent while they continued to look at the teen in thought; finally, one of the members at the very end of the table stood from their chair and decided to speak up. It was Superman; granted, he didn't know too much about the hero, but it was satisfying to see a somewhat familiar face.

"State your name," Superman said.

"Oh, uhhh….Izayoi Sakamaki," he answered, surprised by how sudden the session began.

"Izayoi Sakamaki, for the next few hours you will answer any and all questions that are presented to you by this council; answer them to the best of your knowledge. If we feel as though you are lying to us or presenting false information, we will have no choice but to imprison you until further notice. Do you understand these parameters?"

"I do," Izayoi said with a serious face.

"Good, then we shall begin questioning now," Superman concluded before he sat back down in his seat.

"J'onn, would you please…" Super said, gesturing to a green skin man who sat at the table.

"Of course," J'onn replied, rising from his chair and approaching the confused teenager.

"Hold still. Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit," the man said as he gently placed his hands around Izayoi's head.

Closing his eyes as he focused on something, the green man seemed to be in deep thought as he remained in front of the blonde teen. After several moments of uninterrupted silence, the man finally lowered his hands to his sides.

"There," he said, "I am now able to –"

"Lemme guess: read my mind," Izayoi finished.

"You….are quite smart," J'onn responded with a look of genuine surprise, "Yes. I can now tell what thoughts you are currently having; so, if you lie on any of the questions, I will know."

"Ok," Izayoi said nonchalantly with a shrug.

Nodding in accordance with the young blonde's understanding, J'onn turned around and headed back to his seat at the table.

"We are going to ask you some questions now. Are you ready?" Super man posed.

"Yep," Izayoi said.

"Good. Then we are going to begin."

The hours seemed to tick by like days; Izayoi's answers were often too vague or convoluted for the heroes to be satisfied, so they would continue to ask him some of the same questions just to push him. Most of the questions were what he had predicted; they mainly asked about Darkseid's forces or about what kind of weapons he had. Soon, the line of questioning moved into the realm of his purpose on Earth. Was he really disobeying Darkseid's orders, or was this merely a part of his plan? Eventually, they asked him about himself, desperate to find out how powerful he was and what abilities he possessed. Izayoi didn't lie, but he decided not to give them too much information about his powers, for fear that they may try to use it against him at a later date. Utilizing some mental tricks that Darkseid taught him for resisting telepathy, Izayoi was able to trick J'onn from realizing he was hiding certain things about himself. Finally, the two hours were up and Izayoi was thankful that it was over.

"The questioning period has ended," Superman said, "we shall review your answers and determine whether we require you to answer anything more, but in the meantime you will be excused. J'onn, would you show him to where he will be staying?"

"Of course," the man with the green skin said.

Standing up from the table once more, the Martian walked over to Izayoi and showed him back out of the room through the large door. Once the two of them left, the remaining members of the Justice League looked at each other; some of them held expressions of contemplation while others simply looked worried.

"Was he telling the truth?" Wonder Woman asked from her side of the table.

"If he was lying, J'onn would've told us," Superman pointed out.

"That doesn't mean he couldn't have been hiding certain things. What if he's immune to J'onn's weird mind-reading thing?" Green Arrow said with crossed arms.

Flash chuckled at the archer's statement, "Nobody is immune to J'onn's mind-reading."

"I don't like him," said one woman from across the table, "He seemed too calm while we were asking him questions. So, either he's incredibly honest, or he's just a liar; I'm willing to say it's the latter."

"C'mon Canary, why is it so crazy to think he's telling the truth" Flash pleaded, "I mean, the kid has no reason to lie to us."

"Perhaps it's your naiveté that's talking, Flash, but he has EVERY reason to lie to us," Green Lantern responded, irritated by the Scarlet Speedster's unfounded trust.

"Enough," Batman suddenly said, "We'll have time to discuss all this tomorrow, so for now we should temporarily adjourn."

The other's hushed voices were immediately followed by their nodding heads.

"Agreed," they all said in unison.

This interrogation meeting was rushed as a response to the recent arrival of Darkseid, so each of them had taken time away from their respective patrolling areas. Now that the meeting was over, they had no reason to stay. Swiftly standing up from the table and saying their goodbyes, the heroes all filed out of the room as they headed for the exit. Superman was among the last of the heroes who was leaving until he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he glanced at the masked face of Batman who stared at him with a serious face.

"Clark, I need to talk to you," he said.

"What is it, Bruce?" Superman asked.

"After you left, I received an alarm to a nearby bank that had been broken into – it was Bane."

"Ok, did you take him down?" Superman asked, wondering why this was such a big deal.

"No, in fact, he probably would've killed me if that boy hadn't stepped in at the last minute," Batman responded.

"Wait, that boy – Izayoi – saved you?"

"Yes. And what's more, that boy defeated Bane in a matter of seconds. There are only a handful of Leaguers who are capable of that," the Dark Knight said with a hint of caution.

"So what are you saying?" the Man of Steel wondered.

"I want to keep a close eye on him. If he's as powerful as I think he is, and he's lying to us about not working for Darkseid, then he's dangerous."

Taking in this sudden barrage of info, Superman looked Batman directly in the eyes and gave him a nod.

"I understand, Bruce," he said.

With a thankful pat on the shoulder, Batman walked past Superman and headed for the now empty hallway, leaving the Man of Steel alone with his thoughts.

Meanwhile…

Izayoi walked directly behind Martian Manhunter, whose cape gently flowed behind him like a scarlet trail. They had taken a hallway that was an offshoot of the main one; this hall seemed to be much thinner and was lined with a chrome-like material that seemed to reveal a glossy reflection of the two figures.

"Where exactly are we going?" the blonde boy asked, studying the aesthetic of the hallway.

"To your room," the green hero stated without slowing down.

"My room? Am I going to be staying here?" he asked, although the question was mostly rhetorical. Of course they expected him to stay here. Where else could they leave him AND keep their eyes on him at the same time?

"Yes, you will be staying here," J'onn said, "Of course, you already know why; It is so that we may be able to know your whereabouts."

Izayoi mentally cursed himself. He forgot this guy could read his mind; it was actually kind of annoying now that he thought about it. The only way he could block the Martian's mind reading abilities is if he focused, but he couldn't do that for extended periods of time. Oh well, guess he had to just deal with it.

The two of them finally came to a door further down the hall; the entrance itself wasn't extraordinary in any sort of way, being quite bland in terms of any defining features. Automatically, the doorway slid open as the group approached.

'Movement sensors?' Izayoi mentally noted as he followed J'onn into the room.

Like the door, the inside of the room was just as bland and boring; it probably could've functioned as a hotel room due to how commonplace it seemed. A medium-sized, rectangular bed was positioned at the far end of the room, wedged directly into a corner that formed around it. The walls all around the room lacked any kind of decoration; they were blank, as far as he could tell, and mainly contained a cream-like color. There were no windows, which was something Izayoi probably should've expected – it would've been too easy to escape if that were the case.

Glancing up at Martian Manhunter, Izayoi said, "So, this is where I'll be staying, huh."

With a slight bow, the green man replied, "Yes. I apologize if it is not to your liking, but there was not much we could do about that."

"Eh, don't worry about it," the blonde said with a wave of his hand as he began to stroll around the room.

Walking further into the compartment, Izayoi discovered a closed door, to which he immediately assumed led to the bathroom. All of the personal utilities were present there: wash cloths, bath towel, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, you name it. Switching the light on and off to test its luminosity, the young teen walked back into the main room relatively content with his domicile. But there was something that was weighing on his mind as he looked around.

"Exactly how long am I supposed to stay here?" he asked with a partially turned head.

J'onn, who had calmly placed his hands behind his back, answered, "That has yet to be determined."

"Yikes, well that's not a good answer," Izayoi said with a smirk.

"Is the room to your liking?" J'onn asked politely.

"Yeah, it seems pretty good," the teen informed, gingerly taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Good. Then I shall leave you be," the martian said as he exited the room, "If you require any assistance, there is a red button on the desk next to your bed. Push it – there should be someone who arrives in the room if you need anything."

With that, the alien allowed the door to slide back into frame, essentially enclosing Izayoi in the now quiet room. Taking a deep breath, for no other reason than he felt the need to, he fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. For a few minutes of undisturbed silence, the teen remained silent as thoughts swirled around inside his head. His vision then began to darken as his eyes closed and he fell into the gradual state of sleep.

End of Chapter 7