Washington D.C
March 16 23:16 EDT
The cool march air swirled around, causing Gem to catch a chill, as her bare shoulders began to blossom with goose bumps. She was wearing a bedazzled corset top, full of gems colored with gold and maroon shades, that glittered in the moonlight. She then had on black, leather shorts that cut off at her mid-thigh, followed by knee high black heeled boots, that had a tiny gold buckle on each ankle. Her short, dirty blonde hair went to her earlobes, and her face was bare, with no mask to conceal herself. Her name was Gem. She was a vigilante, and she did not take orders...from anyone.
She was currently outside of Cadmus labs, the most safeguarded and heavily armed building in the entire D.C area. Cadmus had a veil hidden around itself, and had been one of the most sought out conspiracies in the country. Even the Justice League could not get any information on what was going on inside of Cadmus. But Gem was not in the Justice League, and she had her own means of trying to get inside.
Her information from various conspiracy theory sites claimed that Cadmus had no on the grid electricity, which was the first thing to catch Gem's eye. Second, was that there was barely anyone leaving or going into the building, which also raised another red flag. Creeping from behind a wall, Gem scanned the building. Four windows on the side, no lights, one security camera, no guards. Gem scoffed. For something as high profile as Cadmus, they weren't doing much about protecting their little secrets. She attached herself to the shadow of the wall, and slid along the wall until she had positioned herself underneath the security camera. She then unhooked her harpoon gun from her belt, and aimed right for the camera's lens. Then with one hit from the trigger, the harpoon sliced right through the lense, making the security camera de-activated. Gem then put the harpoon gun carefully back onto her belt, and took out the next weapon, her grappling gun. She moved towards the nearest window, and fired the grappling gun, and the hook attached itself to the rooftop.
Gem then was pulled up towards the top of the building, before she began to slow down near the window. While holding on to the gun, Gem took out the harpoon again, and fired at the window. The glass shattered, and as Gem tried to shield her eyes, she dropped the harpoon, and it fell and landed on the pavement below with a heavy thud. Gem looked down at the gun, which was now about twenty feet below her. She then looked away and gently swung herself into the building, where she landed in one of Cadmus' offices. She looked at the clock on the wall, with the time now reading that it was midnight. Gem quickly scanned around the rooms, seeing cabinet after cabinet, and files laying around on the desks, all of them not even sealed or protected. Gem grinned, as she began to get to work.
Gem scanned her way through the files in the cabinets, on the tables, and in various other rooms, but could find nothing suspicious. She then seated herself at a computer, turned it on, and searched through the files, still turning up nothing. She then took out a flash drive from her back pocket, and inserted it in. On the flash drive. were various folders, with one being exclusively for Cadmus. And in that Cadmus file, contained a computer hacking virus. Gem grinned as she clicked on the file, dragged it to the desktop, and inserted the code for the virus to load.
In a matter of seconds the virus commenced, and thousands of once hidden files were being accessed. Words flashed and danced along the screen, such as "G-Nome", "Superman", "DNA", G-Troll", and one file's name appearing as "Kr". Gem specifically clicked on the Project Kr file, and in moments, the file opened to reveal a project summary. It appeared that "Project Kr" was to create an embryo mixed with "G-nome" DNA and the DNA from a Kryptonian. The embryo would then clone and form into a weapon to be used against Superman, or to replace Superman. Gem immediately dragged the file onto her flashdrive. She was sure that she had enough of what she needed, and could finally leave Cadmus.
While gliding down the side of Cadmus, Gem's mind was buzzing around Project Kr. According to the files, the project had just commenced, with the embryo now starting to grow, and would reach a developmental stage in sixteen weeks, with the embryo growing into a teenage male. Gem wondered how Cadmus could even create a clone in a mere sixteen weeks, but then she had already heard of other impossible scientific events. As she turned the corner back to her motorcycle, a shadow appeared. Gem stopped in her tracks, and assumed a fighting position. But the figure did not engage in a fight, but just merely stood in place, staring at Gem.
"You have violated and trespassed private files and property" the shadow uttered, slowly stepping out of the darkness. Gem rolled her eyes, "Yes, I already know what I have done, genius". The figure soon was absorbed with light, revealing the figure to be none other than the Dark Knight himself, Batman. Gem's eyes widened and she took a step back, clutching her pocket with her precious flash drive.
"What exactly were you investigating, Miss..." he questioned, as he looked to Gem's side, seeing her clutch her pocket. "The name is Gem, and for your information, I was investigating Cadmus' energy consumption, because as I'm sure you know, they have no power grid records, which is very suspicious" Gem said, while holding her stance, in case Batman would figure out and try to steal away her flashdrive.
"I see...Did those internet conspiracy sites hire you for this?" he inquired, as Gem let out a small laugh. "Those freaks? No, I did this all by myself, I don't follow orders". Tension filled the air, and Gem could not read the expression or thoughts from the Dark Knight's face.
"Very well then...and as for that flashdrive in your pocket, it only contains the information about the energy, correct?" he asked, as Gem's heart skipped a beat. Could she lie to Batman? Or would he figure her out? More importantly, should she tell Batman? After all, this "Project Kr" did involve Superman, who was part of the Justice League. Gem held herself, and coolly replied, "Yes, only about their power source, nothing else". Batman nodded, and turned on his heels, ready to go back into the shadows.
Gem breathed a sigh of relief, until she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and became face to face with Batman, who stared at her directly in the eye, and said "This is a warning, Gem. The Justice League, and more personally, I, will be watching you" he uttered, as he turned away and walked into the shadows. Gem was stunned, but had now accomplished two of her goals of that night.
One, she obtained Cadmus' information about their secret project, and two, she had allured the interest of the Justice League, and Batman himself. But with that recognition, meant that she was now going to have to be more careful and more elusive than ever about the information she knew about Cadmus.
And even as she rolled through the night on her motorcycle, she could not get the Dark Knight's glare out of her mind, or his almost threatening words.