Chapter Two: Roadkill

Diana went in the apartment through the window. She washed the blond dye out of her hair, and removed the green colored eye contacts. She took a quick step into the shower to wash off the spray-on tan.

Soon she was able to look in the mirror and see her regular dark haired, blue eyed, fair skinned reflection. She no longer needed the disguise. She burned the dress she had worn to the party. If it wasn't in her wardrobe, it couldn't be identified as hers. Once all was said and done, she grabbed her bag and left for good.

WayTech Building

"Who is she?" Alfred asked as they watched the surveillance tapes, pointing to a tan blond woman in a red dress.

"I wish I knew. Certainly no one I invited." Bruce studied her. He quickly paused the footage at the point where the woman bumped into Alfred during the party. He zoomed in, and saw what he expected. She stole Alfred's phone.

"My word!" Alfred's eyes widened. "And I had just learned how to text!"

"Just as I thought. She must've called me from your phone. She did a perfect impersonation though… she even nailed your speech patterns and mannerisms, as well as your voice. We're looking at a very, very skilled actress."

"She got you out of the meeting room so she could be alone with Holbert." Alfred nodded.

"Then she led him into the parking garage, where she had this whole trap set up. Handcuffed him to a rental car, blew up the roof and crushed him underneath his own helicopter."

"I would find out who had the rental car."

"I already checked. It was under a false ID. An expertly crafted one. She had everything from fake medical records down to fake divorce papers from a fake husband. Even I was almost convinced that this person existed."

"So she's untraceable then." Alfred stated.

"Not quite. I dug into it a little more, and it turns out that a small apartment in the area was bought with the same fake ID just three days ago. This woman is obviously smart; I doubt she'll still be there. But that doesn't mean she didn't leave a clue. I just have to get over there and find it."

"Sounds like I should finish patching the bullet holes in your Batman suit."

"I agree."

Bruce's JLA communicator began to sound. With a groan, he answered it. "Batman." He said simply.

"I trust you're investigating the murder at your building last night?" J'onn's voice came through.

"What about it?"

"There's been another killing."

"What?" Bruce stood up quickly.

"It happened in Central City this afternoon. I investigated a bit. The victim was Henry Bradshaw, one of the board members at Lord Industries."

"Interesting. The first victim was Lord Industries' Financial Executive. Doubt its just coincidence."

"Precisely."

"Can we be sure it was the same killer?"

"The murderer was a woman. She impersonated a hooker that Bradshaw had hired, so he allowed her into his car. She then stabbed his driver and kicked Bradshaw through the rear window. He was run over by several vehicles on the highway."

"What happened to the car?"

"It drove off a bridge and into the lake. Emergency crews recovered the car, but not the killer."

"Sounds like her." Bruce nodded.

"Do you think perhaps we are dealing with an assassin? Someone hired to take out Lord Industries board members?"

"I don't think so. If it were an assassin, she would have killed Carl Holbert in the WayneTech meeting room and left. Instead she manipulated him, humiliated, and brutally crushed him underneath his private helicopter. She made sure to draw attention, like a public display of his murder. That wasn't a paid assassin. That was an act of revenge."

"So how do you propose we go about this?"

"If I'm not mistaken, there's a big press conference in Metropolis tonight where the head of Lord Industries' technology department will be unveiling a new product."

"And you think the killer will be there?"

"One of Lord Industry's big shots in a public place, with millions of people watching? I'm confident she'll show up."

"I'll have Superman, Barda and Flash patrolling the area."

"You do that. I'll investigate her apartment." Batman agreed, then turned off the communicator and headed for his suit.

Metropolis – Three Hours Later

The stage had been set, and the large crowd gathered in Metropolis Square eagerly awaited news of the new product coming from Lord Industries.

Soon, Christopher Duvall, head of Lord Industry's electronics department, stepped up to the microphone. The crowd cheered. He waited for it to quiet down a little, and then began to speak. "Ladies and gentlemen, how many of you have smart phones?" He asked exuberantly. Thousands cheered. "That's what I thought. But now… is it really smart?" He picked up a device in the palm of his hand, and the large screens behind him zoomed in on it. "Meet the PalmLord. It comes equipped with actually AI that will constantly adapt to the user's habits and activities. Within a month of ownership, your PalmLord will be performing tasks for you, such as automatically setting alarms to your usual wake up times, silencing itself when you enter meeting rooms, etc."

As the crowd roared over this, Diana watched from the top-floor window of a nearby building. She stared at her target a few seconds longer, drowning out his words and focusing on how much she hated him. She hated him because he worked alongside Maxwell Lord. And because of that he had to be punished.

Diana readied her modified compound bow, and stared closely at her target through the scope. In just a moment, millions of people would witness him die. It would be a quick arrow through the neck. She'd hit the jugular to ensure there would be a lot of blood. She wanted to make her mark. She wanted to be sure that no one would ever forget the sight. And by the time anyone got over their shock and tried to trace where the arrow had come from, she would be gone.

Diana pulled back on the bow string, taking carefully aim, and fired. There was a loud thud as the string snapped forward, and the heavy duty arrow was launched toward the unsuspecting Christopher Duvall with incredible speed.

And then, just before it would have hit, a ruby red beam of heat vision sliced through the air and incinerated the arrow! The security saw this and quickly grabbed Duvall, taking him to his bullet proof limousine, and as soon as he was in the driver took off.

"Damn it!" Diana growled. She threw down the bow and sprinted through the empty room. A thundering crash erupted behind her as Superman blasted through the wall! "Stop!" He demanded as he touched down directly in front of her. "I don't want to have to hurt you."

"Alright." Diana raised up her hands with a defeated sigh. "I know when I've lost."

Superman moved behind her and grabbed her wrists, hoping to secure her. And then was when she flung him forward with shocking strength! She smashed Superman against the wall and kicked him hard in the ribs. He got on his feet more quickly than she had expected. She cart wheeled up, planted her hands on his shoulders, and bounded up with tremendous force. She flipped in the air and landed a kick in the middle of his back, knocking him down and launching her through the window. Diana began a freefall toward the streets.

She hit the concrete gracefully, landing on her feet without any damage to speak off, and ran for the crowded subway where she knew Superman wouldn't find her easily. Pushing through the crowd, Diana literally leapt on top of a moving train, gaining a foothold quickly. She stood firm on the roof the subway train as it rode through the long subway tunnels.

Now that she had some relief, she pulled out a GPS tracker from her built and checked the screen. She had placed a tracking device on Christopher Duvall's limo, just in case he got away from her at the conference. The fast moving blip on the screen indicated that they were heading to the outskirts of the city, probably to a safe house. And on the same route as the police station…

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw the reflection of a large blue blob in the screen. She spun around quickly with a roundhouse kick and caught Superman in the face. She heard another train coming. It was about to pass the one they were on, moving back toward the station. Diana quickly tossed a flash pellet from her tool belt. It struck Superman's face and exploded into a bright, blinding light. Superman screamed as his vision was blackened out.

Diana then leapt off of the train, and clung to the side of the passing one. By the time Superman regained his vision, she was gone.

Once the second train arrived back at the station, Diana jumped off and sprinted up the stairs, back into the city streets. She ducked into an alley and started to run, when a quick orange blur struck her in the side. She was knocked into a wall, when another blur hit her in the face.

The Flash materialized in front of her. "I don't like hitting girls, so if you could please surrender…?" He tried.

Diana launched a kick at him, but Flash dodged and broke into a sprint again, causing Diana to lose sight of him. She saw a wooden door with a window built into it, leading into an old, closed down antique shop. Diana ripped the door off of its hinges and smashed the window, scattering shards of glass all over the narrow alley. A straight line of glass shards began to crush, and Diana new that Flash was running over them.

She waited until the shard nearest to her broke, and flung the door forward, hitting Flash in the chest! She slammed him against the wall and easily dislocated his knee, before backhanding him across the face and leaving him unconscious. "Too easy." Diana cracked her.

"Oh yeah? Try me!" A powerful voice bellowed, and Diana looked over just in time to be punched in the face Big Barda! Diana hit the floor and looked up.

"What the hell are you supposed to be?"

"The Justice League's muscle." Barda growled, and stomped down toward Diana! She rolled away just in time and delivered a punch, knocking the taller woman back. Superman arrived back on the scene to aid Barda in the conflict. A few police cars began to approach.

"Alright." Diana sighed. She dropped her tool belt to the ground and put her hands against the wall. "For real this time."

"What?" Superman raised an eyebrow.

"I know I can't beat both of you. I might as well spare myself a beating." Diana shrugged.

"Look at that, she's smart." Barda laughed. She restrained Diana easily, not that Diana actually fought back at all. Barda then delivered Diana to the armored police van, and handed her over. The murderous woman was quickly handcuffed and thrown in the back of the van, a defeated look on her face.

"Well that was easy." Barda shrugged as they drove away.

"Too easy." Superman shook his head. "Something wasn't right."

Gotham – Apartment Building

Bruce had swept over the apartment the killer had rented four times now, but hadn't found anything even resembling a clue. The woman had been careful not to leave any DNA traces, or anything else that could serve as an identifier. The only thing he had really found were some traces of hair dye in the sink, and spray-tan residue in the shower. Not even enough to draw skin or hair samples from.

Great. All I've learned as that I don't know what she really even looks like. He thought.

His communicator began to sound. "Batman." He answered.

"It's Clark. Barda and I apprehended the assassin, Christopher Duvall got out safely."

"Good. I haven't found anything useful in her apartment. Any clues about her identity?"

"Other than the fact that she's a Meta? No."

"Meta?"

"Yes. Her strength was almost on par with mine, and she leapt out of a twelve story building without so much as a scratch. Not to mention her reflexes were incredible."

"Interesting. Where is she now?"

"In an armored van being taken to Stryker's. But Bruce, there's something else…"

"What?"

"She got away from me twice. She took down Flash, and I'm confident she could have beaten Barda. But as soon as she saw police cars, she just gave up. It was almost like she wanted to be arrested."

"Strange. Keep an eye on the situation."

"Already on it."

Batman nodded and deactivated the communicator. He was just about to leave the apartment, when he noticed something strange. The wall space made for the closet was almost two feet larger than the actual closet. This struck him as odd, since space is rarely wasted when building apartments, being small as they are. He moved inside the empty closet to take a closer look. There was a trap door in the bottom of the back wall. He pried it open, and found a safe.

"Strange…" He muttered. After a moment of lock-picking, he opened up the safe. As he did so, there was a popping noise. His eyes widened when inside the safe, he saw a single grenade. The pin had been tied to a string, the other end of said string tied to the door of the safe. And in pulling the door open, he had also pulled out the pin!

Swiftly Batman doubled around and sprinted for the window. As he leapt through the glass, the grenade exploded and the apartment went up in flames behind him! Batman glided away from the fire and landed on the ledge of the next building. He looked back at the fire with interest. She had set a trap.

Whoever this woman was, she was smart. And he had a feeling that this was only the beginning.

Metropolis Highway – Twenty Minutes Later

Metropolis Police were used to dealing with metahumans on the job. Diana had been searched thoroughly for weapons, then her hands and feet were both cuffed. Now she sat in the back of the armored truck, behind watched by two guards armed with submachine guns.

Diana had been doing the math in her head. Judging by the speed at which the vehicle was traveling, compared to the speed of the limousine, they were almost right where she wanted…

Diana purposefully bit her tongue. Hard. Blood started to gush, and she spat it out onto her chin. She reacted as if there were a severe stomach problem, as if she were actually coughing up blood!

Naturally, one of the guards rushed over to see what was wrong. As soon as he knelt down in front of her, she flung her forehead forward, smashing his visor! She quickly got up and looped her handcuffs around his neck, spinning him around in front of her as the second guard fired his gun. The bullets tore into his partner, and the shooting guard stepped back in horror. Diana took advantage of his. She snapped the handcuffs over the guards neck, grabbed his fallen gun, and threw it across the truck!

The gun hit the second guard in the throat, causing him to drop to the floor. She kicked him unconscious, and pulled one of his side arms from his belt. A small shotgun. She emptied out all of the shells. She then carefully but quickly disassembled the shells, emptying all the gunpowder into the palm of her hand. Then she pulled out the guard's lighter. He was a smoker. She used it to heat up the bulletproof steel wall in front of her to dangerous levels.

She stepped back and sighed. "Gods this is going to hurt…" She pulled back with her palm, still full of gunpowder, and launched it forward. The palm struck the red-hot section on the wall, igniting all of the gunpowder at once.

There was an earsplitting blast, and Diana felt immense pain as the force of the explosion broke bone in her arm. Her skin had survived with only a few relatively minor burns. And she had successfully blown a hall through the wall in front of her!

"What the hell?" The driver of the truck shouted as the hole blew through right next to his head! Diana grabbed the hole with her good hand and ripped it open further. The driver fumbled for his gun, but he was too late. Diana crawled painfully into the passenger side and kicked the driver with both feet, launching him straight through the door on his side! He went tumbling into the road, and air started rushing through the gap where the door had once been.

They were on a highway. Diana looked down to see Christopher Duvall's bulletproof limousine, about to drive underneath the overpass. Diana grabbed the wheel with her good arm, and jerked the truck right off of the highway!

The five ton armored truck performed a nosedive, and sailed directly onto the limo she had aimed for! The van crushed the limo, and everything inside. Everyone inside. There were startled screams, but only for a moment. Then blood started to leak through the limo's windows. Diana rolled out through the gap where the driver's side door had once been, and walked away from her latest kill as a crowd began to form, holding her broken arm.

Three down. Just a few left. Then she could take down Lord himself.