S/N: It is more complicated than chess, but that's the closest yet also farthest analogy I have got for this ongoing chain of events.
"How did we get caught so easily?" grumbles Helena
"Easy, heck they had an army of hundreds," retorts Oliver
"This is not the time to rehash history, we need to escape as soon as possible," says Dinah.
"She is right, we need to focus on escape," continues Steel.
"We are probably in some high security detention area, they wouldn't go to all this trouble if we could escape easily."
"That would be correct," says a fourth voice outside their cell.
The figure steps into the light, Hardcastle may not be a physically imposing individual, but he has been able to remain in his position to shape the directives of Cadmus especially since the Lords went MIA before Wayne's trial. They had files on everyone who was a costumed hero, so there were no secret identities at stake here.
"You are being held here because the Outsiders are a violation of the judgments made a few years back regarding costumed heroics."
"You would want Wayne for that, we are merely helping when we can, but otherwise not interfering on a grand scale."
"Keep telling yourself that Bertinelli."
"Why attack one of our facilities?"
"Sage broke into one of our computer networks."
"We were clueless about who we might be dealing with when rumors started circulating about government plans to counter the costumes."
"That's not justification."
"What is justification then?"
"We are aiming to prevent another costumed dictatorship."
"We are not going that far again."
"You say that now, but what happens if one of you dies again."
"We deal with it and move on."
"Sure, well get comfortable because you are going to be here awhile, probably forever."
The frustration is not just being stuck here, but being stuck here while the world is in danger from something worse than what Waller and her superiors fear deep down.
"That settles that... we are out of here now."
Helena takes a full zap from the energy running through the barred doorway. As she flies backwards, she is barely caught by Oliver and Steel.
"Great, even electrified the bars," grumbles Helena.
Meanwhile at Graystone, Vic Sage is stuck on a food line with a few of Gotham's criminals he put there, but of course when they try to attack him he steps on the aglets of their worn out shoes.
"I always said those things had a more sinister purpose, though this works just as well."
He eats in silence. Nobody bothers him just yet for now.
***
Elsewhere in Bludhaven, Barbara notices armored vehicles tailing her home. She rings the house, Alfred answers, she tells him to stay with Cassandra until she gets there, he obliges, but of course Dick is also on his way home being tailed too. They both head inside together after parking their separate cars.
"Something is definitely wrong here."
"Yeah, cops tailing us, we are operating within the law nowadays, somebody apparently disagrees."
As they head upstairs, they find Alfred with Cassandra, but of course he directs their attention to the news broadcast about a captured band of vigilantes. Their faces are shown with the masks instead of without, which is not that relieving. The reporter begins talking about the suspected ringleaders, which probably include former members of the Bat clan. Someone is knocking at the door, Barbara answers it after telling Alfred to hide in the secret elevator with Cassandra, if anything went really wrong, the baby had to be protected at all costs. Alfred understood just as he had when having to look after Bruce in the manor on his own all those years ago.
"This is unfortunate, but due to you known association with the purportedly reformed Bruce Wayne, you are being taken in for questioning."
"Its more than that isn't?"
"I'm not allowed to say anything more."
"Sure."
Someone or many open fire against the windows. Dick pushes Barbara below the couch as the windows shatter and sure enough these new comers keep shooting injuring several cops in the process. The weaponry belongs to a different era of Wayne Enterprises before Bruce had come back to take the family business out of the hands of men like Warren Powers who sought to use the company as an arms manufacturer, which Bruce put a stop to before long and replaced him with Lucius Fox, someone that was in passing acquainted with his deceased parents. Someone was trying to frame Wayne Enterprises and by extension put the blame of these deaths on Lucius or Bruce, maybe even both. The gunmen surround them after the cops are dead.
"You best surrender if you want that kid of yours to live as well as the old man!"
Dick for the first time in years felt the urge to literally fight to the point of making sure he had a hospital stay in his future.
"How dare you!"
Dick gets up and grabs the leader by the upper part of his Kevlar vest then tosses him across the room before stringing Barbara along to the elevator where Alfred is still hiding with Cassandra. He immediately executes the command to take them down to the panic room. The attackers attempt to follow, but they will have to get through multiple security defenses as well as lockouts.
"Wherever you are Bruce, we need you, we need..."
"I know what you are trying to say Master Richard..."
"You don't have to say that term anymore, we are family after all..."
"Yes I know, old habits, like you using that thug's weakness against him..."
Barbara whispers into her husband's ear.
"Never been so turned on by you in awhile, you were great standing up to that idiot."
"Thanks Babs, she's our daughter after all."
"Yes she is..."
The little Cassandra makes all sorts of baby noises as Alfred hands her back to her mother. They lock themselves into the panic room which has enough provisions for a month without need to acquire more for awhile. It was time to try again to contact Bruce or at least someone in the Outsiders that had not been taken into custody by Cadmus or some other government agency. Kara was the quickest to answer and reports little change as no other cells report government encounters, but they are all staying off the streets.
"We are off the streets but hiding in a panic room to avoid dealing with whoever killed the police that came to get us for questioning in order to find Bruce or something viable to link him to the the network he setup but then left to run itself."
"Well stay there for now, I don't think we can risk teleporting anyone without a transponder that the machine will recognize."
***
"This just in, D.A. Grayson and his wife are reportedly involved with the Outsiders, they resisted attempts to bring them in for questioning, multiple officers were wounded or killed prior to their getaway. Bludhaven P.D. is authorized to use any methods necessary to bring them likewise they are working in tandem with the GCPD in the pursuit to capture Bruce Wayne, apparently his rehab behavior was a scam in the words of Detective Bullock. Commissioner Montoya had no comments."
The news only got more depressing for anyone who knew that a lot of was a lie and as for the rest, there are short lived protests where demands are made to try all the costumes then lock them away or something. Dick after spending years trying to be the kind of lawyer that people would hold high respect for is now looking into a glass case that houses his spare costume as well as Barbara's. It could become necessary to be Nightwing again, but he like so many others had sworn the costumes time had come and gone already. However he also wonders if turning themselves over might persuade some to back down from this mass suggestion to arrest and lock them up. He wonders once again how Bruce had managed to put on that cowl for the first all those years ago.
"I used to tell him, that some times you have to be the outcast, the outsider to make the difficult calls, the right choices, of course people won't always like or love you for it, but it comes with the territory."
"You are right more often than not Alfred."
"On the days where I am right, I wouldn't want to say I am."
"I know."
"So what now?"
Barbara enters saying Cassandra is finally asleep. It is decided they are going after Question at Graystone since they have no idea where to look for the others, but there is worry about who to look after little Cass. Alfred volunteers as usual yet it is that moment another message indicator blinks on at the corner of the screen. It is Bruce calling from Diana's jet plane.
"It appears things have really gotten worse in a very short amount of time."
"That's putting it lightly, the Outsiders are on the run, we are locked in a panic room, and of course Cadmus took action first. Someone else is at work here especially with those mercenaries that stormed in through the windows using weapons that used to be made by Wayne Enterprises."
"I suspect there's more, but that can wait, meet me up top in costume. It is time for Batman to make a return, a time for us to do things despite the risks."
Barbara pulls up her boots, but it is the main part of the suit still fitting after one pregnancy yet of course it might be several before she is not so slim anymore though on some level Dick would probably never mind a little more physicality. It feels a little tight at the hips, but then again it might just be Dick touching her hips with those dark gloves of the Nightwing look.
"Remember the mask Boy Wonder."
"Remember the cape Bat Lady."
They both snicker at each other before kissing on the way up in the elevator. Both fire off grappling shots to the Invisible Jet Plane as flies by over head so as they coast away in the air, the copters give some chase before they work their way towards the hull of the plane. He pulls both of them inside once up in the clouds and the attitude change forces the pursuers to break off for now. The building had been less than surrounded as they left, but they were hopeful that Alfred would hold out fine with their darling little girl.
"How's my god daughter?"
"In the best arms aside from ours."
"He never ceases to amaze me."
"He does that... so where are we going?"
"Find Question, find Vic, probably Graystone."
"That's what we thought before hearing from you."
The new cape and cowl were a dark shade of mixture of blue and black, not quite like any of his old costumes, but nonetheless a little dashing. Some times there are things that each has to bend or break what they have done to do what must they do now. This is one of those times to all of them. As they arrive at Graystone, they see there is a mass breakout in progress, though who could have set this one off. Of course it seems like some Ra's would do after all he had done something similar with Arkham years ago during his attempt to use Crane's modified version of his fear toxin by spreading it to the whole city so that he could destroy Gotham as field test to destroy city populations world wide.
As Bruce in a decidedly different looking Batman costume descends into the frenzy, so does Diana in her new Wonder Woman look, an outfit that resembles neither of her previous looks yet still Amazonian, and Nightwing goes after them leaving Batgirl to circle around to land on the roof. It was literal madness as for the first time, it felt like a rush to do this sort of thing again, but they had an objective, to get to Vic before someone got to him, maybe even killed him. However as they continue inward, knocking more and more unconscious they find Vic taking back the last part of his outfit, the fedora, and his latest information source just sits there trembling.
"So you know who set this off?" asks Bruce with the Batman voice.
"Of course I do, Crane did it," answers Question.
"How I lost track of him a long time ago."
"Ra's is using any allies he can get for this one."
"Apparently."
"The toxin was ventilated in and a fearless prison population is bad for anyone."
"Right, well they are being subdued, but we are not done yet."
"I have someone to find, have to find Helena and the others."
"Graystone first Vic, then we'll get the others."
"Just be quick about it, I doubt Ra's or Cadmus is wasting time anymore."
As it reaches further into the night, they finally get the rest back into cells and reengage the locks. The guards almost insist putting Sage back in his cell, but a recently arrived Montoya tells them to back off even with Bullock within ear shot as well as seeing almost the whole Bat clan there.
"He is violating..."
"Shove it Bullock, if they had not been here we would have dozens if not hundreds of inmates rampaging into Gotham!"
"This ain't over... they are gonna demand your badge, your resignation for this."
"Keeping the city safe one night at a time is my priority, if you wanna resign go ahead, I don't need you anymore not with that attitude."
The five return to the Invisible Jet plane to search for the others, but of course, there is one place to consider almost immediately, the supposedly abandoned Cadmus facility in the Arizona desert, the same place that was rumored to have housed several unconfirmed pieces of technology from the Invaders short lived incursion as well as Thanagarian vessels recovered from their brief time on Earth. However Diana insists first on going to see how Shayera is doing so he will go with her once Fate arrives to take them to the Tower.
"Go ahead to Arizona, but stay out of sight," instructs Bruce.
"Understood, but we have no way making Vic stick to that," remarks Nightwing.
"I may be worrying about Helena, but I know when to play it close to the vest," retorts Vic.
"Sorry man, its just I would be going out of mind in your position."
"Of course you would with a wife and a daughter, but for me, its different, my life would be very different without her."
"Yes, experiencing that kind of energy, that kind of feeling, you don't want it to end, you would do anything to keep it safe."
"Right, the threads converge, the tapestry unfurls, and there it is... one equation of several that we do not understand, only live, only feel."
Bruce and Diana follow Fate through the portal awhile later, and the pieces all shift a little more. The things we do for the ones we love are among the acts that we cannot verbalize, only act and react, to link to what is worth holding onto and saving in this world.
A/N 1: Another somewhat Watchmen inspired bit with the prison breakout. The fact I had Crane's toxins trigger it well that's pretty typical of him though it bears a slight similarity to the Arkham breakout in Batman Begins. As for making the possible Cadmus detention facility in Arizona, well it felt too typical making it New Mexico or Nevada, so just for another alternate reality twist I give you Arizona.
A/N 2: The costumes are back, a somewhat different look naturally yet it is still them. As for the Outsiders in captivity, its been seemingly impossible to effect a breakout from within.
A/N 3: Some of what Alfred does or says is a meshing of Efrem Zimbalist's Alfred and Michael Caine's live action portrayal of Alfred. As for Montoya, she isn't opposed to the Bat Clan, she had after all worked with them in the past before the Lords, seen the merit that Gordon saw, but of course understood that Batman had crossed thresholds while with the Justice Lords. Her behavior follows the ongoing theme not forgotten, but maybe forgiven. As for Bullock, he is still not really keen about Batman even though Batman saved his life in the past.