Chapter 19: The Lord'll Sort 'Em
The Undying gave all nine-point-two million citizens of Gotham forty-five minutes to escape the city before he locked it down, threatening to incinerate any who passed a barrier a mile around the city limits with the weaponized magic of a mind-controlled Zatanna.
And forty-five minutes was all it took for Gotham City to descend into chaos.
The resurrected Hamilton Hill gave his head start at 7:55 PM, and the first two entities to respond to The Undying's act of terrorism were the Federal Aeronautics Administration, and the Kane County Sheriff's Department.
The FAA immediately suspended all flights leaving Gotham International Airport and Finger International Airport, and rerouted all flights scheduled to arrive. In addition, they immediately declared a No-Fly Zone over Gotham City itself.
The Kane County Sheriff's Department set up checkpoints on Highway 8, leading south to Bludhaven, and north to New York a half a mile outside the Gotham City limits, which was a half a mile within Hill's barrier. They also formed a barricade half a mile beyond the barrier to keep people from entering. For reference, the KCSD used a blurry close-up of the map of the city that Hill had displayed on the targeting system during the press conference, which was posted on their website, picked up by the media, and fleshed out by the Pentagon..
By the deadline, 8:40 PM (which was about the time the KCSD's helicopters began patrolling the mainland looking for people trying to avoid the roads and leave the city on foot), when factoring in both cars and civilian aircraft, only fifty thousand people had left Gotham City.
The traffic congestion in Gotham City in that span of forty-five minutes was near total. Highway 8 cutting through Gotham, all major streets, and even all eight bridges connecting the three main islands were plagued by traffic jams. And all public transportation (public buses and subways) had been shut down.
The only bridge in Gotham City that wasn't brought to a standstill was the unnamed bridge connecting Arkham Island to the mainland. Coming from Arkham, on foot, were the patients that had been freed by The Undying's security bombing. At their head, two thousand people behind her in orange Arkham Asylum scrubs, was Margaret Pye, aka "Magpie."
She wasn't the leader or anything, she just got out first.
In fact, the only patient still in Arkham was Mister Freeze, whose armor that would have kept him alive in above-freezing temperatures was housed in another wing of the asylum. He wouldn't have survived the walk to find it. Although at the time, he was so entrenched in his research that he hadn't noticed anything had happened at all, and wouldn't until he noticed that the orderly hadn't come with his breakfast the following morning.
At 8:46 PM, six minutes past the deadline set by The Undying, a small civilian helicopter (whose pilot did not file a flight plan) had been noticed attempting to leave the city by KCSD helicopter pilots, and was attempting to cross the barrier.
Despite multiple attempts to wave the craft off, the helicopter crossed Hill's barrier at 8:48.
Officers could report seeing green flames in the interior of the helicopter. Now pilotless, the helicopter crashed in between the north and southbound lanes of Highway 8 to the south.
The identity of the pilot, as well as any passengers that might have been in the craft, remains unknown.
Though this doesn't have a specific time to it, it gradually became apparent as dispatchers in all of the GCPD precincts in the now isolated Gotham City found that roughly half of the off-duty officers that needed to be called in to restore order were not answering their radios or picking up their phones.
One officer, Leon Trank of Burnley, told GCPD dispatcher Judy Bagwell the following, before hanging up:
"What you think we're able to help out there? Screw that and screw you. I'm going Bat-Hunting. That's the only way to stop this."
By midnight, thirty percent of all needed GCPD officers had not responded.
At 9:05 PM, Oswald Cobblepot stood on the balcony of the suite in the Iceberg Casino Hotel which he called home.
And he was holding a rocket launcher.
His top floor suite overlooked the shore of the Gotham River, providing a beautiful view of the mainland skyline…
...and a view of the ferry which brought people to and from the Iceberg.
The crazies were out from Arkham. The crooks were out from Blackgate. The entire city was scared right now, and that terror would lead to violence. Looting and rioting were all but inevitable.
And all that fear, all that greed, would eventually cross the river.
The Penguin aimed down the scope of the rocket launcher, and fired. The recoil of the explosive knocked him back into the suite next to the bed.
Shortly after he hit the floor, he heard the explosion.
He let go of the empty launcher, stood back up, and looked out the balcony again.
The ferry was in flaming ruins, and slowly sinking to the bottom of the Gotham River.
The Iceberg had enough food and water to last a fully occupied hotel three weeks. According to what he saw on television, The Penguin recalled that they had a maximum of two weeks before Zatanna starved to death, triggering the dead man's switch that would set all nine million of Gotham's citizens on green fire.
No one could leave the Iceberg now, his staff and his guests included… but that meant that no one could get to the Iceberg either, which was all The Penguin wanted.
Unless some criminal, or some enterprising citizen looking for food took a boat.
But The Penguin didn't mind that at all.
He had plenty of rockets.
Speaking of explosives, agents of Hamilton Hill, both his own and those belonging to the honor guard of Talia al Ghul, spread about the city with their own, procured from the many arms deals they'd busted up over the past year with the aid of Black Manta.
The satellite dish atop the building containing WNTJ Channel 52 was destroyed at 9:58 PM by a rocket propelled grenade.
The satellites belonging to the three other major network affiliates were destroyed in the same manner in short order in the next few minutes in completely different areas of town.
Orders for their destruction came from The Undying himself. With no local news in Gotham City, all television coverage would have to come from cable networks who couldn't enter the city, rending all viable information to hearsay.
The only way news would be able to get to the masses was through the masses themselves. Out of context snippets of video and audio would no doubt spread like wildfire among the citizens of Gotham City. Using their phones, of course.
Which, in the estimation of The Undying, would just make the whole thing seem scarier.
At 11:04 PM, much later than most pessimists would have assumed, the first riot broke out in Gotham.
It happened on Founder's Island, that center of wealth and excess in the city, and it started in a most unlikely source.
A bartender from the hipster portion of Burnside named Alysia Yeoh (who'd been in a protest group with her girlfriend Jo, picketing animal testing at the Stagg Industries Gotham headquarters) had seen highlights from Hamilton Hill's press conference on her phone. The protest pretty much broke off immediately after that, as their group, about sixty strong, wandered aimlessly down Penndecker Avenue, joining the people who had caused the traffic jam in the dash to leave the city.
They found themselves in the center of the great pit of rage that always seems palpable among thousands of terrified people. And this center was fixated on one specific storefront in particular.
Batburger was, as the name so ably described, a Batman-themed hamburger restaurant complete with costumed staff and menu items such as the eponymous Batburger, Night-Wings, Robin Nuggets, Ivy Salad, and Riddle-Me-Fish. It had opened four years ago, one year before Batman disappeared. And now that he was back, business had surged.
Until now.
As The Undying had made abundantly clear during his press conference, the only way to save the nine million citizens in Gotham City was for Batman to die. And as he'd yet to show himself this evening, the anger and confusion among the displaced and terrified who found themselves on Penndecker Avenue in Founder's Island centered on Batman's unofficial gaudy capitalist facade.
People, scared and furious people, were packed in front of Batburger's storefront. The staff inside were huddled behind the counter, not sure what to do. And the throng of people outside, stinking of fear and body odor, were slamming on the storefront's glass, screaming and hurling profanities.
"Does he own this place? If he does, he should show himself!"
"Batman has to die, right? To save the city, one of us has to do it!"
"This restaurant glorifies a sicko! I hope you're proud of yourself in there!"
And Alysia Yeoh, who was so kind and even-tempered in her everyday life, was not immune to the mania that held this crowd in its grip.
She angled away from Jo, who didn't even realize she'd gone, into the alley on Batburger's right side.
She came back with a trash can.
Alysia forced her way through the mass of people, reared back, and chucked the trashcan through Batburger's front window.
The crowd roared its approval. People literally crawled across broken glass into Batburger to violently vent their frustrations as the staff behind the counter took off their cheap restaurant-issued cowls and high-tailed it to the rear exit, leading into the alley.
And the rest of the people outside took this as their cue to get wild.
Immediately, the hundreds on Penndecker Avenue started busting into high-end jewelry stores, men's clothiers, electronic shops, and anywhere else that looked expensive to get their loot and pillage on.
Being as the police precincts on Founder's Island were the center of Gotham City's riot suppression efforts, the officers that eventually responded to the disturbance (of foot, as the roads were blocked by abandoned cars) were well-equipped, if not precisely in the numbers that the situation needed.
The problem with this was that all of the cars that were congesting the streets were driven by people and families hoping to flee the city. These people brought their belongings with them.
These belongings included their firearms.
And at the first sight of Gotham City's Finest, some of the rioters, made completely idiotic by anger and fear, started firing at the cops… and each other.
It took four hours for what forces the GCPD could marshal to successfully quell the Founder's Island Riot.
During these four hours, seventy-three civilians and eighteen police officers tragically lost their lives.
And even with this loss of life, this was the closest thing to a success story that the GCPD could boast about on the first night of The Undying's lockdown of Gotham City.
At 1:21 AM, The Gotham Mob Truce was forged.
Sal Maroni called Carmine Falcone, and laid out the facts as he saw them.
Now that everyone in Arkham and Blackgate had been set loose, and now that there was essentially no law, that meant that they needed to worry about The Penguin, who'd wanted to make the jump from gunrunner to full-tilt gangster for years now.
They also needed to worry about Roman "Black Mask" Sionis, who had been in Blackgate. Maroni didn't know if Black Mask could make a play against them without manpower, but it was a possibility they couldn't ignore.
At 2:45 AM, a hundred Maroni and Falcone foot soldiers, having set aside their differences, converged on Bleake Island in speedboats filled to the brim with rifles, handguns, and explosives, converged upon Bleake Island, which was where most of the mafia fronts and legitimate business interests were located.
And they went to war with the diminished GCPD forces stationed on the island almost immediately.
From there, they destroyed all four bridges connecting Bleake Island to Founder's Island, Miagani Island, and the mainland itself.
Completely sealing Bleake Island off from the rest of Gotham, the Maroni and Falcone soldiers began patrolling the island on foot, armed with rifles and bazookas, and successfully took out two police boats… as well as one supervillain.
Charles Brown, aka "Kite-Man" tagged in the shoulder by one of Falcone's men as he tried to glide to Bleake Island. The bullet went through his gliding apparatus, and he fell into the water and drowned.
From there, the mob went cop-hunting.
There were two-hundred-twelve police officers stationed on Bleake Island when Hamilton Hill instituted his lockdown.
Only one-hundred-fourteen stayed in uniform to serve and protect its citizens.
None of those one-hundred-fourteen lived to see the sun come up.
At 3:44 AM, the warm summer rain that had been threatening to fall for most of the last day finally fell.
Because that's what the terrified and angry people of Gotham City needed, really. Something that made them cold, wet, and smell terrible.
And all throughout the night, as humidity gave way to rain. The Bat-Signal did not shine above Gotham City.
The city had been through these isolation scenarios before, and throughout all of those instances, the Bat-Signal lit the night sky to give the people hope.
But now, in Mayor James Gordon's estimation, it just painted a target on the man's back that he didn't need right now.
One side of Gotham City was mainland that could be easily patrolled. The other side was the Atlantic Ocean.
The only branch of the armed services that had power within the limits of Gotham was the United States Coast Guard. And at 4:21 AM, an hour-and-a-half before sunrise, the Coast Guard began their patrol a half a mile away from the barrier, hoping to catch anyone trying to enter or leave the city by sea.
However, a half a mile away from the barrier on the opposite side, the first instance of superheroic assistance was noted.
Beneath the water, Aquaman had dispatched a small detachment of Atlantean soldiers, led by Tempest and Dolphin, to make sure that no one entered Gotham by a submersible vehicle.
Above the waves, however, four superheroes with the power of flight, patrolling in pairs, kept watch outside the barrier, and would do so until they were relieved by others via order of the Justice League.
The first four to make their patrol? Supergirl, Miss Martian, and the Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and John Stewart.
Supergirl and Kyle were deep in conversation as they tended to their rounds in mid-air.
"I heard Black Manta is in there," Supergirl said.
"Yeah, I heard about that," said Kyle.
"You know he put me on life support, right? Impaled me with a Kryptonite knife and just left it in me."
"I was there for that," Kyle said. "You up for it if worst comes to worst? 'Cause you don't have to fight him if-"
"Oh, I want to fight him," Supergirl said. "I still have the scar on my stomach. It's because of that jerk I feel weird wearing crop tops in front of my friends."
Meanwhile, John Stewart and Miss Martian were having their own mid-flight conversation.
"I've only been doing this for a year," Miss Martian said. "I haven't even met Batman yet. Do… Do you think he'll like me?"
John looked over at Miss Martian. She was pretty, and kind, and sweet enough to come with her own FDA sticker, warning diabetics not to stand within ten feet of her.
"No," John said. "I'm pretty sure he's gonna detest you on sight."
At 6:16 AM, just as the sun was coming up behind a gray sky, a black four door sedan with the WayneTech logo on the side emerged from a hidden tunnel entrance a half a mile away from Wayne Manor.
The sedan made its way through the manor's gates and to the front door, where Barbara Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth were waiting.
From the front door of the sedan stepped Lucius Fox, a black man in his fifties, a little on the chubby side, whose look would be avuncular if it didn't bypass that altogether, and become fatherly.
Lucius was still in his lab coat. He looked like he hadn't slept.
Alfred skipped the pleasantries.
"Your family, Mister Fox?"
"I managed to airlift Tanya and the kids out of Founder's Island before the riot started. Took them to Wayne Tower on the mainland, which is where I'm taking you… But poor Leslie Thompkins, though. There's nowhere to land a helicopter on that part of the mainland. I hope she's safe."
"I'm surprised you could get a car here at all," said Barbara.
"There's a tunnel linking the Applied Sciences R&D lab to a little exit about half a mile from here. The lab has a private elevator which connects to the upper floors. That's a good thing. Looters have taken control of the ground floor. The public elevators have been shut off so they don't go higher, and I've sealed off the emergency stairwells… I felt dirty doing that."
"Thomas Wayne would be appalled at me abandoning Wayne Manor," Alfred said.
"It's the only way," said Barbara.
"Listen to her, Alfred. It's only a matter of time before whatever bad guys are out there come here. It's high ground or nothing at all." Lucius looked at Barbara. "The car we're taking isn't exactly wheelchair accessible-"
Barbara waved him off. "I'll be fine."
"Are there any valuables form the Manor Master Bruce would like us to retrieve, should worst come to pass?" Alfred asked.
Lucius shook his head. "According to Bruce, you two are the valuables."
As the sun rose, as those who had been out on the street finally found home after a long and terrifying night, as those who had stayed in their apartments and barricaded the doors for their safety and the safety of their families woke up in terror, CNN started running broadcasts from what would come to be known as The Barricade.
A full mile beyond the barrier on Highway 8 north, a veritable tent city had emerged overnight.
It was mostly staffed by the Kane County Sheriff's Department, but more and more armed service personnel had convened during the sundown hours. This was also where members of the press, be they print, television or internet, had embedded themselves, calling The Barricade home for as long as the crisis played out.
But there was one large tent on the east side of The Barricade that stood all by itself, away from everyone else. A makeshift fence had been erected around it to keep both civilians and members of the press away.
This was the the tent brought in by the Justice League.
And outside this tent, one particular reporter was talking to the most famous man on Earth…
If one had to ask Superman (or Clark Kent or Kal-El of Krypton) what it was that first drew him to Lois Lane, he'd have to say it was her eyes.
Lois was the only woman he'd ever seen on any planet that had actual lavender eyes. He could have just shrugged his shoulders and said they were purple, but he had to know the exact shade.
He looked on Google and everything. Her eyes were a light lavender or, conversely, a dark lilac.
And those lavender eyes, when she was on the trail of a story, or trying to crack a subject for an interview, seemed to flare and focus like mining lasers. He had a Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic Circle. He'd been to Oa. He'd beheld the city of Kandor in miniature… But the prettiest thing Superman had ever seen was the unique and peculiar color of Lois Lane's eyes.
Those eyes were downcast now, looking at her phone, as she held an umbrella to keep the rain out of her reddish brown bob haircut. Superman himself was standing under the flap joined to the tent's entrance, keeping the precipitation out of his already slick hair.
Print media in embedment situations such as these didn't have to worry about appearing on camera, so they opted to dress for comfort. Lois was wearing a red and black flannel over a gray t-shirt and a pair of jeans that hugged her in places anyone with good taste would find rather appealing.
"So let me get this straight," Lois said. "On the record bullet points."
"Shoot," said Superman.
"There's a magic barrier around Gotham City put up by a mind-controlled Zatanna."
"Yes."
"And a targeting system that detects every heartbeat in the city limits."
"That's right."
"Anyone tries to leave Gotham, and Zatanna fries them."
"Yup."
"Anyone tries to enter Gotham, and five thousand people in the city get fried at random."
"Uh-huh."
"Everyone dies if Zatanna starves to death."
"Right."
"And no one dies if someone kills Batman."
"Well," Superman said, "Batman would die. I'm pretty sure that counts."
Lois gave him a "Well, duh!" look, but didn't say anything.
"Okay," Lois said, putting her phone in the front pocket of her flannel shirt. "That's it for On the Record questions. Off the record… is anyone looking?"
Superman looked through the fence surrounding the tent.
"Nope."
"Good," Lois said.
She walked up to him. She got on her tiptoes so they were on a more even level, and her soft, full lips met his. His arm wrapped around her waist while hers did the same beneath his cape. Their kiss broke, and she spent a few seconds just resting her head on his chest.
"How are you holding up, Superman?" asked Lois.
"Nine million people are in danger," Superman said.
"And how is Clark Kent holding up?"
"I know Ron knew the dangers of going to Gotham City for a story, but this is just too much."
"And... what about my husband?"
Superman sighed. "I'm worried about my best friend."
Lois broke the embrace first so she could look Superman in the eye.
"Would Bruce want to hear you're losing faith in him?" Lois asked.
"I'm not losing faith," Superman said. "But he was on the shelf for three years. I don't know if he's the same guy who was in the League with us."
"But…"
"'But…'" Superman said. "I'm worried. I'm a worrier. That's just how I am."
"I know," Lois said. "You keep mailing Power Girl sweatpants."
He sighed. "It's not that Karen's costume is revealing," Superman said. "She likes it, and that's all that matters. But it gets so cold in New York during the winter. If she lived in California, I wouldn't…"
Superman trailed off when he saw his wife stifling her laughter.
"Let it out."
"No, I'm-I'm done" Lois said, trying to wipe the smile off of her face. "Is Batman alone in there?"
"He isn't," Superman said. "Nightwing and Oracle are trapped in there as well."
Lois nodded. "Is, um... Is Catwoman in there, too?"
Superman put his hands on his hips, and cocked his head. "What is it with you and Catwoman?"
Now Lois sighed. "Because I've never met Catwoman. If she and Batman hook up, I might actually get to."
"Yeah, but why?"
"Because she's cool! She knocked off the count room at the Queensland Park Casino."
"I remember that."
"So cool!"
"To answer your question," Superman said, "Probably. I don't know."
"Okay, then," Lois said. "I ship 'em, Smallville. I ship 'em hard."
Superman's face cracked, and he started laughing. This was not a small thing. He had his hands on his knees as he did so.
"Feel better?" Lois asked.
Superman, still hunched over laughing, gave her a thumbs up.
Once that passed, the phone in the front pocket of Lois' flannel shirt started vibrating. She fished it out and looked at the screen.
"It's Perry," Lois said.
"Better you than me," Superman said.
"Chivalry's dead.
"And the Chief killed it. Good luck, hon. I love you."
"I love you, too," Lois said, and got on her tiptoes again to give her husband a quick kiss. Almost as quickly, she reached her free hand beneath his cape and grabbed a handful of his backside.
She pulled away, shaking her hand as though it hurt. "Damn near broke it."
Lois always said that. He always smiled.
As she walked away beneath her umbrella, she tapped the screen of her phone and yelled "What do you want?" to the Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet.
Superman turned around, and opened the flap of the large tent and walked in…
...to be greeted by Wonder Woman.
Superman looked at the flap he had come through, and then back at Wonder Woman.
"How much of that did you hear?"
"Enough for me to be truly happy for you," Wonder Woman said. "And enough for quite literally anyone else on Earth to be truly disgusted."
Superman just shrugged and said "Better you hearing it than Hal."
He looked out at the rest of the tent.
Superman had assembled a team of seven to go into Gotham City as soon as the situation changed, for either the better or the worse, including himself and Wonder Woman.
Sitting at the table in the middle of the tent were two of that team. In addition to their abilities, Superman selected them because Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson might need emotional support and friendly faces to see should they make it out of this situation alive.
Because he was Superman, and that was just how his mind operated.
The person who Barbara Gordon would be happiest to see was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Dinah Lance, aka "Black Canary." A revered metahuman martial artist (armed with a "Canary Cry" that could shatter even Kryptonian ear drums), she was in the now-on-hiatus Birds of Prey alongside Helena "Huntress" Bertinelli, and overseen by Oracle herself. The relationship between Dinah and Barbara had been so deep and so close that it had even been rumored to be romantic. Neither Barbara nor Dinah confirmed or denied anything.
Black Canary had her boots up on the table showing off her fishnet stockings, arms clad in a leather jacket folded over her stomach, talking to the person that Superman figured Dick Grayson would most like to see should the best come to pass.
Princess Koriand'r of the planet Tamaran (also known as "Kory" to her friends and "Starfire" to the rest of planet Earth) was six-and-a-half feet tall, with gold skin, entirely green eyes, and long orange hair that came down below her waist. It was on fire at the tips, but strangely, Superman had never seen that fire actually burn anything. She was wearing her usual purple costume, which more like a swimsuit than anything else.
Superman thought Starfire warranted keeping an eye on. She, as with anyone else from Tamaran, led with their emotions. If Dick Grayson got out of this alive, she'd be elated. But if Dick Grayson died, she would be so bereaved and so furious that there was no telling what she would do in her grief. And Superman knew he was one of the few people who'd be able to stop her from doing something horrible.
She was sitting up on her steel folding chair like an attentive school student, in stark contrast to how laid-back Black Canary was at the moment.
"So you spent a few days in an underground kingdom where time moves slower, and that's why you got fired from SeaWorld?" Black Canary asked.
"I would never work at SeaWorld," Starfire said. "They are most cruel to the beings that live there. I was working at an aquarium in Key West."
"But why, though? You're a superhero. You have a Justice League stipend. You don't need a job."
"I felt as though I must properly acclimate to life on this planet and maintain a semblance of conventional normalcy." Starfire's usual perkiness now fell. "I feel I need this, as I am relatively young, I have been widowed twice… and I know Dick Grayson is not coming back to me."
Black Canary instantly looked uncomfortable. "Oh… Well, that-"
"And so," Starfire said, "I am on the lookout for a new romantic partner. I feel as though he must be a superhero, as one of the civilians of Earth may not be amenable to my… perceived eccentricities."
"Oh," Black Canary said. "Anyone in particular?"
"Yes," Starfire said brightly.
"Who?"
Starfire sat up even straighter in her chair and said "Midnighter!"
Black Canary just blinked at this. "Ohhhhh… Oh, Kory. We-We need to have a talk, the two of us."
As Black Canary scootched in close to keep her conversation with Starfire more private, Superman looked over at the other side of the tent.
For the team's scientific analysis, Superman drafted Professor Ryan Choi, aka "The Atom," who had taken the name after the original Atom, Ray Palmer, disappeared a year ago. Ryan had only found Palmer's Bio Belt at Palmer's old stomping grounds of Ivy University a year ago (the same Bio Belt that allowed its wearer to shrink to even an atomic level), and he'd only been on the Justice League a month.
The Atom was talking to The Flash, the pride of the Gem Cities, one Wally West. Normally, The Flash was a bundle of fun, provided you weren't a stick in the mud (Batman just barely tolerated his presence), but today, he seemed subdued. Standing there in his red costume, his arms folded,
"Are you alright?" The Atom asked.
"Yeah," The Flash said. "It's just, uhh… My wife Linda was supposed to cover that press conference in Gotham. But her flight was delayed, so…"
"So she's not trapped in there."
"She's at home with the twins. She's safe."
"Good," The Atom said. "You… You know it's okay to be glad about that, right?"
The seventh member of the team was not present at the moment.
Wonder Woman put her hand on Superman's shoulder.
"What ways do we have to get past this, Kal? If that targeting system is tracking heartbeats, then can we send someone who doesn't have one? Red Tornado? I don't think the Doom Patrol is busy right now, so can we send Robotman?"
Superman scratched behind his ear. "Red Tornado and Robotman aren't exactly subtle. If this Undying character caught us cheating, what do you think the worst case scenario would be?"
Wonder Woman closed her eyes and winced. "He puts a bullet in Zatanna, and nine million people die."
"Precisely," Superman said. "I don't even want to risk sending Deadman into Gotham City right now, and he's an invisible ghost."
Wonder Woman shrugged. "Danny the Street?"
"I wouldn't even know how to do that. I'm pretty sure they're Danny the World now."
"Well, it's nice to know they got better," Wonder Woman said.
She turned and looked at The Atom.
"Ryan?"
"Yes, miss?"
Wonder Woman smiled. "I have a name, Ryan."
The Atom rubbed his hands on the front of his red and blue costume. If he was trying to get sweat off of them, the fact that he had apparently forgotten he was wearing gloves hindered things quite a bit. "Right. Sorry, Diana."
"Scientifically," Wonder Woman said, "what can you tell us?"
"I've been running tests of the air and soil that I collected from near the barrier since I got here four hours ago," The Atom said. "And right now? Next to nothing. From a physical and biochemical standpoint, magic is incredibly hard to pin down. I'll keep trying, though. There is some spectral analysis I can do in light levels, and I'm still trying to get a water sample from the Gotham River beyond the barrier."
"Thank you, Ryan," said Wonder Woman.
It was at this point that Starfire and Black Canary had finished their quiet conversation.
"Oh," Starfire said. "I see. So Midnighter thinks of other men sexually and romantically."
"Yes," Black Canary said. "His boyfriend's name is Apollo, and he's really nice."
Starfire smiled a little bit. "He thinks of them the same way you think of Barbara Gordon."
Black Canary cringed as though someone dropped an ice cube down the back of her bodice. "I… That's… Well… And another thing…"
And Starfire smiled a little wider still. "He thinks about them the same way I think about Jessica Cruz."
Whatever discomfort Black Canary had been feeling at that moment was apparently nothing compared the bomb that Starfire had just dropped. "I'm sorry, what?"
"For some bizarre reason, I thought only women felt that way on this planet," Starfire said. "Strange that I labored under this mistaken notion for so long. It is nice to know everyone is having the same kind of fun. Thank you, Dinah, for enlightening me."
Black Canary looked at everyone else in the tent, who had all heard this conversation, and then looked back at Starfire. "Hey… Y'know… It's cool."
Superman, usually blissfully ignorant of the romantic escapades of his fellow League members, wondered how such a hypothetical would work. The Green Lantern Jessica Cruz suffered from intense agoraphobia and near-crippling anxiety. If a beautiful golden-skinned alien taller than a redwood tree with romantic intentions was what it would take to help Jessica acclimate to the greater world outside of her Green Lantern duties, then he wanted to assist in any way he could. He wasn't quite sure how he could assist, though. Restaurant recommendations, maybe?
The Flash looked at The Atom. "I see comments on message boards, saying members of the Justice League care more about getting in each others' pants than saving the world, but that just ain't fair."
"Uh-huh."
"Pretty people like us in tight and revealing outfits having to save the world on a weekly basis. That's-That's stressful."
"Uh...Huh."
"People are surprised we see each other off the clock?" The Flash asked. "I'm surprised the floors of the Watchtower aren't sticky."
The Atom groaned, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh, dear God, they told me you were like this."
The Flash smiled. "How about you, Ryan. You got anyone special?"
The Atom sighed. "Yes…"
"Tight. Where is she?"
The Atom sighed again. "Prison…"
It was as if that word escaping Ryan Choi's lips summoned the seventh member of the team, for at that moment, a silver portal identical to the one that Hamilton Hill kept disappearing and reappearing into materialized next to the table in the center of the room.
If this team had a science expert, then it stood to reason that it needed a magic expert.
The bad news was that it was John Constantine.
Diana of Themyscira was filled with a great love for all of Earth's creatures. However, John Constantine was living proof that that love had an upper limit.
As the portal closed behind him, Constantine put an unlit cigarette into his mouth, and winked at Wonder Woman.
"Miss me, love?"
"Well, let's see," Wonder Woman said, and turned to Superman. "Kal, did the river Styx snap-freeze since the last time we saw John?"
Superman shrugged his shoulders. "Not that I'm aware of."
Wonder Woman turned back to Constantine. "And lo, you have your answer. What can you tell us?"
Constantine raised a lighter to the unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. "Well…"
With a quick gust of his Arctic Breath, Superman blew out the flame. Constantine looked at him with a scowl.
"Not in the tent," Superman said.
Constantine looked at the end of the cigarette, and saw that a thin layer of frost was on the tip.
He pointed the ruined cigarette at Superman. "A bloody killjoy, you are."
The Flash smirked. "I know, right?"
"I've talked to Doctor Fate and Madame Xanadu," Constantine said. "They're trying to manipulate the astral plane to see if they can short out Zee's powers remotely, but… there's something else. The League of Assassins has their own magic, and it's right difficult to get a grip on."
"Heavy hitters like Doctor Fate and Madame Xanadu can't put a dent in League magic?" Superman asked.
"It's not about strength," Constantine said. "It's about… You know Basque?"
Superman squinted. The people?"
"The language," Constantine said. "A little section of Spain and France managed to develop its own language without any Latin or Germanic influences. Like the words themselves just popped out of the ground. All magic in the world since the dawn of time has either been taken or shared. Except the magic used by The League of Assassins. Because no one's ever taken it, and they bloody well ain't sharing it. They're protecting Zatanna with it, or they showed Zatanna how to protect herself while she was under mind-control. It's not like knocking down a wall. It's like trying to learn Basque in the dark. And it's virtually impossible in the time we have."
"Don't we have two weeks?" Wonder Woman asked. "That's how long it takes for someone to starve to death."
"Not like this," Constantine said. "Zee's holding over nine million heartbeats in her head right now. And that takes its toll. It burns energy. We don't have two weeks. At the outside? We have five days. And now we're on day two."
The entire room was silent. Superman and Wonder Woman, who'd endured crisis after crisis with the whole of the multiverse at stake, managed to lose a bit of the color in their faces.
"Thank you," Wonder Woman said softly. "We'll call you if we need you."
Superman watched Constantine survey the both of them. The two mightiest superheroes on Earth were apparently powerless to save the woman he loved from a truly grisly fate.
Constantine snapped his fingers. A portal opened up, and he walked through, with it closing shut behind him.
Wonder Woman turned to Superman, the beginnings of anger on her face. "Kal, please tell me we can do something from here besides wait."
"It's hard for my hearing to isolate one voice in a city of nine million scared people," Superman said. "And with all of the lead paint in Gotham City, my vision's no help either."
Wonder Woman looked at the ground. Superman put his hand on her shoulder.
"We have to put our faith in Bruce," he said.
Wonder Woman looked right at him, their blue eyes meeting.
"And if he fails?" she asked.
Superman blinked.
"If he fails, Gotham burns… And there's nothing we can do about it."