A/N: This is Act 3 of an ongoing story, please read Act 1 ( s/7083098/1/Justice-Lords-LIMITLESS-Act-1-ReBirth ) and then Act 2 ( s/7459004/1/Justice-Lords-LIMITLESS-Act-2-EndWar ) if you haven't yet. If you use the app, and/or the link does not work, you can find Act 1 and Act 2 on my profile along with information regarding Justice Lords Limitless.

From his vantage point, Arsenal could easily make out Aquagirl across the Heap. He couldn't tell what she was chasing after, but at this point, he knew it didn't matter; she was seeing red and not thinking clearly. Boy, did he know what that was like. "Shit." He fired an arrow straight up and the turret on the other side of his shielding immediately began tearing it up. As it did, Arsenal leaned to the side and aimed his wrist-mounted crossbow at the base of the turret. He fired and his bolt struck gold. Just as the turret swiveled in his direction, the bolt exploded, taking a substantial chunk of the turret with it.

"Yes!" Arsenal pumped his fist in a much-needed victory celebration then scanned the area for Aquagirl. He caught sight of his ally dashing after a shadowy figure barely visible against the muted browns and greens of trash. Without wasting a second, he began his hurried descent down his mound to catch up with Aquagirl.

She pushed herself to run faster. She knew she was faster than an average human but there was something about the circumstances that made her legs feel like lead. She pushed on as she continued her chase. The man ahead of her was the one person who she never thought she'd get to go toe to toe with, especially after the Justice Lords. It was his interference that put her father in the spotlight of the League; it was his interference that led to her father losing his hand and later cost her brother his life; it was his interference that reinforced the isolationism her father clung to. So it was his interference that cost her and her home so dearly.

Deadshot looked over his shoulder and fired off a few potshots in her direction from the gun mounted on his wrist. However, if his intent was to slow Aquagirl down, it didn't work. Seemingly heedless of the dangers therein, she continued her advance with bared teeth and creased brow as the bullets whizzed by. She was determined to catch him.

He dipped into a divot in the Heap and by the time Aquagirl arrived where he'd dropped, he was gone. The hole before her looked recently made, like some sort of excavator had only days before disturbed the layers of junk. However, she couldn't make out where Deadshot had gone. Other than down the hole, the trail was cold. As she peered into the hole in the ground, she heard heavy footsteps come up behind her.

"Where'd he go?" Arsenal breathed heavily as he finally caught up moments later.

"Down to the trench, hopefully." She wiped her nose and squinted further into the dark tunnel that ran under the Heap. "But I don't feel I'm so lucky."

Arsenal shook his head. "You gotta be more careful. This guy's a trained professional. He tangled with the previous Justice League and somehow eluded their watchful eye as the Lords."

She didn't seem phased. "That supposed to scare me?"

"I was hoping it might."

Aquagirl glared at him. "If you know that about him, then you know what he means to me; what he did to my family."

"Not all the details," Arsenal admitted. "I was never abreast with superheroics back in the day… besides, I don't even think I was in high school when that all took place!"

"Then you don't understand what this means to me! It's personal. My father lost his hand. My brother took his life!" She spun around to face Arsenal, rage etched on her face. "My good-for-nothing uncle showed his true colors - and what's worse: I almost agreed with his tactics to wipe the surface world from this planet. He manipulated my whole kingdom and this man was instrumental in all of it!"

Arsenal gulped. "I… I get that… But you can't make it personal. You can't fight seeing red. Because if red's all you can see, you won't be able to see what's actually going on." He reached out and put a steady hand on her shoulder. "Mereena, you're better than that. You see how your mother is when she gets angry. Don't give in to that. We'll catch him, but we have to—"

Aquagirl shrugged him off. "Don't you dare bring my mother into this! This is nothing like her trite tryst with your mentor and the waitress," she hissed. "This is about Atlantis' honor and its future. I will capture the villain and he will be held responsible, not just for the lives he's taken today, but for being the domino that led to Atlantis' degradation." She turned to the hole. "You can either help me catch him or stay behind." With no further warning, she jumped in.

Without waiting for - or needing - Superboy's go-ahead, Batgirl dropped into a stoop and curled around the alcove's wall, throwing down a trio of flashbangs. Each one went off at a different time and the guards were staggered by the surprising visual assault. A few opened fire instinctively but their bullets sailed overhead harmlessly as Batgirl engaged the closest guard.

Behind her, Superboy, with Dr. Milo still slung over one shoulder, brought up the rear with an open-handed swat to the next closest Cadmus guard. The unfortunate man's head rattled in his helmet as the Kryptonian palm struck him. He went down just as a few further back raised their weapons and opened fire.

Superboy did his best to shield his precious cargo from harm and unleashed his heat vision as Batgirl finished taking down her combatant. There was no way she and her boss hadn't been made by now, but she doubted the government would make this infiltration known. Using Superboy's heat vision as cover, she charged at the next guard and smashed her electrified fist into his solar plexus. When the man doubled over, she put both hands together and brought them upside his chin viciously.

A heavy crack echoed next to her. She turned to her right and saw Superboy had shattered a man's ankle with a single step. The clone looked at her and for a split second, a chill of uncertainty washed down her spine. In that moment, she knew he could break her just as easily as he'd broken that man; but instead of attacking her, Superboy leaped forward and bodied two more guards with his shoulder.

So that's what it's like, she thought to herself. The fear, the unease. Now I see why the boss carries Kryptonite. The chill faded just in time for her to realize the guard with the specialized rifle was taking aim at the Superboy's back. With Kryptonite still on her mind, she recognized the weapon for what it was and quickly gave the shooter her undivided attention.

A curious bang echoed in the generator hallway and as Superboy dispatched the final guard, he turned around. On the other side of the deck, between him and the shattered window, he saw the pointy-eared woman standing victorious over a guard with a bat-shaped shuriken buried deep in his shoulder. In one hand, she had a firm grasp on the smoking barrel of the Kryptonite rifle, near her foot was a similarly smoking hole from which emanated a sickly green glow. In her other hand, she held the guard in a vengeful grasp. She dropped the guard in the same manner as one would discard trash and the only word Conner could come up with for her attitude was 'callous'. There was something disturbing about the she-demon.

As if she'd felt his thoughts center on her, her head snapped in his direction and her eerily blank expression rested on him. He was uncertain about what to do. She'd proved to be a formidable fighter not just against the guards, but against him. While he didn't doubt his strength over her, her training exceeded anything he could have ever expected. His cheek still stung from where she'd struck him earlier and now her unsettling gaze was focused on him. He dared not move from his spot, lest she set upon him with the same efficiency with which she'd taken out the guards. He just adjusted his precious cargo and the two shared a tense moment.

"T-Thank you," Superboy stammered out. His heart was pounding. Not from exertion, but from the anticipation of if she'd actually let him go. The door was right behind him and he could feel his father's breathing slow. However, he wasn't sure yet if it was wise to turn his back on the predator she turned out the be. "What happens now?"

Batgirl wasn't sure. On the one hand, the clone was likely a danger to everyone on the outside. On the other hand, a more immediate threat was just through the shattered window and she was confident that the moment she turned her back, the clone would be gone. Heck, she's almost sure if she turned her back, the clone would attack her. Still, the look on the young man's face and the fact he hadn't speed-blitzed her yet had to count for something. He looked just as afraid and unsure as she was – except he didn't have a mask to hide behind. "Go." She gave him a one-word command.

Conner swallowed hard and nodded in thanks, then took a few careful steps toward the exit. When he was confident enough that the phantom lady wouldn't rush at him with the shadows at her beck and call, he turned around and fled through the vault-like door to the stairwell.

Batgirl released her held breath and took a few moments to herself. Staring down a Kryptonian. Will have to cross that off the ol' bucket list. She took a few moments to get her wits about her, then headed for the shattered window. One look through almost made her wish she had to tangle with the Superboy instead. Disgusting creatures that dredged up memories of the Near Apocalypse the previous year tangled with a small number of security personnel and Batman… and only Batman was surviving.

Waller glared from behind a pile of overturned machinery. She was safe for the moment, but she was not happy. The security forces that Eiling had allocated to the project were quickly proving to not be worth their money. Considering how quickly they were dropping like flies, she couldn't help but feel that Cadmus was better off without them. A pang of her humanity tugged at her heart as her eyes glanced over the carnage: the drone pilot was already dead, Tala was unconscious and one of her techs was disemboweled. It was up to the remaining handful of soldiers and Batman to stand up to the creatures.

Batman. She'd been wrong earlier and yet she'd been right. She should have known that Batgirl wouldn't have made it alone into the bowels of this facility. Where Batgirl was, Batman was often not far behind. But she had been too distracted with the EnigmaGate to think that through earlier. Now, she watched as Batman expertly dodged a swipe from a mangy beast's claw and then shoved that same beast back. He was useful and she hated that. She allowed her mind to rewind to when he appeared.

A burst of energy from the portal had knocked Tala back and into a set of computers, knocking her out. Very soon after, the first beasts poured out of the portal, two made a direct beeline for the drone pilot by following the cable, and he was dead before the security team even began firing. Waller had taken cover as the gunfire erupted, but found herself unable to run to freedom. After all, the beasts were nearly overwhelming the security team and if she ran, she would no doubt pique the monsters' collective interest. Besides, she was the Wall; she did not run. Then he showed up.

In an explosive shower of glass and shadow, Batman erupted like a bat out of hell from the observation deck in the generator room. She begrudgingly admit she felt thankful when she saw him. Before he'd even hit the ground, he'd already knocked back a beast with some sort of screeching gadget. He began barking orders to the security forces, like in the days of the Justice Lords, and somehow his instruction turned the losing tide. Or, more accurately, it stopped the losing streak. They weren't winning yet.

A guard was blasted back and into the machine hiding her from view. He gave a low sigh as the breath of life left his body.

Robin crashed onto the roof of the nondescript office complex. It hurt a lot and when his head finally stopped spinning, he took a few moments to curse and then assessed the situation. Batman had given him one job: keep Birdman under control and out of the way, yet somehow Birdman had eluded not just him but also Hawkman. "Katar?" he called out for his ally.

"I am here." Katar was getting to his feet nearby. He held his aching head. Whatever blast he'd been hit with had definitely rocked his noggin. "What happened?"

"Birdman blasted you out of the air and disappeared into this building before I could stop him." Robin took a deep breath as he thought about how he could salvage the situation. "What were you two even talking about?"

"Politics."

Robin gave Hawkman a wry smile. "You are aware that that is one of the two topics you never bring up at a dinner table or with new friends, right?"

"What is the other topic?" Hawkman inquired.

"Religion."

"Hm. I think we are well past one that, too." Hawkman cracked his neck as Robin helped him to his feet. "Where did he go?"

Robin pointed to a door that looked to lead to a set of service stairs. The door swung limply in the slight wind. Apparently, it had been unlocked earlier in the night. "He went through a window a few floors below. Our best bet is the stairs."

Hawkman took to the air. "Show me the window."

Robin obliged and headed to the ledge. "Hey… did you mean all that stuff you said? Like the C-Beams and the death camps? You really experienced all of that?"

"Indeed." Hawkman nodded sagely. "From a young age, all I knew was that war."

Robin pursed his lips. He wanted to ask more questions, pick Hawkman's brain and see how much of that was actually true. However, he knew there was a time and a place for questions and a time and a place for action. This time and place were for the latter. "Right there," he said as he pointed to a window two floors from the roof. "That's where Hawkman flew into… and how I unceremoniously ended up on the roof."

Hawkman whirled his mace in his hand with purpose. "Then let us not keep him waiting!" With no warning, the exiled Thanagarian soldier hurled his weapon at the window. The glass pane shattered into hundreds of pieces and Robin couldn't help but wince at the collateral damage.

"Did it have to be so damaging?"

"Did you want to get in?" Hawkman dryly responded before disappearing into the window.

Robin sighed then followed suit, using his bat-claw to rappel into the office building, hoping the janitorial staff would not be on the same floor. To his pleasant surprise, he found that the floor was empty. No employees of any sort were in sight despite the myriad of cubicles that made the floor feel more like a dystopian level from Riddle of the Minotaur.

"No one is home," Hawkman commented blankly. He looked around the office as well, just as perplexed as Robin. "I am aware it is past sundown, but I would assume at least some of Gotham's blue collar would be keen on working late."

Robin stalked up to one of the closest cubicles and inspected the computer screen sitting on the desk. After a quiet second, his lips parted. "Fake…" he whispered to himself. "They're all fake." He turned and headed to the next cubicle with a bit more life and this time tapped the monitor a few times. "This is a front," he concluded aloud. "It's all a front. This building isn't real. It's some sort of…"

"It's a shell," Hawkman summarized. "A way for Cadmus to camouflage in plain sight, right under the Batman's nose." His fingers wrapped tighter around his mace. "If this is all a façade, then where did Captain Randall go?"

Robin thought for a moment then looked down at his feet. "Where else is there to go when the skies are dangerous and the surface compromised?"

"Down."

Batgirl beat a path to Batman. It was a tough path, but she managed to make it. Thankfully, her initial position in the observation deck meant she could glide most of the way to her mentor, but the second her feet touched the ground, she was set upon by the beasts. Elder Things clawed and swiped at her from all sides and it took all of her training to just avoid being skewered by nails and teeth. She had to admit they were a bit less focused than during the Near Apocalypse, but they were dangerous all the same.

"What the fuck were they thinking when they flipped that switch?" she demanded as she finally reached Batman.

"Seems Robin is right," Batman replied through a grunt as he kicked back an incoming chitinous monstrosity. "You are getting a bit of a sailor's mouth." As the monster reeled back, one of the surviving guards flanking Batman emptied half her clip into the beast's carapace. "How are you holding up?" he asked Batgirl.

"Doesn't matter, considering the circumstances." She ducked a swipe from a lethal crab claw and countered with an uppercut in the gut of the attacking monster. "But I would kill for that magical blue pickaxe again." Both forearms went up just in time to deflect a slash from a glowing nail. As the appendage was blocked, she felt it bite into her gauntlet and shivered. "Please tell me you have a plan."

"I do," Batman lied through his teeth. His brain was still racing with possible solutions to the event at hand but all he was getting back was static. Last time they had the full League on their side with magical artefacts and spells at their disposal. And that itself was a half-baked plan that narrowly succeeded. Now, it was just him, one of his partners, and five ill-equipped guards. A grotesque four-legged creature growled and charged into Batman's group. Four ill-equipped guards. He shook his head and retrieved a bat-a-rang. As he did, his eyes landed on Waller.

The powerful woman was cowering behind a torn-up piece of equipment. No, not cowering: observing. He growled under his breath. Even in the face of history repeating itself in less than a damned year, Director Waller was looking for a way to exploit the other side. He may not have a plan yet for closing the unstable portal behind him, but he finally did have a goal to at least distract Batgirl with. "Batgirl, Director Waller is still in the room! Get her to safety!"

Batgirl nodded and ducked to the side, catching the neck of the gaunt thing that had attempted an attack. In a swift movement, she slammed an explosive bat-a-rang in the chest of the creature, then unholstered her bat-claw and zipped to the ceiling. As she ascended, a small explosion tore the creature apart. As devastating an injury as it should have been, she knew it would only slow the creature down for a few minutes. With that depressing thought in mind, she landed before Director Waller. "Don't worry, I'm here to take you to safety." She spoke softly and offered her a helping hand.

"What makes you think I want to leave?" Waller callously rejected Batgirl's outstretched hand and eyed her with suspicion. She knew why the heroine was offering to 'save' her: either she or her mentor must have noticed her watching and wanted her removed from observing how they fared against the creatures from the EnigmaGate. It's what she would have done.

"I was thinking you'd value your life for some reason, but if you're adamant about being here, don't think you're going to just get to watch." Batgirl withdrew another bat-a-rang and threw it at an encroaching Elder Thing. As soon as the shuriken was buried in the thing's abdomen, it discharged enough electricity that would cripple a full-grown man. As the Elder Thing seized in pain, Batgirl grabbed the sidearm from the guard that had died near Waller and handed it to the stone-faced director. "Here."

Waller was taken aback. "And just what do you expect me to do with that?"

"Use it. I've read your background," Batgirl retorted. "I know you know how."

"I don't use guns anymore."

"Well, there's no one here left for you to manipulate into pulling the trigger for you. You either take my hand or take the gun. That thing won't be stunned for long."

Director Waller looked into Batgirl's dark visor but the girl didn't flinch. She wanted desperately to know who was behind the helmet because whoever she was, she didn't think the same way as her mentor. Waller had expected mind games and an argument, but instead, the girl had set up a ticking clock and given her an ultimatum, pushing the ball to her court. Not to mention she didn't seem that hard up for acknowledging the effectiveness of a good firearm. Clever girl. She glanced at the beast and saw it was already shaking off the electrical discharge. Noted for later. "Fine." She batted away the offered gun and took Batgirl's hand. "Get me out of here."

Batgirl pulled Director Waller to her feet and then aimed her bat-claw at the ruined observation deck. "I'm taking you to the exit up there. Do you think you'd be able to head to the surface from there?"

Waller nodded.

"Good." The bat-claw dug into the ledge of the observation deck securely and the two zipped up as fast as the grapnel gun could allow. It had been Batgirl's goal to get them both to the observation deck so the Director could easily escape the carnage from a different floor, but Waller was short and stout and her weight was nearly more than Batgirl could bare, and she could tell the bat-claw's reeling mechanism itself was straining. Curt's dossier had her pegged for 208 pounds. Batgirl quickly reassessed the situation fully aware that she - and grapnel - wouldn't make it. With a flick of a finger, the line quit reeling them in and soon their momentum carried them forward toward the chamber's main exit.

As the two landed, Waller looked at her in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Can you get the door open?" Batgirl sounded a bit rushed.

"What happened?" Waller demanded. "I thought we were heading up?" She pointed with gusto at the observation deck.

Batgirl snarled. "You weigh a bit more than 208."

Waller's lip curled up a bit as some choice words came to her mind, but when a small party of creatures began creeping up on her and Batgirl's position, she rushed to the security door and began typing an override code into the attached terminal. The terminal beeped in denial.

Batgirl took on the closest beast, pushing it to the side and stabbing into it with a bat-a-rang that beeped twice and then exploded. Without breaking a sweat, she punched at a second beast, her fists sparking with each strike as her electric knuckle dusters activated for extra power. She contemplated dropping a few smoke pellets to provide cover for her and Waller but recalled that not all of these creatures relied solely on sight to suss out prey. A smoky covering could just as easily hinder rather than help. Why weren't the doors opening? "What's going on back there?"

Waller tried her code again but was met with the same screen. The red 'X' seemed to taunt her as she punched in every override code she had committed to memory. "Damn thing…" She tried a fourth code, but the terminal rejected the code again and the doors remained closed. She looked over her shoulder and watched as Batgirl barely managed to fend off her foes. Waller was confident that the girl was doing her best but she was also confident that if she couldn't open the doors in the next few minutes, they would be overrun.

From his position, Batman could make out Batgirl's last stand between Waller and the horrid troop that sought to devour them. It was an admirable attempt, though if the door at their backs wasn't opened soon then Batgirl's attempt would be fruitless. Pinned down at the mouth of the portal with the slowly thinning number of guards, Batman could only hope that Batgirl would find a way to get Waller to safety.

"These things! They just don't stop coming!" One of the guards leveled his rifle at a ghoulish humanoid and pulled the trigger. Instead of a stream of lead, a disheartening click sounded from the rifle. "Crud, I'm out!" He pulled out the empty clip and chucked it at the approaching fiend. It bounced off the fiend's tough skin and clattered to the floor.

Batman drew out his bat-claw as he pushed back against his own demon and aimed it at the one charging the guard. With a steely expression, he fired, and as soon as the claw dug deep into the shoulder of the beast, he thumbed a second trigger, and electricity coarse down the cable and into the Elder Thing. Batman watched as the thing convulsed for a moment before turning his attention back to the one he was barely holding off.

"The hordes of Gehenna are everlasting. Their numbers derive from the sins of man!" A muffled but distinct booming voice echoed from behind the door Batgirl and Waller were pinned against. "However, there is one who holds them back and prevents their passing! I am the Gentle Man!"