Day Two

The base was nearly empty. Desdemona moved swiftly down the corridors towards the south wing where the private research labs were. Nearly there, she was intercepted by a small handful of guards. In the process of fighting them off, she felt something dig into her neck, its soft fabric one of the few vulnerable spots in her costume. The world started to spin. Reaching up, her fingers curled around the end of a dart. The spinning world went black.

"When I came to, I was in the woods. Covered in dust and a little scorched… The entire south wing looked like someone had dropped a bomb on it."

"You don't remember anything before that."

"Convenient, isn't it," she muttered sarcastically.

"And the dart?"

"Gone." She glanced at him eyeing her neck, and picked her mask up off the bed, tossing it to him. "Puncture's gone too. I heal fast. My mask… not so much."

"Keep going," he suggested quietly.

"I could hear the sirens. The place was about to be crawling with cops and the fire department. I was in no condition to try sneaking around with the blue boys en masse. And the sun was starting to show. So I found someplace quiet, and eavesdropped on the police channels. That's how I found out about the security tapes…"

"Uncle Sam is refusing to turn over the tapes, Commissioner," Harvey Bullock growled. "Just a copy."

James Gordon tilted the phone away from his mouth and sighed tiredly. "Somehow that's the least of my concerns. It's fine, Harvey." Hanging up the phone, the commissioner found he wasn't all that startled by the shadow that drifted out of the others in his office. "Shouldn't you be at Hensbrid?"

"Not just yet."

"I know she's one of yours, Batman, but –"

"She's not one of mine."

"But you want a copy of the tapes regardless," the commissioner finished, and then waved him off, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I'll leave them on my…" Opening his eyes, he found Batman gone, his office curtains stirring lightly in the breeze.

"……. Desk."

"I borrowed a uniform and slipped into the GCPD evidence locker to get a look at the tapes. There were only two – I'd been careful to avoid the security systems…" Her voice dropped. "It turns out that I didn't go down after I got nailed with the dart…"

The black-clad figure sidestepped into view of the camera, her scuffle with the guards making it unavoidable. After a few moments of struggle, her hand jerked to her neck, and a few moments after that, she dropped to her knees, out of view of the camera again. Two of the guards advanced on her, only to jump back again as she lunged into view once more.

Sitting in the police evidence locker, officer Desdemona narrowed her eyes on the screen. The moves, it was all her style. It was her. She watched in a mix of fascination and horror as she took out the guards and stormed into Holtz' lab, where the not-so-good doctor was still at work. There was a brief verbal confrontation before things turned violent. And then turned fatal.

Flicking off the player, she didn't need to watch herself tamper with the lab equipment to know what came next.

"I don't remember much of the next couple hours…" she said, her voice having become choked. "Not in the same way I don't remember any of… that," she added, hurriedly, "Just that… Shock, I guess. It's like everything that followed happened at once… I stripped my apartment of anything that screamed 'a vigilante lived here'. Didn't take long. I learned a long time ago never to unpack anything important…"

"Hello?"

"I'm trying to reach Veronica Hamilton…"

"This is she…"

"Good afternoon, Ms Hamilton. My name is Kevin Grant. I'm an attorney out of Gotham city. I'm settling the estates of one of my clients, and you were listed to receive a part of it."

"I… don't understand. I don't really know anyone in Gotham…"

"You did attend South Glen high school?"

"Yes. Yes I did… senior year…"

"One of your classmates, Martina Kyle, left you a piece of property here in the city…"

"Just like that."

"You have to understand, Superman – I haven't had anyone to watch my back in years. I had about fifteen back-up plans in place in case I needed to disappear quickly… All I had to do was fax the paperwork and get scarce. Plenty of places in Gotham to do that while I decided what to do next…"