Day Three, Earlier.
A quick examination of the shelves in the security room showed that the original tapes were missing. Her insane return to Hensbrid was for nothing. Angrily, she took a swipe at the tapes still on that shelf, scattering across the floor. Exhaling, she moved across to the security consoles, ejecting the tapes.
"You really have lost it," an almost cheery voice from behind remarked. "Aren't you Amazons supposed to be silent hunters?"
Turning, a series of blows was exchanged between them. For once, she found she couldn't keep up her end of the witty banter.
"Your performance at the police station this morning was much more impressive. We almost didn't figure out how you'd gotten in and stolen the tapes."
"What?" Her startled question was answered with a kick that didn't quite miss her jaw. Feeling the pressure now, she tried to return it. There was a brief, almost vicious scuffle before Desdemona managed to deliver a strike to his neck that dropped him. "Sorry, Robin," she murmured, lowering his unconscious body to the ground.
"Someone must have nabbed the tapes after I'd been there..." Desdemona shook her head. "No evidence… no witnesses… Technically… there was nothing they could do to me. Everything had become heresay."
"And you had nothing to do with it."
"It's an awful elaborate setup," she remarked, her sarcasm self-directed this time.
"If you suspected it a set up, why did you run from Batman?"
She laughed harshly. "Conditioning."
"I'm sorry?"
"Never mind." Sighing, she let her head fall forward into her hands. "Even if he'd looked like he was in the mood to listen to tall tales… I wasn't in the mood to talk. Fight, or flight… Hermes was right. I'm a runner."
"Why come to Metropolis?"
"It was a last ditch effort, Superman. I came to find the one person that had the reason and resources to set me up like that."
"Luthor."
"I'm hardly worth Luthor's time. I stole a few files and failed to complete a mission. He's got bigger fish to fry…"
"Then who?"
"Mercy."
Superman didn't reply immediately. "Do you have any proof?"
"This is what we call grasping at straws." Desdemona laughed again, miserably. "Batman was right. I belong in Arkham."
"Just what is your connection to Batman?" he asked softly. "You said before that you came from another dimension…"
"I…" She looked over at him for a several long moments. "I grew up in Gotham."
"And just decided to copy his belt?"
"Like that's an odd thing? How many eight year-olds dress up as you on Halloween?"
"It's hardly the same thing."
"I know." She paused. "Do you believe me?"
"I'm needed elsewhere." Superman said after a moment, listening to something distant, though his eyes were still on her. "Are you going to run again?"
Desdemona stared into his eyes for a few long seconds, then whispered, "Yes."
The Man of Steel frowned, and then disappeared, leaving behind a forceful gust of wind as the door closed behind him.
"Did you get all of that?" Superman asked, soaring above Metropolis.
"Yes."
"She seemed to be telling the truth."
"She believed she was telling the truth. There's a difference."
"You think she's..."
"Unstable." Batman finished, without dancing around the point. "Hensbrid is a federally funded facility. It's possible that those tapes were passed on to a federal investigation department. It's also possible that she took them the night she killed Holtz."
"I can pay Mercy a visit…"
"I don't believe there's a need for that. Mercy is a lot of things, but a mastermind isn't one of them. Even if she had a reason to wish Desdemona extreme ill, she lacks the motivation to do anything about it. Especially anything this extreme."
Superman couldn't really argue that point. Mercy was the best of the good-little-soldiers. Her focus centered on Luthor. "What are you going to do?"
"Stop distracting you from tending to that robbery in progress," Batman said, and closed the channel.