Power Play Chapter 3: Flying to the Rescue, a batman fanfic

Chapter 3: Flying to the Rescue

All characters are the property of DC Comics. No money is being made on this story and no infringement of copyright is intended.

I dropped Bruce into the backseat and landed in the front one.

"Plane, take off. Get us to J'onn J'onzz's last known location as fast as possible."

I was pressed down in my seat as the invisible plane took off vertically. I hurried belted myself in as, almost immediately, the plane shifted into forward motion. We were pinned back into our seats as the plane accelerated to Mach 12.

"Diana, I need to re-establish communications."

"Plane, do what Batman asks."

I heard him muttering orders in the backseat, but blocked it out of my mind. Instead, I focused again on the mental link with J'onn.

'J'onn?'

Nothing.

"Damn and Blast!"

"Batman?" I had never heard him curse before.

"Triple back-ups and still the warning didn't get out!"

"Warning? Were you expecting this?"

"It was the obvious time for Luthor to strike, with most of the JLA off on a mission in space...."

"Oh? D'K'Nor?"

"...I was hoping it might lure him into attacking before he was really ready...."

"Well, that worked well," I commented dryly.

"You can tell me that when this is over, PRINCESS."

I was taken aback by the anger in his voice.

He continued, in his usual cold voice, "Fortunately, the plane's Lansinarian technology was able to overcome the jamming. We're going to have to play clean up, picking up all those who didn't get the warning in time to make it to secure locations. The invisible plane is perfect for that role, since it – and anything inside it – is invisible, not just to human sight but to radar, infrared and clear across the electromagnetic spectrum. And it will alter itself at your command. We are going to need more seating."

"How many people are we talking about?"

"Plane, put the scan on Diana's display."

In the air in front of me, an outline make of the United States suddenly appeared. There were half a dozen pulsing red dots on the map. As I watched, a seventh appeared.

"Each dot represents a pick-up. Most will be a single person -- either a hero or someone close to them who might be grabbed as a hostage -- but some will be multiples. This is only the start. There will be more. I'm trying to calculate a minimum time flight plan to pick them all up. Obviously, that will have to change with the situation, but the first pick up is Metropolis."

"No." He raised an eyebrow. "First we go to J'onn's rescue."

"Diana," his voice was uncharacteristically gentle, "you can't make reach him either, can you?"

"I won't accept that!"

"We can't help him, Diana, but we can help these other people."

I shook my head stubbornly but, as I did, I saw another dot appear on the screen. I couldn't help remembering what Bruce had said to me on our first date: If someone died ... you would mourn them and then you would throw yourself back into the battle. Oh J'onn, I thought, there isn't even time to mourn you. But I will, when there is time, I will.

"Metropolis?"

He nodded. The invisible plane tore through the black, roiling storm clouds separating Themyscira from Patriarch's World.

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Gypsy glanced around the shattered, burning wreck of the Capitol building. They crouched in an out of the way corner, against one of the few semi-intact walls in the place. The roof – what had been the roof – littered the floor. They had escaped the falling stone and Gypsy's illusion powers had protected them from direct attack, but the fires were spreading. They had to get out. She knew most of the people had escaped out of the various underground passages leading to the Senate and Congressional office buildings and to the White House. The secret service men had taken Luthor out that way, what was left of him. But not everyone had made it out. There were bodies in among the rubble. And there were her three strays, which she had to get out, somehow. Where was the backup Batman had promised?

She had been taken off guard by the suddenness and violence of the attack. One moment everything was normal, if an emergency joint session of Congress could be called normal. It was a closed-door session, no visitors allowed, but of course – with her camouflage powers – that hadn't been a problem. Her only problem was controlling her fury at Luthor's speech. Surely Congress wouldn't buy his crap? She pulled out the comlink Batman had given, for he needed to know about this. And then, quite literally, the roof fell in.

The attackers glided in leisurely through the hole they had blasted in the capitol roof and she was frozen in shock at the sight of them. Not so the Secret Service agents guarding the president. They opened fire immediately and not with Uzis and pistols, but with high-tech blasters of some sort. Much good it did them, Gypsy thought bitterly. Several of the agents were burned down where they stood. And then a bolt of green plasma hit Luthor square in the chest.

He was dead, Gypsy thought. He must be, he couldn't survive a blow like that. She had been too surprised to save Luthor – and couldn't quite bring herself to feel sorry about it. But his death broke her out of her shocked immobility. Even before his body hit the floor, she was moving. She wasn't sure what she could do, for the attackers could easily annihilate them all.

But they didn't. They seemed content to blast random holes in the walls, floor and what remained of the roof while ignoring the fleeing people. Except for their leader. He floated above the fray, scanning the crowd. Then he pointed and where he pointed, someone died, burned alive or blasted by a bolt of green plasma.

Gypsy was too far away to save the first. She thought it was Senator Burns, but she wasn't sure. The next, Congressman Zabrowski, she managed to knock out of the way just in time, covering them both with an illusion of the man being hit and falling. The illusion had apparently been convincing: they were still alive. How she managed to keep them both safe and rescue Senator Connelly at the same time, she was never afterwards sure, for she could maintain only one illusion at a time. She had done it, that was all that. Her third stray she found hiding under a desk. She thought he was a congressman, but she wasn't sure.

In a way, she was surprised they came with her. Batman's briefing had prepared her – somewhat, if he had expected THIS he certainly hadn't told her! – but she knew how it must appear to them. Of course, the threat of imminent death was a strong motivator.

Gypsy looked around again. None of the attackers were in view and the sounds of battle were diminishing. Occasionally she could hear a whine, like that made by the high-tech blasters the Secret Service agents used but deeper. Maybe a more powerful version of their hand guns. The sounds seemed to come from outside; reinforcements, Gypsy supposed. She couldn't remember ever having been so frightened.

She looked at the comlink Batman had given her. The first button, which was supposed to bring immediate backup, had gotten her nothing. The audio channel, which was supposed to connect her with someone who could call up further support, produced only static. That left only one other choice. She grimaced and pressed the second button. Hopefully that would accomplish SOMETHING. She looked back at the others.

"We have to go or the fire will get us. Keep close to me." The others looked back at her with terror in their eyes. She shook her head irritably. "Come ON." She turned and started scrambling over the wreckage. If they wanted to stay and burn to death, let them. But she heard noise behind her indicating that the others were following.

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Yet another dot appeared on my display. There were by now too many to count. But this one seemed to mean something to Batman, for he started to curse again.

"Course change. We need to make an emergency pick up in Washington, D.C."

I nodded and altered course. "We are just a few minutes out." A frisson of fear stabbed through me. "It's not the Themysciran embassy?"

"No. I had Gypsy watching the Capitol building. Something's obviously happened there." It took a moment but I remembered Gypsy: a teenager in a patchwork dress. She might be eighteen or nineteen now, no older.

"Why the Capitol building?" I wondered.

"Ever hear of the Reichstag fire?"

I nodded. "Hitler used the incident to push through legislation granting him dictatorial powers. You think Luthor is going to try something similar?"

I turned to look at him. Batman nodded. "That's why I put Gypsy there. Luthor knows his history and is not above borrowing a good idea."

"And you thought she could stop it by herself?"

Did he redden slightly? "I arranged backup," he answered gruffly.

I looked at him questioningly. Yes, definitely reddening.

"Who?"

He didn't answer for a long moment. Then, grudgingly, he said, "Impulse."

"Impulse? You trusted IMPULSE? With something IMPORTANT?"

He was beet red now. "He performed well against the Joker. Besides, there were not many alternatives. Speedsters are scarce at the moment, with the Flash on D'K'Nor, Jesse Quick semi-retired to concentrate on her business and the JSA ignoring my warnings."

"They did?"

"When you've been around as long as we have, kid," he replied in perfect mimicry of Wildcat, "you'll know that these guys come and go. Sure he's a crook. So was Nixon. Hell, half the politicos back in the forties were crooks. But Luthor's not stupid enough to mess with US."

I shook my head in amusement. "How very foolish of them."

Batman looked grim. "And how much is it going to cost them, and us?"

Suddenly it wasn't funny anymore. I turned back. My heart felt cold. I had lost too many people lately. My mother, Trevor Barnes, my sister Donna and now J'onn. No more deaths. I wasn't sure whether it was a promise or a prayer. I just knew I could not tolerate any more deaths.

So far, so good, Gypsy thought. She had led them along the wall to a doorway. It was hard to be sure, everything looked so different now and the smoke was getting thick, but she thought that through this doorway was a short corridor leading out of the ruined building. And what then? She just hoped that her backup would finally arrive and get them OUT of here.

She looked carefully around the corner and straight into the red, burning eyes of J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter.

He grinned evilly. "I thought I sensed someone still here. Say good-bye, my dear."

Author's Notes: My description of the Invisible plane's abilities is based on John Byrne's description in WW #117 – the first appearance of the latest incarnation of the Invisible plane. The bit about it also being invisible to radar, infrared, etc is complete invention on my part, but it seems plausible. There wouldn't be much point in the Lansinarians (who built it) to make the plane invisible just to the visible part of the spectrum. I know Greg Rucka, the present Wonder Woman writer, has expressed the opposite opinion, but Byrne states clearly in WW #132 that the occupants of the invisible plane are also invisible. So too bad, Rucka! ;-) The plane is not, however, silent – as Walter Simonson has made clear in several recent issues of Wonder Woman. Impulse helped the Batman fight the Joker in issue #50 of his comic.

Gypsy is from the generally unlamented 'Detroit' Justice League. I have always liked her. She has put in a few appearances since then, the latest (that I know of) in Justice League: Incarnations. Her power is the ability to cast a single illusion at a time, either to hide someone – usually herself and (on at least one occasion) people next to her – or (more offensively) she can cast an illusion which affects only one person but completely overwhelms reality for that person. She temporarily took out Despero that way. I have assumed that in the intervening years, her control of her illusions has improved but otherwise her powers are unchanged. When she was in the League, she was very close to J'onn J'onzz.