Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Timeline: Knightfall. For those of you who read my first story, Mayday, this story takes place four years later.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. It's great to know when your writing is appreciated. (But, hey, those of you who write already know that!)

Chapter 4

Interlude: Meanwhile, At the Museum...

"What were they thinking?" Pathwarden demanded, disgusted, waving a color booklet, titled 'Treasures of the Classical World'. "The Van Dyke Gallery is proud to present... Head of Zeus, Zeus Abducting Ganymede, Roman Silver statuette of Jupiter— Why didn't they just tell Maxie where he can park his getaway car?"

Phasma smiled tolerantly at her husband. "I don't believe they were expecting him."

"That's like holding a cookout near a swamp and not expecting mosquitoes."

"I'm in position," Kensai's voice cut tersely through the banter. "Skylight. He got in the same way I'm going to, so the alarms are already cut."

"Roger that," Naiad confirmed. "Anything fragile in there, or can we risk a windstorm?"

"It's a museum," Phasma interrupted. "Ninety per cent of what's in there is old, fragile, and irreplaceable. Just think of this as a chance to practice your aikido. It's getting sloppy."

"How would you know? I haven't used it in ages."

"The defense rests, your honor," Phasma replied, absolutely deadpan.

Kensai stifled a sigh. "If the wisecracking prerequisite has been met, people, can we get on with this?"

"Sure. How many are there, squirt?"

"Two at the north doors, two at the south, and Maxie talking to a water pitcher."

"What?" This from Naiad.

"I'm serious. It's a clay jug. I can't make out the pattern from here, but I think it's red-figure pottery, black background..."

"Hold on." Pathwarden rifled through the booklet. "I think I know why. If that's what it sounds like...yep, here we go. It's a Campanian wine pourer; on loan from the... how the heck do you pronounce this? The Koont... no Kunst... the Kunsthistorisches Museum," he proclaimed triumphantly, "in Vienna. According to this, it shows a scene from the myth of Io, one of Zeus' romances..."

"Oh, right!" Kensai remembered. "Hera turned her into a cow. That would explain why he's over the moon about it." Her voice changed. "I've just been spotted. One of the south guards is heading toward the roof access. ETA is ninety seconds and falling. Do I want him to get me?"

Pathwarden considered. "Diversions are usually good. Go for it. Just be..." he stopped. "What am I saying? You're always careful. Don't change." He shut down the channel, and looked at the other two. "Right. Naiad, you're with me. We'll take the two at the North door. Phasma, the one at the south is all yours."

"On it," Phasma replied. She made a dash in the direction of the stairwell.

Naiad started in the opposite direction. "Wait," Pathwarden called softly. She spun about, causing the long ringlets that emerged from beneath her helmet to sweep her shoulders. "Maxie Zeus is a lightweight. There really shouldn't be any need for grandstanding."

Naiad's blue eyes opened very wide. "Grandstanding?" She asked innocently. "What do you mean by that?"

Pathwarden threw up his hands. "You know exactly what I mean. Just because you have that kind of power, doesn't mean you have to use it exclusively."

Naiad brought her finger to her brother's lip. "Time's wasting. I'll try to tone it down."

Pathwarden nodded curtly, and lowered the visor on his helmet. "Let's move. What...?" A synthesized voice broke through his commlink. From the perplexed look on Naiad's face, it appeared to be on his link alone.

"Hel-lo... This is Or-a-cle," the voice said. "Could you use some help?"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

It would have to be a semi-automatic rifle, Kensai thought with disgust. That particular weapon held associations for her—none of which were pleasant. She was standing against a plaster replica of a Doric column, trying to ignore the gun trained on her. Her eyes darted about the room. Behind the pillar (one of five), papier-mâché representations of the major members of the Greek pantheon stood in a semi-circle. The exhibit room had a high ceiling—easily two-and-a-half stories above them. There was a gallery, one level up, ringing the hall in which she currently found herself. The support pillars would afford secure purchase for her jumpline, if she could get clear of the hench-mook with the firearm. Much of the aforementioned ceiling consisted of an arched skylight, but at intervals around the glass panes, bright banners hung. A catwalk perhaps three feet wide, and painted the same cream-beige as the upper walls, ran the perimeter of the upper half-story. Two more walkways intersected each other at right angles at the centre of the room. They had safety railings, Kensai thought to herself. Those had possibilities. She considered, but discounted the automatic sprinklers. Setting them off would damage the antiquities.

Her brother's voice came quietly over her commlink. "Ready when you are."

Kensai relaxed. Finally. "What's the angle, Maxie?" she asked, feigning boredom. "Building a shrine to the ladies you've loved and lost through the years, or was it just really hard to find a conversation piece that wouldn't clash with your Venus de Milo knock-off?"

Maxie Zeus tore his gaze from the pottery jug with some irritation. "Maiden, address me not so familiar, lest I hurl a thunderbolt through thy heart." he replied. "I am the immortal Zeus."

Kensai smiled sweetly. "Of course you are. That would explain why you need this gentleman standing over me with an AK-47." She nodded toward her captor. "You do know that if he actually fires that thing at me, the bullet's liable to go through this pillar and take out Apollo's kneecap, right?" If he didn't know she was wearing Kevlar, she wasn't going to tell him. At point-blank range, it might not be enough protection, at any rate.

Maxie considered. "Pontus!" he commanded the gunman, "move her into the corner. I'll not risk having my son's likeness besmirched."

The thug pointed her there with the rifle. "Go on, you!"

Kensai shrugged. "What?" she drawled, moving several steps forward. "You want me to move... NOW!"

On her signal, Pathwarden burst through the north door, a glowing ball of light in his left hand. Simultaneously, a pair of periwinkle-gloved hands appeared, clutching the top of the south doorway lintel. The rest of Phasma swung in a split-second later, as both of her feet kicked the lone guard in his shoulder blades. He staggered forward and fell heavily over a waist-high freestanding placard.

Pathwarden hurled the glowing orb directly into the faces of the two sentries. They cried out and shielded their eyes, too late. Once they were blinded, Pathwarden dispatched them easily.

Seeing her guard distracted, Kensai quickly dropped to the ground, rolled out of the way, and dashed to cover behind the pillars. From there, she reached into her pouch and pulled out a small dart, heavy for its size. She removed the rubber protective tip, aimed, and threw it. It sailed unerringly between the pillars to lodge itself in the gunman's glove. A sharp curse advised her that it had penetrated the thin leather and pierced the skin beneath.

"Who just held a gun on my sister?" Naiad demanded. She stood nonchalantly, holding two spheres roughly the size of tennis balls, one in each hand. One glowed with an incandescent fire; the other globe was of ice.

What a showoff, Kensai thought to herself. The numbing agent on her dart should take effect any second now. Once it did, the mook's hand would be so much deadweight for the next hour or so. Before that could happen, however, her former captor leveled the weapon at her sister and squeezed off a shot.

Training took over. Naiad raised her left arm to block the bullet with her armguard. Stretching back her right arm, she hurled the fireball at the rifle. As the sphere impacted, the tip of the gun muzzle glowed brownish red. The color began to spread down the length of the barrel. The guard screamed, dropped the weapon and began to run. The metal of the gun took on the color of blood, then shifted to cherry and began to soften like a chocolate bar left on a radiator.

Naiad threw the ice globe to the ground directly in front of the fleeing thug.

Kensai's eyes widened. Swiftly, she released her jumpline, looping it around one of the narrow support pillars of the second-level gallery. Once it was secured, she retracted the cable, allowing herself to be propelled into the air. This would have to be timed perfectly.

Naiad's ice-sphere shattered on impact, and the man skidded and slipped on the polished stone floor plowing into Maxie Zeus. Startled, Maxie went flying—and so did the wine pourer.

Kensai was in mid-dive even before Maxie had lost his grip on the artifact. She let go of the jumpline in order to snatch the amphora with one hand, while she fired off a second cable with the other. This one caught one of the catwalk railing supports, but the wrench when it did nearly made her drop the jug. Her shoulder. She must have dislocated her shoulder. What did she expect? Kensai thought, disgusted. She'd just thrown her entire body weight onto that one joint. Stupid. She didn't have the leverage to pull herself up. And if one of her teammates were to swing up here and land on the metal catwalk, the vibrations stood a good chance of jarring her loose. Lovely. Idly, she wondered how long she could dangle.

And then, hands, chain-mail gauntleted hands, reached down and grabbed her. Kensai passed the wine-pourer to Pathwarden, who set it aside and pulled her under the railing, onto the catwalk. "How..." she began.

Her brother grinned at her. "You didn't know about the elevator?" He asked.

Kensai glowered at him. "The public," she winced.

Pathwarden gently examined the shoulder. "Let's check this," he said.

"The public," Kensai began again, "wouldn't be able to get up here. There'd have to be a key, or a code, or... ah!" There was an instant of agony, as Pathwarden slid the bone back into place. Then, blissfully, the pain vanished.

"You're going to want to ice that when we get back," he said. "And you're right. You do need an access code to get up here. Fortunately, I've been talking with someone tonight who was able to provide it."

Kensai frowned. "Oracle?"

"How'd you know?"

"From what Umbra says, she's the main resource person for... people like us."

"She?"

Kensai paused. "I think so. You don't?"

"It wasn't a real voice. It was a voder. I guess I wasn't really thinking about it one way or the other." He patted her good shoulder. "Nice work, there. I almost had a heart attack when Maxie dropped that thing."

Kensai smiled. "I nearly had one, myself, when I realized that creep was going to smash into Maxie." She looked at the jug critically. "Not something I'd pick out for myself, this," she remarked. "Let's go back down."

"You're welcome."

She flushed. "I'm sorry, Pathwarden! I—"She sighed and struggled to her feet. "You just saved my life. It's just, before we headed out tonight, I told Bron to let Callie know that it was alright for her to tell Batman about... about what happened when I was..."

"When you were four years old," Pathwarden supplied. He let out a low whistle. "That's hard. You want Naiad to melt that gun any further?"

Kensai managed a shaky smile. "Leave it. She's done enough, already. Thanks. Really. Thanks. Let's go."

As they emerged from the elevator onto the main exhibit floor, they could hear Phasma phoning GCPD. They could also hear Maxie Zeus bellowing about the indignity that his capture was inflicting upon him.

"And if thou woudst not be smitten by a thunderbolt, thou shalt..."

"Oh, shut it!" Naiad snapped. "You've got about as much chance of calling one down, as he does," she said, pointing to one of the bound henchmen. Kensai noted idly that her sister was still bouncing a pulsating sphere in one hand. It looked like a ball of electricity. No. She wouldn't...

Naiad turned her back deliberately on the sputtering pseudo-deity, and then whirled back. "Oh, and Maxie?" she said, as the globe in her hand unfurled and took on the shape of Captain Marvel's chest insignia, "THIS is a thunderbolt!"