Ok a few acknowledgments: First of all I would like to thank everyone who has been posting reviews. I really love the feedback and its great when a reader picks up a few things that I could change/ fix/etc.
Phoenix83ad, you mentioned some great points. A couple of them will be addressed towards the end of the fic, but I had completely forgotten about Tim Drake. ((gasps)) It's a little hard to write a story with so many characters, so I admit to an oversight. One that I already know how to fix and will see to it that the new Boy Wonder is mentioned in the story later on. Thanks so much for bringing that to my attention!
Mid-night2787, thank you so much for telling me about the web addy problem. I still wasn't able to just type in the address cause this site drops stuff like that for some reason. But I managed to work around it. Thanks for you review of this story too!
A tip of my hat to devina and VietAngel. Your encouragement is much appreciated as well.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now on with the story....
New Gotham
Clock Tower
12:20 am
Oracle was typing away furiously, desperately trying to figure out how Harley escaped without her vast warning system being triggered. Outside her steel sanctuary, Quinn's men had all but destroyed their home. Now they were filing up the inner stairwell, weapons ready. Well she still had a few tricks up her sleeve.
She pushed a button, and the power surged as she unleashed a powerful charge through the metal staircase her attackers were now climbing. She allowed herself a satisfied smirk as the dozen men and women who were in the middle of their ascent howled in pain before they all slumped unconscious. Quinn was standing at the base of the stairwell, but she merely chuckled as her soldiers fell.
She clapped merrily and grinned as she looked up at the nearest camera. "Very nice Babsy! It seems you learned a few lessons from my last invasion. And since Helena dearest hasn't come down here yet, I'm willing to bet you're all alone up there with those pretty little computers of yours. We have sooo much to catch up on, so I'll try not to delay too much!"
Barbara's eyes narrowed and she barely restrained herself from slamming her fist through the monitor. Damn that woman! While Harley's team searched for a way to get upstairs, she returned her attention back to the Arkham cameras, searching for the fake video that had to have been programmed into the computer. But even as she probed deeper in Arkham's database, the answer remained the same. There was no tampering or altering involved.
"How can she be in two places at once?" Barbara wondered out loud. And then the answer hit her. She zoomed in on the individual sitting in Harley's clear cell, and then fed the information into the computers facial recognition program.
The search came back negative. Somehow, Quinn had managed to trade places with someone who looked enough like her that no one had noticed it wasn't Harley sitting in the cell. Barbara's jaw tightened. Quinn wasn't a slouch when it came to the intellectual department. She would find a way upstairs, and judging from the hardware and arsenal her men were unloading in the underground garage, they were prepared to break through whatever defenses she had in store for them.
Rolling backwards, she swiveled her chair around and moved towards a safe nestled under a desk. She cracked it open in seconds and stared at the device resting inside. Helena would have had a fit if she even knew that Barbara had kept her neural transponder. But Barbara hadn't been able to bring herself to destroy the dangerous device, and now she was relieved she hadn't.
Looking back at the screen, she watched as Harley happily took out her main generator sending the building into darkness. The Delphi Sanctuary went dark for a second, and then her backup batteries kicked in, casting the room in the soft glow of emergency lights and the many screens.
"Come on up you bitch," the redhead growled out. "This time I'll be ready for you."
Outside New Gotham......
12:25 am
A lone train plodded along the tracks outside of New Gotham, the train slowly picking up speed as it cleared the city limits and entered into open country. Unbeknownst to the guards that had been stationed through the various cars, three nighttime vigilantes were now part of the small entourage that was heading towards Manhattan.
"Damn it's cold," Nightwing chattered quietly as he hovered down on the roof of the last car.
"Hudson and I can clear out this first car and allow you a minute to warm up inside before we move forward. I only spotted two men inside, so they can be quickly and quietly dispatched of."
Nightwing merely nodded, and the two gargoyles dropped down onto the back platform and broke through the back door. Nightwing didn't hear a thing, but seconds later Goliath's head popped up from below as he waved for Nightwing to join them.
Two minutes later, Nightwing was breathing a sigh of relief as he rubbed his stinging cheeks. "Mental note to self," he muttered. "Cold proof the suit better. Thanks for waiting for a few minutes so I could defrost."
"Normally we aren't affected by the cold, but tonight I must admit that it is a little uncomfortable even for us," Goliath admitted. "We can move when you are sufficiently warmed."
"I'm ok now, besides we have no idea if these guys have some check-in schedule so we should get moving," Nightwing said as he nudged the bound and unconscious men with his foot. "I'll head up to the front and start uncoupling the cars before I shut down the engine. Are you guys sure you can handle the rest of these goons by yourselves?"
"Don' worry about us lad. Once the cars are separated, they won't be going anywhere with all o' those guns in this weather now will they? Ye just take care o' yourself."
"You too."
Manhattan
Castle Wyvern
12:30 am
The room was eerily silent, and Matt glanced at his watch for the hundredth time. Brooklyn arched an eyebrow at him. "They should just be taking the train right now," Matt answered loud enough for everyone to hear. A few people seemed to nod to themselves, but the room remained quiet.
The door opened, and all eyes focused on the blonde man that entered. "Mr. Xanatos it seems the media is getting wind of what is happening in New Gotham."
Xanatos thought about it for a minute and then nodded. "Go ahead and let them cover the story. Make sure they get several incorrect facts though. There's no need to let Canmore know that anyone is on to his shipment or the fact that his train is about to get robbed."
"It seems Detectives Maza and Reese blew up a rather large stockpile of illegal weapons. I will make sure those are the focus of the media's attention."
"Excellent."
The blonde aide disappeared from the room, and Matt let out a breath he hadn't known that he had been holding. "Damn I didn't even think of that," he said in a shaky voice.
Xanatos smirked. "You can't think of everything Detective. Thankfully I've had quite a bit of experience when it comes to the media. So we made sure to have a contingency plan ready if it did come up. Owen will make sure they have their facts so confused, that none of the stations will be reporting anything right. And no one will be the wiser to the fact that we even know about that shipment."
"I hate this part," Matt sighed. "Waiting to know if everything went according to plan or not. Hoping that our hand hasn't been tipped."
"Whether that has happened or not, we won't have to wait much longer. It's almost time to head out and get into position," Brooklyn commented as he glanced at Matt's watch once more.
"Hopefully we'll get a call before then. It's difficult to get any kind of signals through in the tunnels. If we don't hear from Goliath or Elisa before we leave, we may have to wait until we surface," Derek warned them.
"It's been a half hour, for Elisa. We should be hearing something from them soon....I hope."
The War Zone
New Gotham
12:30 am
Quinn grabbed his Lieutenant roughly. "Where the hell are the extra HQ's?"
"Th- they were all down in the tunnels sir!" he stammered out fearfully.
"Every one of them?!" Quinn screamed angrily.
"Except for the ones that had been loaded onto your yacht and the four sentries who had been issued them."
"FOUR?" The man cringed and Quinn silently cursed himself for picking such an incompetent fool as his Second in Command.
"We didn't want to draw too much attention, and we weren't expecting any trouble!"
Quinn's jaw ticked in fury as he looked out across the battlefield before him. Normally the sight of such chaos and devastation would be pleasing to him. But not when it he had a mission to accomplish, and his forces were beginning to dwindle dangerously low. It was time to cut his losses and retreat. Canmore would get his expected shipment and at least half of his extra order. There were bigger battles to be fought, and he needed to escape alive if he was to celebrate total anarchy with his sister.
"Signal the retreat."
"Retreat? B-but where? We haven't been able to breach their perimeter forces and the cops are massing outside! Sir they've got us totally pinned in!" the man said in a panicked voice.
"Fine then you have the men keep them at bay until I can escape."
"What about the rest of us?"
Quinn looked at him coldly. "I seem to remember you swearing your loyalty to me no matter what. You have two choices right now," he told the cowering man as he pressed his gun to the man's temple. "Fight or die."
"We'll hold them off for as long as it takes sir," the man said weakly.
"A very wise decision."
Clock Tower
New Gotham
12:30 am
Harley Quinn walked into the main living room of the Clock Tower and spun around, her eyes scanning the dark shadows, grinning in psychotic glee as she clapped.
"So you decided to come out an play with us after all," Harley remarked as she stepped over an unconscious body on the floor. Several of the soldiers were running from room to room, attempting to find the paralyzed woman. What they weren't expecting however was that she was fully mobile right now, and weaving through the support beams high in the tower.
"I must say though, you really should fire that old geezer you have as a butler. He's doing a terrible job keeping this place clean."
There was a soft sound – liked air being sliced- and another of her soldiers fell victim to Barbara's batarang. Harley frowned as she realized that she was down to only three of her brother's borrowed soldiers.
"Good help is so hard to find these days," a voice taunted from above, and everyone looked up just as a figure dropped from the darkness.
Harley swiftly moved to safety, as the remaining men surged towards the dark clad figure. One more fell, and then the remaining two finally managed to capture their attacker.
Harley smirked as she strode towards Barbara's struggling body. "Well, well, well, look at what we have here. You didn't have to go and get all dressed up for me sweetie," Harley chuckled as she fingered the yellow bat symbol on the front of Barbara's costume.
Barbara stilled, and her green eyes clashed with blue. Harley cocked her head to one side, stared at those green orbs for a full minute and then frowned. "Now that's not playing fair," she pouted, realizing the redhead had safety contacts in.
"What do you want this time Harley?" Barbara ground out.
"To finish what I started. Well, actually my sweet Mr. J started it oh so many years ago. But I hate to leave things unfinished. But first I'm going to make you pay for the year I spent sitting in that plastic display case," Harley purred as she ran a manicured nail along Barbara's jaw. Then she pulled her hand back and slapped the redhead with such force it split her lip open and left four thin gashes along her jaw.
Barbara reacted by using her captors for leverage and snapped her leg up to kick the blonde in the chin. The move caused Barbara excruciating pain, and she nearly cried out as spasms began to wrack her body. Her only consolation was the fact that Harley was slow getting to her feet, blood dribbling down her own chin.
The psychotic smile was gone, replaced with a murderous look that Barbara was all too familiar with. But Harley wasn't about to kill her without having some fun first. Barbara took a deep breath to steady herself and prepared to hold out for as long as possible, in hopes that one of the others would manage to get back in enough time.
The War Zone........
New Gotham.....
12:30 am
Elisa and Dracon were huddled down in the shadowed corner of a building as they scoped out their path towards the pier. "Damn that's a lot of open ground Sugar."
"If you don't want to come along then cover me, but I'm not letting that boat leave unless I'm on it."
"Where the hell are the cops?"
"I don't know," Elisa muttered, not wanting to think about the possibility that something had happened to Reese. "But we can't wait any longer. Dinah and Helena were separated and I can't raise either of them on the comms. It's now or never Tony, are you with me?"
Tony looked back out at the path was sure to be their deaths and sighed. "You know I am Elisa," he said quietly as he checked the clip on the second gun he had acquired along the way.
"I've got the body armor so I'll take point. If I go down and you can't make it, back off and call the castle. Some one has to let them know there's a second shipment on its way to Canmore."
"Don't worry Sugar, you didn't let me down- I won't let you down."
Dinah groaned as she came too and after blinking a few times to clear her vision she rolled to her feet. Helena had taken a bullet at point blank, and while Dinah turned her attention to her best friend some one broke through her defenses and pistol whipped her into unconsciousness. The last thing she remembered was Helena screaming her name as she launched at Dinah's attacker, her body armor having protected her from the fatal shot.
The scene before now her was devastating. Bodies lay everywhere. Reese had obviously been unsuccessful in trying to get the police to come in and help- not that she blamed them. It was Christmas, and it had turned into one of the bloodiest nights in New Gotham's history. Hell if she were out there, she wouldn't want to come in either. They were still huddled out on the street, waiting for the combatants inside to take care of things for them.
Reese was now holed up with Gordon and a couple of others inside one of the abandoned buildings, and were trading gunfire with who knew how many enemies. Huntress was slowly being backed into a corner, the perimeter forces had been cut in half, and Elisa and Dracon had been stalled in their attempt to cut off the fleeing Quinn.
Half of their friends lay dead or dying, Barbara had been off comms for who knew how long, and Quinn was only feet from his escape. Dinah's eyes flicked back to Helena's form, just as an HQ bullet exploded too close to her, and sent her body crashing into a pile of steel barrels.
"NO!" she screamed, crawling onto a nearby platform to see if the brunette crawled out from the pile. There was no movement, and Dinah felt an uncontrollable rage begin to build inside her. She slowly turned around, her young mind numbingly taking in the violence around her. All she wanted was for it to stop and be over.
No more death.
No more killing.
No more gunshots.
No more explosions.
No more blood.
Her new vantage point had also made her a larger target however, and Quinn's soldiers began firing at her. The blonde clenched her jaw angrily, an invisible shield stopping the bullets. A team rushed her from the right and she turned and threw her fists out, telekinetically blasting nearly a dozen people backwards with such force most of them were knocked unconscious. More tried to rush her and she turned to deal with them as her blood began to boil , the rage continuing to build.
"Jesus, look at that kid she's gonna get herself killed," Dracon muttered.
Elisa grunted as she looked back for a second. "Yeah but she's just the distraction we need. They're rushing her and giving us an opening. Let's move," she ordered as she began making a dash towards the boat. Part of her screamed at her to turn back and help the teen, but the analytical part of her brain kept her racing towards the real problem. They had to catch Quinn before he got away or every sacrifice would have been for nothing.
The crew was rushing around, casting off the mooring lines as the captain fired up the diesel engines. "Move Tony!," Elisa shouted as they finally reached the dock and began pounding down the ramp.
Bullets flew all around them, and Elisa stumbled twice as two found her body. Thankfully they were regular bullets and the body armor held, even if one of her ribs didn't. "Damn it Maza you're gonna get us both killed!" Dracon swore as a bullet grazed his shoulder, nearly spinning him off balance.
Elisa didn't respond, she just kept firing, several of her shots finding their mark. She could hear Dracon a few feet behind her, but the boat was already starting to pull away, Quinn standing on the bow with a smug look on his face. The look disappeared however as Elisa reached the end of the dock and made the jump of her life.
Water stretched out beneath her and she heard Dracon jump a second later. Her body slammed into the railing of the boat and she dropped her gun in her scramble to pull herself over. Water splashed behind her and she silently swore, realizing Dracon had missed the boat. She landed on the deck wincing as fire raced through her abused side, and struggled to pull her second weapon. She froze when cold steel pressed against her temple followed by a maniacal laugh.
Dinah was beyond all reason. Images kept flashing in her head, and the fury continued to build as wave after wave of soldiers were blasted back.
No more.
They were all images of death and grief.
No more.
Of people she had loved and lost. Of those that she had nearly lost. Of those that were lying only feet away dying even now.
NO MORE!
Something inside of her snapped, and a roiling surge of fire and power burned through the young woman's body. She grabbed her head and collapsed to her knees as the power overwhelmed her. A scream built in the depths of her chest and she threw her head back, her body arching painfully as the scream tore from her throat.
From his hiding place, Gordon saw the girl sink to her knees and thought she had finally been hit. But when her body seemed to convulse, and her mouth opened up, the noise that hit him brought him to his own knees writhing in pain. The last thing he remembered was something that sounded and felt like an explosion as his mind finally went blissfully dark.
The explosion was all the distraction Elisa needed. "What the hell was that?!" someone had shouted and the gunman had turned slightly to look back at the docks. Elisa forced her body to move, and disarmed the soldier and had her newly acquired gun trained on Quinn before anyone else could recover.
A dozen guns were suddenly aimed at her, but she quickly moved around until Quinn was now a human shield for her. "I would think twice before firing. I've got body armor on, but I don't think he does. Now stop this boat!" she ordered.
The captain hesitated, and then a second voice spoke up from behind the group. "You heard t-the lady boys. N-n-now drop 'em b-b-before I add you to the b-body count."
Dripping wet, shivering, but wearing a smug grin as always, Tony Dracon cocked his gun to let them know he meant business. Quinn's jaw tightened angrily, and finally several of the soldiers began laying down their weapons. One tried to be a hero, but Dracon dispatched of him quickly, without blinking an eye.
"L-l-let me m-make this clear. I ain't no cop, so I have no problem d-d-dropping one of you nutcases. I'd prefer doing it with a pair of cement shoes, but a f-fully automatic weapon will do just fine. Now drop the weapons and kick them aside!"
Weapons finally clattered to the ground and Dracon made sure that all of them were kicked out of reach. The captain had finally complied, and the boat was slowing. Dracon looked at Elisa for what she wanted to do next and she jerked her to the side. A grin spread across his lips.
"Hope you boys can swim."
"What?!" Some one gasped.
"That water is just above freezing."
"T-t-trust me I know. But if you swim quickly I'm sure you can reach the shore in about five or ten minutes. Now in you all go," he ordered as he began shoving several of the soldiers towards the railing.
They hesitated for a couple of seconds and Dracon fired a warning shot at their feet that got several of them jumping. Quinn watched, clearly seething, as all his men were finally shoved or jumped overboard. Only he and the captain remained, and Elisa was taking no chances as she kept her weapon steady on Quinn.
"Get this boat back to the dock now!" she shouted to the captain.
The man quickly complied, and a couple of minutes later they were pulling back up to a now silent dock. Dracon knocked out the captain as soon as his services were no longer necessary, and had him hog tied within seconds. Once Tony had rejoined her on the main deck, Elisa pulled out a pair of cuffs from her belt and snapped them around Quinn's wrists with grim satisfaction.
"I'm going to see to it that you fry for this," she whispered harshly at him as she roughly shoved him towards the docking ramp.
Quinn resisted for a moment, but Dracon's gun clicked loudly in the silence. "I'm sure Detective Maza would just love it if you tried to escape. Give me even more reason to shoot your kneecaps out," Tony warned smoothly.
Eyes narrowed and jaw grating in fury, Quinn realized he had lost the fight. But he had faith that he hadn't lost the battle. After all, his sister was taking care of that crippled bitch, and the shipment had already left by the time these freaks had shown up. His men in Manhattan would know what to do. And once the guns arrived, there would be no stopping his army. His incarceration would be short-lived.
Rose blinked a few times, shook her head and finally managed to crawl to her feet. Silence met her ears, and for a brief moment she thought that she had been robbed of her hearing. Then she looked down into the war zone below, and saw that not a single soul stirred.
Whatever Dinah had done, it had knocked every person within several hundred yards unconscious. Even the police, on the other side of the warehouses appeared to have felt some of the effects of the...explosion. The boat that Quinn had escaped on was re-docking, and she watched as Dracon helped Maza escort their captive off the vessel at gunpoint.
Her comm crackled to life, snapping her out of her stunned reverie as Maza's voice came over the link. "This is Maza, does anyone read me?"
Rose cleared her throat and then pressed the switch on her mic. "Ice here Detective," she responded.
"Ice what the hell happened?"
"From what I saw it looked like Canary went on overload and took everyone out."
"Status?"
"Everyone within a couple hundred yards is out cold. The police are starting to regroup on the other side of the warehouses...looks like they're finally getting ready to storm the place. Those of us who were further away or on the roofs are getting back to our feet."
"Good, break out the zip ties and starting restraining every soldier you come across. I don't care if they look dead, cuff them. Search every body for weapons and remove them. Any word from the others?"
Rose shook her head. "Only our comms are working. None of us have been able to raise the other team or Oracle for the last ten minutes."
There was a grim pause. "Dracon and I are taking our buddy here to the police, we'll explain what's going on. As soon as there are enough police out there, starting pulling back. Find Canary and Huntress take them with your wounded back to the rendezvous. The Doc is supposed to be standing by."
"And the dead?" Rose asked around the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.
"I'll leave that up to you," Maza said, her tone softening with sadness.
Rose nodded to herself and then stood up straighter as she began assembling the remaining metas for their final duties.
Elisa snorted to herself as she watched the officers tense up as she and Dracon made their way towards them with Quinn held between them. Over fifty guns were aimed at them right now, and she couldn't help but not feel even the slightest bit afraid after what she just went through.
"Halt and identify yourselves!" a voice bellowed out over a bullhorn.
Elisa raised her hand, revealing her badge for the first time in two weeks. "Detective Elisa Maza, NYPD! I'm here undercover and working with Detective Jesse Reese."
"What happened to Detective Reese?"
"Hopefully he's not dead thanks to your hesitance!" she ground out angrily. "You guys have been here for nearly fifteen minutes and none of you had the guts to get in there and help your fellow officers. I have some comrades back there that are gift wrapping your garbage for you, but our numbers have been a little depleted. I'm sure they would appreciate it if you would give them some help so that those who are still alive can go home to their families."
Her sharp and biting words were met with stunned silence, and she could make out the shame on some of their faces as her words sank in. Then a couple of orders were barked out, and the entire group surged forward as several higher ranking officials began to make their way over to Elisa.
"Keep your ch-chat with the big boys short Sugar. We st-still have a b-b-boat to catch," Dracon shivered as he slipped off into the maze of buildings to make his way back to the boat.
Elisa felt Quinn tense up and she shoved her gun into his ribs hard enough to make him wince. "I would love for you to give me a reason to shoot you," she whispered dangerously. He slid a look her way, took in her icy glare and relaxed immediately.