22. Opening Interlude
Summary: Just a break while things get ready for the next part of the plot.
Nighttime, Gotham City,
"Anything?" A young male voice crackled through the communicator.
"Nope." Answered an older female voice, her amusement clear to the first speaker.
"Aw man. I am getting bored here. Not even a break in?"
"Sorry Boy Wonder, the streets of Gotham seem to be taking a break tonight. They regret to inform you that you won't be getting into a life threatening situation tonight….most probably."
"Hmph." The red, green, yellow and black, clad form of Tim Drake, the third person to don the famous suit and handle the mantle of Robin, apprentice, sidekick and partner of the Batman, frowned at his predicament. He was getting bored out of his skull. The boss was away, Nightwing was in Bludhaven, Steph…Spoiler was on temporary hiatus, Batgirl was half way across the city, on her own patrol route….leaving only the Clock tower bound Oracle, Barbara Gordon to keep him company….and of that wasn't enough, the incessant rain just added to the gloomy favor of the night.
"Buck up junior," Barbara's voice sounded in his ear. "Finish up your patrol and come in for a break."
"I am done," Tim answered. Being a weekend, there wasn't any hassle of going home either. He was really in the mood tonight, a full day's sleep, adrenaline pumping, hands and feet just itching to layout on and be free…and now this. Well, if nothing else, he could always go to Stephanie's and hang out with her. Hmm, not there's an idea.
"Batgirl is also almost done," Barbara's words cut into his musing. "She should be reporting in soon."
"Thanks Babs, but I think I'll take a rain check…" Almost slapping himself at his choice of words, especially in these weather conditions, Tim grasped his grabbling gun and fired it into the distance. "Maybe later. I gotta see someone right now."
"Okay…." Barbara harrumphed at her end. "Any idea about B?" She could not contain herself from asking. These least few days, a couple of weeks in fact, she had noticed an almost subtle change in Batman, and it intrigued her….not only by itself, but also because of what Dinah had told her. Was there any truth in that?
"Some league business," Tim responded as he swung down to where the Redbird, his Robin-mobile was parked, disguised as a normal red-colored coupe. "That's what I got from 'A'."
"Looks like." Alfred. That was another red-blimp on the Mistress of Information's radar…Him, and Mr. Hunk Wonder himself, Dick Grayson. She knew that Dick had met Bruce in his office, not very out of the ordinary for the father and son. What was surprising that not only did they have lunch together, strike one, they went back to the manor in midday, strike two, and later, when Dick came over to the tower, he did not have his usual 'post-Bruce' frown on, strike three and she had an 'out'. However, even though her suspicions were strong, she knew better than to try to draw it out of either of the three, Bruce, Dick or Alfred….she knew better than that….now. Years ago, when she was still Batgirl, she realized one thing…a very simple but incredibly important thing, especially for those who sported or worked under the Bat.
No matter, how difficult the conditions might be between the three of them, no matter how big the team might get, the three original members had a trust level that neither of them had with anyone else…not even her.
If Bruce did tell Dick or Alfred anything, which she was sure that he did, at least to Alfred, it was as good as telling no one else….because no matter what, neither Alfred, nor Dick would tell it to anyone else. Initially feeling resentful and left out, Barbara soon realized that for them to do this; it wasn't a matter of team spirit or secrecy, it was a matter of family….just like she had with her own father.
"Hey, wait a minute," suddenly a thought struck her. "You went to the cave? Didn't B ask you to operate from the B-Girl's…?"
"Yup," Robin did not even allow her to complete that line of thought. "Called before and 'A' said it would be feasible to do so, and he would have the things I needed ready by time I got there."
"So, you didn't actually go in…"
"I did, just didn't wait that long…..just an in-and-out job. Why? Anything the matter?" Tim had an inkling of what Barbara was asking without actually asking it…..and even though he had his own suspicions and queries, he wasn't going to break them out to her, well not after getting the 'drop it' line from both Bruce and Dick.
"No….nothing….I guess…" Barbara hung her head back, stretching and exercising her neck muscles.
"Okay, then, later." He was drawing near to Stephanie's house. "Hey Babs…" he just couldn't contain one parting remark.
"Yeah?"
"If you are so interested in knowing what is going on….
….why don't you tap into the League or ask one of the members?"
----
"Hey, any idea what's going on?" The 'flame' headed nuclear-hero Firestorm, Ronald 'Ronnie' Raymond, looked up as the taller, bulkier, Major Disaster, Paul Booker, stepped into the monitor womb.
'Nope,' the pleasant natured Firestorm tsked his answer. He was also more than curious as to the nature of this emergency meeting, not only because of the hush-hush way it was happening, but also because, with Batman commandeering Flash away, it was he who was left to pick up on monitor duty, something he wasn't a big fan of in the first place. Then there was the mystery teleportation directly into the conference room. Once again, Batman took care of it, deleting the records and co-ordinates after him. Whatever it was, it was something big.
"The cameras working?" Major Disaster, plopped himself on the floor, his back resting against the metallic walls.
"You know they won't," Ronnie answered with a smirk. Whenever the executive body met, the security cameras were shut off for the duration of the meeting. Usually lasting a couple of hours at the most, this one was three and a half hours….and counting. It started with the Flash contacting the Atom, who then contacted Batman. Since then, one by one, all the senior members, well, except for Plasticman had come in, with Wonder Woman being the last. There was a second person who teleported with Wonder Woman. However, his or hers, Firestorm did not even know that, identity was a secret.
"Whatever it is….its something big."
-----
"Lets do it."
Inside the conference room, Diana turned to her hosts; five of them looked, smiled and or nodded at her, while the sixth, the black and grey form of the Batman simply stepped up the computer, his fingers deftly tapping away at the keyboard to bring up the next part of the message. It was this part that most intrigued him, not only because of what it might contain, but also because of its size. Whatever had been played or displayed until now, was just a small part. He wanted to see what was in it that took almost twenty minutes for the League computers to download it.
"You will need to establish a link with the cave computer and enter a deep command…the one to access information that you can see." If he was surprised at her knowledge of his 'deep commands' the Caped Crusader did not show it, and the others, although clearly surprised, refrained from questioning it.
"Computer!" Batman addressed the computer, his voice level and firm. "Acknowledge deep command…Omega Theta Gabriel."
If the others expected an answer from the computer, they did not get one. All they got was a single beep signaling that it was Wonder Woman's turn to enter her code now.
Taking a deep breath, Diana clearly and slowly spoke four words, each one in a different language. Just as Batman had deep commands, he had set up the same for Diana. Moreover, just as the Caped Crusader changed his commands after a fixed interval, usually seventy-two for him, so did Diana. Only she, unlike Batman, did it once a month.
"What'd she say?" Flash blurted out inspite of himself. Batman's words were clear enough, well; as clear as Latin, but what Diana spoke, heck, one of those had her clicking her tongue to form it.
"Its ancient Greek," the League's Diana (comic one) was the first to comment. She recognized the first word that her twin had spoken. "One of them."
"Persian and Japanese," Batman supplied the origins of the other two, the third and the fourth. However, even he did not know where the fourth word, the one she spoke second, came from.
"Tamaran." Diana answered the unspoken question in everyone's eyes.
"Tamaran!"
At the chorus, she merely nodded. The choice of words made the code near impossible to guess. The Tamaran word was from a list of Tamaran and Kryptonian words that she used in her codes. This was done more to retain Batman's secrecy than anything else….a decision that Diana came to by herself. It was part of the system that Bruce and her had come up with. On her side, she adopted an increased level of security…where Batman and his operations were concerned, while Bruce did the same for her, meaning, he relaxed his usually airtight, no question-no answer codes, just a bit…when it came to Diana.
-----
Another beep signaled the acceptance of the second code, while a third sounded for the message being unlocked.
What happened next was…
"Oh my…"
"Hera!"
"Wow"
"Hmm…"
"What the…!"
'Impressive'
"Bruce…."
