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Sorry it's been a while, a lot has been going on recently. Hopefully I'll be able to get to a more consistent pace soon. The translation for the Ancient Greek is at the bottom. I don't own any of the characters. Thanks to my Beta Reader and to all of you. Please review. Enjoy.

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Wonder Woman planted her feet in as her shield took another blast from Star Sapphire. As soon as the blast ended she jumped into the air flying straight for the villainess, never lowering her shield. She intentionally moved much slower than she could in order to goad her adversary into attempting evasive action. Then, right as Star Sapphire began to move she sped up, altering her course for intercept, and batted her to the ground with the sturdy hoplon. Giving no time for recovery, Wonder Woman planted her feet straight into the other woman's abdomen, causing the concrete underneath to buckle and crack. Star Sapphire lay there desperately trying to regain her breath, gasping for air as Wonder Woman tied her up. Batman had supplied the league with a reflective headband that would direct any attempt by Star Sapphire to use her powers, back on to her. They hoped it would be more effective than attempting to separate her from the crystal, since that never seemed to last long even if they were successful.

As Star Sapphire struggled against this new form of imprisonment, Bruce's voice filled her ear. "Now that you're free, we have a new lead."

"You know you could've just texted me instead of watching me until I was done fighting." Diana was never sure how to feel about Bruce's apparent disregard for other people's privacy, but she trusted him to use his powers with discretion. The last thing she would expect Bruce to do is watch Leaguers' private lives instead of brooding.

She could almost hear the sigh he undoubtedly let out before responding. "Don't worry, princess, I just had the computer alert me when your heart rate relaxed."

"I think that might be weirder in some ways."

There was a pause before he replied. "I'll text you in the future."

"No, don't worry about it. It's nice to know someone's looking out for me."

Another labored pause. "Batman out."

Diana chuckled at the thought of Bruce having a conniption over how useless the conversation he just had was. Of course, for him that meant a furrowed brow and maybe, if she was lucky, a slight movement of the hands in a confused gesture. But it was humorous nonetheless.

She handed off Star Sapphire to the Watchtower to be processed and then transported just outside the cave. Batman did not react kindly to the founding members abusing their Batcave coordinate privileges by materializing inside the cave. The waterfall in front of her slowly parted as the entrance redirected the water. She flew in and found Bruce prepping the Batwing.

"I don't think I've ever asked this before, but why do you not utilize the Watchtower's transports more often?"

"They're only for League business."

"I know, but isn't this League business?"

"If you want to fill out the mission report, be my guest."

She smirked, glad to know the Batman despised the procedure he set up as much as anyone. "Isn't any cooperation between two League...you aren't a full member." Bruce turned his head and smirked as she caught on to one of the many reasons he had chosen to keep his distance from the League. She shook her head, amused. "You're incorrigible. So, what's this lead? I haven't been informed about any new murders."

"The GWPD set up an extension that anyone with information about the murders could call. Once the article about the most recent murder was in the papers, they started getting calls. Usually it's nothing, people paranoid about their neighbors, disgruntled lovers or employees, etc. One such call was screened by the initial process, but I've been keeping tabs and have decided this one might have some legitimacy."

"Why'd they screen it?"

"Most likely because it came across like a perturbed neighbor at first glance. However, this particular man cited some odd behavior and when I ran a background check on the neighbor he was referring to, I found that he matched our initial psych profile."

"You think he's our guy?" Hope more than anything else was in her voice.

"Maybe."

"Alright, I'm riding with you."

Bruce raised his eyebrow, deciding against asking the obvious question of why she could not just fly next to the plane. Maybe he should not have installed seats for the various Robins and Batgirls.

Night fell and the two climbed into the Batwing. Batman began to start up the plane, flipping switches as he bussed it onto his runway. He had a theory to test. He assumed that Diana would experience g-force differently than your average human, considering she could take punches that would cause an average human to explode. However, all of her innards would have to accelerate too, and that was the most disorienting part for him.

Once he heard the catapult mechanism lock in place he opened up the thrusters and hit the catapult release. He held his breath to keep from passing out. The plane ripped free of the catapult with a thunk and then fell off the end of the runway before achieving the necessary lift. He let his breath return to normal. Glancing back at Diana he saw her casually looking out the window, completely unaffected.

Diana saw him glance back at her in the mirror and then slightly shake his head. "What?"

"As I expected, you're completely unaffected by g-force."

She cocked her head to the side. "You didn't seem very affected either."

He scoffed. "I know techniques to prevent the g-force from knocking me out. My heart isn't strong enough to keep my blood flowing under that much force."

She mumbled to herself: "Your heart isn't strong enough for a lot of things."

"What?" He asked, but he had heard every word. Clark may have super hearing, but he had artificially enhanced hearing, and everyone underestimated it.

"Nothing." She said in an intentionally innocent sounding voice to mock him, knowing the Batman would never pry; it would show he actually cared.

Friends, she reminded herself, and made the decision to leave him to his brooding for the rest of the flight. To her surprise, he broke the silence a few minutes later. "How's Clark doing?"

This was all the invitation she needed. She capitalized on his uncharacteristic talkativeness for the rest of the flight. He still made only curt responses, and never showed much emotion, but she did get one almost imperceptible chuckle paired with a "No, I imagine not," out of him when she made a joke about no one blinking an eye when John and Shayera had a fight in the middle of the commissary.

They landed noiselessly just outside of Gateway and she flew them the rest of the way to the address Batman had acquired. They broke in silently and worked their way around the house; no one was home. They found plenty of evidence, they showed each other knives, pictures of the murdered women, and blood-stained clothing.

"Oh no." Diana clutched a photograph a little tighter than she should.

Bruce looked over her shoulder before pulling out his remote computer link. He scanned the photo and watched a progress bar slide across the screen. It was too slow, why could it not go faster? Finally the screen displayed a name and address.

"Let's go. We might still be able to save her." He put a hand on her shoulder.

She flew them as fast as she could to the address he had found. She broke down the door, and ran in. The darkness of the house was suffocating. It closed in around her, amplifying her anxiety. She made her way into the living room of the house and then saw it. Batman swept through the door just as Wonder Woman stalked out, fists balled up at her sides and took off into the night. He quickly found the body and confirmed that the same sick torments had been carried out as on the last one. However, this time there was a typed note sitting on top of the body:

Someone cheated. Someone brought the Bat, and now I'll have to leave.

He pocketed the note and inspected the body. The woman had been dead for hours, she had been killed during the day like the other two.

He opened the comm channel. "Princ...Diana, I'm heading back to the murderer's house."

When he got there she was waiting for him, her face was not distraught, but determined. She stood there expectantly, as he combed the house for more evidence. Her face sank more and more as he clearly got more and more desperate. Searching places he already had several times before giving up.

"Nothing. All I can tell you is that he wasn't planning on coming back here."

"ὦ Θεοί! Damn it! βουλήσομαι βλέψεσθαι τὸν τοῦτον ἄνθρωπον ἐν τῷ ᾍδῃ!"* She punched a hole through the wall.

"I'm going back to Gotham. I'll let you know as soon as I find something." He wanted to stay with her, wanted to help her through this, but he knew that was a bad idea. Besides, she was strong enough to handle it herself.

"Please hurry, Bruce." She wanted to hug him, to receive and give comfort, but she had made a promise to herself; so she refused to turn around.

"I will."

She felt his presence leave the room; she may not be able to see or hear him disappear, but she could feel him leave. She flew back to her apartment and tried to fall asleep before she thought too much.

While he was flying back he argued with himself about whether or not it was moral to check her heart rate. Concern eventually won over and he pulled up the monitor he had on all the League members. She had fallen asleep. He relaxed a little, realizing how tightly he had been grasping the controls. When he arrived Alfred was ready for him.

"Another dead end, Sir?"

"Not exactly. We know the identity now, but he got away."

"And what does the depraved go by?"

"Dawson Hampton."

"At least his ego isn't so large as to come up with an alter-ego and run around in a costume like the criminals here."

Bruce grunted. "Could I get some coffee? I need to analyze what I have."

"Of course, Sir."

Alfred left and Bruce pulled out the note and a knife he had nabbed at the murderer's house. He did not like the familiarity that the note hinted at. There were few who called him 'the Bat' and most of them were criminals from Gotham. However, the name had no connection to any heroes or villains of any sort. The note also revealed that Dawson thought this was a game. He was enjoying being hunted. He input the fingerprints that were on the knife and the AI was able to reconstruct the rest with minimal guesswork. The new prints eliminated the drug dealer they had suspected the other night. He ran the prints through every database he had access to, which was most. To his surprise, a match came from his own personal files.

Tom Patrickson was a man he had put away about a year ago for killing his mother. He pulled his file on Tom and saw that records showed him still in Arkham undergoing psychotherapy and that he was under heavy medication due to violent outbursts. He hopped into the Batmobile and sped towards Arkham. He snuck in and found what was supposedly Tom's cell. Batman found his way into the cell and towered over the man's sleeping body. Batman held a photo of Tom next to his face, something was just slightly off. 'Tom' woke up when he felt a prick on his neck that stung like hell. He looked around, but no one was there. He touched where he had felt the prick, and then looked at his hand. There was a small amount of blood on his fingertip. The drugs he was on did not allow him to process this properly, so he just went back to sleep.

Back at the cave Batman analyzed the blood sample he had acquired. The DNA did not match Tom Patrickson. It did however, match a known lackey of Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin.

Translation from Ancient Greek:

*O Gods! Damn it! I intend to see this man in Hades!