Chapter 3: Unite to Conquer

Wonder Woman had never been more than five minutes late to a staff meeting. So, when Superman realized she was ten minutes late (and counting), Superman called her on the communicator. He was standing behind his usual chair with the rest of the members looking at him with varying degrees of annoyance and boredom.

"I know. I am seconds away," she answered curtly.

She hadn't exaggerated. Before Superman could relay the message to the rest of the group, she came storming into the room. She was very angry. The rage was nearly visible as she sat down in her chair.

It took only a second for the other members to see why – a large piece of hair was missing, giving her a noticeably uneven hairline across the bottom.

"What happened?" Flash asked.

"Trickster," she hissed. "While I was keeping a bus from falling on some people, he cut off a piece of my hair to see if that was somehow going to cripple me. I guess he confused me with Sampson. His vision, I suppose, was that the bus would crush me."

Flash looked both angry and embarrassed. "I know where he hides out. I can take care of it."

Diana looked at him like he had spoken to her in another language. "Oh, no need. I took care of him," she said darkly.

Flash flushed a little at her tone. He was nearly as protective of his city as Batman was of Gotham.

Superman looked at the group with a strange choking quality to his voice. "Well, I wanted Wonder Woman to start the meeting by talking about the strange event from a few days ago. I suppose this is a good way of opening those talks."

Diana glared at him. He was trying so hard not to laugh at her hair that his face was beginning to turn pink. She understood that she looked silly but she was furious that innocent people had been at risk because someone had literally wanted a piece of her. Her job was to keep people from danger, not cause them to be in danger, especially over something as stupid as some of her hair. She took a deep breath and focused on giving a clear report on what was happening.

"On two separate occasions, someone had attempted, I believe, to determine my weakness. The first time someone paid a child to throw kryptonite at me. And you've heard about this last time. Has it been happening to anyone else?"

The silence spoke volumes. Wonder Woman sighed quietly, whether from relief or frustration even she wasn't entirely sure.

Flash looked at her. "How did Trickster get a bus into the air?"

If looks could kill, Flash would have been reduced to a pile of dust. "Trickster is the one I caught," she said smoothly. "Captain Cold forced the bus off an overpass which went over the park. Trickster had set up an ice cream tasting booth so that the maximum number of people would be nearby. They timed it against the opening of the Greek pottery exhibit at the Park Museum so it was not a secret that I would be nearby."

"Captain Cold and Trickster are working together?" Flash asked.

Again, Diana glared at him. She looked on Flash as a brother and, like any good sibling relationship; there were moments during which she desperately wanted to kill him.

"Apparently," she said, the frustration clear in her voice. "Trickster and I didn't focus on that during our brief chat before I handed him over to the police."

Flash was clearly about to ask another question when Batman interrupted. "This is pointless. We need to know 'why' and the 'what' before these two attract the attention of someone with a better plan."

J'onn J'onzz looked at Diana. "What are the chances they will discover your weakness?" he asked Wonder Woman.

She smiled at him. "It is highly unlikely."

"But they aren't going to stop trying," Superman said firmly. "Batman is right. We need to find out what they want, why they want it and why they want you disabled and not dead."

"I agree," Wonder Woman replied. "So I have decided to let them catch me. In three days there is a VIP reception for the pottery exhibit at the Park Museum and it is widely publicized I'll be there. I can only assume there will be another attempt then. Whatever they try, I will let them think it has worked and then I can control the situation. I think it is the only way to get the answers to the questions we need in order to stop whatever they are planning and minimize the risk to innocents."

"No," Superman said. "We need a better plan."

Batman looked at him with the frustration clear on his face. "A better plan? We have a time, a place, the element of surprise and enough time to explore the area and develop a strategy. What would you like to see from a plan?"

"I would like to see a plan where we are not purposefully putting a team member in danger," Superman replied, glaring at Batman.

"Danger is so much better when it comes as a surprise," Batman responded sarcastically before returning to his usual dry tone. "And it did. Diana is already in danger. Let's get some answers and end it."

Diana looked at the two men as they glared at each other. Their verbal sparring was the stuff of legend but she did not enjoy being treated like a junior member while the two of them argued about her plan. However, although she knew she was right, it was only appropriate to let the other members discuss the plan until they came to the conclusion she did.

It didn't take long. Even the Man of Steel's protests about Diana's safety finally silenced when he realized he did not have a better alternative.

"All right then," he said finally. "J'onn will be there to stay telepathically linked to Diana. Then, depending on what other missions have come up between now and then, at least two League members will monitor Diana and three others will patrol the museum area."

The other members nodded in agreement. Superman looked straight at Diana.

"I don't like the risk, but you're right, there isn't another way. They aren't going to stop until they find something."

She looked at him and smiled faintly. She agreed with him completely.

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Amanda Waller looked across the table at Lex Luther and said in a very sweet voice. "What have you done with Kyle Weston?"

Luther looked at her. They were in her office this time for their weekly meeting. Next week, they would be in his. Usually meetings "at her place" also included a tour of various labs with projects of interest. Today, Waller's interest was on the project and the scientist who had disappeared. Granted, she had been on her way to throw him out when she realized he was gone, but that, in her mind, was far from the point.

"Done with him?" Luther repeated with a surprised tone. "His project was sucking up money and not producing results. Why would I want him?"

"That would, naturally, be my follow-up question."

Waller and Luther got along as well as two power-hungry individuals ever could. But when the conversations were more about avoiding the topic than actually discussing anything, Waller found herself more likely to watch the clock. She didn't have time to play games and more often than not, it seemed like Luther's favorite past time. She wanted action.

"So, you know nothing about where he might be? Because at this current time, all I know is where he isn't. He is not here, at the university where we found him, his residence or his sister's place and he hasn't been at those places at all for the past three days. I find this development odd."

Luther looked at her for a while and indulged himself in a long, slow blink. "I agree. He certainly isn't clever to stay in hiding on his own."

"And certainly not from me," Waller said darkly.

The staring match continued for another moment. Waller was beginning to realize that she was not going to get an answer from Luther, which basically meant that he did know something but he respected her too much to flat out deny it. She supposed she ought to be grateful for that level of respect.

With an internal sigh, she began to review the projects he was concerned with and give him the updates he needed. Weston was not mentioned again in an unspoken acknowledgement that he would be put aside for the moment but the issue was not finished.

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Because of the photographer, Batman had made Diana promise not to come to Wayne Manor. He would come to her, he told her. The disappointment on her face was quickly covered but he knew how she felt. Wayne Manor had become something of a safe house for the lovers. Sneaking around the Watchtower would mean losing the cocoon they both enjoyed when they were at the Manor. But even for the warm affection of his princess, Batman was not going to risk his identity being discovered.

His patrol for the evening had ended. It had been an unusually busy night, it seemed the warm weather after the days of rain had inspired criminals to cause trouble. There was nothing he couldn't handle and it was a rare evening when he could return to the Batcave with no regrets for what he had failed to do or what he had not done in time.

In spite of that, he was restless. He knew Diana wouldn't be waiting for him in the study with a book and a cup of tea. He knew that she was literally miles above him. A vision of her, asleep with her hair framing her face on the pillow leapt unbeckoned into his mind. He suppressed it but not as quickly as he could have.

After checking in briefly with Alfred and resuppling his belt, he decided he would head to the Park Museum and get a feel for the large park that gave the museum its name. He wasn't sure if he would be a part of the mission. Part of him screamed that he had to be there and another part was equally as loud proclaiming that he would be too emotional, too involved in the outcome to provide any real help. Whatever side of his internal battle won, he knew that his efforts in developing a strategy for protecting Diana would be critical. He could discuss his thoughts with Diana, who would know the plans for the actual event and the two of them could develop a strategy which would provide her the best protection possible.

As he got into the Batplane for the short trip to the museum, he shook his head. Diana had gotten farther under his skin than even he had realized. His desire to protect her was far more than his desire to keep a team member hurt or to even protect her. It was because he was afraid of how much he would hurt if she hurt.

This is why I didn't want to get involved with you, he thought with a mix of anger and affection.

But it was too late now. He wouldn't admit it to her and he didn't have to, but sometimes, like now, when he was flying alone in the middle of the night with very little to occupy his mind, he would confess to himself that he loved her.

And although he suspected it would one day be his undoing, he didn't care.

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Dr. Kyle Weston sighed loudly and angrily before speaking. He was standing in his new lab which was located in a renovated warehouse which, when he was feeling kind, he thought of as a "forgotten" part of town. Probably "avoided" was more accurate.

"I understand that I asked for a hair sample and that, is fact, exactly what you brought me," he said to Captain Cold who had managed to get the hair from Trickster before he went to the police station. Cold was leaning against one of the counter tops looking mildly annoyed by the entire speech. Weston found that he did not care.

"However, I needed the DNA from it so I literally needed it ripped from her head. This does me no good."

Weston was right. Captain Cold was annoyed. He understood that this project was being backed by some serious money now and that Weston knew how to give them meta-powers, but he was tired of taking his marching orders from a researcher who clearly had no idea what it took to get the items he kept demanding. He certainly didn't like being treated like an idiot.

"Well, the good news," he said without trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice, "is that we have another shot at it. In a couple of days, she is back there at a reception."

Weston looked happy for the first time since they met. Captain Cold got a little nervous from the sudden change. "How many days exactly?"

"Three."

"Outstanding. Mirror Master will have his project done tonight and so we have time to test it out, make any modifications and get it into place. We'll grab Wonder Woman, take all the blood we need and get her back to the site before rest of the Justice League knows what's happened."

Captain Cold looked at him without comment.

"In six months and three days, you can be flying if you want to be."

Captain Cold smiled. That was what he wanted to hear.