Chapter 8 – The Midnight Shift

Texas, the Trans-Pecos Region

Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke the Terminator, contemplated the splendid yet desolate view from his vantage point: what appeared to be a simple and sturdy hunting lodge not far from Big Bend National Park. However the interior was rather far from rustic as it contained some of the best surveillance and tracking technology available on the planet. It was also stocked with enough weaponry to outgun any military base in the state. It was one of Slade's personal retreats, and his private headquarters for this region of the country, only accessible by himself and any crew he cared to employ at any given time.

Usually Slade preferred to work alone, but for this mission he grudgingly accepted the assistance of General Strauch and a handful of his aides, all special operatives like Slade himself formerly was, in what seemed like a million years ago. Yet he understood the reasons for this extra support – it was no mean thing to try to take down a god. On that point he wholeheartedly agreed with Director Amanda Waller.

However, Slade surprised himself at how amiable he found the old general's company, as they shared the same tastes in liquor, guns, and other activities. He didn't seem to be the usual boneheaded military general officer, the type who was all hot air and just waiting to retire so he could score himself a $150,000-a-year sinecure. So he sincerely hoped that at the end of job he wouldn't be required to kill the old bastard.

For now, he would welcome the assistance the general and his men provided.

As dusk fell Slade turned and retreated into the hunting lodge. The interior was occupied by recently installed equipment, including banks of computer screens and consoles. General Strauch and the rest were looking at enlarged photos of Superman and Wonder Woman on the main viewscreens. The faces of the superheroes were bisected by digital grids, tiny dots bisecting each point.

Strauch nodded as Slade joined them. "We're about to run our program. There's a good probability we can locate Superman and Wonder Woman using the latest facial recognition software. Since we know that they assume fake identities of normal people when not in the public sight, it may be possible to locate a match from surveillance cameras."

"That would be like finding a needle in a haystack," Slade replied. "I thought we only had that kind of surveillance in the major cities?"

"True, but a couple of years ago there was a pilot program created for similar surveillance in suburbia and rural locations, places like motels, shopping malls, and gas stations, since the bad guys began to avoid the cities. Several terrorists were caught that way. Of course it hasn't been publicized, to keep the public from complaining about 'invasion of privacy.'"

"Even so, it looks like it may take some time."

"Yeah, this isn't going to be a 'rush' job. I already have my men running the preliminaries. But I have my own theories about where the two of them might be."

"You care to share them?"

"I'm originally from a small town in Oklahoma," Strauch explained. "Small town folk tend to talk a certain way, and our body language, too, is a little different from city dwellers."

Slade snorted. "You think Superman's a hayseed? No offense."

"None taken. Look, we know that Superman has all but said he's been on this planet since he was a child. He won't reveal any of the details, he's that secretive. But I've watched hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of Superman, all the footage that exists. There was something familiar, and what would be familiar about an alien? That's when I started to suspect."

Slade shrugged. "Alright, I'll buy that. So do you think he lives in some hick town when he's not flying around in Metropolis?"

"Sir, we've got something! Two hits." One of the men seated before the viewscreens said.

Slade raised his eyebrows. "May be faster than we thought."

Two videos were pulled up to replace the photos. The first one was of the interior of a busy shopping mall, clearly an ATM camera. A young woman was making a withdrawal of cash, oblivious of the surveillance camera. The second camera was aimed over a counter in what looked like a convenience store. The same young woman was making a purchase of bottled waters and chips, and briefly engaged in conversation with the clerk although there was no accompanying audio. Both videos were black-and-white and grainy, but even without enhancement both Strauch and Slade could see the resemblance.

"Wonder Woman?" General Strauch turned to his lieutenant for confirmation. Slade heard the note of eagerness in his voice.

"It's an 8.5 match, so that makes it good enough to use in court," the man replied.

Slade felt it too – the intensity of the hunt was starting to reverberate in his blood. He forced himself to be cool, although he could already feel the sweat on his palms. He clenched his hands.

He focused on a closer look at the videos, each now repeating on a 10-second loop, observing every detail and every movement of the woman's slender, shapely body, dressed in her style of fashionable clothes, although not so extravagant they stood out from the immediate crowd. In the ATM video, the woman momentarily glanced directly at the camera: Slade saw her eyes, and he felt his heart start to pound. His prey, there!

Strauch did not notice his partner's intensity as he was bent over the shoulder of his underling. "Where was each video taken?"

"Sir, the ATM footage was taken from a shopping mall in Irvine, California. The second footage comes from a truck stop in South Dakota."

"She certainly gets around," one of the other men remarked.

"Of course she does, she can fly," Slade grunted. Abruptly, his hand slammed down on the console. The truck stop footage paused.

"What is it?" Strauch demanded.

"Look! Look there!" Slade pointed at the camera.

"What am I looking for?" The general sounded puzzled.

His lieutenant saw it first. "There's a child beside her."

Strauch saw it then and inhaled sharply. There was a dark-haired male child, standing close to Wonder Woman, dressed in t-shirt and shorts.

"I didn't know if it was true, but Waller thought so," Strauch muttered. "She told me the Kryptonian have offspring now. Lane always regretted he lost the Kryptonian when he had him. He knew something like this was bound to happen, and feared it. Imagine, the potential power of that kid!"

"If you could control him," Slade interjected.

The general shook his head. "I…don't know. Waller's given up the idea of trying to capture Superman, she doesn't believe he can be controlled. But there are others in the Pentagon who still think there's a chance. If we could just...use the right lever."

"Mmm," Slade murmured contemplatively. "Not just the Pentagon. The Chinese have made it known they're willing to pay very high prices for Kryptonian tech…or DNA."

Strauch stared at him incredulously. "Then they're fools. Anyway, my orders are quite clear. This changes nothing."

"Your orders are simple, you mean."

"I can do simple. Doesn't keep me awake at night." Strauch stared at the child on the video. "When I was in Iraq...kids would rush our convoys in bomb vests. Has to be done, sometimes."

"Then, what we need to do now," Slade pointed out. "Is to track down exactly where Wonder Woman is. Locate her, and we locate Superman. There must be a reason why she's in those places. I don't believe there's any Justice League activity either in Orange County or South Dakota, so there's something else that's attracting her to those places."

"I'll have my men on it immediately," he looked at his lieutenant. "Any hits on Superman?"

"Not yet, sir, but we're still running the searches."

"You're right, Wilson, we'll be doing this round-the-clock," Strauch said. "Once we locate them…what then?"

"That," Slade's gaze turned to the walls of his lodge, where his collection of weapons hung, gleaming and sharp. "That will be up to me."

Bakken Camp - One Week Later

Clark Kent, aka Joshua Clark, relaxed comfortably in his work-trailer, his long legs propped up on the small table in front of the couch, watching the ballgame on the TV. His son, Jon, eagerly colored in his coloring book in front of the blaring TV while his wife Diana was in the kitchen, taking the meatloaf out of the oven. He felt the cold much more keenly now that his powers were diminished: it was freezing outside but it was warm in the trailer. Especially in his bed with Diana there to warm him, as she had for the past several nights.

All in all, not really a bad life for a farmboy from Kansas, he thought...the only problem was that he was about to be unemployed. His final shift was tonight, as he had given in his notice a week earlier. Diana wasn't very pleased about his having to stay here even a minute longer but he explained that he couldn't get his last paycheck unless he worked his final shift.

"Besides," he'd added. "I can't ditch the guys, they're short-handed already. I can't leave them hanging."

Diana looked ready to argue but as she'd come to like his friend, John Henry Irons (Jon especially had taken a liking to him whenever he came by), and he had agreed to go home, she agreed to wait, even though she'd pouted a bit, which Clark found irresistably sexy.

He'd reached for her but she spoiled the mood when she said: "You know Bruce isn't going to like this. He wants you back as soon as possible."

Clark rolled his eyes. "When has he never not liked something?"

"I'm serious. You haven't been on the Watchtower lately, so you don't know how bad his moods have gotten."

"Why? What's happened now?"

"Nothing, and that's why he's so grumpy. He's bored. He doesn't have you to argue with him."

He'd thought about that for a moment. He had to admit a part of him missed his old friend too, as difficult as he could be. He really did want to see him again.

"I'll see him first thing," Clark sighed finally. "Might as well get it over with."

Diana had been mollified by his decision at least. Enough so that she was willing to put up living for a few days at the camp. It was for the best, since Jon didn't want to have his Pa out of his sight for a moment, bawling whenever he had to leave for his shift.

Tonight, though, would be the last time Diana would have to act like a single mom. He'd come to appreciate how much she'd done in his absence, and with that, some guilt for leaving her in the first place. But he didn't regret his decision - he had to do something. He didn't want to admit that it was to feel like a whole man again.

"I could leave the car here, and take Jon back to the Fortress," Diana had offered. "We could meet you later?" But Clark had shook his head.

"No, I'll go back to the, um, the house with you. I'll...find something to do at home."

What that might be, Clark still wasn't sure. He guessed he could be a stay-at-home dad, while Diana worked with the Justice League and with her Amazon Society. He could blog from home, he had enough material to write for several months at least, and when the new baby arrived, he was sure he would have his hands full. Further out than that, he didn't want to think about. There had to be some way to recuperate his powers quicker, some way...

"Dinner's ready," Diana announced, thankfully bringing an end to Clark's brooding.

"Great!" He exclaimed as Diana brought out two plates of steaming meatloaf to the living room. Jon clambered onto the sofa next to him as she handed Clark their plates. He looked at her. "Aren't you eating?"

She shook her head. "I'm fine. I had a salad earlier."

"You're eating for two now, you need more than a salad."

"I'm eating healthy," Diana stressed as she watched Clark help Jon with his slice of mystery meat and french fries slathered in ketchup, from a bag she found tucked back in the freezer. Jon pretended to be a dinosaur from his coloring book and roared as he ate his piece, gobbling it down messily. Instead of correcting him, Clark laughed and played along, roaring and pretending to attack his dinner. Jon copied him, and they laughed together.

Diana sighed. She decided she would have to make more offerings to Hera, to ensure this new child would be a girl.

"Let's try to eat like civilized people, maybe?" Diana took their plates back to the kitchen when they'd finished.

"Oh we're just having fun," Clark said as Jon clambered on his lap, wriggling like a puppy. "What's for dessert?"

"You don't have anything left in the fridge. I'll have to go to the store later to get something for breakfast." There was a little company-owned shop that sold food at exorbitant prices near the camp. "How did you not starve out here?"

"Well...I never noticed." Clark had never had a very big appetite, sunlight being his main source of sustenance, but now he felt hunger pains stronger he'd noticed as his body strove to collect energy even from what was in food. "I've just been busy."

Diana joined him on the sofa as Jon went back to his coloring book. She curled up against him, welcoming the feel of his arm around her. "Did you get what you came here for? I mean, about your writing?"

Clark shook his head, and she noted the disappointed look on his face. "Sort of. I thought there'd be a real story here, but other than people's personal stories, there's nothing else."

"What did you expect to find?"

"There were rumors that the company was doing something other than typical fracking research and exploration. There were stories that they'd discovered something, new oil deposits, or rare earths, something like that. A lot more digging equipment was brought in, in the past month, that got some people talking. Safety precautions being ignored."

Diana was curious. "Where did you hear this?"

"In the bars, and..." Clark caught Diana's look. "Um...not bars so much as just gossip among the other workers. I guess it was all just rumors."

Diana rubbed his shoulder. "Well, not all leads pan out, you know that. You tried."

Clark looked at his wife, and felt that twinge of guilt again. "I know I've made you unhappy by being here. I'll make up for it, I promise."

"It's all right." Although what he said was true, she didn't want to see her husband so despondent. "Like I said, everyone's looking forward to seeing you again. We've got some potential new recruits, and it looks like they're going to do really well, since Hal is still gone. Zatanna's been more active with us, too."

Diana didn't usually tend to gossip, but she thought this would help lighten Clark's mood. "There's even a rumor that she and Bruce are, ah, seeing each other."

Clark stared at her incredulously. "What? How do you know that?"

She smiled, and took out her phone. She tapped on it and held it up for him to see. Clark's eyes widened.

"I don't believe it!"

"I heard from Black Canary on the Watchtower that the two of them are involved in something, I don't know what it is. Whatever it is, they're spending a lot of time with each other."

"I hope Zatanna knows what she's doing," Clark laughed. "I can't imagine him of all people in a relationship."

"It's probably just what he needs, someone to-"

Headlights flashed through the windows as a car parked in front of the trailer. Clark got up and opened the door just in time for John Henry Irons to walk in. He barely fit through the trailer's door.

"You ready for your last shift?" Irons said in his deep voice. He smiled as Jon ran to him and he swung him up in his big hands, squealing as he touched the ceiling. "Hey, Jon! I'll miss the little guy!"

Diana smiled. "You'll have to visit us when you get some time off."

"Well, I'm thinking it might be time to change pastures too. I heard there's layoffs coming down the pipeline. So I guess ,Clark, you're leaving at just the right time."

Clark shrugged on his coat as Diana shook Irons' hand in goodbye. "We're planning to leave first thing in the morning. Be sure and give Clark your email and we'll keep in touch."

"I'll be sure to do that, ma'am," Irons handed over the little boy back to Diana. Jon seemed to know it would be his last visit and began sniffling.

"I'll be back in the morning," Clark kissed Jon and then her.

"Be sure you do. Don't make me come looking for you." Diana said, only half-jokingly.

Jon whimpered as his father and his friend left, but she could tell he was getting sleepy and would go to bed as soon as she put him in it. She sighed in relief. Only one more night here and they would all be home.

It wasn't very far to the shop where Clark and Irons worked, but it was better to get there in a beat-up Chrysler that still had the heater working, than walking in the cold. Throughout the weeks Clark had been working, his shop had been moved further and further out from the camp, as the facility had expanded.

"Is it true about the layoffs?" Clark couldn't help but think of all the people who would be unemployed again and crisscrossing the country searching for work. Like me.

"Guess so," Irons replied. "Word is that the company's 're-structuring' and going more into the exploration mode. They won't need as many people, they got robots and machines to do all the heavy-liftin.' Well, it couldn't last forever. I wasn't planning on staying here forever, anyway."

Irons looked sideways at Clark. Some time ago he had sussed out Clark's real reason for being at the camp, he didn't seem like the 'roughneck' type, although the man was a hard worker. "You gonna write more about this place, Josh?"

"I don't know," Clark said. "My, um, friend was wanting to find out if the company was into anything illegal, but I never found out anything big time."

"Well, man, you certainly got some guys pissed off when you wrote about the safety violations," Irons replied. "I didn't want to say anything in front of your old lady, but I always thought something shady was going on. You'd be surprised what people will say when they think no one's around except some big dumb black guy." He shook his head. "I been working on modifications to some drilling equipment lately, for the new site we've been working at. Whatever they're doing, they're wanting to get to it fast."

"What's 'it' though?" Clark wondered.

"Some new energy source, I heard. Not oil, something better supposedly. Lotsa guys in suits coming by lately, all excited looking, so maybe they found what they was looking for. I guess someone's gonna be making money."

"And it probably won't be us," Clark said, echoing his friends thoughts. They shared a sad look.

Irons pulled up to a complex of buildings, which was constructed at the edge of large pit lit with lights. Mining equipment, earth-movers, excavators, haulage trucks, and other machinery were stationed in and around it. There were other cars parked nearby, some beat-up old cars and trucks like Irons', others were later models and still had the gloss of recent upkeep. Irons pointed them out to Clark.

"Look, Josh, seems like we've got some of those fancy visitors I was tellin' you about."

As they left the car, the arctic wind blew powerfully against them, and Clark pulled up the collar of his jacket. They hurried into the building.

As soon as they entered, they were met by a man wearing a hardhat and a name badge that read: Shift Supervisor: 'Martins.' ""Bout time you two slackers got here!"

"Hey we're 10 minutes early!" Irons replied.

"That means you're 15 minutes late," the supervisor replied, although his voice held no real anger. He looked at Clark. "This is the last shift for you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, we'll be missing you," Martins said sincerely. Clark thought it was the first nice thing the man had said to him his whole time working here. Usually the man had a gift for bitching. "We'll have to get all eight hours from you tonight then."

"What's going on? Outside?" Irons jerked his head back to the exit door.

"Oh, yeah, looks like it's gonna be a busy one tonight," Martins said. "The higher-ups want to try to push through to the next level down tonight. So your job," he pointed at Clark. "You're gonna be manning the remote Xsell-6 robot. Irons, make sure everything's ready to go. You're already late."

"What?" Irons said. "But it's not ready yet. I mean, the support structures haven't been finished yet I still need a couple more days!"

"What part of 'higher-ups' and 'tonight' didn't you understand?" Martins growled. But Clark could tell his boss looked uncomfortable at the rushed schedule too. "Just get down there and do it, the two of you!"

As the rest of the midnight shift entered the building, Supervisor Martins turned his attention to them, bawling his new instructions. Irons and Clark looked at each other.

"Always some bullshit," Irons grumbled. "They're gonna have an accident sooner or later. Like I said, you're lucky tonight is your last shift."

"I hope you're wrong," Clark muttered. As the two of them headed down to their stations, Clark heard the door open again. He saw more people enter, but these weren't his shiftmates. They weren't dressed for work, but more like for a board meeting, in expensive coats and shoes, their hair immaculately coiffed. They were accompanied by other men Clark recognized as company executives, and from their body language and demeanor it was evident that they were trying to impress the new visitors. However, the visitors looked impatient.

"Look at that," Clark nudged Irons. "Are those the people in the suits you were talking about?"

"Yeah," Irons said. "I think one of 'em works for Wayne Enterprises."

Clark looked surprised. He remembered Bruce had mentioned something that his company were contractors here. "What would they want with what's down here?"

"Who knows?"

"Hey!" Martins voice echoed throughout the big building. "You guys gonna get to work or what?"

"Hold yer panties, we're going we're going!" Irons laughed and the two of them hurried to their stations.

"I'd like to get some information from those guys," Clark muttered. His reporter's sense told him that there was something here. It was frustrating that he was leaving in the morning.

"Don' know how you're going to that...but maybe you can ask them yourself," Irons saw that the company execs were handing the visitors hardhats and goggles and hurrying towards one of the shaft elevators. "Guess they're going down into the pit with us."

Clark and Irons worked on the ground level of the open-pit, where Clark could remotely control the mining robot that helped excavate and drill through the rock and dirt. Irons worked in the repair shop, or out in the pit itself, making as needed repairs to equipment that needed to be fixed on the go. They descended through a shaft elevator, feeling the cold increase as they went down hundreds of feet into the pit. The place was as brightly lit as day, and dozens of workers went to and fro, the air filled with their shouts and the sounds of diesel engines.

They exited and saw that the visitors were already there, talking with several other higher-level supervisors, in some animated discussion. Clark paused to watch them.

His hearing was another one of his abilities that had declined, but not completely. He was still able to hear fairly well speech from a distance, although not as much as would have liked, and he wished he had it tonight. He caught snippets of their conversation, which managed to reach him through all the other noise.

"...there's no way that it can be there..."

"How do you explain it then? There's no doubt..."

"...and if the state finds out we've recovered...not to mention the local tribes will go crazy..."

"...my boss wants the schedule pushed forward now! Wayne Enterprises will cover..."

"...tonight if at all, the weather's gonna turn..."

"...never mind...let's get going then..."

Then the group turned and disappeared into another building, and Clark, to his intense frustration, could not hear them anymore.

Irons noted Clark's dismay. "What you think's going on boy?"

"I have no idea. They're sure in a hurry though."

"Well we'd better be too if we're not gonna get docked!"

"Yeah. I'll see you later. Stay safe."

"You too, man."

Clark entered a shack that was only slightly warmer than the outside air. It was a mini-control room, the eerie glare of the videoscreen the only illumination. Two of his shiftmates, Mark Johanson and Bill Teith, were already setting up. Clark liked them very much. He had written some of their stories (names changed, of course) in his blog. Mark was an Army vet who had survived four tours in Iraq. Bill was older, a laid-off steelworker form the Rust Belt glad to have gotten this job to help with his retirement.

"What's up?"

"Martins up our ass if we don't get online right now," Mark laughed. "Did you see him?"

"Yeah, he complained I was late again," Clark set down his lunch-bucket and took his place in the main terminal console-chair, where he could control and observe his remote digging machine.

"Make sure you he doesn't screw you on your timesheet," Bill warned.

"No chance of that," Clark said. "I need every last dollar."

"Your wife making you quit?"

"She needs help at home, with Jon. She's having another baby," he added.

"Well congratulations!" Both men clapped him on the back. "Yay, another mouth to feed! You should stay on, make more money if you can."

Clark smiled. "I think I'm going to be a stay-at-home dad for awhile."

"Yeah, that's what Michelle wanted me to do to, but I know we'd end up making each other crazy," Mark replied.

"Well, I think you're doing the right thing," Bill added. "Manning up and taking responsibility for the kids. It's becoming a rare thing nowadays."

Clark nodded, began doing his pre-checks. "Do you know what's going on with the schedule?"

"All I heard was, they want to push on to the next level down. I know it wasn't scheduled until the next month, but I guess they wanna impress the investors."

"Yeah, they're already here. I heard they found something too."

"So did I. You know Jim, on the afternoon shift? He claimed that they found artifacts when they went through the sifts."

"What?" Clark sounded intrigued.

"Yeah, can you believe that? Jim said he saw them himself, like figurines of a big frog or something, amulets an' such. Indian stuff, maybe, but I don't think the Sioux ever had a burial site out here, and that far down?"

"Yeah, I think he's just talking out his ass," Bill sat down next to Clark at his terminal. "Jim's also way into Bigfoot and UFOs, he claimed he saw a big ball of light hovering outside the camp last week. He's just full shit half the time."

Bill pointed as the viewscreens came online with the date stamps. "Lookee here. Looks like the bigwigs gonna get a front row seat. They must be in the VIP shack," he said, referring to a conference room that had overlooked the pit itself.

"They're pretty close to the dig," Clark said worriedly. "If the floor caves in or there's any flying shrapnel..."

"That's their problem," Mark was not sympathetic.

A voice crackled over the radio. "You guys ready?"

Bill responded. "As ready as we're gonna be. We gonna do this? We haven't get a map ready yet."

"Don't matter. Just start drilling with the Xsell until we tell you to stop. Never mind the direction...guys upstairs think that you're going to hit the roof of a cave."

"What?" The men in the shack stared at each other.

"Underground ultrasounds we did an hour go may point to some kind of underground cavern system. Maybe that's the oil deposits or whatever they're looking for. So be ready!"

Clark wished his seeing would have returned as well as his hearing. It would be something to know if that were true. But they were going to find out one way or the other.

"All right," he sighed. "Everyone ready to work?"

"I guess," Mark muttered. "I got a bad feeling about this though. Whenever you rush an operation, someone's gonna get hurt."

Clark couldn't disagree with that.

Back at the camp...

Diana finished packing Clark's things, which didn't take long as he didn't have much to begin with. Jon was still coloring in front of the TV, which had shifted over to the evening news. Usually, she tried not to listen to it, since often there was something on Superman's ongoing absence, but her ears perked up when she heard this last segment:

"...absence goes on. And in other news today, a report from Gothan City that its most famous criminal, the Joker, the so-called 'Clown Prince of Crime' escaped from Arkham Asylum tonight. Reports coming in from the Gotham City Police Department state that at least four people were injured during the breakout. The Joker was arrested three years ago for murder and armed robbery, declared mentally unfit to stand trial and committed to..."

Diana turned off the TV. She didn't think Bruce could be in a worse mood than he already was, but certainly this would help.

Jon looked up from his coloring. "Ma?"

"Time for bed, little warrior," Diana picked him up.

Jon squirmed. "Can't I wait for Pa?"

"Pa will be home in the morning," Diana said. "You can see him then."

She carried him to the single bedroom in the trailer. She tucked him in Clark's bed and he snuggled up with his plush dog.

"We go home tomor'row?" Jon asked.

Diana nodded. "We'll all be home tomorrow. You, me, and Pa."

Jon smiled, and he fell asleep in an instant.

Diana watched him for a moment, thinking of the fresh child that was in her womb. It would be a struggle to raise two children with powers, if Clark's didn't return as quickly as they'd both hoped. For a moment she wished that she could also disappear from the public eye, and just live with her man in peace and solitude, but she knew that could never happen. People needed them. She supposed it would always be so, and one day Jon and his sister or brother would have to take up that responsibility.

For the meantime, however, she would cherish these moments of ordinariness. She shouldn't take them for granted.

Diana remembered that she needed food to make breakfast for tomorrow, so that Clark and Jon would have something to eat before leaving for home. It would only be a short hop to the store, and then back to this trailer, which she wouldn't be sad to see the last of.

At the pit...

Clark's team had been remote-drilling for about a half-hour before the first obstacle was hit. Otherwise it had been fairly quiet. The robot automatically slowed its descent and decelerated.

"What'd we hit?" Bill asked.

"Not sure," Clark checked the monitor. "We might have had a breakdown someplace."

"Well find out the problem and fix it," Supervisor Martin's voice sounded anxious even over the outdated intercom system. "Right away."

"Yes sirree," Bill shut it off for now. "You'd think there was a shitload of diamonds somewhere down there, the way they're carrying on."

Clark examined the monitors. His robot wasn't the only excavator, but from the other operators' screens he could tell they were having the same problem. A vein of some tougher rock than they'd currently been drilling through had appeared, and what kind it was he wasn't sure, but...

Suddenly, the ground shook under them, a light rumbling that lasted maybe a second or two then stopped. Clark and the others froze, startled.

"An earthquake?" Bill muttered. "Felt fairly strong."

"I think that's the third one this month," Clark said. The region of the state they were in typically didn't experience earthquakes at all. He had no doubt that it had something to do with their drilling and excavation. He'd written about that too, and commentators mentioned fracking and its potential dangers, but the company had ignored them.

"Do we keep going?" Mark asked.

"Well until we get orders otherwise, we do."

At the camp...

Diana felt the rumbling as soon as she touched down behind the store. She hesitated, wondering if a stronger one would happen, but nothing did. She breathed out. She had better get her groceries and return home as soon as possible.

Tonight there weren't many people around. After the company picnic, a few families had stayed and she'd seen them shopping here, but now she saw only a few guys hanging around the entrance, big bearded men in work clothes and boots, drinking beers openly. They eyed her as she walked into the store, and she ignored them. It wasn't the first time.

Diana quickly selected a 1/2 dozen carton of eggs, a small chunk of cheese, a loaf of bread and a quart of milk. The total for that came to over $30.00. She took her bag and left, hoping to get home quickly, but to her irritation the men from the store began following her.

She turned to confront them; they gave her distinctly unfriendly stares.

"What do you want?" Diana challenged them.

One of them men deigned to chuckle. "What's in the bag, lady?"

"Food for my family," she replied quietly. Maybe they just wanted to get drunker. "Nothing you'd want."

"Oh you got something we want, woman," the burly man replied. "C'mon, we'll give you a few bucks, just show us a good time."

"Turn around, and go home," Diana warned, her voice chill. "I'm only telling you once."

The man laughed but his companion's eyes flared in anger.

"I'm telling you want to do, bitch," he growled. "Get your ass here."

Diana carefully lowered her groceries to the ground as the men rushed her. Hopefully the eggs would survive this.

At the pit...

"We almost there?" Clark's boss was sounding more irritated each minute the delay went on.

"We're doing all we can from up here," Clark replied. "We've had to withdraw two of the Xsells from service. They damaged their bore-bits."

"I know I got Irons working on repairing them right now. But we need to get online."

Bill and Mark looked exasperated, and Clark knew he probably did too.

"What's the rush?" Clark finally said. "Whatever we're drilling down to, it's not going anywhere."

Another voice crackled over the intercom, a man's voice with a distinctly New England accent. "Who is in charge there?"

Bill and Mark pointed to Clark, although they couldn't be seen. Clark sighed. "I am. Joshua Clark."

"Mr. Clark, I would advise you to do your job and get your equipment running again immediately, and not concern yourself with matters that do not concern you. That is, if you do not with to be fired and blackballed from working in the industry ever again. Is that understood?"

"Uh...roger that."

"Then focus on your work." The intercom clicked off.

Bill and Mark couldn't conceal their laughter. "Well, that guy sure told you off!"

"Who the hell's he?" Clark wondered.

"One of those guys in the suits, I'd guess," Mark tinkered with the controls. "I recognized his voice, he's one of the reps for Wayne Enterprises. I sat in on a meeting he was in, he's just a pushy asshole type."

Great, Clark thought. Can't wait to tell Bruce the type of guys he's got working for him!

"I think we're online again," Mark said as the screens went to green.

They watched as the robots resumed drilling. Then the next earthquake came.

At the camp...

The would-be rapist flew through the air and landed in a heap next to his companion, who was lying unconscious amid the piles of trash out back. He groaned, and fell over, blood dripping from a broken nose.

"Stay down," Diana growled as the man tried to get up. It was a futile attempt anyway, as he groaned again and collapsed into an unconscious heap.

Diana had a mind to grab the two and fly them to the nearest jail - who knew how often they'd accosted someone before - but there was Jon at home. She would check on him, and then make sure these clowns were somewhere they couldn't bother anyone else. The cashier would probably be outside in a minute, wondering who was throwing something at the rear of the store.

An enormous sudden shaking nearly threw Diana off her feet. She fell to her knees, and saw cracks in the store's structure appear. She rushed in, and grabbed the startled cashier, pulling him outside just as the shelves collapsed and half the ceiling fell in.

"Stay here!" Diana ordered. The man gawped at her, but managed to nod. She saw and heard lights go on all over the camp, and faint sound of sirens.

She had to check on Jon first. She ran as quickly as she could back to the trailer, the groceries forgotten.

At the pit...

A piercing wail echoed throughout the shack as the robots' drill bit shattered. "Damn!" Clark exclaimed.

"Never mind," Mark pointed. "Looks like we've made a breakthrough. Can you see it?"

The three men peered at the monitors. They all reflected back, in greenish glow, darkness beyond an absence of rock.

"Well, looks like we've done hit the next level just what they wanted," Bill leaned back in his chair. "Time for a break!"

"Hmm," Clark doubled-checked the readings, and pushed the intercom button. "Mr. Martins, what do you want us to do now?"

There was no response, but there was chatter that Clark could hear over the microphone. Congratulatory exclamations...or an argument?

"Um, stand by," Martins' voice sounded uncertain.

"What do you think that means?" Bill said?

"According to the Xsell's sensors, looks like we hit a really big cavern, I mean big," Clark said. "Looks like a football field wide, and down... who knows?"

Mark shrugged. "If it's not what they's looking for, could be a whole lot of wasted time and money."

"Hey! What's that!" Bill shouted.

The others whirled to look at the screen but it showed just more greenish blackness.

"What? What did you see?"

"I...don't know," Bill stammered. Clark stared at him. The older man looked stunned. "I thought I saw something move."

"Is the Xsell on standby still?" Mark checked the readouts. "Yeah...it is. Ain't nothing moving on it."

"No! Not the robot, there was something in the middle of the screen! Some...thing..."

Mark laughed. "Can't be nothing living down there! Not even bugs. Maybe something's crawling in here cross our monitors..."

The intercom burst to life again, and the three men heard more clearly the argument going on wherever the VIP conference room was. Only it had risen to shouts, accusations, something about going "too far too fast." Clark couldn't understand most of it, but it didn't sound good to any of the men.

"Hey!" Clark shouted. "What's going on over there?"

"My God!" Bill screamed. "Look!"

Clark only had a moment to turn, and he did see something on the screen. A face...or a semblance of a face, swimming up from the darkness of the whole, a nightmare face glaring at them. The screen crackled, distorted, and it was impossible to think how was that possible.

Then everything exploded.

At the trailer...

"Jon!" Diana burst into the trailer, rushing into the bedroom. Everything that wasn't secured had fallen over. Glass shards were all over the kitchen floor.

To her relief the little boy was sitting up in bed, and she inwardly cursed herself for ever leaving him alone. She should have known better. He looked okay, just sleepy and a little confused.

"I heard noise," he complained. "It woke me up."

"Come on," Diana swept him up in her arms, not forgetting Krypto the plushie dog. "I think I'll take you home now."

"No!" Jon struggled sleepily in his mom's arms, still only half-awake. "Pa's not wit us. Wanna go..."

Another tremor shuddered through the trailer, and over a moment she wondered if it wouldn't just fall apart. Jon's eyes widened, more curious than frightened.

"It's okay, Jon," she held him tighter. "It's only an earthquake."

"Kake?"

Diana hurried outside, and then the night lit up as an enormous fireball roared into the sky, the blast nearly knocking the Amazon off her feet, pushing the trailer meters across the ground. The two of them stared incredulously at the ball of fire rising, rising into the sky.

"Clark!" Diana screamed.

To be continued...

[A/N: What the heck happened? Sounds like maybe something was the fault of Wayne Enterprises...Diana and Clark will have some questions for Bruce soon (you didn't think Clark was in any real danger did you?) but he has some danger heading his way. His and Zatanna's...to be revealed next chapter. Thanks again for reading. Just want to add I saw Suicide Squad finally and really enjoyed it. Viola Davis was AWESOME as Amanda Waller and I liked Jared Leto's Joker more than I expected I would. So much that I had to have him escape from Arkham Asylum...and he MAY make an appearance in this fic! That will be down the road some though. For now, please review!]