Six Hours Later

Gotham City, Maryland

Mina reclined back in her ten-thousand dollar chair, closed her eyes and sighed as she ran her hands through her hair then braced the back of her neck. She opened her eyes and looked up at the clock to learn it was five in the evening, and then pressed the intercom button.

"Diana, has Miss Hughes checked in?"

"Not yet, madam director."

"Alright. Have a cup of tea sent here, dear."

Josephine got up and walked over to the side of her office, and stood looking out of the massive window for a minute or so at the street bellow where there seemed to be some commotion, until Diana walked in carrying a tray with teapot and a cup.

"Poor it, if you please."

"Yes, madam. I thought you might know, the prisoner's transport has been rescheduled for sixteen hours from now."

"Heh… Bloody Benjamin."

Josephine walked over to her desk and spoke softly,

"So…"

"I've found a candidate." Said Diana.

"Good. Have you contacted her?"

"Not yet, but soon."

"Good. That'll be all….. Say, have you any idea what's going on out front?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's quite a crowd gathered outside and-"

At that moment, a tall man in a suit burst through the door in a state of contained panic.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this, madam director," said the man with a nervous stammer, "But this is something you should know."

"What is it?"

"Well, there's a truck parked across the street from this building, it was parked there by what witnesses described a Middle Eastern man. When the police came to tow it, they noticed that the back was loaded with explosives…. Enough to level the entire block."

"Good god! A terrorist attack?" asked Diana.

"It would appear so. Bomb disposal are almost here, but Commissioner Gordon has ordered the evacuation of the whole block."

The cable dug into Mona's hip as she waded through the murky waters far bellow the surface of Finger River, the torch mounted on her helmet illuminated the way. She couldn't see them, but along the cable ten feet behind her, Kroenen followed her path, as sleek as he was, matching her pace, while ten feet behind him, Lucy clumsily struggled to advance in similar diving gear, only going further for being towed by her familiar.

The plan was not what most tactical experts would think of as rife with finesse, and had a high probability of failure, and a wise mind that was honest would be compelled to call it suicidal; but most of the minutemen were excited enough about it that they went ahead with it anyway.

Though the team did have the aid of a tactical expert in the form of Gotham's protector. Bruce Wayne had collaborated with the Mona and Priest on drafting a plan while the rest was simultaneously getting it ready. Lucius Fox, Wayne's trusted ally and armor had even supplied them with some equipment such as the diving gear Mona and Lucy were using.

The first phase of the plan, the easiest, most well planned part of the plan had gone smoothly. Sayid had parked a truck with alarming contents across the street from The League's Gotham headquarters and made sure to be seen as he suspiciously walked away. Xenophobia would take care of the rest.

The rest of the plan adhered to a time table, Priest had gone ahead thirty minutes ago, and Mona, Lucy and Kroenen had to rendezvous with him in minutes. Shaun, O'Brien and Sayid would not venture along with them; they had their own job to do.

The circle of let fell upon some sort of edge on the steep side of the riverbed, Mona stopped in her tracks and aimed the torch carefully to see that it was a tunnel, oval in shape and wide enough for a swimmer to pass. Mona swam toward it, motioning for Lucy to direct Kroenen to follow her lead.

The tunnel went lower for a dozen yards or so before it rose in a curve, after a few minutes of swimming, Mona has ran out of river water, she'd reached some sort of underground cavern. Mona climbed onto the hard surfaces around her, detached the cable and took off her helmet. She took out the torch and aimed it at her surroundings.

Kroenen reached the surface and climbed to the nearest surface by Mona and then stood idly as she removed the pack from his back. Lucy soon followed, and clumsily climbed toward the other two. Lucy removed her own helmet and lay on the rocks panting in exhaustion.

"No more diving…. Or swimming." Lucy announced as she regained her breath.

"Don't worry; we'll have to hike next."

"Oh, good."

"Come on." Said Mona as she took an Ingram gun out of the pack.

"What? We just got here!"

"Priest will be waiting. If we're late, he's likely to try and take the whole building down by himself."

Thirteen Minutes Later

Alfred Pennyworth carried the tray through the rocky yet manageable path that led him to where Wayne was sitting, starring intently at a computer screen bolted into the cave's granite walls.

"Alfred, do you think it was a mistake when I decided to join these people?"

Alfred set the tray with the bottle of Scotch on a work table amid various slightly-damaged electronic equipment, and then proceeded to pour a glass.

"It doesn't matter what I think, Master Bruce." Said Alfred, "I equally had my doubts when you first put on the cape. But then, you've never had any doubts about being the Batman."

"At first, I thought I wasn't joining any gang of outlaws, just helping a friend. Helping Nemo.

"I first met him the fourth year after I had first left, I had stowed away on a ship that turned out to be loaded with heroin and guns. When they knew that I had found out, they were going to kill me. It was then that Nemo attacked the ship, he saved my life. I served on his ship for the following few months, he taught me a lot. When I got off in Hong Kong, I thought I he was a great friend, a great teacher that I was never going to see again.

"And then he showed up here, with the same type of people that I've decided to spend the rest of my life fighting, who do as he orders, commit crimes for what he calls the greater good… Kidnap, piracy… I tried to ask one of them for help and he shattered a woman's ribs."

Wayne hung his head.

"I've made a mistake, and it's too late to turn around."

Alfred stood behind Wayne, preparing to offer him the drink, before changing his mind and raising it to his lips.

"I believe it's time, sir."

Wayne looked at the digital timer on the table before him, it was twenty second away from five-thirty P.M.. He tapped a few buttons on the keyboard and then once it fifty-nine seconds after five-twenty-nine, pressed enter.

Minutes Ago

"It's a good thing you showed up when you did." Said Priest, "I was about to storm the building by myself."

"That's amazing." Said Lucy nonchalantly, "What is this place? What's that smell?"

"It's a crematorium." Said Priest, shinning a flashlight through the darkened room that smelled of paint stripper and gas, "Someone died in the League custody, this is useful in making them disappear. The opening into the cave's bellow helps them get rid of the ash. It's one hell of an Achilles' heal, they should have used assigned more than just those guys to protect it."

Priest shined the light on a few bodies in that lay on the ground with broken necks and stripped of their clothes.

"The explosives are in place." Said Mona, "The clothes?"

"There's a problem with the clothes." Said Priest, "Over there, but there's a little problem."

"What?"

"Most of these guys were six feet; Lucy and Kroenen's height. There's only guy my or your size."

"Beautiful."

"Yes, that's what I said. I'm already bulletproof…"

"You don't have to convince me," said Mona as she put her rifle down and took off her jacket, "Just…. Don't do anything you would normally would do."

Now

"This can't be a terrorist attack," said Mina, "The mere notion is ridiculous. We know what-"

Just then, the lights went out and Josephine's computer went dead, the air conditioning went dead and all that remained was silence.

"A power outage?" commented Diana.

"Well, obviously, and at a most dubious time."

"Well, our generator will kick in in-"

"Shhh… Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

The power returned, and life returned to the building.

"Oh, that's a relief."

"Who has left the building?"

"Everyone who is officially in the building." Said Diana, "The bulk of security has remained, intelligence is running at minimum."

30 seconds ago

It was all the result of calculated precision. In those sparse seconds, right after Wayne has pressed that button, temporarily shutting off all power in Gotham's Lower East side, and less than half a minute before the building's back up power source started up, Mona pressed a button of her own, or a trigger, rather.

The explosives went off in quick succession, blowing a hole through the wall. A split second later, Mona tossed a cylinder into the corridor outside, and as son as it settled on the ground, burst with bright, blinding light.

Stunned and deprived of their sights, the league personnel in the corridor were an easy target. Mona, Priest and Kroenen bolted from the crematorium, their eyes protected by dark visors. One by one, the staffers fell from bullet or knife.

Mona dropped her assault rifle and picked another from the ground as Lucy stepped into the corridor, like Mona and Kroenen she was wearing the League's security force's uniform, a SWAT-like navy blue uniform, equipped with Kevlar and a protective helmet. Priest wore a spare change of clothes he'd found in a closet.

"How long is the cylinder going to burn like that?" asked Priest as he took a tie and a suit jacket that wasn't stained with blood off a dead body which minutes ago was an intelligence agent.

"Eleven minutes," said Mona, "They're disabling the cameras over here, so when the power comes back on, they'll hopefully see nothing."

"Cool beans." Said Priest as he took a radio device off the belt of another dead body and tossed it to Mona.

As Priest put on the jacket and the tie, Lucy was equipping herself and Kroenen with some of the security personnel's weapons. They had brought on a small arsenal, but it wasn't what the League used and that didn't fit with the plan. The plan was to try to evade detection as long as possible by passing themselves off as the League's own, the cover would soon be blown, but ever second of anonymity mattered.

The power came back on. Priest tucked a handgun into the back of his belt and straightened up to face the other three.

"The crematorium would ideally be close to the holding cells, but we don't have all the time in the world." Said Mona, "Where do we go, Lucy?"

Lucy closed her eyes and seemed to focus for a few seconds before she headed to one end of the corridor and said, "Follow me."

"There has been a security breach at sublevel four."

Josephine hung her head as she leaned with her hand on her desk, listening through the intercom.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We don't know yet, I've sent a team and-"

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"It might have happened during the blackout. It might be a technical fault, but we're getting nothing from the cameras in that sector but a white screen."

"Surely you've tried radioing them?"

"The radio system nodes might be down as well, they're the-"

"Yes, the ones we use to regulate and record all communications." Said Josephine, "Report as soon as you have heard from your men."

"Which cell is Lang?" asked Mona, flanked by Priest as he walked to the block warden as he sat behind his desk.

"Who are you?" asked the warden, a strapping man approaching sixty.

Priest's hand rose from behind him, gripping his trench knife and punching the man with the knuckle dusters. Mona opened fire on two guards walking up and down the corridor.

The warden head-butted Priest, then bunched him in the ribs and then in the jaw, knocking a tooth out, but on his third his hand was caught, Priest got behind him and using the warden's own arm against him, brought him down on the table face first, busting his nose in.

"Don't move." Said Priest, with one arm maintaing his excruciating hold on the man's twisted arm, and with the other pressing the blade of his knife to the man's throat.

"Rangers, right?" asked Priest, "I always liked Rangers more than the Berets, or all of the marines. So don't get uppity and I won't be an asshole."

"Where's Lang?" asked Mona.

"Fuck you."

"I'll shoot you in the leg. Where's Lang?"

"Go fuck yourself."

Mona placed her shotgun on the table, then took out a pistol and shot the warden in the knee.

"You can let him go."

Priest let go of the man, he stood aside and kept an eye on him as he called, "Lucy!"

Lucy came in from the outside with Kroenen in her wake. Mona looked down at the warden as he howled in pain and said, "When I said I'm going to shoot you in the knee, did you think it was a euphemism for something else?"

"She's in the third cell to the left." Said Lucy.

The warden looked up at Lucy with shock and awe, before Priest kicked him in the face, knocking him out.

Lucy walked to a switch board behind the warden's desk and flicked a few switches. A buzzer sounded off and a door opened. Mona looked over at Lucy with a satisfied smile before she walked into the cell.

It was a six by ten foot space, just like the one she had been locked up serving a life sentence before Nemo and Priest freed her less than a year ago. The occupant, however, was unlike most of the inmates Mona knew. The prisoner was an attractive woman of thirty, auburn haired and slender, with a look of hopeless panic in her eyes.

"Lana Lang?" asked Mona.

"I… Who did you shoot?"

"The warden's knee." Said Mona, "I'm not one of them, I'm here to set you free."

"I can't believe this is working." Said Lucy, smiling with giddy excitement, "It's working!"

"It's not over yet." Said Priest as he wiped his trench knife clean.

"I know, but we've got this far!" said Lucy, tying to suppress a giggle, "So far, so good!"

"Heh. Funny you would say that." Said Priest, "I was sent to Cuba in sixty-three, on an assignment for the CIA. I had to assassinate a former agent that had defected. I threw him out of a window of the thirty-fifth floor."

"…And?"

"He kept shouting something as he fell those thirty-five stories, he kept shouting, 'So far, so good! So far, so good! So far, so SPLAT!' "

For a split second, Lucy saw Priest's eyes went with murderous intent and knew to step aside with haste. Priest raised the shotgun and fired it over Lucy shoulder, startling her. She backed away and looked behind her to see a dead guard fall with his brains blown out. He had managed to creep up on them and was about to gun them down when Priest beat him to the trigger.

"What happened?" asked Mona as she came out, pushing Lang out along with her.

Priest looked over at Lucy, pumping the shotgun in his hands, and said, "And then the guy turned into a red stain on the streets of Havana."

Next Chapter

Getting in was the easy part, but now that the four's cover has been blown, they have to rely on brute force to get Lana Lang out of the building, not to mention escape Gotham. But where are the other minutemen, and what steps will Mina take to stop them?

R&R