Now
Basin City, Nevada
"Well, that's something you don't see everyday." Mumbled O'Brien as he tried to look away from what he saw and continue walking, resisting the urge to regurgitate.
Priest looked over to where O'Brien had been looking, to see a dead body of withered old man in a leather duster, laying in a pool his own blood in vomit, a knife sticking out of his back. The whole spectacle on the steps of a police station. He looked away himself as the two men continued walking down the street as police sirens continued their infinite crescendo in the distance.
"We shoulda stayed in Baltimore." Said O'Brien, "Basin City makes Baltimore look like Miami."
"I hate Miami. And don't call it Basin City," said Priest, "People'll know were tourists. Sin City, that's what you all it."
"Jesus, what is up with this town?"
"Ha! Tell me about it. If cities were women then this one would be a drama queen."
Priest raised the beer in the paper bag he held to his lips and took a large gulp.
"Gotham would naturally be a madam."
"Do Sheikh and Nemo know about what we did?"
"Mona told them this morning. Apparently they already knew."
"How?"
"Beats the hell out of me. They might have heard about our fake terrorist plot."
"That reminds me, I saw the news earlier and Gotham Police suspect it's the work of The Joker."
"Isn't he locked up?"
"Apparently that hasn't stopped him before. It's kinda funny, though. The Joker's lawyer read a statement for the press and he said something like 'I didn't do it, but whoever did is a badass'. I never thought I was going to d something that would earn the admiration of a psycho killer."
"No one ever does."
"Kind of cool, though."
O'Brien sighed as a police car came wailing by.
"He's gonna super-pissed. Sheikh, not the Joker."
"Buddy, you ain't kidding."
Priest tossed the empty bottle into a dumpster and the two kept on walking down Dylan street.
"So what kind of woman would Boston be?"
"I don't know, probably a redhead."
Last Night
Gotham City, Maryland
Mandy Hughes walked into a luxury private room in the newly rebuilt Gotham General Hospital, holding a medium sized handbag. The TV was turned on, a Gotham Cable News reporter was reporting from Downtown Gotham on the dumbfounding events of the afternoon.
Mandy placed the handbag on a chair by the neatly made bed as she looked around, looking for the room's occupant who was nowhere to be seen.
Josephine exited from bathroom, fully healed, tightly wrapping her bathrobe arund her waist.
"I came as soon as I could. Are you…"
"I'm fine." Said Josephine coldly, "Where were you today?"
Mandy looked down, disappointed at her lover's demeanor.
"I… I was going to come in a little bit later."
"You picked one hell for it."
"Yeah, well…I'm sorry. I brought you a fresh change of clothes."
"Thanks." Mutter Josephine as she slid the curtain around the hospital bed.
"What have we got so far?"
"Whoever hit us-"
"They were the opposition's elite unit."
"Well, they escaped by a police helicopter. The co-pilot's partner was found tied up in a supply closet in police headquarters, the pilot was last seen taking off with police commissioner Gordon and two unidentified police officers. The commissioner was at the same town stranded across town, waiting for a ride.
"Intelligence is examining the surveillance footage of the intruders, trying to identify who they were."
"The one who threw me out a window is Judas Priest, the same man who ID'd me last year. Something tells me the rest will be other operatives that escaped when we tried to purge them." Said Josephine as she stepped out from behind the curtain, fully dressed and her hair tied back, "How many men did we loose?"
"Sixty four." Said Mandy uneasily, "Um… Diana is pulling in new recruits, and we we're receiving reinforcements from New York."
"New York?" asked Josephine, her voice calm, but still registering her outrage.
Mandy was at a complete loss for words, she simply turned around and looked out the window.
"Have them dismissed."
"This isn't the time to refuse my help, Josephine."
Both Josephine and Mandy turned around to look toward the room's doorway, where Felix Leiter stood, looking gloomy.
"Miss Hughes, would you mind giving us the room?"
Mandy looked to Josephine who gave her a nod, she walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
"Came to gloat?" asked Josephine.
Leiter didn't say anything at first; he sat down on an armchair, and said with a sullen voie,
"I'd heard that you were paralyzed."
"That was two hours ago."
"What was it like?"
A long pause followed, during which Mina simply stared Leiter in the eyes, sizing him up.
"I felt my spine shatter, from one end to the other." Josephine said, "My broken ribs pierced my lungs. I ruptured my spleen…… I was conscious for all of it. How do you think it felt?"
Leiter looked down with his eyes closed, rubbing the top of his nose where his eyes came close.
"What do you want, Felix?"
Leiter stood up to look Josephine straight in the eye.
"I know you hate my guts, Wilhelmina. And you know I never had any love for you, but that doesn't mean I thought you were unfit or undeserving of you position."
"Wow, that's all I've ever hoped to hear before I died."
"I'm not going to tell you that this could have all been avoided if you'da played ball from the beginning. I'm not going to say that I didn't screw you over when I convinced McNeil to come over to my side. We're in a bit of a pickle, Josephine. The future of Phoenix, the future of the League is in the balance. This situation must and will be contained. And the only way we can do that is together."
"Is that so? We both know Bond is going to want to handle this situation differently."
"What James doesn't know isn't going to hurt him."
Josephine was genuinely surprised.
"You want to keep him in the dark?"
"He'll eventually find out, there's no stopping that. We just have to keep a lid on it until Lana Lang is dead or in custody, preferably the first."
"Alright. So what do you suggest?"
"You were right all along, we should have devoted more resources toward breaking the opposition, and that's what we'll do straight away, starting with this special unit of theirs."
Leiter turned around and opened the door, and as he stepped out he looked back and said,
"I'll be in touch."
A Few Hours Later
The Yellow Submarine
"Hello, Nemo."
Nemo hadn't noticed that the screen had blinked on and displayed Wayne image, sitting against a backdrop of dark granite walls. Nemo removed his reading glasses and set them down on his desk, amid printed out intelligence reports received from four cities and electronic circuitry.
"Bruce. Hello. I trust you're in rude health?"
Wayne reclined back in his sear, looking and sounding in a foul mood.
"We need to talk."
"Of course. What would you like to talk about?"
"You."
"Me?"
"The opposition."
"Oh, is there anything you've discovered?"
"That's one way of putting it. This has more to do with the minutemen."
"What about them?"
"Earlier today, they came to me for help. They had a plan, you see. I know about the security convoy they were planning on hitting-"
"Yes. The target wasn't pres-"
"Do. Not interrupt me." Wayne said with restrained anger, "They came asking for my help, persuaded me into aiding them. Of what I know the plan was successful. Their plan was to infiltrate the Novick building, abduct the prisoner you're interested in and then get out of Gotham."
"What?" asked Nemo is shock.
"I don't know if you've heard of what transpired today in Gotham, but I'm sure you will soon enough, and know that it was all the work of your people.
"Captain, every since we got back in touch, I allowed two criminals into my house and I've allowed them to walk away. And now, I have lied to a dear friend, an ally. I have stood aside as I allowed my city to wallow in fear and despair, all for as a grotesque ruse, for your people.
"You've saved my life once, Captain. I won't ever forget that, but I won't allow it to delude me anymore. I won't allow it to be what compels me to do what I know is wrong. We've gone too far."
"Bruce…"
"Your people said they were going to head to Baltimore, and from there to somewhere else safe. And now, I'm going to turn this laptop off, then take a sledge hammer to it till there is nothing left.
"Don't ever call me again."
Wayne's image disappeared, and a message flashed on the screen regarding the general details of the communication. Nemo did not pay attention to it; he was still amazed with what he'd heard.
Finally, coming to himself, Nemo tapped a keyboard, establishing a new connection and within a minute, Naif Al-Sheikh's image appeared on the screen.
"We have a situation."
With Batman pulling out and Leiter and Josephine teaming up to take the fight to the opposition, the minutemen will be in for an interesting period. Next Chapter sees Josephine put together a small detail with a specific purpose, while Nemo and Al-Sheikh arrive at Sin City to give the minutemen a talking to.
R&R