Chapter Thirty-Four

Outside the Museum of Antiquities

Gateway City

United States

00:08 – Pacific Standard Time

March 17, 2007

Nightwing lowered his night-vision binoculars and cast his gaze down to the street below.

Nothing.

It was mind-numbingly dull to just be sat there on the roof of the building opposite the museum. He just wished that whatever was supposed to happen would happen soon. But that was the problem with mystics, they could never just give you all the information you needed. It was like some secret code that only they knew how to decipher and they had no intention on letting you in on how to understand what it was they were prattling about even though it could mean the difference between life and death.

"May I ask something of you?" The sudden sound of Starfire's voice over the communicator startled him, but only for a moment.

He raised his binoculars and looked over to the building that lay on the far side of the museum and saw her sat there looking bored. "What is it?" he asked.

"How long until the enemy make their move?"

He didn't say anything.

"Are you there?"

"I'm here," he said. "I don't know how long it'll be. It could be tonight, it could be a week from now."

"So we will be here every night all night and the arrow man and the two blonde women will be here all day every day until the enemy make their move?" she questioned sounding as bored as she looked.

"Most likely, yes," he responded. Nightwing raised his binoculars and watched a small group of three as they walked unassumingly past the museum.

"I am bored."

"So am I," he agreed as he lowered the binoculars once more."But we agreed to help, or at least I did. You don't have to be here, y'know."

"I want to help."

"Why?" he inquired. "We're all aliens to you. Why does some robbery of some museum on an alien world matter to you?"

"This is a new experience," she told him. "I also agreed to help and I will see it through to the end."

"Even if it's boring?"

"Even if it is most boring, yes. Why don't they attack already?"

Nightwing chuckled at that. It was cut short when he sensed a presence behind him. He looked around expecting to see someone, but there was no one there. He then noticed that a note had been stuck to the roof access door.

He stood up and cautiously made his way over to it and peeled the sticky note off and read what was written on it, which was three words: 'Closing time tomorrow', followed by two X's.

He recognised the handwriting almost immediately. "Selina," he muttered. This was obviously a tip, but how or why was Catwoman here in Gateway City and how did she get here? The last he heard Selina Kyle didn't have the freedom to catch a plane. She was a wanted felon after-all. That meant that she had arrived here by other means.

Nightwing held his hand to his ear. "Star, I may have just gotten a little help from a little kitty."

"What do you mean? What is a kitty?"

"Someone's left a note that states simply, 'tomorrow at closing time.'"

"Is that when the criminals will attack the museum?"

"A heist Starfire," he corrected. "It could mean that, but it could also be to throw us off. A trick."

"Who left the note?"

"I have a good idea who it was. I'll have to inform Arrow and Canary when they take over tomorrow morning." He then checked the time on his timepiece. "Or rather later today," he amended, considering it was now very early morning on the seventeenth.

"You did not say who left the note?" she reminded him.

"Catwoman," he said.

"The strange woman that you did not like? The one who had the whip on her belt?" Starfire asked, looking for clarification.

"Yes, her."

"She did say she wanted to help. Perhaps she went against your instruction and decided to help anyway?"

"I doubt it," Nightwing said. "But still, I'd be an idiot to ignore it."

"So you believe the museum will, in fact, be heisted at closing time?"

"I'm not going to rule it out," he responded. "However, I'm taking it with a heaping load of salt. She's been more of a nuisance than a help and she's the only person to repeatedly avoid capture by either me or Batman. She's slippery and mostly untrustworthy. That said, there have been times when she has been an asset, though that was few and far between."

"So you are saying we should be careful to not put too much trust into this tip-off we were given."

"Yes, that's what I'm saying," Nightwing confirmed. "Which means we continue to watch until morning and brief Arrow and the others when they get here."

"I understand," Starfire replied sounding a little down.

Nightwing felt bad for her. This wasn't exactly the most exciting or thrilling thing to be doing. He himself would rather be doing something else, however, there was a threat posed to the museum and considering it held ancient magical items, it could prove to be quite dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands.

For now, they would continue to sit and watch until Arrow and the others took over.

Dakota City

United States

05:32 – Eastern Standard Time

March 17, 2007

"Tea," Pauline's voice called out to her. "Wake up."

She opened her eyes to see the light was on and that Pauline was dressed. "What?" she responded in annoyance.

"It's half-five, time to get ready."

Galatea stretched. "I must have fallen asleep," she said, slowly standing up.

Pauline gestured to the white one-piece that she was wearing. "You might want to change clothes. If you go downstairs in that, your father will throw a fit."

She looked down at her white leotard, which she had gone out in late last night. "Right, I'll do just that."

"Good, I'll be downstairs," Pauline said as she picked up her case that held some of her clothes and headed out of the room. The clone then quickly changed and stuffed her leotard into her bag before heading downstairs with it in hand.

"There she is," Emil said from where he sat at the dining table.

Galatea smiled back. "Morning."

"You want cereal or toast?" Delina asked them.

"Not hungry," Galatea replied.

"Toast will be fine," Emil answered.

"The same," Pauline said.

"And Tea will be having some as well," Emil added.

"I'm not hungry," she repeated.

"You need to keep your strength up," he told her.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Keeping up my strength isn't an issue," she said firmly. "Besides, it won't kill me to skip it."

Emil looked at her with a slight frown. "I know you won't die and you can survive without food due to the energy from the sun, but as someone who knows your genetics, I can tell you that not eating isn't actually that good for you. You still need food if you want to be healthy."

Galatea gave in. "Fine, I'll have whatever you're having." She sat down next to her father.

Delina put four slices of bread into the large four slice toaster. "Want coffee or anything to drink?" she asked them.

"Sure," Emil said. "I need something to wake me up."

"I'll have one too," Pauline said.

"I hate coffee," Galatea said pulling a face. "And it stinks."

"No coffee for you then," Delina commented as she switched on the kettle. "Do you want anything else?"

"No, I'll be fine," the clone said.

"Sure?" Delina asked as she grabbed three coffee mugs from out of a cupboard.

"Yes."

"I have juice."

"Fine, I'll have a glass of juice," Galatea said, trying not to get angry. She didn't want a drink, but if it would shut her up and stop her asking, then she would have one.

After putting the coffee beans into the mugs, Delina grabbed a glass before heading the refrigerator and pulling out a carton of juice. She filled it up and put it down on the table in front of Galatea.

"Thanks," she said unenthusiastically.

She watched as Delina grabbed the toast that popped out of the toaster, putting the pieces onto four plates.

Delina turned to them. "Anyone want anything on it?"

"It'll be fine as is," Emil said.

"I'll have strawberry jam or jelly on mine," Pauline said.

"Sure, I have some jam. How about you?" Delina asked Galatea.

"Same as Pauline I suppose," she replied.

Delina put Jam on two pieces of toast, before putting all four on the table. She then made the coffee, putting three cups on the table.

They all ate their toast and drank their coffee, or juice in Galatea's case, in silence. Once they were all finished, Delina put the empty plates and drinking receptacles on the sideboard.

Emil stood up sharply. "I hope everyone's got everything ready because we'll be off in a minute."

"Yes," Galatea said. "I have everything, not that I have a lot."

Pauline nodded.

Emil stepped over to Delina and they hugged briefly. "Thank you for the hospitality."

"Good luck," she said in reply. "I'll make sure the caretaker at my holiday home knows you're coming."

"Thanks," he said. Emil turned to Pauline and Galatea as they stood up and collected their bags.

Delina walked with them into the garage and with a press of a button, the door slid open. They put their bags in the trunk before they climbed in, Emil at the wheel, Pauline in the front passenger seat and Galatea in the back.

"Thanks again," Emil said to Delina as he passed the directions to Pauline, who promptly put them in the glovebox.

Delina waved. "Hopefully next time I see you will be under better circumstances."

She stepped back as the car drove out of the garage and down the driveway, passed her car and onto the street. She stepped out front and waved as the car moved away.

Jump City

United States

04:04 – Pacific Standard Time

March 17, 2007

Wonder Woman landed back at the camp outside the city. Superman and Argo were doing a final sweep of the inner city to make sure there was no one that was still trapped.

While she would never say it out loud because of how callous it would sound, she was glad the Gordanians had hit here and not somewhere like Los Angeles. There were considerably fewer people here. Still, she couldn't deny the tragedy that had occurred here. It saddened her to know beyond the atmosphere, there was a cruel universe out there.

She wondered if the people knew just how doomed they would be if the Justice League didn't exist. They were their only current real line of defence from extra-solar invaders and even so, they had been powerless to stop this city from being decimated. It had only proved that they shouldn't have given in to pressure and disabled their gun. If they had had it active from when the alien fleet had first arrived, then they could have avoided this catastrophe.

She looked up to see Superman and Argo land in the middle of the encampment.

Superman walked over to her. "We haven't found anyone else, but we aren't ruling out anything. There may still be people trapped."

"You going out again?"

"In fifteen minutes," he answered. "I think we've got most of them out, so I think we should relieve most of the league and let them catch up on some rest."

"That sounds like a good idea," she agreed.

"You can head back-" He paused. "Where was it you were again?"

"Gateway City," she told him.

"Will you be relaying through the teleporter?" he asked, referring to how they had the technology to teleport her up to the Watchtower, then down to Gateway City without having to materialise her on the station.

"Yes, I will be." She rested her hand against her ear. "Wonder Woman to Watchtower."

She waited for the response. "Watchtower here,"came Shayera's voice.

"I need a site to site to Gateway City outskirts. Put me down anywhere outside the city."

"We have locked onto you."

She felt the familiar tingle as she was pulled away. The world around her shimmered and in a moment, she was surrounded by trees, Gateway City visible nearby. She wasted no time getting to work.

"Wonder Woman to Nightwing, report in."

"Nightwing here. Are you back?"

"I am," she confirmed as she took to the air. "Where are you now?"

"Both me and Starfire are currently watching over the museum. Green Arrow, Black Canary and Stargirl have arrived and we agreed that they watch during the day while me and Star watch during the night. Also, we may have received a tip-off as to when the museum is going to get robbed."

That got her attention. "From who?"

"Someone left a note. From the handwriting, I think it's from Catwoman."

"Catwoman? How did she get out here from the East coast?"

"I don't know. But it's nearly identical to her handwriting, so I'm assuming it's her."

"Don't make assumptions," she warned.

"I don't usually, but it's either her or someone with an uncanny likeness in handwriting. Also, she managed to leave the note without me seeing her and not many can do that, Catwoman being one of the few who can."

"How much trust do you put in it?" she questioned, feeling sceptical of its legitimacy.

"I'm not going to outright ignore it, but I think it's best that we carry on as though I never got the note. We'll see if it's true or not at closing time this evening."

Wonder Woman slowed as she approached the museum. She could see Starfire on the roof that lay behind the museum, but Nightwing was invisible to her.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Directly under you."

She looked down at the building and finally saw him. His mostly black outfit blended into the darkness, almost completely concealing him. Wonder Woman dropped down next to him.

"Nice of you to drop in," he said dryly. "How was Jump City?"

"Upsetting," she responded. "A lot of injured and dead."

Nightwing raised up his binoculars and peered down to the museum. He then lowered them, staring up at the sky. "I was wrong," he said finally.

She was caught off-guard, not knowing what he was referring to. "Wrong about what?"

"The energy cannon you have on your space station. I was convinced it was a bad idea. Turns out it wasn't. At least when dealing with hostile aliens."

"That is what it was made for in the first place," she told him. "The Thanagarians and their Hyper-space Bypass was what led us to construct the weapon. Batman ended up using the first Watchtower as a giant bomb to destroy their bypass. He and Terrific designed the cannon, so if anything like that happened again we wouldn't have to drop another space station on it. According to Batman, space stations are expensive to build, even for him."

"I bet they are," Nightwing agreed, raising his binoculars back up.

Wonder Woman peered down into the street and watched as the odd car drove past. The traffic was fairly light, though considering what time it was, it wasn't particularly surprising.

Her mind began to wander as she watched the steady stream of red white lights go by. Her thoughts fell onto Batman who she had indirectly mentioned only a few minutes ago. He was an enigma to her, even to this day. Though there had been something between them, something that had grown quite strong. She wondered if anything would become of it, but it hadn't. Somewhere along the line the two of them had drifted apart.

She looked back to Nightwing, wondering if she could get some answers regarding the Dark Knight. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"It's about Bruce."

He lowered his binoculars. "Codenames only while in uniform, you know that."

"Can I ask you, or are you going to keep lecturing me on protocol?"

"Sure, ask away."

She fell silent as she tried to think of how to ask what it was she wanted answers to. Finally, she came out with it.

"What happened to him?" she began, before clarifying. "I mean me and him were close, but nothing came of it. About a year-and-a-half ago we started to drift apart. I never realised it was happening until the Bat-clan collapsed and fell apart. That's when I realised that we had become distant. I barely saw him anymore."

"He had his own life," Nightwing said with a sigh. He wasn't sure whether he should tell her about Barbara and their involvement. He thought on it for a few moments before deciding that if she was going to find out, it would be by either Bruce or Barbara, though he didn't even know if Barbara and Diana had actually met.

"What are you thinking?" she asked him.

He glanced at her. "Do you know what happened?"

"Happened?"

"Why the Bat-clan is dead," he said in clarification.

"Something with the Joker and Robin. He never went into specifics."

"You know that Joker and Quinn are dead, right?" he asked.

"Again, he never went into specifics. Only that the Joker was killed with his own gun and that Quinn fell to her death and was presumably washed out to sea."

Nightwing turned his attention back down to the museum. "The Joker's one psycho nobody will miss," he said as he raised his binoculars once again and peered through them. "Lazy damn guards," he muttered.

"What are they doing?" she questioned.

"Two of them are chatting away not paying attention. They could both be taken out and neither of them would even realise it was even happening."

"I can see the job being tiresome," she said.

"Not an excuse. They're paid to watch."

"I'm not excusing them," she said. "I just said that I can see it being boring and tedious. They still have a job to do and if it were Amazons put in charge of security, then you can be assured they would not slouch. They would be alert and ready at all times."

"Unfortunately, we're stuck with these guys," he said gesturing towards the museum.

"Once this is all done with, I will have to inform mother about this. Some of the items in their belong to Themyscira and will have to be confiscated."

"You can't just take them," Nightwing pointed out.

"Then we will trade for them," she said. "Ancient, non-magical items for the magical ones."

"I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out," Nightwing commented.

"I'm sure we will. I'm going to check on the Sandsmark residence."

"Okay, keep in contact."

"I will," she agreed as she took to the air.

Gateway City

United States

04:46 – Pacific Standard Time

March 17, 2007

"Where have you been?" Aresia demanded of Catwoman as she slipped in through a window.

"Out," the leather-clad thief replied nonchalantly.

Aresia grabbed her and slammed her into the wall, hard. "I asked you a question," she said through gritted teeth. "You will answer it!"

Catwoman frowned. She wasn't used to this kind of treatment. "I was getting to know the city," she told her. "I like to know the area around the place I'm about to steal from."

"You already scoped out the museum earlier. Why did you need to do it again?"

"Not the museum, the blocks around it," Catwoman clarified. "I like to know the area, all the alleys, roads, even the rooftops." She smiled. "Especially the rooftops."

Aresia released her. "As long as that was all you were doing because if it wasn't, then you will also get to know the dirt beneath the city very well. Now get some rest. I need you ready and alert."

"Are we going over the plan?" Catwoman asked as politely as she could manage, given she was starting to detest the woman.

"Yes, we will."

"I'll get some rest then." Catwoman moved off and headed upstairs not looking back at Aresia. She found it rather amateurish that they were supposed to be robbing a museum tomorrow and the team didn't know things like the response time of the police, the equipment they had at their disposal or even the full layout of the museum. She didn't even know if Aresia knew any of that.

Selina shrugged as she stepped into the room and laid down on the mattress that was on the floor next to the bed where Giganta and Emmylou were sleeping. It wasn't the most glamorous sleeping arrangement she had been forced to endure, but it wasn't the worst either.

Selina smiled as she thought about Nightwing on the rooftop. He had gotten her message which she was sure would be appreciated, even if he would never admit it. Of course, she was hoping to use the confusion in the fight that was sure to happen to grab a few trinkets to sell. Ancient artefacts went for a high price if one found the right buyer and she knew a few people who would pay a nice price to get their hands on something Themysciran. She just had to get out with the items, which probably wouldn't be too hard. She could evade Batman, so Nightwing, his orange girlfriend and Wonder Woman wouldn't be a problem.

Of course, she had agreed to work with Giganta, to help each other to increase their chances of escape, but the size-shifter was just a means to an end. If she had to, she would cut her loose and leave her to be caught if it meant her own escape.

It wasn't something she liked to do, but she liked being caught even less. Whatever plan they would have going in wouldn't survive contact with the heroes and once the fighting started, that is when she would let the others fight while she took what she wanted and slipped away.

She didn't put too much stock into her own plan going well, knowing that it was likely to fall apart at some point, either by her being spotted or something else. But she liked having to think up new plans on the fly. It was what made things interesting.

Updated December 2017