Chapter 25

It had been a while since her last field work. She was by no means rusty, and was accustomed to enemies stronger than she. She revelled in the challenge and in the chance to help her friend in this important mission to destroy Kryptonite. So why was she so nervous?

Maybe it was because this was the last store of the sickly green stuff and she was anxious to be rid of it. Or maybe it was because the security at this facility was so high. After each raid the subsequent facility's security had been tighter. Therefore the level of security at the current location was unsurprising. Judging from the extreme security it was safe to assume that Luthor was not giving up this store without a fight, which merely cemented the fact that this was the last of it. Still Barbara found herself in awe by how thorough the fortitude of the building was. So much so that the entire place almost screamed of paranoia if it had been sanctioned by anyone other than Lex Luthor. It reminded Barbara more of a prison than a place of business. Illicit business sure, but even those looked legit on the outside. The entire grounds were covered with guards who were armed with rifles. The fence was electrified and barbed. There were towers at each corner with other guards armed with both rifles and giant spotlights. Cameras were littered everywhere. If she had been alone, getting inside would have been tricky justifying some nerves. But a meta-human with the ability to control light and thus go unseen was with wasn't the reason.

Maybe it was that Bruce was worried. He would've gone himself if he hadn't a business meeting with Luthor. Initially he had considered cancelling, he had already turned him down once, but Barbara convinced him that this coöperation between companies would allow for a closer view of Luthor and cancelling suddenly might lead Luthor to rescind the offer. Reluctantly he had agreed and assigned Barbara to join Kassandra. Bruce had still remained uneasy and if Batman felt unsure about something...

It didn't matter. They had to complete this mission. Regardless of the inherent challenge of the entire place, Kassandra was able to 'fly' them both onto the roof. Camouflaged by Kassandra's light refracting abilities, it was eerie watching all the guards. There was a particular jolt of fear and strangeness when one of them looked directly at them. They reached the roof without incident. Each of them had the schematics of the building downloaded on their wrist screens and knew the most likely holding area for the Kryptonite. As usual she would be the eyes and ears for Kassandra as she laid waste to the Kryptonite store, so her destination was in the control room. Barbara positioned herself to shimmy into the air duct, but briefly turned back to Kassandra.

"Good luck," Barbara said. "Come back kickin'."

"You too," she said as a glow formed around her causing her to appear transparent and she slipped into the concrete to the building below.

Barbara sighed and climbed into the cramped, dusty smelling space. One thing about deserts is that sand gets everywhere, so there were filters blocking her path. She only felt a little bad about dismantling them. After a while the air inside would get pretty dusty, but it didn't matter. It wasn't as though there would be a purpose for this place in a little while. Still it would be far easier if she could just glide through the ceiling like Kassandra. Keeping an eye on the device displaying the schematics of the building on her wrist, she followed the labrynthian tunnels until she was just over the security room. There were two guards sitting a few feet in front of the slotted panel. Lucky for her they were engrossed in whatever they were watching on one of the computers that were part of the system. Meanwhile the footage of the outside reeled above them. Barbara frowned in disapproval. For such a show of security outside, the defenses on the inside were greatly lacking.

Carefully and quietly she removed the grate above them, grateful for the volume of the program they were watching. It sounded like an episode of Friends. Finally when she had all the screws removed, deftly she lifted the grate from its place and set it soundless on the panel beyond the hole where it once sat. She brought her knees to her chest and stretched her legs horizontally in front of her. Trying hard not to grunt from the strain, she very slowly dropped her legs down through the hole, brought her body forward and gracefully landed a few feet behind them. Silently she walked behind the two guards who were guffawing at some joke.

Simultaneously she whacked both guards with her black escrima sticks. She carefully guided one of the guards off of the chair and onto the floor. That was a little too easy. In fact so far everything had been too simple and had gone too smoothly. But she couldn't dwell on that, she had work to do. She removed her wrist device and connected it to the security system. It displayed her and Kassandra as blinking green dots. Then she clicked away on the keyboard until she found the hallway outside of the storage area. The storage area itself held no cameras. Luthor never trusted that an employee wouldn't betray him, so he had instead placed cameras only outside of the room along with armed guards. Barbara were the eyes in the sky for Kassandra. Even though Kassandra could disappear, she couldn't do her job if she suddenly had company. As long as those guards stayed inside, Kassandra would be fine to complete her mission.

However important this aspect of her purpose was, she had another that was equal in significance. Barbara plugged in her USB into one of the computers. If she was going to be here, she would take a peek at Lex's files. Every computer owned by Lex Luthor was connected to the Lexcorp server. Although on the surface everything seemed legitimate for a corporation as public as Lexcorp, it only took a few clicks to see that he had encrypted certain files. She smirked. Those were the ones she was pursuing. She stole a quick glance at the security screens showing the hallway and Kassandra's position. The little green dot stayed solitary and the hallway remained empty.

Three flimsy-for-her firewalls later and after unlocking the encryption, she was inside the secret world of Lexcorp's underhanded dealings and projects. In horror she read the details of his plans behind the Meta-Human Registration Act and the truth behind each event leading up to this point. Without hesitation she began the download of the information, when she heard a beeping in her ear.

She pressed her comm device and Kassandra voice came pouring out.

"There's nothing here."

"What?" Barbara practically yelled.

"There's nothing here," she repeated. "The crates are full of cinder blocks."

Cinder blocks? But why-

"It's a trap. Get out, Solaris. Now!" she shouted urgently.

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine. There's a package for pick up! Now go and if I don't make it, tell them what happened!"

"Barb-"

She tapped the comm device to deactivate it.

It was a set up. The little green Kassandra dot was being swarmed by angry red dots on the outside of the room and the hallway cameras showed a similar, but more threatening picture of a throng of guards sprinting down toward the door. Judging from her little dot and the footage from her hallway, the scene was the same outside her door.

With fluid speed, Barbara unplugged the USB and other equipment and stashed it away from sight in the air duct. If she was captured, this data was too important to risk it on her person. The monitor showed two beefy guards running to the security room. If she tried to escape through the vent she would be trapped and have no way to defend herself, so she hid herself behind the door and waited for them to enter. They burst open the door. Both looked around slowly, avoiding the incapacitated guards, their guns at the ready.

"Where is she?" one of them said.

"Here," she said from behind them.

One of them turned around and she kicked him straight in the face. His partner turned his gun on her and she twisted his wrist causing him to drop his gun. Then he went for a right hook. She ducked and swept his legs. Satisfied they were both down, she started running down the hallway. Three more guards were coming on either side.

"Hey!" one of them shouted, while they all trained their guns on her. Without hesitation, she threw down her smoke pellets. Quickly she ducked under cover of the smoke and hit each of them with pressure point attacks causing them to fall down temporarily paralyzed. With a smirk to herself she started running again toward a door. Any door. While looking back to make sure they were still down, when she slammed into a wall and fell on the floor. Slightly dazed she looked up and saw it hadn't been a wall, but a massive man.

Standing at 7 feet tall at least, the man was broad and muscular. His legs were like tree trunks and his arms were like hams. Mouth agape, Barbara told her legs to move and she managed to stagger backwards.

"Where do you think you're going little girl?" he rumbled in a voice as loud as thunder.

"Away from you."

She slid between his legs and combat rolled upright, running as fast as she could in the other direction. Thankfully, she was faster and more nimble than the giant, which allowed her to gain some distance. But another problem appeared. Each door and hallway end apparently had an emergency lockdown protocol. She was just able to slide underneath the grate. One bright spot was that she now had a barrier between her and the giant. But her brief optimism ended when she saw guards running toward her and she skidded to a halt. Each end of the hallway sealed shut. Momentarily she was trapped and outnumbered.

She sighed, annoyed.

Low on options, she looked up for any escape and seeing a grate a little aways from her she shot her grapple hook at it. It connected! She pulled the grate open. The guards pointed their guns at her, but she flung batarangs at them and knocked the guns away. Then they came at her. One tried to hit her with a night stick, but she blocked him and kicked him away. Another came at her with a knife, but she spun away while grabbing his arm and flipping him into an oncoming guard. They both fell to the floor. The last few were more hesitant to attack her. Another also armed with a knife thrust at her which she caught and forced it out of his hand by twisting his wrist. Then kicked him down into a kneeling position. She jumped off the wall, climbed around the other guard's neck and flipped him over. The last one decided to be brave and came at her with a lot of yelling, brandishing his night stick. He swung and she blocked his attack then struck his face with her open palm of one hand and chopped at his neck with the other causing him to fall out cold. She turned around and started toward the air duct, but stopped when she heard a screeching, ripping noise from down the hall. The metal barrier seemed to be collapsing on itself.

The giant.

Her heart beat faster and with a running start she pushed off the wall and pulled herself into the open air duct. If she could just get to the roof she would make it out okay. The terrible metallic cacophony was her soundtrack as she crawled as fast as she could until suddenly it stopped. She heard a thud and the unmistakable sound of metal scrapping linoleum. Then dead silence. Barbara quickened her pace, she was panting heavily.

There were thunderous steps from below.

"Where are you?!" he bellowed. "You can't hide little girl! When I find you, I will crush you just like I did your friend," he growled.

She gasped. Kassandra.

There were more booming footsteps until they stopped just underneath her.

Covering her mouth, she didn't breathe. She didn't dare move.

Suddenly she was ripped out of the duct and he slammed her down to the floor. Then he threw against the wall and she saw black dots explode in front of her eyes. Dizzy, she tried to strike at him, but he swatted away her puny arms and caught her head and shoved her back, pinning her against the wall again. He threw her down the hall like a rag doll. His boisterous laughter followed her.

Slowly and off-balanced she rose.

"I am so glad there were two of you. More fun for me!" His mocking laughter filled her head and her heart with rage. No one hurts her friends.

He went to grab her with his massive arms, but she slid between his tree-trunk legs hitting his genitals with her escrima as she went. Rarely did she strike such a blow, but he had made things personal. Howling in pain, he collapsed to his knees. Taking advantage of the opportunity she climbed onto his back and sprayed anesthetic gas in his face jumping and landing away from him as he teetered on his knees then finally fell.

Staring at him, panting, she realized that she had to find Kassandra. What had he done to her?

Then someone clutched Barbara's shoulder, she went to strike, but was easily stopped by an unusually strong hand of a dark-haired woman with malicious black eyes.

"Mercy."

She looked at her cooly, then sent a stream of electricity shot through her. She wanted to scream, but her voice was paralyzed. Everything was. The pain was incredible. There was cold fire in her veins that burned into her muscles and bones until she slipped into blackness.

Click! Clack!

Clark was annoyed. And worried and angry and just agitated. And his poor computer was receiving the brunt of his frustrations.

There was no reason he couldn't be involved. This was his fight after all. Bruce had made such a show of talking about being a team and working together and then he sends two other people to fight his battles. Logically, Kassandra could destroy Kryptonite; he understood that. But this was his fight! He should at least take part.

He growled as he pressed a little too hard on the 'f' key causing it to jam. Furious with himself, he pried it off.

"If you keep going like that, you'll have to buy a new one," Lois whispered from her desk.

While he was bothered immensely by his being benched, he took comfort from the fact that he could still help take down Lex Luthor one way or the other as Clark worked on an article about Luthor's facilities. Looking over at Lois, he frowned. Usually this was something they would do together, but Lois knew nothing of Bruce's plans about Luthor, much to her chagrin after she had asked him. He hadn't even told her about his connection to Metallo. Of course he regretted his decision to shield her from that information, but what had happened to her at the gala fundraiser, was too much for him. He knew it was his fear controlling him; she was fine. When Perry had suggested that she take time off considering her injury and the trauma she had experienced, she had insisted on staying and writing her article on what had happened. This was normal Lois behavior, plus Mr. Pennyworth had done a superb job of binding her wounds. But he also knew that Lois tended to put on a brave face when she felt she needed to and he just couldn't risk her being injured worse, or worse...Clark shook his head. He had also been offered a few days off, but refused, with the thought to use work as a distraction. It had otherwise been proving a useful tool, but in that moment he had a headache and just couldn't write. He grimaced and decided he needed some coffee. He walked over to Lois.

"I'm getting some coffee; would you like cup?"

"No, thanks. I've got tea," she said raising her to go cup for emphasis. She took a sip and her nose wrinkled in mild disgust.

Clark raised his eyebrow at her. Lois liked sweetened iced tea, in fact she made the most delicious iced tea he had ever had, but couldn't drink the hot stuff and she never refused coffee as a rule. She once referred to coffee as her elixir of life. When she noticed his expression, she shrugged a little.

"Tea is better for you."

Clark nodded slowly, but didn't comment. Over the past month she had acted strangely. She was much more conscious of what she ate. Instead of a Philly cheese steak sandwich for lunch she would have a salad with grilled chicken strips on top. Instead of staying up well into the night before a deadline she went to bed early. He had brought it up to her once, but she evasively said she was trying to be healthier. Why, he had no idea. Other than her lack of proper sleep and her tendency to get herself into danger, she had seemed perfectly healthy before this change in behavior. Being more health conscious shouldn't be a concern, but it was odd and he gave into the urge to ask her.

"Lois, are you alright?"

She smiled at him. "Clark, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You've been acting very strange lately."

"Strange, how?"

"Well...you're eating differently. And have just been acting out of character. You just seem very...," what was the word he wanted? Happy? Wasn't happy a good thing? "different," he finished lamely.

She smiled warmly and touched his hand reassuringly."Clark, we've been over this. I'm fine. Nothing is wrong with me."

Smiling meekly and still confused, he nodded and left. He supposed she would tell him what was going on when she was ready. After Clark had retrieved his coffee and returned to his desk, he switched to the fluff piece Perry had assigned him, but just stared at his computer screen. He couldn't even remember what he was supposed to be writing about. It was a fluff piece about rabbits or kittens or something with trees. He wished caffeine worked on him.

Out of nowhere he heard an annoying pinging. That wasn't his ringtone and it was coming from his desk. After digging through his papers—he really needed to file those—he found the offensive object. It looked like a smart phone, but the more interesting aspect was that it indicated someone named BW was calling him.

Bruce. Kassandra must have planted this phone for when Bruce wanted to contact him. That made sense. Why would Clark Kent be getting calls from Bruce Wayne?

He looked around. No one was paying attention and Lois had left her seat presumably while he was rummaging through his desk. Quietly and quickly he walked out of the bullpen and into one of the empty conference rooms. Bruce calling him could mean news about the mission. Any news he was grateful to hear. After he was certain that no one was watching or listening, he answered.

"Bruce, what-"

"Barbara's been taken."