I do not own Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox, Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz, Superman/Kal El/Clark Kent, or Amanda Waller. DC does. Please enjoy for free.

Wayne Manor and Surrounding Lands/Roads Night Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

Lucius twisted a nob near the batcomputer with a frown. "I'm only getting static on the airwaves." He reached for a set of buttons higher up the board. "I'll reroute through some of the ground wires to other towers."

Alfred's head snapped to stare at the scientist. He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think only 'static' is coming in over the current antenna?"

"In this calm weather, it's either accidental damage by animal or man, or the signal is being jammed …"

"Intentionally …"

"Intentionally."

J'ohn stepped back into the shadows slowly going invisible and intangible. When Alfred turned toward where he'd been standing during his exchange with Lucius, he saw nothing. "Blast! We've lost track of our extraterrestrial."

Lucius leaned back in his chair while staring at the monitors. "Worse. Look."

Alfred did. Lines of dark vehicles, starting with a small tank each followed by several vans were coming up all roads leading to the manor from a gravel one through the forest to the public paved one approaching the main entry gate. The Englishman set his jaw as he glared at the sight.

Lucius asked. "Should I contact our heroes?"

Alfred shook his head. "No. Batman 'and' the Man of Steel have their hands full with things out on the water. We should be able to handle this ourselves. Is the tunnel ready to form another … tube?"

Lucius shook his head. "Can't be done without an 80% chance of structural failure mid-matter-transfer."

"Which would mean?"

"Any physical matter in the portal would be scattered with some ending up back here and the rest on Mars."

Hairs of Alfred's mustache moved from the breath he puffed out. "Ready Manor defense measures."

Lucius' hands ghosted over keyboards, nobs, and more as he nodded. "Already am."

After the tank treads had passed over their hiding spots, spikes rose from the gravel only feet ahead of the van tires. They ran over them. Hidden in the bushes decorating the sides of the asphalt drive up to the manor wall, radio controlled projectile shooters moved with Lucius' guidance. They shot at the tires of the vans encroaching on his employer's home. The vehicles kept coming.

Lucius shook his head. "Bullet-resistant tires. Might like to get a look at them. I'm impressed."

Alfred turned his glare on him. "Contain your admiration and get on with the next protocol."

Lucius nodded and continued tapping buttons and twisting knobs. Yards beyond the lines of approaching vehicles nozzles emerged from the ground alongside the roads. The vapor they blew out produced a thick mist over the road.

. . .

Waller's brow furrowed as she listened to the matching reports of the mist suddenly appearing in front of each of her caravans. She opened up an outgoing channel to the leaders of each and enunciated sharply and loudly over her microphone. "They have eyes on you, but may have played into our hands by obscuring their own sight of us. Put on your masks and thermal goggles. Continue on foot."

. . .

Lucius stared at a monitor screen he'd brought up detecting vibrations in the ground around the manor. "They've stopped the vehicles. Looks like they're coming in on foot now." He brought up footage from various cameras including large ones hidden in trees that showed yellow-to-red humanoid shapes approaching the wall on foot. "There they are."

Alfred took in and released a deep breath. "Our employer was correct about Waller's belief in him, and by association, us."

Lucius replied, continuing his role as conductor of the vast network of machines spreading out in the radius of over a mile around him. "We still got surprises."

"I doubt this woman and her small army will be very much surprised."

In front of each gate, in the back gravel and earth erupted. Inch thick poles emerged and rose less than two inches apart three feet high before each gate. Blinding lights also came on revealing almost everything in bright exposure from leaves to blades of grass in the gardens bordering the actual building. A particular high concentration of beams converged around the entry-points of the house.

. . .

In the cave Alfred hummed "That might be seen by our nearest neighbors."

Lucius shrugged. "All the better, I doubt this lady wants her people to have to speak to local police."

"Let's not get any such civil servants 'disappeared' by her either if we can help it."

. . .

Despite being in a van far from the lights, Waller squinted while switching between channels to hear each of her team leaders report them and the poles making sure even though the mist had cleared, the vehicles pulling or even bashing through the gates would be more difficult.

"The tanks can definitely do it, but it'd be even more difficult to hide that we were here. And they and the rest of us are definitely going to be exposed."

"Look into going over the walls first and see if you can find and take out the cameras."

Thermal goggles were lifted upward. Alfred watched the agents scan their surroundings. Then, a few appeared to look right at them. As Alfred grit his teeth, Lucius spoke for them both. "Uh-oh."

High powered rifles seemed to aim at them through the cameras. Then static filled the screens. Lucius was already bringing on screen footage from better hidden cameras and displays from the nearer motion detectors. Alfred commented. "Were I her, I'd be looking into going over the wall and through the windows."

Lucius nodded. "Already bringing up some of our cameras and monitors there."

Alfred glanced at his watch. Only minutes had passed since they noticed the invasion nearing their doorstep. "I don't suppose that 80% likelihood of failure in sending our friend home safely has gone down?"

"Not by more than 2%. And I can't even find any sign of him through the systems in the house or gardens, unless some motion inside a wall that could be a mouse counts."

Alfred glared and sighed. "Let's hope his disappearance means he's making as strong an attempt to preserve himself as we are."

Waller listened intently to one of her teams' leaders. "We're seeing a lot of cameras along the walls and some suspicious holes with heat signatures in them. No telling exactly what they got waiting for us if we go through or over."

Waller pursed her lips. Then she spoke flatly through the channels. "Pull back."

In the cave, Lucius and Alfred's brows furrowed and lips pursed. The figures swarming their gates and outside their walls disappeared off screen abandoning said gates and walls. Alfred's brows lowered and furrowed deeper. "Pull up the feeds from the camera's pointed at our airspace." Lucius did. After moments of staring at a dark cloud-covered red and white dots of lights appeared onscreen. Then they got bigger. Alfred snarled a word he would have punished Bruce for saying in his childhood.

Outside, the sound of spinning blades filled the air minutes before choppers flew over the wall. Waller was done with any semblance of secrecy. She ordered only a small percentage of her agents onboard the metal birds to repel down the ropes thrown from them.

As soon as the feet of the first groups of agents landed on Wayne Manor's lawn, jets of water, far too pressured to be meant for watering it, hit them in the face. On hearing about this, Waller sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Tell them to move on anyway, but save teams B. C. and D. They stay onboard and out of the way for now."

The jets of water followed team A as they approached the house. As they neared windows into the house, steel bars fell in front of them to sink into deep holes their size bored into the windowsills. Waller snapped "Get out your power tools."

Team A broke into smaller groups. Three agents choose one window one of their members began to cut through while two others flanked and guarded the cutter's back. Alfred and Lucius watched through cameras near these windows in the cave. The former soldier and spy asked the scientist "How long will they be delayed?"

Lucius replied "If they don't bring out explosives? Minutes. Should we call Bruce now?"

Alfred shook his head. "No. If he weren't busy saving one or more lives he'd have called us minutes ago."

Gotham Bay Night Eleven Years After Waynes' Deaths

Even as he continued to put pressure on separate wounds with both hands as his boat pushed through the dark deep waters, Batman turned his gaze toward the radio and squinted. Why hadn't Alfred or Lucius called to check in even if he couldn't answer? They should have attempted by now.

He turned his gaze back on his patient. Despite fighting for the man's life for the last several minutes, he felt like he owed him an apology. You may yet die, because Waller wanted to distract me tonight.

What do you think now?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes