The rain came down hard over Gotham that night. Not the gentle kind. The kind that hit windows like thrown gravel and turned the manor grounds into black glass under the storm lamps. The Batcave's hidden entrance recognized the three figures before they reached it. Stone slid aside without sound.
Diana walked first. Oliver followed, bow case slung across his back. John Stewart brought up the rear, his ring casting a faint green glow across wet rock.
---
Bruce was waiting below. Not in armor. Dark shirt. Dark pants. The cave's main console burning cold blue behind him, sixteen screens running simultaneous data feeds from Vought Tower, Vought subsidiaries, Vought shell companies. Eighty-two hours without sleep. His eyes were clear.
"You came fast," he said.
"You called," Diana replied.
She stopped at the central platform. The console light caught her face. She looked older in the cave's shadows. Or not older. More like what she truly was. Three thousand years of combat pressed into a single frame.
"I think the truth is a weapon. But only if you fire it before the other side fires theirs." He turned. His eyes met each of them in sequence. "We're past press conferences. We're past evidence. Vought controls the narrative. Homelander controls the crowd. And Clark is buried under a building on every screen in the world with HOMELANDER DEFEATS SUPERMAN as the headline. The clock is not on our side."
---
The main screen shifted. A photo appeared. A-Train. Costumed. Smiling at a charity gala.
"Target One," Bruce said. "A-Train. Speedster. Killed Robin. Killed at least two others we can confirm. He's the fastest thing on the ground, which makes him arrogant, and arrogance makes him predictable. He runs the same route every night. A loop from Vought Tower through midtown, down to the harbor, back up through the financial district. He calls it patrol. It's a victory lap."
"Where do we intercept?" John asked.
"Financial district. Dead zone between the old stock exchange and the waterfront. No residential traffic after midnight. No cameras he hasn't disabled for privacy. He likes to run there because no one sees him. We'll use that."
John nodded. "I can contain a two-block area with the ring. Hard light barriers. He runs in, he doesn't run out."
"Then Oliver tranqs him from elevation. Diana, you're the backup. If he breaks containment, you're the only one who can match his reaction time."
" you do what's necessary."
No one spoke. The rain hammered against the cave's upper vents.
---
The screen shifted again. A series of faces. Four of them. Two women, two men. Costumed. Posed. The Deep. Translucent. Black Noir. Queen Maeve.
"Targets Two through Five," Bruce said. "The rest of the Seven. After A-Train is neutralized, Vought will go on lockdown. They'll scatter the team. We can't let that happen. So we hit them simultaneously. Before sunrise."
"Simultaneous," Oliver repeated. "That means five teams."
"Three. Diana takes Translucent. He's invisible, not invulnerable. Her senses pierce his camouflage. John, you take the Deep. He's aquatic. You're a Lantern. Space is harder than water. Oliver, you take Black Noir. He's their stealth specialist. You're the best archer on the planet. Make it a contest."
"She's the most likely to flip. She's been with Vought the longest. She's seen the bodies. According to J'onn's read on Vought's internal communications, she's been distancing herself for months. We give her a choice. Walk away, help us, or fall with the rest."
"J'onn?" Diana looked at the shadows.
Bruce spoke to the darkness at the edge of the console light. "I know you're here. Please come in."
---
The air shimmered. A green shape resolved into a tall figure with a cape and a face that had seen worlds burn.
Martian Manhunter stepped into the light.
"I don't want to interfere in human business," J'onn said. His voice was the same as always. Deep. Resonant. Sad. "I have my rules about interference"
"I'm not asking you to fight."
"Then what?"
Bruce pulled up a new data stream. Internal Vought memos. Employee records. Psych profiles. Security rosters. Building schematics. "Vought has over two thousand employees. I need extract information of scientists and data of experiments on babies"
"I want you to read their leadership. Their security chiefs. Their lab directors. The people who know where the bodies are buried."
J'onn was silent. The console hummed.
"I can do this," he said finally. "I can provide you with the psychological data. Who will break. Who will fight. Who can be turned. But I will not enter the field. I will not raise a hand against humans, no matter what they've done."
"That's all I need."
J'onn looked at the screen. The faces of the Seven. The corporate logo. The smiling photos of executives who had signed off on experiments that killed children.
"Then we remove Homelander last"
Bruce's eyes were cold. "Homelander is the endgame. He has Superman's powers and none of his restraint. He was raised in a laboratory. He was never loved. He was tested. Measured. Injected and now he is sick and can kill anyone without any consequences "
---
Bruce turned to the console. The screens shifted one final time. A complex diagram appeared, lines connecting Vought facilities across the country.
"These are Vought's operational centers. The public ones. The secret ones. The laboratories. The testing sites. While you neutralize the Seven, I'll be shutting down their infrastructure. Mystic is already inside their network. We have their financials. Their communications. Their security protocols. When the Seven fall, Vought falls with them. There won't be a company left to spin the story."
"And after?" John asked.
"After, we release everything. The real footage. The real records. The experiments. The murders. The cover-ups. Every lie they told to bury Clark's name. We don't just defeat them. We prove they were the villains all along."
"There's a hurricane forming off the Florida coast," Diana said. "Category four. Making landfall in eighteen hours."
Bruce almost smiled. "Then that's where he'll be. Not fighting a battle. Saving lives. Being what Homelander pretends to be."
Oliver stepped forward. Studied the targeting diagram. "You've been planning this for weeks."
"Months. Since the first demon attack. I knew we'd need to deal with Vought eventually. I just didn't think Clark would force my hand with a press conference."
"He believes in people."
"I know. That's what makes him Superman. It's also what makes him vulnerable." Bruce looked at the three of them. Diana. Oliver. John. And J'onn, still half in shadow. "That's why you're here. You're not symbols. You're soldiers. And this is a mission, not a metaphor. Can you do it?"
Diana stepped forward. Her hand touched the image of A-Train on the screen.
"The man who killed Robin," she said quietly. "He's mine first."
"He's all of ours. We move in four hours. Before sunrise. Before Vought knows we're coming." Bruce turned back to the console. "J'onn, I need those psych profiles in two hours. Oliver, pick your equipment from cave, it's brand new specially made for you. John, map your containment zones. He paused.