Chapter 124: Free Gotham
Standing on the roof, Logan and Devilbat watched as a parade of police cars, patty wagons and even a few tanks rolled down the main street.
A crowd had gathered behind the police but stayed out on the sidewalk and off the road. When the convoy came to a stop in front of City Hall, a man stepped out of the lead vehicle. He was wearing a brown fedora hat and a long brown trench coat over his plain clothes. In one hand he held a megaphone and in the other a sawed-off shotgun.
He lifted the megaphone to his mouth, "This is Commissioner Wayne! You all know me! You all know I stand for a clean Gotham!"
The crowd was quiet, though it was growing in size. "We have Boss Gordon and his goons surrounded in City Hall here! If you want to see real changes in this City… If you want to feel safe in your own damn backyards, get out here on the streets with your friends and family and support the ones fighting to make that happen."
The crowd cheered and Wayne continued, "We're smoking the RATS out of City Hall!!!"
Logan reached out mentally to his Gremlins, {Push the meat bags out of the building. No windows unless it's on the bottom floor. Well, the bottom two floors.}
As if they were waiting for this order, men started to get thrown out of the building and some lucky few were only chased out. A very overweight man with grey hair that was in the style of a bad combover tried to run through the door when suddenly he fell face first and was quickly drug back into the building.
Wayne and his officers were rushing forward and putting the men in handcuffs when they saw the fat man get drug back inside.
"That was Gordon. Why was he pulled back inside?"
Moments later, Gordon was thrown out a window and landed painfully on his face. "You will all pay for this; I don't know what you are, but I'll see every last one of you dead!!!"
Two officers quickly ran to Gordon and placed him in cuffs, "We got him, Commissioner Wayne."
Gordon started struggling and screaming more, "WHAT did you say? You got me? What is this??? Wayne has me. ME!!!"
"I sure do, you greasy fuck! And this time you will answer to the will of the people. In fact, I stopped by your home and found your niece Barbara. Once I freed her and told her what was going on, she begged to be there for your execution today. I told her that if it would make her feel better, I would put in word that she could pull the trigger herself. The wheelchair you put her in won't be a hindrance either as you will be on your knees when the time comes."
Panic and fear crossed Jim Gordon's face, "You… I have YOU. I will get YOU. You got yours coming Wayne, you cheap piece of shit… You won't even SEE it, just like your wife and your punk kid…"
Gordon was rambling as Wayne and two officers escorted him to a patty wagon that was waiting just for this man so it could fast-track him to the courthouse.
Logan and Devilbat watched, both anticipating Owlman's arrival at any moment. Devilbat turned his head toward a crowd near the wagon Gordon was being loaded into.
Commissioner Wayne stood before Gordon as he was getting a pat down to make sure there were no weapons on him and smiled at the threats being made.
"Tell it to your Boyfriends at the Courthouse Gordon. But you better talk fast because you're finished."
"Yeah??? Say HI to your WIFE in the dirt… Wayne."
Officers trying to keep the crowd of civilians and reporters back accidentally let a man in a trench coat through. That man reached into his coat and came out with a handgun and pointed it at Wayne.
"Tell her I said she was rotten in the SACK…" Gordon spit his last words at Wayne.
"YOU…" Wayne was interrupted by the sight of a man lifting a gun towards his face. He knew he couldn't pull his own gun around in time to stop from being killed, and all his officers were likewise caught flat-footed. He closed his eyes but took solace that on his last day he really made a difference in his city.
Jim Gordon wouldn't live past the day. His only regret was that Thom… No. Owlman didn't show up to go down as well.
Out of nowhere, there was a solid thunk. And a Bat-shaped knife was sticking out of the gunman's arm. He cried out in pain and dropped his gun before he could pull the trigger. A young officer tackled the gunman to the ground and quickly cuffed the man.
"Gods above." Wayne looked at the roof where he saw Devilbat standing with his arm stretched out from throwing the Batarang. "Chill went right up my spine. Thanks for saving my life."
Logan, who was standing to Devilbats right said, "At least you didn't have to stand and watch another Thomas Wayne get gunned down. That has to count for something."
"Something's off. He should have shown up by now."
Logan looked over at the building the city called 'The Nest' and nodded. "No way he hasn't heard about this yet. You think maybe he is waiting until they are all at the Courthouse so he can get them all out at once?"
"No." Devilbat shook his head, "This scene alone is too big of a threat to his way of life. Watching the police cart away all his allies will be a major blow to his standing in the Syndicate. If he isn't here yet, that means he is doing something more important for the Syndicate."
"Let's get into his nest and see what we can see."
Logan mentally tells Wayne where they are headed. He also told him that if Owlman shows up when they aren't there, then just mentally shout for him as he will keep a portion of his mind connected just in case.
When the duo reached the building next to The Nest, Logan spoke his idea. "How about I just grab you and we phase through the wall and enter his main room?"
"Wouldn't work. If he is anything like me, and we have to assume he is at least close to my intellectual level, then as soon as the main room senses someone that didn't enter through the correct way then all data would be altered in the computer and any safes wouldn't open. Any tampering with safe doors would cause the content to either be vaporized or transported to a secondary containment area."
"So, what's your idea?"
"He has to have a human element to his security, going fully automated is too big a chance that one little bug can compromise everything. He would have a series of failsafes in place that he could exploit if needed."
"If only I had J'onn's Martian Vision. I could at least see the layout of the place."
"Let's try your phasing idea, just a few floors under the top. If there is an elevator, I would bet that it is the only way available to us to enter."
Logan grabbed Devilbat and flew to about the middle of the building and slowly phased through the wall. Staying phased until he could make out the room they were in.
When Logan set Devilbat down, he went to the door and put his hand on it. "I maxed out my sonar and I see an elevator on this floor. It is out this door and right for 300 feet and then left for another 100. Then the door is on or right. We will have to be cautious and quiet, there are people in almost every room."
On Devilbat's signal, Logan followed him and flew a foot off the ground so he wouldn't make any noise to alert anyone. Once they made it to the elevator, Logan looked at the buttons and saw there were only 12 floors but clearly there were 3 more floors than that.
"Hit floor 10, then floor 4, and then floor 8 make sure it's in that order."
Once Logan did as he was told, the doors closed, and the elevator went up at a quick speed. When the doors opened, Logan had counted that they were on the 12th floor.
"How did you know?"
"10:48 was the time his world was forever changed." He then walked out to the middle of the room. It appeared to be a meeting room. It held a long table and at the head of the table was the insignia of Owlman.
Logan went to the only door on this floor and saw it had a keyhole and a number pad.
"Looks like we need a key for this door."
Matt walks around the room and stops to inspect a few items here and there. Finally, he stops at a small but of William Shakespeare. He lifted its head and pushed the button it hid. Immediately the door in front of Logan opened to reveal a staircase.
Matt and Logan slowly move up the stairs, ready for the whistle of a Wing or the click of a trap. But their worry was for nothing, when they reached the room all they saw was a large computer. Mat walked to it and sat in the chair and started to type on the keyboard.
**VOCAL PASSWORD REQUIRED**
"Delta - Charlie – 27-5-1939"
**PASSWORD CONFIRMED**
As Matt started to look through Owlman's recent programs, Logan asked "How did you know the password?"
"I didn't, it's an algorithm that changes every second. The Password is locked in for 10 seconds the moment it asks for one and you have to calculate the password from the time and date asked. If you don't answer it and fail 2 times, then the system will go into lockdown. At least that's how mine was set up when we left, I will have to make it more secure now though."
"So can you tell where he is?"
Matt pulled up a program that was running in the background. It looked like it was going through images of Earth and cataloging them. Matt typed in recently cataloged for interest and found their Earth was the last one inspected manually.
"It looks like he went to our Earth in search of the power source for the QED."
Logan felt his heart drop, "He won't be able to find it right?"
Matt looked at him and didn't bother answering.
Logan felt J'onn reach out for his mind and connect to him. "We have been called to the White House."
"Just Great!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone