| Gotham City - September 23
The plan Joseph had revealed to the League wasn't particularly complicated.
The Light, like most criminal organizations, was a hydra—cutting off one head disrupted operations but never destroyed the whole.
The strategy, then, was to capture the leaders, seize infrastructure, and expose hidden assets—not just strike piecemeal blows.
Hit them all at once. No escapes. No chance to regroup. Only then could the rest of their network be dismantled.
That was exactly what Joseph intended to do to Leviathan.
His original target had always been Intergang, the ones responsible for killing his mother. Unfortunately, the Brain didn't have every piece of intel related to the Light—because he wasn't its leader. That was Vandal Savage.
Joseph hadn't harbored much enmity toward Leviathan at first, not until they'd tried to assassinate him with Wotan and Atomic Skull, and later Selina with the Cheetah. Cheetah was thought to lead Leviathan, but in truth she'd been nothing more than a puppet for Talia al Ghul.
Worse, Intergang had went under Leviathan, making it personal. If Talia was indeed Leviathan's true leader, she would know how to reach Intergang's current head, and that meant Joseph had a chance to finally shut their operations down.
That's why Joseph was in Gotham this afternoon.
He stood across the street from a cinema, facing a building disguised as a beauty store in the Fashion District—territory controlled by Black Mask. No surprise there. Black Mask had joined Leviathan, and planting their headquarters here was nothing short of an insult to Batman: an international terrorist syndicate daring to operate in his city.
Of course, there was no guarantee Talia herself was inside. She could be on Infinity Island or anywhere else in the world. Still, the site was valuable. Tracing its connections would reveal Leviathan's networks.
During his last Leviathan raid with Catwoman, Interpol had taken down Black Mask, Mr. Yakuza, Dr. Tzin Zhao Tzin, La Dama, and Moxie Mannheim, temporarily crippling the groups they led. But Black Mask had escaped custody, and Intergang had quickly resumed operations. ARGUS intelligence suggested Bruno Mannheim, Moxie's son, had since taken over.
Nor was it certain this building truly served as Leviathan's base. The Brain's information could have been compromised. That's why they had to confirm before storming in.
Joseph wore a black hoodie, black jeans, and nanite-forged shades as he stood beside John Stewart, dressed casually in a brown bomber jacket and dark pants.
John's identity was public, but Joseph found it remarkable how rarely people recognized him in civilian clothes.
He was familiar with John—he'd been the first League member Joseph met upon returning from the arena with Kori. At that time, John had been investigating the teleportation room hidden in the orphanage, a front for human trafficking to the Citadel, almost certainly linked to the Light.
Perched on John's shoulder, invisible to normal eyes, was the Atom, shrunken inside her suit.
Joseph had never spoken to her before, though he was fascinated by her size-shifting powers. If he could adapt it to his nanites, it would solve weight issues and let him store far more generated material for later use.
That question, however, would have to wait until after the mission.
With a nod to John, Joseph pushed open the shop's door. A chime sounded. The boutique appeared stylish, neatly furnished and stocked, perfectly matching the Fashion District's upscale aesthetic.
Several customers browsed inside.
A Hispanic woman with short blonde hair, dressed in the store's uniform, approached them. "Hello, is there anything I can help you with?" she asked.
Joseph knew instantly this was the right place. Her movements were precise, her gait soft and deliberate—the walk of a trained killer. Almost certainly a League of Shadows operative.
He extended his Nova Sense downward. Dozens of energy signatures pulsed from below, far beneath the ground.
He glanced at John, who looked at his ring and gave a confirming nod.
The woman noticed the faint glow of the ring and moved swiftly, hand darting toward her pocket—but Joseph was faster.
"Stop what you're about to do and stay still," he ordered, seizing control of her mind.
She froze in place. With civilians nearby, letting her collapse unconscious would only alarm the others and put innocents at risk.
"The ring says there are sixteen floors below us," John reported.
"We're definitely in the right spot. I'll read her mind," Joseph replied, ignoring the panic rising in the woman's eyes.
Nova shifted him into the Speed State, letting him sift through her memories—not everything, which would take too long, but the essentials: identity, abilities, and knowledge of this base.
Her name was Honor Guest, the product of a clandestine program that had used Ra's al Ghul's hereditary template to create superior offspring.
She had served as Leviathan's elite assassin, the Silencer, until Talia allowed her to retire. Honor had built a happy life with her husband, Blake, and their son, Ben. But when Leviathan agents were rolled up by Interpol, she was forced back into service to protect her family—now working in this store as cover.
As Talia's favorite and Leviathan's number one agent, she had been given the Nanode, advanced micro/macro-technology created by Leviathan and League of Shadows scientists who had also made Black Spider's suit. It could reweave nearby matter into specialized combat fatigues, all controlled by thought and motion.
Honor was not only a master assassin but could also generate zones of total silence.
Beneath this building lay training rooms, indoctrination cells, biotech labs experimenting with cloning, cybernetic enhancements, and meta-serums, plus stockpiles of conventional and exotic weapons—most sourced from Apokolips.
The underground network also connected to tunnels for transporting those weapons in and out unseen.
Having extracted everything he needed, Joseph withdrew from her mind and rendered her unconscious before she could act. She had been seconds away from using her silence field to deaden sound within their inner ears, disorienting them just long enough to slit their throats with the knife hidden in her uniform. Joseph also lifted the Nanode from her pocket. With some enhancements, he planned to gift it to Kori.
Then he quietly incapacitated everyone else on the shop floor.
'Nova, hack the cameras and loop a feed showing everything normal and disable all their security systems.'
//Okay, sir.//
Time snapped back. John blinked in shock as every person in the store slumped unconscious around him. Of course Joseph controlled their descents with his anti-gravity field so they all landed on the ground slowly. Otherwise who knows what could happen. Humans were fragile like that.
Joseph's black clothes shifted into his Nova suit. "I've got what we need. Talia's not here, but there are valuable assets below. Follow me—I'll lead the way."
The Atom leapt from John's shoulder, expanding to full size as she stretched her limbs, while John's body flared with green light, his Green Lantern uniform replacing his jacket and jeans.
"I thought we'd have more of a fight," Atom said wryly. "Guess getting carried works too."