Batman, the Flash, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, and newer heroes Bluebird and St. William, as well as the one called Revenant all stood at the entry point. Bluebird insisted on taking her vehicle in, but Batman knew the likelihood it would be consumed by nanobots. Revenant and William both stood with their swords drawn. In a bolt of lightning three of them blurred and the powerhouses of the team gave Batman the opening he needed to get the rest of the team underground. The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Capt. Marvel quickly took down a drone generator buying the tactician more time. The Flash and Capt. Marvel stayed above ground in case more forces arrived before the others exit. 

"We need to finish taking down the nearby turrets. The team got lucky we only passed three on the way in..." the Flash instructed Capt. Marvel. 

Wonder Woman caught up with Batman's team which at this point consisted of two guys with swords and a girl with a lot of guns who seemed quite agitated she had to leave her ride on the surface. The group was probably forty or fifty feet below ground now and Batman seemed to be on his toes. 

"It's somewhere close. There's a large corridor that leads directly to where the survivors are being held. Last time I saw the people I could see Nightwing among them." Batman began, "I could see them through a whole in the wall I'd made. It's more earth and dirt than nanobots and micro machines." 

"I noticed a hole in this wall some time ago, step back." the Amazon insisted making them an opening and revealing the corridor Batman spoke of. 

"I forgot to mention, last time I was here I had to deal with a compromised Black Lightning..." Batman said before another techno-zombified hero emerged. 

It was Superboy. 

[b][u]Back at Base Camp...[/u][/b]

The rest of the heroes who Batman insisted staying behind as well as Dr. Light were mostly trying to make best of the situation. However, Static was nervous about things getting worse before they got better. He wished he had a phone with a signal to call his family in Dakota City and was currently in the process of trying to use a pair of burner phones he'd acquired. Walking on the outer rim of the base line and cursing under his breath he noticed something move into the shadows.

"Who's there? A guy can't even take a walk now without some techno zombie trying to..." Static started to banter before a shadow seemed to come to life and stabbed him through the chest. A slight scream was muffled but the body fell to the ground with a hard thud. 

"Did you guys hear something?" Superbeast asked Maxus El and Kid Flash roughly twenty yards away in a tent.

The Shadow Thief was absorbing military grade weaponry, rations and any tech Batman's squad left laying around. He was in and out of the shadows and as two dimensional as he could be before one of the kid's finally caught on to what was happening. They found Virgil's body, bloody and lifeless. Time seemed like it froze and suddenly Batman not wanting them in the inner city where the real danger was made sense. A hero as experienced as Static was taken down and it rocked them all, though Maxus El didn't seem quite as attached to what was happening. Shadow Thief ripped through a few soldiers who caught on to what was happening. 

 ~KL~