Chapter 209: Unknown Part 5

As Arias casually chose to separate himself from the now chaotic scene, Cheshire didn't hesitate to rush into the now slowly burning building, checking for signs of life.

Immediately upon entering, she stumbled upon fallen but breathing officers. Numerous burns covered various parts of their bodies, and they looked to be in immense pain.

With the addition of the suffocating smoke that was rapidly increasing, they also couldn't see very well. But hearing the faint steps of someone approaching on the creaky floor, they couldn't help but call out, thinking it was their comrades.

"Hello? Anyone, please help."

"Who's there? Argh..."

It was a pitiful and helpless sight, one that sadly didn't move Cheshire's emotions at all.

Rather, she walked past them without giving a second glance once she confirmed they weren't in a state to pursue.

As she was walking away to explore a higher floor, she stopped and frowned while looking upward at the now burning portion of the floor. *'Looks like I'm going to have to end my little checkup short.'*

Given how fast the fire was now spreading, Cheshire soon reached the conclusion that the top floor would become the most dangerous, and even if there were survivors, they would likely be the first to perish.

And since her orders were only to ensure they weren't in a state to pursue, it wasn't wrong for her to consider her task complete.

As for the risk of the men dying and burning in the inferno, she clearly remembered that Arias specifically said they wouldn't directly take any lives.

And with the excuse of a fire, she could already see that Arias had very little intention of letting them go. And if they miraculously survived? Then so be it.

"Seems it really isn't your lucky day, boys. Oh well, better luck in your next lives." Happily saying these last words, Cheshire soon leaped out of a nearby window, shielding herself from the flames and making it out with only the scent of smoke on her clothes.

Not much further away, Arias was casually walking in the dark alleyways of that area.

At that time, the stoic robotic voice of his suit's V.I. resounded within the helm.

[Anonymous alert successfully sent to local authorities. Estimated time of arrival at the designated scene: 5 minutes.]

"Good."

Arias's decision behind this was simple, to act as a sort of diversion.

Given the top secrecy around the government's projects to forge meta-humans of their own, they likely wouldn't allow the public to snoop around at such a delicate scene.

This was especially true given the extremely fragile state the government was already in. Slip-ups just couldn't be allowed.

So although Dr. June was gone, they would sooner work to cover up their blunder than begin investigating, which would also lead them to dead ends.

The suspicion that Arias had caused to fall onto the Justice League was immense. So although the government likely wouldn't directly blame the League, they would look there first.

By that time, his trail would have already gone cold again.

As he made it out of the dark alleyway, reaching a rather gloomy residential street, Arias could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles likely rushing to the scene.

In the next moment, a speedy Cheshire, who had finally caught up, appeared on one of the apartment building's staircases, having been moving by leaping roof to roof and ledge to ledge.

"All clear, boss."

She then somersaulted down beside Arias and gave the confirmation regarding her task.

Before Arias could respond, both his and Cheshire's comms buzzed with the sound of Ivy's voice.

"Hey, I've made it back with the all-so-precious creepy cargo. Where are you?"

"On our way. Get her settled in for the moment and try not to agitate her, for your own sake." Arias quickly warned before cutting communications and disappearing into the dark street with Cheshire in tow.

...

The following day, as predicted, the entire surrounding area where the scene had unfolded the previous day was completely shut off to the public.

This didn't deter many curious citizens, conspiracy theorists, and story-hungry journalists from gathering at the outskirts, taking videos and images from a distance.

The news, of course, also covered this odd story, but given everything happening around the country as a whole, it didn't really pick up any traction.

After all, it lacked the spiciness that other stories had. Many just overlooked it and considered the most popular theory: "that a secret government lab had caught fire and they were trying to cover it up."

More keen eyes, though, couldn't help but be drawn to this incident.

One such pair belonged to Batman, who sat before the numerous monitors of his Batcomputer, secretly analyzing the situation and even digging through stolen government information.

"Enchantress..." he muttered the name with great concern marking his expression as he read the classified information regarding her.

For Batman, any slight suspicious event caused him to immediately look for signs of involvement from Arias or anyone linked to him.

He had gone from being wary of him to harboring mild paranoia instead.

Sadly, even though Arias was involved, Bruce could not see the link.

How could he?

The data regarding Enchantress already showed that her first escape led to numerous losses of life, so it wasn't odd that perhaps the same thing had occurred.

Given that the extent of her power was unknown and teleportation was among them, the clues simply pointed to her escaping on her own.

The area lacked surveillance outside of what the government had installed, and that showed no results.

What Bruce didn't know, however, was that the real reason he hadn't received some major clues was simply due to the hospitalization of the victims found on the scene, who knew a third party had helped Enchantress.

This data wasn't yet in the system, so Bruce was yet to see it. However, given how much was going on, he couldn't linger on something like this for long, so in the end, he inhibited himself from finding a major clue by rushing his search for Arias's whereabouts.

No doubt that in time, he would pick up the trail, but by then... it would be too late, and the unknown that plagued both him and the government would unleash terrible events onto the world.