***

---Santa Prisca---

Doomguy sits in his minisubmarine, using his onboard AI, ASH to pilot the craft closer to his infiltration point while he uses the HUD in his helmet to watch any form of entertainment as he waits.

He cannot perceive how slow everything was in the early twenty-first century, from the internet, computers, and transportation. He was told the mini-sub he’s in is the stealthiest and fastest the government had in it’s arsenal but it pales in comparison to what the twenty-third century had to offer.

As he asks himself “Is this really how slow the twenty-first century is?” He began chuckling, almost liking the snail-speed of how society is, it takes everyone hours or even days to see each other in person while in his earth, when you wanted to see someone, you’d see them within a few seconds thanks to mass production of teleportation devices.

But recently, he has been second guessing the snails pace of society in the twenty-first century and was enjoying it, people appreciated the time they had together and treated it with real value while the twenty-third century made time with people worthless as everyone was just a few milliseconds away from each other from the use of teleportation.

While in his deep thought, he hears the voice of ASH call out to him “Sir, we have arrived.” Causing him to close his eyes for a second as he shakes his head side to side, bringing him back to reality as he opens his eyes again.

He climbed the ladder to the roof hatch, twisting open the seal until it popped open, revealing the roof of a cave as he climbed out to see that the submarine had parked just within the entrance to a cave that was on the side of the island. The cave around him was pitch black from the night sky with the ocean outside only lit up by the moon's light.

ASH activates the night vision lenses on the praetor sutis visor, allowing Doomguy to see in the dark as he jumps into the water.

Using his superhuman strength, he swims out of the cave with one push of his leg as he turns around to look at the cliffside, swimming towards it as he grabs onto a rock.

He starts climbing on the cliff side, using his immense grip strength to hold onto any rock that would be impossible for any human to hold onto with their bare hands, Doomguy however isn’t any human.

But he is forced to crush the rocks slightly he was holding onto as they were wet from repeated crashes of waves or rain as he continues reaching towards the top of the cliffside.

“Incoming air patrol, move to your right” ASH says to Doomguy, allowing him to move around the cliff, hiding himself behind another part of the cliff as he peeks around the corner, watching an aircraft with twin engines mounted on its wings pass by. The aircraft has a rugged and futuristic design, with a sleek, angular fuselage and reinforced landing gear that is currently retracted, making it look both imposing and highly functional. Its rotors tilt as it transitions between vertical and horizontal flight, allowing it to hover like a helicopter or speed forward like a traditional airplane. The craft is painted in a matte black, with minimal markings, designed for stealth operations under the cover of night.

Using his primeval eyesight, Doomguy watches as the aircraft continues flying away in the direction of the moon, scanning the water beneath it with a powerful searchlight and from it’s behavior, it was obvious that it was looking for his submarine but their data must be very delayed if it was going very far to look for it.

“Damn.. They have an air force? How come they didn’t use those during their attacks in the U.S?” Doomguy asks outloud.

As he continues climbing, his AI also starts providing more data regarding the intergang base, things such as troop count, base layout, equipment, and much more but it was quick for him to reach the top. As he stands up on the mossy rock at the top of the cliff, he was able to overlook what he would consider as the entire Intergang base but from a pretty far distance, still surrounded by shrubbery and the greenery of Santa Prisca.

He can observe the small airfield with hangars housing several of the same dual tilt rotor aircraft he saw moments ago, along with a formation of recruits training on obstacle courses and marksmanship with many power armored individuals who are overseeing the training recruits.

“For your first question, Doomguy, they didn’t use their ‘airforce’ because what they already deployed was enough and it became the matter of cost efficiency, it would appear they only have a few dozen of these tilt rotor aircraft but here’s what I found from scanning the area. The base is operated not only by Intergang but also the league of assassins and Banes cartel with frequent patrols roaming in the shrubbery to search for intruders” ASH explains to him.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

He jumps down into the shrubbery below him, opting to get off of the tall peak as fast as he could before anyone could spot him from afar as the dirt and shrubbery soften his landing.

“Hey did anyone hear that?” An intergang soldier says, his voice being muffed by the surrounding trees and bushes.

“Fuck” Doomguy mutters under his breath, realizing that belly-flopping into the greenery below him without scanning for patrols might not be a bright idea as he runs a few meters from where he landed.

“I’ll go check it out” A low pitched, slightly robotic voice says as Doomguy starts hearing loud stomps from what he could presume was an individual in power armor walking to where he fell down.

He runs to hide behind another bush as he waits for the patrol to pass by while also thinking of a strategy to get into the intergang base.

The Intergang soldier in power armor, carrying a larger minigun walks up to where Doomguy had landed as he does something that Doomguy had completely unexpected as the back area of the power armor opens up, allowing the soldier to get out as he says “Finally, I can take a piss.”

Then as if a light bulb appeared over his head, Doomguy immediately thought of a perfect plan to infiltrate the intergang base by stealing one of their power armor sets and the opportunity couldn't have presented itself more perfectly.

While the soldier unzipped his pants, he suddenly felt a cold, metal hand tightly grip around his neck as the voice of a young, angry man said into his ear “Make one wrong move and I’ll rip your head off so fast you’ll be able to see your headless corpse fall into the dirt” Doomguy says as he grips onto his shoulder as well.

Tears well up as the soldier gulps, realizing who it is behind him as his squadmate calls out for him “Are you done yet?” causing Doomguy to snap the soldier’s neck. He scoffs as he throws down the body, removing his helmet before he climbs into the power armor.

As he climbs into the power armor as the hydraulics release various hisses and clicks as the back closes and the insides adjust to his size while the hud system activates.

He turns around towards the direction that ‘his squadmate’ called out from and walks towards it, seeing several soldiers in their tactical vests, boots, helmets, and holding their assault rifles.

“Let’s head back to base” Doomguy says, the voice changer bringing out his voice in a deeper but robotic voice, completely concealing his identity.

“Sure thing, boss but also perfect timing too. Our benefactors from Qurac are going to be here soon” The loose lips soldier spits out, making Doomguy to reply with a heavy “Oh.”

“Yeah, turns out the Quraci guy is pissed we didn’t reach our actual goals” The soldier says as they start walking back to base. But to Doomguy, the stars have aligned perfectly, if he can get photos of this Quraci or get the proper documents then it can allow congress to authorize the invasion of Qurac.

Turning off the microphone in his power armor, Doomguy tells ASH “Hack into their communications, find out where the Quraci is and use security cameras to find his face.”

---

In a helicopter just an hour away from the island of Santa Prisca, Lady Shiva sat quietly, exuding an aura of lethal precision. Known as one of the greatest martial artists in the world, her eyes were sharp and focused, dressed in a sleek outfit that allowed for swift movement. She was ready for the mission ahead, her mind calm and determined.

Beside her was Talia al Ghul, a woman of striking beauty and sharp intellect. As the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, she was skilled in both strategy and combat, always balancing her father's plans with her own goals. Her gaze was steady as she prepared for the challenges ahead, thinking of the delicate power plays involved.

Sitting across from them was Salem Obaid, the Quraci Minister of Defense. He wore a crisp military uniform and had a commanding presence. Salem was intent on advancing Qurac's interests, his mind focused on the mission's success as the helicopter sped toward their destination.

Obaid stared at the two women with hidden anger, that his planning, funding, and supply of training officers had been all for nothing in his eyes.

“Minister, you cannot lash out your anger at us when the plan would have succeeded if it wasn’t for the ‘Doomguy’ killing Grodd” Talia says, her Arab accent making her voice sound like it were dripping honey, able to make anyone listen from how beautiful her voice is.

“We would have been able to recover the virus we implanted in Grodds head if it were chopped off but no, it was blown to kingdom come” Obaid grits his teeth as he continues “And now the Justice League or the Americans will find out of Quracs involvement and the plan will be over before it started.”

“For all the Justice League knows, Intergnag, the league, and every other organization under the sun came out of nowhere with cutting edge weaponry that only a government can afford the funding for. We just need to wait for the Justice League and the American public to accuse their government of orchestrating the attacks to gain leverage to invade Qurac” Shiva interjects, providing her insight as she is a master of espionage.

“You are giving me a hypothetical if the best case scenario comes true” Obaid says, putting his face in his hands, unable to live with the fact that the two of the sharpest human women on earth believe that his best case scenario will come true.

But maybe they’re right, he knows these two women have encountered Batman, fought Batman, and in some cases have actually beaten him and it takes more than a strong arm to beat the world's greatest detective.

“We can always try again, but instead of creating chaos within the United States, we send the chaos towards it.” Talia says as she gives a slight grin.