The next time Aaron Reigner opened his eyes, he saw two pairs of worried eyes. He blinked through his drowsiness. Rather than the snug comfort of a mattress, he felt a cool steel across his back.
"He's up!"
"Thank the maker..."
The eyeballs disappeared from view. Aaron picked himself up by the elbows. His surroundings were dark and the world was bumpy.
'Where am I?'
This wasn't his apartment unit. This wasn't his bed. Was he…was he inside a van? And…were those the bars of a cage?
"Careful, Aaron! Don't push yourself."
"That voice…" His vision finally adjusted to the darkness. Aaron saw a black-haired spectacled male with a long head and dry lips. "Todd?"
"Noah is here too," Todd replied. "See?" He gestured to the dark man sitting beside him.
"Yo, Aaron. The cage is small so don't stand up." That deep voice couldn't be mistaken. Noah. What the hell was going on? Why were the three of them in a fucking cage?
"Where are we?" Aaron asked, holding his head. He managed to compose himself through sheer social anxiety. "How did I get here?"
"Remember those rumours about Leviathan kidnapping people?" Todd chuckled anxiously. "Well, it seems like they weren't rumours. They were true."
Aaron exhaled. 'Great. The one day I wanted to sleep without reservation, I got kidnapped. Just…fantastic.'
He maintained a stoic mask. No need to panic just yet. "We're in a van, I'm guessing?"
"You guessed correctly," Noah said. "I was half awake when I got kidnapped from my home. I can confirm it's a van. The question is…where are they taking us?"
"Also, also," Todd began, "don't you find it weird that they took us three specifically? We're Wayne Tech workers. Me and Noah are security people and you're a cubicle guy. Do you think maybe it was on purpose?"
"You're right," Aaron agreed. "The chances of the three of us reuniting like this is slim to no none. Gotham has a population of…what? Over ten million? Yet here we are. Plus…" he paused as he came across a terrible thought. He crawled to the end of the cage and checked to see if there were other cages. There weren't.
He checked the pockets of his sweatpants. His phone was gone.
His heart hammered. Days upon days of sex had weakened him and now the consequences had caught up to him.
"Chloe," Aaron muttered to himself. "She's not here."
"It's just us," Todd said, having understood a snippet of what he said. "They didn't take my roommate, which is obviously weird."
"Who is Chloe?" Noah asked.
"My…daughter."
There was an immediate reaction. Intense and loud. Noah raised a shaky hand, bewildered.
"You have a daughter!? No way!" Todd huffed and was tempted to go and slap him on the back. "Congrats!"
"Thanks," Aaron replied slowly.
"Is she going to be okay? How young is she?" Noah asked, concerned. Considering his questions, Aaron was suddenly relieved. He peered over his shoulders and nodded.
"She'll be fine. She doesn't need me."
Chloe had been living on the streets for a long time. She could certainly survive without him.
His heart slowed down. 'Yeah…yeah. She'll be fine. She's Chloe. She's a smart girl.'
As long as Leviathan didn't hurt her. If they had…
He clenched his fist.
Minutes passed. The van must have been running across a very smooth road because the cage hadn't shaken once. Todd spoke incessantly, a nervous tick of his. Noah remained kept together.
The van stopped. Light poured in as the backdoor flung open. Three military-clad figures with guns appeared, opened the cage door open, and beckoned them forward.
"Out," a woman ordered, irritated. It wasn't an Assassin or a Shadow. It was a grunt from Leviathan. The dark blue military-grade vest they wore screamed out their affiliation. All three of them, Aaron, Todd, and Noah had seen it on the news.
Arms behind their heads, they walked. Pain stung the bottom of their bare feet.
Todd and Noah did not dare attempt to reliant or speak against the dark men. They carried guns five times as heavy as the meagre pistols they carried as guards. The looming threat that they would be shot was too much. They obeyed.
Aaron did too.
Quite arrogant of them, really. They hadn't even bothered to chain them up or blindfold them. Leviathan assumed their guns would be enough talk.
For the average person, that would be correct. Not Aaron. Oddly enough, he was relaxed. His eyes darted left and right and his ears listened in on the surrounding noises. Every step, every crinkle of the gun, and every drop of liquid.
Pitter-patter! Pitter-patter!
The sounds echoed from everywhere. They were in a tunnel of something, rocky and dark and lit up by green torches, yet eroded with a strange liquid. There was a smell to it distinguishing it from water or most chemicals.
They walked for about a minute. Aaron wasn't particularly worried. These guards were lax. If he wanted to, he could take them down by swiping their legs from underneath them and kicking their guns away. His eyes weren't mistaken either. He could see it. He could predict it. Without shoes, his senses were dialled up to eleven and he could feel the wetness of the rocks underneath. With this kind of environment and lighting, these people were easy pickings.
"Faster."
Todd was shoved forward and nearly stumbled and tripped. Aaron maintained a rushed pace as they requested. For now, he would play their game–the supposed Tournament of 100.
His eyes once again were forced to adjust as they reached the end of the tunnel. Voices rushed at him like ragings winds.
Aaron didn't know what to expect but it certainly wasn't this. A loose crowd of people and a thin aquamarine pool of water. His ankles felt wet as he stepped in.
The O-shaped entrance behind them was cut off by a red barrier. The servants of Leviathan stood on the other side, guns held in a lax position.
A hundred eyes stared at them, full of pity. Their feet were dusted with dirt and painted blue.
"W-what's going on?" Todd asked, trembling. "Why are there so many people!?"
"Relax, kid," said a middle-aged man in a suit. He looked a little worse for wear but ultimately kept together. He was perhaps one of few wearing shoes. "We don't know. We know nothing. Some of us have been holed up here for a week."
"A week!? Why!?" Todd shrieked.
"Again, I don't know," the man replied. "They're waiting for something that's for sure. They said it's almost time."
"First, who is they?" Noah asked in Todd's stead. "Second, time for what?"
"Leviathan, probably." The male shrugged. "As for your second question, nobody knows. Maybe a sacrifice."
"Magic does exist after all…" Todd muttered under his breath. "Maybe they're trying to summon a demon?"
'Is this the Tournament of 100? Just a sacrifice of a hundred and four people?' Aaron knitted his brows together. No, that couldn't be. There had to be something to this. Concern etched the expressions of every man and woman in the massive blue-tinted area. Above was a black void.
The walls were unclimbable, too wet and smooth for a proper grip. Aaron chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking. 'I don't think there's a way out…'
Aaron glanced back at the red barrier. Was it magical? A laser shield? Alien tech?
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you," warned the suited man. "Somebody touched it once and they got third-degree burns. It was bad. He's still recovering."
Aaron nodded and checked the edges. His hand traced down its shape and knocked on it in intervals of five inches. It was just plain rock, much to his surprise.
'This barrier is magic then. Leviathan has a magic user here.' He drew back and stared at the semi-transparent barrier and the guards beyond. They seemed amused by his investigation. Their confidence spoke volumes. They knew there was no way for him to break through it.
'Hm. They're right too. I don't see any way to make it malfunction.'
Noah tapped him on the shoulder. "You done? We should take a look at what's happened at the front. There's something there."
Aaron nodded and with the help of the suited man, Henry, they trudged to the front. The area was larger than Aaron anticipated because the fast walk was at least two minutes long. Henry explained he had been kidnapped in his home, ripped away from his fiancé, Alex. He missed him terribly.
Todd was much better at comforting Henry than Noah and Aaron combined. It wasn't like Aaron lacked empathy but he still wasn't good at conversing with people beyond the surface level. Unless they were women, in which case he could find a…physical solution.
At the front, as the man suggested, was a platform too high for anyone to climb or reach. Even White Rabbit with her super leap wouldn't reach it. It was an impossible task for a human without flight.
"So…who is on there?" Todd asked after a while of awkwardness. Underneath it, the shine of the platform's alloy stood out but nothing else stood out to them. It was just a platform. "Do they toss food from there or something?"
Henry winced. "Yes, they do."
Aaron turned back. There were a lot of people. He could imagine the chaos ensuing when they tossed food. It would be an animalistic riot. When it came to food and water, people would do terrible things.
Many women stood to the side, sitting dejectedly, their clothes torn. The biological gap in physical ability must have put them at a massive disadvantage. A pang of empathy struck his heart.
He could tell some had been here for weeks. With the cool green-blue liquid sinking their ankles, the jagged surface of stone, and the sheer number of people, sleep was a luxury. As his gaze swept the area, he noticed something: there were no children. Not a single teenager. Moreover, many were conversing with one another like old friends.
'It's like they purposely picked out people…and their shoes. Most aren't wearing them. They were taken from their homes.'
This was public knowledge and repeated incessantly on the news. Even so, he sensed something in that line of thought. He was on the right track, he could taste it.
But the theories had to be pushed for later as the platform suddenly screeched. Aaron, Todd, Noah, and Henry leapt back. The platform, which had been glued to its high horse for an unmitigated amount of time, was coming down.
"What's going–"
"It's moving–"
"The fuck…!"
"Finally!"
Whispers, shouts, and anxiety spread among the hundred. They watched the platform descend and the people rushed away from it. At the halfway point, still too far for any normal human to reach, it stopped. They saw two figures–a man and a woman.
It was probably his heightened hormones but Aaron's eyes immediately latched on to the female. Strangely, she did not appear human despite her very humanoid shape. Her skin was paper white–as light as Harley Quinn–and her outfit was a skintight black that covered a side of her pale breasts. Vermillion outlined her gauntlets and the sword she was wielding. Her silky white hair went past her shoulders and her face was fierce yet tinted red by shades of some kind. A gleaming scarlet gem was embedded in the forehead portion of the bizarre helmet-eque spectacles.
Her hourglass figure couldn't have been further emphasized in her getup. And he thought Selina was bad with her skintight leather outfit. This villainous woman was twice as risqué and obscene as the cat.
"Greetings, people of Gotham. I hope you are well." The male expressed himself in a firm and long-winded manner, but also commanded respect. Nobody dared to interrupt him.
His costume was downright terrifying. Badass, even. The garnet mask he wore encompassed his head and appeared futuristic. His hood and armour were blood red and radiating authority. He looked more like a machine than a human. Two cyan dots functioned as his eyes. Aaron scanned him from afar. For the first time in his life, he couldn't find a single weakness. Not a crack or point to exploit. If he came head to head with this man, he would be at the disadvantage. It was the same with the woman. He saw nothing except sheer power.
Two people. A man and a woman. The Gothamites firmly maintained the numbers advantage yet they could see no hope. Not against these two.
"We are gathered here today for the Tournament of 100." The masked man gazed down on them. "I am the Manhunter. A hero. A public defender. A man seeking the truth. A man who fights the great evils controlling this world. But you may better know me as the leader of Leviathan."
There were murmurs. The anti-capitalist man was known in Gotham for his resonating speeches. He called for the downfall of Lex Luthor, a man the people of Gotham detested.
"W-why are we here?" a woman yelled. "Why us? I-I have a baby to take care of!"
"Yeah! What she said!"
"Let us out!"
"Mark fuckin' Shaw, my ass! We don't care if you're the president!"
They started heckling at him. Throwing curses and insults until their throats went dry. Aaron was surprised by the sudden courage but thought it was quite foolish. He could see the build-up of an invisible power enveloping the evil lady.
"Silence." The weight of the air increased from the pressure. She swung her blade and a titanic shriek penetrated their ears. A slash of pressurised magic that nearly threw the hundred Gothamites back. It was a sharp, intense moment lasting over two seconds. Yet those two seconds were all that were needed to regain their submission.
"If you do not pipe down, you will face the wrath of Angel Breaker," the lady declared, her white eyes glowing with mystical energy. Aaron squinted. She was high above and she likely couldn't tell him apart from the others. But he could.
'That name. Angel Breaker.'
She was the one who fought Poison Ivy, Harley, and the Robins.
'So this is the infamous Angel Breaker,' Aaron thought. 'Trained by women like Black Canary and amped by a magical sword. Of course. She's strong.'
In the corner of his mind, he added that she was smoking hot.
Then there was Mark Shaw, the leader of Leviathan. His armour contained no weak points, probably because it was insanely high-tech. Perhaps it was made with the help of aliens or some genius from the future. Regardless, the two were threats a powerless human like him couldn't handle. If he was closer, there was a small possibility he could pinpoint a weak spot. However, unless they willed it, they would stay on that platform.
So he listened to what they had to say.
"The Tournament of 100 is simple," Mark Shaw continued, hands behind him. He acted as though they hadn't been taunting him seconds ago. "It is a selection for the Chosen One. We have searched all over the world for the Chosen One. The One is among you. We are certain."
Everybody except Aaron exchanged puzzled glances. He maintained a steady eye on Mark Shaw and Angel Breaker. He saw an evil smirk spread across Angel Breaker's delicious lips.
"I was once no one. A meaningless girl with no future or destiny. Then I was found and trained by the Coda Sisterhood, led by an otherworldly warrior called Zealot. She held a great blade. This blade." Angel Breaker raised the blade and a godly light fell down upon them. The deathly dark steel was crossed through the middle with a horrific scarlet energy. All of them could feel the impending doom.
Beside him, Noah gulped like a cartoon character. The air suddenly thickened and their throats became dry.
"The blade spoke to me." She did not yell nor did she raise her voice. The words carried through the ears of the hundred regardless. "Forged on another world, its purpose unknown, Zealot carried the blade for thousands of years, just so that it could reach me. Me, who the blade said would fight in a great war. Me, who the blade said would need to face a great threat. Alone."
Angel Breaker lowered the saber and almost let it touch the ground. Aaron was afraid that if she had, the world would split.
"I was told to train with Earth's greatest sisters in preparation for this. Unfortunately…" Exasperation entered her. "...some of my sisters would not comply. I was left unprepared and the blade knew it." A breath. A pause. The audience was on the edge, waiting for her words. "Then the blade whispered again. It told of the Chosen One. The brother or sister who would save the world."
'There it is again.'
The Chosen One. The big headache everybody was searching for.
"My brothers in Leviathan told me they also heard of such a prophecy. Of a Chosen One who will feel Element X and gain ultimate power. Power to stop the oncoming threat," Angel Breaker proclaimed. "The Chosen One is here. I can sense it."
A terrible feeling settled in the pits of his stomach. It was as if each word was urging him on to an obvious, premeditated conclusion.
"What lies at your feet," Mark Shaw began, "is natural, uncorrupted Dionesium. Superior to the Lazarus Pit or the small batches of miracle water scattered throughout the world. This is perhaps the only untainted source of it in the world–here, underneath Gotham. As long as you stand in these waters, you will not die. You will be rehabilitated over and over again. We do not wish to hurt you. I do not want to hurt you. Unfortunately, this is only the way to make certain of the Chosen One; through death."
Temporary immortality? Once again, the kidnapped people fell into a hush.
"Angel Breaker shall beckon each of you one-by-one. If you are indeed the Chosen One, the Angel Breaker shall not hurt you. If you are not the one, then your corpse will fall and be revived." Mark Shaw spoke with unexpected sorrow. It threw Aaron off. He was empathetic but not empathetic enough to release him.
A mystery was afoot.
"W-what does that mean?" Todd whispered in his ear. Aaron shrugged.
Beside them, Henry froze and a strange red aura surrounded him. His eyes bulged out and he was lifted into the air. He couldn't move his arms as they were glued tightly to his side. He rose and rose and rose, mouthing for help. Nobody could do anything as Angel Breaker's sword pulled him close to her.
"H-Henry!? Henry!" Todd wanted to leap after him but Noah was quick to shut his reaching hand down. It was the correct decision as they would soon find out in the next five seconds.
"You are not the one," Angel Breaker said coldly. There was a flesh of red. Aaron went wide-eyed and gasps echoed through the cavern.
Henry and his head fell into the pool of liquid with a thud.
The shrieks soon came afterwards.
"Oh my god–!"
"Let me out! I'm not the one! Let me out! OUT!"
Then the fear. It spread like wildfire. Everybody backed away from the corpse and the rolling head. Angel Breaker had beheaded him like it was nothing. She had stopped the life of a human being without any regard to–
"W-what happened to me…?"
The crowd suddenly held their breath. The head of the dead man spoke. No, somehow, it had attached itself to the body. Miraculously, like a zombie, Henry stood. His eyes were red yet his brain was fully intact. He groaned and held his head in pain.
"I told you, did I not?" Mark Shaw said. "You are effectively immortal as long as you fall within the pool of Dionesium. We are not monsters. We simply wish to find the Chosen One. Now then, onto the next individual."
'So…so this is the Tournament of 100…?' Aaron winced as he witnessed another quick beheading. It was brutal. Watching the blood mix in with the liquid on the ground, fusing with it to revive the fallen corpse, it was…a lot to take in. His brain didn't properly register what it was seeing. His heart went numb. He had seen a dead body before in the streets of Gotham. But this…this was different.
"Not you–!" SLASH! "Not you–!" SLASH! "Not you–"
Where Mark Shaw exuded sympathy towards the victims, Angel Breaker shredded and spoke with so little concern she might as well been having a picnic. It was chilling.
Dead bodies dropped like flies.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth victims were killed and resurrected in the blink of an eye. It felt so fucking inhumane. Aaron wanted to just beat the living fuck out of these villains for causing such terror and panic. He had never felt so uncomfortable as the people beside him panicked and gasped and frightfully backed away. Unfortunately, their little platform was too high up for him.
It felt like the final stage of a long, villainous plan. They were picked apart like dots in a crowd, like meaningless, valueless entities.
Lesser than humans. That was what the hundred and four Gothamites were.
A wet liquid leaked from his fists. Blood. His fingers dug deep enough to pierce his skin.
It was all for naught. He could do nothing. He stood and watched as the world around him died.
Aaron shifted his feet.
No…something shifted his feet. He glanced down. The ground–it was shaking. The gruesome sight ahead was numbing the senses of the others but not Aaron. The tremors slighted the soles of his feet. It was there.
'What's going on–'
From behind, there was a thunderous crack. All at once, the Gothamites whipped their heads back. Then–
BOOM!
The red barrier…it was gone. The guards who had been cockily standing in charge of it were thrown into the crowd.
An approaching clack roused their ears. It was a walking cane accompanied by quacking laughter.
"Well, well, well," the male voice began, shrill and loud. "I finally found ya…Mark Shaw."
The Penguin, garbed in his iconic tuxedo and identifiable by his round golden monocle. It was him. There was no mistake. The innocent people cleared the path for the short, stocky man. He was accompanied by two intense characters too: Lady Shiva, carrying a broadsword, and her ex-lover, David Cain. Shiva garnered his personal attention due to her risque outfit. A skin-tight blood red bodysuit with a notable boob window and swaying sash. She had an eerily steady centre of balance. Whereas her husband was loaded in silver and metal, she was a goddess personified as a martial artist.
"Welcome, Penguin. I am honoured by your arrival," the Manhunter greeted, voice booming. The Penguin paid him no mind.
"So this is your little Chosen One business? It's grotesque, I have to admit," the Penguin said, "but this pure Dionesium sure is valuable. Heh. I'll be sure to put it to good use…after I kill ya!"
There was no further conversation. As soon as those words left his lips, Lady Shiva and David Cain–the Orphan–dashed forward. The man was in silver armour and there was an extra bounce in his movements. Like a superhuman, he was able to make the impossible jump and reach the two Leviathan heads. The platform started to move again and climbed back up to its throne.
David Cain crossed swords with Angel Breaker. There was a great clash that shook the little platform.
Lady Shiva, meanwhile, climbed the impossible. The tiny indents were a massive stepping stone and she swiftly climbed her way up. The skill, the flair, the self-assurance–only through decades of training could an individual achieve such a feat.
Also, he didn't want to be a pervert but she had an incredibly toned ass. Cassandra seemed to have inherited that from her.
He pursed his lips and closed his eyes in frustration. 'That wasn't me, that was just my powers. I wasn't leering at Cass' mother because I wanted to. It was the powers…'
He opened his eyes and returned to the fight. And what a fight it was. Lady Shiva bounced on her heels and leaped left and right as she assaulted Mark Shaw with a barrage of kicks. Her lower body shifted and gathered energy in a fraction of a second. Each kick could shatter a bone.
If Catwoman was an opponent he considered to be skilled in the highest measure, then Shiva was somehow five steps above that. It was eerily reminiscent of how Cassandra rode him during sex. It was technical and precise and deliberate to an excruciating degree. Her thick, muscled thighs were addicting to watch as they smacked against the dense metal plate of armour.
Then it happened. A snap in Mark Shaw's movements. Speed and strength exceeding his defensive self two seconds ago. Amplified, he was able to weave through her attacks and limit the damage and pain. His defences were sharp. No, they were growing sharper.
Miraculously, to the shock of the Manhunter, Lady Shiva went faster. The great leader backed away. Eventually, the pair edged out of sight, their grunts and smacks still heard. Aaron didn't know where they were heading and he didn't want to stick around to find out. They needed to leave. Now.
While David Cain was keeping Angel Breaker busy, Aaron turned to his friends. "Let's go."
A switch was pressed when he said those words. All of a sudden, everybody wanted to get out. They swarmed the entrance and ran through the once blocked path like a hurdle. The Penguin was protected by seven large men who acted as a fork. The criminal boss' cackles filled the air as loudly as the steps of a hundred.
Since Aaron and his peers were at the back, they were last to reach the open hole. As soon as they arrived, however–
"Back, back, back–"
"W-what," Todd exclaimed as a man came and shoved past him. Two more came, a stocky man and a short woman, each using their panicked reflexes to move past them. A dozen more soon arrived.
The momentum had suddenly turned on them. The people were running back in spades. It was pure chaos. Aaron didn't know what was happening except that something terrible had occurred ahead and nobody wanted to be a part of it.
BOOM!
From the distance ahead, there was an explosion. The cavern shook. The droplets of Dionesium above doubled in pace.
Aaron turned his head back. The platform was gone as was the Penguin and his minions. In the minutes of anarchy, something important had happened.
'Fuck, I should have been paying attention.' Not only had he not made progress, but he was stuck here with a hundred innocent people with no direction or calmness. Their jitters nearly affected him. The voices. The concern. The fear. It was contagious. Adrenaline rushed through his veins and he managed to control himself. 'Okay, so the Penguin is gone. He's probably helping Shiva and David Cain against Mark Shaw and Angel Breaker.'
"What happened ahead?" Aaron asked a nearby woman. Although short of breath, she managed to supply him with an answer.
"Bullets. People. Explosions," she replied. "I think…I think the Penguin's men were fighting Leviathan's soldiers."
"Does the Penguin even have that kind of enforcement?" Todd wondered out loud. "I mean, Leviathan is a big deal. I'm impressed."
'No, he's right. A mobster like him could never match up to Leviathan. Leviathan has state of the art military-grade weaponry and armour. Unless…the D.E.O. Talia al Ghul. Cassandra mentioned she was working with the Penguin.'
"It was…it wasn't a cave. It…I-I couldn't tell you what or where we were exactly, but going forward was…" the woman cut herself and caught her uneven breath. She realized she wasn't making sense. "Impossible. It's impossible."
"Advanced weaponry. Did you see it? Lasers, that sort of thing?" Aaron asked hurriedly. The woman thought for a moment before nodding. That confirmed it. Talia was supplying the Penguin with state of the art military equipment. For now, he would keep his conclusions to himself.
"Then it's too dangerous to go out," Aaron told his friends. "We should stay here."
"Jesus, this is insane," Todd muttered under his breath. Staring at the pool of liquid underneath and shaking his head as if losing his mind, he added, "This sucks. Fucking hell, this sucks." He paced around in circles, eyes wild and teary. His rib cage expanded and deflated at an explosive rate. "Am I ever gonna see my sister again. I never…god–"
Noah put a hand on his shoulder. The poor man was hyperventilating. Swallowing, Noah conjured a few words of comfort, "It'll be okay. Trust me. Batman…he'll come. He'll help us. He always does."
His nose flared red. Todd didn't believe it. Yet in spite of his own lack of faith, he calmed down. He stopped speaking and looked into the pool and his blue reflection.
"Dude," Todd croaked, "I think I'm gonna die here."
Noah pursed his lips. "Nonsense–"
"I am! I can feel it! I'm just…some background fucking character. A nameless victim. A number for the inevitable headline Vicki Vale writes." His voice went lower and lower till it was a mere whisper. "A nothing."
Todd fell to his knees and his hands were engulfed by the Dionesium. His shaky panting was horrendous to listen to. He was losing it. Everybody in the vicinity was losing it. Their hushes becoming screams and sighs and eventually…silence.
Sweat-soaked, weak, and ruffled. No one could raise a fist. The platform, the sole star in the cavern, had dissipated. The noises of battle groaned in the background.
Aaron needed to do something. Was it the Dionesium? Was it affecting their moods? Their feelings? The negativity was so intense that it was tangible. Given its unnatural properties, humans were not supposed to come into contact with pure Dionesium for long, yet there were some here who had bathed in it for a week.
Their minds were eroding. He could see the energy melt off Todd's back. The once enthusiastic, happy-go-lucky nerd was gone. What remained was a shell of a man muttering in despair.
"Noah, I need your help," Aaron asked. The taller male locked onto him with unexpected resolve. The security guard didn't need a speech or an explanation. He wanted to help and he wanted to do it now. Aaron, brimming with confidence, continued, "I need to reach that platform."
"You'll need my help too," Henry interjected. "We've had a lot of people try and make the jump. None of us had the balance or the patience to do it but…I guess it's now or never."
"Yeah," Aaron agreed, "it's now or never."
Coming together to overcome a great obstacle. Aaron had never thought he of all people would be the one to push for a goal like that but here he was.
The ground was shaky from the shocks of a great battle. Aaron had experienced earthquakes before but none like this. Henry was beginning to stumble. Even Noah, a man who prided himself on his physicality, seemed troubled.
The platform was not gone, merely pushed inwards. Whatever lied past there was important. Perhaps they could find something. A button, a tool, a ladder. Hope. He couldn't afford to stay in this cavern any longer.
'The Penguin was somehow able to get on it. Lady Shiva or David Cain must have done something on their side.'
Tangible proof for hope. No one wanted to listen but it was there.
With Noah on Henry's shoulders, extending out his palms for Aaron to leap from, they tried. They tried and tried and tried.
They failed every time.
The jump was simply too high. What was it–forty feet? Aaron on his own had a vertical of four feet. Thirty five was left to cover. Using Noah and Henry as a step, he reached nearly twenty feet. Half of what he needed.
It simply wasn't enough. The Dionesium was really fucking slippery too so maintaining balance was impossible. It was like the universe was doing everything in its power to make this impossible for them.
"Um, excuse me?"
Panting, exhausting and annoyed, Aaron flipped his head to see…a little girl. She must have been five feet tall because Aaron had to force his neck way, way down to see her. A black patch of hair, freckles, and youthful features, he suspected she was a highschool student.
"I see what you're trying to do, but have you guys ever done cheerleading?"
"Cheerleading?" Aaron glanced back at the two men behind him. They shook their heads. "No," Aaron replied.
The little girl smiled. "That's okay. I-I think I might have an idea though. I think!"
She sounded too chirpy. "How old are you?" Noah asked cautiously.
"I'm seventeen! I'm in my senior year!" she declared. "Oh, right! Um, my name is Mia Mizoguchi! You can call me Maps!"
"Maps," Noah called, "let the adults handle this–"
"No, let her help," Aaron cut in. Her voice might have been ridiculously high-pitched but he saw something in her. "We need help anyway. Nobody else seems to want to."
Indeed, the rest of the crowd was muttering and occasionally running into the hole. Not a single soul came back. The tension, the fear, it was rising exponentially.
"Fine," Noah muttered. "Also, Henry, get off."
"M-my bad."
Maps giggled at their antics. "Okay, okay. My idea is this. You know how cheerleaders do that thing where they hold a person up with their hands?"
"We tried that," Henry responded. "We had Aaron climb up and jump from the top but since we're so shaky he couldn't go that high."
"Right," Maps drawled, "but this time, you'll have me."
"You're going to make the jump?" Aaron asked.
"No way! It has to be you, um, Aaron." Her cheeks flushed for whatever reason. "I mean, nobody here can jump as high as you. You just need focus. Time. I'm sure if I can hold you long enough, you can do a mega high jump."
"I weigh way too much. You'll hurt yourself," Aaron pointed out.
Maps smiled. "That's okay!"
"That's okay?" Noah repeated, incredulous. "Look, it's impossible for you to–"
"Relax, Noah. I get that you don't want to involve kids but we don't have a choice." Noah pursed his lips shut at the rebuttal. Aaron peered down at her. Her whole face had lit up from his curt defence of her. Maps was thin, bright and short. Full of spunk but little in the matter of physicality. Regardless, he offered a hand. "It might be painful."
"I know!" Maps grinned and then jabbed a thumb at the people behind them. "But you need help! They need help!"
Aaron acknowledged her determination. He respected it. Looking into her eyes reminded him of Cassandra and not just because they were both Asian, no. There was a deep sense of justice that manifested itself in their eyes. It was a moral compass that Aaron vied for his whole life.
First was Henry. Noah slowly raised his hands and picked him up. It was a tedious process that required his entire body's strength. Then came Maps. She was small so climbing up Noah and Henry was easy.
"Woah!" They nearly tipped over as Maps balanced one foot in Noah's hand, then the other. Again, it was a considerable struggle.
And the hardest part was just coming. Now Aaron had to climb twenty feet worth of people. The raised arms, the shaky bodies, his weight almost made the structure collapse. They weren't professional cheerleaders. They were normal people. Noah was stronger than the average person and taller too, acting as a solid foundation. The weakness came in Henry. He was a measly business man. His body was trained to sit at a computer rather than do intense cardio.
Maps' naturally tiny body was a negative too. She was short and did not help them reach their goal as much as they hoped. Unfortunately, she was all they had.
"Ready?" Aaron asked as he stood on Henry's shoulders. Maps forced a smile and nodded. Tightly gripped her shoulder, he heaved himself up. He placed his left foot first and then his right. His equilibrium was perfect. He could do this.
"Steady," he said to her. Maps grunted and her face went red. He checked to make sure she could maintain this posture before glancing up.
'Fuck, there's so much left. Ten feet maybe? If it hadn't gone back up, we would have made it by now…'
It was daunting. Map's small palms trembled.
But they did not give in.
Aaron lowered his centre of gravity and gathered up his muscles in his legs. His eyes scanned the indents on the rocky wall. He replayed Shiva's climb in his head. The quick touches, the swift explosion of energy. He needed to imitate it.
He jumped.
It was like an instinctive dance.
His bare feet scraped up the smallest notches and used them to leap like a missile. He climbed and climbed and climbed. He didn't breathe. He focused, his peripheral delving into a world of rocks and stones. In the recesses of his memories, he recalled Lady Shiva. He couldn't mess up. He couldn't–
'There.' His fingers clasped the edge of the platform. Rather than rock, there was cool metal. Both hands gripped it and he dangled off the ledge for two seconds before heaving himself up.
Below was pure bewilderment. He must have been a spider with his calculated movements. He sent a thumbs-up.
"You…fucking made it!" Henry yelled, hands cupping his mouth like a speaker. "You're amazing, Aaron! Holy shit!"
"Language," he heard Noah chide. "We have a kid here!"
Maps wasn't paying Henry or Noah attention, her focus soaked up the mesmerizing sight of his accomplishment. "Amazing! You're amazing! You gotta teach me that!" Her eyes sparkled and her smile took up half her face.
Aaron was too socially self-conscious to yell back so he instead gave another thumbs-up. Yeah, he sucked. Still, he had a job to do.
Behind him was a door formed of pure metal. He approached it carefully. He could hear sounds of battle. Sensing his presence, it automatically slid open and unveiled a monitor room. Inside was…
'No one.'
There was another at the back of the monitor room. That was the root of commotion. He didn't dare approach it. He kept himself to the computers and large monitors. Apparently, cameras were installed in the upper levels of the cavern and they scanned and identified every person captured. The green square flickered from person to person, detailing their physical features, their age, and occupation, as well as two coded statistics.
However, the details never lingered. It was like an AI system built to maintain the capture of the Gothamites.
At the corner of all the monitors, an exclamation mark popped out. He squinted as words rolled out.
"'Chosen One Candidate Aaron Reigner has escaped. Please be on alert.' So it alerts the person watching that someone has escaped…" He glanced down and to his left. There were two corpses, dead judging by the lack of chest movement. "But I guess they're not gonna be seeing it."
He searched the row of monitors. On top of the cameras in the cavern, there were cameras of some sort of warehouse. No, a laboratory? A series of labs? The place had six unique floors, large and wide. On one particular floor, he saw overgrown plants and vines...
It was strangely recognizable….
The battle between the grunts of Leviathan and the Penguin raged. Although mute, he could witness the acts of violence committed. It was not pretty.
As he scanned the laboratories, he came to an intriguing conclusion: 'There are laboratories on top of this cave. Huh…'
The mystery of how they got here wasn't much of a mystery now. Leviathan drove them to this place in a van, went down an elevator till they reached the caves, and walked to the drop-off area: the cavern.
'Wait a minute…a hidden floor? Wait, this is…it's S.T.A.R Labs!?'
No fucking way. The secret base of Leviathan was the Gotham S.T.A.R Labs. Three stories high, six floors, glass walls…no, it couldn't be…
He had been here. He had snuck in. He had been so close–
'No, I can't think about it too much. Focus on the task at hand. It's what Cassandra would do, right?'
He needed something to lower the platform. S.T.A.R Labs or not, using the path where they came from was too risky. They would die. He was sure of it.
He found it. At the corner of his eye, there was a lever. He pulled on it without a thought. He heard the sound of gears turning. He peeked through the door. The platform was gone.
'Finally…'
The first batch to return on the platform were familiar faces: Noah, Henry, Maps, and even Todd. Out of the four, it was Maps who led them. Her enthusiasm carried over to much of her life, it seemed.
"It worked!" Maps exclaimed, bouncing from heel to heel. She looked just about ready to hug him. "Aaron, you're so cool!" Okay, she hugged him. It was awkward since he wasn't much of a hugger and she was a five-foot high schooler. He didn't know whether to wrap his arms around her or simply pat her on the head. He decided to go with the latter.
"Good work," Noah praised, high-fiving him. "It really was amazing."
Todd, although tepid, fist pumped him. Henry did the same. It was all very rigid but ultimately an expression of their gratitude. His heart fluttered while his face hardened.
"I appreciate the compliments but unfortunately we aren't done just yet," Aaron said. "I'm guessing there's a bunch of people down there waiting to come up?"
Their faces fell. He was right on the money. Aaron inhaled. "Here's the thing: you see that door behind us?" He threw a hand towards the general direction of the door. "You hear the noise? It's a battle. The Penguin is fighting against the leader of Leviathan. It's not fun."
The news dawned upon Noah like a tragedy. "Wait…so we're trapped. This monitor room…there's nothing more to it." He craned his head, searching for something. Anything. His face fell. Noah bit his bottom lip, his nerves catching up to him. "This is not good."
"Y-yeah. Um." Maps' voice hitched. "I thought…isn't there something on the monitors?"
Aaron casted the computers a skeptical glance. "I doubt it. I said it was a monitor room for a reason. I don't think there's a secret passage."
"It's…" Noah had been checking monitor screens, squinting. He had come to the same conclusion as him. "This cave is on top of…labs?" Noah kept quiet as he double-checked. "He's right. I see nothing here. There's a visual of the cavern below and the labs where the Penguin's men are fighting against Leviathan. But…that's it. That's all there is."
"A-are you sure?" Maps asked, grasping at straws. "Maybe there's like…um…a-a fake wall! Yeah, and it leads to a path out of here!"
"What are you, the leader of a detective club?" Todd remarked. Much to his astonishment, Maps' jaw fell and she struggled to conjure up words. The older males exchanged surprised looks.
"Y-yeah!" Maps proclaimed, utterly drenched in amazement. "How did you know!? Are you psychic?"
"H-huh? No? Lucky guess?" Todd said, rubbing his nape.
"Here's another lucky guess," Aaron said pointedly, "you were once a part of We Are Robin."
"H-how–what? No…" Maps chuckled and whistled unconvincingly. The widened eyes of the adults bore down on her with great curiosity. "No, seriously. I wasn't!"
"Don't worry, I won't tell," Aaron said. "I remember the law. You might be expelled, right?"
"I-I wasn't a part of it! Really, it was my friend Riko–oh!" Maps slapped her hands on her mouth. Her round face deteriorated into pure dread. "Um. I didn't say that."
'Riko,' Aaron repeated, brows furrowed. 'Riko Sheridan…?'
He eased up. This was not the time nor place to be speculating about Maps' precise relations to the Japanese woman.
"Look, Robin-shrobin, there's some folks waiting for a lift." Henry's words were sprinkled with unexpected firmness. "What should we do, Aaron?"
All eyes went to him. Aaron cooled himself down, strumming the beat in his heart, and regarded each of them carefully.
"I'll go."
"Go…go where?" Todd asked, not understanding. The others did, however, and wore tightened faces. "W-what? Go where?"
"One of us has to go beyond the door," Aaron said quietly. "I'll go."
"I'll join you," Maps said. "I'm–"
"You're a kid," Noah interrupted, touching her shoulder. "And you saw what Angel Breaker did–does. She beheads people without a second thought, like slicing butter for toast, except this time there's no magic water to save us. When we die…we die. End of story."
Maps gulped. A remainder of tough grit laid in Mia Mizoguchi's childish eyes. Impressive. But she feared death too much to risk it.
"I'll be fine." Aaron offered her a sincere smile. Putting a hand on her head, he ruffled her hair. "Trust me."
Maps nodded silently, beady eyes meeting him. Aaron sent the adults a message: take care of her. They understood.
"Don't let anyone up just yet," Aaron ordered. "We can't risk a desperate guy running through and ruining the element of surprise."
"Got it." Noah nodded like a soldier. Maps did the same, albeit with a forced smile.
The door appeared taller and stronger than it seemed. Made of a steely silver, its hinges broken from battle and clinging onto the wires connecting to it. It was closed but with a tiny push that would change.
Gathering his bearings and his fists, he proceeded through. The floor, the ceiling, the walls–his surroundings were silver and filled with dents. Bodies of Leviathan grunts laid everywhere. Dozens, their weapons broken and their heads bashed in. Lady Shiva and David Cain were a fearsome duo indeed.
Groans escaped some of the bodies. Shiva inflicted some sort of technique to paralyze their bodies. It was instantaneous from the look of things. The touch of a pressure point. The rupture of an organ.
The walls were lined with doors hiding stashes of weapons. Machine guns, laser guns, and…and even the anti-metahuman prototype weapon. He blitzed between depot to depot. Properly docked inside many of the metal cases were the anti-metahuman guns, untouched. He decided to steal one.
The hall's function was clearly vital to their operation and intended to prepare for an ultimate invasion of Gotham. He suspected Leviathan was going to storm the Penguin and his mobster alliances. There must have been a leak or a traitor because it was the Penguin who managed to ambush Leviathan. Oswald Cobblepots was not to be underestimated. He was one of Batman's longest standing enemies for a reason.
He trudged on through the hall, anti-metahuman weapon in hand. It felt strange considering Aaron himself was a metahuman. A tingly sensation went up his forearms. He double-checked his finger wasn't on the trigger.
'If I shoot myself, I'll lose my powers and probably my hold on the people I control. Namely, Hadiyah and Jaina. Losing those two would be a huge loss.'
Wearing inky black sweatpants and a grey v-neck shirt with a Daily Planet symbol, he couldn't confidently say he was in a state of combat. Flexibility was great but he preferred the tough defence of armour. Unfortunately, none were placed in the weapon rooms. He was essentially naked.
He snorted to himself. 'Not naked. This isn't like that time with Ivy.'
The noises escalated. Aaron ran.
In a matter of minutes, the narrow hall ended and he arrived at a new location. It was wide and littered with white desks and chairs. Chemicals and cylindrical tanks that looked straight out of Star Wars.
'A laboratory?' He put a foot forward while scanning his surroundings. This was the battle. The stench of blood prickled his nose. It was nauseating. He crouched down and pressed himself to a nearby desk to hide himself from view.
From his cursory glance, Angel Breaker was getting double-teamed by Lady Shiva and another woman. Her hair and complexion was brown and her skills were supreme. Together, with Shiva engaging Angel Breaker in close combat and the brown woman distracting from long range, they were pushing the infallible sword-wielder back.
"To think my two masters would team up. How the mighty have fallen!"
The comment was accompanied by a scream and a slash. The two ladies barely managed to roll out of it, the red and black slash remaining in place and distorting space, and launched at her with a series of kicks. They bounced from the walls and struck her from every direction. Angel Breaker spun and spun, countered and defended, pressured by the assault of the deadly women.
The long dark green skirt of the mystery woman fluttered. Her chocolatey shoulders and abdomen were bare. Her two blades were curved and thick, and her figure was top-heavy. Speed, flexibility, and agility were her focal points, her movements like a ballet dance. The tips of her toes bounced and her swords moved in tandem. Lady Shiva merged with her movements, her focused fingers and kicks arriving to strike afterwards like a never ending tsunami.
From her words, Angel Breaker was familiar with her opponents and it showed. Despite the elite branches of skill they displayed, she was able to block and counter on instinct. It would seem like Lady Shiva would come close to delivering a conclusive blow, but Angel Breaker was able to produce some sort of magic to escape it. An amplified swing of her sword, a boost in her speed, or an evasion that would lead to a powerful slash of magic.
They were pressing Angel Breaker, yet the distance never seemed to close.
Meanwhile, Mark Shaw the Manhunter was in an equally precarious situation. The Penguin and his three large, eight-foot tall henchmen were assaulting him nonstop. First with special guns, which proved ineffective, then their brass knuckles. The Manhunter was perhaps six feet tall yet he backhanded and kicked the henchmen like they were weightless. Desperate, the Penguin's umbrella machine gun assaulted him.
The Manhunter did not move as not a single bullet penetrated him. Concern crossed the mob bosses' features, his mouth parting.
"Oi! Orphan–"
The Penguin's pleas were met as David Cain hacked the Manhunter from behind. Leviathan's powerful leader shifted his focus. The mercenary was twice as effective as the three henchmen. Attacking, attacking, attacking, his blade battering the impenetrable armour. A mark formed on his backside. By the time he attempted to counter David Cain, the three henchmen recovered and three iron fists and a blade came together to pummel him.
Their efforts boomed like the great bell of London.
BAM! SLASH! BAM! BAM! SLASH! SLASH! BAM! BAM!
The boot thrusters of his armour flared up and he attempted to gain aerial distance. David Cain's own armour, however, was capable of super jumps and he caught Mark Shaw by the ankle and slammed him into a table.
'Should I be rooting for the Penguin?' Aaron asked himself, watching as the Penguin shot the fallen world leader with his umbrella gun. The full scale, body armour deflected the bullets but it was a sorry sight to see. Mark Shaw struggled to rise to his feet. A strange blue aura enveloped him.
"Your efforts are meaningless, Penguin." Mark Shaw's mask let out a puff of smoke and his armour indiscriminately unleashed laser beams. Aaron's eyes went wide as a stray blue laser beam nicked the chemicals on the desk he was hiding behind. Luckily, there was no explosion or any indication that he knew he was there. Mark Shaw was merely fighting now with his full power. His danger levels couldn't be exaggerated enough.
A scream pierced the air. A heavy thud hit the floor.
Aaron peered over. One of the Penguin's henchmen just went down. The sheer terror on Penguin's features did not bring Aaron ease.
'I guess I know who I'm rooting for then.' Bullets hurled and zipped in the background. Aaron winced. 'Hopefully he's got this.'
Aaron needed to focus his mind elsewhere. The people. The hundred and four Gothamites waiting for escape. This was a battlefield and even though there were less potential dangers that did not mean the overall danger levels had gone down. Quality over quantity, after all. It was clear Angel Breaker and Mark Shaw were villains capable of wasting armies away.
To the left, lodged way, way back, was something that switched his thought process.
Thick and multi-coloured and going down, down, down till it attached itself to a massive, circular machine. It was like a mini-sized version of the S.T.A.R. Labs' famous particle accelerator in Central City. A cylinder teemed with dark energy.
The hairs on his neck stood up. His eyes were captured by the machine and the downwards tubes connected. It was magnificent. It was…
Familiar.
Strange. The smell in the air. All of a sudden, his mind was reminiscing about a place. An image flashed. Trees and plants and a chilly wind.
'Don't tell me I'm in the–'
BOOM!
He dropped to the floor as a terrible explosion erupted. Smoke appeared from the top of his vision and he soaked up a toasty, acrid odour. The Penguin yelped and he threw out commands of retreat.
BOOM!
Another explosion. The Penguin's yells echoed but eventually disappeared.
The world calmed yet particles of red ember flew above. Aaron swallowed thickly. 'What the fuck is going on?' Fire. There was fire. But how much? Would the whole place burn down? Would everyone die? His thoughts accelerated like a train without an emergency break.
"Talia al Ghul…" Angel Breaker spat the name out with venom. Like a house cat not wanting to get caught, Aaron crawled to the corner of the desk and gazed out. The brown woman who had fought alongside Lady Shiva–one of her curved swords was broken, lying next to her, and she stood on her knees, the Angel Breaker blade pointed at her neck. Three desks were alight with scorching hot flames.
With a casual swing of her blade, Angel Breaker absorbed the fire. The red hue that had been shadowing the laboratory was gone. It was like it was never there.
Blood stained the floor from the dead bodies of the Penguin's henchmen. David Cain, on one knee and supported by his blade, struggled to catch his breath. The wires of his armour were exposed and malfunctioning and his mask was half broken, revealing his chiselled, silverfox features.
A horrible hacking noise drilled Aaron's ears. Mark Shaw, afloat, had Lady Shiva by the throat. The silverfox couldn't reach her. The most dangerous woman in the world was going red in the face and the choking noises escalated. His grip seemed like it could split her.
"You…" Lady Shiva gasped. She refused to give in, her face twisting in uncontrollable rage. "You…are…not…"
David Cain lunged at Mark Shaw, his armour burning through the last of its cybernetic functions. With his free hand, the Manhunter blasted him down into the wall. A hole was created. David Cain was nowhere in sight.
Mark Shaw turned to her, his scarlet gas mask exhaling small amounts of smoke. The tiny blue dots that were his eyes glowed.
"Apologies. Let us continue."
His cybernetic arm gripped her tighter. Lady Shiva resisted and resisted, kicking him with strong, well-placed attacks. Nothing worked. She was going to pass out. No, choke to death–
Aaron wanted to move but how the fuck was he supposed to beat Mark Shaw the Manhunter? All this time he had been holding back, conserving his armour's technical abilities. And now, with its full power, Lady Shiva was a toddler in his grip. Even the Penguin was a scurrying rat.
Angel Breaker. Maybe he could do something against her…
"See this, Master Talia?" Holy fuck, Angel Breaker's voice was smooth. It was like Catwoman's except evil and blood-curdling. "You were once my superior but you turned away from the prophecy of the Chosen One. My prophecy. And now…I have surpassed you."
"Perhaps," Talia admitted, "but tell me this: who is he?"
A smirk curled up her red lips. "Hm~?"
"Who is that man?" Talia asked. The blade inched closer. Blood was drawn. Talia swallowed,. her Adam's apple bouncing and quivering, and pursued her curiosity. "The man who calls himself Mark Shaw. You know as well as I do that the real Mark Shaw–he is dead."
"Who ever said he was Mark Shaw in the first place?" Angel Breaker snickered. "I did not. You once told me: 'A ninja must see underneath the underneath.' No wonder you have grown so brittle. Your son, Batman, the DEO, this city–they have weakened you."
Blank stare. Aaron's brain hurled to a stop.
'What…? But…that guy in the mask…he's standing right there–'
Lady Shiva gurgled. Saliva and blood puked out of her. Aaron panicked. Fuck, that was Cassandra's mother. He couldn't let her die!
Before his knees could burst forward, a glomp emerged from Angel Breaker's shadow and in the next moment she was kicked in the temple. It was all so sudden, so random, that the swordswoman was sent skidding.
The Manhunter, high in the air, was momentarily distracted. And in that tiniest second of weakness, a batarang cut into his hand and Lady Shiva broke from his hold. She dropped to the floor and rolled as far back as she could. Holding her bruised throat, she hacked and coughed.
A small woman crept beside Lady Shiva.
Aaron's eyes widened.
'Cassandra?'
Garbed in her orphan outfit, the black protective gear highlighted in a hopeful gold, Cassandra stood, arms at the ready. Mark Shaw–no, whatever this guy's name was–stayed in the air with the power of his blue thrusters.
"The daughter of Cain," the Manhunter proclaimed. "I expected your arrival."
Cassandra didn't respond to him. Instead, she side-glanced her mother, her body language sending off waves of annoyance. Lady Shiva chuckled and she rose to her feet.
"To think the one who was supposed to kill me is saving my life." Lady Shiva cracked her jaw in place. "I suppose I cannot complain. Thank you, daughter."
"Mother."
There was no need to discuss or reminisce. Cassandra reached for her utility belt, filled her fingers with batarangs, and threw them at the red machine man. It was fast, it was glorious, yet the Manhunter easily incinerated the eight projectiles with his repulsors. Cassandra was fast, however, and came underneath him to throw another set of batarangs. This time, the Manhunter weaved to the side and failed to avoid the sharp metals.
A joint in his repulser boot was hit. The red villain lost power in his leg and dropped down far enough for Lady Shiva to leap through the air and strike him down. His back smashed into a desk and chemical liquid flung and stained his armour. As one, Cassandra and Lady Shiva slammed a foot down on him.
Crack!
For the second time, there was damage on his red armour. A sign of weakness, picking off from David Cain's efforts. They had not let it go to waste. Aaron couldn't see it but he heard it.
"Raah!" Angel Breaker was busy fighting the shadow-based hero, the Signal, otherwise known as Duke Thomas. His costume fizzled in electricity and his form melted into the shadows to avoid her magical slashes.
The Signal emerged directly in front of Angel Breaker and wailed on her. Her head left and right, up and down, as he struck her over and over again. His escrima sticks connected by a string and he wielded them like nunchucks.
Angel Breaker couldn't react. In such close range, she was at his mercy. His existence flickered, seemingly in camouflage mode, confusing even Aaron. His movements were impossible to read or predict.
One second, he was there and the other second he was gone.
His skills were already tremendous. With the combined might of his armour and the shadows, the Signal was unstoppable.
In a desperate act of retaliation, Angel Breaker roared, tanked two of his hits, and rashly swung her blade right down the middle. The Signal suddenly glowed like a flashlight, piercing her eyes, and Angel Breaker immediately cried out in pain.
"You…" Angel Breaker backed away, losing balance while blinded. One hand clutched her eyes with the other swinging her blade at random in a frenzy of rage. Her temper could not be held back. The Signal coolly kept her away with a show of his escrima sticks.
"I'm guessing your sword is made of Nth metal. Guess what, lady Angel Breaker? Nth metal amplifies my powers." Signal chuckled as if he had already won the battle. His confidence was at a high and his body language was taut and guarded. "You might be able to beat Ivy or whatever, but I'm your single worst opponent."
Angel Breaker contained her rage, standing eerily still. Aaron watched her back. Her shoulders were shaking.
Aaron furrowed his brows. 'Is she okay–'
"Hehehehe. The Signal. Yes, you. You have arrived, I see. Yes." Angel Breaker cackled. "We absorbed you and Gotham Girl's powers with our weapon. You recovered faster than we expected."
"I don't consider two months of injury fast," the Signal quipped. "But whatever. I'm here to finish you off. I won't let my guard down this time."
"Oh, my dear boy," Angel Breaker said, cackling nonstop. "You already have."
The Signal tilted his head. Without warning, two bodies flew at him and toppled him down. Aaron's eyes went wide. Lady Shiva and Cassandra had been ragdolled.
The final boss descended with the presence of an unstoppable machine god. Arms outstretched, armour blazing with blue energy, and his words morphing the atmosphere.
"An impressive performance from the mother-daughter pair," the Manhunter announced. "If I hadn't broken seven of David Cain's ribs, then perhaps the father could have joined you."
Groans erupted from the fallen three. Aaron's heart sank. 'Get up, get up! Come on, Cass!'
Whatever off-screen beating the Manhunter gave Shiva and Cassandra was too much. The Signal pushed the two off of him but seeing the otherworldly aura of the Manhunter–of the man who everyone assumed was Mark Shaw–his body language weakened. The motherfucker was intimidating, that was for sure. Aaron himself did not see an effective way to intervene–at least one that did not lead to his death.
So he stayed. He stayed glued to the back of the desk, far enough that he could still sneak out without them noticing.
His gaze remained on Cassandra, who failed to pull herself to her feet. Aaron cheered for her. He prayed. He called on gods he had never believed in. He hoped the Signal could clutch it out of here. Escape. Win. Anything.
"Children," Angel Breaker stated, "You are children and nothing more. You and the little Robins can fight all you want. At the end of the day, you are merely another casualty for the Batman to dwell on."
"The Penguin's men have been driven off," the red machine god with the commanding voice said. "The system cameras are still operational."
His heart dropped again. Aaron felt like he was sinking. If the cameras were linked to his mask, then maybe he knew a group of people had escaped.
"Good, good. Has Batman arrived?"
"Not yet. The advantage is to our–" The Manhunter stopped speaking and calmly raised a hand to catch a curved sword. "Talia al Ghul," he called out, bored. The wounded woman twisted and hurled a kick at his side. Nothing. The scarlet red metal armour did not even dent.
The single-edged kilij lost its blade as he shattered it with his hand. Talia attempted to gain distance but the Manhunter chased after her with a controlled burst of his repulsors. He back-handed her and hurled her into a table. Crack! Her bones snapped. Talia al Ghul lay there between the split of the table, chemicals of unknown elements splattered on her.
Did nothing work against this guy? Talia had hid in the shadows–biding her time perfectly–and yet…
'Nothing. It's like he's getting stronger!'
The Manhunter turned to face the Signal again. "Give up. I promise no harm will come to you, friend."
Silence settled over them. The Signal gripped the yellow sticks in his hands. His armour became electrified.
A smirk tugged on the Signal's lips. The upper half of his face, though covered, also radiated defiance. "You really think we came here without a plan?"
The Manhunter stayed quiet while Angel Breaker's expression broke into irritation. "You think one man can change anything?" she asked.
"Ask Mark Shaw over there–or whoever he is," the Signal taunted. "What does he see?"
She turned to the Manhunter, exasperated, and found him to be as still as a stone statue. "What's the status?"
"They are being overwhelmed," the Manhunter replied quietly, "by Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman–the Gotham Sirens. I presume the Penguin tipped them off. And Prometheus…it seems Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, and Red Robin are confronting him. Meaning, Batman will be here soon."
"You knew?" Angel Breaker asked him. "Why didn't you–"
"It was a hunch." The Manhunter kept an eye on the Signal. "As you yourself declared to me in the start of our alliance, you only listen to your blade and the facts."
Angel Breaker snickered good-naturedly. "Fine. Let's just get the machine ready."
The Signal growled. He displayed a skillful show of his escrima sticks. "Do you really think I'll let you–"
A shot of dread went up his spine as the Manhunter teleported in front of the Signal, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into Cassandra. He proceeded to stand on their backs, one foot planted painfully on each, and crossed his arms.
"You are worthy to be in the new world," the Manhunter declared. "Just, amusing, strong, disciplined. If either you or your partner had been the Chosen One, I would not have complained."
The fake Mark Shaw stepped off them like they were an annoying piece of gum. Angel Breaker seemed to disagree with keeping them alive but kept her mouth shut as they approached the massive machine at the back.
"We still lack Batmanium and the Eighth Metal," Angel Breaker said. Her voice was far enough to be a whisper. If it wasn't for Aaron's superb hearing, it would have amounted to incomprehensible mutters. "Batman will not bring it with him."
"No, he will not."
"Then shall we proceed with Plan B?" Angel Breaker suggested.
"Yes."
'Plan B? What the fuck is plan B?'
Batmanium, Dionesium, Electrum, Nth Metal, Promethium, and Eighth Metal. Hadiyah had told him they already had Dionesium, Electrum, and Promethium, and since the Angel Breaker sword was made of Nth Metal…well, that knocked off another in their list.
Tenth Metal was impossible to find, according to Batman. It was metal beyond the gods and reality–something that could shape the multiverse as they knew it. An alloy that…
That…
'No–'
Collecting the five metals of the Dark Multiverse was one thing, but…why Eighth Metal? Why not Kryptonite? It was adaptable enough. And this massive machine–Aaron knew what it was. If this place was indeed the secret underground floor of S.T.A.R Labs, then this amalgamation of a particle accelerator had to be the supersized anti-metahuman weapon.
Duke Thomas, the Signal, had been afflicted by the smaller anti-metahuman gun two months ago. It was why his girlfriend had been so lonely, he was secretly incapacitated. Then, as the news captured some time ago, the Signal returned. In other words, as Angel Breaker mentioned, the weapon did not kill metahumans or remove their powers. Rather, it absorbed them. Not steal or permanently take away–absorb.
The ginormous machine had to function the same way as its gun counterpart except on a vastly larger scale. It could affect the surrounding block–no, the entirety of Gotham. What would be the point of absorbing that much metahuman powers? The answer was obvious: the anti-metahuman machine was not a weapon but instead a power generator that absorbed super powers. If it was activated, fully activated, it would become the greatest source of energy on the planet.
Putting it all the together, the generator powered by metahumans in Gotham, the metals, their goals–
'They're trying to recreate the Tenth Metal. Element X. The building block of a higher dimension. The metal that Batman claimed was impossible to find. If they can recreate it, they can do anything. Reform the world, find the Chosen One, whatever they want…'
Aaron remained still. For once, he hoped he was wrong.