The Edge of Acknowledgement
Chapter 1, Discover
"Richard?" Bruce inquired toward his brother in arms.
"Yes Bruce what's up?" Dick Grayson replied quickly from one of the upper level of the Batcave where he had been sparring with the young protégée of his former leader.
"Do these readings look familiar to you?"
"Yea those are the same reading as that Loki guy that attacked New York a few months back?"
"Yea that's what I thought but it looks different almost like it is pulling something bigger… a lot bigger."
**Scene Change**
Tony Stark flew into Loki grabbing him and throwing him while at the same time firing his repulsers which flung him across the room. "Bruce? What the hell are we dealing with here?"
"I don't know Tony. It's a portal but unlike last time whatever it is it's a hell of a lot bigger."
**Scene Change**
"Sir?" Bacolage said timidly, as he walked down the dark hallway toward the mysterious glowing control room, "You summoned me."
"Yes, yes I did." The cloaked figure responded. The voice sent a shudder down Bacolage's spine, and he started to notice that his body temperature was slowly lowering as he stood there. "I have found… something, and I need you to investigate."
"What my lord?" Said Bacolage, looking for his first chance to bolt out of this place.
"It is a massive energy source, the likes of which I have never seen. And it just so happens to be on...Earth."
"Earth!" Bacolage's eyes grew large at this information, and his heart rate doubled, "My lord are you sure?!"
"With absolute certainty."
"But my lord, you are aware of-
"I am aware of what this means!" The dark figure raised his voice, and the room grew ever colder, "But this discovery, is not to be passed by!"
"Ye-yes, my lord" said Bacolage shaking, "what would you have me do?"
"I want you to oversee this operation, and use one of our closer assets."
"Yes my lord. It shall be done." Bacolage quickly bowed and hurried back from where he came.
"Bacolage!" The voiced stopped him dead in his tracks, "They cannot know who we
are." Bacolage nodded and hurried away.
**Scene Change**
"Do you think we should investigate the readings Wayne?" Jason asked as he walked down the stairs that lead to Wayne Manor.
"What the hell do you want Todd?"
"Can't an old friend just visit?"
"Go to hell"
"Well it sounds like you could use it."
"He's right Bruce" Richard commented
"And you know Dick I am all out of shits to give about this traitorous bastard!"
"That's great but whatever this is it's a hell of a lot worse than anything else we've fought before. "
"How can I trust you Todd?"
"You can't."
"Then get the hell out of my house!"
"Okay, if you want, but you might want to see what I found first..." Todd said grinning
After a moment of silence Bruce turned around with fists locked, and teeth clinched..."What did you find?"
**Scene Change**
With one final blow the Hulk punched Loki, knocking him unconscious.
"Good work Bruce." Said Tony as he flew down to join his companions.
Captain America walked towards the damaged grounds where they had vanquished Loki "you consider this a victory Stark?"
"Well, I sure don't consider this the Hunger Games!" Tony smirked back
"The Hunger Games?"
"Yeah! Don't you-" Tony stopped as the realization dawned on him "Never-never mind."
"Wrap this up gentlemen! "Captain America yelled towards the shield agents when almost on cue the portal began to fluctuate.
"What the hell is going on down there!?" Nick Fury held into Cap's earpiece.
"You're asking me sir? I'm from the 40s. Why not ask one of the techno geeks?"
"Tony!" Yelled Nick, "What do you got?"
"Uuuhhhhhhhhhh...a light show?"
"Captain!"
"Tony!"
"Jarvis!"
"Yes sir?" Responded the robotic butler.
"What have you got for me?"
"Well sir it appears that the Tesseract is opening a portal of some kind."
"No crap, tell me something I don't know!"
"Well the Tesseract seems to be shielded just like the time in New York. Also Loki's staff is nowhere to be seen."
"Any other way to disable this?"
"I'm afraid not sir."
"Well...shi-"
"Sir! The portal is opening! And something is coming through!"
"What the...
**Scene Change**
"Well what the hell did you find Jason?"
"In truth, I don't really know what I found but here it is." Jason yelled throwing the mysterious device down to Bruce.
Bruce lunged forward catching the rounded triangular glowing device in his hand. The device looked small but felt heavy in his hands "What the...!" Bruce yelled glancing up and realizing that Jason was gone.
Bruce turned around quickly when all of a sudden the device shocked him causing him to drop it. The machine began to buzz and projected a beam of blue energy that created a map like construct with coordinates at the center.
"Richard! Gear up we gotta check this out!"
**Scene Change**
"Are you at the target?" Said, a monotone voice through the microphone in the figures helmet
"Yes. I just arrived." Responded the armored figure
The new character was tall, around 6'8". He was completely covered in armor, and glowed a faint green. His armor was very smooth, and the joints in his suit were almost invisible. He was larger than Iron Man, but smaller than the Hulk, in width. He had tons and tons of lines going over top of his armor, most likely plates that would move to reveal weapons or other such items. His steps were loud and made sounds of metal. His armor, was shiny and not something to be found on Earth. He observed the area that had been the site of a battle with Loki, with a slow experienced look of someone who had seen many battles. The figure bent down and placed his hand on the war torn dirt. Suddenly he started to pulse green waves of light that sent back small pulses of yellow to the head piece of the figure.
"There was a battle here, not long ago." The voice resounding from the mech was cold, deep, serious, and slightly robotic. "There is debris here that is not showing up on any known mineral spectrum. And a lot of space dust, but no fuel emissions from a ship, or any sign of an asteroid."
"Strange."
"Indeed, and to top it all off, there are footprints here."
"Footprints?"
BIG, footprints. And there is something else...a reading I don't understand. It's radiation of some kind, but not toxic, nor acidic, just...there."
"Hmmmm...I don't know what to make of this either, gather what evidence you can, along with the portal device, and come back to base."
"Roger that." The mech rose, about to move, when a small beeping noise started to sound, "Someone's coming."
"Remember, Prometheus lead no one back here!"
The mech slowly backed up, then turned invisible.
**Scene Change**
Bruce twisted the joystick of the bat causing it to land in a clearing of trees. Nighthunter and Knightwing leapt to the forest floor and began searching for signs of the energy source. Knightwing walked toward the clearing to the north of where they had landed. "Wait!" Bruce called to Richard when he detected the same energy signature. "Argh!" Dick yelled swiping his sword at Prometheus.
Prometheus leapt out of the way while activating a sword that came out of his wrist. He swung it at Knightwing who easily leapt out of the way only to receive a strike to the side of the helmet via the continuous barrage sent his way by Prometheus. The strike sent Knightwing stumbling. Richard stood there desperately trying to recover his senses.
Before his opponent could recover, Prometheus drew a gun from his holster and held it level with his opponent's head, but before he could pull the trigger a voice rang out over the Forrest.
"Get your damn gun off my partner now!" Bruce screamed out at the mysterious new figure.
"This job keeps on getting more interesting," Prometheus, said to himself "So, who the hell are you?" Prometheus asked, keeping the gun where it level with Knightwing's head.
"Your worst damn nightmare." Bruce responded
Prometheus laughed, "Oh! My worst nightmare is a kid playing dress up?"
"Oh, you got balls asshole. I am personally going to love kicking your ass!"
Prometheus sighed shaking his head, "They never want to just be civil."
Bruce shot a look at Knightwing who nodded lowering his hand to a pocket where a grenade rested. Bruce drew and fired his sidearm at the grenade that was thrown by his partner and the force of the blast launched Prometheus backwards.
**Scene Change**
"Sir." Said the robotic voice.
"Yeah Jarvis? What's up?" Responded Tony as he flew through the air.
"Remember when you set part of my processing power to looking for other signatures similar to your suit?"
"Yes...?"
"I found one."
"...show me!"
**Scene Change**
Bruce lunged, interlocking swords with the enemy while Knightwing rushed up and landed a kick on the mech's helmet which sent him flying, while Bruce drew and fired his explosive ammo at the mech causing it to stumble and fall to the ground.
"What the hell was that thing?" Richard asked Bruce who tried to respond but could only gasp as he saw the mech lunge forward and stab his partner, flinging him to the side. Bruce's arrogant smile disappeared.
He lunged forward swinging his sword over and over again slowly beginning to destroy the mech's defense. Finally the mech let its guard down allowing Bruce to stab through the face. The mech let out a scream of both pain and shock and fell to the ground on one knee.
Bruce stepped back, out of breath, then a green light started to glow from the mech, causing Bruce to step back in disbelief. As Bruce watched in horror the mech slowly rose with the light growing brighter. All of the damage the mech had suffered during the fight slowly repaired itself. All the cuts, scrapes, and scars started to disappear. As the mech stood to full height, it grabbed the sword from its face and slowly pulled it out, leaving not even a faint scar. Bruce stood their shocked at what had just happened. The mech drew his gun and took aim at Bruce but before he take the shot a voice cut through the air "Wayne down!"
Bruce leapt to the ground allowing Tony to shot his repulsers at the mech, who barely dodged it. The mech stopped for a moment, saw its new competitor, that its energy levels were dangerously low, and the portal device. The mech grabbed the portal device, activated its jets, and was gone in a flash of light.
"Richard!" Bruce yelled running toward his fallen comrade.
"Richard!" Bruce repeated as he knelt by his friend; who was conscious and breathing. "Are you okay?"
"I've been better." Richard replied, "The knife only cut my skin thanks to my vest, but that throw might have broken something."
"Alright, let's get you home."
Just then Iron Man came to a halt a little distance away from Bruce.
"You guys okay?" Asked Tony, with concern in his voice.
"Clearly, we both have been better." Richard answered back
"You can say that again! What were you guys fighting?" Tony inquired.
"You're the weapons master!" Bruce responded, "What do you think that was?"
"Well I only saw it twice! You were fighting the damn thing for ten minutes!"
"Doesn't mean I know what it was."
Tony sighed then asked: "...wait! What are you even doing here?"
"Following the damn Tesseract! And some alien tech. Look! I need to get Richard the hell out of here."
After a short pause Tony said: "Well if I'm right, and I always am, Gotham City is a lot farther than our brand new base."
"...Fine."