In the Twilight Kingdom.
Part 1-Arrivals.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Notes: This is an Elseworlds/AU story set in a mirror DC universe. There is going to be a lot of exposition in the story as I try to explain backgrounds. Hopefully, it won't be too annoying. The title comes from a line in T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men." As in one of my previous stories, the poetry is meant to compliment the storyline as in song-fics.
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"We touch all laws and tally all antecedents
We are the skald, the oracle, the monk and the knight
We easily include them and more
We stand amid time beginningless and endless
We stand amid good and evil
All swings around us, there is as much darkness as light."
"With Antecedents."-Walt Whitman
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Gotham City Police Commissioner Jack Napier sat at his desk staring wearily at the stack of paperwork that still needed to be completed. Sometimes it seemed like he spent half his day filling out papers. With a sigh, he picked up the top piece and tried to concentrate on it but it had been a long day and his eyes kept wandering towards the door.
Finally, conceding defeat, he dropped the file back on his desk and massaged his tired eyes. He'd just gotten to his feet to leave when he heard the commotion outside in the common room. Before he could take more than two steps towards the door, it was thrown open so hard that his numerous accommodations and awards rattled on the walls. His second-in-command, Harvey Dent stuck his split face through and motioned towards him.
"You have to come see this Jack." The scarred side of his face seemed to be grimacing but the untouched side was obviously thrilled. Jack followed Harvey into a room in chaos. Various staff members were frozen in place while others had their weapons drawn and pointed at the far side of the room. Jack noted that Jonathan Crane, their resident psychologist was plastered to the wall, his face white and his teeth chattering in audible fear.
In the doorway, stood one of the few metahumans that Jack Napier trusted, with a triumphant grin on her face. Pamela Isley ignored the guns and gestured to the still form hanging tethered among the creeping vines that followed her every step.
"I've got a little present for you Jack, just like I promised." The bat-demon was unconscious but the sight of it still sent a chill down his back. For a fleeting second, he'd thought it was THE Bat-Demon but this one was smaller and appeared to be female. He should be able to tell the difference, being one of the few human beings alive to see the original demon up close and live to tell about it.
"Get a containment unit in here quick." Commissioner Napier ordered, taking control of the situation. Jervis Tetch, the head of the science department was already on it as he came through the door with several technicians carrying a gurney. The vines deposited the demon on the gurney and the men gingerly strapped her down before heading back to their labs.
"I want everyone on high alert. HE won't like this and we have to be ready for anything." There was no need to tell his men who "HE" was. They already knew as they calmed down and went to secure the building. Crane was still trying to shrink into the wall, too traumatized by the sight of the creature, even after it had been taken away, to function. "And someone get Crane a paper bag to breathe into before he passes out."
Pam, who had once called herself Poison Ivy, when she was on the wrong side of the law, led Jack Napier back into his office and closed the door. He sat down and ran a hand through his green hair before facing her. He almost wished that paperwork was all he had to deal with now.
"How did you do it, Ivy?" She looked amused as he was the only one who still called her that.
"I've studied the patterns of their attacks. I knew there are certain areas they tend to strike in more than others. So I set a trap, a poor sobbing little girl who was lost and scared and trying to hide. That one fell for it and I was able to capture her with only a minimal amount of fuss. I guess this proves they can't tell my 'plant-people' from the real thing."
"HE wouldn't have fallen for it but I'm glad your plan worked. There could have been more of them in the area or they could have seen through your decoy and attacked you."
"But they didn't and now you have your specimen. Hopefully Tetch and his lab geeks can figure out who she is and how that was done to her."
"Thank you Ivy. This is the first real break we've had and we couldn't have done it without you."
"You know I didn't do it for any of you. I did it for Harley." A flash of the old Poison Ivy showed through in her brief sneer but he knew she didn't mean it. She wasn't the same person she'd been when destroying mankind to allow plants free reign had been
her goal. Time had awakened her to the far greater threat posed by the Supervillians.
"I'd better go down and help Tetch keep that thing under control. I think it'll take more than straps to keep her confined once she wakes up." The vines wrapped around her like a shroud as her mood turned melancholy. Doubtless she was thinking of the cheerful, blond girl who had brought her back to the side of good and who now sat quiet and contained in a secluded room below them.
Jack sat deep in thought, after she'd gone. No one knew where the Bat-Demon had come from. There were some who theorized that it had once been a man who'd been mutated through experimentation. Others insisted it was a creature straight from hell sent to plague the citizens of Gotham. Whatever the truth, it was no longer alone. Many people had vanished off the streets in the past five years to satisfy its hunger but some of them had become like it. There was believed to be at least ten bat-demons beside the original. No one ventured outside for long once when the sun went down. The creatures didn't confine their hunts only to one area and no one was safe.
Gotham was a city under siege but he supposed it could be worse. The city of Metropolis and its surrounding areas had previously been under the iron rule of a strange being known as Superman for years. The military had been useless against him and there had been fears he might take over the whole planet. It wasn't until an investigative journalist named Lex Luthor had discovered that Superman was vulnerable to specific types of radioactive meteorite pieces that the tyrant had been destroyed.
Other cities had had problems with a superfast villian who couldn't be stopped, a green-energy wielding madman who had destroyedCoast City in California, and a woman claiming to be an Amazonion princess who had taken over the island of Crete and enslaved all men. Metahumans had been tolerated, even admired, before the rise of the Supervillians but public opinion had quickly turned against them afterwards. Jack would likely be shot to death in many places just on the appearance of his chalk-white skin and green hair. He had the Bat-Demon to thank for that as well.
Still, few cities had it as bad as Gotham which was why the federal government had placed the city under martial law at Jack's command. Commissioner Napier was essentially the governing dictator of a city-state straight out of ancient Greece. No one wanted the Bat-Demons to spread to other cities but so far they'd shown no inclination to leave.
Jack got up and stood at the window with his hands clasped behind his back. The glass was double-thick and reinforced with bars to prevent an attack. The moon was high and full and its cold light streamed over the tall spires of his city. For a moment, as he watched, something flitted over one of the buildings looking like nothing more than a shadow sliding across the roof. A cold shiver went down his spine uncontrollably but now there was something else beside fear. With the capture of the lesser Bat-Demon, they could finally begin to delve into some of the demon's secrets. Finally there was hope.