Splendid Isolation
Chapter 1; It Begins
The forest seemed dead. Its trees were sinewy and bare, the ground was black and not a sound could be heard. The sky was pitch black and devoid of stars, the moon shone in its full glory, casting an eerie glow it illuminated the bare trees beneath it.
As Batman ran through the forest the old leaves crunched beneath his boots and his long black cape billowed behind him. He weaved around the trees skilfully and he was flanked by Robin and Batgirl, both of whom were breathing heavily.
"Who's idea was this again?" Robin panted as he leapt over a fallen tree.
"Why? Is little birdie getting tired?" Batgirl smirked despite the fact that she was just as exhausted as her young partner in crime fighting was.
"No!" the young boy cried with a look of indignation.
"Shhh..." Batman silenced them as they saw that they were running into a dead end. He came to a halt and looked around carefully using the night vision his high-tech cowl provided and pulled out a signature bat-a-rang from his belt. His two partners followed his lead and the three crime fighters stood tentatively with their backs to a craggy cliff as they stared into the trees.
The wind gently rustled their capes just as the ground began to quake, then it stopped, then it shook again, almost like an earthquake...or giant footsteps.
"Where is it?" Robin whispered and stared expectantly at the forest, but Batman held up his hand again for silence.
"Bats...you there?" Batman heard the voice of Flash over his com-link.
"Shhh," the caped crusader quietly hushed the speedster.
"We're honing in on your position, Bats," the Flash replied, taking no notice of Batman's wish for silence.
"Well, Batgirl and I would really appreciate it if you were here now...like instead of us..." Robin muttered.
"Batman, the forest, it's something about that place," Martian Manhunter told him over the com-link. "Something in that forest is preventing me from locating you telepathically, and the equipment is all but useless."
"It's something, all right, but I don't think it's the trees, J'onn," Batman replied as the ground began to tremble again.
"What's your situation, Batman? We're nearing the limits of the forest," Superman said with a sense of urgency.
"We're cornered, we ran into a dead end, and something big is headed our way," the dark knight answered.
"What?"
"I don't know," Batman sighed and the ground trembled again, with each quake the intensity was increasing, "but it's no earthquake."
"You think it's responsible for those disappearances?" he heard Diana ask.
"Could be," Superman replied.
"Great, if we pull a disappearing act my math teacher won't be happy with me, I'll get detention for like a year if I miss any more classes!" Robin muttered and took out his bo-staff.
"If we disappear off the face of the known universe I think your math class'll be the least of your worries," Batgirl replied and the two smirked.
The trees in front of them began to shake now, and the branches trembled in fear. A shadow began to descend on them - a shadow of black. It marched on the ground and swarmed across the trees, it seemed to have no body and yet it roared in anger.
It was stationary at the edge of the trees as it regarded the caped crime fighters before it. Then it shone with a dull white light which increased and shone as bright as the moon above it. As it moved slowly forwards anything caught in its path simply vanished in think air, whatever the dark shadow touched disappeared. Trees, leaves, fallen logs rocks, even boulders were no more.
"Superman to Batman, what's your position?" Batman heard on his com-link, but he was too focused on the strange being advancing on him. "Batman, what is your position?!"
Batman threw am explosive bat-a-rang at the shadows but it disappeared and left no explosion in its wake.
"That's not good...is it?" Robin asked quietly as he took a fearful step back. Another loud roar shook the whole forest and the crime fighters were knocked off their feet onto the cold, hard ground.
It quickly seemed to fix on Batman and it moved towards him, he tossed ice pellets and explosives in the vin hope that something would work...but nothing did. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground and debris of the cliff face fell into the shadows. Batgirl had hurled a bat-a-rang rigged with explosives and it had distracted the beings' attention from Batman.
Unfortunatly for Batgirl this made her the next target and the darkness folded in around her. Batman leapt quickly and managed to get Batgirl away from the shadows, leaving Robin alone. "Uh-oh," he muttered as small shadows swam across the ground towards him.
He flipped and leapt across the ground, avoiding dozens of small shadows without bodies to cast them. Batman, ordering Batgirl to remain behind the trees, crept across the clearing and used his grapple to swing out from a tree to grab Robin. He landed back beside Batgirl as the small shadows grouped together once more.
"What d'we do now?" Batgirl asked hopelessly.
"Batman, do you read me?" Superman shouted through the com-link.
"Little busy right now," Batman tersely replied.
"What's happening? We split up so hopefully one if us will get there..." Superman said quickly.
"I'm not sure yet," he replied and looked up as he heard the wind howl again.
Batman saw Wonder Woman fly in fast enough to give Flash a run for his money, but she wasn't heading for the shadows. The caped crusader reached again for his grapple gun and caught her just before the shadows engulfed her.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"Trust me, princess, you really don't want to go near that," he replied.
Within seconds Flash appeared beside Batgirl and Robin behind the trees and Batman landed with Wonder Woman. J'onn and Green Lantern soon followed, and Superman flew in, he attempted to freeze the strange shadows but it was useless, so to was his heat vision.
"Any more bright ideas?" Flash muttered as the super hero landed with them.
Without a word, Batmam threw a bat-a-rang with a tracker into the shadows, and then turned to the other members of the Justice League who had straws in shock as the weapon had vanished.
"Retreat," he declared, but this was met with shocked expressions.
"No," Wonder Woman replied with confidence, "I never retreat."
"There must be something we can do," Superman said, "If we leave we're condemning more people..."
"If we stay, we're condemning ourselves," Batman said harshly, "We can't fight this thing. I threw a tracer in it, if we can find out where the people are disappearing to then we have a chance to prepare. If we stay, the odds that we'll win without casualties are non-existent."
"Bats' got a point," Flash said.
"I don't think he's up for a debate, guys," Robin suddenly said and pointed across at the dark clearing. The ground shook violently again and the trees began to fall, Batgirl was forced to leap out of the way off a falling tree. But she was now standing in the cleaning and the shadows quickly advanced on her.
Batman ran and pushed Batgirl out of the way but not before the shadows had engulfed him - he vanished without trace.
"Batman!" Robin and Batgirl shouted and both nodded to each other. They knew their mentor would not agree with them but he was their partner, so they leapt into the shadows and they too disappeared.
"Oh, boy," Flash muttered as the clearing went deathly quiet.
The trees continued to fall and the heroes were tossed around by the quakes the plagued the ground, all were soon floating in the air with Flash glowing green from Lantern's ring.
"What now? We can't abandon Batman," Wonder Woman said.
"He said he threw a tracer in it, if we can find it..."
"How do we do that?" she asked.
"I know someone who can help, but we need to leave..." Superman said and looked down at the shadows. It was moving along the ground and suddenly it leapt up at them. "Move!" he shouted, but it was too late.
As Batman had been, so too were they swallowed by the shadows, and they knew nothing but darkness.
A.N. Wow, was that fast paced or what? Instead of a usual boring prologue I decided to jump right into it and just start it off with some action. Please tell me what you thought!