Hi! As promised, there it is. It's a bit shorter than I'd have wanted it but... don't know what to write. (Am I speaking of this AN or of the story ?)
Sorry for the typos and others mistakes, my bad.
Superman being with them, the control room's door didn't last long. Even if J'onn would have phased through it to try to open it from inside, it would have worked since the door was welded to the wall, but in a way it was invisible from outside. Moreover, they hadn't the luxury that time was. Their teammates were missing, probably in danger. They needed to find them quickly. Therefore, Superman was the fastest way to reach what they were there for.
Batman immediately went to the main computer, not wasting any time, and started what he thought he needed to do. Meanwhile, the three others stared at him in bewilderment as his fingers were flying over the keyboard. How he could be so confident, precise and efficient when dealing with alien technology was beyond understanding. But there he was, and they could only acknowledge his abilities.
However, as much as they were impressed by their teammate, they couldn't stay still and not doing anything by themselves. So, they began to wander through the control room. Surprisingly, it was more spacious that one could think. There were numerous computers, placed on one side of the room, but the other side was filled with shut down screens and many other monitors. They surely were worth looking more closely to them.
Diana walked to one peculiar screen. It wasn't like the others by the fact it wasn't damaged, well, not as bad as the others. It wasn't powered, but she was sure it could be turned on if she could find the switch. She looked around and found it. It wasn't difficult to turn it on, it was quite the same way that of a human switch. The screen she was focusing on lit up and she could find out what was being displayed.
It was what she was expecting. She thought she would find some information about the system or the ship state… but not the display of a security camera. And what she saw was even more troubling. It showed a room, a large room. It was alike the ones they had seen, same metallic gray, same places where were put the lights, etc… But there was a big difference: the walls were pierced with half-yard diameter holes. There were a lot of them, filled with something akin to some sort of dusty glass coffin.
"I have something."
Superman and J'onn quickly came to her from their different locations. They both stared curiously at the screen. They couldn't make a lot of sense out of it neither, it didn't look like anything else in this spaceship.
"Bruce, you should see that."
"What?" He snapped from the computer he was working on.
"Just come and see that." Clark responded back . "Don't make me drag you here."
Batman growled his displeasure but stood up and walked to them. He looked at the screen with attention, his face not showing any surprise even if he couldn't be expecting that, could he?
"I think I know what it is." J'onn said.
"Cryogenic chambers." Batman stated.
The Martian Manhunter turned his head to Batman and nodded slowly. "Indeed."
"Is there… anyone inside?" Diana asked worriedly.
"Maybe. If there are, they are in deep slumber or dead, I can't feel their minds."
"We have to check." She firmly said, "I'm going with J'onn." The Martian Manhunter nodded his agreement and they both stalked to the melted door.
"Wait." Diana and J'onn stopped before they'd reached the exit. "You are not going." Wonder Woman turned over to face Batman, what does he have to say against the fact there might be people trapped in these boxes since no one knows? "We are going, all together. We can take the risk to be separated. Half of the team is already missing."
"Then let's go, what are we waiting for?"
"That I finish to hack through the system." Batman answered as he was already back in the chair in front of the alien computer.
She sighed. Diana didn't like waiting, but she couldn't deny the fact it was true. The risks were too high. Truthfully, she wasn't afraid of whoever was inside with them, and she hoped nothing had happened to Shayera, John and Wally, if not, she knew whoever was behind this will be afraid of her, but if he, or she or they, had succeeded to trap three of the most powerful metas on Earth.
That wasn't nothing. They needed to be careful, very careful. In fact, now that she was thinking of it, everything was against us. This person should be knowing a lot more than they do about the spaceship. They could even be its creator.
"You know, I can't see through the wall here." Diana turned her head to her left where Clark was now standing. "It's not like this with lead, it's not that I can't see through it, but it's more as if it's… I don't know how to describe it. With lead, I can't see through it, here, I see nothing behind it."
"I'm not sure I understand." She quizzically looked at him, "though, I'm the best person to explain you why it's that way."
"I'm not expecting that, from anyone. It's just that I know Bruce won't be pleased if any of us were to disturb him right now. But he is always listening to everything, so that way…"
Diana chuckled, Bruce was as Clark described him, and he was one to know. "You're surely right, Kal."
"He likes playing the deaf, but he's-"
"Let's go." Batman's voice startled both of them. The Dark Knight was already by the door, waiting for them. How did he even manage to surprise the two of them? Good question. Even Clark, who had known Batman for more than ten years wasn't able not to be surprised. But, after all, it's Batman we are speaking about.
"Tell me, Princess, did you even know where you were heading to?" His voice was sarcastic. He was making fun of her.
"No, but-"
"So you were going to walk aimlessly through the corridors waiting to find it by chance, knowing full well there is someone wanting to capture or worse, kill us. Good plan." Of course, it was ironic, but Bruce said it with utmost calmness and seriousness. Had they not known him better, they could have thought it to be his real opinion.
"I'm not playing that game with you, Bruce. Go ahead and lead the way." Don't be angered by him. Why does he want me to be so?, she thought, maybe because of yesterday, I don't think he liked me worrying for him. She smirked at the thought, and at the face Batman made just after she said to him what to do.
His eyebrows furrowed, his lips tightened, but he said nothing. Superman went to J'onn's side, away from Batman and Wonder Woman, expecting the two of them to start a fight or something worse. Thankfully, Batman just turned away and passed through the door frame, quickly followed by Diana, and then, by the others, Superman welding the door close after them.
Batman led them through the labyrinth that was the different but very similar successive paths leading no one know where to. The path they took was peculiar, not in the way it was strange or darker than the infinity of possibilities they could have taken, but it seemed Bruce was choosing the one way they wouldn't have noticed or even thought to go through. It was a strange feeling that to follow through the way none of our instincts were saying to go on.
It was only after ten minutes, lasting to them more like forty in the oppressive silence they fall into, that they noticed, or at least, Superman noticed Batman checking quickly something on his gauntlet. Maybe J'onn could feel Batman's confusion but they couldn't see it anyway. The following minutes, Batman checked more frequently whatever was on his forearm.
Eventually, Clark asked him what was going on. "Is everything alright, Bruce?"
"Yes." Batman sharply answered, "Just some details."
"Are we lost?" Even without turning around and seeing his face, Batman couldn't miss the slight smirked that was forming on Clark's features at the thought of the infamous Batman being lost. It was funny, but not too much nonetheless since they were with him, lost if he were, alone in a big, big ship, nowhere near Earth, with no possible back-up and so on.
"No, we are almost there."
True to his words, Batman turned to the right a last time and they found themselves in a dead-end. In the wall in front of them was a door greatly damaged, as if someone fired at it with energy weapons. It was also more armored than the others they had encountered while walking to here. It'd held it, the door was still sealed.
Then, he walked to the control panel beside the door and typed keys only he knew. This time, and unlike the two precedent doors he tried to open, it did work. The double door slid open revealing the room they'd seen earlier. And it was deathly silent. Unlike the other places, it was completely silent. They hadn't noticed it but they'd all become accustomed to the ambient noise, not that it was loud, but not silent.
"There we are." Superman whispered in awe.
The room was wider than what they were expecting. It probably could contain hundreds of people, hundreds of potential enemies, or so was already deducting Batman. But he was believing there was little chance there were anyone, alive at least.
Diana went directly to the nearer pod imbedded perfectly in the wall. Dust was accumulated on the front glass. She noticed a strange element: that glass panel seemed less dusty than the every other. Except that, she couldn't quite place what was making her feel wary. Something wasn't right but… no, she didn't know what.
She cleaned it with her hand to see inside but stayed still when she saw what was inside, shocked. From the person it once was, there was nothing remaining but the skeleton, bones, dry bones. "Dead, this one is dead, for years, maybe decades from what remains of him."
"The same here." Superman responded.
"This one is dead too." J'onn informed them from further on the room.
"They are all dead. The process never put them into cryogenic stasis, it killed them." Batman said from his position at one of the control monitors. He quickly finished checking the log files that he could find there. "There had been a problem, it didn't work as it should have, killing them all."
"But… who are they? Didn't they know something wasn't working?" Asked Diana, clearly distraught by the death of so many.
"I don't know."
"That's awful." Superman added, "They died believing they would wake up someday. At least they died in peace." He sighed, the thought was sickening, putting their faith into the technology that killed them.
"Maybe not, the blasts on the door might indicate someone was trying to enter. I think they it was there last solution." Batman said, sliding away from the computer and walking to Diana. He bent down to look through the glass. "They died painlessly though."
"Geez, Bruce! Can't you be at least a bit less pessimistic?" Clark snapped.
"Over there!" J'onn called them.
They fast walked to him, a few yards away from their current position. J'onn was looking into one of the pods, his face motionless as he used to be. But there was something more: there were no remains of a body inside. No, that badly was alive, though it didn't look were healthy.
It was definitely a she. She had long raven hair, a pale face, surely due to the her stasis but also due to the sickness that clearly was eating her from inside. Her features were sharp, letting anyone who was looking at her see the bones under her delicate skin. Her beauty was undeniable but they could only agree her face should be unrecognizable even to the ones she grew up with.
Clark let a small gasp of surprise. "Didn't you just say everyone was dead?"
"She's not one of them."
Three pairs of eyes turned almost instantly to him, their owners surprised. "How… can you-"
"I said they all died long ago, she isn't one of them, someone brought her here."
"Why would anyone do so?"
"I don't know but there are things I know." Batman started, "All of this is older than we first thought. However, it seemed to be similarities between this ship and the one that came to conquer Earth not too long ago."
"You're right, now that you say that, I don't know how I miss it."
"When I was poisoned?" Diana asked.
"Yes." Batman answered shortly, "but this can't be a coincidence, two spaceships, one place, two weeks of interval. They wanted something from this spacecraft."
"Indeed, this is too unlikely to be a coincidence to be ignored."
The four of them stayed there staring at the laying figure in her glass coffin. She had a look, a face they could almost recognize, but it was only a far picture of her past beauty. Yet, she still was almost familiar to them.
"We need to find the bridge." Batman eventually said. "There we will have all the control and the information we need to come back to Earth."
"Alright, we follow you." Superman agreed.
"I don't know where it is." He responded.
"How… can't-"
"It wasn't on the blueprints I downloaded. That's what I was checking earlier, the blueprints I have aren't complete."
"That's bad news."
"Yes." Silence, "Yet, it's quite ingenious."
Superman and Wonder Woman chuckled in disbelief. Everything was completely against them.
"But, we will find it eventually if we continue to search, as well as John, Shayera and Wally."
"You said it yourself, Bruce, by chance? It'll take us days."
"Or weeks, that's why we need supplies. I have some in my belt, for two persons to last one four days, but without water…"
"That will be a problem."
"Indeed." J'onn agreed.
"But…" Bruce started as he went through the blueprints on his forearm touchscreen, "there is a room that can be compared to our food supplies storage… Let's go there."
Batman strode past them and to the door. "Wait!" Diana stopped him, "What are we doing with her?"
"We let her here, she is obviously sick, waking her could kill her."
J'onn and Superman nodded and walked to join Batman. Diana gazed at the anonymous woman wishing she could do more. Then, she followed the two others to Batman. Of course, he was right, but nonetheless, she didn't like letting her like that. She promised herself to do everything she could when they are back to Earth.
oOo
They reached their destination fairly quickly knowing the size of the ship. However, they weren't expecting what they found there. They did find water, enough to last many weeks, stocked in some sort of bottles, alien bottles, and to Batman saying, the reserves were almost full, so there wasn't any issue with water.
However, this wasn't the same case with food. Truthfully, they weren't expecting anything they could have found on Earth, but stones? Really? Little black stones? Since when anyone was eating stones? Even if they were the most extraterrestrial person in the universe, you don't eat stones.
"Well, I think this won't resolve our food issue." Superman commented, "Personally, I can stand not eating for some day, and if there is a yellow star nearby, weeks."
"It's not my case, unfortunately." Diana sighed.
"Neither mine." J'onn said.
Batman stared at the many containers filled we these little stones. Something wasn't right, logic. There were a lot of water, almost too much for the two thousand members of the crews it could have sustained. And stone wasn't of any nutritional benefits for any species known to man. Yes, there was minerals, but it wasn't enough to sustain a body, and except you're yourself a living stone, you need organic type of food.
But there was too much water, and stones… Wait a second! "Maybe…" Bruce whispered, taking in his hand one little black stone and reaching for his flask with the other. He dropped the stone inside and look at it through the transparent plastic of his flask. The others watched him curiously.
At first, nothing happened, but after some seconds, and after almost convincing Batman he was mistaken, the water around the stone started to darken. The stone was silently dissolving into the water, leaving brown, almost black, drink when it finished.
"Food?" Clark asked skeptically, eying the dark liquid.
"Yes." Batman answered, shaking his flask slightly. "Give it a try."
"What? Why me?!" Superman exclaimed, "Why don't you try yourself?"
"Because I have food."
Diana snorted, "Give it to me." Without waiting their answer, she grabbed Batman's flask and took a quick sip. Clark cringed at the thought of the taste of it. Batman's eyebrows took a curious shape. Eventually, she let them know what it was like. "Quite good in fact."
Batman took his flask back and tried the liquid. "I could become used to it."
He held it to J'onn who hesitated but grabbed before taking a sip by himself. "Indeed."
"Kent?"
"No thanks, I believe you."
"Your loss." Bruce shrugged, filling one of his belt compartments with this little black not anymore stones.
"Then, what are we doing?" J'onn wondered aloud. "Where to begin to?"
The answer was a loud bang, echoed through the whole structure of the spaceship, following by another one, quieter.
"What was that?!" Diana asked to nobody as she instantly jumped into a fight stance. She looked at her three teammates and saw they had all take their focused expression and were as clueless than her.
"Only one way to know." Superman was she first to go after the noise, quickly following by the others. Intelligently, he didn't go away at full speed, keeping a speed Bruce could follow by running.
Superman was the first to see it. In fact, there wasn't anything left to see if not for the black marks remaining from an explosion. Except for that, there was nothing. But the fact it happened was more interesting. Whoever had trapped Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl was near, they hadn't taken long to reach the explosion site.
And yes, the explosion should have been tremendous: the walls were covered with soot by more than fifteen yards long. Yet, the walls were surprisingly undamaged. Batman crouched down to touch the dark residue with two gloved fingers.
"Curious. The obvious explosion wasn't the cause of the soot, a fire might be, and there is something else... But why…" Batman stopped himself, and rose faster than anyone could have expecting. "Get out of there!"
Too late. The floor light up, flames jumped out, the thin layer of an invisible combustible being ignited. Superman and Wonder Woman took flight and speeded away from the fire pit. Batman's suit protecting him from the worst, he ran out to a safe place, but they all stopped in their tracks when the J'onn's cries of pain echoed through the blazing corridors. Another teammate was in danger, the team had to be there to save him.
But as fast as they were, they crossed back the inferno without any sight of J'onn.
"Where is he?!" Superman yelled, using once more his X-ray vision without success.
"I still have the signal of his earpiece, this way!" Batman jumped in action, run down the corridors as if he could do so blindfolded. Superman and Wonder Woman could only follow the Dark Knight of Gotham.
They ran back corridors and corridors, and so during a least ten good minutes, always hoping to be quick enough to take back J'onn from whoever trapped them. Then ended up back in a hangar. Well, not any hangar, the hangar they first came from. But there was no trace of J'onn.
That's where Batman stopped running, the little dot marking J'onn's earpiece position remaining still on his forearm screen. They had failed, J'onn'd been captured. Batman walked closer to the place his material was pointing to. Indeed, there was J'onn earpiece.
Bruce curses silently. They had lost another teammate. This wasn't good. Someone was definitely trying to get rid of them. And now there were only three left. And their enemy was clever, very clever. He was very knowledgeable of them, way too much for his own comfort. He knew J'onn's weakness: fire, he knew too how to take down Shayera, John and Wally… He knew for the earpiece…
That left only two solutions: either he's a telepath, or he knew them from their previous fights, reducing the chance of him being a new foe.
The sound of a fist smashing into a steel wall wake him from his own thoughts. The following sound was one of an angry Amazon warrior and curses in Themysciran. He turned around to see Diana holding her right fist with her left hand, and the wall unmarked. Definitely not steel.
His eyes caught the sight of the previous terminal he used when they came there with the Javelins, missing Javelins… He went to stand in front of it. He needed something to occupy his mind, instead of thinking of their missing part of the team.
That was what he was looking for. The blueprints. Almost identical to the ones he'd downloaded to his integrated computer. It was quite ingenious. They were showing the same places but were forgetting some 'blank' spaces, different from each other, leading ineluctably anyone who were to go there to be completely lost. Yes, ingenious, that's what he would do if he were to be trying to trapped someone in an unknown place.
But there was one thing in common with these 'blank' areas, one was common in the two maps. And it could mean only one thing, there was only one place that was concentrating every information available aboard: the bridge.
"I know where is the bridge." He informed his friends, "There, we'll be able to have complete control over every system of the spaceship."
Superman looked at him strangely, "What happens if whoever is behind all of that is trying to stop us?"
Batman smirked, "I hope he'll do just that."
Just to say it, I don't think I'll be able to update soon (yeah that sucks) because I am my final exams soon (yeah, that sucks too) and I have to... well I'm sure you can guess what I must do. Anyway, no promised updates this time, but I hope sooner than I think.
And as always, don't forget to follow the story and review it (only if you want, that's it)
ps: Alright, I couldn't let this chapter with 3,999 words, I had to do something, hence this meaningless sentence.
