Lovingh3art: Thank you so much! I've always wanted to see other mythologies incorporated into the canon (though I know there's actually a very minor character called Anitun in Marvel, but it's a different take to mine and mythology is public domain anyway), and hopefully I can do it justice.
As it always did, a thrill went through Anitun at the prospect of a fight. Launching herself off the side of the building, she cast aside all her worries and focused on the danger in front of her. The storm surged around her as she pulled out her dagger, determined to inflict as much pain as she could on the creature before she dragged it home.
Using the winds to her advantage, she ducked and dodged until she maneuvered out of its reach. It dared not to use its prehensile tongue while she held her weapon, knowing she would seize the opportunity to cut it out of its mouth. Finally, it let loose that unearthly scream once again and detached itself from its lower body, gaining a burst of speed.
Now I can hit its weak spots.
In the back of her mind, a voice cautioned her to exercise caution. The storm had increased tenfold, no doubt due to her loosening grip on her temper. If she wasn't careful, she could very well end up causing more destruction than the aswang. Anitun turned sharply, intending to trap the lower half before it realized its mistake.
A flash of movement caught the corner of her eye. He's quick on the uptake, she noticed, as she saw that Robin had managed to tie up its lower half while she had kept it distracted. Ordinarily, they would have used salt or another substance – but he seemed to have taken a brute force approach, tagging it with a small device before clearing out.
The resulting explosion caused the creature to writhe in pain, and Anitun pounced. Reaching into its mouth, she grabbed its vile tongue and propelled herself backwards, slicing down with her dagger as she did so. Its final shriek was horrible, stifled by the blood pooling in its mouth while it clutched its throat. The creature's dying throes were equal parts pathetic and frightening, the sound of its strangled gurgling going through the heroes' bones. But there was no relief in its defeat.
Wait, this is wrong.
It had disintegrated as it fell, melting into the rain. This wasn't the aswang she was looking for. But how had this one materialized in Gotham, so far away from the legends that had birthed its kind? Dazed, she landed on the rooftop.
"Are you okay?," he asked, concerned.
She knew how she must have looked to him, drenched with blood.
"Don't worry, it's not mine." As his gaze shifted to her right hand, she realized she was still holding the disembodied, serpentine tongue.
"Eurgh," she said, dropping it on the floor. She wasn't even sure how it was still moving when the rest of the body had become dust, but she wasn't about to look any closer to find out why.
"That wasn't the one, was it?" he asked, ignoring the tongue wriggling on the floor. "There was another one."
"How did you know?"
"It was the wrong color. The one that attacked us earlier, it was grey." For the second time, she was impressed by his attention to detail.
"You're right, it's not the one I was looking for. The one I'm hunting down wouldn't have disintegrated like that. We wouldn't have been able to kill it." Peering over the edge of the building, she couldn't see any sign of the body.
"So, what? That was a garden variety aswang?" he asked, somewhat jokingly.
"You could say that, yeah." At another time, she would have laughed at his joke. Before either could continue, Robin tilted his head and listened intently, pressing his finger to his ear.
"Understood. Robin out."
He turned to her, looking slightly uncertain. Anitun prided herself on being quick to understand and anticipate, but his face was so impressively deadpan that she couldn't fathom what he had just heard.
"How do you like blindfolds?," he asked, giving her a sheepish look.
"Come again?"
"We need you on the case, but Batman's, uh, pretty private." Realizing what he meant, Anitun tried to hide the insult she felt. She was helping them with a problem in their city, and she had to be treated like an enemy spy. To his credit, Robin pretended not to notice her struggle to maintain a neutral tone.
"I guess, if he thinks it's necessary."
Slightly too late, she remembered that they were helping her too, so she quickly added, "I know everyone needs to be careful."
"He wouldn't have asked if it wasn't," he replied, pulling out a blindfold from his utility belt. "I've already summoned my motorcycle, so you just have to put this under your mask. Don't worry, I won't look. Hero's honor."
It was only a moment to make sure the mask was secure, then Robin shifted next to her.
"Am I okay to carry you? It's a long way down to the street." As polite and noncommittal as he sounded, Anitun couldn't help but feel awkward; to be blindfolded and carried, however brief, was too much for her sense of pride.
"I can fly, you know. I'll just…float down." He made a noise of agreement, probably similarly relieved. As she stepped off the side of the building, Anitun reveled in the feeling of the air whipping around her, before she came to a halt a few feet off the ground.
"Get on the back, I'll help."
Though she knew Robin would have had to rappel down, she was startled to hear his voice next to her without warning – the stories of the 'Batfamily' that reached her had always made a point of how they seemed to show up out of nowhere, but the silence with which he moved she wouldn't have believed.
"Please tell me it won't be long." Did her pleading sound unprofessional? Surely he'd understand how uncomfortable it was to be lead around like a child.
"Relax, it's a short trip. Can't tell you how short because I'm fairly sure it's classified." Perhaps he wasn't joking.
The engine thrummed into life and soon they were navigating Gotham's streets.
When she finally allowed to yank the blindfold off, she was surprised by what she saw. The utilitarian construction and sleek machinery weren't unexpected, but the sheer scale of it was enough to make her pause. The cave reached far beyond a single space, stretching out as far as she could see.
"You're late." The reprimand was sharp, but Robin seemed unfazed.
"It's literally impossible for us to have gone any faster, so I doubt it." Robin beckoned to her, and as they walked forward, the source of the unfamiliar voice came into view. As much as his legacy seemed to be exaggerated and embellished, Batman himself lived up to at least some of the stories. He was far more physically imposing than the lithe Robin and Batgirl; the way he moved suggested years of battle experience that the other two had not quite reached.
"Anitun, Batman." She couldn't help but notice that Batman evidently already knew who she was. That sounds about right, she thought. He looked her over twice, and after a slight nod, turned to Robin, who filled him in on the fight.
"There's been a development," Batman said evenly, after Robin had finished, with no inflection to show whether or not the development was good. "Batgirl's reported two other sightings within a ten mile radius of the original incident. That brings it up to four."
Frowning, Robin moved over to the large computer at the center of the cave. "Batgirl was supposed to meet us here. Where's she gone?"
"She's following a lead." No other information was forthcoming. Frustrated, Anitun asked the obvious question.
"So what am I doing here?"
"You're here to help us." With that, he pressed a button on his belt – at least they have a consistent theme going on, Anitun thought wryly – and a spotlight shone on a hidden surgical table. As she took a closer look, her stomach turned in revulsion.
The person strapped down was still struggling, though they had evidently begun to weaken. Though their movement was forceful and jerky, this wasn't what caught Anitun's eye. Instead, it was their face that had made her step back quickly – the flesh looked like it had been drawn back, making the poor soul look skeletal and inhuman. It was as if the blood had been drained out of their body, leaving a pallid sheen over their skin. Trailing her eyes down the victim's body, she saw that the exposed areas of their body had also turned corpse-like. The most chilling aspect was the absolute quiet – the victim's mouth was open in a silent scream, eyes bulging from the effort of struggling free.
"No way," she murmured, looking over the writhing captive. There had been stories about this, but she'd always dismissed it, thinking that people had gotten it mixed up with vampire lore.
"Batgirl found her on her way back to the cave," Batman said, keeping the same serious, even tone. He didn't say anything more, looking at her intently, as if judging her response. "I've taken a sample to determine a probable cause, but for now, you should talk."
"Do you know anything about this? Can it be reversed?," Robin interjected, obviously as disturbed by the victim as she was.
"There are rumors," she said slowly, keeping her eyes on the table, "That those who marry them often become aswang themselves, but I doubt that this person had the time to do that, or even the means."
"You've never seen this before?" Anitun bristled a little at Batman's question, though it remained impassive; she imagined that there was a dismissal behind it. After all, myths and legends were less reliable than forensic science.
"Not personally, but I'll contact someone who might," she said, careful not to mention who. Her even being there was already toeing the line; the less she said about where she came from, the better.
"And who might that be?" Again, no emotion, nothing to betray his intent.
Someone could really learn to hate that tone, she thought.
"Like I said, someone that could help." Staring at him dead in the eyes, she knew that the conversation that followed may very well be a battle of wills – something told her that he was less easy to ally with than his protégés. Perhaps she was being insolent, but orders were orders.
After a moment, Anitun saw annoyance cross his face, the first sign of emotion he'd betrayed since the start of the conversation.
"Do you know how this looks? An attack happens. You show up to my city, and suddenly there are three more sightings of something that no one in Gotham's seen before. If you want to stay here you're going to have to tell us exactly who you are and where you came from." As much as she hated the implication behind the statement, she knew he was right. The way things unfolded in the world, blind trust wasn't always the wisest way to go.
"Look, I'll tell you everything that'll help with this case. But I can't say anything else," she said. "I already helped fight off one of them – is that something someone who didn't want to help would do?" Though she was determined to stay resolute, his stare made her sweat.
But at the same time, he was notorious for being secretive for a reason – surely he'd allow other people their own.
"Maybe so, but I still haven't ruled out a bigger conspiracy behind all of this," was his final verdict. Breaking eye contact, he nodded at Robin. An unspoken agreement passed between the two, one that Anitun was sure meant that the two were to watch her closely. Knowing that this would be the most trust that she was to be afforded, she willed herself to relax. Despite their suspicions, they had no actual reason to distrust her – and she was confident that she wouldn't give them any.
"I'll contact them now." Neither of them moved to stop her, so she took that cue to take hold of her necklace. Knowing they would probably stop her, she didn't bother to turn away.
"This is Anitun," she said. "The problem's gotten a lot bigger." Pausing, she debated how to tell the rest, and decided that as always, going head on was probably the best. "The aswang is starting to turn people – I don't know how, but there's already been one victim, and there might be more."
She thought of those poor bodies she found in the aftermath of the escape, and prayed that someone knew the answer. As expected, the deep voice of Apolaki answered her, filling her mind.
"I feared that may be the case."
Her mind raced with possibilities. Had the escape of the aswang been not so unexpected after all? Though Apolaki knew more than almost anyone else on their lore, the complete lack of surprise he showed was telling.
"Has this happened before?" Not in recent memory, that was for sure. But there were a lot that she was unaware of, and many events had been hushed up out of respect for the wishes of those who were involved. As she listened to Apolaki's response, she belatedly understood that some were also hidden out of pride.
An observer needn't be Cassandra Cain to understand that Anitun was receiving bad news, even though they could only hear her half of the conversation. Despite her obvious frustration, Batman knew that it didn't necessarily mean that it was a dead end; the truth just had a penchant for being uglier than people hoped. Finishing her conversation, Anitun finally looked at them.
"There's someone we need to find."
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