Author's Note: My sincerest apologies for the extreme delay on the continuation of this tale. My muse has been in a rather annoying consumerist mode of late, and on top of life in general that hasn't contributed to my ability to produce much. However, that seems to have eased, and with the holiday season and its accompanying long weekends at hand I can say with a fair bit of confidence that you won't be waiting more than a few days for the next chapter. Thank you so much for your patience, and happy reading!
"...Hello," Superman greeted his prisoner once he'd gotten him wrestled around into secure hold.
"Who are you?! You can't be here! Help!" the trapped man called out as he tried to struggle. A heavy black gauntlet clapped over his mouth, stifling his cries. He flailed more eagerly for a moment, then went still, gulping hard as he caught sight of the sneer on Batman's lips.
"Stop shouting," the caped man gave a flat order, "or be knocked out." ...Why do you look familiar? You're dressed like an ordinary hayseed, but...something's not right. You walked through the door with the attitude of someone with power, someone used to being in charge. You're no hired barn worker, I'm certain of that much.
"...Done?" Superman asked once the captive had stayed docile for several seconds. A weak nod answered. "Good. I'm going to let you go, but I wouldn't run or scream if I were you," he advised politely. "Batman really will punch you if you give him an excuse, and from what I've heard that isn't a very pleasant thing to wake up from. Okay?" Another meager movement signaled the hostage's acquiescence, and a moment later the Kryptonian released him. "Great," he applauded when no motion towards escape was made. "Now, we have some que-hey!" his explanation transitioned into a protest as Batman delivered several strategic blows to the interrogatee. "That wasn't necessary!"
"The hell it wasn't," the Gothamite growled back as the civilian slumped to his knees, a little moan of confused terror escaping his slack lips as he realized that his body was no longer entirely under his own control. The man from the file, Batman had finally fathomed just before Superman let the new arrival loose. He's masked his appearance, but his hairline and that slight bump in his nose give him away. This is the best person who could possibly have walked through that door short of a resurrected Evelyn Graham, and I'll be damned if I give him any chance to avoid telling me what I want to know.
"He had no intention of trying to get away," Wonder Woman added her complaint, crossing her arms unhappily.
"...Do you two not recognize him?" the cowled figure asked perturbedly. "This is Nathan Derosier," he stated. Still seeing no recognition in the eyes of his compatriots, his mouth twisted into a snarl. "The head of the entire project," he ground out between clenched teeth. "The man from the file on this place. Evelyn Graham's successor."
"...He doesn't look like the picture we had," Superman frowned, stepping forward to steady the kneeling man when he began to fall forward. "Are you sure?"
"He's dyed his hair and is wearing color contacts. The overalls," Batman noted the prisoner's attire, "are also different than what he had on in the photo. For all that he looks the part, though, no regular bumpkin would have access to this room, especially with the Feds sniffing around. This is him. Confirm your identity, Derosier," he snapped.
Having had a minute to collect himself following his initial moments of fear, the nerve-blocked man replied with a glare and a simple denial. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"...You said that awfully fast," the woman commented, her eyes narrowing as she studied him. "Almost as if you were planning on saying that exact thing no matter what we asked you."
"That's because I was," was spat back. "And that's all I'm saying to you."
Superman sighed. "Wonder Woman? I don't think we're going to get very far with him like this, and I don't really want to watch Batman beat answers out of him. Would you...?"
"...You know I don't like forcing them unless I have to," she countered, her hand coming to rest on her lasso as her expression darkened. "Especially humans. That goes double for cases where there are strong beliefs in play, and if this is Derosier then there's fanaticism involved."
"We need the information he has," Batman said roughly. "And we're wasting time. Even with the files," he went on as she continued to hesitate, "we may not be able to discern the details of their plan. Without that knowledge we have no idea how far along they've really gotten. The science will only let us guess at their intended endgame; we have to have confirmation." Damn it, woman, come on. Although, he allowed, I suppose I can understand your reluctance, at least to an extent; after all, the ability to drag the truth about anything you want to know out of people is a great power, and you could easily abuse it if you wanted. Still, this is not the time for soul-searching.
"...The lasso isn't a nice thing to be under," Wonder Woman turned back to the kneeling man to try one more time. Her voice took on a motherly edge even though in all appearances she was young enough to be his daughter. "I'd rather not use it on you, but I will if I have to. Are you who Batman said you are? Are you Nathan Derosier?"
"...I don't know what you're talking about."
"Fine," she said, her mouth tight as she shook out the lasso. "I'm sorry," she added, then draped the rope around him and cinched it closed. "...Are you Nathan Derosier?"
"Yes."
Superman and Wonder Woman both shot Batman a look, silently acknowledging that he had been correct in his identification of the figure before them. "...And you took over the Montgomery Project after Evelyn Graham's death?" the woman inquired.
"Yes."
"We know your research has gone beyond what was necessary to fulfill her goals," Batman jumped in. "Why? What's your goal, Derosier?"
The captive's face contorted for an instant, Wonder Woman's own expression morphing into mild sympathy in response to his obvious struggle. "Evelyn was a brilliant visionary – that's why I wanted to work with her so badly, she was an absolute legend – but she was short-sighted in her old age," Derosier opined. "She wanted to free livestock with this project; I'm going to free humanity with it."
"So global veganism isn't what you're working towards? You've left Graham's plan behind?" Superman pressed.
"No! Eating meat..." he shuddered, "...eating meat is just...wrong. I would never turn my back on my animal brethren. But their freedom – what Ev wanted – is just the beginning. It's the portal to our freedom, too, don't you see?"
"Our freedom from what?" Batman challenged. "...What kind of utopia are you chasing, Derosier?"
"The ultimate utopia," the prisoner breathed. "Just picture it," he pled, his gaze glassily focused somewhere over their heads as he slipped into his daydream. "Science and nature working together in harmony. The animals would be intelligent enough to manage their own numbers and to reach accords of sorts with humans regarding resource governance. The forests and grasslands could become whole again as we pulled back into redesigned cities focused on sustainable industry, industry that would provide all the necessary human conveniences without causing harm to the environment and our fellow inhabitants of the Earth. Hand in hand with nature, we could maintain a very high standard of living for ourselves while restoring the balance we've neglected since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. I call it industrial veganism, but history...history will call it the next stage in our evolution."
The two costumed men exchanged a look. "You're insane," Batman determined aloud. How would you convince people to go along with this? Getting people to stop eating meat, I'll admit, would probably be achievable under your plan for simple reasons of psychology, but what you're describing sounds like we'd be treating animal species like nations. Humans can't get along amongst themselves, so what makes you think we'd get along with intelligent animals any better? If you have in fact managed to create super-smart livestock, then I can respect your scientific prowess, but your fervency to a cause that you can't have thought through the details on marks you as the most dangerous sort of person; a zealot.
"But I'm not insane," Derosier argued passionately. "We won't have to continue treating the animals in every generation, understand? The changes we're making to their genes, to their mental capabilities, are entirely heritable. It will take a little time to train them as to how to interpret what they instinctively know – migration, food and space needs, things like that – into a form we can understand, but once they've mastered that there's no end to what we could do together. Even just getting the domestic species online will be huge. And we're so close," his passion grew. "We're so close with the most recent batch of little ones. They're only a few weeks old, but...they're so promising. You've no idea." He gave a pleased little sigh, his eyes closing as the air escaped him. "It's so beautiful..."
...I've heard all I need to, Batman decided. This project was doomed from the start, at least in terms of fulfilling the manifesto he just laid out. Derosier's no real threat, but this technology he seems to have mastered...that can't be permitted to survive anywhere other than in the JLA vaults and the cave. In the wrong hands – violent hands – it could be made truly devastating. "Where are they? The animals? Your labs?"
"Batman!" Wonder Woman broke in urgently. "Don't answer, Derosier. Please, Batman...if he tells us that, he'll feel as if he's betrayed his own cause. There's no knowing how badly that might affect someone of such strong beliefs after we...do what we've come to do. He's going to be damaged enough by what he's told us already, and...well, I don't sense that he's a bad person. Misled, maybe, but...it doesn't seem like he did any of this with the intent of hurting people. There's no need to destroy him."
"It has to be just down the hall, anyway," Superman pitched in.
"And what if it isn't just down the hall? The existence of the underground portion of the complex was fairly well hidden, considering that it was disguised by a bunch of civilians. If that continues as we go, there could be things that we miss entirely without a guide, and it all has to be dealt with. We have no idea about patrols or other security up ahead, either, but he does. We can move faster and more efficiently if he tells us what we can expect to encounter. Besides that," he pressed on, "we have no idea how large the subterranean spaces are. We don't even know for sure how many animals there are. There's no reason to walk into this blindly when we have someone here who can throw light on the situation." With that he crossed his arms and waited for the others to accede.
Before them, Derosier's face became a palette of terror. "...What are you talking about? You...what are you here to do? You aren't the normal ones who come sneaking around, looking for information," he acknowledged, "but I thought...I mean...oh, god. You're going to kill them," he fathomed suddenly. "You're going to kill my babies. My...my life's work. Please, not the animals," he fell to begging. "Not the animals. They didn't do anything wrong, please!"
Wonder Woman stared at the prisoner for a long moment, then turned to Superman. The Kryptonian kept his face carefully neutral, his gaze traveling back and forth between his companions as if he were waiting for them to sort themselves out. Seeing that there was no further help coming from that corner, Wonder Woman gave an unhappy hmpf. "Maybe you can see both sides of this argument," she spoke to the red-caped figure, "but I can't justify risking this man's psychological well-being any further just to find out what we probably already know. He's already been under the lasso too long for someone of his level of conviction. Even if there are hurdles up ahead," she went on, overriding the beginning of Batman's angry protest as she recalled the rope, "we've gotten this far without trouble. This is no supervillain's lair, and since we aren't likely to encounter anything like what we'd find in one of those I don't feel that we're increasing our personal danger. It might take us a little longer to finish the job, but no one will die because of the delay. Given that, I won't risk making this man a casualty; it's too high of a price for what we might get out of it. He's already going to be irreparably hurt by all of this," she gestured towards the newly-freed scientist.
...Goddamn it, Diana, Batman groused silently. As much as he wanted to argue, the set of Wonder Woman's mouth told him that it would be futile, and he wasn't foolish enough to try and challenge her for the tool he would have to have in order to get another word out of sense from Derosier, who was now hunched over with tears of defeat rolling down his cheeks. Fine. I'm not going to waste my time on this, especially now that you've made it necessary for us to take things slow. I have better things to do than to debate the mental preservation of criminals. Without a word, he stalked over to the miserable looking would-be revolutionary and delivered a neat blow that rendered him unconscious.
"Ah...was that necessary?" Superman asked.
"Yes," the black-clad man spat back as he began to drag the insensate form towards the boxes they had been going through when they were interrupted. "It was, especially now that we're going to be hobbled by a lack of information. He's the head of the project; if someone notices that he's been gone for a while and comes looking for him, it needs to look as if we were never here. This way," he positioned his load so that the unassuming eye would conclude that the man had merely fallen asleep while reading, "buys us time to work around our handicap."
"And leaves him with emotional and physical trauma," Wonder Woman added, sounding displeased.
"Be grateful for the latter," Batman growled back. "He may suffer short-term memory loss as a side effect."
"...May suffer it?" she asked, her expression softening slightly. "I don't want him to be hurt, of course, but it would probably be best for his future mental health if he doesn't remember everything he told us."
"I can go make sure that he won't remember, if you'd prefer," came an annoyed rejoinder.
"No, this...this is fine, I guess. Maybe he won't be too badly injured in the end, after all."
Just think of everything we could have learned and then knocked out of his memory if you'd let me finish, the cowled man sniped silently. Knowing that the comment would do nothing more than burn precious minutes with bickering and leave him with two perturbed co-workers for the rest of the mission besides, he held it back. A non-committal noise was all that passed his lips as he headed for the door. I don't care if neither of you wants to talk to me, he told himself, and in fact that would be preferable to all of the personal questions you asked on the way here, but I won't risk alienating you both to the point where you might purposefully work together just to undermine me. Would you do that? he wondered after a moment's thought. ...I don't know. You're both...professional, I suppose...and it seems like the job comes first to you, which it ought to. Still, though, you both rely too much on emotions, so maybe...
Superman, who had been listening intently to the hallway in preparation for their departure, interrupted his internal monologue. "Ready?" he asked Wonder Woman.
"Ready," she confirmed.
"Batman?" the Kryptonian inquired.
One curious eyebrow rose beneath the cowl as Batman caught a glimmer of understanding in the other man's patient gaze. "Ready," he answered. Why are you giving me that look?
"Then we're all clear."
They slipped out into the corridor on that signal, the Gothamite lingering for a second at the security panel to ensure that it returned to the state they had found it in. ...Maybe you wouldn't work against me, after all, he mused, falling in at the rear of the trio and surreptitiously observing them as they proceeded down the passageway. Maybe...but maybe not. Hmm...