Oh mah gaawd, an update. Sorry if you just had a heart-attack from the shock.
A long update, actually. It's double the size of a normal chapter.
So, I don't know if a lot of you saw what I put on my profile a few days ago (I keed, I keed. I have the traffic stats, I know how many of you saw it and how many didn't) to those who didn't, we only have two chapters left after this one. The last one to be released on this story's first birthday. (Don't they grow up fast)
Thanks to everyone who read, followed and favourited the last chapter. With special thanks to Sylkie, CactusNoir, Mozart's Fantasy, IamBatgirl, OptimusPrimeAddict, Eyes Are The Soul, DwCyrus, Loony Loser and the Lazy Anon who left me reviews to fangirl over.
IamBatgirl: You know what, I'm actually seriously happy that someone liked the slightly corny joke at the end there. God, what am I doing with my life.
Lazy Anon: Ohmykami? What is this. It must be researched! Even at one in the morning! (Also, I hope that 'two months' still constitutes as 'soon', huehue)
Chapter eleven
There was an intense clenching in Bruce's stomach by the time they reached one of the many run-down districts in Keystone. This was where he and Superman had tracked the comm, much to Bruce's guilt. How many times had they scoured this neighborhood for the slightest information, for the slightest leads? It was as if some sort of cruel, malicious god was mocking him.
Superman landed on the street first, his feet touching down lightly, instantly standing poised and ready. There was no word for it other than elegant. Batman jumped down from a precariously tiled rooftop a few seconds after, all legs and arms and sharp angles. As he stood, his cape flowed liquid black against the sun-stained tarmac of the road, obscuring his feet as it pooled around them.
Superman turned his head towards him, and raised an arched eyebrow.
"Where do we go from here? The coordinates weren't specific."
Batman said nothing in reply for a few moments, and turned on the spot to take in their surroundings.
The night had grown much darker since they had set out. Their only relief was the faint orange light emitting from the few streetlamps that lined the street. One was flickering, and threatening to go out. Despite this, he was still fully able to see the outlines of the buildings around them.
They seemed to be in some sort of industry block. There were many factories about, and the odd few groupings of houses, both looking equally dilapidated.
"The coordinates WERE specific. We're standing exactly where the distress call was produced." Batman said finally, much to Superman's obvious confusion.
"But…. we're in the middle of a street! How could-"
"-THINK, Superman-"
"-Below? It came from below the street?"
Batman nodded his head, and looked around for any gutters or sewer openings that could hopefully lead them to the others. Superman, spotting a sewer opening before Batman did, pointed a finger towards it to alert the other man.
Once they had lowered themselves down into the sewer, they realized with slight surprise that it was not quite a sewer at all. Instead, Batman saw that they were currently in the middle of a long, white corridor, which smelt of damp and tasted of it too.
The coordinates, specific as they were, had led them to a figurative dead-end. Both ends of the corridor looked equally as promising, Batman reasoned, and the only way this would work was if they both-
"Split up?" Superman suggested after taking in the surroundings as Batman had done.
Without words, he nodded, and took off down one end of the seemingly never-ending corridor, leaving Superman to his own passageway.
The "sewers" seemed like a maze, and wound on for a great deal of time. Batman was frantic in his searching; it felt like every corridor led to a dead-end, or to a place he had been before. The stark whiteness of the walls, and musty smell of stagnant water was slowly driving him half insane, not to mention frustrated.
Finally, when he stumbled upon a door, he almost let out a cry of relief. Any change in the solid whiteness of the painted walls was a good change.
The door was a polished grey metal. Not a strong metal, although it did jar his leg slightly when he kicked it inwards.
In the room stood grey filing cabinets, metal similar to the door. He searched through them, hoping for files or information, when the sounds of breath from behind him alerted him to another's presence.
"Fifth drawer down, third cabinet. If you're interested, that's the one he used." Came a thick, rich voice from behind him.
Batman, instead of turning, reached towards the said drawer, subtly grasping for a batarang from his belt as he did so. Whoever was behind him didn't seem to notice. He pulled at the handle of the drawer; it rolled smoothly outwards to reveal five small, black objects, which he immediately identified as the comms.
Because it felt like the natural thing to do, he scooped them all up into the gloved palm of his left hand, and dropped them into one of the numerous pouches on his belt.
"I don't expect you'll need those, really, although I suppose they do cost quite a bit to manufacture." The voice mused mockingly.
This time, Batman did turn around. The man didn't match his voice. Batman had been expecting someone like the Riddler, tall and lean with an intelligent sparkle in his eye.
Instead, he was faced with a middle-aged, overweight man. He had the sort of look about him which suggested that in public he was perhaps kindly, or approachable. He smiled hungrily as he looked at Batman, but the wrinkles around his mouth told a different tale, one of warmth and of joy.
This confused Batman more than ever but, then again, he had seen stranger things in his time.
"What have you done with them?" Batman growled, "-And who are you?"
"I'm afraid I can't answer either of those questions. But in a few moments, you won't need the answers anyway."
As the large man retreated from the doorway, Batman realized that they were no longer alone.
Outside stood an assorted group of rather intimidating guards. Some, Batman surprisingly recognized. As well as Captain Cold, who he remembered had been involved in this all along, he also saw the annoyingly familiar faces of Copperhead, Shade, and the Riddler, along with a few other 'anti-Justice League' members.
Taking them all down wouldn't have been so difficult, but then Shade released a shroud of darkness over the blinding-white corridor, and everything had gone to hell.
Fists and legs connected with his body at all angles. He suspected a few of the villains were even accidentally fighting each other in the black mist. Whilst he threw the odd punch here and there, his main aim was to reach light again, and find Superman or the others at least.
When all hope had been lost to him, the darkness almost as never-ending as the plain white corridors, the cloud lifted, and Batman found himself staring at Superman who was hovering over the number of now-unconscious villains.
Batman had often found that asking 'how' in this type of situation was pointless, so he simply said 'thanks' in reply to Superman's expectant gaze.
"I found the others. They're locked in cells, but Flash isn't there."
"Take me."
And so Batman found himself running down a corridor yet again. This one at least was devoid of any dizzying white paint, but the plain bricks did make for some tedium after a time.
After what could've been five minutes or an hour, Superman stopped at a metal door, identical to the last one Batman had entered. If it weren't for the lack of whiteness on the walls, he would've thought it to be the same door.
It looked like Superman had already opened the entrance previously, so Batman's leg was thankfully spared from having to kick more solid metal in.
When he entered the room, he was surprised by the fact that all the cells were made of glass. It seemed to be a ridiculous material for keeping a superhero detained in, but one punch of his fist to the glass told him differently.
In four separate cells lay Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Wonder woman, and Martian Manhunter. All were unconscious, and all injected with tubes of some sort, possibly for life-support.
Superman immediately set to work on Wonder Woman's cell, using his laser vision to cut an opening in the reinforced glass. Batman tried the same on J'onn, but found that he would have to use more conventional methods to get in.
Once they had retrieved all four of the League members from their glass prisons, Superman awkwardly holding Diana, GL and Hawkgirl over his shoulders, and Batman carrying J'onn in the same fashion, they exited the room.
Running with a full-grown Martian over his shoulder wasn't the easiest thing he'd ever done, even more so when he suddenly ground to a halt, almost dropping the unconscious J'onn headfirst.
Superman, who had been flying, noticed the lack of footsteps behind him, and landed, turning around to face the caped crusader.
"What did you stop for? We have to get them out now!"
Batman said nothing, but gestured for Superman to take J'onn. When Superman had done so, and slung yet another limp body over his shoulder, Batman spoke.
"I need to look for Flash. If you take the others up to the surface, I'll contact you on your comm when I find him."
Hesitantly, Superman nodded, turned away, and took off again, flying at speed around another corner.
For a few seconds, Batman simply stood in the corridor, taking in the faint dripping sound that seemed ever-present in these tunnels. He had no idea where Flash could be, but realized that standing around staring at walls was very unlikely to bring him closer to finding the speedster.
He was running down another corridor now, one that he hadn't been in before. Or had he? The white paint, which had once more appeared a few corners ago, had begun hypnotizing him again.
His legs were aching, and his body sticky and uncomfortable with sweat underneath the heavy suit. It felt like he would never stop running, that he would be stuck speeding down corridors for eternity.
But of course that thought was put to rest with the appearance of the large man again, as Batman reached a junction in the corridor that led four ways. He was standing at the end of the far left corridor, facing Batman, in between him and yet another metal door. This corridor was different from the others. In it was a ladder that led to somewhere above them, and a number of drains lining the bottoms of the walls.
Batman stopped.
And then walked towards the man.
And stopped again, a few feet away.
The other man spoke first, grinning obscenely.
"You made it. I was so worried." The malicious smile on the other man's lips was growing wider by the second. Batman snarled and pushed the other man aside, pulling at the door. It was heavy and didn't budge at first, but, after a few seconds of frantic tugging, swung open easily.
Inside was smaller than he had anticipated, more a closet than a room. Slumped up against the wall facing the door was Flash, hands bound in metal, mouth gagged. He was wearing what seemed to be the remains of a grey coloured jumpsuit, which had been shredded and dirtied in some places. Flash's left arm and leg seemed to be in bandages for some reason, stained the dark brown of dried blood, and his face was hollowed and thin. He seemed to be unconscious.
"Shh, don't wake him, he's asleep." Giggled a voice from behind.
Batman was so overwhelmed by contrasting emotions that he didn't move for a few moments, instead just standing over Flash's limp body, hoping that the man really was just 'sleeping', and not…
"He's been out for a few hours, I think it's time he woke up! Wouldn't you agree, Batman?" The overweight man knelt down and held a cloth to Flash's face. It took around three seconds before Wally came back to life, spluttering and coughing at whatever chemical had been on the wad of material pressed to his face
His eyes took a moment to focus, and when they did, they latched onto the kneeling man.
"…Rick?"
The large man nodded and smiled, patting Wally on the head and raising himself back to his feet.
Batman looked incredulously from Wally to 'Rick', and asked, to no one in particular, "You know him?!"
Flash looked up at Batman, eyes brightening in genuine happiness.
"Of course I know him, we're friends!" The redhead answered, "Did you both come to save me? I turned the comm on. Did you get the others out, as well?"
Batman was struggling to keep up, "Friends?" He asked dumbly.
Wally smile faded slowly, and the thinness of his face showed more prominently than ever before, "Bats are you okay?"
But instead of replying, Batman turned around and swung at Rick, clipping the man on the side of the head. The large man only laughed, and moved out of the way of the next blow.
"Bats what are you doing?! Leave Rick alone!" Wally shouted in fear and anger.
The way he moves, Batman thought, I've seen it before…
Rick took a split second to look at Wally, and grinned as he spluttered out, "There never was a Rick."
'Rick' dodged out of the way of another blow, this time with impossible speed for someone of his build. His skin bubbled like hot wax, and he seemed to melt slightly, like his skin was sloughing off of his body.
"Clayface." Wally whispered. Clayface laughed once more, melted into a lump of dripping goo, and slid into one of the drains in the corridor, after gurgling, "You two might want to start climbing…"
The silence of the corridor was deafening, so Batman turned to Wally and cautiously offered his hand. Wally, after staring at the drain with shock, reached up a shaking hand in return and grasped Batman's. As glove gripped flesh, their eyes met, blue on green.
"This is surreal." Wally rasped as he was hauled up. Both his voice and his legs wobbled unsteadily.
"How so?" Batman asked absentmindedly, turning towards the ladder, which appeared to be the closest escape route. They hadn't let go of each other's hands.
"Well, it's just, I never thought I'd see you again." With slight awkwardness, Wally let go of Batman's gloved hand. He was still finding it hard to stand properly, and therefore turned to clutch one of the rounds of the ladder for support. The metal was cold and slightly clammy, the same generic grey as the doors and drains in the complex.
Batman hadn't replied to his statement, so Wally turned around to look at him. The caped crusader was frozen, looking at the drain in which Clayface had dripped down only minutes before.
"…You two might want to start climbing…" He whispered to himself. Then, his eyes shot up to look at Wally in sudden understanding, "Start climbing!" He shouted hoarsely, and turned Wally towards the ladder by the shoulder.
"What why-" Wally began to ask. Then it struck him, "Oh."
Batman nodded grimly
Clayface and the others must have known the game was up. As soon he and Superman had arrived, the rogues had made a show of 'stopping' the two heroes in their tracks. Clayface had left the complex via drain minutes before - probably heading towards whatever rat-infested sewer the rogues called a Headquarters these days – in order to escape the 'back-up plan'.
'You two might want to start climbing'
The whole complex was rigged.
Wally began to climb. He ignored the throbs of pain in his arms and legs, in his head and torso. He didn't notice that his fingers were numb and shaky, and that he couldn't grasp the metal rounds properly. He just climbed as quickly as he possibly could, Batman following close behind.
Who knew how long they had. Clayface had left, ten minutes before now, the others even previous to that.
Batman only hoped Superman hadn't re-entered the complex to look for them. Although very little could kill the Kryptonian, Batman didn't think an explosion would do him much good.
Wally had reached the top of the ladder. They had gone through several levels of the complex by the ladder, hoping that each new floor would lead them to the surface. But now, a heavy metal slab covered the small hole above them. In desperation, Batman climbed up alongside Wally, careful to not knock the man off. He tried pushing at the metal, but the ladder creaked and moaned in protest as he pushed his weight and the weight of the metal slab against the rounds.
"What now?" Wally asked, eyes huge and round. Just as Batman opened his mouth to tell the other man to climb back down to the floor below them, the slab was removed, and the natural light that flooded into the chamber blinded them with its brightness.
Wally hadn't seen the outside world for months now, and any light he'd been blessed by had been artificial. He threw his right arm over his face to shield his eyes. The light was so piercing that it was hurting him, his eyes streaming. He felt hands grasp him and pull him up out of the sewers. As something was strapped over his eyes, he felt hands grasp at him, clumsily pulling him into a hug of relief. The feeling of Kevlar prodding his chest alerted him as to who it was, but he said nothing.
The air was clean and sweet, and gentle breeze ruffled his lanky and dirt-encrusted hair. Being outside again was like being woken up from the darkest of nightmares. Being able to see the outside would have been equally as poetic, but that could wait for now.
The hug turned into a half hug, and he was picked up bridal-style in someone's arms. The lack of hard armor told him that it was unfortunately not Batman, but the soft material and soothing voice told him that it was instead another of his friends.
"It's okay Flash, we've got you." Superman said, the gentle breeze merging into an abrupt gale as he was flown away, presumably to a safe space.
He was unsure as to what had happened to Batman, but the sudden and frightening cacophony of explosions from behind them worried him for the other's safety. The force from behind jerked Superman in the air, and for a split second, they found themselves plummeting towards the ground. Superman regained his wits, however, and landed them gently, shielding Wally from damage, as searing heat surrounded them.
I sure do love me some cliffhangers - even at this point in the story.
Wow, this is turning into quite the bittersweet day for our little red-headed friend. Waht a twist, ladies and…who are we kidding - other ladies.