I do not own Batman Beyond, Justice League, or X-Men Evolution
Chapter 12: Demon Trials
Terry pulled off his mask and only for the briefest moment felt a pang of nakedness as he revealed himself to the hundreds of witnesses and threats that surrounded him. That feeling only lasted for a moment for as soon as his mask slipped up past his nose and filtration systems, one of the ninja gassed him full in the face.
Terry staggered, swiping at his face and coughing as though he was giving up a lung. Ra's was saying something, watching him with an amused eye as Terry spun and clutched at his head. He tried to focus but a loud buzzing noise grew in his mind, making it impossible to remain focused on anything except the pain.
The world exploded around Terry. Like ash, the world he knew, beyond Ra's, beyond this lair, beyond the time that he knew swirled and peeled away and he found himself standing alone in a world with a blood red sky and broken and shattered buildings laying all around him. Clouds drifted by lazily with no obligations to do anything from what he could see between the twisted and broken frames of the buildings directly overhead.
He staggered slightly and couldn't explain to himself why but the moment of unbalance passed by quickly and he forced himself forward toward what seemed to be an opening from all of the societal carnage around him. He staggered again as he neared the top of the lip and got his first real look at the new world in which he found himself. It looked like the remains of a war zone. It was hard to tell where he was exactly, other than to say if the number of destroyed buildings and tall remains was anything to go on, it could either be New York, Metropolis,… or even Gotham.
Without his mask, Terry was unable to immediately identify the smell in the air nor get a clear enough picture of any recognizable landmarks to deduce his location for certain. Smoke still rose from the downtown area where a greenish haze hung still from what Terry could only guess was residue from whatever had caused this level of devastation. The only thing that came to mind was nuclear.
A movement caught his eye far down the rise closer to the downtown. It was a small movement and took Terry another minute to identify exactly where it was. He headed down the destroyed streets toward it, only slightly hesitant about the risk to his health if it had indeed been nuclear that wiped this city off the map but he needed to know what exactly was happening.
It was the work of a half hour to make it to his target and when he did, he had to struggle to keep his stomach at bay. Bodies littered the streets, their mangled forms laying in a position of intense pain. Many of the bodies were crushed by debris or fallen chunks of building. The streets themselves were covered in what could only be dried and crusted blood, presumably poured from all of the gashes and tears along the faces and exposed bodies as if their skin had shriveled on their still living bodies. Some still wore the distinctive emblems of First Responders. Their deaths must have been horrible.
Some of the bodies did not show the same level of horror and, in fact, looked to be in pristine condition with the exceptions of crushed bodies from the debris. White liquid seemed to ooze from them in some cases. That was the case for the body that Terry found, half of the woman's face and part of her upper body crushed by a building, her bottom half crushed by another leaving only one complete arm, part of her upper body, and half a face.
Terry swallowed hard and knelt down next to her, noting her purple hair and the motion he had noticed from far off was occasionally her arm would spasmodically jerk upwards as if waving before flopping back down to the ground.
Terry let himself fall backwards and sat down hard on the ground and rubbed his face with one hand. "What happened here?" he asked. "Scratch that, what am I doing here at all?"
"Terrible, isn't it?" the woman said. Terry jumped and scrambled away from the crushed body that was now talking to him. "Don't be afraid of me," she said, her voice completely calm and nearly emotionless.
"Zeta?" Terry asked, squinting and trying to see the seam in the hologram.
"I am not a robot," she said. "Cyborg."
"Ah," Terry said, still not coming any closer. "Human Augmentation."
"In a form," the cyborg said. "You should not be surprised. Cyborgs are being phased into the America's society as they were into Asian. They started in security, First Responders, military…"
"Yeah, I remember," Terry said. "Although I don't remember them being able to talk after being crushed by two buildings. What happened here?"
"I am not the one you should be asking," the cyborg said and pointed to the far side of the city, behind the place where Terry had magically found himself. "We came in only after your government turned to us for help. As usual, we got sent in to pick up your pieces."
Terry felt his mouth quirk a little at that, not sure what government she was with, much less seeing his government reaching outside for help on a disaster this large while the Justice League was present. But he let it pass.
"I am not from around here," Terry said, beginning to suspect that was a relatively true statement. "Who should I be asking?"
The cyborg shrugged slightly, an awkward looking motion given she only had one shoulder to do it with. "I would start with the living," she said.
"Ok," Terry said, standing up. Clearly this particular individual was not going to be very helpful. "Thank you for your help. Should I try and move this building off of you or something?"
"Thanks," the cyborg said. "You can leave me here. Eventually, this body will die and once I am found, my cyberbrain can be redownloaded into another body. Besides, this is really not as bad as it looks." Her arm did that jerking twitch motion that had initially caught Terry's attention.
"Right," Terry said and decided to leave it at that.
He moved on, climbing over rubble and chunks of road, trying and mostly succeeded in avoiding the blood and bodies. What ones he did not manage to avoid cracked and crumbled under foot, renewing the river of blood that had previously been dried out.
Eventually, he made it to the center of the city and suddenly realized exactly where he was. In the center of what had been a main crossing for both cars and pedestrians, what had once been a tall building reached into the sky, one of the few that still managed to break ten floors. People laid scattered here as well but Terry had no eyes for it as the normally impressive and polished globe of the Daily Planet lay where the main entrance had once stood.
Metropolis.
Terry turned and ran, not from anything in particular but from his own fears. If this had managed to happen here, Superman's town, he feared what may have happened to Gotham. He no longer noticed the piles of bodies that littered the streets, just blindly ran until he reached the edge of town and up the bluff that over looked the city. There he paused, out of breath and stood hands on knees for several moments.
"Horrifying, isn't it?" a voice said, almost directly in front of him.
Terry looked up in alarm, his hands reflexively going into a blocking motion until he found the source of the voice. It wasn't Ra's, it wasn't Superman. In fact, he had no idea who this person was. He stood with his back to Terry, gazing down at the Metropolis ruins, arms held across his chest. He wore a silver outfit with long, slightly loose pants and short sleeves. He had a dark blue undershirt on that matched his wide blue sash that encompassed his waist and white boots. His long dark hair stood almost straight up in most places except for the bottom that fell just shy of his shoulders but still managed to waive in the breeze that the bluff afforded and his brown tail waived gently in tandem.
Abruptly, Terry knew who he was.
"Caliwone," Terry said, almost breathless. "You're dead."
Caliwone turned his head back to look at him, a dark scowl on his face. "The world has become a far more complicated place for you," Caliwone said. "I guess the first thing that you should know is that this world does not actually exist. Not yet, anyway."
"Not yet?" Terry said, walking over to stand next to Caliwone. "So this is my imagination?"
"Not exactly," Caliwone said. "To be more precise, you are hallucinating."
"Ra's' gas," Terry muttered. "No wonder everything looks so crazy."
Caliwone threw Terry an annoyed look. "Listen to me well, boy. Everything you are seeing now, everything around you, is in your future. This is a certainty."
Terry shot a look at Caliwone. "So you are saying that this gas that Ra's hit me with is allowing me to see my future? Who needs a psychic anymore?"
"This is no game, boy," Caliwone said, dropping his hands to his sides and turning to face Terry directly. Terry swallowed hard and looked down at the ground. "Burn this into your memory: This is a result of you defeating Ra's in the battle you are waging with his soldiers."
"What?" Terry asked. "I am fighting right now?"
"Yes," Caliwone said. "The Demon Trials," Caliwone snorted gently. "Ra's' triad of tests that he has always been fond of. The first test is merely surviving the gas that he hit you with. It is a strong drug that would kill most normal men. Lucky for you, Bruce Wayne has trained your body well."
"Ok," Terry said, unsure as to what else to say.
"The second trial tests you instincts. Without your conscious mind, without thought or elaborate strategy, this test is to determine whether you are a true warrior or not."
"Ok," Terry said again. "And how am I doing?" Caliwone cocked an eyebrow slightly and looked around without saying another word. "Oh," Terry said, looking around himself.
"As a matter of fact, you are not doing too badly for a human," Caliwone said, turning his attention back out to the destroyed Metropolis. "This is actually not a true representation of your battle, like I stated before."
"Right," Terry said. "My future after I defeat Ra's."
"Correct," Caliwone said. "The universe is a complicated weave of probabilities. For example, what is the probability that a bat inside of an ancient clock that would forever change your destiny? The probability that Superman would land on a planet that gives him untold powers and yet, to have him raised by kind and just people versus those who would exploit his powers for their own gains? That is what reality really is. Not matter, not energy but probability. With that being said, have you ever heard the phrase 'the future is fluid'?"
"Something Bruce has reminded me of constantly," Terry said. "It means that every action you take helps to shape the future and if you know what the future is, you can change it by altering actions."
"Yes and no," Caliwone said. "According to King Kaio, the mere act of observing something can have a dramatic effect on what is being observed. However, without knowing what actions were taken, you cannot always know how the future came to be. In this case, of course, you have a little bit of help."
"Help," Terry said. "From Gods."
Caliwone glanced over at Terry. "By defeating Ra's Al Ghul in this fight, you prevent the completion of a deal between him and Ares, the Greek God of War. Without that deal in place, certain key events cannot take place. Because of that, Superman and the rest of the League will defeat Ares with relative ease and prevent the opportunity for someone with sufficient power to guide this world in the correct direction to rise in Ra's' place. Because of that, all of this will happen." Caliwone gestured again to the world they were in.
"My, aren't you being vague?" Terry said, almost sourly. "And did you forget about Superman? You can't tell me he doesn't have 'sufficient power'."
"There are more kinds of power than just physical power, human," Caliwone said, his tone clearly starting to become that of strained patience. "Ra's Al Ghul commands great influential power in this world. His League of Shadows have guided this planet's fate for centuries. Kal-El has influential power as well but his idealistic and naïve nature prevents him from stepping in and doing what is necessary sometimes for the larger picture."
"So let me get this straight," Terry said, covering his face with one hand. "You want me to lose to Ra's so that he can complete his deal with Gods that, of course, are evil in intent so that someone else even more evil can take over and prevent a complete catastrophe, is that about right?"
"Yup," Caliwone said. "Sounds about right."
"One evil replaces another," Terry said. "No wonder the world is in the shape it is in."
"Necessary evil," Caliwone murmured, almost to himself. "What you must understand is that achieving perfection, a perfect world, does not need to happen here. Here, it is the journey, how you live the life you have that determines your final place."
"And how do I know that this whole thing isn't some big fake?" Terry asked. "Part of the gas that Ra's hit me with?"
Caliwone shrugged and turned away from Metropolis and walked past Terry. "Well, if that were the case and I was a figment of your imagination, is there a point in asking me any questions at all?"
Terry thought about that for a moment. Guess not.
"The choice is yours to make," Caliwone said. "But before you decide to completely ignore me and choose to believe this is all a crazy dream, take a long hard look behind you and ask yourself if it is worth the risk to ignore my warning."
Terry turned to find Caliwone gone. In his place, three tomb stones rested where Terry had not seen before. He took a step toward them and fearfully read the names carved into them. Mary McGinnis, Matthew McGinnis, and Dana Tran. Before Terry could really register what he had read, the ground trembled hard beneath his feet and far off in the distant barren landscape a giant figure rose, lifting itself from where it must have been laying on the ground. Its vaguely triangular head and shoulders rose above the setting sun in the distance, its features hidden by shadow as it turned and took giant steps toward Terry. Clouds moved out of the terrors way, spreading out in a distinct pattern that almost looked as though it wore a pair of enormous wings. Terry found himself frozen in both fear and awe as it approached. Reaching out a hand, the giant monster brought darkness to Terry's vision.
"Well done," Ra's Al Ghul said grinning down at Terry. Terry looked up, at that moment becoming fully aware that the world of death that he had just been a part of was now gone without a trace. He looked around, taking note of the heavy breathing he was doing and the pile of unconscious ninja all around him. His suit itself was completely wrecked, the black and red inner lining and circuitry was almost all completely exposed, not even leaving the red bat emblem on his chest. Blood ran down Terry's face and between his eyes, finally bringing his attention forward. Terry clutched the front of Ra's' shirt and had him pinned up against a wall, lifting Ra's off the ground. For his part, Ra's did not struggle or attempt to free himself. Exactly how Terry had managed to do this he did not know. His mind flashed back to that hallucination that he had had about Caliwone and the destroyed world.
"I must say that you performed far better than I had honestly expected," Ra's said, patting one of Terry's arms. "You have indeed lived up to the legend that your predecessor has left for you. You are in nearly every way the true successor to the great Batman."
Terry snarled, the mention of Bruce bringing back all the memories as to why he was here in the first place. "Almost every way, huh?" Terry growled. "What? Do you think that I wouldn't kill you in revenge for Bruce?"
"Terry," Ra's said, the grin on his face prodding Terry's fire. "You really have to let that go. Besides, I am not a man who throws away a still useful tool." Behind Terry there was thud as if someone had just dropped a sack of potato's. Wary of taking his eyes off of Ra's, Terry turned his head and saw Bruce Wayne laying on the floor, struggling with his bonds.
Terry dropped Ra's, his temper falling just as fast as he slowly walked over to where Bruce had been so dishonorably tossed to the ground. Bruce was alive!
With all of his anger gone and his adrenaline waning, Terry only made it three steps before all of the pain from his numerous injuries collapsed on him all at once. He fell to the ground and vomited all over the floor. He heaved again, unable to get any air in even as more vomit mixed with blood spewed from his mouth.
"To think after everything you have been through in your life, all of the death and tragedy you have witnessed," Ra's said, walking up next to Terry but staying clear of the mess. "Who would have thought that seeing someone alive would have brought you to this?"
Terry wiped his mouth as the last of the dry heaves now stopped. He glared up at Ra's towering above him but was unable to do any more. His body was trashed but even now he could feel his hatred and righteous anger ebbing from him as the very reason for his anger had apparently been a lie. And if that was the case, then that whole hallucinating episode he had had made no sense. There was no reason to kill Ra's at all.
That thought gave him pause for a moment and he looked hard at Bruce. He was bound and gagged and clearly in pain. There were marks on his skin where recent cuts had been made and there was a hole in the front of his shirt. Blood stained that same shirt, enough that Terry would have assumed had been a fatal blow judging by the amount and placement. Terry struggled to muster up the energy and slowly crawled over to where Bruce lay. Their eyes met and Terry found no mistake that it was the real Bruce Wayne.
"Release him," Terry demanded, turning his head back to Ra's.
"Certainly," Ra's said and gestured lightly. A kunai flashed in from somewhere, slicing the ropes binding Bruce's hands neatly off without touching any skin. Bruce slowly reached up and withdrew his gag, his breathing hard and raspy.
"Now that we have that out of the way," Ra's said. "We still have one test left to complete."
Without warning, Ra's foot kicked Terry square in the ribs, lifting him clear off the ground to crash hard into the side of the cavernous wall several feet away. Terry screamed, the new pain and the sudden movement of his body reigniting all of the other injuries. He hit the ground and curled in on himself, his body trying its best to vomit again but only came out as a few quick dry heaves.
"A true master is always prepared for attack," Ra's said, walking over to him. He stepped in quickly just as Terry was pushing himself to his feet and landed another devastating blow to Terry's side before kicking him under the chin and slamming him back into the wall.
"What is wrong, McGinnis?" Ra's asked as Terry coughed and gagged. "Where is all of that fight that you had?" Ra's struck him again. "Perhaps it is merely that you have the potential to be great and it is your mind and the restrictions you place on yourself that make you weak; just like the Great Detective." Ra's struck again even as Terry attempted a weak block.
"Or, could it be that it was your incredible rage that made you fight with such ferocity? The rage you had at the death of Bruce Wayne. And now that the source of your anger is no more, you are returned to your useless and weak self?" Ra's blocked a slow attack from Terry and reached out a hand and choked Terry up against the wall, lifting his feet off of the ground.
"Perhaps there is something you should know," Ra's whispered into Terry's ear. "Bruce Wayne lives indeed thanks to the unbridled power of the Lazarus Pit, much like Jason Todd was reborn. However, Bruce was given only a small dose, just enough to leave him grasping and clinging to the blades of grass of life. Should he not receive a more ample treatment, he shall die as his body rejects the Pits regenerative properties and decays from the inside." Ra's pulled his face back from Terry to stare directly into his eyes. "And the only way for Bruce to receive that treatment is by defeating me."
"That's an old story," Terry said. "So let's see if you like the remake." Terry lifted his feet and ignited his rocket boots, launching Ra's backwards. Terry stood upright once more, his anger and rage beginning to once again dull his body's notice to pain. He took one look over at Bruce, seeing the pained look across his features. Terry wondered if that look was due to his body rejecting the regeneration already or if it was cause for something else. Either way, he needed to end this fight quickly and get him help.
With a flare from his feet, Terry launched himself at Ra's, breaking hard as he saw Ra's move to counter his rush and struck with a pair of batarangs instead. Ra's easily dodged them and leaped forward. Grabbing Terry by the shoulders, he slammed him onto his back and hit him several times before Terry managed to kick him off. He rolled to his feet and got hit immediately, knocked backwards but for once managed to stay on his feet and block and counter one or two of Ra's' attacks before he was able to force himself on the offensive.
Even without his mask and its advance HUD, the majority of the suit's systems were still available to him. Even though he was unable to directly modify his speed or performance measurements for the suit, he was able to directly cycle between the presets. Switching from the balanced setting that he used to deal with normal and slightly enhanced foes, he switched it over to full force, utilizing the full, unrestricted strength of the suit at the expense of some of his overall speed. With a whine from stressed and exposed circuits and servos, the suit obliged.
It took Ra's only a moment to notice the difference in the power Terry was pushing out. Ra's tactics changed almost in a heartbeat. Rather than attempting to block or stop Terry's attacks directly, he merely deflected them just enough up or to the outside to prevent damage. Terry ground his teeth in growing frustration as he was once again on the defensive.
Terry blocked another set of blows before with a startling spark of speed, aided by his rocket boots, Terry caught Ra's in devastating knee to his chin. Ra's was thrown backwards, the look of clear pain across his face. Before Ra's could land, Terry shot out a pair of batarangs with a wire between them to wrap Ra's up. Just as he landed, Ra's reached his hand backwards, away from Terry. A sword lanced in blade first. Ra's caught the blade right on the handle and swung up, slicing the wire between the batarangs neatly in two. Without pausing, Ra's leaped in, slashing his sword downward.
Terry leaped backwards, avoiding the rush and firing another set of batarangs. Ra's neatly blocked them and closed the distance once more, slicing horizontally this time. Terry barely managed to duck down low enough to not have his head cleaved off and ninja rolling forward past Ra's. He stood up spun kicked without looking, his instinct proving to be right on and deflected the blade with his foot and punching Ra's hard right in the face.
"An impressive play," Ra's said, resetting himself and striking again. "Using the suit to your advantage. It is not a tactic that Bruce would have used, of course. He never did need any special tricks or a powered suit to win his battles."
Terry knew it was a distraction tactic and tried to let it slide off of him but comments like that had been running through his mind for years. Would he ever live up to Bruce? Was it really just the suit that made him Batman or was it the man inside? That thought crossed his mind for no more than a split second but with the power over speed focus he had just put in his suit, that moment was amplified and Ra's had no trouble seizing the opportunity. With a vicious swing, Ra's tore a line straight across Terry's chest, cutting clean through the suit's electronics and into his skin. Blood gushed out in a spray that was quickly stifled by the suits apparently still active life support sealant. Regardless, Terry went down, clutching his chest and Ra's was on him in a hear beat.
Lifting his blade back as if prepared to stab Terry with it, Ra's said, "Alas, you managed to come so far, young McGinnis, but not far enough. I truly am disappointed in you. Once upon a time, Bruce survived the Demon Trials himself, defeating me in the end."
There was a light flash from behind Ra's and the kunai that had been used to free Bruce flashed in, slicing open Ra's right cheek. Due more to surprise than to pain probably, Ra's jerked back. Without hesitation, Terry struck out at the handle of the blade, knocking it out of Ra's hand. With tremendous effort, Terry rolled Ra's over, climbing atop him. With his left hand, Terry grabbed Ra's by the throat as hard as he could without crushing his throat permanently and locked his gauntlet there so it could not be released. With his knees, he knelt on both of Ra's arms. Terry snatched the kunai that had been thrown in and raised it high over his head and plummeted it down.
Red skies. Tombstones. His family's names on them.
Terry's hand came to an abrupt halt and inch away from Ra's' eye. For a long moment, Terry just stared into Ra's eyes. Ra's, for his part, was a pillar of calm. No emotion played across his face. He simply waited to see what would happen.
"Why hesitate?" Ra's asked. "Kill me and Bruce will be saved. Why must you halt right before the finish line?"
"You are beaten," Terry said at last. "I beat you, you save Bruce. That was the deal. Now save him."
"Young detective," Ra's said, his voice amused. "You win only once you have killed me or I admit my defeat to you. And of course, I will never admit that. You will be forced to take my life if you want his life spared." Ra's gestured to the side. "The effects have already begun."
Terry looked over and saw Bruce collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain. That was when something hard and very strong punched Terry in the head. He flew backwards off of Ra's to land several feet shy of Bruce. His gauntlet, locked in place around Ra's neck, tore off from the rest of the suit, there not being enough armor to keep it all attached in its shredded state.
Terry looked up and saw Ares, God of War and Circe standing near Ra's. Two animals circled around her. One was a small fox, the other a hawk. Ra's himself stood up, the gauntlet still attached to his throat, and walked over to his sword. Using it to cut off the thumb, the gauntlet fell to the ground.
"Well, Ra's," Ares said, turning his cold, ice blue eyes over to Ra's. "If he had been any more like you, we might not still have a deal planned. Are you done playing these ridiculous games?"
"Yes, my friend," Ra's said, turning his attention to Terry. "I believe I have gotten my answer from the boy. He is not yet ready."
"Ra's," Terry snarled but before he could say anything else, the high ceiling above them exploded downward and Superman, J'onn, and Wonder Woman landed explosively on the ground in front of Terry.
To be continued…
What an action packed episode!
There is a lot to take in. Go ahead, take a moment… I don't mind. ;-)
And Caliwone has finally made an appearance. If you are happy with what you have read thus far, PLEASE, take the moment to leave a review. It really means a lot to me.
There is a lot more action planned and now we are approaching the meat of the story.
I will see you all next time.
The Dark Prince