Author's Note: A chapter written by Gavin. He struggled with this chapter a little, trying to manage the mix of tones. Regardless, I enjoyed editing it and I'm sure you'll enjoy reading it. This will, alas, be the last Batman chapter. We're into the very, very final stretch of the story now. There are perhaps two or three chapters left, so we hope you enjoy the remainder of the ride. It's been a lot of fun. Next up is a chapter from me, a Wonder Woman chapter. It'll be posted tomorrow. Read and review, follow and favourite! The more feedback we get, the higher the chances are that we will start to discuss a sequel. We've thrown ideas around between each another, but it's all up in the air. Persuade us! ;)
BATMAN
The dead Atlanteans were scattered across the hall, left to rot wherever they fell. The bookshelves were ripped and torn apart, metal and wood and glass burned and charred and melted. The Atlanteans deserved better. Aquaman deserved better. Batman moved quickly down the ramp of the Star Labs shuttle that had smashed through the thick wall of glass at the back of the room. Some of the heroes had some reservations – as you would, drowning not being a particularly enviable death – but they were reassured by Cyborg that there were shields in place to stop the water. He'd helped design it.
Brainiac's troops streamed into the room almost on cue, firing their weapons in a red flurry, and over the sound of their guns blaring they commanded surrender. Black Canary and Superman joined up with Bruce as additional tremors from around indicated that the other ships had arrived in the adjacent halls forming the Archives of Atlantis.
"Are you ready, Batman?" Superman asked, looking at him. Though his durability could take shots from Brainiac's troops any day of the week, it didn't seem necessary. They are terrible shots.
"I'm always ready," Batman replied with his usual grim determination.
There was thrift, and in the blink of an eye the man of steel was gone, off into the midst of the drones. Black Canary and Batman followed at a slightly less impressive speed. He allowed his instincts to truly take hold of him, commanding his body into a fit of frenzy and furious battle rage. He twisted and spun out of the way of incoming fire and threw two explosive batarangs that tore apart a few drones from the inside, sending debris into the air.
Every now and then he caught sight of red and blue or heard a sickening crunch as Black Canary's fists slammed hard into metal, breaking it apart. She was always hesitant to use her screams – not just in front of other heroes, but in general she found it taxing and avoided them. If she screams in here she might shatter all the glass and tear us to pieces.
The drones were easily destroyed, the more challenging opposition no doubt retreating to defensible positions to protect their master, like a hive defending its queen. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Superman tear his arm out of the last drone's chest cavity and Batman checked his radio.
"This is Batman," he said into Watchtower's encrypted wavelength, walking back towards the shuttle. "We've cleared out enemies in our immediate area."
"Great work," Chloe Sullivan replied, her voice crackling with static. "Now I just need you to deploy the signal antenna."
"I'm on it," he said. He retrieved the small black box, brought it out and sat it in the centre of the room, amidst the crumpled drones. On its tip, a tiny red light began to blink slowly, and then faster, and then faster, and then it was green.
"And let there be Wi-Fi," Chloe cheered. Bruce could hear the smile in her voice. "Atlantis just lit up like a Christmas tree."
"Good. I want scans of Atlantis as a whole before we set out," Batman replied bluntly.
"Tell me when you find Oliver," Black Canary added, her voice hopeful.
"Will do."
"It is Diana," came another voice over the communicator. "Cyborg, Raven and I have cleared our entrance point."
Martian Manhunter was next to speak. "Green Lantern, Starfire and I have did the same with our own."
"Looks like the whole party's here," Superman murmured. "Batman, what's our next step?"
Clark was a leader in times of peace, when they needed a figure on the global stage he and Wonder Woman stood and took the flashes of the cameras and the handshakes. But when war fell on them, the man of steel let Bruce take charge. "Our main objective is finding Doomsday. Until he's neutralised with the collar, he poses the biggest threat."
Wonder Woman held the collar, even though Batman would have preferred to have kept it himself. I can't risk it affecting Superman's abilities.
"Circe is our next priority. The woman is mad, if she isn't dealt with quickly then she may have time to scheme some plan of low-cunning that makes this difficult, perhaps impossible. I want the final confrontation to be a joint group effort; he will not make it easy, but if Circe is elsewhere then we need to send a group after her."
Bruce knew that Diana would want to pursue Circe with Raven, and he wasn't inclined to disagree. Fire with fire, magic with magic. He'd fought the sorcerous bitch before, and she had been hell to defeat. Completely unhinged, Batman had been forced to retreat to rethink his strategies.
"Brainiac will come next," he assured them. "He'll be waiting in the throne room."
"What about Oliver?" Dinah pressed, angry that he was seemingly left from the plan.
"We don't know where Arrow or Flash are yet, so until we do we proceed with the plan."
"I won't leave him in a torture room or worse, Batman," she told him, heatedly. This is a waste of time.
"I don't want to leave him either Black Canary, but stopping the invasion has priority. If my place was switched with his you know he'd say the same."
"He'd do it with less of an attitude, though," she said, calming a little.
Superman laughed.
"Guys," Chloe interrupted over the communicator, "we may have a problem."
"What is it, Chloe?" Wonder Woman asked.
"If these scans are accurate then Brainiac's troops are moving some heavy ordinance into the corridors that lead from the archives into the rest of Atlantis. It looks like they're trying to seal you in."
"If those bombs detonate our attack will be stopped dead, and so we will," Batman said, rushing to the nearest exit. "Watchtower, upload a map of Atlantis to my cowl and pinpoint the bomb's locations. Everyone get to the nearest bomb site and stop them from detonating."
Clark nodded and disappeared in a flash down the corridor.
"Batman, I found Flash and Arrow," Chloe said. "They aren't that far from you."
"Tell us where, Watchtower," Black Canary said.
"No," Batman said firmly. "We stick with the current plan."
"I'm not asking, Bruce."
"They can wait," Batman snapped. "The explosives are going to blow a hole in Atlantis that will drown them anyway. Think."
"Free them, Batman," Diana said. "We can handle the bombs whilst you rescue them."
"It will be difficult to face them alone, Diana, and –"
"Alone? I won't be alone, Bruce. I have the full force of the Justice League with me, with more heroes coming. I am not alone."
"I don't want to leave this fight."
"Bruce, just go."
With dislike thick on his face and he sighed. "Watchtower, where are they?"
Cables thick as a man's arm ran across the floor of the corridor, each travelling up the same direction. According to the scans they're channelling huge amounts of energy, but what for? For Brainiac? His true form is usually wired into a giant computer, perhaps he has a similar device in the throne room?
Whatever the reason, it wasn't important for now. Batman's focus for now was saving Green Arrow and Flash, wherever they were.
The corridor forked both ways at one end, the wires travelling the right hand side direction.
For the past few minutes, Chloe had been mimicking the voice of a GPS.
"In seven metres," she said in the mock tone, "please take the next left." The tone halted in a minute. "They are in one of the doors. I can't tell which one, Brainiac is trying to reroute my systems."
Black Canary nodded starkly and rushed on ahead.
"DINAH!" Batman called.
All along the corridor heavy Brainiac forces lumbered out into the open, raising their weapons and unleashing all they head. Streaks of red moved towards Black Canary, and Batman was so sure that she was to die there and then… and then she opened her mouth and drew in air, and the world seemed to slow. The ferocious scream that she unleashed made Batman grab his ears and the lights all the way down the corridor blink and flash. The shockwave tore down the corridor, sweeping up troops and laser bullets like leaves in the wind, sending cracks fissuring across the floor and surfaces. At the far side of the corridor where glass looked out into the deep sea, it cracked – but no more.
In the silence that followed, a delighted voice came from one of the rooms. "Is that you, honey?"
"Oliver," she cried, out of breath and tired. "I'm coming!"
"Bring help!"
"She's got me," Batman said, catching up with Canary.
There was a pause. "Good to go."
The drones were returning steadily to their feet as Batman drew his batclaw and fired it into the nearest drone. He sped towards the target and collided with it shoulder-first and then rolled to his feet. Black Canary was hot on his heels, fly-kicking and beating down any drone that strayed into her path. Batman tossed electrified batarangs, each finding their marks in the eye sockets of separate drones as they trembled and shuddered. He broke anothers arm and drove its face hard into a wall, the metal skull breaking. The drones were beaten down and Batman rushed into a nearby room, leaving Dinah to dispatch with the rest.
On the table was Oliver, or a version of him. His skin was puffy and red, blistered. Those are burns, he thought. His green leathered costume had melted in parts.
"Hey Bats," he grunted, greeting him. "Don't mind the smell, it's just my charred flesh."
"Hold on, I'll get you out," Batman said, moving to work on the restraints.
"You've met Circe, right?" Oliver asked. "Red hair, cold eyes, bit of a god complex?"
Bruce only grunted in reply. His lively green eyes had sunk deep into his skull, which seemed to form his voice. His beard was patched and greyed. Oliver Queen seemed to have aged twenty years. Maybe a world without magic wouldn't be so bad after all, he thought. But then again, they'd probably just use a flamethrower instead.
"Where's Wally?"
"Well, on page thirty he's behind the carousel," Oliver said with a tired sigh, "but I can never find him on page twenty-four. Damn astronauts, why does your space station have so many windows?"
"Stow the sense of humour, Oliver."
"I will when you buy one."
Bruce cracked open the restraint on his right leg and then got to work on his right arm. "I thought you carried a solution for every situation on that belt?" Oliver laughed. "Did you leave the Bat-bobbypin at home – hey, look out!"
A large metal hand clamped down on Batman's shoulder. "You will cease and desist this escape attempt," the large, bulky drone ordered as it hurled Batman across the room. He was taken by surprise and didn't have the time to compose himself, so he crashed and slid down the wall. "You will surrender to –"
Apparently Bruce had loosened the restraint enough just enough for Oliver to rip his arm free of its hold. He slammed his burned and bruised fist into the drone's face.
Batman pushed himself up from the ground. You're going to regret not just shooting me in the head from behind. He lunged at the drone, knocking it to the floor. One of the drone's iron knuckles battered against Batman's jaw as they tangled, blood welling in his mouth. He drove his elbow into the drone's skull and jumped back, drawing a stun gun from his belt. With great difficulty he drove it into the robot's face and pulled the trigger. It jerked and twitched uncontrollably. Yet, a shaking arm lifted and a wrist-mounted rifle pointed at Batman's face.
An arrow knocked the gun off-target, making it fire into a wall. Another pieced its glowing yellow eyes, making it collapse to the floor, just useless metal and flashing lights again. Before it turned to dead weight, Batman pushed himself away from it. Oliver walked over to him, hood back up, quiver over his shoulder and bow in hand.
"The belt saves the day again," he said and helped Bruce to his feet.
"I'm glad your aim hasn't suffered." He spat out some blood from his mouth.
"What can I say? When you're good, you're actually really good. Probably great. The best."
Flash appeared in the room, suit torn and battered. His skin was visible and his mask had been ripped from his head. It doesn't matter; Brainiac knows must of our identities anyway.
"Oliver, you're alive!" he said.
"Don't sound so surprised."
"Oliver!" Black Canary said as she rushed into the room.
The two of them embraced deeply and then kissed, leaving Batman and Flash to stand awkwardly at the side.
"Okay," Flash said when the moment had ended – though it seemed at the time like it wasn't ever going to. "Now that we are a family again, what now?"
"There is a bomb about to go off, a series of them. They'll seal us off from the rest of Atlantis," Batman explained as he walked out the door. "The rest of the league are dealing with it now, but they could always use more help."
"I'm gone for, like, an hour – two hours max – and this happens?"
"Come on," Batman said sharply, unwilling to meet the coming fight.
"Just for the record," Bruce heard Wally say quietly behind his back, "he is terrifying."
"Yeah," Bruce said loudly, letting them know he heard. "That's the point."