"Ishaq Abdul-Rahman. Sewage that tainted perfection."
"Um…yeah, that kind of thing doesn't work on me. I'm not one who particularly cares what others think of him, especially someone like you."
Hugo put his hands on his hips. "I don't want to be seeing this," whispered Amy. Marty smiled and shrugged.
"But you care about what Bruce Wayne thinks. How he holds you responsible for the murder of Vesper Fairchild and the attack on Alfred Pennyworth. He even holds you responsible for what happened to the boy in Qurac when the Clown got him.
"And you hold yourself responsible, too, don't you?"
Trees and bushes continued to grow and the landscape continued to change in the area between Strange and the three friends.
"Does Amy know? She was quite fond of the boy. His silly antics and double entendres. He used to make her blush…isn't that right, Amy?" He turned his head slightly to look at her and she met his gaze. "What was his name again? James? John? Idiot?"
Amy bristled.
"And then we have the gardener. He's been awfully quiet. He's quite insane, you know? Believes he created Superman. Calls him 'The Kryptonian.'" Amy and Ishaq looked at each other and grinned; Marty merely looked down at the ground.
"You think it amusing? It doesn't worry you that you spend time with a madman?"
"'Oh, you can't help that'," said Amy, "'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'"
"How do you know that I'm mad?"
Amy laughed. "'You must be. Or you wouldn't have come here'."
"'Come here'? You came here. I gave your own little worlds and you shunned my benevolence and came here."
Amy sighed and shook her head. "I guess I gave you far more credit than you deserved."
The cave walls give way.
In the room with the cadaverous-figure is a small, glowing machine. The glow keeps flickering. Pieces of the ceiling are strewn around it.
"There's got to be an easier way than this," muttered Nightwing as he disabled a bio-aura forcefield which was linked to a sonic pulse canon. "Anything concrete on the tech so far?"
"It's mainly been copy-cat gear, and high level stuff at that. Some Apokoliptan and some Thanagarian, too."
"Mainly?"
"The analysis of the contents of those syringes you found match the psychotropic serums once used by The Key.
"Didn't the JLA put him in some kind of dream realm?"
"Yeah, well, he has a bad habit.
"These traps are time consuming. Deadly, sure, but time consuming. If the Key is involved then maybe this was his way of buying time?"
"I've just checked with Oracle. His body's been moved a couple of times but it's supposed to be in The Slab but-"
"I'm in."
'Here was a man who now for the first time found himself looking into the eyes of death-who was passing through one of those rare moments of experience when we feel the truth of a commonplace, which is as different from what we call knowing it, as the vision of waters upon the earth is different from the delirious vision of the water which cannot be had to cool the burning tongue. When the commonplace 'We must all die' transforms itself suddenly into the acute consciousness 'I must die-and soon,' then death grapples us, and his fingers are cruel; afterwards, he may come to fold us in his arms as our mother did, and our last moment of dim earthly discerning may be like the first.'
Ah, Eliot, how true…
Crouching on a massive slab of the old cave roof, Hugo Strange looked down on the three friends. Amy turned away, disgusted, while Marty continued to look at the floor. The slab cracked and gave way and, with a roar, Strange leapt towards them. Ishaq intercepted, punched him to the ground and then tossed him back towards the throne side of the former cave. Strange landed in a heap and was quickly obscured from view by the rapidly growing trees and bushes.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Nightwing stepped through the door and saw Batman at the other end of the corridor. His lenses picked up three traps on the infra-red frequency.
Batman turned to look at him and smiled. "Good to see you." He nodded at the door to the great hall. "They're in there but I'm still in no shape to go in."
"Understood. Do you want me to double back and-"
"No. Six monster-men the way I came, no guarantee the serum was wholly effective."
"Okay." Nightwing set to work disabling the nearest trap.
'Being dead will be no different from being unborn - I shall be just as I was in the time of William the Conqueror or the dinosaurs or the trilobites. There is nothing to fear in that.'
…but is that true..?
Hugo Strange's body twitched and the control pod issued a series of beeps. On a large screen, bare legs can be seen and, beyond them, what appeared to be an area of woodland. On another screen were Amy and Marty; on another was Ishaq; on the fourth…grass and flowers.
"I hate this kind of 'on the job training'."
"hnh"
"Three more to go."
"Right leg still isn't working."
"We'll save them."
Strange picked himself up off the floor and paused. He was wearing trousers. Shaking his head quickly, as if admonishing himself, he pulled the cowl attached to the cape up and over his face.
"I'm Batman."
In front of him was a narrow clearing in the greenery. Strange stepped forward and into the maze.
On the other side of the maze, Marty looked up from the ground and turned to Ishaq and Amy. "It's done. He's gone in."
They nodded and the three of them stepped into the maze.
"We're going to have to double team these locks."
"I'll be there in a few."
"Leg's back. I'll get started."
Screams and roars filled the corridor. Batman and Nightwing looked at each other for a brief moment.