Chapter 27
"When these things had come to the earth they had built mighty basalt cities of windowless towers, and had preyed horribly upon the beings they found."
- "The Shadow Out of Time", H.P. Lovecraft
Project Pnakoutos, The Australian Desert
Batman and Zatanna found themselves being "escorted" (as per Director Waller's verbal orders) to the ground floor of the underground facility by no less than twenty heavily armed and armored A.R.G.U.S. guards, who flanked them as they walked. Their faces were concealed by visored helmets, their muscular arms gripping high-powered weapons. Neither superheroes doubted that the guards were prepared to shoot to kill if either of them made a single threatening move. As they traveled downwards, and across, the wide corridors and enclosed workspaces, the white-coated scientists that populated the facility scurried out of their way, all the while pretending they didn't actually see them. They went about their work quietly, hardly speaking even to each other. Unsurprisingly, no one spoke to them.
Bruce, for his part, scrutinized every square inch of the facility, missing no detail: the blast doors at every intersection, the numerous exits, and the various other 'safety' features. One never knew when an opportunity to escape might present itself. It also told him much about the potential dangers of the, place he was in. The precautions he saw - the armed guards, the monitors on virtually every bulkhead, the 'emergency' weapons stations, various other things – told him this was a place of the highest security. A.R.G.U.S. was taking no chances, that whatever was in here would not get out without their say-so...whatever there was in here. Including themselves.
However, if truth be told, he was not much overly concerned about the guards, nor the possibility of escape – just yet. Bruce was curious to know exactly what A.R.G.U.S. and Waller had really discovered. He suspected that it was much bigger than she had initially let on, her ramblings about remains of ancient alien civilizations notwithstanding. He was under no illusion that Waller actually wanted or desired his cooperation. She had some nefarious plan in mind, and he guessed that she needed test subjects to carry it out.
Beside him, Zatanna staggered and he quickly caught her arm before she could stumble and fall. The guards either didn't notice, or cared, so long as they kept moving. He kept holding onto her elbow, but she didn't say anything. He eyed her closely. He knew she was hurt, perhaps more seriously than she let on, but she obviously didn't want to admit it.
Zatanna stared at the preoccupied scientists and technicians around them, who were going perfunctorily about their tasks…whatever they were.
"What are they doing?" She murmured in a weak voice. "Don't they know what they're involved in?"
"I'm sure they don't," Batman hissed through gritted teeth. "Even if they think they do."
"No talking!" One of the burly guards harshly ordered. Zatanna glared at him but it was impossible to tell his reaction, due to the closed visor shield on the man's helmet.
They kept moving through the facility, until they reached the center point, where the thing that appeared to be the key element of Waller's discovery dominated the floor. The black block was perched solidly atop its enormous base, which they had first glimpsed from the upper level. It rested motionless and solid, extending over its edges, large metal prongs extended from the base and surrounded it, like a diamond set in a prong. People scurried around it, monitoring it as if it were some kind of sensitive nuclear reactor.
When Bruce had first seen it he had thought it was an obsidian rock of some kind, but as he approached it looked more like basalt, not as glossy or polished as volcanic rock would be. Now that he was closer he clearly saw that it was no ordinary granite, or some random chunk of rock pulled out of the ground: it had obviously been shaped by artificial means. Half of it looked as if it had been broken off, but the other half was tapered, and it's surface been smoothed or polished, so that it almost looked like metal. But he could see no markings on it, nothing that clearly suggested its provenance or purpose.
Surely there has to be something more to it, Bruce thought. Is it some kind of monument?
Bruce could detect nothing other especially unusual about it, other than its odd shape but, somehow, as he drew nearer and nearer to it, he began to feel a growing uneasiness in the pit of his belly. Waller had claimed that it was a 'doorway' but a doorway to what?
Whatever it was, Bruce was convinced that it had not been shaped by human hands. That realization made what Waller said all the more unsettling. But he seriously doubted that she knew the whole truth.
Bruce felt Zatanna begin to tremble, ever so slightly.
"What is it?" He asked in a low voice, despite the menacing presence of the guards. "What do you sense?"
But she only shook her head and said nothing.
Amanda Waller was already waiting for them there, with even more squads of armed guards around her, as if not quite trusting that the dozens surrounding the two Justice Leaguers were enough. Also present was a group of other scientists or technicians whom Bruce didn't recognize. They stared at the approaching pair impassively. They all looked as if they had come out of a factory for scientists of dubious ethical background, pale and white-coated, some wearing protective goggles.
Could they be with Cadmus? Bruce thought. They were precisely the cold and clinical types that seemed to be synonymous with the Cadmus operations. The men (and they were all men) regarded them dispassionately as if he and Zatanna were animal test subjects in a lab.
Perhaps they were.
"What is this?" Bruce demanded, pointing at the basalt block, before Waller could speak first. "That thing?"
The A.R.G.U.S. Director looked quite calm and collected, in control, which no doubt she though she was. He noticed that her eyes glittered with pride and anticipation as she turned her attention to the huge pediment above her.
She's quite thrilled, he thought grimly. She has us in her possession, as well as whatever that thing is.
"That," Waller replied grandly, "is merely the tiniest fragment of what could be - in fact, is - the greatest discovery of the 21st century, perhaps of human history. A piece of Pnakoutos, the outpost of an alien race more advanced than any we've ever encountered before!"
"That's your evidence? A piece of rock?"
Waller turned to look at him again, her contempt for him clear on her face. Not for the first time, Batman wondered why Waller seemed to have such a personal hatred for him, and for the entire Justice League. He was well aware of Waller's impressive intellectual capacity - he had an extensive file on her as well - but for so intelligent an individual, she appeared to let crude emotions and ambitions rule her. In a way, he had hoped that she would prove to be more than just another government flunky. But knowing human frailty and stupidity as he did, had known all his life, perhaps that was not really something he ought to be surprised much by.
"I can tolerate your mockery, Batman, for now, since I know that's only your way of masking ignorant fear. You do fear all this, don't you?" Waller made an encompassing gesture with her arm. "You people don't want anyone else challenging your attempt at dominance of global affairs, your..."
"What are you talking about?" Zatanna stared at Waller as if she had gone crazy. "Do you really think all this is giving you some kind of...of game edge? You have no idea what this is!"
Waller stared at her for a moment, her teeth clenched.
"No," she finally admitted, surprising them both. "I will admit that - we don't know very much at all, but I don't think you do either, Ms. Zatara the Stage Magician. The only thing anyone knows is, is that the city - if it is truly what we could only describe as a 'city' - is directly beneath our feet. It exists and is real."
"If that's true, why not just drill down to it?" Batman said. "Why all this pretense?"
"If we could, of course we would have. But all our ground detection equipment is unable to tell us the size and parameters of the alien city, it could be as big as Metropolis...and I'm not going to risk damaging any potential artifacts by blind drilling like we were digging a ditch!"
Waller turned back to look at the rock. As she did, she seemed to make a gesture to one of the scientists, who in his turn gestured to someone above them. The deep hum that Batman and Zatanna had heard upon first awakening in this place seemed to intensify and grow stronger.
"What's going on?" Zatanna cried, but Waller ignored her.
"We believe that fragment up there was possibly part of a pillar, making an entranceway. We found it amid others like it, some of them consisting of longer pieces. This one, though, could not be moved from where it lay, not with our most powerful earth-moving equipment, not with our own...special personnel. So, we built around it. We knew we had found the entrance, only..."
"That's the only thing you really care about, isn't it?" Zatanna insisted. "Your precious 'artifacts.' Like the ones you hide away in your Black Room! Don't you understand how dangerous those can be, especially from those that once belonged to-to them?"
Waller glared at her. "And what gives you the right to decide what we can and can't possess? We're the ones who can and should take proper and responsible management of any alien technology...or would you rather see them in the hands of rogue metahumans and hostile foreign governments?" Waller's eyes narrowed. "Or the property of people like yourself? Witches and warlocks who can manipulate magic? Oh, yes, I've got my own file on you, honey!"
"So this is for our own good and protection?" Batman harrumphed. "Spare me the pretense of your 'due diligence.' We know what you're up to."
"Whatever it is that you think you know," Zatanna's voice had turned urgent, almost pleading. "Believe me, you're so way off base! Whatever's down there is best left down there, untouched."
A veil seemed to come down over Waller's dark face. "It really doesn't matter to me what your opinions are of our A.R.G.U.S. operations," she finally said, in a tone conveying she was done trying to make a point. "If you are the patriotic citizens your so-called Superman claims you all are, then you will assist us in this particular task." Her tone also suggested that "no" was not an option.
"What is it that you want?" Batman demanded warily.
"It's quite simple. I told you that this pillar marked an entrance point, yet we cannot find out how deep it goes, and we can't dislodge it," Waller's stated, as if she was doing a presentation before a board of government officials. "This section was visible above ground. We used remote viewers to try to get an idea of just what was down there, but they weren't able to see much, just enough to know that there was something down there."
"Remote viewers?"
"I assure you, we have genuine ones who can see quite amazing distances. Do not worry, we not have used them to spy on the Hall of Justice...yet. However, none of them were able to give us descriptions of the outpost, other than there is something, and it is extensive."
Zatanna barely heard them arguing. She felt faint and dizzy, but not from loss of blood or any injury she'd suffered. She knew what was the cause. She could hardly take her eyes off that basalt block. She wondered that Batman, Amanda Waller, and the bloodless-looking technicians and guards couldn't feel what she felt. Then she had to remind herself, that they weren't magickally sensitive. The emanations of an ancient evil radiated from it, compounded with the sense of absolute alienism. Not alien in the sense of Kal-el, or even Martian Manhunter, who at least resembled the human...this was something so foreign that her mind struggled to cope with it.
But, glancing over at Batman's face - the visible portion of it in his cowl, anyway - she wondered if perhaps he didn't feel a little of the same horror she did. He had a touch of the sensitivity, she had always suspected it. But looking at Waller's face, Zatanna guessed she wouldn't feel anything, even if it manifested itself in all its unspeakable reality in front of her. Perhaps that was what it would take to make her stop. But she didn't think she would.
"There's a way into the city, through this object," Waller explained. "We believe that it can be accessed somehow through certain psychic sensitivities, we're able to determine that much. We have tried to maintain the entranceway through out own...operatives, but it cannot be sustained large enough to admit anything through. We need to know what is down there through direct observation, not through remote viewing, or even a drone."
Batman did not have a good feeling about this. "So what does all this have to do with us? What do you want?"
Waller smiled mirthlessly. "Perfect timing, is all," she added in a homey voice. "I want that entranceway open. And there is only one way to open it."
She looked at Zatanna. "I want you to use your powers. Place your hand on that stone."
Zatanna stared at her as if Waller had told her to swallow live spiders. "No!"
"Why not?" Waller continued relentlessly. "If, according to your colleague, it's just a 'rock'?"
"No," Zatanna stammered, backing away. "No…I can't…"
With a hint of exasperation, Waller gestured to one of the guards, one of the more burly ones. Immediately, he grabbed Zatanna, taking a firm grip on her wrist and propelled her towards the block.
"Let go of her!" Batman roared, and he surged forward. Just as quickly Waller's men aimed their weapons directly at his head and he froze, clenching his fists angrily. The guards kept their guns on him. He could only watch helplessly in impotent rage.
"No!" Zatanna shouted desperately again, but the man ignored her. He dragged her up the ramp that extended from the ground to the tapered edge of the thing. She struggled, and the guard wrestled with her, surprised that such a small woman could put up such a struggle. Still, he forced her open palm against the slab.
Immediately her body arced sharply, as if a strong electric current shocked her. She went rigid, her eyes rolling in the back of her head. The guard seemed unaffected, and he continued to hold Zatanna as per Waller's instructions.
"What's it doing to her?" Batman shouted at Waller.
She held up the palm of her hand for pause; she seemed to be holding her breath expectantly, and then he understood why in the next second.
The lights in the facility noticeably dimmed. The power hum also dropped precipitously. Zatanna still didn't move and remained as rigid as a statue. Her hand remained splayed on the stone, as if affixed to it.
"This is what happened when our A.R.G.U.S. remote viewers touched it, but never with this kind of reaction," Waller said, excitement in her voice. "It's already lasted longer than-"
"Can't you see it's hurting her!" Batman surged forward to within an inch of the Director; the guards grabbed his shoulders, but he shrugged them off violently. "Stop this!" In a second he would rush to his friend, guns or no guns.
"Look!" One of the scientists shouted.
The base of the block was vibrating, dust flying off its surface. Bruce could feel the ground below his feet shaking as well, and his first thought was: earthquake?
Klaxons began blaring throughout the building. Waller and her team, including her bodyguard, backed up quickly from the block's base, although she motioned for the guard holding Zatanna to stay where he was.
Everything happened quickly.
The shaking intensified, and cracks began to appear in the floor beneath the squat pedestal, and widened precipitously, until the base began to tilt into the cavity. The block tilted ominously into its spreading maw. The guard rushed away down the ramp, taking Zatanna with him - apparently his self-preservation was more important than whatever Zatanna was doing, and Waller's shouts. As soon as they fled, the block with an tremendous heave and ear-splitting shriek of stone against metal, bent the metal prongs holding it in place and toppled into the gaping hole that now existed in the floor. It disappeared into the gaping hole despite Waller's outraged shouts.
The entire facility seemed to rise, then settled with a second shriek of metal and concrete grinding together. There were faint screams and shouts from various workers, then quickly over as everyone saw that they were still alive and intact and that the building hadn't collapsed about them. A stunned silence seemed to settle over everyone as the sirens were shut off.
Waller, breathing hard, stared with wide eyes at the hole in the ground, and she and the white-coated lab drones clustered at its edges, wondering where their discovery had gone.
Batman was less interested in that new development. He rushed to the nearly unconscious Zatanna; the guard relinquished her and backed off, cleared dazed himself. Several comrades hustled him away, but the rest kept their weapons trained on them.
"Zatanna!" Batman grasped her face in her hands, felt for a pulse. It was there, and steady. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Zatanna!"
"I'm...all right," Zatanna finally whispered back. Her eyes fluttered, opened halfway. "What...happened?"
"When you touched that block a hole opened in the ground. You were lucky you didn't fall in," Batman rasped curtly. "What did you do?"
"I...I didn't do anything," Zatanna's voice was weaker, even more than before. "I felt something pulling at me, but I couldn't move, I couldn't-I didn't mean..." Her eyes opened wider. "It was alive..."
"It's all right," Batman said shortly. "Can you stand?"
"With...help, maybe."
Batman made sure that Zatanna was close to him when Waller re-approached him. Now, she was less like an overbearing Director, than an actual scientist.
"It has opened up!" Waller exclaimed. "The entranceway is revealed! There's an inclined path leading downwards, at least several hundred meters to start."
"An entrance? How far does it go?"
"That's what you're going to find out," Waller replied imperiously. "You - and her - are going to go down there and find out."
"I'll go," Batman said. "But Zatanna stays here. She's in no mood to play Dora the Explorer for you."
"No...it's ok. I should go with you," Zatanna forced some strength back into her voice, pulling from a place she wondered if she really had. "I can still protect you."
"No," Batman glared daggers at her, irritated that she was defying him. "You're not going."
"You don't have a choice," Waller answered. "We'll give you equipment to monitor and record anything you find."
Batman whirled back to her. "No!"
"Think of it as your own initiation into the 'Suicide Squad' then. You really don't have a choice. Think of it as a real opportunity to be the first to encounter this new species. Also, if you don't make it back, we'll be sure to honor your last wishes to your employees...rich boy."
Batman stared with undisguised rage at Waller, but she was unmoved. Surely she knew that her actions would have consequences, but this discovery had made her obsessed to the point of recklessness. She would learn that...if he ever got out of here alive.
"Our Justice League colleagues will be looking for us," Batman still said calmly. "You know that, don't you?"
Waller shrugged. "Yes. But I'm sure we'll have some results before then. Then they can come and look all they want."
There seemed to be nothing more to say. There was a few minutes wait while the techs began preparing the perimeter around the newly revealed entrance to the alien outpost.
"Hang in there, Zee," murmured Bruce, as the guards handed him something that looked like a GoPro headset and returned his utility belt. "I'll find a way out of here for us."
"I'll be all right," she whispered, but he wasn't entirely convinced. But she gave him a steady look. "Really, I am."
Waller and the guards watched them as they made their way to the edge of the still-smoking crack. Now, he could see the slightly inclined descent. There was no sign of the basalt block. It must have slid all the way to the bottom.
"Stay behind me, Zatanna," Bruce warned.
He'd half-expected some comeback, but she only nodded.
He glanced back at Waller. "If I see anything that I think is a danger to the Earth, I'm going to ensure it's destroyed with whatever means I have."
Waller stared at him through narrowed eyes. "We'll be right behind you, don't worry your Bat-head about that."
One of her aides sidled up to her as the final prep checks were being completed and the two were led off to the edge of the cavity.
"Ma'am," he muttered. "We still haven't been able to locate Subject Pym as of yet."
"Call General Lane," Waller frowned. She'd almost forgotten about David Ken. He might be irrelevant now, now that the secrets of the Yith were almost at her fingertips. "Have him make it his personal priority."
"That's another thing, Director," the aide went on. "We haven't been able to contact him either. However, we were able to trace him to within several miles of the Hall of Justice."
Now, Waller scowled. "Damn him," she muttered. "Set this facility on the highest alert. We may be getting some unauthorized visitors soon. Be prepared to deal with them. And page Dr. Fenderbrake. I want him here."
"Yes, ma'am." Waller returned her attention to her unwilling scouting team. Despite what Batman had said, she hoped that they would remain alive...at least, long enough to prove to her if anything...
If anything was still...alive down there.
Together, Bruce and Zatanna entered the long-forgotten and hidden alien outpost of a hundred million years...
To be continued...
[A/N: Amanda Waller clearly assumes she can kill two birds with one stone: get rid of the Justice League while making a rich discovery for herself - but is she correct in her assumptions? What will Batman and Zatanna find? It will definitely be not what any of them expected! Will the Justice League be in time to rescue their friends? And will Superman be able to rescue Wonder Woman...wherever she is (you get one good guess where she is). Tune in next chapter for more revelations! Thanks again for reading, and please review!]
