The Once and Future Bat
a Batman Beyond fanfic
by
Mike Yamiolkoski
Bruce's reply was cut off as his ears picked up a familiar, high-pitched whine. Putting painful pressure onto his injured knee, he leapt to the side as the red beam of the killer laser swept across the roof. It cut horizontally, slicing anything over three feet off the surface - the utility sheds, the water cistern, and the television antenna.
Bruce rolled with his fall, and came to a rest facing a strange, impossible aircraft hovering off the side of the tower. It was elliptical in shape, and seemingly held itself up with no propulsive power outside of a circular glowing disk on its underside. On its bow was mounted a device that could only be the laser emitter - and it was glowing, charging, firing!
This time the laser sliced closer to the roof's surface, cutting diagonally downward and missing Bruce so closely that his hair was singed by the heat. The TV antenna took another hit, and with a groan began to topple. Bruce rolled to his feet and limped as fast as he could toward the edge of the roof, pulling out a batline as he did, knowing that he would never make it.
Suddenly he was struck from behind, and found himself speeding across the roof in the tight grasp of the mysterious black-clad figure. The laser beam cut into the roof where he'd been standing an instant before, stabbing clean through the building to strike the ground below. In another half-second they were clear of the collapsing roof, and streaking at high speed toward the ground below. Bruce recovered quickly and held his batline at the ready should he need to use it, but for the time being knew that this strange man had the fastest ticket to safety.
The laser didn't fire again, but Bruce heard the whine of the aircraft that housed it approaching closer. He didn't know whether he or his companion was the target, but he did know that it made sense to split up. His batline fired across the street into another tower, and pulled him from the flying man's grasp. Gripping the line one-handed, Bruce swung out and over the street, reeling in at the same time to avoid a collision with the asphalt.
Bruce had had no time to properly calculate his descent. The batline whipped him around the building into the alley, and he took his first opportunity to let go, dropping into a dumpster. It was an undignified but reasonably safe landing as his fall was cushioned by empty cardboard boxes and a week's worth of personal trash.
He lay quietly for a moment - if the attacker had seen him, he was dead anyway, but if he hadn't, then moving would only give him away. He dared to move only enough to pull the scanner from his pocket and check the status of the tracer.
Before he had the chance to do more than glance at it, a terrific noise shook the dumpster and buried him under a thin layer of refuse. The television antenna had crashed to the street, along with a good-sized chunk of Gotham Tower Plaza. Bruce felt he could no longer stay where he was - if the entire building collapsed, anywhere within a two-block radius was unsafe. He could hear the sounds of the people running into the street, and realized he could easily camouflage himself among them.
As well as he could with his one good leg, Bruce leapt from the dumpster and made his way into the street. People were streaming from the apartment buildings in droves, carrying whatever they'd managed to grab in the haste to escape. The top of Gotham Tower Plaza was on fire, but to Bruce's eye, the building didn't seem to be in danger of collapse. The laser had only sliced through the uppermost floor, and the structure as a whole was far sturdier than the Gotham Cathedral had been.
Bruce quickly scanned the sky, and saw no immediate sign of his dark-clad rescuer or the strange aircraft. He had no time to investigate further, as he heard a scream of pain above the continuous shouts of panic. Turning toward the source of the sound, he saw a woman trapped under a piece of fallen debris. Before he could take more than a few steps in that direction, however, a black flash dropped to the street from above and, with inhuman strength, lifted the heavy chunk of steel off the woman's legs and tossed it aside. Then he checked the woman for serious injuries, and, apparently satisfied that it was better to move her then not, picked her up carefully and carried her through the crowd to the nearby park where people were gathering. Bruce followed as quickly as he could. He caught up with the man a moment later, but came just close enough to listen.
"She has two broken legs, and may have other internal injuries," the man was saying to a bystander. "Make sure she gets on an evac craft as soon as medical help arrives."
"A what?" asked the bystander. "You mean, a helicopter?"
"Yeah, that," said the black-suited man.
"Hey, man, this might sound like a dumb question, but - are you Batman's best friend, or something?"
The man seemed to hesitate. "In a way," he replied. "Just know that we're on the same team."
Bruce lifted an eyebrow at that.
Emergency vehicles had begun to arrive, and the pseudo-batman seemed to take notice. He opened his wings and sprang into the air with a burst of flame from his boots. The crowd around him gasped with surprise. Bruce simply watched as the figure disappeared into the night sky, then turned to leave himself. He couldn't afford to be stopped and examined by the paramedics.
On his way back to the sewer where he had secured the Bat-Boat, Bruce clicked on the scanner. The tracer was gone.
*********
"I arrived on the scene shortly after you did," said Dick Grayson. They were back in the Batcave.
Dick continued, "I saw the attack on the tower, and I saw you and the other bat fly off the roof. After you landed, he took off down the street and, somewhere along the way, he somehow discovered the tracer and destroyed it. That hovercraft thing chased after him, and it fired another shot, but it didn't seem to hit anything. Then it took off. I lost track of the craft and the man in black after that myself - I was too busy trying to help the people. I'm sorry I didn't keep track of him."
"You did what was necessary," Bruce assured him. "In any event, I have the feeling we'll see our new friend again very soon."
"I did manage to locate this," Dick said, and held out a vial. "It's what's left of my tracer."
Bruce took the vial and looked closely at its contents. "It's been crushed," he observed. "Looks like it was done with human fingers."
Dick shook his head. "Impossible. Those are based on your design. No one could crush them with their bare hands. Maybe Bane could do it, but that pretty much ends the list."
"I saw him lift a piece of debris that had to weigh over a quarter ton," Bruce said, "and it didn't even tax him. Either we're dealing with someone with inhuman powers, or he has some mechanical means of enhancing his strength. Based on the pattern of unusually advanced technology we're seeing, I'd guess the latter." Bruce suddenly looked with greater interest at the vial. "Hmm... it looks like there's a fiber in here with the tracer."
"From his suit?"
"Likely. I'll need to run some tests on it."
Dick sighed. "Bruce, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you look really exhausted. I can run the tests while you get some rest. Just tell me what you're looking for."
Bruce glared at him.
"Bruce, you brought me in on this so I could help you. Let me do it, or send me back home."
"You're stubborn as all hell, Dick," Bruce said, shaking his head. He punched up a number of files on the Batcomputer. "Run these tests. It shouldn't take you more than three hours. I'll be back then." Bruce got up and made his way up the stairs to the residence.
"You're welcome," muttered Dick, and set to work.
*********
"Interesting. Very interesting."
Bruce studied the results of Dick's testing with fierce concentration.
"That's what I thought," said Dick. "It isn't nylon, rayon, Kevlar, or any other known synthetic. And it certainly isn't a natural fiber. Spectroanalysis showed nothing but pure carbon."
"But it's engineered at the molecular level," Bruce said, more to himself than to Dick. "It's a braided nanotube. I'd estimate that it has a tensile strength over fifty times that of steel. Another piece of impossible technology, like the laser - but with one major difference."
"What's that?"
Bruce sat back and punched up a set of specifications on the Batcomputer. "This one exists. As far as I know, it only exists in one place."
Dick read the screen. "WayneTech Enterprises."
"Exactly. Our top-level R&D people made a breakthrough on this only last week. We created a braided carbon nanotube two millimeters long, the first time anyone has made one large enough to see. This is identical, except for the fact that it obviously came from a much longer fiber. And there's more," Bruce continued, pulling up another file. This one was sketchier, less professional. "I've been working on a new batarang, trying to improve its aerodynamics and range. This is a preliminary sketch that I came up with two months ago, then put away when the Joker broke out of Arkham."
"Cool."
"The man in the suit pulled one on me tonight."
Dick whistled. "Anything else?"
Bruce nodded grimly. "Yes. He saw through my disguise. He called me by name."
Dick sat down. "That's a little disturbing. But, it's not impossible. No disguise is foolproof, maybe he was just unusually perceptive."
"It was the way he said it. It was as if he knew me, and was surprised to see me." Bruce's eyes narrowed. "That man in the black suit holds the key to all of this, I'm sure of it. We have to find him somehow. And I have a thought on that."
"Somehow, I figured you might."
Bruce pulled up a new screen on the Batcomputer. "This is an image from a spy satellite over Gotham."
"A live image?"
"Yes."
Dick raised an eyebrow. "How'd you score that one? I mean, you're good, but cracking U.S. government spy satellite codes? Color me impressed."
"Actually, it's a Russian satellite. It's about fifteen years old and it hasn't had a software upgrade in ten. That made it a little easier - except for having to re-program it in Russian."
"If it's that old, what good will it do us? It won't have sufficient resolution to pick out a human figure, particularly one dressed in black who's trying to hide."
"The satellite can see in infrared."
Dick nodded. "His rocket trail."
"Exactly. If we can pick up that, we might be able to anticipate his moves. And there he is."
Bruce pointed at the map. There did seem to be a tiny hot spot, barely larger than a single pixel, making its way across the city.
Dick squinted. "Not very bright."
"No. His jets seem to be oddly cool. It fits in with the pattern, of course. Yet another piece of advanced technology."
"Think we can still follow him?"
Bruce was watching the screen. "He's heading for WayneTech. That's the second time."
"It makes sense. It's the tallest building in the city. From its roof, you can see almost everything."
Bruce stood up. "I'm going out there," he said.
"Are you sure you're up to it?"
Bruce went to a table and picked up two form-fitting braces. "These will protect my arm and knee. And I somehow don't think this man is dangerous in the conventional sense."
"All the same, I'm going with you. I'll stay out of your way," Dick added in response to Bruce's negative look. "But you might need backup if our laser-happy friend shows up again."
"I have no intention of being spotted by him tonight," Bruce said. "That building cost WayneTech's stockholders a lot of money."
*********
One advantage of WayneTech Enterprises was that it was perhaps the easiest place for Batman to get to. All he had to do was have Alfred drive him there. It was hardly suspicious for Bruce Wayne to show up at his company's headquarters at any time of night.
Bruce entered the building as himself, then took his private elevator to the top floor. On the way, he slipped out of his business suit and pulled on his cowl. The Batman exited the elevator into Bruce's office.
The first thing he did was activate the security camera that would show Bruce coming in and doing some trivial piece of work. Even in his own building, there were security concerns - it wouldn't do to have tapes showing Batman sneaking around. Then he powered up the computer, linked to the Batcomputer, and called up the satellite image. He looked carefully at the grainy image, but there was no sign of the traveling spot that might be the stranger's boots. Likely, he was still on the roof.
Batman slid open a hidden panel on one of the columns in the office, revealing a ladder. There were definite advantages to being on his own turf.
* * * * *
It was cold on the roof. Batman's suit was designed to feel comfortable at a wide range of temperatures, but the wind bit through all the same. He ignored it, and concentrated on his target. The man in the black batsuit was indeed on the roof.
Batman slipped up close behind him, moving carefully and silently. He could hear the man muttering to himself.
"What the hell am I doing here?" he was saying. "How did I think I could do this by myself? I'm going to have to contact him, sooner or later. Better to do it sooner, while he's still alive."
Batman cleared his throat.
The man in black spun around, nearly losing his balance on the narrow ledge. His eyes went wide when he saw who was standing only three feet behind him. "Damn, you are good," he whispered.
"Nice to be appreciated," Batman said. "Care to explain what you're doing in my city?"
"I will," he said. "But not here. It's dangerous. Kruger could be watching, and I for one have had enough of dodging his plasma cannon."
"The feeling is mutual." Batman thought about the name, Kruger. It didn't ring any bells to him.
"We can talk inside, I presume?"
Batman frowned. "What makes you think it would be safer to talk inside?"
"You wouldn't have it any other way, Mr. Wayne."
Batman struck quickly. He caught the black-suited man by the throat and pinned him against the roof. "How do you know that name?" he hissed.
"Wait! You don't understand - I'm on your side!"
Batman couldn't help but notice that his considerably powerful grip was hardly making a dent in the man's neck. The suit seemed to be tensing against his hand. "I've gathered we have a few things in common. That doesn't make you trustworthy."
"He'll spot you. He has infrared cameras. All he needs to do is look for a warm body on a rooftop. We don't have time for this!"
"Then talk! Now! Who are you?"
The man looked him straight in the eye. "I'm Batman."
Bruce felt a sudden chill, and it wasn't the wind. Over the years, he had acquired a very keen sense of how to tell when someone was lying. This man wasn't. He honestly believed what he said to be true, and he didn't seem crazy or delusional. This was no fanatic or madman; somehow, impossibly, this was the real thing. Another version of himself.
A familiar whine streaked by off to Batman's left. He dropped the man and leapt backward to the opposite side of the roof, pulling an explosive batarang. The craft he had seen before arced around the WayneTech building high and far out of range, sweeping across the sky like a flying saucer. Batman could see the cannon mounted at its front in profile, its long barrel pulsing red with power. But it wasn't pointed at him. It was aimed at the First Bank of Gotham Tower.
Never before had Bruce felt such a sudden, awful, gripping panic.
He whipped his arm around with all his strength, hurling his batarang at the craft that he knew was too far away. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the black-suited bat, leaping from the roof and flying at high speed toward the hovercraft. They were both too late.
A blinding flash of red lit up the night. The beam cut through the roof of the Bank Tower as easily as through the air, burning out the other side and terminating somewhere out in the industrial district. A second and then a third beam cut across the tower horizontally, slicing the massive structure in half. Like the Gotham Cathedral before it, the Bank Tower began to collapse.
Unlike the Cathedral, the Tower was occupied by hundreds of people.
And Nightwing.
TO BE CONTINUED...