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Batman 1939: Swimming in the Styx
Chapter 30: A Bat Out of Hell
Captain Steven Trevor woke up to to a rough headache and a sore jaw. He'd started a few fights in his life and taken his share of lickings, so this wasn't new. He could handle it. Step one, he sat up and looked for coffee.
Steve couldn't find coffee. Instead, he found a half-collapsed underground chamber lit by a pair of weak lanterns. He found Wonder Woman crouched over Batman who was slumped against a wall and pulling on a mask. He turned the other way and found a snarling Argentine officer handcuffed to a wall. The officer was staring at the last occupant, a little blond woman laying senseless on the floor. Bile rose in Steve's throat. He wanted ever so badly to kill her. Before he could remember moving, Steve was on top of the blond woman with his hands around his throat. The officer barked encouragements and laughed as he squeezed. Then Steve was lifted off his feet and tossed back on the bed.
He saw Wonder Wonder looking down at him. "What are you doing?"
Steve shrugged. "Oh, just murder."
"She's defenseless."
"That's the best time." He tried to sit up again but she put an unmovable hand on his shoulder.
Behind him, Batman said, "Control your impulse."
Steve hadn't heard Batman approach. He twisted around. "Huh?"
Batman was straightening his cowl. "We've seen several victims of Der Wehrwulf's mental control: Amanda Waller-"
"Waller was caught by this freak?"
Batman nodded. "As well as you, this officer, and me. All have shown a deep desire to kill her at the earliest opportunity. It may be compulsive."
"You don't look like you want to kill her."
Batman was rigidly silent. He looked at Der Wehrwulf on the floor then back to Steve. "I don't kill."
"Fine. Would you let me up, please? Feels like I've been rotting in this bed for days.
Wonder Woman let Steve stand. They looked at each. She said, "It pleases me to see you, Steven."
"Good to see you too, angel."
Wonder Woman touched his face. "You have a beard!"
He chuckled. "Yeah, do you like it?"
"I'm ... not sure."
"Don't worry." He winked. "They grow on you."
Wonder Woman patted her face in alarm.
Batman interrupted. "We're going to die in ten minutes."
Steve, Wonder Woman, and Coronel Romero, who knew a little English, stared at Batman.
"Wha?"
"What?"
"Qué?"
Batman pointed up at the lanterns. "The lights are starting to dim. They use oxygen. So do the four of us." He looked in the corner. "Der Wehrwulf's chest is moving involuntarily, so she likely does as well. We have no ventilation. I estimate the oxygen trapped here will support us for ten more minutes. That's assuming the soldiers outside don't clear the debris. If they do, then we have about two seconds."
Wonder Woman said, "I could dig upward and reach the surface."
Batman responded, "And you might survive, but we'd all be crushed by falling earth in the process." Batman looked at the pile of rock and timbers blocking the door. They could hear voices outside and the scrape of slowly-shifting stone. "We have one exit. Can you clear the obstruction?"
Wonder Woman nodded. "Certainly."
"Then we'll be facing half the camp in a confined space unarmed."
Steve said, "We have that pistol."
Batman shook his head. "We're not using the pistol."
Steve was exasperated. "How are you still alive?"
Wonder Woman lifted her chin. "I can fight through our foes."
"Batman inspected her. "Can you? You're fatigued and injured. There are contusions around your throat from hands that span a ten inch width. One of the giant soldiers got close enough to strangle you. Must not have been an easy fight. By now, they'll have all available giants working to clear that doorway. We've seen at least two. I subdued a third earlier. There may be more. How many do you think you fight at once?" Wonder Woman hesitated. Batman continued. "Those welts across your body are bullet wounds. They're going to deploy as much firepower as they can fit down here. If you miss a bullet, it'll hit one of us. They hardly need to aim."
Wonder Woman gestured to Coronel Romero. "We have captured their commander. Perhaps they will parley for his safe return." They looked at the officer. He scowled back at them.
Batman frowned. "Even if he cooperates, using a hostage is difficult. The moment he feels safe, he can send his forces after us, or his subordinates may attack on their own initiative."
"I meant we reach an agreement for safe passage."
Batman looked again at Coronel Romero who made a rude gesture. "I doubt he'd honor that."
Steve asked, "What was your original plan to get me out?"
Wonder Woman answered, "Retreat to the naval base and board a ship."
Batman shook his head. "Steal a car and head west."
Wonder Woman glanced at him in annoyance. "There was some disagreement on the escape route."
Batman crossed his arms. "We'd improvise."
Steve waved them both to be quiet. "Listen, here's a short term solution: let's kill the Nazi. One less pair of lungs means more air for the rest of us."
Wonder Woman looked at Batman with concern. "It is indecent to slay a beaten enemy, but did we not agree she was too dangerous to live?"
Batman shook his head. "We agreed to decide about her when the time came."
Steve knelt next to Der Wehrwulf. "I'd say the time's here, buddy. So what? Do we put this to a vote? Next time she might take over the President or something."
Batman said, "We may need her."
Wonder Woman asked, "Why?"
Batman didn't answer for a moment. "Diana, when Der Wehrwulf escaped me, I was disoriented, but I thought I heard you kick her in the torso."
"Yes."
Batman told Steve. "Lift her shirt."
Wonder Woman and Steve stared at him like his face had fallen off. Steve cleared his throat. "Buddy, I don't know what you're thinking, but-"
Batman ordered, "Now."
Steve raised his hands, "Fine, fine." Wonder Woman watched them both suspiciously.
Steve pulled Der Wehrwulf's shirt toward her neck. Like the rest of her body, her stomach was inked with Nazi tattoos. As the shirt lifted further, they saw an ugly purple bruise reaching from just above her belly button to her collarbone, hidden marginally by a plain bra.
Batman gestured for Steve to cover her again. "After Der Wehrwulf was stuck, she possessed Steve, then returned to her own form, but the transformation didn't heal her injury. When she's hurt, she stays hurt."
"So?"
There was a loud noise on the other side of the debris pile as a large rock was moved away. The pile shifted as the center sunk. Coronel Romero cried out for help again.
Batman told Steve with a little urgency, "Bring her to the bed."
Steve picked up Der Wehrwul and dropped her on the bed. Der Wehrwulf was groggy, just beginning to come to her senses. Her eyes blinked open. She saw Batman dark form looming over her in the guttering lantern light and recoiled. "Ach!"
Batman grasped her jaw and forced her to look at him. "Pay attention." He took two short syringes out of his belt, removed the caps, and held them so she could she. "One is a painkiller. One is a stimulant." He held one syringe in his mouth, injected the other in the crook of her elbow, dropped it, then injected the first. "The combination's toxic."
Wonder Woman grabbed his shoulder. "Batman!"
He ignored her and spoke to his patient, "Your heart's racing already. You'll go into shock in forty seconds. No doctor could find the counteragent in time, but I have it."
Der Wehrwulf reached up and tried to touch his face, but Batman was too quick. He caught her wrists and forced them down. "It's skin contact, isn't it? That's the trick."
To Batman's mild surprise, he saw Der Wehrwulf's eyes turn wet. "Nein! Don't kill me. I don't want to die."
Batman nodded gently. "Good. Save me and I'll save you."
Der Wehrwulf showed confusion through her distress. "Was?"
Batman lifted her to sit, watching her hands. He pointed at Coronel Romero. "Take him."
Coronel Romero's eyes widened in terror, but before he could make a sound, Der Wehrwulf sprung from the bed. Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman hesitated, uncomprehending. Before they could act, Der Wehrwulf caught Coronel Romero's arm and turned to mist which covered him.
There was another grating noise from outside the room. The pile shifted again, and a pinprick of light opened near the top.
Batman spoke to Wonder Woman, "Diana, the cuffs."
Wonder Woman was beyond following the situation and simply complied, ripping the handcuffs off Coronel Romero's wrists. He stared incredulously at Batman.
Batman limped over grabbed his shoulders. "Unless you want to live in that body for the rest of its life, you need me. Get us out safely. Understand?"
Coronel Romero eyed him up and down with caution and a mote of respect. "… Ja. We do this. For now." He gestured to the golden lasso at Wonder Woman's hip. "Bind yourselves! Act the part."
With clear skepticism, Wonder Woman unwound her lasso, but Batman stopped her. Her took out the last of his own rope, and she tied his wrists with it. Then she used her lasso to tie Steve, and Coronel Romero tied her, and held the end of the lasso himself. He picked up the pistol. "Clever, Batman."
Batman responded, "Don't forget. She's bulletproof and wants to take your head off."
"Understood."
The three 'captives' huddled in the corner out of sight of the doorway. Coronel Romero stood and waited for the rest of the dirt to be dug away. When a head-sized hole opened, he saw the barrels of ten rifles pointing at him. He didn't seem in any danger or duress, so when he ordered the men to stand down, they complied.
More dirt and stones were dug away, largely by four of the giant armored soldiers working by hand. Finally, there was enough space to walk, and the Coronel exited followed by Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman, and Batman.
It was clear the soldiers crowding the rows of the cellar were on a hair-trigger. They didn't like the strange evening, and Wonder Woman terrified them. But they were well-discipled all the same. Whatever had happened behind the debris, somehow the Coronel had singlehandedly gained control of the prisoners. Yes, somehow. They trusted the other officers would root out any funny business. Indeed, as the Coronel walked out, two of his capitáns approached with serious questions on their faces. They would not be brushed off, but before they could start an interrogation, Coronel Romero told them that he would debrief them as soon as they went upstairs. Such a talk wasn't fit for a dank cellar near the crass ears of enlisted men.
This was a tolerable answer, and gave he his officers orders to send the men back to their tasks. They were in battle, after all. He would meet them in a minute, and the large Germans would be his escort in the meantime.
They gathered out of the cellar. A brisk wind blew past. The oil drum fire had diminished, but still monopolized the horizon and cast long shadows everywhere. After a moment, the Coronel was alone with his his captives and his four giant guards.
He spoke quietly to Batman. "My Argentines comrades believe I only speak Spanish, so there was no way to talk amongst them without being understood or drawing suspicion. These oversized half-wits are loyal to a fault and don't know what I speak, and they also don't know English, so we can talk freely in front of them if I act condescending." He backhanded Batman across the face. "You really should see someone about your neck. It did not feel good."
A few of the officers who were performing their tasks at a short distance were watching the group over their shoulders. At this backhand, many stopping scrutinizing.
Batman suppressed a wince. "Now what?"
Coronel Romero sighed. "Happily, the camp's running on a skeleton crew. That's the expression, yes? I sent everyone senior enough to challenge me on a short, urgent task. But they'll expect me to give an account of myself in our little headquarters in scant minutes. No time to wander off."
An aircraft buzzed overhead.
Steve gasped. "Is that yours? You have an air force?"
The Coronel answered, "Yes."
"How close?"
"A short walk. Why?"
"Listen, I'm the best flyboy alive. Find me a four-seater and I'll get us all out of here." He grinned that cocky pilot's grin, weeks of captivity vanishing from his face. He pointed a thumb at Wonder Woman. "Unless you want to explain to your pals how you got the better of her on your own."
Wonder Woman smirked and crossed her arms. The giant guards looked at each other and said nothing.
Coronel Romero considered the option. He glanced at his guards. Then he stood up straight and, in flawless German, ordered them to attention. Surprised, the guards obeyed in lockstep. The Coronel briefly explained that the rest of the Argentine camp had turned traitor to the glorious Aryan cause. The prisoners were his own agents in disguise, and he and they and had to be ferried to safety at any cost.
As the Coronel spoke, Batman watched the other officers, several of whom had stopped giving their own orders or inspecting the camp and were openly staring at this display. When the Coronel finished, the four guards saluted as one.
"Jawohl!" they cried.
Coronel Romero nodded to Wonder Woman and let go of the lasso. She slipped it easily off her wrists and wound it up. One of the giants picked Batman up and hugged the Dark Knight to his chest. Batman had a sense of the plan and didn't resist, though he couldn't have anyway. Wonder Woman and the other three giants formed a human wall around Steve, the Coronel, and Batman's carrier. They headed towards the airfield at a run.
Many called out to them, and a few brave souls tried to stand in their way. But assaulting one's commanding officer went against every good soldier's indoctrination, so even the most suspicious subordinates held their fire until the strange group was within sight of the parked aircraft.
Finally, one junior officer could stand the farce no longer. Something had obviously changed in the Coronel, and he needed to be stopped for the good of the cause. This young officer's shot missed, but instead of being attacked as he expected, the other soldiers chasing the fleeing bunch joined the attack.
The towering oil fire was nearby and anyone standing on the airfield washed in the glow. But while they may have been easy targets, they weren't soft targets. Bullets from three different rifles struck the back armor of the rearmost giant. Wonder Woman turned and held her ground when she heard the gunfire, letting the others find a ride. Most of the camp's few aircraft were already in the air, and Coronel Romero knew only one still on the ground was large enough to fit all of them. As Wonder Woman drew the camp's fire, he directed them towards it, an old two-engine near the middle of the field. All the aircraft were fueled for battle, but it would take time to start nonetheless.
Captain Trevor, Coronel Romero, and Batman climbed in, while their four guards stayed outside to hold off the camp. Steve and Batman took the pilot and co-pilot seats, while Coronel Romero waited near the open door.
The props started spinning, but by then, Wonder Woman was being pushed back under withering fire, and some squads were flanking around her and taking potshots at the plane. Their giant guards suppressed these assailants with their machine guns, but it was difficult to protect a moving target as the plane gradually turned onto the runway.
Coronel Romero called to the cockpit. "Take off!"
Steve called back, "Not without Diana!"
Coronel Romero cursed. He could see the whole of the battle. Forty yards ahead, Wonder Woman was holding back a river of lead like a dam, with the giants holding a line behind her. If she turned to run, the Argentines could approach and focus their fire at the plane. One lucky round to the windshield or engines could ground them.
He shouted an order in loud, clear German. The four guards, who were firing prone or in cover behind the struts of other aircraft, stood and charged. They raced past Wonder Woman, firing from the hip with a battle cry. She heard her name called and looked back. Coronel Romero was waving from the door of the taxing aircraft. She looked ahead. One of the dashing guards was struck down. The rest endured fierce fire, but they didn't stop. Then she heard her name again. Steve Trevor was also at the door and urging her to come. A bullet stuck the fuselage three feet from his head and he ducked inside.
Wonder Woman ran. She hopped inside the aircraft and Coronel Romero shut the door behind her. She looked out the small window and could faintly make out their guards amid the smoke and gunfire. Incredibly, two were still standing. One had dropped his gun and was making his way into the score of troops from the Argentine camp barehanded. The plane sped and climbed away before she could see his fate.
"Remarkable, aren't they?" said Coronel Romero.
Wonder Woman looked away from the window. She stumbled to a seat as the plane lifted off. "You know of them?"
Coronel Romero occupied an opposite seat. He drawled, "Oh yes, but I think that story must wait for a more proprietous hour."
"Why?"
"These Argentines are rank amateur in the air. Night sorties are challenging, so this Romero's little squadron only launched one model of craft tonight, and the pilots were instructed to attack any other silhouette they see in the air. Soon enough, they will spot us in their faster, better-armed fighters and try to shoot us out of the sky, not realizing this craft is one of their own." He smiled. "Ironically, the same reaction as if they knew exactly who we were."
Wonder Woman reflected on this and stammered, "Then why agree to this plan?"
"Ah, you forget! I saw inside your kleines Schätzchen." Coronel Romero looked toward the cockpit. "He really is that good."
Moments later, the buzz saw drone of machine guns strafed overhead, but Captain Steve Trevor already had the feel of his bird and dipped in time. The fighter came around for another pass, but Steve had already tilted up, dodging gunfire with nearly prescient skill. By the third loop, their plane was nowhere to be found. Steve had plummeted down, flying nap-of-the-earth over the unfamiliar hills and glaciers. As the hapless fighter searched the air above, drifting further away, Steve stayed low, swerving back and forth to keep his nose out of the landscape, dodging the black horizon with fractions of a second to spare.
This continued for eight minutes, Steve hugging the earth so close that the heights of trees were a major concern. The Colonel and Wonder Woman held their seats in a white knuckle grip. Batman co-piloted with his usual grim calm. Steve grinned the whole way. Finally, they had flown what seemed an ample distance from the battlefield without spotting another aircraft, so Steve climbed to a sane altitude and leveled off. They were headed for the border, but that was really a consequence of generally heading northwest, as that was the most sophisticated navigation they could perform under the circumstances.
Once they were flying steady, Batman left the co-pilot's seat and joined Wonder Woman and Coronel Romero in the short cabin.
"It's time we talked."
Coronel Romero crossed his arms. "I have heard much of the infamous Dark Knight's interrogations. Let's see your technique."
"Not my technique. Hers." He nodded at Wonder Woman.
The Coronel frowned. "Unsporting."
"You think I care about being sporting?"
"I wasn't sure. Seemed worth a try."
Wonder Woman took a loop of her golden lasso and tied it to the Coronel's arm.
The Coronel began to sweat. "No, not again. Don't-"
Batman cut him off with a gesture. "We won't eject you. Yet."
"You realize this over-promoted lout will hear everything we say. If you have any sense, I hope you plan to kill him."
"I thought he didn't know English."
"Why take the risk?"
Wonder Woman sat in front of the Coronel, idly holding her lasso. "I will begin. Explain these large soldiers who fought for you."
"Very well. Have you heard of the Peña Duro experiments? As far as I'm aware, no one has all the records of that disaster, but my late rival Salazar managed to acquire some for the Reich. We ran our first tests in Hamburg in the summer of 1936. Twenty-two paratroopers volunteered. They were in peak heath, ages 23 to 29. Results were catastrophic. Thirteen died from heart or liver failures and four others from uncertain causes. Of the five survivors, three were crippled and discharged to veteran's hospitals. One was physically unharmed but mentally sickened and was sent to be euthanized. Only one test subject was deemed a success.
"The doctors decided that the problem was maturity. The harsh procedures overwhelmed a grown body, but it was thought perhaps a child would survive, being more adaptable. The next test was run early in '38: forty-one prepubescent boys drafted from orphanages. This test was a marvelous success: survival rates reached nearly twenty percent. Within six months, their bodies changed from those of boys to hulking warriors larger than any man. A painful process, I'm told, but a valuable one. Several planners even celebrated the ratio, as a child contributes very little to the war effort, so removing five children to produce one über-soldier seemed an excellent exchange."
Wonder Woman expression grew bleak as the story was told. When she spoke, it was as much to herself as to another. "These giants are children."
Coronel Romero was indifferent. "The eldest may now be thirteen. All are given two years of the Wehrmacht's finest training and discipline after they finished growing, which is why the first batch has only recently been deployed, but the results speak for themselves, no? The bodies of heroes with the minds of eager, obedient boys."
Batman asked, "How many have been … produced?"
"Early on they suspected the dreaded organ failure may merely be delayed in a child, so trials were kept small. I believe fewer than sixty are field-ready today, but now our schools are finishing that many in a season. By next year, it will be three hundred in the same time."
"That's six thousand orphans."
"Yes, eventually supplies will run low. I suppose they'll turn to regular children then, but that isn't my program."
Batman paced along the fuselage, which was difficult with his injuries and the turbulence. "Before you commanded this force attacking Río Gallegos, you controlled Amanda Waller. What do you think of her?"
"A bit gossipy for a vigilante, aren't we?"
"The whole story. Every detail that seems relevant to you."
"If you insist, I think there aren't ten leaders in Washington with a mind like Amanda Waller, and from an untermensch of all people. She has a finger on the pulse of your generals, and more importantly, your politicians. You see, battle plans are nice, but the greatest strategic coup is knowing just how far you can go, how much patience you can abuse before an adversary will retaliate. To take spoils from the table without suffering a war in the greatest win. And thanks to Waller, I had a fantastic sense of how many cuts I could make on the beast before it turned its claws."
Wonder Woman sounded curious, "What do you mean?"
"I had a good thing going, as the Americans say, with Carmine Falcone. Perhaps I was a bit reckless – a lesson for next time. Regardless, Waller had the extraordinary boldness to arrest me. I doubt anyone else would have done that. So, I leave Carmine behind, and he confesses all my programs to Waller. Well, I have Waller by then, but I still need to go through the motions. I shut down all my own accomplishments in North America. I hardly rescued three. That stung, oh yes, that galled me. So I decided to retaliate.
"Without my spies, it was time to leave the United States. Too dull. I do well in civil wars. More opportunity. Argentina was the place to be. I would build up my resources and take another crack at Uncle Sam in a few months. Still, I had some leverage to hurt the United States before I left. That was my mission, but I also saw it as a chance to get even. I would kill her anyway, but I wanted to insult her before she died."
"How?"
"Amanda Waller has an unorthodox theory of modern war. She's certain that that much of war is won by specialized forces – spies and commandos and instigators. She believes it is crucial to win the skirmishes beyond the conventional front lines. And she's been collecting your best and brightest to do just that. Incredible bunch. Most of your Army would hardly challenge Portugal, but her team is something to behold.
"Frankly, I don't agree with her views. Offer me ten commandos or ten battle tanks, and I would take the tanks. Still, with her great intelligence, I worried that she might be correct. Naturally, I had to dispose of this miracle team before I left. That would be my retaliation as well as insurance against her theory. Neatly done, no?"
Batman frowned. "Sending an American platoon to save Captain Trevor."
"That's how I pitched the idea. Shame they only let me send a platoon, Waller has lists with a few companies of desired recruits she'd shanghai given the opportunity. Still, a rousing success. I sent her best into a hopeless ambush with old weapons, no intelligence, and no support, and they still bled those Argentinians dry. Can you imagine the chaos these warriors would cause on a proper mission? If they came to Europe, we'd have to send a battalion after them! But now the cream of America's fighting men has been spilled on some cold corner of South America, the Americans have no diplomatic angle to react, and Germany didn't pay a cent. Well, except for the large boys we sent to asset, but that's a small price. You know, I'm almost glad Waller is alive. Now she has more time to appreciate what it feels like to lose years of hard work in a span of days!" The Coronel spat this last line with venom in his voice.
"What do you mean, that's how you 'pitched' the idea?"
"Ah, another Americanism. It's getting to be a habit."
"What were you implying?"
"I was implying that it was an excuse, of course."
"Rescuing Captain Trevor was an excuse?"
"Obviously! If I wanted him that badly, I'd have tried another extraction of my own. Or paid off the jailer. Or control him myself. A battle is a poor way to keep someone safe. Do you know how those Argentines began their counterattack on the Rio Apiculata garrison? With mortars. A rescue mission would not start with indiscriminate explosives."
"Hold on!" said Captain Trevor. "Then how in the blue blazes did you catch me? And why get so angry interrogating me if I wasn't the point to begin with?"
Coronel Romero, Batman, and Wonder Woman stared at him.
Wonder Woman delicately asked, "Shouldn't you be flying the plane?"
"We'll be fine for a few seconds."
She looked at him pleadingly. "It is good to see you again, Steven, but would you please fly the plane?"
He rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, but speak up, guys. I can barely hear you up front." He strutted into the cockpit and yelled over his shoulder, "And my question stands, fog lady in the truth rope!"
Coronel Romero raised her voice and answered, "Luck, young man. Though it wasn't a priority, I still made orders to take you if by chance you survived. Conveniently, I'm told you were found unconscious in the middle of the woods, so you were taken without a struggle. Luck. And of course I interrogated you. It was for the same reason that I made an earnest effort to steal you away from your first captivity. Making an espionage ring from scratch is difficult. I much prefer to steal one. And by now everyone knows that you're the last man with the great Salazar's secrets. I had worried your earlier interrogators had taken those names from you and ruined the opportunity, but if you resisted me, they had no chance." There was quiet laughter from the cockpit. The Coronel didn't hear it and continued, "I held such dreams of what I could do. It would be easy to run Argentina once this coup succeeds, but with Argentina and Salazar's resources, perhaps I could run South America. Once the time was ripe, I could take it by proper conquest. Then the United States would be too busy to enter war, and I'd rule a continent."
The laughter grew from the cockpit until it couldn't be ignored.
Wonder Woman looked concerned and called out, "Steven, are you well?"
Captain Trevor stayed in the cockpit, but once he managed to stop laughing, he cried out, "That's what this was about? All you jerks trying to control me because of what that fat guy knew? What made you think that?"
Batman and Colonel Romero looked at Wonder Woman. She blushed and called to Captain Trevor, "After we separated at the party, I told Amanda Waller that I had extracted secrets from Carlos Salazar about his many plots, but he confessed in Spanish, so only you understood him."
There was silence in the plane for a moment, then Captain Trevor called back, "He gave a summary! We hardly talked for two minutes! You thought he spilled useful details on a dozen operations in two minutes? That's what you told Waller? We didn't have enough time to discuss one of them! My Spanish isn't even that great!"
Wonder Woman's blush reddened. Colonel Romero sighed and rubbed his eyes.
Batman asked, "How many minds have you occupied?"
The Coronel scoffed. "Ever?"
"Yes."
"Please, I've lost count."
"Guess."
"Three hundred."
"How long do you typically stay?"
"Oh, child, it truly depends."
"Guess."
The Coronel shrugged. "A week. But many far briefer, and some much, much longer."
"What's the longest?"
"Just short of a decade, if memory serves. You'd never guess who."
Batman stopped to think. "How old are you?"
"Isn't it rude to ask a lady her age?"
The golden lasso shimmered and the Coronel twitched uncomfortably. "Fine! I was born in 1793. I trust you can do the math."
Batman stopped again to think, so Wonder Woman interjected, "How are you still alive?"
"Magic."
"Elaborate."
"In my youth, I disliked the idea of death, so I sought alternatives.-"
Batman asked, "Where were you born?"
"The city was Düsseldorf, though my country changed several times as a child thanks to Napoleon. At times Prussia, at times Westphalia, always Düsseldorf."
"What is your birth name?"
"Batman, Batman, no honor among pseudonyms?"
The golden lasso shimmered again. Coronel Romero shut his eyes tight. "Paula."
"Family name?"
"von Gunther."
"von? You were nobility?"
"Born into it, yes, but that soon changed. Again, thanks to the Corsican."
Wonder Woman said, "Continue to elaborate on your magic."
"I had seen enough death and wanted none for myself. I studied books of the great alchemists and sorcerers. In time I found a teacher who promised to save me from death. I thought my final lesson would grant me immortality. In a way it did. See, my teacher was not human as she appeared. She is a goddess or a nymph or some other spirit, I cannot know, but my final lesson opened my soul to an aspect of her, and we became as one. I gained her gift to possess others, and my own body would not age so long as I wasn't using it. However, I am bound to her wishes. Her thoughts are my thoughts; I lost any distinction between the two long ago. Is that elaboration enough, Amazon?"
Batman frowned. "This spirit has become you? To whom am I speaking?"
The Coronel laughed, "The question is meaningless, Dark Knight. I have become her, and a small drop of her is me. I imagine you have some empathy for a combined personality."
"What is its name?"
"Oh, I dare not speak it." The golden lasso shimmered, but Colonel Romero grit his teeth. "No! I will not." The lasso shimmered harder. The air grew warm and the dim cabin lights flickered. "I must not!" They hit a choppy patch of turbulence and the plane lost altitude.
Steve turned around and yelled, "What's going on back there?"
Batman looked uncomfortable. He was about to withdraw the question, but Wonder Woman held her lasso with conviction. "Yes, what is your demon patron's name?"
Coronel Romero twisted in agony and finally hissed, "She has many names. The Metamorph. Ishtar. Herald of Trigon. Your legends know he best as … Circe."
The turbulence stopped. The air was cool again, and the cabin lights were steady. Steve called back, "False alarm, we're all good."
Coronel Romero looked like he had just sprinted a mile. He panted limply in his seat.
Wonder Woman wore an expression which Batman couldn't place. Not angry or determined or sad, but something between these. Coronel Romero eventually looked up at him. "You're welcome to sit, Batman. I know it hurts you to stand. We have a long flight ahead of us."
He sat.
Coronel Romero stretched. "I must say, that was refreshing. I suppose confession really is good for the soul."
Batman asked, "Three hundred minds?"
The Coronel shrugged. "Thereabouts."
"And you learn from all of them? Crafts? Sciences? Arts? Languages? Philosophies?"
"You name it, I've probably heard it. Of course, I can forget like anyone else. Some patches are muddled. For instance, I can't recall anything from the 1880s."
"You're being awfully forthcoming, volunteering unasked information."
"I'm a survivor, Batman. At the moment, my life depends on you and your potions. I'm not stupid."
"Why serve the Nazis?"
"I like what they have to say. Not many fresh ideas when you get down to it, but a nice spin on the classics. And I always admire a conquest of France."
"You could be anyone. Running spies must be grunt work for you."
"True. Why work for the Abwehr? Because Circe wills it. She wants them to win, and so do I."
"Why would a spirit care about some human conflict?"
Wonder Woman glanced oddly at him. The Coronel sneered. "Have you never read a myth? You might think they do nothing else! But no, like so many of the old stories this starts with a prophecy."
Wonder Woman sat up straight. "You have heard it?"
Coronel Romero eyed her suspiciously. "Have you?"
Batman looked back and forth between them. "Let's hear this prophecy."
The Coronel nodded. "I am not Circe's only manifestation. She is also somewhere an oracle. And she prophesized that the Amazons of lore would soon leave their ancient island. They would try to beguile the world, then they would try to win it by force. And Nazi Germany was the only power who could resist their charms and stop them." He looked at Diana. "So the Amazons have heard this as well?"
Diana's inscrutable expression turned hard and bitter. Batman didn't try to stop her as she wound her lasso and silently walked to the cockpit.
The Coronel gave Batman a small smile like they shared an inside joke. "Looks like I touched a nerve."
Batman asked, "Why America? Why not take some lofty spot in Berlin and serve there?"
"A few reasons. One, I'm bored. I need adventure. Two, I've spent most of my life in Germany, often doing exactly that. But lately I've grown concerned that my too many people will see through me if I stay in one place. The world is changing, it seems. I decided to leave Germany for a time. But where to be truly useful the Reich outside of Germany? It was essentially America or a war zone. And not the fun kind of war zone. That is why. Oh, and your music is much better. Nazis do not understand music."
Up in the cockpit, Captain Trevor flew as Wonder Woman sat in the co-pilot's seat. He could see that she was in a temper and kept quiet. But after half an hour flying quietly through the night beside her, he sensed that her foul mood had mellowed to tired boredom.
He cleared his throat. "Uh, Diana?"
She glanced at him. "Yes?"
"Was it my imagination, or did you see Batman with his mask off?"
She nodded. "Yes. It was dirty."
He gaped at her. "You saw Batman's face?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"Well, who is he?"
"Batman."
"I mean what did he look like?"
"His eyes were bleeding. But I don't think that is permanent."
"Can you describe his features?"
She hesitated. "Er … Manly."
"Manly."
"He looked like a man."
"That's it? No hair color? No nose shape? Nothing?
Wonder Woman shrugged sheepishly. "I am new in this world."
"So?"
"Men often look the same to me."
