The bats sleep with folded wings. Cocoons of silken darkness hang from the stalactites that occasionally drip feces into the cavern below. It's their home above the abyss, always staring down from their world turned upside down. Suddenly, the mammals are disturbed in their dwelling by the roar of an engine. The metallic machine is sleek but larger than life compared to them. It's a vehicle unlike any other, drifting into the cave as though it belongs. Some of the bats abandon their perches, but others welcome it with shrill shrieks.
When the car comes to a stop and the cockpit opens, Batman climbs out. His boots thud against the floor, sound echoing throughout the space. Each footfall follows suit. Bats creep steadily along, following him from above in the shadows. Eventually, he reaches another massive machine of advanced technology. The supercomputer he had been using before going to the crime scene awaits him.
He slides the tube containing the sample that he collected at the crime scene out from a pouch on his utility belt. The forensics equipment he has wired into the computer begins analyzing the gray goop, searching for compounds that match with the ones in its database. As hypothesized by the dark detective, the slime contains the same substances as the sample he collected from Himiko Toga's quirk during the Anarky case. However, there are other chemical compounds blended in that weren't there before.
Batman pulls back the top of his cowl, unmasking himself so that he can peer closer at the monitor's readout. He hums to himself as he compares the chemical concoction with an outdated drug that had been long presumed retired. There had once been a legal variant, used to prevent balding and erectile dysfunction. Though it had been stopped being sold as pharmaceuticals when it was updated. Previously a booster for quirks, dubbed Trigger, it got an advanced version called Ideo Trigger. The shortcoming of that variant had been losing control of one's senses. As well as the usual problem of the drug, that it eventually would wear off. However, it looks like this new version has been formatted to evolve a person's quirk and become part of the DNA rather than improve or cure in small doses.
Midoriya moves from the keyboard to the green envelope containing the first riddle he had received. The riddle of the Sphinx. 'What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, three legs in the evening, and no legs at night?' The generic answer is a human going through the cycle of life from baby to senior. But perhaps there's more to it than that. Midoriya recalls the bloody message Toga had left him at the Yakuza's base. 'I'm something with five digits, but I am not a hand. When you walk along the beach, I leave prints in the sand. What could I be?' The former Yakuza leader's foot being removed must mean something. Two riddles to do with standing.
Midoriya moves back to the keyboard, tapping to pull up bank records. The Yakuza had their assets transferred to an offshore account before vanishing from the server completely. Financial standing. Midoriya rubs a thumb against his chin as he contemplates the burglary. Whoever orchestrated Toga's breakout and removed the side effects of Trigger is too smart for such a small scale crime. That can't be all the riddles mean.
Midoriya becomes lost in thought as he contemplates the meaning of it all. The clues with hidden meanings have to lead him somewhere. They must have some significance. He doesn't believe it's just a wild goose chase meant to mislead him. Whoever is behind all of this truly believes themself intellectually superior that they're confident enough to taunt him. That cockiness will be their downfall. He's sure of it. If he can just figure out what it all means.
Midoriya raises his head, drawn back to the numbers on the screen. Numbers. He grabs the letter that had been given to him by Commissioner Tsukauchi, reading it again. Four legs. Two legs. Three legs. No legs. The money that was transferred was done in increments. Four grand. Two grand. Three grand. Nothing left. The vigilante's cape trails behind him as he rushes to grab a pen and paper. The second riddle had a number too. Five digits. He counts on his hand, getting the five numbers in sequence. But then remembers the second riddle's answer was his foot and not his hand.
The Yakuza leader's foot was missing. That must mean the five was subtracted. Midoriya wracks his brain for more numbers to fill the sequence and finish the equation. Under the lead of Chisaki Kai, was the Eight Precepts. Subtract five. Three legs in the evening. They must have been killed in the evening. The time five or six. Midoriya is willing to bet the number five. He circles the number for emphasis. There's also Trigger. The pharmaceutical version, Ideo, and now this variant. Three. Three legs. That can't be a coincidence.
Midoriya tries various formulas with the numbers he's given, searching for a hidden code. Just when he starts to feel like he's gone too far as a conspiracy theorist, he finds a few groupings that could pass as address lines. Not wanting to kick down the door of someone innocent, he begins cross referencing the locations. One of which is a beach house. 'When you walk along the beach, I leave prints in the sand.' A little more research to see who owns the residence all but confirms it. Hugh Fito Mane is nothing but fabricated records, a false identity, and a cheeky one at that. A Podiatrician as their profession. Their name is an alias for 'human'. They exist solely as an answer to the riddles.
The caped crusader pulls his mask back over his face. Just as hastily as he had driven into the cave, his advanced engineered vehicle speeds out. Takoba Municipal Beach is one giant trash heap. The garbage washed in from the sea had accumulated for years and turned it into a junkyard. It makes for a revolting place that most would steer clear from going near. It also makes having a residence there all the more private.
When Batman arrives at the destination, he almost misses the severed foot placed at the doormat. His eyes narrow. He doesn't have to bend down to get a better look or take a DNA sample to know it belongs to the former Yakuza boss. Knowing that he's at the right place, he pushes open the sliding glass door, only slightly shocked to find it unlocked. As for the house inside.. It's empty.
Batman glances around, searching for something that's not there. Not even a picture or painting hangs on any of the walls. No furniture decorates the corridors. It's a completely devoid space. He ventures deeper with another step forward. The floorboard creaks under his heavy boots. Batman pauses. He leans back from where he originally stepped. No squeak. One step forward though, and the wood chirps.
He's walking on a Nightingale Floor. Usually used to detect intruders in temples and palaces, certain floorboards are purposefully crafted to make sound. Only someone familiar with the layout would know where to avoid stepping. But in this particular instance, there's nobody living in the beach house. The floor must serve a different purpose. Batman glances back at the foot left by the entrance. He rereads the riddles once more in his mind. The answers; a foot and the number sequence he was given.
Four. Two. Three. He stepped on the second board. Then, the third and fourth must also be rigged. Batman tentatively tests his theory, proving it true when the wood creaks. The placement is so close together that he figures something must be hidden there. Batman slides his gloved fingers into the crevices and pulls. The boards come loose easily, popping out. As suspected, the dark detective discovers a hole beneath the surface, a ladder leading down into the pit.
The vigilante activates his nightvision before descending into the tunnel. He climbs down one rung at a time, carefully going at a slow pace. He's not sure what to expect at the bottom. But it's certainly not something as quaint as the miniature hideout that he drops into. The underground base is more decorated than the ground level. Newspaper clippings of himself and other vigilantes or heroes adorn the walls. A coffee table at the center has a still steaming cup of tea on it, a question mark sculpted with foam. But what stands out the most is the computer array mounted in the corner.
Various monitors glow green, running various versions of code and algorithms that would be difficult to solve for even the best of programmers or hackers. But at the epicenter, one of the screens awaits input. 'Are you there?' a typed text flashes in the middle. Batman looks down at the keyboard below him. He taps the buttons to reply 'Yes'.
When the system shuts down, he worries that he may have been too hasty. But it just as quickly reboots. The monitors flicker back to life, but illuminating a different pixelated picture. The screens collected combine like a puzzle and formulate a mirror reflection of the vigilante.
Then, a set of speakers pop as they switch on next. A delighted giggle echos before it's followed by an equally thrilled voice, "You've made it! Oh, I'm so glad! I was worried I may have made it too difficult for you!"
The chipper tone is soft spoken. Feminine maybe. Midoriya worries that they could even be a young child like Izumi as Anarky. Then again, their voice could be affected by their quirk. Anything is plausible as a cause for the squeaky impishness. Batman discreetly twists a small knob on his utility belt, activating a device that'll record the room's sound to play back as audio later. Any lead is better than none.
To get them talking more, he tries a direct approach by asking, "Who are you?"
The disembodied voice shows a hint of amusement in its response, "Oh, come now, detective. I'm sure there are much better questions you have for me." Batman glowers at the speakers as though the mysterious enigma is hiding within them. Then again, he wasn't actually expecting an answer to that question.
Instead, the vigilante tries asking, "What are you planning?"
The speaker pops when the voice gets louder, the enigma likely having gotten closer to their mic, "You'll see.." There's a pause before they regain their earlier cheerfulness, "But first, let's play another game!"
Recalling the massacre of the Yakuza and Toga's breakout, the vigilante feels his stomach sink. If their idea of fun is anything like the psycho blonde's, then he must put a stop to it. "This isn't a game.", Batman stares at the image of himself made up of culminated computer screens.
"If it is, I'm winning!", the carefree voice is unphased. Batman then sees why. The screens switch to a different picture. An underground hero that he recognizes is bound and gagged to a chair in a strange contraption around their waist. The voice loses its bubbly attitude, changing into something much more ominous, "And Mindjack isn't."
Mindjack, the successor of Eraserhead, doesn't even look conscious. "Where is he?", Batman steps closer to the set of monitors in the hopes that it'll be intimidating somehow. He hadn't been expecting a hostage.
The voice chuckles, yet again unaffected by the caped crusader's presence or words. This really is all just a game to them. "I'll give you a hint.", their voice reverberates a little, "The Shie Hassaikai's stronghold and here have something in common."
Batman inhales a little too sharply as he suddenly remembers who he's dealing with. The Riddler is all about mind games and deception. His riddles and puzzles have answers hidden with answers. He can't lower his guard for a second by losing control of his emotions. He has to stay focused and always thinking. The dark detective recalls the Yakuza's lair when he had infiltrated it to rescue Eri. It too had an unassuming upper level with the true base beneath it. There had been a.. Secret wall.
Batman spins around, confronting the only wall that remained barren. He rushes over to it, rapping on the sturdy structure with his knuckles. The dull knock he gets in return has him prying the barrier back. There on the other side is a thick sheet of glass in between him and the underground hero who had been captured.
When he rears back his fist to break through it, the voice pitches back in, "I would advise against that!" Batman stops, cautioning himself against the warning. When the Riddler sees the vigilante awaiting further instruction, they continue, "First.. A riddle, Batman!"
Batman refrains from turning around and facing the computer screens as he listens. "What's worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm?", the speaker asks its question.
It's an old one, like the riddle of the Sphinx. Batman says the generic answer aloud as he ponders whether that'll be the same one that the Riddler is expecting, "Biting into an apple and finding half a worm."
The vigilante eyes the contraption around Mindjack's waist. Strings thin enough to be invisible are connected to the glass barrier. He puts two and two together. If he shatters the shield, then the underground hero will be chopped in half.
Batman keeps his fist clenched, but lowers it to be at his side. He tries to stay calm and collected as he asks, "What does Mindjack have to do with this?"
"Nothing of significance.", the voice says dismissively, "He's an underground hero, so he snooped into matters to do with the Shie Hassaikai and stumbled upon a few of my puzzles. As you can see, he's nowhere near as equal a fair opponent as you."
Batman ignores the Riddler's answer, not believing it for a second. He figures he can get the true story out of the underground once he's rescued. "What do I have to do to save him?", the vigilante returns his attention to the device rigged around Mindjack.
But yet again, Riddler gives an unusual response, "Nothing."
Batman spins around. He hears it before he sees it. A countdown. The ticking of a bomb. Numbers flash across the monitors, lowering from fifteen to fourteen. It's only a matter of seconds before he runs out of time. It suddenly clicks in his head what the glass barrier is for and why the underground hero will be safer if he does nothing. The glass must be blast resistant to the incoming explosion. Batman himself, however, has no such protection.
The vigilante hurries to the ladder in order to escape. He knows it'll take too long to go hand over hand, so he fires his grappling hook instead. The pulley hoists him up and through the opening to the underground lair. But still, that's not fast enough. Before Batman can make it out the sliding door, the blast reaches him.
His fire retardant cape takes the brunt of the explosion, protecting the vigilante from being burned too badly, but he's still thrown off balance by the force of the detonation. As the building collapses around him, he's knocked through a wall and out a window. Glass rains down on him with flickering flames and he tumbles across the sand of the beach before crashing into a pile of scrap.
Midoriya coughs and clutches his side where a chunk of metal pierced his body armor. It's going to be hard to walk off that rough tumbling, but he remembers experiencing much worse when fighting Deathstroke. Still, there's sure to be a good set of new bruises in the morning.
When he pushes off with his leg to stand up, he realizes just how bad a condition he's going to be in. What part of his vision isn't blurred gets obscured by colored spots. Midoriya hesitates before removing his mask. Then, he takes off a glove. He needs to feel and check for a concussion. He'll need immediate medical attention before he even makes it back to the cave. And hospitals are out of the question. That doesn't leave very many options considering who's closest to him in terms of location.
He sighs before reaching into his utility belt to pull out a burner phone. The plan is to discard the rest of his suit and make up some excuse for how he got so badly injured. Since Melissa Shield doesn't know about his nightly activities. And he'd like to keep it that way, even if he has no choice but to go to her for help.