CHAPTER 32:
"Together Again"
This was a critical moment. Jake Handles knew that they were on the island and the challenge had been laid.
Dick looked around, the island appeared serene and tropical, and it was warm but not necessarily all-too humid, and midday, but he knew this was one of the most dangerous places on the face of the planet. The items that were stored here, he knew, could blow a hole in the world, and kill all of Humankind in the wrong hands—and Jake Handles was the kind of person to use them. All of them.
Sypral had brought a multitude of weapons to the island. Dick once peeked at an inventory list when he wasn't supposed to. And the sub-harmonics device was not the worse of them.
It was then he remembered the important thing that he had forgotten. "Hey guys, if I recall—"
Arkells interrupted, and pointed towards the mountain that jettisoned from the island like something fabled from Greek mythology—Mount Olympus: the place where the God Zeus resided—as something horrible began to swirl out from a crevasse. It swirled around like a dark cloud, the cloud consisting of a multitude of dots. "Um, stupid question: But bats are nocturnal, right?"
Batman turned. "Yes, but they have been known to leave their caves during the day if they're interrupted…" His voice trailed off when he looked up and saw the swarm of bats erupt from the mountain side in the form of a giant vortex, thousands of them. And once they spread out, their numbers were so great that they began to darken the sky, screeching, their collective sound deafening.
Dick looked up. "Holy…"
Barbara finished his thought: "Shit!"
Suddenly, the abnormal swarm turned on a dime and began to fly straight towards them. Dogs were known to obey their masters after hearing a silent whistle; Bats were also sensitive to certain high pitch frequencies with their sonar hearing. Venturing out during the day was highly unusual for bats. They were creatures of the night, unless they were controlled by a higher power. And with Handles in control of the island and its stored technology, the possibilities were endless of what he possessed.
The minute they came in close, the party began to defend themselves from the bats' onslaught. Fighting them off like insects.
Arkells cried out when one bat sunk its razor sharp teeth into his hand and drew blood. He whacked it away and it seemed to disappear as if into thin air, but he couldn't be sure because there were so many of them.
"You all right, Arkells?" Nightwing asked, fighting off his own collective swarm, shouting over the screeching of the bats.
"Yeah, I just hope I don't turn into a Vampire. But someone didn't give me a weapon to fight them off with." That was a direct jab at Batman. Arkells whacked more bats away with his hands and could have sworn he saw them pop before his eyes.
"Something's odd here," Barbara voiced. "Are you all seeing this?"
"That they're disappearing the moment we hit them like balloons?" Nightwing said back. "Yeah…"
"What are these things if not bats?" Arkells asked.
"They are photo-kinetic constructs; hard light, computer-generated facsimiles," Batman explained, "a Spyral technology. They were working on perfecting it. It's an off-shoot of their invisibility technology that reflects light to make their agents appear like ghosts."
"How come I didn't know about this technology?" Dick wondered. "Where was I?"
"Doing your job, infiltrating Spyral for me," Bruce said, "while I gathered information on them, and this new technology. It seems Jake Handles has perfected it, and he can create real-life constructs. If he's able to create people, he could topple governments."
"Diabolical! Handles has been very busy," Dick said, whacking away more bats with his escrima sticks.
"So, these bats aren't real and we don't have to hold back?" Arkells asked. All of sudden, Arkells right arm morphed into a giant fly swatter using the AI to alter his body, and he batted a swarm of bats away, popping them like balloons. But they kept coming back as if self-replicating. Or rather their vast number only made it seem as much.
Nightwing looked at him surprised. "I didn't know you could do that? You remind me of Garth: Beast Boy, from the Titans. That AI technology must come in handy. You were holding back during our fight, weren't you?"
"Enough chatter!" Batman shouted. In his hand was a super-sonic grenade. "Cover your ears now!" From the moment Batman threw it into the air, to the seconds it took for everyone to slap their hands over their ears was too close to call. And suddenly, with the explosion, the bats began to pop like plastic bubble packaging—the sonic blast, disrupting their collective matrix.
They all let out a death cry before they were sent to nothingness. Then, there was silence, and everyone let out a sigh of relief.
For a moment, the AI in Arkells brain seemed to process recent data and he felt a momentary lapse in consciousness. It had gathered information on the attack and the PK technology and stored it for later. He blinked, as if he had a feeling of deja-vu. His thinking returned to the present. "Hey, a little more warning next time!" Arkells protested. "You nearly disrupted the AI in me! It put up a protective barrier at the last second to block the blast. A sonic blast is similar to an EMP pulse in some ways, you know."
"Sorry," Batman said, but without feeling.
"That's some genius tech—these PK constructs," Arkells then said. "Like kamikaze fighters without the loss of manpower."
"Yes, and that's worrisome," Batman replied. "What is Handles planning? This island is a powder-cake of technology."
"And the PK constructs are only the tip of the iceberg, if I recall," Dick mused. "Handles has a lot more at his disposal."
Spyral had acquired so much technology from terrorists and despots that there was bound to be some not on the list he had seen and some more classified that others only the upper elites were privy to.
Now recalling what he had forgotten, Dick said: "Spyral also snatched another bit of technology that was originally devised to help medical patients with neurological issues. And it was weaponized: mind-control devices. They have the appearance of choker chain-wraps, apparently based on some new fad young kids have these days. They are light in weight and act like a mini-brains from the neck down, basically adding stimulation for the nerves to fire. When misused, it forces complete submission of its user."
"I can attest to that," came a familiar voice.
Everyone turned around. From down the way came two wayward wanderers. Damian, in his Nightwing Junior attire, walked along another boy dressed head to toe in fighting gear that looked very familiar. Barbara was the first to acknowledge them. Then she ran over and hugged Damian tightly, her body pressed against him, and his face planted where a teenage boy only dreamed.
"You lucky dog," came from the other, as he saw this, smiling jealously. "Don't I get a hug, too?"
"Ow! Can't breath!" Damian's voice came out breathlessly.
Barbara broke the hug and apologized, saying she was just excited to see him safe. She then turned to acknowledge the other. She cocked her head slightly with a sense of familiarity. "Whose your friend, Damian, and why is he wearing battle gear?"
The others collected around them. Damian turned to the other, and said, "Do you want to tell them, or shall I?"
"The fun is in the guessing, don't you think? But we don't have time for games right now." Mimicking the gesture of a comedic villain in a movie, he put a pinky finger to his lips, and said, "I am Mini-Red Hood. I'm a bit smaller, but I still make one hellva rescuer."
Barbara was shocked and Bruce was summarily surprised by the revelation. The others were puzzled as well. But then, when realization finally set in, both Dick and Arkells burst out laughing.
Jason cupped his hips and frowned. And then made a sound much like Tt. "Hey! I may be small, but I can still kick both your asses!" But this just doubled the laughter from both Dick and Arkells. Jason then eyed Arkells. "And who the hell is this?"
But before Arkells could make introductions, Bruce interrupted, with an almost concerned look on his face. Even behind his cowl he looked like a father with a worried expression when he saw his son hurt. "What happened to you, Jason?"
Jason explained about the miniaturization ray that he was told Jake Handles had used on him. Harvey Two-Face had told him. It was some sort of super secret toy that Sypral had taken from a despot, once designed to shrink cancerous tumours for medical purposes, but then weaponized. He also told Batman about the fight he had with Damian on the beach.
Damian held the control collar Handles had used on him, the same Dick had just told everyone about. "This little plaything was used on me to control my every thought and action. Todd shocked me with one of the escrima sticks Handles provided me to fight with, as one of his super-soldiers, to knock me out of Handles control." Damian gave an acknowledgment to Jason, then turned to Grayson. "I'm sorry, I lost your escrima sticks. Todd told me he found one of them, but Handles crushed the other one."
"Not a problem, Damian," Dick smiled. "As long as you're okay. Objects can be replaced, people can't."
"Thanks." Damian turned to Arkells. "And now I'm going to ask the same question as Todd. Who the hell are you?" Arkells told him. "I thought you were dead? Damn these timeline paradoxes. Grayson, when we get back, kick Barry Allan's ass for me. Now I'm going to have to deal with two annoying Drake's."
Arkells clenched fists at his side, but then laughed. "Well, you know the old saying: When you haven't finished kicking ass, not even death can keep you from finishing the job. It's too bad I don't have any bubblegum."
Dick gave Arkells a curious sideways glance when he said that. It reminded him of a line from one of his favourite movies.
"I agree!" Jason then said. He held his gun in hand brining it up to full view. "So, what now? Do we storm the Bastille?"
"First, we have to rescue Kent," Damian said insistently. "I dread what Handles is doing to him at the moment." He gave a small smile. "He's my friend, and friends help friends in times of need." Jason gave him a small nod. Obviously Jason's words from before had gotten through the hard shell Damian had encased around himself. Sometimes people had a way of getting through like that.
Jason spread his arms out. "Hey! What about my situation? I know when people get older they go through a midlife crises and wish for a second childhood, but this is ridiculous! I have no intention of reliving those childhood years…" He looked to Batman, as if a mere look could convey a thought. The thought of how Joker had brutally murdered him.
"We'll get to you. Don't blow your stack, shorty," Damian said with a crooked smirk.
Jason looked at him with bitter scorn, and said, "I hate you."
"The feeling is more than mutual."
Jason and Damian gritted their teeth and growled at each other, their camaraderie revering back to their dislike for one another.
Just then, the ground began to shake violently and a large crevasse opened up in front of them in the ground. They all backed off to a safe distance as if the world appeared to be opening up before them. Sand tried to fill the hole as quickly as it could.
Suddenly, Jon Kent rose up from opening, floating in god-flight, dressed in his usual Superboy attire: S shirt, blue jeans torn at the knees, and cape. And his eyes appeared blood red as if he was possessed by a demon. Damian saw that his friend wore a control collar. If a son of Krypton could be controlled by Handles technology, he feared for humanity.
"Oh crap!" Jason voiced. "I've fought Bizarro. If this kid is anything like that powerhouse, we're in serious trouble!"
Damian gulped. "That's the understatement of the year," he said.
To be continued...
