America was a nation founded by Christians in search in search of a new land to more closely follow their beliefs when they clashed with the king of England. Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, and it seems appropriate we remember our heritage. I encourage all of you to remember to keep the day holy. The earliest pilgrims partook a bounty in the name of God and… and…
"Cam, if you sit there with that sermon any longer your pork chops are going to get cold again."
Gram sighed as he scribbled out a few words of his upcoming radio discussion and set aside his pen. "I'm sorry, dear. Have to make a good impression on the Thanksgiving listeners to keep them coming back for Christmas, you know."
"Yes, yes, I know." Rachel Gram sat down across from him at their kitchen table, eight other chairs in various states of order around them. A small chandelier with light bulbs like tiny flames hung just over their heads. "I wish you didn't bring so much work home with you."
"Gotham's not a city for the faint of heart." Gram pinched the bridge of his nose. "But its got a lot of good, God-fearing people dressed in blue collars. If anyone can save this city, it's going to be me."
"You have some steep competition on that front," Rachel said. "I can't believe one of those people in the costumes actually tried to attack you."
"You've got to be kidding, I'm shocked it took so long." Gram tapped the point out of his pen and reached for his notebook.
Rachel set her hand on to top his. "Eat."
"I just had a thought—"
"If it's worth writing down, it'll be worth remembering for a few minutes," she said. "Or do I need to cut your food for you like Iyaad?"
"All right, all right."
The Gram household was located deep in Gotham's suburbs. It was a large, two-story house with four bedrooms and a two car garage. Two old oak trees sat in the front yard. Cameron and Rachel's eight children slept in three of the large bedrooms and were usually asleep before their father got home from his shift. Gram's mind was awash with ideas for an upcoming sermon, his wife had cooked his favorite dish, it looked to be a pleasant night.
Then the front door creaked open unsolicited. With the front hallway connected directly to the kitchen, Gram and Rachel turned toward it in confusion as it allowed the entourage outside entry.
"Aw man, what'd I tell you guys? It's obviously smaller on the inside."
Gram frowned and looked toward Rachel, who shared in his confusion.
"Not sure I can even get through the front door. Maybe I'll just wait for you guys."
"Miles, you lazy bastard, just watch your head and get your ass in there."
Gram pushed up from his spot at the table. He picked up the steak knife he hadn't used yet and slowly approached the front door.
"Let's just get it done already! We don't have all night!"
"Excuse me!" Gram called from around the corner. "Who's there? You have the wrong house!"
"Is this the wrong house?"
"That was his voice, Miles! How thick are you?!"
Gram stepped into the house's entryway, knife in hand, and glared toward his intruders. It only lasted a moment before the oddity of the sight made him drop the knife.
Gathered in his home's entryway were four figures in suits of armor that ranged from menacing to gaudy. Three were turned toward the tallest of them, garbed in green metal and a cheap ski mask that clashed with the rest of his costume.
"Whatever." Miranda groaned as she turned to face the preacher. "Father Gram, right?"
"… Minister, Gram, thank you." He reclaimed her glare and looked between them all. "You're those kids I heard about on the news. The Reavers—"
"Reapers!" Slipstream snapped. "Damn it damn it damn it, it's Reapers! With a P."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Gram looked down the hallway to his right. The master bedroom was down another corner and at the end of the hall. If he could make it that far, he could get his handgun.
"You've been cordially invited to this overblown thing our boss is hosting." Harmony punched her fists together, and by the lights that activated on her gauntlets, they seemed to be functional. "You're coming with us."
Gram clenched a fist. "Who sent you people? Are you trying to get back into that school you were expelled from or something?"
"All in good time, old man." Miranda stepped forward. "Don't fight this, you'll only make it harder on yourself."
Gram was ready to reject the extended hand when an explosion if smoke overtook the front entryway. Gram and several of the Reapers wheezed and tried to regain their composure when the sound of metal against metal reverberated through the house.
"The kids!" Gram choked on a breath. "Get them out of here. Find somewhere to hide!"
"Who the hell threw that—" Slipstream was silenced when he caught something and struggled against it.
"This is, without a doubt, the last thing I thought I'd see this morning. Every one of you jerks in one room at the same time. What the hell?"
Batgirl dashed out from the smoke and swung her staff at Miranda. The pink-suited villainess caught the strike and was backed into the kitchen. Rachel screamed and ran for the staircase. They had children on both floors who were surely already awake, she had to make a choice.
"You go downstairs!" Gram ran toward the opposite hallway. "I'll go—"
"Nope!" Jabberwocky grabbed Gram by the back of his shirt and jerked him back into the center of the smokescreen. The giant in green made way toward the front door, but a staff smashed into the bottom of his uncovered chin. Jabberwocky grit his teeth and squinted until Red Robin was visible. As the smoke began to clear, Jabberwocky shouted, "Slip, heads up!" He shoved a shouting Gram out the door.
A black and white blur rushed out the door of the Gram house and threw a billow of smoke out with him. Slipstream grabbed ahold of Gram and turned toward the big, white electrical van that waited in his driveway. A millisecond before he could rush toward it with his inhuman speed, a blast of green gel adhesive erupted at his feet and trapped Slipstream and Gram in place.
Gram's fear and anger briefly boiled over. "Oh for heaven's sake—"
In a flash of red and black, Robin descended from the roof, drew a few more batarangs and threw them toward the van's tires. A pair of blue Figments stepped out from the front and back of the van and used their armored bodies to shield the tires from the blades.
"Bastards." Robin turned his attention and closed in on the trapped Slipstream. Within the house, Batgirl clashed with her bo against the many constructs Miranda drew out from her armor.
"Damn it, you really got something to prove, huh?" With a twist of her wrists Miranda formed the end of a spear and the edge of an axe out of the matching staff she had used. "I'm going to end you!"
Batgirl reached into her belt, drew a shorter, deep-red baton from her belt and clashed with the halberd. Upon impact, Miranda's weapon shattered into a million pieces.
She demanded, "What the?!"
Batgirl raised the baton and wagged it back and forth for a moment. "Along with Dr. Light's research, your powers come from a crummy, knock off Star Sapphire battery. On the lantern spectrum, red and violet are opposites. I've got something that can bust up anything you make."
Miranda grit her teeth, raised her arms above her head and forged her fuchsia energy into a battle axe. As she swung it, Batgirl again clashed with her ruby baton, destroyed the latest construct and thrust her staff into Miranda's gut.
In the front entryway of the house, Red Robin dodged monstrous strikes from Jabberwocky that left fist-shaped holes in the walls and floor.
"You think you can beat me, bird boy?!" He pounded again and again, a few strikes good enough to graze Red's cape.
"We didn't even need to figure out a new way to beat you," Red Robin said. "Your punches are too bulky. You can't aim worth a damn without the goggles in your helmet instructing you." Between a pair of punches, Red Robin jumped toward the giant and landed a hook-punch across his face. Jabberwocky groaned as he fell to one knee. "Just say uncle when you're had enough."
Red Robin pulled back his fist to deliver another punch, but Harmony struck him in the back with her enormous, sonic-enhanced gauntlets. The impact threw him into kitchen as he smashed against a wall a few feet from where Batgirl laid a beating to Miranda. "Little help here?" The ringing that ran through his body prevented him from hearing his own request.
"On it!" Batgirl broke from her latest clash with Miranda, rushed into the kitchen and kicked Harmony in the stomach to interrupt her next strike toward Red Robin. From the center of her staff, Batgirl pressed a switch that flipped the end of the weapon to reveal a pair of electricity-infused prongs. As Harmy raised her fist, Batgirl thrust the staff at her sonic gauntlet and overflowed it with electricity. Harmony screamed, a tiny explosion of mechanisms roared from her arm as she was forced backwards, one of her gloves ruined by the overclocking.
Outside, a lowly figment kept Gram pinned against his own garage as Robin battled it out with his twins and the still trapped Slipstream.
"What is any of this?" Fear and anger both lingered in Gram's shouts. "What does any of this have to do with me? What, is the girl trying to save face by creating a situation where she has to save me?!"
"Nothing like that, preacher man." Despite his snarky remark, there didn't seem to be any pleasure in the singular Figment's voice. "Just following orders. Our boss is preparing for our main event, and you're one of the guests of honor."
The Figment who held Gram in place winced as Robin disposed of one after another of his doubles. Out from one of his boots he drew a dagger and attempted to carve a line right to him.
"Your boss? What in the name of God are you talking about?!"
"He discovered your show, not so long ago," Figment said. "Believe me, he considers you a huge inspiration. And he really thinks someone else does too."
As long as he just had to hold off Robin, Figment believed he could stay the course. When the rest of his allies escaped the house, he could drive them and Gram back to Lipov. Maybe then their work would finally be done. Maybe they could finally be done with that nightmare."
"Heads up!"
Figment turned and flinched. One after the other, the battered bodies of Jabberwocky, Miranda and Harmony were forced out of the house by Red Robin and Batgirl. With his allies sprawled out and beaten on the porch, the Figment who held Gram and his copies who tangled with Robin slowly looked up in shock and fear."
"Let's finish this," Batgirl said. "Once and for all."
She and Red Robin joined Robin in the front yard. After the beating he'd already taken while glued in place, Slipstream fell backwards with a single punch from the both of them. Nine Figments stood between the three heroes and the last one who held Gram, and the battle was over before it even began.
Strikes with the staffs. Stabs with the knives. Punches to the face. Kicks to the midsections. One by one the Figment duplicates were overwhelmed and defeated by the three as they made the slow advance. In spite of himself, a tiny smile crept across Gram's face.
The three heroes raised their weapons toward the final Figment. "I don't know what this is supposed to be," Batgirl said. "I don't know if he's in on this with you guys or what. But it's over. Leave the awful radio personality alone."
Somehow, Figment gave the impression he was glaring through the helmet that obscured his face. After a pause, he spoke slowly. "My flesh and blood body isn't here now, you know."
"Yeah," Batgirl said. "That doesn't change this situation."
"I think it does," Figment said. "I don't know which one of you decrypted my helmet's details before, but tell me, did you notice these suits are all have a self-destruct protocal?"
Red Robin glared. "What?"
"Oh yes. Paired with the vials of poison at the napes of the neck. I managed to override the measures on whoever made these suits. If they sense our heartbeats have stopped, they're wired to explode."
"So what?" Robin said. "You're just gonna kill yourself before we can take you in?"
"I'm sitting at a computer miles from here," Figment said. But I could send the preacher's house up in a puff of smoke with the rest of those idiots."
"Richie you slime!" Miranda pushed off the ground and attempted to rush toward him, but faltered and fell. Batgirl turned to face her in case she rose again.
"Don't be fools, any of you!" Gram shouted. "Don't trigger those explosions and for goodness sake, don't go killing yourself!"
"Oh shut up already!" Figment slapped Gram upside the head and trapped him in a headlock while he was still distracted by the sheer audacity. "Let me free, boys and girl. Or I'll blow us all away."
The heroes managed only a second to contemplate. The enormous green gauntlets of Jabberwocky were thrust between them, pulled the three apart and grabbed toward Figment. "Nerdy little bastard threatening to blow my head off!"
Figment dodged under Jabberwocky's fist, thrust one open palm at Batgirl, who grabbed the spot on her chest he pushed against, and dragged Gram along for a break toward their white van. "Get him in! Let's get a move on!"
The other Reapers, beaten but not immobile, made a break for freedom. Slipstream yanked off his boots and ran without his super-speed. Harmony smashed at the motorcycles that had assembled in front of the house with her remaining gauntlet before it shorted out as well. Miranda constructed a pink wall and thrust the heroes against the garage with it, but it only lasted a moment before it faded away.
"We're so close!" Red Robin shouted. "We have to catch up, we can finish this!"
He bounded toward the white van as Gram made a last scream for salvation before it sped out of the driveway and into the night.
"Damn it!" Robin stomped his foot. "Damn it all! How much time were you looking at those schematics? Did you really have no idea there were explosives woven into those costumes?"
"I dunno, did you see any when you were investigating them?" Red Robin sneered toward Robin only a moment before he looked back toward the van, which swiftly faded into a white dot in the distance. "There has to be a way we can still catch them, there has to be!"
As the two Robins bickered about what had taken place, Batgirl slowly looked down at her hand. Figment hadn't shoved her for nothing. In the center of her palm was what looked to be a small, black, plastic object. As she thumbed at it a little, she found a USB stick extended out the end of it. In the center of the black plastic was a white slider that bore tiny words she had to raise the mechanism to her eyes and squint to read. But as she did, all became clear.
OVERRIDE PROTOCAL.
Figment had, it seemed intentionally, handed over the key to the Reapers final undoing.
