Beyond help
Author: KoriSevenEleven
Summary: Kori is a unique girl…she has morphing powers, she is actually well over 100 years old though she looks 16…and she's got some serious boy problems.
Chapter 03
The planning stage lasted only a few hours.
As predicted, Terry refused point blank to help me. His actual words were,
"No way am I helping you end both of your lives. If I get even the slightest whiff of a plan from you, then I'll try my damndest to stop it."
I had retorted with the question of what would his precious Dana (his girlfriend) think if he tried to stop me and wound up dying in the process.
"The Batsuit can take blows from Superman at full strength…I think I can handle whatever it is you can throw at me."
Okay, that's true, but can the Batsuit take a blow from a dozen or so thousand-pound bombs? Part of me thinks not.
Of course, I didn't actually tell him this, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him…great, now I'm thinking like one of his enemies.
So now I looked down at the passing city with my superior hawk vision, scouting out the best place to put the bombs. I needed somewhere that was easily accessible to me in my human morph, that was big enough to hold two people (me and Robin) and was far enough away from the city that innocent people didn't get caught in the blast.
I also had to make sure that no one of authority, Terry especially since he was already very suspicious of me, could easily get there. I haven't told Kevin or Ben what I'm planning on the basis that Kevin would employ all of the allies (along with himself and Ben) that they have acquired to stop the plan from being fulfilled.
I also didn't want him trying to play the hero by trying to 'rescue' me from the blast. I couldn't bare it if Kevin was killed because of my selfishness instead of me…the very thought made my stomach want to do backflips.
I knew that I would have to use a lot of energy to put up my Soundproofing and Invisibility veils, activate my Attack reading ability, maneuver both our bodies close enough to the explosion for our deaths to be painless (as painless as your body being ripped apart can hope to be)…
Not to mention, I have to persuade him to follow me to the site of the explosion, which really shouldn't be too hard since I know exactly which buttons to push to get him angry… but getting him angry enough to break his mask and get him to chase me while still keeping the physical fighting to a minimum would be the hard part.
There!
I looked down at an abandoned movie theatre and saw that it was falling apart. It was miles away from the most heavily populated area of Gotham, easily accessible for me in my human morph and would easily hold both me and Robin.
The only problems left now were getting the bombs to the site without being noticed (having already acquired the bombs from a run down military base, though not as many as I would have liked), and somehow finding a way to make it difficult for Terry as Batman to get there.
The latter was easy.
Simply disable the tracking chip in my suit (a low-level magnet would short-circuit it), completely cut the power to the Batcave so he couldn't track me any other way (Bruce was very intelligent, so I wouldn't be surprised if he had other ways of tracking me, any of the 'replacement' Robins, Batgirl, or Terry) cut the necessary wires on the Batmobile, Batplane, Batcopter (can't believe we still have that one) and the new version of the Batcycle (the original, of course, having been stolen by Robin for his quick getaway).
If worse came to worse, I could always morph a Pterodactyl and carry the bombs one by one to the site…yeah, 'cause the sudden reappearance of an extinct dinosaur carrying advanced human bombs wouldn't trigger a panic.
I had to find a way to get all seven bombs there inconspicuously.
Obviously the sewer lines were out of the question if Robin was still operating from the main circle which connected all of the lines to and from Gotham city. I wanted to keep him as out of the loop as possible until the actual event and him seeing me (or any of my morphs since he knows them all) carrying half ton bombs to the far reaches of the city would completely blow my cover.
I flew into a hole in the roof of the theatre and landed without a sound on what used to be the concession stand. I demorphed to my natural form, and pressed the button on my mask, filtering through all of the settings to make sure that no one was around.
Everything was clear…no human life for at least a mile.
I silently crept through the theatre, looking for a large enough place to house the bombs that was also out of sight range.
I walked into an actual theatre where the movies were shown and looked around. The seats were falling apart and there wasn't enough space between the rows to hide the bombs. I shook my head and looked around again.
There was a large screen still up which, for the most part, was in one piece. It was one of the older versions where it was just a large piece of canvas hung from a wire on the roof.
I shook my head again.
The shadows would be visible even in the dark and I couldn't let him get even the slightest inkling of my intentions.
I sighed and was just about to give up and search for a different site for the bombs when I happened to look up at the wall. There was a ventilation system low on the wall that could hold at least four of the seven bombs.
I bit my lip.
Hiding them there would be a really obvious plan.
'A ninja always looks underneath the underneath.'
My eyes lit up. Of course, why didn't I see it earlier? Robin may have been trained under the original Batman, but he hardly ever heeded Bruce's words…such as: 'Make sure that anything obvious is checked first and foremost…dangerous items are usually stored in an obvious place simply to catch you off guard…you have to think like your opponent.'
Robin may have been the Boy Wonder in the circus and in the physical fighting portion of a bust, but he was hardly considered a wonder in the planning and thinking department.
As for the other three bombs, I would go for the seats. I know that there isn't a lot of room, but one explosion will trigger the next, causing 'the Domino effect' as it was called, until all seven bombs were triggered.
"Perfect."
Around 45 minutes later, I had packed all the bombs into the Batcopter and activated the cloaking device. I flew out into the city and passed over all of the things I had come to love about it…mainly three of its inhabitants that I knew wouldn't understand.
I would definitely miss them all, but the sacrifice was going to help the city for the better. Kevin and Ben would get over my death and move on, as well as Terry…such is life.
"Kori! What the hell's going on? Why do you have the Batcopter?"
I looked down at the picture screen and saw Terry's angry visage. Of course, I had forgotten that there was a remote transmitter in the Batcave that could help him stay in contact with any of the vehicles.
"Would you believe me if I said I was doing nightly rounds?" I asked with a hint of playfulness.
"Don't jerk me around, Kori! Answer the question before I'm forced to take action!"
I sighed and said,
"I can't…you wouldn't understand."
"I wouldn't under…wait, is this about that stupid suicide mission?"
I clamped my mouth closed and looked back out of the windshield. He obviously correctly interpreted my silence because he started on a tirade about how I was crazy for doing this, tons of people would miss me…yatta, yatta…
I looked at the screen and said,
"Terry…shut up."
I flipped the screen off and pressed a button that would automatically disable the tracking device on the copter.
I landed behind the theatre, cut the engine and quickly morphed an elephant. Using my trunk, I carefully pried open the cargo hold and pulled the bombs out, standing them on end.
I made four trips into the back of the theatre where I had found a large hole that could easily fit me. It led right into the auditorium I was storing them in, which I was thankful for.
After I'd set them down onto the floor under the vent, I demorphed then morphed a gorilla. I pulled the loose vent cover off and carefully pushed the first bomb into the shaft.
I was right in assuming that it would hold four. They fit easily with almost three inches space from the end of one bomb to the next. I placed the vent cover back on, then proceeded to place the remaining three end to end in the row of seats closest to the vent.
When I had finished, I demorphed and looked around.
I remembered this theatre vividly.
I had seen it in Bruce's dreams many times. It was the same theatre that his parents had been walking home from the night they were murdered in front of his eyes.
'How fitting', I thought. 'The place that Bruce had lost his parents would also be the place where he lost his two most treasured human companions…though this time, it wouldn't be to a murderer…it would be at the hands of one of the companions'.
I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer for Bruce's parents, for him, for Ace the Bat-hound, for my fallen sensei Kakashi, for Dick Grayson…the little boy who died with his parents and left a shell of his former self behind, for Ethan…the baby who never had a chance to grow up…
A tear escaped my eye as I remembered holding the little limp body in my arms…the son that Robin didn't and never will know he had…
I brushed the tear away and opened my eyes.
Now it was time to send the message.
I morphed a barn owl and flew out of the gap in the wall, heading for the sewer main. I flew silently down the manhole, maneuvering through the pipes until my enhanced vision spotted the opening.
I landed quietly on the lip of the pipe and looked around. The main circle seemed empty except for the bed I had recovered on six months prior, a small nightstand, a desk with a wooden chair and a laptop computer that Robin most likely used to keep up with the criminals that he had either caught or was looking for.
I blinked and activated my mind reading ability. Just as I had expected, Robin was laying almost immobile on the bed. His mind was free of dreams, meaning that he was in a deep sleep. His suit looked looser on him, as if he had lost weight, and his mask was off, resting on the floor next to his bed.
His eyes were closed and his long black tresses were laid out under his head on the pillow, surrounding his face like a darkened halo. He was paler than the last time I had seen him…which meant that he was on his own path of self-destruction.
His computer was open but from what I could see of the screen it was blank. I took a deep breath and flew silently down onto the floor, my talons making only the slightest noise. I quietly morphed back and stood. He didn't seem to hear me nor even be aware of my presence in his makeshift room.
I quickly erected a one way soundproofing veil and walked over to the computer. I jiggled the mouse a little and the screen popped up. There was a box that asked for a password, which threw me off a little. It was as if he expected me to try something like this.
I tried a few different passwords that made sense for him to use, such as Batman, Wayne, Robin and Nightwing to no avail. I bit my lip and chanced a glance over my shoulder. What would Robin use as his password?
I looked back at the screen after a moment's contemplation and typed in 'trapeze'.
Nothing.
So I tried 'acrobat'.
Nothing.
Of course, he didn't see himself as Dick Grayson of the Flying Graysons anymore. He'd essentially left his circus life behind. I typed in 'boy wonder', testing my theory. It was proven correct when the password was rejected.
I furrowed my brow, a thought occurring to me. I had once read a book where something similar to this happened, and the password to the hero's computer was the name of his first love.
I looked at Robin again. I didn't want to think that he still cared about me after all these years…it would make my mission all the harder.
I turned back to the monitor and typed in 'Kori Grayson', sending out a silent prayer that it wasn't the right password.
My prayers went unheard as a new window popped up, this time asking for a retina scan. I had only morphed Robin once back when he was 16 to get inside information on the leader of an international smuggling ring (he had come down with pneumonia and Bruce refused to leave him alone).
The thought of morphing into him made my stomach do back flips.
If he caught me (he could still see me since I hadn't put up an invisibility veil) then I would have to rely on his speed to get me out in one piece. I gulped and began my morph.
Halfway through, though, I remembered that he had taken a blood sample from me before he left so that he could stay young and fight crime forever. Under normal circumstances, my alien blood would cause death, but for some reason, it hadn't killed him.
I looked down at my half-completed morph and reversed it. I pulled my mask up and pressed the designated key, causing a webcam-like device to open up from the desk. I raised an eyebrow. How he managed to get his hands on state of the art technology down here was beyond me and I didn't have time to ask.
I put my eye level with the scanner and a beam moved horizontally and vertically over my eye. The computer processed the information and beeped saying that it wasn't compatible.
I cursed. 'Looks like I'll have to morph anyway'.
The morph went smoothly. The only difference about his body back then and the body I had now was that I had on my own suit. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that he was still sleeping silently.
'Good', I thought. 'Because I don't want him to see me like this'.
I redid the retina scan and this time it worked. I kept the mask pulled over my face and watched as the screen showed a new image. It was the face of the man who had murdered his parents.
That's what he'd been dwelling on. I looked in the lower right-hand corner and saw that it said 'Case closed; charged with death penalty; carried out 06-12-2000.'
I shook my head and minimized the screen, pulling open a blank document. I went over what I was going to say in my head, and carefully typed it out.
'I'll be waiting for you at the city limits where Bruce's most painful memory occurred 8:00 p.m. tomorrow night. If you don't show, then I'll be forced to use persuasion in the most painful way available.
Come as Nightwing.
I'll be waiting.
-Kori.
P.S: Yes, I hacked into your computer. Seriously, putting my first name with your last? Very cliché, Boy Wonder, didn't expect it of you. Oh and by the way, your retina scanning was too easy. Remember the winter of '88?
One more thing. Stop obsessing over Zucco. He's dead and gone. Get over it.'
The last line was a little harsh, but I needed to be sure that he would come to me or else the plan wouldn't be worth squat.
I heard rustling behind me and low groaning. I turned and looked at Robin, thinking that he was waking up, only to see his brows furrowed and a fine layer of sweat on his forehead.
He was slowly emerging from his dreamless sleep and entering the REM-cycle. I quickly morphed back to my own body and, against my better judgment, walked over to him.
His limbic system was putting out waves like crazy.
The amygdale was a bright fire red…the worst color it could get…meaning that he was seeing violence in his dream.
I knelt down and pulled off the glove on my right hand. I gently touched his forehead with my index and middle fingers and sent a stream of positive energy into his frenzied brain.
Almost immediately, he calmed down. His brows unknitted, his breathing and heart rate slowed to their normal rate and the groaning was silenced.
I pulled my glove back on and gently rubbed the tip of my nose against his, a gesture that was used by us years ago to calm the other, give them a boost of reassurance.
I stood and watched as he drifted off into a more pleasant dream. I dropped the soundproofing veil, ran silently to the bar surrounding the circle and jumped up onto it. With the grace of a jaguar I jumped up into the pipe I had come from and ran back up it to the manhole.
Now to return the Batcopter and hide out in the theatre until tomorrow night.
I climbed back into the copter and started the engine, reactivating the cloaking device. I flew it over the slowly lightening city and into the Batcave. I typed a message into the onboard computer, sent it to Terry's e-mail address, hopped out, morphed a barn owl and flew out.
'Don't interfere, Terry. The last thing I want is another casualty. Besides, you're responsible for Gotham's safety now…the city needs you more than I do.
See you in the next life, Batman.'
