THE BAT :
THE BAT AND THE CAT, AND…….
By LJ58
Part 2:
Batman climbed out of the Batmobile even as the engine turbines still whined down to a stop, and strode toward his working experiments as he pulled back the cowl from his solemn features after a long night of patrolling. He had stopped four thieves, two attempted murders, and no less than a dozen rapes. Things were definitely slowing down already as Gotham drew a cautious breath, waiting to see just what manner of Bat he was going to be since his return.
He stopped by the main console of his supercomputers, and saw no messages warranting his immediate attention. That meant Drake had yet to find anything, and that Dick was likely still busy with Wayne-Tech, or Barbara. He considered a few other matters he had to tend even as he headed toward the working experiments that awaited his attention. Even as he did, he stopped, dropping into a low crouch as one hand pulled his cowl up even as the other palmed two batarangs, his eyes already searching the dark cavern around him for the source of the sounds his ears had detected.
"Sharp as ever, detective," a low, raspy voice commented as the faint squeak of wheels again reached his ears. "I'm impressed. But even more, I am intrigued," the aged figure before him in the wheelchair smiled a horrific smile.
"Ra's," he murmured curtly. "What brings you out of hiding," he asked grimly as he rose to his full height, but did not otherwise relax though he put his weapons away.
Old, or not, he knew well enough that Ra's al Ghul was likely one of the most dangerous men on the planet. Even supposedly incapacitated, Ra's al Ghul was a man not to be underestimated. He had learned that lesson countless times over the years.
"You, actually, detective," Ra's smiled again.
"What is it this time," the Bat demanded of him as he strode forward, closing the distance around them as he scanned the shadows around them. "More threats, or more bribes?"
"Neither," the ancient assassin smiled thinly. "The fact is, I was fascinated by certain rumors I had heard about you of late. You vanished years ago, breaking poor, dear Talia's heart by the way," he added gruffly, "And now you reappear as if you were never gone. Yet you are remarkably strong, seemingly ageless, and I had to wonder, had you finally succumbed to the temptation of the Lazarus Pits?"
Batman said nothing.
"But, no, I see you have not. I would know, after all. You found a way that I have not."
"I see. And you want it for yourself," he asked knowingly.
"Were if for myself alone, I would simply take it, detective," the man smiled coldly, his apparent age not reducing the aura of menace that shrouded him. "But, no, as you have likely intuited by now, the Lazarus Pits have recently lost their efficacy on my metabolism, and thus I have been reduced to this pathetic shell you see before you. At least, for the moment. My…Our beloved Talia, however, has been reduced to this," he said, and gestured at the shadows where two men brought forth a slender, silver cylinder.
The Batman showed no surprise at the darkly clad assassins that appeared out of the shadows. He had already picked out their presence earlier, and judged them no threat since they were obviously occupied with their burden.
"What happened to her," he demanded as he looked away from the pale, blue occupant of the stasis-tube he had seen before now. It was one designed by Victor Frieze before he had exiled himself to some arctic hideaway after he finally gave up on humanity after his wife had inevitably died despite all his efforts to save her.
"Ironically, a common complaint of late," Ra's sighed. "She has an inoperable growth in her brain. Even my own contacts cannot find a way to spare her a painful, and prolonged death. But you, detective, have overcome such obstacles as most mere men cannot imagine. I ask you…. No, I, Ra's al Ghul, beg you, to save our beloved Talia, before she is lost to us both forever."
The cold, blue eyes raked the old man's withered frame, and looked over at the tube again holding that sleek, still body he had known quite well some years past. He remembered the warmth of her voluptuous frame as she had wrapped herself around him, giving herself to him completely. Only her loyalty to her father and his mad mission to obliterate the majority of man from the globe kept her from his side when he offered her a place there.
"I do not know if I can help her, but leave her, Ra's," he told him solemnly, "And I will do all I can," he declared. "On that, you have my word."
"Your word has ever been good enough for me, detective," the old man nodded with a faint smile. "Even if it has often been given against me," he added sardonically.
"You know the reasons for that," the hero replied.
"Indeed. A pity. We would have made a formidable team. Still, it is your interminable optimism that now compels me to trust you with my most beloved daughter's life. I shall check on her at a later date. I have….other matters to tend. You understand?" "Of course," the cowled detective nodded as the assassins moved back to help the man in the wheelchair turn around.
"I don't suppose you would be willing to share the secret of your remarkable rejuvenation….?"
Ra's had paused, looking back over his shoulder to ask that question. The grim, implacable visage that met his query with silence made him chuckle. "I thought not, but I couldn't refrain from asking. In this endeavor," he added, glancing back to his frozen daughter. "I cannot help but wish you luck."
"You'll understand if I don't return the sentiment."
The old man cackled, then vanished. His chair was obviously no ordinary chair for invalids. It moved silently, vanishing with its occupant, and Ra's assassins into the darker shadows beyond the main caverns.
"Time to beef up security, too," he reminded himself grimly as he returned to the stasis tube that held Talia in complete suspension. He noted the internal power supply added to safeguard against power outages was still well within normal operating ranges, but he still moved the heavy cylinder into his private medical lab to hook it up to the main power supply. No sense in taking chances.
Besides, he also wanted to run his own check of the still lovely brunette with the new scanners that J'onn had installed in his private lab at his request some years ago when he first returned. Clark's reaction to his sudden reappearance told him the Martian had kept his vow about keeping his return a secret. Of course, he had long known the last surviving Martian in existence was very good at keeping secrets when he wished.
He set the cylinder with Talia near the main operating theater, and set up the linkages that would allow the system to fully analyze, and diagnose her medical condition. It would also ascertain just what, if anything, could be done for her. For he had meant what he had told Ra's. He would do everything he could for her. He had not thought of her in years simply because the memories were too painful.
He had truly loved Talia. He still did. But she was devoted to her father's cause, and that was a barrier even their love could never breach. Still, he would not leave her as she was, not if he could help her. But first, he would be certain of everything before he would move.
Returning to the cave, he used the computer to scan the entire cave. As he had suspected, there were three uncharted tunnels that now opened into the main cavern. Likely opened, and unnoticed during the earthquakes that had troubled Gotham some years ago, and he had been too distracted to take note of them.
He was not distracted now.
He reset internal security to monitor their openings, at the least, and then took the necessary equipment to see about investigating the passages. Once he learned just where they actually led, and if there were any secondary passages branching off them that might endanger his security precautions, he would decide whether to incorporate them into his maze of tunnels that led in and out of Gotham, or simply close them. Permanently.
B
"So, what's the big secret," Dick asked as he came down into the cave, and stopped to gape at the silver cylinder that glowed faintly in the corner of the lab. "Whoa," Dick murmured, heading toward the cylinder. "Isn't that….?"
"That's none of your concern," he told him coolly. "This way. I want you to understand something before I proceed."
"What is that," the former Robin asked as he walked through the lab, watching the different lights and beeping panels that indicated ongoing experiments.
"Me," the Batman told him.
"You," Dick frowned as he followed him past a row of humming, beeping equipment that was doing things he couldn't begin to guess since most of the equipment was strange to him.
"Yes. Based on the techno-organic grafts first given me, I have figured out a way to duplicate a portion of the process which created the new limb here."
"Holy….! Is that real," Dick exclaimed as Batman took out what looked like a very real human arm right up to the shoulder.
"It might as well be if you grafted it to your body. It would replace your prosthesis, and give you back full range of mobility, and your strength. You could even feel with it, since it incorporates itself into the host's existent nervous system."
"That's….incredible," he exclaimed, then couldn't quite resist an uneasy shudder when the grim hero gave him the limb, and his own remaining hand insisted it felt just like real, human flesh. "This is….."
"It's yours."
"Hey, even if this does all that you said, it wouldn't mean I'm going back into the hero business. Even if I could, I think I'm pretty much over that part of my life," he told him. "As tempting as it might seem."
"If you'll recall your start, you'll also recall that I never wanted you take the mantle of Robin. That was your decision. Just as it is now," Batman told him solemnly. "What I'm offering, is as much for Barbara, as for you. I'm not blind. I've seen the way you two look at each other."
"Are you saying…..?" "No, I can't give her back her legs," Batman cut him off. "However," he added when Dick's hopeful expression sobered. "Using the same technology, I am working on devising a neuro-net that can be….theoretically, used to return sensation to Barb's lower body. Recall that Joker's bullet impacted the lower spine, disrupting her nervous system in that region, and paralyzing her lower limbs. If I'm right, this technology can give her back feeling, even it can't make her walk. She can regain a fully sensate body. Including a full sex life."
Dick blushed as the cold-eyed hero ignored his coloring.
"As I said, I'm not blind. But this is still theoretical, and while I'm confident the arm will work, the neuro-web I'm programming is purely experimental. I'll leave it up to you to speak with her, and sound her out. There is, after all, a potential risk in putting anything into her body at this point considering the damage done to her spine."
"So, is this experimental, too," Dick asked, still a little uneasy about holding that all too real arm that looked quite like his own now that he really looked at it. For a moment he was lying flat on his back, looking up at that silver-eyed bastard waving goodbye at him with his own severed arm. Then he shook his head, and asked. "Is it?" "No. This is proven tech. I've already passed it on to J'onn to leak to the medical community for making new prosthetics for those that need them. I do understand he's working as a researcher for Wayne-Tech now in his latest secret identity, so it should net you quite a bundle once it comes out on the open market."
Dick arched a brow. "I'm not even going to ask how you knew that."
"Just talk to Barb. The choice is yours. And hers. Now, if you'll let yourself out, I've things to do just yet."
"More experiments," Dick asked uneasily.
"Actually, I have to write a speech."
"A speech," Dick looked at him oddly.
"For the League. It seems they're holding a belated memorial service for those that didn't make it back."
"Oh. Right. I….almost forgot….."
"I haven't. I remember every one of them," Batman told him gravely.
"Yeah," Dick Grayson nodded. "I….I guess I've been so caught up with managing Wayne-Tech lately that I just…..lost touch."
"No one blames you for that. As you said, you are out of the business."
"Still, I think I should be there, too. When, and where?" "Tomorrow evening. In the new Watchtower."
"On the moon," he exclaimed. "I haven't even seen what the place looks like, it's so secret."
"Then they finally learned something from me, it would seem," he replied as he turned to go.
"Wait," Dick called, looking at him with a speculative look. "Would it be all right if I…..?" "Came along? I'm sure you'd be more than welcome," Batman's voice softened only slightly for the first time in days.
"That, too, but…..I was wondering… If I decide to try this arm, how does it work?" Batman eyed the young man, and nodded. "Simply remove your prosthesis, and its harness, and hold the arm in place against the shoulder for one minute. The nannite bonding will take about that long. Give it about six hours before you try anything strenuous," he advised knowingly. "It will take that long for the neuro-net and artificial linkages to fully integrate."
"That's it? No surgery? No….?" "Just hold it in place, and then give it time. That's all."
"It sounds like…..?" "Magic? Recall the frequent observation made adage, that any sufficiently advanced technology may appear…."
"To be magic. Got it. I would like to attend that service, though. But, first, I think I will go see Barbara."
"Good. I suggest you find something to carry that in if you're taking it with you," he added as Dick held the eerily realistic arm.
"Right. I'll see if Nolan has something I can borrow," he said, naming a cousin of Alfred's who had come to take over the duties of tending Wayne manor after the older man had finally passed away thinking his longtime charge had died in space.
Unlike Alfred, though, Nolan was a bit of a prig who wouldn't even pretend to notice the oddities of the cavern right below the manor, and didn't want to know judging from his opinion when it came to costumed heroes in general.
As far as he knew, the cave was some secret vice den Dick had created, and Dick never tried to argue him out of the idea.
Nolan was also a bit thick.
B
Batman said nothing as Barbara rolled off the elevator platform, and glanced at him. "Dick will be down shortly," the still attractive redhead told him. "He had to distract Nolan, or he would have thought the 'master' was up to his usual antics, as he likes to put it."
Batman didn't comment.
"I….talked with him about your offer."
"And," Batman finally drawled.
"I'd like to try it. After we get back."
"We?" "I was Batgirl. And I'm mayor of Gotham. I think it only right I be a representative at the ceremony for some of our own. Not many remember Helen, but the Huntress was a public figure. And Kyle did help save Gotham once, too. That's not been forgotten. Not by everyone."
"All right, Mayor Gordon, but I suggest you leave the alter ego out of the introductions. I just learned Joker is not as dead as some think."
Barbara paled. "What do you mean," she demanded. "I was there. I saw the guard throw the switch….."
"You saw a look-alike die. Joker, the real Joker, is posing as Thomas Thorne."
"But that's….."
"Mad?" "Among other things," the shaken redhead agreed. "How can you be sure?" "Do you doubt me?" "No, but if I am going to have to deal with this, I'd like to know a few more details."
"DNA splicing, and implanted cloning techniques. Likely stolen from former Cadmus scientists. He used one of his own thugs to take his place in Arkham, and in the executioner's chair, then apparently hatched this plot to replace Rupert's legitimate nephew."
"How can you be sure?" "As I said, DNA. I already tipped Bullock. Shipton's body was tested yesterday. And it was Shipton's underneath the mask. I also believe the real Thomas Thorne is either dead, or being held in reserve to take the fall for whatever that madman is planning this time."
Barbara sighed as Dick slid down the old pole that had not been used in years. Flinging off an overcoat, he revealed his old costume that had been retooled to fit his more mature body. "Dick," she frowned as she took in the black costume with the unmistakable avian design.
"It's only for the service," Dick assured her. "I thought it would be better than going as a bored billionaire," he said, putting his distinctive eye mask in place.
"He's right, Barbara. Dick Grayson would be out of place at this memorial service. Nightwing, however, would not," he said pointedly as he noted the former hero's perfectly matched, and functional arms.
"How is the neural-feed holding up?" "It's like I never lost my own arm," he grinned as he held up his right arm, and flexed. "If you can use something like this to help Barb, we'd both really appreciate it," he said.
"I told him we had agreed to try it," Barbara told him as they approached a side chamber off to one side of the main cave.
"First, you'll need to arrange to take a few days off," Batman advised her. "You'll need time for the web to integrate when I operate."
"Operate," she grimaced as they entered the chamber to find a gleaming, teleportation pad much like the old ones they used to use on the old Watchtower once the technology was first integrated into the League's arsenal.
"A misnomer. A series of small incisions that will be little more than needle pricks than not. But I calculate the process will take ten to twelve hours to complete, and another six to twelve for the neural-net to completely bond with your nervous system. I would prefer to keep you under my direct observation for that time. After all, as I warned Dick, this is still an experimental process."
"Well, it is Friday night," Barbara told him. "It wouldn't be the first time I spent a weekend at Dick's….ah, your place."
"Dick's place. I only use the cave," Batman told her firmly. "I did tell you, Bruce Wayne is gone."
"Right," she nodded as Dick maneuvered her chair onto the platform, and stood behind her. Batman set a control on the single panel nearby, and stepped up beside them.
"Here we go again," Dick smiled.
Batman's face remained characteristically grim.
B
"Holy Moley," a tall, powerful figure in red exclaimed as the teleporter hummed, and the haze faded to reveal the three figures on the pad. "It's true, you did survive," the ageless hero called Captain Marvel remarked.
"Hello, Captain," Batman nodded solemnly. "I assume everyone is waiting."
"Yes, sir," the still boyish man grinned despite the fact his alter ego had long since grown up, and gestured to a hall to the right. "They're all in the main lobby where we set up our….memorial to all the heroes lost over the years. If you'll follow me…."
"I know the way," Batman drawled, and the magical hero gaped as Batman took the lead, his dark cape moving like a living shadow around him.
"But….?" "Don't let it bother you, Cap," Dick said as he let Barbara propel her chair. She still had her pride, and didn't want to look helpless before anyone in public. "He's always like that."
"But he's never been here," the hero reminded Nightwing.
"Trust me, he probably knows more about this place than the guys that built it."
"That would be me, Nightwing," Superman's low voice remarked as the colorfully clad hero stepped from behind them, just having come up on the transporter, too. "J'onn and I collaborated for weeks before we came up to actually build this place."
"Well, you know how he is, then."
"All too well. Still, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you lose that arm," Superman asked as the still fit man in Nightwing's costume walked alongside him and Barbara, Captain Marvel leading the way behind Batman who did not even look back once.
"Yes. And I've recently acquired a new replacement. But this costume is only for the service. To honor our friends. Then I go back to being….who I was before."
"Of course. You know, you'd always be welcomed back."
"Unlike you, and Bats, I think I know when to call it quits, Superman," he smiled sincerely. "A man must know his limitations, after all," he told him.
"Never stopped anyone else," a young blonde in red suddenly appeared to eye the odd group. She then promptly vanished with a blur of speed that made it seem she had literally disappeared.
"Looks like Pulse is showing off again," Nightwing chuckled.
"As usual," Superman sighed, and then gestured to an open door Batman had already entered.
Inside the suddenly quiet room, a collection of younger, and much stranger heroes filled the seats of the lobby, though there were a few familiar faces. The silence, Superman knew, had been caused by Batman's entrance. Rumors aside, one really did have to see the man to fully understand his impact on people first meeting him.
He strode up to the podium set up before a wall of plagues, some with pictures of the person immortalized in costume, some with civilian identities shown as well if they were known. He turned away from the mostly youthful audience as Superman went to set beside Diana and Captain Marvel as Nightwing stopped to stand beside Barbara who stayed off to one side, not wanting to insert herself among such elite company.
"You have the right to be here, too, Barb," Nightwing murmured. "Maybe more than most."
"That was a long time ago, D….Nightwing," she told him quietly, still feeling the melancholy of having lost the freedom of her heroic alter ego long before she could even consider giving up on her own. In essence, Batgirl had died, too, the day Joker blew her spine apart, almost killing her.
"Hey, cool, I know you," the young Pulse appeared beside Barbara in a blur of motion to lean over her shoulder. "You were that Oracle chick that used to help the League with the smart stuff. Right?" "Right," Barbara smiled. "Now, I'm just the mayor of Gotham City."
"Really? That is so righteous. Girl power," the young speedster grinned, and pumped her fist before flashing across the room like living lightning to take her seat in the time it took for Batman to turn back to the silent audience that was waiting to hear him out as much from curiosity as well as respect.
He looked across the rows of heroes, and heroines, noting the few familiar faces that appeared timeless even to his eyes, and then at the many newcomers that now filled the Leagues ranks.
"To be human, is to be mortal," he spoke suddenly, and the words sent chills down several spines. "And being a hero does not make you more than human. It makes you even more mortal. But it also makes you a role model, and an example. A symbol for people that desperately need hope when they might not have anything else. If you do not understand that, then you do not belong here," he went on curtly.
"Now, hold on," a young caricature of Superman in a leather jacket spoke up, literally levitating from the floor for a better view.
"Save it. I'm not impressed, and I doubt anyone else is, either."
That shocked the room, and everyone fell silent again as Batman turned to gesture at the wall. "This wall represents human life. And death. It should remind you of the cost that comes with your powers. Some of you might have known some, or even all of the men and women on this wall. You might have known them well, or in passing. I lived, and fought with some of these people, myself. I'm here to remind you of a few of them. Tom Gordon, the then most recent Catman. Kyle Rayner, a new Green Lantern with more heart than many I've met. A woman known only as the Huntress, and even a sentient rock known, most appropriately, as Bloc. Last, but no means least, there was a self-styled cowboy that called himself Vigilante. Those five are but a few of the ones we should remember. I picked them out because today I stand here as the sole witness to their brave sacrifices. Sacrifices they did not hesitate to make, because they believed in what they were fighting for. Whether it was here at home, or out in the trackless regions of alien space to help a people just as beleaguered as their own planet at the time."
The room was completely silent now as everyone focused on him as Batman turned to eye those five plaques for a moment before turning back to face them.
"I was there as each one of them died, and I can tell you, they did not turn from their duty even when they knew they were about to die. They stood their ground, and they did what had to be done. In the end, few are ever going to remember them. Even fewer will mourn them. They are going to be names, and maybe faces on a wall that only a few of you will take the time to even visit. They are going to be old history. Soon forgotten as you race forward in the rush to make your own name. Your own legend. But one day, maybe even tomorrow," the Batman told them grimly. "You'll be here, too. A name on a wall. I can stand here and lecture you endlessly, or I can summarize this….ceremony with a single question."
Batman paused and seemed to focus on every single hero present at once.
"When it comes your time to stand, or fall, will you be worthy of being listed among these truly brave, and selfless heroes? Because just putting on a costume, and showing off does not guarantee you are worthy of respect, or remembrance. It is what you do in that defining moment that will make you a true hero, or just another adventurer. Think of that next time you answer a call for help."
Batman said no more as he simply eyed them silently, then turned to go.
"Batman, wait," Superman asked as he rose, and was at his side before he cross the room. "I know some of the others would like to speak with you. If you could just….."
"This is not a social club, or a nursery," Batman scowled. "Either they are ready, or they are not. A few words of inspiration are hardly going to make them something they are not ready to be. And if they are ready, then they don't need my adages, or advice to impress them. Now, I have to go. I've work to do."
Even Superman was nonplussed as Batman turned his back on him, and left saying, "Nightwing, I'll leave you to get the mayor home."
"How is the arm," a tall, obviously aging green humanoid appeared beside Dick to look down on him as grimly as Batman.
"It's working fine, J'onn," he told him. "I was thinking of using Dick Grayson as a….test subject, so we could help get the FDA approval all the sooner. It'd look better if Wayne-Tech's CEO wasn't afraid to use his own 'newly' discovered invention, after all."
"Well said. I would like to examine it….and you, extensively at a more advantageous time."
"Of course. You remember Ms. Gordon," he asked as several of the older heroes among the League moved closer to them, overhearing them.
"Naturally. It is always a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Gordon. I'm glad to see you're doing well."
"Thank you, J'onn. It's a real pleasure to be here in your company. I think we've got a real promising future growing here in all these fine young men, and women."
"I'm telling you," a gray-haired but young woman in white spandex exclaimed. "That's the same guy. Whip cut his arm off years ago, and he retired."
"Bull," a slightly older teen with power bands of some type on his wrists, and wearing only casual denim. "No one can just grow an arm back. And I know its not mechanical. I'd feel it."
"Chill, Techno," Pulse appeared with a rush of wind. "It's the real Nightwing. Bats tuned him up is the lowdown I got from Big Red," she told him, and then sped off for some other destination.
"I see Pulse is still as…..restless as ever," Barbara remarked as she watched the young blonde take off.
"Yes," Diana nodded as she stood by respectfully silent until then. "She can be almost as annoying as Wally used to be."
"Used to be," someone asked, making a gagging sound.
"As….interesting as this has been," Nightwing said, realizing just how little they had in common with these heroes any longer. "The mayor and I both have duties that require we be elsewhere. Wonder Woman, J'onn, it was good seeing you again."
"And you, Nightwing," Diana nodded as J'onn only nodded. He would be seeing him soon enough again in his human guise as Dr. John Jones, Wayne-Tech's newest research scientist.
B
"Heard you were back, Bats," the lean, redheaded man drawled as he set his drink down beside his chair, and looked away from the work station he occupied while his fingers continued to type so fast on the keyboards before him that his fingers remained a constant blur.
"I'm sure you have," Batman told the former Flash, and Pulse's father. "How is Linda," he asked, naming his wife of some years.
"Pissed off. I was supposed to be off this weekend, but something came up, and I had to come up, and check on a few things."
"It's still not easy balancing relationships with our kind of duties," he agreed. "Still, you have managed to raise a good daughter."
"Rais-ing," Wally grinned. "I'm still not sure she's ever going to mature. But she's only sixteen."
"I recall there were some who felt you were never going to mature either," Batman commented.
"Still haven't," the irrepressible former speedster winked at him. "So, what brought you up here to the hub, as we call it, since you so rudely walked out on your own welcome back?" "I'm not back."
"Right. Heard that one before, Bat-boy. Now, what's up?" "I have some news for you. You saw Nightwing?" "Yeah. Some piece of work. How did you manage that? Tissue regeneration, or was it….?" "Basically, it's an alien form of organic-tech, derived from a blending of nano-tech, and simple tissue cloning."
"Simple," Wally asked with an arched brow.
"Simplistically stated, I know, but I think you can see it obviously works. And I think I can make it work for you."
"Me," Wally asked, suddenly quiet.
"I believe I can give you back your legs. If you want me to try."
Wally spun around in his chair, and beamed like the young hero he remembered. "Do I want you to try? In a freaking second. A nano-second," he exclaimed. "What do I have to do?" "A few hairs should suffice for tissue regeneration purposes. As to the rest, I'll be in touch. I'd also ask you not mention this to anyone else just yet."
"Mum's the word, Bats," Wally grinned ear-to-ear.
But when Wally turned to say more, the dark shadow at his back was gone.
"Well, some things don't change," the redhead grinned, and went back to his work with flying fingers, and put his mind on more practical things than regaining his legs.
Even if he did want to scream, and shout.
And dance. He really wanted to dance.
But only with Linda. The woman he loved, and who loved him, and had stuck by him through all the good and bad of being a full-time hero. The mother of their daughter, who had inherited his accelerated metabolism, and as Linda liked to say, his warped sense of humor.
Pulse, as any impulsive teenager, was trying to find her own way, and her own place in the world as both teenage girl, and a heroine. Incredibly, Wally was certain she was at least half again as fast as he had once been, and her mind easily raced on the same level with ease. She didn't seem to suffer from the problem of adjusting her mindset from slow to fast, and back again as he had often done back in the day. She was born with the ability to focus at any time, on any level, with an instinctive ability that left her far ahead of anyone else around her.
That said, she had yet to learn the discipline he knew she still needed to harness that impressive power of mind and body. If she wanted, she could become a literal super-genius. At the moment, however, she was still concerned with someone named Tomlyn Depp, who apparently acted in holo-vids, and sang his own music, as well as how to drive people crazy with her penchant for pranks.
For the most part, he was simply proud of her. For she had also inherited her parents sense of values, and had a strong sense of right and wrong. Thank heavens, he sighed, thinking of all the young thugs, and anarchists that were otherwise being bred out there of late. Or so it seemed to him as he studied the endless flow of police reports, and other assorted grim tidings from around the world.
Unlike before, he now found himself grinning as he studied those reports. He trusted Bats. Always had. In a creepy-kind of way, he was the one fellow you knew always had the answers. Even if you weren't quite sure how he found them. Yeah, he trusted him, and if he said he could make him walk….Run….again, then he believed him.
You betcha!
B
Batman eyed Barbara as she lay on the lab table on her back, her body completely exposed as she lay naked before him. Aside from some muscular atrophy in her legs, she was still a beautiful woman, and in phenomenal shape considering. Dick had been sent away, for expedience, as well as modesty. He approached the redhead with the small box that held the delicate neuro-web he had crafted, and set it on a surgical tray to the side of her table.
"Now, there will be some discomfort since you prefer not to be unconscious, or anesthetized. Given your spinal, and neurological damage, it will likely be more pressure, than pain. It shouldn't be much though, and it should pass almost immediately."
"You've gone over this a dozen times, Batman," she told him, trying not to blush as the man now sans his cape and cowl stood before her in a lab coat, and surgical mask. "Let's just get on with it."
"All right. Try not to think about what I'm doing, so much as what you are feeling. If you feel anything out of the ordinary, or anything you sense might be wrong, let me know immediately," he ordered her as he stepped forward, and began wiping her lower back down to her still shapely buttocks with a sterile antiseptic.
"Now, I'm about to implant the first neuro-sensor," he told her as he picked up a laser-scalpel even as he opened the small box on the table. "It'll be located about two centimeters above the damaged portion of your spine, so this will likely be the sensitive part of the procedure."
"Just…..oh, God," she moaned as the scalpel opened her back, and exposed her spine beneath the layers of raw tissue.
"I'm fine. I'm fine," she rasped in the next instant as she felt something like ice being shoved into the wound. "Just finish it," she said, her hands clutching the edges of the table so tightly her knuckles were beyond white.
"First sensor node is in place," he told her dispassionately, and moved down her spine threading out the tiny filaments connecting the nodes as he planted each into the small incision opened for each sensor.
"Well, I don't feel anything yet, but…..I'm not feeling worse, either," she sighed as he stepped back, studying her face before giving her small sip of a nutrient drink he told her would be beneficial as it would fuel the webs absorption rate, and help activate the artificial neurons.
"I'm not finished. I have three primary nodes to implant, but we have to wait a few minutes while your tissue regenerates before I turn you over.
"After the final three….."
"I know, I know," she murmured wearily. "You told me…..
"You…..jerk," she murmured, trying to stare up at him. "You….drugged me."
"It's for the best," he told her grimly. "I didn't tell you where the third sensor had to go, and it might needlessly embarrass you.
"This way, when you wake up, it will be all over," he told the already unconscious woman.
Naturally, she didn't reply.
Batman studied the synthi-flesh already stitching the first incisions, and knew it wouldn't be long before he could turn the woman over to complete the procedure. He should have it done long before the sleeping redhead could wake. For while two of the three remaining nodes would be easy enough to place into the central nerve clusters at the apex of each inner thigh, the last had to go inside her vaginal canal, and would require precise placement if it was to be effective.
Or so all his models had indicated. At this point, he saw no reason to doubt them. He noted the last incision near her tailbone had been covered over by now as the applied synthi-flesh patch did its work, laving only a tiny black series of threads visible atop her pale flesh. The web would soon be absorbed into her body, though, and should then function as a secondary nervous system that would communicate wit her lower body, reconnecting it to the brain's sensory centers. Satisfied all looked ready, he next carefully turned the woman's limp body over, carefully raising her legs, and strapping them in place after he lifted each ankle into the stirrup he had raised just for that purpose.
Satisfied the woman was still unconscious, and now securely strapped in place for the more delicate placements he had to go, he moved between her spread thighs, and eyed the three dangling nodes left at the base of the lab table Barbara Gordon occupied.
He took note of her smooth, plump sex, and guessed she likely kept it sheared for sanitary reasons more than anything else. He knew some paraplegics trimmed, or removed their pubic hair for that very reason. He lifted his scalpel once more, setting the beam to cut a little deeper this time, and pressed the first of the three sensor nodes into the left thigh. Pressing the synthi-flesh patch over it, he then set the second node in the right thigh after he opened the pale flesh of the atrophying limb.
He remembered her as a dynamic, and committed athlete, and it disturbed him to see her reduced to this helpless creature. Hopefully, he could continue his own experiments, and find a way to truly repair the spinal damage caused by that mad clown's bullet. Not just for her sake, though it would be for her, but for all those like her that were overlooked in life simply because they couldn't do something as basic as standing up, and walking.
Moving to her final sensor node, he tugged the connecting web-filament around her slender right hip, and set it carefully just atop her pale, plump pubis. He then selected a new scalpel that was connected to a small camera that he used to slide inside the unconscious woman's dry, taut flesh. Fortunately, he anticipated the need to lubricate his equipment, and the camera-scalpel easily slid into the tight, dry cavity he intended to try to bring back to life.
He studied a small monitor set near the table, and eyed the camera eye as it angled up and in the direction he wanted to go. Just behind what would be the base of her clitoral hood, he activated the tiny laser, and cut a shallow indention into that once sensitive flesh. He used the camera to inspect it thoroughly before he withdrew the scalpel, and then slid the sensor node into her dark pink flesh with a finger that moved it unerringly into place. He felt it slide into the tiny incision, then used the same finger to press a tiny patch of synthi-flesh into that incision.
He drew a deep breath, and stood back, eyeing the filaments that surrounded her legs, and the right side of her lower abdomen. If he was right, the web on her back would be absorbed within ten to twelve hours. Securing her upper body to the table now, he then drew a sheet over her body for modesty's sake as he left her legs up, and secured to better allow the filaments a constant path to take in their eventual integration into her body.
He went to the nearby stasis-tube as he waited, checking on the medical scans that were still running. From what he could already see, Talia was still in excellent physical condition. There was no denying the indeterminate mass near the very center of her brain, though. He noted several bore holes present in her skull, likely to keep pressure from building up in her skull, and killing her from possible edema as the mass swelled.
The scans were only now focusing on the bio-mass, and it definitely was organic, but they had yet to identify, or classify it. He knew it was obviously life threatening, but didn't want to proceed until he knew everything there was to know about her condition. Considering the size of the mass, she had been put into stasis at virtually the last minute. Once he removed her, if he removed her, there would be little time to act if he was to find a way to save her.
Staring down into that frozen, blue visage of a woman he had always known as alive, and stubbornly persistent to the end, he now felt he better understood Victor's mindset as he turned to more and more bizarre theories to try to save his wife Nora. The hapless scientist had always been more of a victim than a true criminal, though his actions bordered on the insane at times as he did whatever he felt necessary to ensure his wife's survival, and possible resuscitation. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Batman had no intention of allowing Talia to end up the same way.
Leaving the scanner to do its work, he went back to check on Barbara, found her still unconscious, and still secure in her bonds. He rechecked a few ongoing experiments he still had going, and then went back to the main cave. He still had the coming night patrol. And he needed more data on Thomas Thorne that even he could find just yet. He'd check with Tim later. His onetime protégé might just have found something by now. He didn't hold out much hope for Bullock. He was a good cop, but only a fair detective. He was more brute force in his approach, and while it worked in its way at times, he needed more before he confronted the faux Thorne.
He had to know what the man behind the mask was up to this time.
The madman, he corrected himself as he studied the computer's recent updated files on key matters. Ethan Hawke, he noted with grim satisfaction, had left town early that morning. Robert Polanski was showing no signs of taking the hint, though. He still had active shipping registrations for three sizable crates going to Arab countries that shipped this evening.
He would check in on that later. Just to ensure Polanski didn't get away, or those poor women didn't up in some cruel sheik's hands. He noted there were no reports from the city park since Ivy had lowered her living walls and let the people back into her once private paradise. If things were slow enough, he'd have to check back in with her, too.
Just to ensure the woman was holding to the new course he had set before her.
Pulling off his lab coat, having already left the surgical mask behind, he checked his patient one last time before he pulled on cape and cowl, and headed for the Batmobile to start another night. He knew it would be near dawn before Barbara likely woke up. He should be back by then. If not, her bonds would hold her until he returned. By then, the initial web integration should be all but completed anyway.
Triggering the engine's igniters, he left the cave in a burst of speed, his heart pumping as his adrenalin surged in spite of his ever-steady nerves. This, he knew, was what he had been made for long before he met the aliens, or even the other metas on Earth. He was, after all, a creature of the night.
B
"Just get the crates on board, and get out of here," the pudgy criminal spat as he watched the last crate closed, and locked after the whimpering girls were shoved from trucks into the three shipping containers. "I've already got bids on all of them, and I ain't about to eat fifty million if you blow this deal."
Batman studied the docks, and predictably, there was no sign of the police. Tim had tipped him off that the judge had stalled the warrant. Something to do with a favor owed a certain R. Polanski. It seemed the judge had a pair of blonde twins he had acquired from the vice lord as sex slaves some months past. He apparently wasn't above returning the favor in letting the warrant set unsigned on his desk until Monday. More than long enough for the slime to get the hapless captives on their way, and beyond the reach of the authorities.
Fortunately, Batman didn't need warrants.
Even as the crane whined, and whirred, its hook moving towards the first shipping crate, he was on the move.
Sometimes, he had learned, he didn't even need to be seen to be effective. He swung across the open docks, an unseen shadow, landing in the open door of the crane. The operator froze, gaping at him in fear and disbelief even as a rock hard fist sent him reeling into unconsciousness. Shoving the man aside, he settled into the now vacant seat even as a radio crackled.
"C'mon Pat. Get that hook over here. Hammed is waiting," a wheezing voice came over that small speaker of the radio propped up on the crane's dash.
Batman smiled grimly as he took the controls, and lowered the hook.
Not over the crate, but over the men who scattered as they shouted in fear when the massive chain threatened to slam into more than one man scrambling one way, then another, trying to get away from the dangerous tackle.
Finished with his game, he set a small device under the crane's dash, and hit a tiny button. A flickering red light began to pulse even as he extended his cape, and glided back to the warehouse roof, and there remained hidden even as he leapt down from the roof to the ground, now concealed behind a maze of massive containers.
He switched his cowl's ocular lenses to IFR, and easily made his way through the darkness. Twice he paused to stalk guards, dropping them before they could even see him. Around him, his enhanced hearing picked up on unanswered radio relays, and the growing panic of the men speaking.
That brought a tight smile to his grim visage.
By the time he reached the docks where he spotted someone trying to climb up to the crane, he knew the men were definitely ready to panic. It was time Gotham's underworld remembered there was something to fear in the night again.
Flinging several gas canisters right and left, he triggered the miniature EMD that fried the crane's controls, and left it a massive paperweight hovering over the shipping yard. He scrambled up the side of one nearby shipping crate with ease, then flew down into the smoke as coughing, cursing men howled in growing hysteria.
Then he was there among them, and their fear took on a form almost forgotten in Gotham. Almost, but not quite.
"Damn, Benny was right," someone cursed. "It's the freakin' Bat!"
Then he was in his element. Fists and feet flying, living for the moment as he hammered their flesh and bones into unconsciousness as the men on the ship now realized something was very wrong, and the vessel hummed as it began to pull away from the docks even without its cargo.
By then, all but Robert Polanski were out cold.
He had time.
"I sent word," he growled in the pale thug's drawn face when he grabbed him and lifted him into the air in one hand. "To get out of my city. You didn't listen."
"You….You can't be real," the thug whined as Batman hooked his gaudy, green silk jacket on another dangling hook attached to another crane. With his pudgy hands quickly bound behind him, he wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon.
He turned to the ship, and pointed a hand, or so it seemed, and then he was flying toward the Arab ship already pulling away from the docks at safer than normal speed. He landed in the center of the stern's open deck, and rolled even as two men opened fire on him from a hatch near the main cabins.
Drug-tipped batarangs put both men down even as he raced past the common sailors who stood back from the dark-clad vigilante, unwilling to even get in his way, and then he was leaping upward again, seeming to fly as he easily made the third deck, and raced down it unopposed to the captain's bridge.
Bursting in on the three men frantically setting sail for open waters, one of them in traditional Arab dress, he stalked over to the man, ignoring the other two after dismissing them as no threat after a knowing glance, and slammed the Arab prince into a bulkhead. "This is my city," he snarled in the man's face, his tanned features stretched in naked fear. "My people. They are under my protection. Never come back again. Understand?" "Yes, yes, by Allah, I am gone forever, I assure you," the man told him quickly.
"Good," he said, and moved to the bridge's open door, ignoring the men around him staring at him uncertainly. He set a foot on the railing, and launched himself out into the dark sky, soaring over the sea back toward land.
"That….is not a man," the Arab prince told his bridge crew. "That is a demon. The mullahs were right. America is a land accursed," he said fervently, vowing never to return.
The police pulled up on the docks even as the Arab ship sailed out of the harbor. They found eleven unconscious men, one whimpering vice lord, and over fifty women still bound in the now opened shipping containers.
Robert Polanski didn't count on his friendly judge this time. He was babbling confessions even as the police let him down, begging the officers, "Don't let him get me," over and over. Not one of the cops didn't know who he meant.
Word was spreading fast. The Bat was back, and he was making up for lost time.
B
"Pretty good for an old man," a soft purring filled his ear as he squatted undetected in the shadows of a building that gave him a good view of the nearly lost bust.
"I wondered when you'd show," he drawled. "Heard you had another nasty encounter with a certain gene-splicer a few years ago."
"I survived," the husky voice chortled as the dark shape moved closer to him in the sheltering darkness.
"So you did," the cowled head moved slightly to nod at her presence. "Not a bad look for you, Selina. You don't look a day over….."
"Careful, Batman," the dark-furred cat-woman that was truly now part cat growled. "You should know better than to talk about a woman's age. Besides, cats have nine lives. This is only my third, or fourth one. I've lost count," she shrugged with a throaty chuckle as she settled beside the grim hero. "But what about you, lover," she cooed, one clawed hand stroking his shoulder as her tail twitched behind her dark body. "You've never looked better. And I oughta know," she laughed.
"It's complicated."
"It usually is with you," she grinned, and put a furred hand under his chin to turn his gaze back to her. "Do I look that bad to you," she demanded, her half feline, half human features a perfect blending of both.
"Actually, it suits you," he drawled. "You always did have an affinity for felines."
"And you always had the ability to turn me on," she purred, stroking his cheek just below his mask. "It's almost like old times, us meeting out here."
"What's on your mind Selina," he asked curtly.
"You. Me. A nice, cozy bed for a change…." "Since when were you interested in beds, or comfort," he laughed grimly, turning back to watch the last of the hoods being hauled off after the captives were freed, and transported to police headquarters, where they would later be sent back home.
"Even cats like our comforts," she smiled.
"And you just happened to be here tonight? I don't buy it," he told her, finally turning away as the last cruiser left the area.
"Well, I did have two kittens down there. I was coming to help them when you came flying in to save everyone. Nice trick, by the way. I like the look. Anyway, my girls are safe, and here we are," she purred again.
"You really haven't changed, have you," he remarked as he felt her clawed hand slide down between his muscular thighs.
"Wanna find out, lover," she asked, gripping his growing erection.
He smiled grimly as he turned and stood, and lifted his grapple. "Let's see just how….persistent you still are, Selina."
He launched himself into the night once more as the green-eyed feline behind him rose to stretch with a fluid grace as she chortled at his ploy. "Oh, I'm persistent, lover," she grinned, her tongue licking her thin, feline lips as she toed the edge of the rooftop, and then flung herself out into the night without the slightest hesitation.
She chased him for nearly a hour before she finally caught up to him atop a roof overlooking midtown. "You've slowed down, Selina."
"Well, I am getting a little older," the feline anthropoid that had once been a beautiful woman grinned as her tail twitched behind her sleek, still shapely furred body.
"Still, you're not bad. Was it the Collector? Or Tygris?"
"No. Someone that stole his work. He decided to create a new life form. Only I disappointed him."
"Oh?" "My children were born human."
"So," he surmised. "When you mentioned those kittens?" "My daughters. Twins, actually, but quite human. The serum he used to make me this gorgeous creature," she chortled as she stood there, gesturing at her fur-covered body. "Apparently didn't affect my reproductive organs. Or my offspring."
"Curious oversight."
"Isn't it? Of course, it might also have something to do with the fact I had been exposed to an earlier serum, and an antidote," she shrugged, her dark hair swirling about her head as her jutting ears thrust out from her thick mane.
"So, what does Selina Kyle do with herself now," he asked as he stepped closer to her, simply staring into her bright, green eyes.
"Whatever she wants," she smiled. "Actually, my daughters are my front. So when they went missing investigating that slave ring Polanski was trying to create, I tracked him down. I can't exactly go out in public anymore, after all. Not as an ordinary woman. But I still roam the night."
Batman eyed her in silent.
"Doing good, lover. Doing good," she told him with a sultry laugh. "Only I'm afraid an overgrown kitty was no match for filling your very large boots. And speaking of filling," she murmured huskily, pressing her sleek, furry body to his now, and her lips to his though they couldn't quite mesh as before.
"Mmmmm, you are still all man," she said, moving to lap his cheek with her raspy tongue.
"You really want to find out," he asked as he grabbed her still firm ass now covered in soft fur, and pulled her ever tighter against him.
"Lover, I was always yours for the taking," she purred, embracing him tightly now as she sighed in obvious animal contentment. "Only I heard you were into plants now."
"Jealous, Selina?" "Curious," she giggled as gloved hands found and stroked her still ample breasts.
"You know what curiosity got the cat," he replied smugly.
"I know what it's going to get this cat, darling," she sighed, and slid her hands up and down his lean, muscular torso she could tell was all natural.
"Definitely," he growled as he grabbed her shoulders, spun her around, and leaned over her, easily bending her over as she went to all fours.
"Going native, are we," she murmured, glancing over her shoulder as he studied her tail for a moment before he moved closer, one hand lost between his own thighs.
Then she gave a very convincing screech as his large, and very thick shaft stabbed deep into her wet, hot core without hesitation. "I remember," he growled into her ear as he leaned over her, taking her by the shoulders to pull her back to him, "That you liked it rough."
"I like it anyway I can get it, lover," she laughed, and arched her back as her tail wound around their joined bodies as she met his every thrust as he stretched her wide with unrelenting strokes into her almost painfully aroused body.
She had had other lovers in the time since her sometime lover, sometime nemesis had vanished, but none had her reacting as he did. Not then. Not now. Even as he gripped her shoulders, pulling her firmly back on every savage thrust, he all but pounded their bodies together as she felt her heat swelling, and her aching nipples stretching into turgid peaks even though he seemed to be blatantly ignoring them. He simply focused on the pounding rhythm of their mated bodies, holding her firmly in place as Selina began to growl first in frustration, then in increasing pleasure as he simply overwhelmed her not with finesse, or skill, but brute, bestial coupling that was, after all quite suited to her feral form.
She felt a growing intensity between her thighs as his already thick organ seemed to continue to bulge ever fatter in her taut, wet flesh as he stretched her wide on every hard push into her too long neglected sex.
Not that it had been that long, she knew with a brief, sly smile. But it felt so as her newly returned lover now dominated her with his pounding thrusts that continued to drive her higher and higher toward a crescendo of ecstasy until she finally screeched her delight as she actually felt the first, wet splash of his semen as it jetted right into the mouth of her womb. She genuinely purred as he throbbed deep within her tingling, finally sated sheath that had been driving her mad these past years.
She arched her back again, her tail now dangling limp, and seemingly lifeless to one side as she moaned in disappointment when she felt that wondrous shaft sliding out of her, leaving her feeling surprisingly empty after his brief, demanding possession of her. For that was how it had felt.
"Not bad, lover," she glanced over her shoulder, keeping her upturned bottom in the air in silent offering as she smiled back at him. "But are you sure you're really finished," she purred.
"For now. I still have work to do Selina. You know the city as well as I used to. They need to be reminded I'm back."
"Well, I certainly know," she smiled as she finally rose to her feet with a fluid grace that was now truly ingrained in her, and nuzzled his throat.
"Your heart's not even beating hard," she protested as she put a hand to his broad chest. "Is it me?"
"No, it's me. You are as good as ever, Cat," he called her with a thin smile.
"Bruce," she murmured, stopping him when he would have left.
"Bruce is dead," he told her, looking back at her with a grimmer countenance just then. "Only Batman came back."
"Oh. Well, I was just wondering. What happened to Tom?" He drew a deep breath, slowly letting it go. "I didn't know you had a connection."
"Wow, that's some admission coming from you. But, seriously, he was a friend." "Tom died saving my life. I wouldn't be here now if it weren't for him. He was a hero to the end," he told her.
She sighed, a faint grumbling in her voice as she said, "The jerk always did jump in over his head."
She looked back at him, but the Bat was gone. There wasn't a trace of him as she scanned the shadows around the building. She supposed she could hunt him down easily enough with her feline senses, but why bother? Some things, it seemed, really didn't change after all.
She had the nagging need to ask him if she were better than Ivy though. Not that she was jealous. Far from it. Very far, she assured herself as she turned to make her own way home, wondering if her daughters would be home yet.
B
He entered the cave near dawn, having reminded more of Gotham's crumbling underworld elite that he was back. Sooner or later Thorne would make a move, for he knew by now that the man had to have heard he was back. Considering who he was certain Thorne actually was, that was a guarantee in his mind.
He shut down the Batmobile's powerful engine as he climbed out of the vehicle, and heard a muted cry from not far off.
Barbara was definitely awake.
He pulled back his cowl as he headed toward the medical lab where the redhead was likely chafing at the bit, so to speak. He saw her straining at the bonds as she caught sight of him, and shot him a dark glare as he walked over to stand between her spread thighs, lifting up the sheet to study the progress.
"Sorry for the restraints, but you really do need to be still for a little longer," he told her as he noted the filaments of the web around thighs were almost completely subsumed by the pale flesh around them. The strand that wound up around her hip toward her vaginal sheath was still plainly visible, but it was showing the same signs of being absorbed into the woman's body.
"So far, it looks like the process is working just as I theorized," he told her as he lowered the sheet.
"Thirsty? I assure you, this isn't drugged," he told her as he held another cup of the nutrient drink to her lips, a straw sticking out to ease the difficulty of drinking.
"You really are highhanded sometimes," she spat. "Dick was right, you haven't changed a bit."
He snorted. "Dick has rarely been right about anything in his life. He's stubborn, resourceful, and a good man, but he's very often wrong about a great many things."
She glared all the more at him at his pronouncement.
"What makes you say that," she spat.
"Because," he told her bluntly, and suddenly smiled down at her still pretty face. "Wheelchair, or not, I would have never let you push me away if I had still wanted you."
"That was my decision, as much as his. I didn't feel I could give him what he wanted….needed. I'm not exactly a whole….."
"Bull," he spat, staring right into her eyes with an intensity that astonished her. It was a look she had dreamed about back in the early days of her career when she was obsessed with him, and had yet to learn the truth behind the Dark Knight's dual life. She had outgrown him, though, and while she cared for Dick, she had made her decision. How could she accept his constant proposals when she couldn't even give him what he deserved.
A whole woman.
He studied her conflicting emotions as they flashed across her features, and nodded. "You're still highly emotional. Some bitterness is understandable, but letting yourself surrender to self-pity only gives the Joker another victory over you," he told her curtly.
"You think I don't know that," she spat. "Besides, I didn't give up. I made something of myself. As Oracle, and then later, as mayor after dad died. I just wished he could have seen me sworn in," she grumbled.
"Somehow, I think he probably knew."
"I didn't take you to be a religious man," she laughed bitterly.
"I'm not," he told her. "I'm a realist, and I've seen too much to discount the fact we can, and do survive after death in some fashion. How, why, and to what end, I can't say. But we do. Of course, you'll likely find that out before I do."
"What?" "Never mind. How are you feeling," he asked as she finally took a swallow of the offered drink, and surprised herself by sucking the small cup dry again. She hadn't realized she was that parched.
"I feel," she started after releasing the straw. "Well, pretty much the same. No, that's not right. I feel…..edgy. Restless."
"Expected. Do you feel anything from below your waist yet?" She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them slowly, shaking her head. "No. Nothing."
"Well, it's still early. The neuro-web is only now partially absorbed. Once it's completely integrated, it could be up to six more hours, minimum, for the new neural pathways to begin operating properly."
"Well, I'm awake now, so why can't you unstrap me?" "I prefer you remain immobilized until the absorption of the neuro-web is complete. That will ensure a solid foundation for the network if you're not flailing about, constantly moving the filaments.
"It shouldn't be much longer," he assured her, and pushed her red hair back from her brow.
"Do you….really think this will work."
"Theoretically….." "Do you think this will work," she pressed, looking up at him again.
He studied her earnest gaze for a moment, and nodded. "I feel that you have a very good chance of success here. Just stay still, be patient, and let the technology do its work."
"Thank you," she murmured.
"I haven't done anything yet," he frowned.
"Yes, you did. You thought of me when you could have gone on with your crusade without ever even looking at me again."
"I wouldn't do that to you," he told her reaching to stroke her face now with light fingers that teased her sensitive skin.
"Be careful of what you start," she told him with a mocking smile.
He smiled back, and leaned over to kiss her firmly on the lips, his tongue searching her mouth for a long, passionate moment before she gasped, panting slightly, and he withdrew.
"Who's starting what," he asked.
"I….. No, I felt…. I felt it. Down there," she hissed, her eyes wide as she stared at him with brimming tears in her bright green eyes. "Just for a moment, but…..I felt it," she almost wept.
"Let's give you more time. We'll test the procedure later to ascertain just how well it's working," he told her with a faint smile.
"Test," she asked, staring at him a little anxiously as the surprising kiss faded, and she realized what had just happened. "Is….Is that what you were doing? Testing me? It?"
"In part," he told her with the same enigmatic smile.
"In part?" "Only in part," he added, and patted her cheek. "Rest, I'll check on you later. You need to stay still for at least another two hours."
"I'm counting the minutes," she told her gruffly.
"Count to yourself. I still have other work to do," he told her just as gruffly.
B
He had meant to see Ivy before he had finished for the night. Things had not worked out that way. He had to stop Polanski personally, then Selina had popped up, surprising him. Then he had surprised himself with that surge of raw, quite literally animalistic lust as he had taken her as surely as he had taken Pamela that first night.
He was going to have to some more internal study on his new body, because such blatant sexual antics might have characterized his Bruce Wayne persona's mask, but never the Batman. Yet he was reacting strongly to certain females, and usually without warning. Almost as if he had some inborn reproductive drive built right into his new body. Something to consider if he encountered other women in the future.
Not if. When. He still had to deal with Barbara, and then there was Talia, still waiting a cure that might, or might not save her life.
He was definitely not finished with Selina. That woman had always been a confusing thorn in his side. Sometimes enemy, sometime ally, she always managed to get under his skin at odd times. There were times when he might have even considered her a potential perfect mate. They had shared their secrets along their long, and twisted encounters, and once he had finally revealed Batman's other face, she proved herself loyal. She had been delighted, as if handed some present. Yet she proved her loyalty in that she never betrayed him. Never turned on him, even when her path still strayed dangerously away from the law.
Finishing his new civilian disguise after stripping himself of his costume, he eyed the new face that he hoped would keep anyone from taking him as Bruce Wayne incarnate in case someone out there spotted him, and remembered his face. Only then did he head for one of the civilian cars kept in the cave for covert duties. He pulled out of the cave's hidden drive, and drove leisurely, if methodically toward Gotham City Park. It had been several days since he last encountered Pamela Ivy. He hadn't heard anything from her, but he was not one to ignore matters best kept firmly in hand.
He reached the park in record time, noting the families in the park, some lounging, some strolling. He spotted a lean blonde jogging past him as he parked near the jogging path that was once again open, and noted he had no reaction to the otherwise attractive woman.
Interesting.
Still, he had other matters to tend here. He climbed out of the car, putting coins into a meter, and then walked toward the park, cutting right across the grass, and toward the hydroponic gardens where he was sure Ivy would be hiding herself.
He was wrong.
He was halfway across the grassy meadow that grew thick and lush here now when he heard a woman cry out, and an angry shout. He turned to see a familiar green-clad form standing beside a brunette kneeling on the grass next to a child, and before them, a very frightened man was literally bound in place by very thick, very thorny vines.
"…..you really want to be a good boy, now don't you," Pamela asked as she shook a finger almost playfully in the man's face. "I don't expect to see you in this park picking on my friends any more. So if I let you go, you'll leave right away. Right?" "Anything you say, lady," the man whimpered, staring at the long, sharp thorns that threatened him, but came nowhere near him though he could see the man might not realize that as they seemed quite large where they rose right in his face.
"I swear," he added when she cocked her head, as if considering his promise. "I'll even go to the cops. I'll confess. Just….please, don't kill me."
"Silly boy," Pamela actually giggled. "I don't do that any more. But I can be very cranky," she told him meaningfully.
"Ms. Ivy," a policeman suddenly appeared on horseback, riding up to them. "Caught another one?" The disguised hero almost smiled as the former eco-terrorist smiled at the officer, and gestured, letting the captive free to drop on his face as her vines just vanished back into the ground that had sprouted them.
"He tried to rob this poor lady, and scared her child half to death," she told the mounted officer who stepped down to cuff the man before radioing for a squad.
"Are you okay now," she turned to the woman and child who were both picking up items spilled from her purse that had been grabbed before Ivy came along.
"We….We're fine, th-thank you," the young mother nodded, still a little unsettled, and likely still a little fearful of Ivy, Batman guessed as well. This was a new side of her, he knew.
"Good," Ivy smiled as she stood up again, and looked down at the little girl. "And please don't be scared of coming back. This is going to be a safe park for families. I promise," she said, and turned to walk toward the camouflaged hero.
"I was going to ask you if you were here to cause trouble," she said as she approached him. "But then I saw your eyes, and I knew who you were. You can't hide those, you know, no matter how clever your makeup is," she said quietly as she walked right up to him.
"So I've been told."
"I wondered when you'd be back," the redhead smiled at him, daring to touch his face.
"I told you I'd be back. I'll be checking in from time-to-time, and….to see if you need anything."
"I have all I need here," she laughed, turning around to gesture at the park now once more full of people. "I'm actually making friends, Ba…."
She stopped herself, grinning. "What do I call you when you're disguising yourself?"
"Call me….Thomas," he suggested, borrowing his father's name impulsively.
"Is that….? No, of course not," she answered herself. "But….will I ever get to meet the real you," she asked him impulsively.
"You already have," he told her.
She stared at him a moment, her smile fading slightly. "Why does that make me sad," she asked him, touching his altered features again.
"Why should it?" "Thomas," she spoke the name as if trying it out. "I'm pregnant."
His eyes instinctively dropped down to her smooth, flat belly.
She laughed at his reaction. "You can't see it yet," she laughed. "I'm still mostly human, you must know. It'll be a few months. But…..it's yours…."
"I know," he nodded, and touched her face in turn. One of the few men on the planet, if not the only man, who could do safely. "I am glad," he told her. "Not just for the child. For your change of heart. For your help in making the city a little safer."
"That's what I want. To make the entire city safe for people like that woman, and her child."
"Good."
"What about our child," she asked.
His lips thinned. "I don't know. We'll figure it out together," he promised her.
"I…..I guess marriage is out of the question," she asked somberly.
"I doubt either of us are…..normal people," he told her somberly. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I'm….an ordinary man any longer."
"I knew that the night you….came to me," she smiled, her eyes raking his features as if seeking to memorize them.
"I mean…..I don't know how my…..biology will react with yours. But I will be with you, Pamela," he told her sincerely, cupping her cheek as he had that night. "I'll be watching you both."
She didn't seen aware of some of the people in the park gaping at her as they embraced, and even kissed. She didn't notice several anxious stares as the kiss lingered, but Thomas didn't sicken, or pass out. He didn't die. He merely stepped back, announcing, "I have to go. If you ever need to reach me, beep this number," he told her, giving her a private pager number that was hooked to the Batcave's communications system, and would reach him wherever he was at the time. "Try to reserve it for emergencies only, if they come up," he told her with a knowing smile as the spectators gaped at the seemingly impervious man who turned to go, leaving Ivy standing behind him with tears shining in her eyes.
He, of course, had seen everyone. Noticed them all. Heard the murmurs of disbelief.
He was still a little stunned himself by her news though, and put off the reactions of those around him as he sauntered casually from the park to reach his car even as the time ran out on the meter. An officer watched as the old sedan drove away even as that last tick sent the red flag up, and sighed. Couldn't be lucky every time, he decided, and went on his way. Batman's mind remained focused on the possible implications of Ivy's pregnancy. Had his suspicion of a reproductive instinct been accurate? If so, what triggered it? He had been around more women than just Pamela, or Selina since his return. He had not reacted to them as he had those two women from out of his past.
He definitely had much to think on.
Ivy, meanwhile, returned to her own duties. She was keeping the park safe for families. Because very soon she would finally have a family of her own. She didn't know what kind of family it would be, but she would finally have one. And that meant everything to her.
To Be Continued……