Chapter 10 – The Resonator

"I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness…"

- "From Beyond," H. P. Lovecraft

Batman didn't feel any especially odd sensation when Zatanna teleported him into the home of Dr. Fenderbrake. Although her magickal way of transport felt no different than using the Watchtower teleporter, he sometimes thought that he could actually feel its unique sensation - like a small adrenalin rush – whenever she used her magick on him. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling. He realized he had instinctively closed his eyes when Zatanna had spoken backwards.

He opened them.

He was in what looked to be the main living room of the house. It was tastefully decorated - the furniture and the other furnishings looked opulent without being too ostentatious or flashy, with everything decorated in a style that suggested Old World European. Clean and yet looked barely lived in. All the lights were on, and a large flat-screen TV on the wall was tuned in to FOX News. No security alarms went off.

He found himself surprised, although he supposed there was no reason to be. What had he expected, shadows with pentacles on the walls and black candles? There was nothing he saw that even hinted at anything occult, or illegal for that matter.

Instead, he quickly assessed his surroundings particularly the means of egress should it be necessary. There were two large windows that looked out onto the driveway, and an ordinary front door. There was a hallway, extending into an equally well-appointed kitchen, although it didn't look used, and a staircase leading to the upper floor of the house.

"Where is he?" He heard Zatanna say.

Batman turned to her and asked curtly, "Do you sense magick?"

"What? No. No, I mean…it's just a house."

"This is Cyborg," Batman heard in his cowl, the acoustics so finely-tuned it sounded like he was standing next to him instead of hundreds of miles in space. "Target's upstairs but he's heading in your direction."

"He's coming," He said. "Be ready."

"For what?"

Batman glared at Zatanna but before he could retort, they heard footsteps and then the gray-haired doctor they both remembered from the Australian A.R.G.U.S. facility walked into the room from another room down the hallway. At first he didn't see them, with his head bent and his attention taken up by the book he was holding. Finally he looked up, and the book dropped from his hands. Bruce saw it was a history of the American Southwest.

The look of surprise – and recognition - on his face was relatively gratifying for the Dark Knight.

"You!" Fenderbrake managed to blurt out, taking a step back. Then he seemed to reconsider running away. Wisely.

"Dr. August Fenderbrake," Batman said mildly, although every syllable contained a veiled threat. "We'd like a few words with you."

The older man didn't move or speak, staying stock still. His eyes drifted to a cabinet in the corner, its drawers closed.

"I wouldn't try it. I suggest you do as he says," Zatanna warned.

"What-what are you doing here?" Fenderbrake finally managed to say in an outraged voice. "You have no right to be here-!"

"Tis nwod."

The man's legs buckled, and he sat straight down onto his leather sofa. His eyes widened and he looked surprised and wary, but Bruce didn't see any fear in the man's eyes - at least not yet. He was either very arrogant, or very confident. He would soon have reasons to be neither, Batman thought. He intended to get the information he came for.

"What you two are doing is illegal, holding me against my will, kidnapping-"

"Please!" Zatanna folded her arms, her eyes narrowing. "After the stunt you've pulled, you've hardly the room to talk!"

"I obey the orders of my superiors. I am not in charge of any 'stunt' you're talking about."

"Spoken like a good Nazi."

Batman approached him with measured steps and Fenderbrake's attention darted to him, suspicious.

"You know why we're here: I want to know exactly what your role in A.R.G.U.S. is, Doctor, and I want to know what Amanda Waller is planning next."

He shook his head. "I'm only a doctor, I serve as Ms. Waller's Director of Medical Research, that's all. I am not privy to her plans."

"Bullshit!"

Anger – no, more like rage – suddenly swelled up in Zatanna, as she hadn't felt in a long time. She was reminded of the pain she'd suffered while a prisoner of Waller's: the surprise attack that almost fatally injured her, and the compelling of her magickal powers to open the doorway into Pnakoutos against her will.

"You're no doctor! If you are, well, you're…you're a terrible one! Do you think we don't know the truth? Do you think I don't?"

Fenderbrake stared at her as if she were the maid who'd suddenly complained about the job. She found she had to resist the urge to hit him.

"I repeat - I'm only a physician," he replied slowly, in a calm and careful voice, as if he was dealing with a lunatic. "I oversee the health care of A.R.G.U.S. employees and I perform physical and mental assessments of their other clients. That is all."

"I don't believe you!"

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

Zatanna waved a hand sharply. "Tuhs pu!"

The doctor's jaw snapped closed with an audible click of teeth. She reached into her jacket and pulled out her wand. His eyes widened.

"Oh, I think you know what I can do with this," she said menacingly. "I can do some nasty things with this. Would you like me to tell you?"

The tip of the wand began to glow with an eerie blue light. The doctor visibly tried to speak but her spell held him silent.

"I can pull your skeleton out through your skin, or set your blood on fire," Zatanna's voice was ice, as the very air around her seemed to crackle with magickal energy. "So I suggest you cooperate."

Batman said nothing but appraised his colleague silently. She seemed genuinely furious with the man, but then she had good reason. For the first time he wondered if she was capable of really, really hurting someone, to the point of killing. He didn't think she would, but…

Batman silently chastised himself for not quite being sure of that, beforehand. He couldn't let that happen, not even to this man…but for the time being, let the doctor sweat.

"Well? Oh," Zatanna said. "You can talk now: kaeps."

Fenderbrake gasped: "I have nothing to say to you. You people are criminals!"

"Hah!" Zatanna glared at him, her grip tightening on her wand, the tip glowing more intensely as if matching her emotions. "How many people have you killed? You and A.R.G.U.S., you're all no better than a gang!"

Fenderbrake sniffed. "If you kill me or injure me in any way, Miss Waller will know what you have done. If I don't show up for work tomorrow, or the next day and the day after that, she'll come to the same conclusion. You can't get away with this. You had best surrender and I am sure the government will be lenient with you. Tell them you were misled by the Superman alien, and it will be taken into consideration."

"Superman," Zatanna pointed the wand at him. "That's you're real target isn't it?"

"The mission of A.R.G.U.S. is to deal with alien threats. He is a threat no matter what lies he and your organization repeat..."

This was all too pat, somehow, Batman thought, as Zatanna and Fenderbrake continued to argue. His words sounded rehearsed, as if repeating a script he'd previously memorized in case he was captured. If Fenderbrake was truly who he suspected he was…this all meant nothing to him, really. Time for something different.

"Mgtang," Batman said.

Fenderbrake abruptly stopped talking, his head jerking towards the Dark Knight, staring hard at him.

Zatanna likewise was visibly jolted; she nearly dropped her wand in shock, the light of her wand dissipating as her focus dropped. Her eyes were wide in disbelief. Bruce ignored her and kept his attention focused on the doctor. He spoke again, the way he'd practiced in private in his library.

"Mgtang, aghil gh'sewr wrl'pofth fthimguh." The coarse and guttural consonants hung in the air for a long moment.

"Where did you learn that?" Fenderbrake demanded in a low voice.

"Batman, don't-" Zatanna began nervously.

He raised a gloved hand, stopping her. "I see you recognize the language, Doctor Fenderbrake. Are you going to insist again that you're 'just a doctor'?"

Suddenly, Batman's arm shot out and he grabbed the front of the doctor's sweater. He roughly yanked the man back to his feet, slammed him against the wall.

"Director Waller never tried to utilize alien technology before," Batman accused. "She didn't have the knowledge or skills to find a place like Pnakoutos. So why now?"

"I should think that was obvious," Fenderbrake replied. "As I said: the mission of A.R.G.U.S. is to defend humanity against any and all threats. Why shouldn't we learn to use the technology of other, advanced races to defend ourselves?"

"Against the Justice League?"

Fenderbrake stared coolly at Batman. "Especially the Justice League. The most powerful metahumans all in one place. Therefore you draw attention to yourselves. Unwelcome attention."

"You're lying," Zatanna said angrily. "You people don't care about self-defense, you want weapons! You don't want to defend humanity, you want power!"

Fenderbrake returned his attention to her and she felt a shiver as those ice-cold glittering eyes fixed on her.

"Knowledge is power. The greatest knowledge gives the greatest power."

Fenderbrake looked back at Batman. "As your...friend seems to understand."

Batman tightened his grip on the man's shirt.

"You're going to share some of that knowledge with us tonight," he said.

Fenderbrake stared at him for another moment. Batman didn't waver in his grip or his focus. Zatanna realized she was holding her breath.

"Since you know the Aklo," he slowly nodded. "Of course I will...share. It is the least I can do for a...scholar such as yourself."

Zatanna stared in astonishment as Bruce released his grip on the doctor.

"Batman, what are you doing?" She whispered.

He didn't answer her, his eyes watching Fenderbrake closely as he re-adjusted his crooked collar, smoothed back his iron-grey hair.

"I ask you again, Doctor - I want to know what Waller is planning."

"Director Waller intends to make alliances with certain…entities that may prove helpful in our cause," Fenderbrake replied, as casually as discussing a fantasy football lineup with a friend. His tone had completely changed, the frantic denials of just a minute ago were gone. Now he sounded very cool and collected. Zatanna didn't like it. "The Great Race of Yith might have been one of them, had not the Kryptonian destroyed them. That was a...serious setback."

Zatanna stepped aside and turned her head. "Cyborg, can you hear this?" She whispered.

There was no response, only a garbled crackle. That wasn't reassuring to her. She wanted to tell Batman but he wasn't paying attention to her.

"The Yith would have destroyed humanity," Batman growled. "There was no choice."

For the first time Fenderbrake offered a thin smile, as chill as his eyes. "I thought there was always a choice."

Batman ignored him. "These 'alliances' you're talking about: what others?"

Fenderbrake gave him a contemptuous small smile. "It depends."

"On what?"

"On who's listening."

"You're crazy," Zatanna said in a shaky voice. "You have no idea what you're meddling with." She could almost say the same for Bruce, she thought, but didn't.

Fenderbrake merely shrugged and gestured towards the interior of his house. "I would like to show you something. No tricks, I want to just offer what you desire: real knowledge."

"No!"

Zatanna grasped Batman's arm. "Don't listen to him! He's lying-"

"I have no reason to lie. Your partner knows what I am saying is true. I can see he knows much more than he has told you. Why do you think he hasn't shared with you... sorceress?"

Fenderbrake replied. His eyes swiveled to her and he intoned, "Mglw'niu-"

Zatanna reached out and slapped him, hard. His head barely moved. Batman grabbed her arm and pulled her back and restrained her.

"Zatanna!"

"You dare not say those words! You bastard, you-"

Batman clapped a hand over her mouth. She struggled, eyes wide, but he held her tightly. He bent close to her ear.

"Let me handle this. I know what I'm doing. That's an order!"

Fenderbrake had recovered his dignity. He raised his arms in a gesture of surrender.

"I'm unarmed, as you can see. I'm years older than either of you. I certainly can't fight you."

Batman stared hard at Fenderbrake. "If you're lying, Doctor-"

"I don't think I can outrun you either," Fenderbrake said. "I am also very sure that your Justice League friends are monitoring this place very closely as well. I'm no soldier."

Batman glanced meaningfully at Zatanna. She glared at him with her eyes but she nodded reluctantly. He removed his hand.

"Very well, Doctor. What do you want to show me?"

Fenderbrake stared hard at the Batman. "David Kent built something while he was under...certain influences. It was confiscated from the home in Orange County where he was allowed to live following his recovery from the Southeast Asian theater."

"Why do you have it?" Bruce demanded.

"As you intimated, I do perform other functions than medical. I am a scientist and I conduct research," Fenderbrake nodded. "As I imagine so are you, to be so...fluent. Please follow me."

Zatanna reluctantly followed Batman and the doctor deeper into the house, again not seeing anything unusual although she well-knew he would be scanning everything for traps with whatever devices he had in that pointy-eared cowl of his. She was doing so too, although she continued not to detect anything magickal. That didn't mean anything, though. The servants of the Outer Darkness could not always be detected so easily.

She trembled at the memory of Bruce speaking the Aklo – she had no idea he knew more of the words. She had no doubt that he had picked up more of that accursed language through the damned collection in his library. That would have to be dealt with later. That Dr. Fenderbrake appeared to understand what Batman had said did not improve her mood.

They didn't go far - it was an interior room of the house, not the basement at least. The walls were of a white metallic substance, like a lab room although there was nothing in the room except some storage boxes and a round table in the center. The object on top of it resembled an old-fashioned console TV set (although it looked like something disassembled and put together haphazardly), topped by a large hollow cylinder. It rested there cold and silent. Batman's first thought was that it was some kind of electrical device although didn't see any cables or power connectors attached to it.

Batman glanced quickly aside to Zatanna, saw her look of puzzlement, deducing that she didn't know what it was either.

"What is this?" He demanded.

"I believe Mr. Kent must have constructed it from random objects, and electronic equipment he found in the Kents's house," the doctor explained. "It's not at all very complex...but it's very effective. It's not the first of its kind. I must say I was surprised to have found it. I am sure it explains why Kents' relatives went missing."

He doesn't know who the Kents really are, Batman thought, relieved, but he still felt chilled although not sure why. His attention was attracted by the strange device - he was certain that it was a machine of some sort. "What does it do?"

"The first man who invented such a device called it a resonator, although he may have been incorrect in the exact appellation. I believe it simply functions as an instrument of clarity. It opens the 'doors of perception', as William Blake once described it."

Zatanna froze. "What are you talking about?"

"What is it doing here and not in S.T.A.R. labs?"

Fenderbrake turned and looked at Batman.

"It is for my own protection, a kind of home security system. In case any of you people tried to attack me in my own home. I feel I was a little foresightful in that matter."

"What-" Zatanna began. She didn't have the opportunity to finish.

The lights went out, throwing everything into pitch darkness.

Batman's night-vision enhanced cowl immediately kicked in, and for him the room became bathed in eerie greenish hues. He could see nothing but he sensed the doctor fleeing away to the opposite room. Instinctively his hand dropped down to his belt, gripping one of his sharp batarangs and flung it. He was certain it struck home, he thought he saw the man stumbling, but then he was gone, vanished, where to he didn't see.

"Doctor!" He shouted. There was no response, but he did hear something he had not heard previously: a deep tonal hum, like a generator but set very low almost at the periphery of hearing, echoing around the room. He was certain it was coming from what Fenderbrake had called Kent's resonator.

Although he couldn't see her, Zatanna's voice was close to him. He could feel her at his left, her hand gripping his shoulder tightly.

"Don't shout!" She whispered. "Don't draw attention to yourself!"

"What's happened?" Batman murmured in a low voice. "Where is Fenderbrake?"

"Never mind him right now!"

"What do you mean by do not draw attention?"

"Do you see them?" Her voice was frightened.

Batman was confused. There was nothing that he saw in the room, perhaps there were some motion-activated weapons? That would have been a lot for a mere 'Director of Medical Research' to assemble in his home but he wouldn't make any assumptions. He had been mistaken in thinking that the doctor wouldn't try some means of escape, which was galling.

He looked at Zatanna, saw her raise her hands. In the night-vision lenses he thought he saw her eyes glow.

"Fenderbrake is gone, we need to find him! Cyborg, do you read me?"

No response. There was something jamming the transmission. He cursed inwardly. "Zatanna let's go! We need to get Fenderbrake!"

"No, wait!"

"What for-?"

Batman saw them, then.

They were floating in the air, at first just a few swam into focus. They varied in size, from a foot long to larger ones. His night vision revealed them as shining with a glowing pinkish color. They resembled deep undersea creatures, the ones that existed so far underwater that the light of the sun never reached them, eels and dragonfish and vampire squids, only these were floating in the air, all around him. Their movements were quick and graceful. Most of them seemed to be eyeless, or their bodies had one dark orb placed at the center of their triangular-shaped heads.

For now, they appeared to ignore him and Zatanna as if they didn't sense their presence at all. Dismayed, Bruce saw one pass right through his arm and felt nothing.

"What are they? Where did they come from?" He whispered.

"The machine. You've got to switch it off somehow. They don't see us now, but the longer it runs..."

Slowly, Batman approached the thing on the table. Even as it hummed, he could see the air shimmering around it, and the vibration it was emanating was increasing, becoming louder and more powerful with every second.

He tried to move towards it but he was finding it harder to move with every step, it was like trudging through thick mud and he felt his head pound in an in unpleasant way, giving him a headache. He stepped back and the pain decreased.

"I can't get close to it," Batman hissed. He reached into his belt for an explosive.

"No!" Zatanna said. "Didn't you hear what I said? You'll draw them to us!"

As if in response to her voice, the swimming creatures seemed to finally notice their presence. They swarmed towards them, just curious at first. Bruce saw their fanged maws open and he flung a batarang at the closet one, saw it pass through the creature's body as if through an illusion, just like it has passed through his arm.

It shot forward, its needlelike jaws arrowing for Batman's face. He raised his arms instinctively.

"Tcetorp lla ni siht erehps!"

Glowing blue light surrounded Batman and Zatanna; momentarily the creatures darted away by the sudden light, but then they swarmed in larger numbers around them, and this time their eeth and feelers tried to gnash through the sphere but were unable to penetrate the magickal defense.

Batman lowered his arms. Zatanna kept hers upraised, bluish light pouring from her hands and wand.

"I can't keep them out for long," She gasped. "You've got to destroy that resonator!"

Outside

Hawkgirl and the Flash were interrupted in their discussion of the latest Kardashian scandal when they noticed the lights going off at the doctor's house.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Barry wondered aloud. Even the outside security lights had gone off. They listened but they didn't hear anything.

"Batman must have cut the power," Shayera mused. "I wonder if they...Cyborg, can you tell me what's going on in there?"

There was a crackle in her earpiece. Cyborg's voice barely came through the static distorting his voice. "This is Cy-...we have something...stand by..."

"You're breaking up," the Thanagarian said irritably. "Boost the signal, please."

For a moment the transmission was clear. "Hawkgirl, there's some interference coming from within the house. I...don't know what it is, exactly. We've got another problem, too."

"What? What's going on?"

"Trouble in...Dakota...Superman is..."

Static crackled, then...silence.

Shayera and Barry looked at each other. The house in the distance stayed dark.

"I'll, uh, go on ahead," Barry said. Shayera nodded, grabbing her mace.

"I'll be right behind you!"

The Doctor's House

Batman managed to reach the table the resonator rested on; even that nearly took all his energy. The thrumming in his head was almost unbearable. Now that that the creatures were aware of them, they battered at the protective magickal circle like mosquitos attacking a tent, voracious, hungry to get at them.

"Hurry!" Zatanna urged. "I-I can't hold it for long!" She was extending the sphere to accommodate him but it was taking all of her effort.

Batman grunted as he struggled to reach into his belt, to place a timed explosive charge on the machine. Every movement was painful, his head felt like it would explode. He saw colors flash in front of his eyes, and couldn't tell if they were real or in his head. They nearly blinded him. He felt moisture running down his face, and couldn't be sure if it was sweat, or blood, or both.

The house shook, even as the resonator's hum increased tenfold; it seemed to be drawing in power from the very atmosphere itself, generating the field that was causing these strange monsters to manifest from wherever they came from. The machine didn't look to have any moving parts, anything that revealed its workings. Some deep part of his mind was fascinated by it - he wanted to take it back to his cave and study it in depth.

Batman couldn't think about that now - he had to destroy this thing before it killed them.

With a herculean effort he slammed the charge on the table - he wasn't able to actually touch the machine itself.

"Zatanna, I've done it!" Batman shouted. "Get us-"

Before he could finish, he saw a red flash dart into the room. Batman saw Flash's surprised face as he entered the room.

"No!" Zatanna shouted.

The things saw him too. They immediately turned their attention from them to their Flash, swarming towards him like piranha towards their prey in the water. Batman heard Barry scream, just as the bluish magickal sphere protecting him and Zatanna dissipated.

Batman heard Zatanna shouting something but he couldn't make out the words. He reached out for her and grabbed the hem of her tailcoat.

"The charge is set!" He shouted. "Get us out of here!"

Even as he shouted, he was running out of the room, dragging her with him. Then he saw Hawkgirl standing over Barry, who was lying on the ground, nearly covered by that pinkish glow, swinging her mace, howling in her native language. The mace swung right through the creatures, but they darted back from the Nth-metal nonetheless. Zatanna in turn grabbed Shayera by her wing. More of the creatures surrounded them, bigger ones, and Batman thought he saw one five feet long, the size of a shark, bursting through the disappearing wall, its multiple eyes shining with the night-vision glow...

"Esoht ni siht moor, yawa!"

Another flash of light, but this one was less onerous than what was in the damned house. Batman opened his eyes to the darkness, but it was the dark of night, lit by a full moon, a quarter distance from the house. He shut off his night-vision. He could see well in the moonlight.

Hawkgirl gasped out, "What happened-?"

Shayera did not have time to finish the sentence - there was a terrific boom, and an explosion ripped through the house, sending debris, smoke and fire high in to the sky. The ground under their feet shook, and bits of wood, plastic and metal fell not far from them. Now, the fires lit the chaparral around them.

Batman collapsed to one knee, his head still throbbing with pain. He felt moisture on his face, and wiped it with the back of his hand: his nose was bleeding profusely.

He looked at Zatanna; she looked stunned and dazed, but she was not wounded as far as he could see.

The Flash, however, was lying on the ground, Shayera kneeling next to him. He was groaning in pain. The redness on his costume was not just from the color of his suit.

"Is he all right?"

Shayera was already administering first aid. "We need to get him to the sickbay, he's bleeding badly." She said shortly.

Barry managed to raise himself up on his elbows, wincing as Shayera jammed a hypo of painkillers into his thigh. "What happened in there?" He managed to say.

"I'm…not sure," Batman said. "We confronted Fenderbrake in his house. He took us to a room where he had something he said that David Kent had built. The lights went out…then the air was filled with those…things."

"Those 'things' nearly chewed Barry's legs off," Shayera said furiously. "Where the hell is that damn doctor?"

Batman strode a distance away from them, scanning the horizon intensely, adjusting the lenses on his cowl. Fire burned brightly in what was left of the house, but he saw no one else. Fortunately, not even the things that had swarmed throughout Fenderbrake's room. The destruction of the resonator seemed to have cut off wherever they came from.

"Did you see him?" Batman demanded.

"No," Barry winced again. "We didn't see anyone. We saw the lights go out in the whole house, and we went in."

Batman glared at him. "What were you and Shayera doing here?"

"Uh, just backup, in case you needed it, in case it was a trap like the last time you and Zatanna went out to confront someone. Looks like it was another one too."

"What were those things?" Shayera asked.

"The machine in his study, his spare room or whatever," Zatanna said. "Somehow…it let them in."

"Let them in? From where? Some kind of a... another dimensional portal? Or space? I've never seen anything like those before." Shayera's voice was shaky. "My mace passed right through them. But Barry was real enough to them, it looks like."

"I guess would be the easiest answer, yes," Zatanna murmured quietly. Batman shot her a sharp look, but she said nothing else.

"Let's get Barry up to the Watchtower," he said. "We'll talk later. He needs medical attention now."

"That doctor..."

"He's gone, for now," Batman said. "I don't see him."

Shayera nodded towards the burning house. "Or he's burning up in there. His car is still there. He could be dead."

"I doubt it." Batman said grimly.

Watchtower...an hour later...

"I think this has only confirmed what we suspected."

Batman was in the sickbay with Shayera, Barry, Zatanna and J'onn J'onzz. J'onn had insisted that Bruce have a full checkup although the nosebleed had stopped and the headache was gone. "Waller's pet doctor is in league with the forces that Zatanna described. He's the real motivation and danger behind Waller. We need to find him and stop him before he does worse damage."

"But he's disappeared. Are you sure he didn't get caught in the explosion?" J'onn asked.

"That's possible," Zatanna said quietly. "But I have a feeling he got away, somehow."

"Local police and firefighters are at the house," Shayera added. "I guess we'll learn through the news if they've found a body."

Batman turned to the Flash. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"A few stitches. I've had worse." Barry shrugged. Actually it had hurt quite a bit as those butt-uglies had torn into his flesh, but the less he thought about it the better.

"You and Hawkgirl shouldn't have come in the house," Batman said. "You're lucky to be alive."

"Yes, I think he knows that," Hawkgirl said. She didn't like being scolded by Batman, or anybody. "What happened with the comms?"

"Wonder Woman had an emergency of some sort," J'onn replied. "We needed to send some people out. There was a massive gas explosion in the northern United States."

Batman thought for a moment. "If Fenderbrake has gotten away, he'll get in touch with Waller. They will know we're onto them."

"This machine Dr. Fenderbrake had," J'onn mused. "Was this something he built?"

"No," Batman replied. "He said that it was built by David Kent, when he was under the control of the Yith. He called it a resonator. He said that it opened doors."

"It's evident that A.R.G.U.S. is trying to amass weapons like this," Hawkgirl sounded angry. "It's also clear they're willing to use it."

"We'll talk about this later," Batman said. "When everyone is here. Let me know what is happening with this emergency with Wonder Woman."

After the others had left and they were alone in the sickbay, Zatanna faced Bruce. She had been quiet during J'onn's examinations but now she looked angry.

"What have you done?" She demanded.

"What are you talking about?"

"Damn it, you know what I'm talking about! You used-" Zatanna lowered her voice, realizing she was shouting. "You used the Aklo words. Just where did you learn them?"

He didn't even have the decency to look her in the face when he replied, she thought. "I have my sources. You know that. I have an almost complete alphabet, I think, in one of my books. It's not that hard to learn, it's actually quite simple."

"Goddamn it," she shook her head. "Haven't you been listening to anything I've said? Obviously not!"

"I've heard you," he finally looked at her with his bloodshot eyes. "I know why you're upset but it doesn't matter how unpleasant you find it. It's just a tool. A tool we're going to need."

"No, not just a tool!" She protested. "Do you think you can use it like one of your stupid batarangs?"

"No, I don't think it's like my batarangs," Batman replied, with irritation. "I'm aware of the risks."

"Do you? But you went ahead and used the speech anyway."

"You saw how Fenderbrake reacted. That proves he knows about this...this occult knowledge, the same as you."

"Not the same as me." Zatanna protested. "I don't go out looking for the knowledge of the Outer Darkness."

"No? You know about the Aklo, but I can't?"

"You're not-"

"A homo magii? Why? Does that give you some special protection?"

"No, it doesn't. But I've had more experience with it than you. Please, Bruce, don't pursue this anymore!"

"I can't do that, Zatanna. I won't risk the possibility that Waller can get her hands on this sort of alien technology."

"But you're putting yourself in danger." Zatanna bit her lip.

"I've done that many times before. I'll do it as long as I have to."

Zatanna said nothing, but she was clearly not pleased.

"Are you all right?" Bruce asked, more gently this time.

"I'm fine," Zatanna said quietly. "I'm not hurt."

She sighed. "I need to go home. I have rehearsals coming up starting tomorrow. We're rehearsing in Gotham this time."

"I know," Bruce said. He took her hand. "That why I wanted to suggest-"

The sickbay doors whooshed open; surprised, Bruce and Zatanna turned to see Superman - Clark Kent, as he was in civilian clothes - storm into the sickbay. His left arm was in a crude sling and he had a bloody bandage over one eye. Wonder Woman was closely following him, their kid held in one arm.

"Clark, wait!" She shouted after her husband. But he didn't listen. Zatanna then saw how pissed he looked.

He stormed straight up to Bruce and pushed him roughly against the wall. Bruce was too startled to do anything but look surprised.

"Whoa, wait a minute, what's going on?" Zatanna cried.

"Bruce," Clark said grimly. "You've got some explaining to do!"

To be continued...

[A/N: To learn more about how David Kent built the Resonator, it's in my previous pic The Place Where the Black Stars Hang. Of course the whole idea comes from Lovecraft's short story "From Beyond" which I've borrowed and put in this chapter. Actually, the device in the short story didn't have a name the word 'resonator' comes from the movie adaptation starring Jeffrey Coombs, which is glorious B-move schlock! Anyway, yes Clark survived the explosion, and wants an explanation about why Wayne Enterprises was involved. Is the good doctor still alive? Quite probably. We'll learn what happens next...but up next is the Joker/Harley interlude! It's time for some humor in this story...hopefully! Of course I have Suicide Squad Joker/Harley on the brain...but they will play an interesting role in the story as you readers may see if you stick with me. Again, thanks so much for reading, and please review!]