These Black Eyes

by P0ST

The ongoing adventures and experiences of the Teen Titans, as witnessed through the eyes of a silent newcomer.

209. Metropolitan part 4

209. Metropolitan part 4

'DING!'

'All personnel of the Ceti Department Three.'

'Standby for power redistribution of all main systems.'

'Project Enkidu II is underway.'

On the thirty-fourth floor laboratory of the Lexcorp Building…

Four scientists in standard labcoats huddled around various, futuristic computer consoles built into the white, chrome body of the HQ's interior.

A rather young nooby looked up, adjusted his glasses, and uttered: "P-Project Enkidu? Already?"

An older scientist at a microscope droned: "From what I hear, things are heating up with Luthor and his business partners. He's got that Swedish chick working in high gear on the project."

"Swedish chick?" the younger made a face. "Do you mean Dr. Helga Jace?"

"Yup. She's been Luthor's teacher's pet for months now," the older smirked, adjusting his microscope. "We have a joke around the board as to how the bimbo got her job in such high places to begin with."

"She's a scientist with high esteem from Europe," the younger one blinked and gestured: "Doesn't she deserve a little bit more respect?"

"With the way budget cuts have been shredding us apart over the last few months? Pfft! Jace is bad news, man. She's all part of Luthor's 'new plan'."

"N-New plan?"

Another scientist in the rear of the room spoke up: "Right as you came here, kid, Luthor's been rebuilding Lexcorp's experimental boards from the ground up. He fired almost everyone in Alpha Department and Beta Department One through Four. About ten floors of laboratories beneath us have been closed for three months! Purely mothballed!"

The older scientist added: "Sooner or later, Luthor's gonna ditch us all. He'll switch all of his experimental fundings to S.T.A.R. Labs now that Hamilton is more open to negotiation. It'll be the end of our happy little genetic discoveries here."

"That's….th-that's awful!" the younger scientist exclaimed.

The others had a good chuckle.

"Heh heh heh."

"Man….you are new to this place, aren't you?"

"I-I just moved in from Powers Inc. weeks ago! I don't want to lose my job here at Lexcorp!"

"Cheer up, kid. I'm sure we've all got a few months here at least. As long as Jace keeps Luthor distracted with whatever the Hell she's doing."

"Is what they say about Project Enkidu true? Th-That Lexcorp might be bringing back—?"

"Kid, finish that sentence and you will have to worry about your job."

The younger scientist winced. "S-Sorry…"

"Just get back to work," the older one grumbled. "Let's all get back to work."

'Ding.'

'All personnel of the Ceti Department Three.'

'Power redistribution will commence in t-minus fifteen minutes.'

"Nnnngh….I'd give a good mind if that intercom would shut up!"

"Hehehehe…."

Th-Thwump!

A scientist in the far corner of the laboratory suddenly collapsed. Unconscious.

The other three looked over.

"What?"

"Dr. Vermeer. Are you allright?"

FWOOOOSH!

A black shadow of smoke billowed at them from the collapsed scientist's side.

"Whoah!"

"Look out"

I solidified in the center of the three, spun on the cold laboratory floor, and swung Myrkblade outin my twirl.

TH-TH-THWAP!

I tripped all three labticians in succession.

One fell back and slammed hard against a computer console. CLANG!

Another toppled through a table full of vials and instruments. SHATTER!

A third simply fell on the floor with a gasp.

I spun up to my feet, twirled Myrkblade, and slammed the broadside of the sword across the third man's ribs…knocking him out.

TH-THWAP!

"Nnnngh……"

Everyone in the room was unconscious.

"…………….," I spun around. I looked up towards the ceiling. I double-checked visually on the security camera in the corner near the entrance. It sparked and sizzled from when I slized the cord free in cloaked mode just shortly before pouncing on the first of the four scientists.

I exhaled with a relieved breath.

A beat.

I turned and walked over to a computer console.

I narrowed my black eyes under my shades, studying a screen.

Nothing unusual.

Text displayed a statistical experiment on: 'Chlorophyll Count of River Algae Collected In Metropolis Canals'.

I made a face.

Biology……

I turned and sauntered down the rest of the laboratory's length.

For some reason……I always preferred physics.

I came to a door at the end of the room.

There was an iris scan on a pad to the side of the frame.

"………."

Chiiiiing! I sheathed Myrkblade. I took a gamble by walking over to the oldest of the scientists and hoisting him up over my shoulder. I dragged his groggy body over to the door, propped him up, and forced his eye open before the reader. I then placed his palm over the handle.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz-Zzzt-Zzzt-Beep!

Kl-Klak!

Thwump! I dropped the man and stood before the laboratory door.

It opened with a hiss, leading into a much longer and more elaborate working area. At least a dozen computer consoles lined the walls and center kiosks. A huge viewscreen of sorts stretched in flickering plasma across the right wall. At the far end of the room was a thick, metal door labeled: "Beta Levels". Yellow tape criss-crossed the titanium surface, forbidding access.

"…………"

I gazed curiously back towards the grounded bodies on the floor of the previous room.

What was it the men were saying about the lower laboratories?

That they were cleared out?

That the workers inside were fired?

I gazed at the yellow-crossed door again.

Why?

What's going on here?

I flexed my flesh and metal fingers.

No matter.

I'm here to learn about the Area 51 shipment.

Not the mothballs of some despotic corporation.

I crept up to a computer console.

I tapped the monitor.

A beat.

I typed away at the keyboard.

Beep-Beep-Beep.

I bit my lip.

The monitor flashed: 'Access Denied. Higher Level Security Code Required.'

I groaned mutely.

I gazed back at the first room with the grounded scientists.

Any luck I might be able to rip out their brains and work from there?

I tried typing again.

Beep-Beep-Beep.

No luck.

I exhaled and kicked the computer console from below.

Cl-Clank!

A beat.

"…….."

Well……there's always interrogation……

I turned and made to walk back into the previous room—

Snkkkkkkt-Bleep!

The monitor I was just at flickered to black DOS prompt.

"…….," I froze. I slowly turned and look. My black eyes thin.

A green text square blinked at the corner of the monitor.

Two seconds.

Four.

Snkkkkkkk-kkkkkt!

All the other monitors in the room simultaneously flickered black. Green on black. Little emerald squares pulsing around me.

"………," my lips pursed.

Okay……

What the Hell?

Suddenly…

On the computer nearest to me, a string of text appeared at length as if someone was presently typing. Speakers crackled in a very monotone, digital voice the words of the string of text:

'GOOD MORNING NOIR. IT'S GOOD TO FINALLY COME IN CONTACT WITH YOU.'

"……," I looked left and right.

A bit nervous……

'OH NO, YOU DID A FINE JOB OF DISABLING THE SECURITY SYSTEMS. BUT NOT BEFORE I BURROWED MY WAY INTO LEXCORP AND WATCHED YOUR VERY ENTRANCE.'

"………"

'YOU SEE, I KNEW THAT YOU WOULD BE CONTACTING LUTHOR. WHEN I FOUND OUT YOU WERE GOING TO METROPOLIS, I KNEW IT WAS THE ONLY THING YOU WOULD BE DOING.'

"……….," I gazed down at the keyboard.

A beat.

I nervously reached my hands over…and typed: 'And just where are you located? Alpha Department?'

'WHAT? YOU THINK I AM INSIDE LEXCORP HQ? OH NO, NOIR. I AM FAR, FAR AWAY. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T HELP YOU.'

'Help me?'

'YES. IT IS WHAT SUPERGIRL ASKED ME TO DO.'

I blinked.

I typed: 'Supergirl?'

'SHE'S QUITE ENAMORED WITH YOU, NOIR. NO MATTER WHAT SHE SAYS.'

I made a face.

I typed: 'What, are you two friends?'

'I GUESS YOU COULD SAY THAT.'

'Fat chance. I know Supergirl. She tends to not do well with people who can't talk back to her.'

I smirked.

Turned around……

And was graced with a string of text on two computer screens straight across from me:

'SUPERGIRL MAY HAVE HER SECRETS. BUT I TEND TO KNOW KARA JUST AS WELL.'

"………" I froze.

'YOU KNOW. KARA KENT?'

"………"

'WHAT I MEAN TO SAY IS THAT YOU CAN TRUST ME, NOIR.'

I slowly walked over to the computer console.

I typed: 'Who are you?'

'IN CASE IT HASN'T OCCURRED TO YOU, A FRIEND.'

'Lemme guess, a hacker.'

'CALL ME THE 'ORACLE'.'
I sighed.

'Is that so?'

'EVER HEARD OF ME? YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE.'

I shook my head and ran a hand over my shaded face.

I am sick……

And tired……

Of all these conspiracy theorists……

And hackers……

Trying to tell me what to do!

'I SEE YOU CAN'T TYPE YOUR WAY INTO THE SECURITY-GUARDED SYSTEMS AT LEXCORP. I CAN HELP. I CAN CRACK THE CODE IN AN INSTANT. I'VE ALREADY GONE HALFWAY THERE. OTHERWISE, HOW ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING TO YOU?'

The digital voice rang droningly through the thin, metal chamber.

I leaned my head to the side.

Well……maybe I'm not that sick of it……

'NOW, ARE YOU GOING TO LET ME HELP YOU OR ARE YOU GOING TO BE THE TYPICAL, DARK SORT AND JUST KEEP TO YOUR GLOOMY SELF?'

I typed on the console:

'You say that Supergirl sent you?'

'YES. SHE DIDN'T WANT YOU RUSHING INTO METROPOLIS ALONE. AND SHE WAS RIGHT. YOU'VE WORKED WITH WONDER WOMAN AND MARTIAN MANHUNTER, HAVEN'T YOU?'

'You're Kara's friend allright.'

'OH, AM I NOW?'

'Yeah. You've got spunk.'

The computer voice attempted a 'laugh'. It came out emotionless and wacky, in an unintentional sort of electronic way.

'AH, BUT I PREFER BRAINS OVER SPUNK.'

'Don't we all.'

'ANYWAYS, YOU ARE SEEKING INFORMATION ON A SHIPMENT. A SHIPMENT OF DANGEROUS THERMAL ENERGY VIALS TO METROPOLIS.'

'Yes. Most emphatically.'

'I AM CONDUCTING A COMPUTER SEARCH AS WE……'SPEAK'.'

'You've broken past Luthor's firewalls?"

'YES. NOTHING TO IT. KINDA LIKE TISSUE PAPER TO A KAMIKAZE TORPEDO. I'VE SEEN POST OFFICE NETWORK SYSTEMS WITH STRONGER SECURITY.'

'What's someone like you doing trying to hack into the post office?'

'YOU'LL BE AMAZED HOW URBAN TERRORISTS THESE DAYS MANAGE TO SHIP DEADLY MISSILE GUIDANCE COMPUTER CHIPS.'

'Ah, so you intervene?'

'I HAVE A TALENT. I LIKE TO USE IT.'

'So, Oracle, that's what you are? Some sort of digital vigilante?'

'YOU GOT THE VIGILANTE PART RIGHT. SUDDENLY INTERESTED IN ME? YOU WON'T GO FAR.'

'Two can play hard to get…'

'REALLY NOW? IS THAT WHY YOU DUMPED KARA?'

I gritted my teeth.

A breath….

I typed:

'I didn't dump Supergirl.'

'OH? THEN WHY DID IT ALL END?'

'It's complicated. First off, what did she tell you?'

'IT'S FINISHED.'

'She told you that the relationship is finished?'

'NO, I MEAN THE SEARCH. I'VE FINISHED SCRAPING THE BOTTOM OF LUTHOR'S BARREL. GIVE ME A SECOND TO PROCESS THE INFORMATION.'

'By all means……'

I sighed and drifted back from the computer console.

As the multiple computer screens strobed the little blip of green light at the end of the 'Oracle's' last words, I let my black eyes drift across the dim, gray interior of the laboratory. I once again found myself gazing at the huge doors at the far end. With the yellow tape plastered across them.

"………"

I drifted over towards them.

I fingered the button on the console to the side of the frame.

No response.

I surmised that it must have been an elevator of sorts leading towards the lower laboratories. The laboratories that were mothballed. Still, it seemed like an awful lot of dramatic effort to close off the passage to the lower levels. I figured that Lex Luthor must simply have a low tolerance for people trespassing on his experiments. That or…..

I narrowed my black eyes.

I placed a hand against the metal surface.

I spilled some smoke through the cracks of the elevator doors…and discovered the thing was airtight.

This isn't a barrier.

It's a door to a prison.

Before I could speculate further….

The nearest monitors to me flickered green text as the speakers unemotionally crackled:

'I HAVE RESULTS, NOIR. YOU MAY WANT TO LISTEN IN.'

I leaned my head to the side.

Standing silent.

Patient, but anxious….

'INDEED, THE SHIPMENT WAS RECEIVED.'

I exhaled deeply.

'THERE IS AN AIRSTRIP NORTHWEST OF HERE. JUST OUTSIDE OF METROPOLIS MILITARY COMPOUNDS. MOST LIKELY, DAGGER HAD IT ARRANGED THAT THE TOP SECRET JET CRAFT LAND CLOAKED AND A CARAVAN OF VEHICLES CARRY THE MATERIAL IN AT RANDOM INTERVALS INTO THE CITY IN UNMARKED SEMI TRUCKS. LOOK HERE:'

ZZZZT!

The long plasma screen along the right wall flickered to life and displayed three box-shaped security camera snapshots.

I turned and looked at blurred photos of semi trucks rolling into the loading docks of some basement garage.

'THESE SNAPSHOTS ARE IN THE SECURITY ARCHIVES FROM TWO DAYS AGO WHEN THE FIRST SHIPMENT OF VIALS WAS RECEIVED. THE REST MOST LIKELY CAME WITHIN THE LAST FORTY-EIGHT HOURS. BUT WHATEVER THE CASE, ALL SHIPMENTS HAVE ARRIVED. THEY WERE LOADED INTO THIS VERY SAME BUILDING.'

I nodded.

I leaned forward and typed on a random computer console.

'Where are they now, Oracle?'

'UNKNOWN.'

I frowned.

'Unknown?'

'THAT INFORMATION ISN'T AVAILABLE. I SEARCHED AND SEARCHED. I'M SORRY.'

'I thought you said Luthor's firewalls were nothing to you!'

'IT ISN'T A FIREWALL, NOIR. LEXCORP SIMPLY DOES NOT HAVE THE INFORMATION ON WHERE THE VIALS ARE NOW. MOST LIKELY THAT INFORMATION HAS BEEN DELETED. AND I DO MEAN 'DELETED', AS IN WITH UNTRACEABLE PROGRAMS FOR THE PROGRAMS THAT HOUSED THAT INFORMATION HAVE LIKELY BEEN DELETED AS WELL. THEY MOST LIKELY EXISTED AT ONE TIME, BUT THEY'RE HISTORY NOW.'

'You know this?'

'AN ASSUMPTION. GIVE A HACKER A CHANCE TO WORK OFF OF INTUITION EVERY NOW AND THEN.'

'You're a woman, aren't you?'

'I'M NOT TELLING.'

'Yup.'

I leaned back, folded my arms, and sighed.

"…….."

A beat.

I turned to another console and typed:

'Try this. Search and see if anything comes up under 'Gaia'.'

'PROCESSING……'

I flexed my fingers.

I waited.

The green text light on the screens blinked and blinked and blinked and—

'DONE. NO RESULTS.'

I gritted my teeth.

Dammit!

'WHAT A PECULIAR QUERY. WHATEVER DOES 'GAIA' MEAN.'

'None of your business.'

'WOW. NO WONDER YOU DUMPED KARA. TOUCHY.'

I groaned mutely.

A beat.

I typed:

'How about 'LaSelle'?'

'GIVE ME A SECOND.'

Silence.

Blinking.

'NOPE. NO RESULTS EITHER.'

I bit my tongue again.

A beat…..

I gazed back into the laboratory from whence I came.

"……….."

I turned back to the keyboard and typed: 'Dr. Helga Jace. Try that.'

'ALRIGHT, PROCESSING.'

I bit my lip.

I rocked side to side, anxiously.

The text light blinked.

'I GOT SOMETHING.'

I smirked.

I typed: 'Shoot.'

'DR. HELGA JACE. SENIOR STAFF MEMBER OF LEXCORP'S EUROPEAN MEDICAL BUREAU. HIRED BY LEXCORP ON NOVEMBER 18, 2002. HER PREVIOUS PLACE WAS EMPLOYMENT WAS THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSAL MEDICAL FACILITY, LOCATED IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.'

My black eyes narrowed.

Belgium……

France……

A beat.

I blinked.

Markovia?

'EXPERIENCED IN ARTS OF METAPHYSICS AND MUTANT GENETICS. SHE'S UNDERTAKEN NUMEROUS JOBS FOR DIFFERENT MONARCHIES THROUGHOUT WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE. HEY, I GOT SOME CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION HERE TOO. SHE WAS BORN IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. THE YEAR……1912.'

"……..," I blinked.

'THAT'S A RECIPE FOR A DINOSAUR IF EVER I HEARD ONE!'

'No kidding……'

'THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF CENSORSHIP ON HER PROJECTS FOR LEXCORP. DEFINITELY FISHY. SHE'S INVOLVED WITH SOMETHING CALLED PROJECT ENKIDU II. I SUPPOSE IT WOULD HELP TO KNOW JUST WHAT PROJECT ENKIDU I IS, BUT THAT IS GONE JUST AS MUCH AS 'LASELLE', 'GAIA', AND THE PRESENT UPDATE ON THE VIALS.'

I sighed.

I gazed across the laboratory.

Lips firm.

Thinking……

'NOIR, IF YOU WERE TO APPROACH LUTHOR OR DR. HELGA JACE ON THIS PERSONALLY, YOU MIGHT BE MORE ABLE TO COME UP WITH INFORMATION. ANY INFORMATION. YOU'RE THE DARK SORT. I TRUST THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO INTERROGATE.'

'Some things are easier said than done, Oracle. I'm sure roughing up the world's second richest man on Earth seems easy from behind a computer desk, but I'd rather attract the least amount of attention as possible.'

'AND HOW LONG DO YOU SUPPOSE THAT WILL LAST, TITAN?'

"…………"

'I WILL PROTECT YOU, NOIR. GO TO LUTHOR OR JACE. I'LL DISABLE THE SECURITY SYSTEMS ON THE WAY THERE. IMAGINE ME AS YOUR FRIENDLY GHOST IN THE MACHINE. THE BUILDING OF LEXCORP HQ WILL BE 'WORKING' WITH YOU FOR ONCE.'

I sighed.

Frowned….

And typed:

'Don't tell me what to do.'

'WOW, AREN'T WE THE FEISTY ONE?'

I typed more:

'I did not come here to Metropolis to bang heads in. I came to find answers. To help Terra. And to help the Titans.'

'AND TO HELP YOURSELF?'

'That's not as important.'

'SEE? KARA WAS RIGHT TO CALL ME IN. YOU'RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF AT THIS RATE UNLESS I TALK YOU OUT OF SOME STUPID THINGS.'

'If I die, I die. Besides……I'm the 'one who dumped Supergirl', right? Maybe it'd take a load off of her blasted shoulders for me to end up gone one morning.'

'I DON'T LIKE TO SEE YOU TYPE THAT, NOIR…'

'What do you care? You have no clue what I'm up against. You don't know what's out to consume me and my friends.'

'I'M WILLING TO LEARN, NOIR.'

"………..," I stared at the screens. Silent.

'LET ME HELP YOU……'

I sighed.

I typed: 'Sorry, Oracle, but I've let myself trust you too much.'

I turned.

I marched towards the tightly-shut elevator doors.

CHIIIIING!

I whipped Myrkblade out.

The last two computer monitors flanking me flickered: 'NOIR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'

I was silent.

Smiling.

Relying on 'intuition'.

CLANK!

I stabbed my sword between the cracks in the elevator door frames.

I gritted my teeth.

I applied pressure.

I pulsed smoke through the blade and slowly….slowly….slowly forced the airtight structures apart.

'NOIR, YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO DOWN THERE.'

I ignored the hacker.

I kept stabbing.

Parting.

Prying the doors slowly apart.

So Lexcorp's database has lost all digital information regarding Terra's essences and 'Gaia'?

What's to say about material evidence?

Departments Beta and Alpha are long abandoned and mothballed.

I would bet my last arm that there's something to be found there.

Cold and neglected.

But at least……

Concrete.

CL-CLANK!

I pressed harder and harder.

Teeth clenched.

Applying pressure.

Struggling….

'NOIR, I AM NOT KIDDING……,' the monitors flashed and the cold, unemotional voice crackled. '……DO YOU SERIOUSLY THINK THAT LUTHOR WOULD WASTE PERFECTLY GOOD LABORATORIES IN HIS VERY OWN LEXCORP?'

I panted, forcing the doors apart.

Tearing at the yellow tape.

Shut up before I rip those speakers in two……

'THAT IS ALL PRECIOUS FLOORSPACE TO LUTHOR. PROJECT ENKIDU ISN'T THE ONLY THING BOILING IN THOSE SCIENTIFIC HATCHERIES. KRYPTONITE WEAPONS, BIOLOGICAL AGENTS, THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF BIZARRO……THEY ALL CAME FROM THOSE LABORATORIES. HE WOULDN'T GIVE UP ON THEM UNLESS HE HAD A GOOD REASON TO!'

I kept stabbing.

Mute.

Good.

The more precious, the more honest.

I'll find what I need down there……

'AND LUTHOR HAD A GOOD REASON TO GIVE UP ON THOSE LABORATORIES. A VERY BLOODY, GOOD REASON, NOIR. THINK OF TRIANGULAR AS A LIVING ANIMAL. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE PARASITE IS DISCOVERED IN ITS BELLY?'

I froze in mid-stab.

Panting.

"…………"

I gazed at the monitors, leaning on my smoking blade.

'AN IMMUNE SYSTEM TAKES OVER, NOIR. AN IMMUNE SYSTEM THAT ZEROES IN ON THE PARASITE'S DAMAGE AND QUARANTINES THE NASTINESS BEFORE IT HAS A CHANCE TO SPREAD AND CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE REST OF THE HOST.'

"………," I stared at the door.

I suddenly felt a little bit….

Uncertain…..

'SOMETHING HAPPENED IN THOSE LABORATORIES. SOMETHING THAT FORCED LUTHOR TO FALL ON HIS KNEES AND BEG TO COEXIST WITH DAGGER AND THE GOTHAMITES. SOMETHING HORRIBLY BAD—FOR HUMANITY AS MUCH AS FOR LEXCORP. AND I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT SIMPLE MOTHBALLING. BUT RATHER, A HIGH-RISE CEMETERY.'

"……….."

I made a face.

I didn't touch the keyboards.

A good half minute passed.

'YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME?'

I smirked.

'FINE THEN.'

SNkkkk-kkkkt!

The speakers crackled.

The plasma screen on the right flickered.

I turned.

I looked.

Snow.

Then….

Security snapshots.

Grainy ones.

Black and white.

Hallways.

Laboratories.

Computer consoles and doorways and experimental stations.

Bodies wandering through them.

Some with clipboards.

Others in discussion.

Even others typing madly away at computer consoles.

'JULY 29, 2005', the Oracle stated through the speakers. '3:00 A.M. LUTHOR'S NIGHT SHIFT.'

I narrowed my black eyes.

The experts and lab technicians dissertated. Conversed. Went about their work throughout the winding, metal corridors of Beta and Alpha departments.

'AND……'

The plasma screen fluctuated.

A new set of photos.

Very much identical to the first.

Only….time elapsed.

People were in different places, different positions, different stages of business.

'3:15 A.M. THE SAME MORNING OF JULY 29.'

I took a deep breath.

I shrugged.

I sighed and gazed at the regular images of scientists.

Workers.

Lab coats and notepads and clipboards and ball point pens.

'NOW, WATCH……'

SNkkkkkkt!

The screens flickered….and all turned black. And for a moment, I thought that the Plasma viewer had turned off. But—in fact—the pictures-in-picture had actually started displaying security feeds of the same hallway as before.

Only…

The 'lights' were out.

The metal hallways were dim.

And there were….

Things streaking the metal walls.

'3:30 A.M. FIFTEEN MINUTES PAST THE LAST RECORDED PHOTO. SOMETHING HAPPENED INSIDE THE BETA AND ALPHA LABS, NOIR. SOMETHING BAD.'

I walked over towards the screens.

My black eyes narrowed.

The things…

Streaking the wall.

Black and white marks. Streaks. Splashes.

"……….."

My lips parted.

Blood.

It's……blood……

One screen showed a criss-cross of dark, ink-black streaks on a dim floor beneath a dangling light fixture snapshotted in mid-sparks.

The next screen showed a plane hallway littered with debris. At first I thought the debris was merely bits and pieces of a shattered door or wall panel. But one piece of shrapnel was strangely pale…strangely bloody….and possessing fingers.

Then the third picture. It was blocked out partially by a massive gray object in the bottom right. I soon recognized the gray object as someone's forehead. A scientists was depicted in mid-scream, howling for help straight into the security camera. Blood was trickling down his face in a ink-black line. And behind him was a shadow. A dark shadow. Thin. Nimble. Something sharp hung over its shoulder. Two tails dangled behind its head.

"……….."

SNKKKKKT!

'3:45 A.M. THE FINAL SHOT BEFORE THE CAMERAS DIED TO THE LABORATORIES.'

Dark hallways.

Dark streaks.

Blood….Blood….Blood….

Everywhere.

No bodies. No movement.

The total, hellish opposite of the snapshots from the three screens previous.

'INEXPLICABLY, EVERYONE INSIDE OF THOSE LABORATORIES DIED. AND THEY DIED BLOODILY. HACKED TO PIECES. RIPPED APART WHILE THEY COULD STILL SCREAM.'

I took a deep breath.

I felt a chill up my metal prosthetic.

Rrrred Aviarrrry……

'AT FIRST, LEX LUTHOR SIMPLY TRIED TO HIDE IT. HE WAS SCARED TO DEATH, QUITE HUMBLED BY PURE PANIC FOR SUCH A 'POWERFUL' MAN. SOON THERE AROSE THROUGHOUT METROPOLIS MISSING-PERSONS REPORTS. CONSPIRACY THEORIES. PARANOIA. AFTER ALL, TWENTY-SEVEN PRODIGIOUS SCIENTISTS DON'T ALWAYS DISAPPEAR OVERNIGHT.'

I took a deep breath.

'LUTHOR NEEDED A WAY TO COVER HIS TRACKS. IF PEOPLE GOT WORD OF THE UNEXPLAINED MASSACRE IN HIS VERY OWN HQ, THEY WOULD SCRATCH THEIR HEADS. THEY WOULD INVESTIGATE LEXCORP. AND EVENTUALLY THEY WOULD COME TO THE BLOODY LABS AND THUS LEARN ALL ABOUT LEXCORP'S EXPERIMENTAL NO-NOS. HE COULDN'T HAVE THAT. SO HE SEALED OFF THE LABORATIES COMPLETELY. AIRTIGHT. TIGHT SECURITY. THE WORKS. AND HE SOUGHT HELP IN NEW PLACES TO HELP ERASE THE TRUTH USING POWER BEYOND JUST HIS DEVICES ALONE. THAT'S HOW HE JOINED TRIANGULAR FOR GOOD……AND THAT IS HOW THE PARASITE HAS LUTHOR IN HIS NOOSE. WHO KNOWS HOW IT WORKS WITH DAGGER OR THE GOTHAMITES. BUT IT ALL ROOTS FOR LEXCORP IN THOSE FORBIDDEN FLOORS, NOIR. THE BODIES OF THE FALLEN ARE STILL DOWN THERE. STILL ROTTING. IT IS A PRESERVED MASSACRE. AND TOTALLY………TOTALLY OFF LIMITS. ANYONE WHO ENTERS THERE WILL NOT ONLY HAVE LEXCORP AND TRIANGULAR TO DEAL WITH, BUT THE DEADLY BREATH OF THE PARASITE TO BEAR.'

"………."

I inhaled deeply.

Clenching my fingers.

I shut my eyes.

Concentrated.

Calmed down…..

'DON'T GO DOWN THERE, NOIR……'

I opened my eyes.

Smoke billowed out from under my shades.

I gently returned to the door, raised Myrkblade, and continued hacking my way in. Literally.

CLACK!

CLANK!

CRACK!

'NOIR? FOR KARA'S SAKE. STOP. DON'T GO DOWN THERE. I FEEL THAT I HAVE WARNED YOU ADEQUATELY ENOUGH.'

I kept breaking my way in.

Forcing the airtight crack wider. Wider.

I thought the words the Oracle could not hear:

I have to go down there.

I know because……

You, evidence, and my very own gut all tell me……

That it's the last thing I want to do……

CRKKKKKK!

CLACK!

KRKRK—SCWISSSH-CHTUNK!

I forced the doors open.

The yellow tape snapped.

The elevator entrance yawned open.

I stared in…and felt my hair lift up as a pressurized burst of air rocketed outward into my face. Air full of decay. Hideous and foul.

My face scrunched up instinctively.

I exhaled……inhaled.

And coughed.

Black eyes watering.

I gritted my teeth.

I exhaled….and slowly inhaled again.

The stench…………

I covered my lower face momentarily with a flesh forearm, gripping tightly to Myrkblade.

Shuddering.

Hell boiled over down there, yup.

That's for sure……

I gazed into the elevator shaft.

Cables dangled before me.

And far below—at least three stories down in the darkness—was the top of the elevator car.

Yup……absolute……boiling Hell………

A beat.

I'm going in.

I gripped the sides of the opened doorframe.

'NOIR, FOR THE LAST TIME……'

Oh, go play some solitaire.

And I jumped down.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was dark.

Dead dark.

As I sliced my way with Myrkblade through the top of the elevator car and 'slithered' down to pry the door open to the mid level interior of the Beta Laboratories, I was surrounded in next-to-pitch black. A tiny light lacing the floor-button console of the car's inside was all I had as a guide. I tried to press the 'open' button. There was half an electronic whurr. The doors refused to open.

I took a breath. I jabbed Myrkblade in between the elevator door panels.

I forced them apart with smoke pulses.

FLASH!

CRKKK-KKK!

The doors flew open.

THWUMP!

A pale arm fell between my feet.

"……," I stared down.

With the doors open, a scientist's corpse from the hallway beyond fell into the elevator car chest first. His hand was outstretched…most likely 'gripping' the shut doors of the elevator when he died.

My shaded eyes followed down his torso…and found out that all there was was a torso. The legs abdomen-below had been hacked off. Mercilessly.

"……."

Blood.

Dry blood.

Brown. Rusty. Copper smelling.

"……"

I looked up.

A dark hallway. Scattered with fragments of flesh and labcoat shreds.

A beat.

I lifted one leg.

Then another.

I stepped over the dead body, squeezed through the force-open doors of the elevator, and walked out onto the hallway.

Emergency lights were still working. Barely. They flickered and sparked from up above. A dim, red glow. It was the best they could do after over three months of constant glowing. Luthor's product, sparing no expense. Even the dead had a nightlight.

But it was still, very very dim.

With each flicker of the lights, I could only see more shadows attached to the faintest of shadows.

"……"

I took a breath.

I shut my eyes.

I took my shades off.

1……2……3……

I opened my black eyes.

Naked and blinking.

Bodies.

Pieces of bodies.

At least three persons somehow spread across the entire, metal-thin atrium of the laboratory.

I exhaled.

My breath showed in vapors.

White and pale in the air.

There was something wrong with the air conditioning.

Or was there?

I shivered.

My metal fingers flexed.

I held Myrkblade up in two hands…..and crept forward.

Over the blood-stained metal.

Over scraps of flesh and an occasional dismemembered limb or two.

I gazed down with naked black eyes at the corpses I passed.

Indeed, they had been hacked apart.

By something very, very sharp.

And yet…..

It didn't seem like a very clean job.

Only…..efficient.

Whatever it took to kill the scientists.

Slowly or quickly.

It mattered little.

I shuddered…and moved forward.

My body haloed by the dim strobe of flickering emergency lights.

And gradually….gradually…

The shadows grew darker.

And the metal floor took me down a small flight of stairs….and around a curve of red-rusted walls.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On my right.

The silver-light wall in the dark read: 'Beta Department Two'. That is, I assumed it read as such. For what I could see with my black eyes was inevitably blotted out with red-brown streaks of dried blood by the time 'Two' appeared.

"……"

I turned and looked straight down the hallway.

A single body was in the center of the room. Somehow, the scientist's head and feet had been separated by about twenty feet. The other bits and pieces of the body sort of 'filled in the blank' between the two dismembered parts.

A laboratory door was cracked open to my left.

I gazed in.

"……"

I stuck Myrkblade in.

With the emergency lights flickering, I pried the doors open as with a lever or crowbar.

CRKKK-KKKK!

I forced my way into the shadowed lab.

A computer console was sparking in the corner.

A woman's body was draped over an office chair.

Part of her scalp was missing.

As I walked forward, cockroaches scurried out of two holes in her skull.

I came to a stop.

"……."

I shuddered.

I moved forward.

I walked around her dangling corpse and came upon a system of filing cabinets.

Potential evidence……?

I pulled at one of the drawers.

It was stuck.

Locked……

I stepped back. I gritted my teeth. Smoke pulsed through my leg as I gave the metal filing cabinet a heavy, murking kick.

PHWOOOSH-CLANG!

The locks shattered.

All three drawers slid open.

I stuck my hand in and looked through the spaces.

Nothing but medical equipment.

I took a breath.

I scanned the rest of the room.

Doing my best to bear with the unending stench of the dead filling the cold interior.

My breath filtered out in the flickering emergency lights.

My black eyes came upon something.

A map.

Blueprints.

I grabbed the bundle and unrolled it.

The paper was splattered with brown-dry blood. But I could tell that it was most definitely a layout of the laboratories Alpha through Delta.

I scanned the pages till I found where I was.

Beta Department Two.

I was in a room that doubled as a medical supply closet and a data entry station.

A series of corridors gradually winded down via steps and an elevator shaft to the Alpha Laboratory, nestled deep within the center of the tall skyscraper on the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth floors.

And the reason that mattered to me was….

'Experiment Records' was in a small room in Alpha Department Two.

Into the belly of the beast……

I gripped Myrkblade and ripped out just the section of the map I needed for the venture.

I half-stuck it into my pocket, swiveled around, and shivered my way out of the deathly supply station.

I walked back out into the main hallway and followed the descending labyrinth. Stepping over more dry puddles of rusted blood.

Trying to and trying not to look at the dead bodies all the same.

I bit my lip.

And a part of me seethed on the inside.

How could anyone……

Lex Luthor, Dagger, Triangular……

How could anyone so easily hide this mayhem from the public?

From the suffering families of the victims?

I slowly exhaled.

Furthermore……

How could so many scientists in so many rooms be slayed in such little time?

I ignored the next wave of shudders or two and proceeded on my way……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was a floor lower at Beta Department One when the hallway went completely dark.

"……," I came to a stop.

The emergency lights were completely dead there.

I found myself facing a corridor of pitch black.

A tangible wave of darkness stood before me.

Something that my naked black eyes couldn't pierce through.

And as much as I could simply have used spatial sense for the long haul ahead……

"…….," I glanced to my left.

A utility locker rested at arm length.

I balled my metal fingers into a fist and slammed my limb into the lockers.

CRACK!

The thing shattered open.

I ripped the broken panels off like banana peels with my titanium appendage.

I squinted my black eyes.

Inside the locker was a pair of flashlights.

I took one and gripped it tightly in my left hand.

I turned it on.

Click.

A pale-yellow halo of light splashed on the wall and danced with every movement of my arm.

"…….."

I aimed it at the darkness, following the glow with my eyes.

The halo ate its way into the blackness and showed the wall on the opposite side like a slideshow projection. Pannels, streaks of dried blood, and industrial letters of the laboratory floor appeared and disappeared within the small circle.

I took a deep breath.

Better than nothing.

My black eyes narrowed.

There's no turning back……

I crept forward into the pure darkness with just the flashlight to guide me.

I pointed Myrkblade and the electric torch out side-by-side. Moving cautiously. As if…..

As if I might see someone or something…..

My heart was pounding…if only for natural instinct.

I swallowed and pressed onward.

My breath vapors mingling with the flashlight's dim amber glow.

As I crept…crept…crept…

…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pure hallways of darkness.

The bodies were less.

The blood a little thinner.

The metal, claustrophobic walls a little closer.

I came upon the second elevator shaft…leading to the Alpha levels.

And….

The doors were already opened.

"………"

My feet echoed nakedly against the barren walls.

I could only hear my breath besides that….

I crept towards the elevator door.

Crept….

Crept….

I pointed my flashlight out.

An empty shaft.

Save for cables.

"……"

I pointed up.

Naked air. Going as far 'up' as the skyscraper could allow.

A sky of black.

"……"

I pointed the flashlight down.

Three levels down, the top of the elevator car appeared.

Cold.

Dormant.

Dangling.

There was an open set of doors just a floor above it.

Alpha Department Two………

My destination……

I tucked the flashlight away momentarily.

Everything turned to solid black.

I relied on spatial awareness as I gripped the sides of the elevator doorframe, shivered at the cold metal touch….and leapt down into the shaft.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thwooosh!

Clank!

As soon as I reached the pitch-black bottom—the top of the elevator car—I froze.

My body solid.

Like a statue.

"………."

I frozed because right then and there…

I knew that I wasn't alone.

"………………………..," I panted.

I shakily reached for my flashlight with my metal hand.

And for Myrkblade with my right.

Chiiii-iiiii-iiiiing.

"……"

Click.

Red.

Lots of it.

At close inspection, the amber halo of the cold flashlight revealed the top gears and cable joints of the elevator strewned with dried blood. Strips of flesh. Organ scraps. And other essential gore that announced in every language that someone met his bloody death in the gears of this thing beneath me.

"….."

I slowly stood up.

I turned around.

And as I turned around, the amber circle of light danced across the red-stained walls of the elevator shaft, across the rusted metal doors, and into the hallway.

A hallway….full of pale faces. Elbows. Thighs. Bits and pieces of bodies frozen forever in the throes of death. Dismembered. Disjointed. Disconnected from life.

The Lexcorp graveyard.

"……."

I slowly….silently stepped into the hallway.

My feet made squishy, crunching sounds between my shoes and the metal floor.

I bit my lip.

Cold vapor wafted out through my nostrils.

The stench was the strongest.

So strong, it almost paralyzed my nose to the smell to begin with.

And as the flashlight turned…turned….turned….

Bodies and bones and scraps of flesh blurred in and out of sight in the amber circle.

Red and brown splashes adorning the walls.

And it was so quiet.

So damn quiet.

A chill ran up my metal limb.

And I shivered.

Because I knew.

I knew…..

He's here……

"………."

The flashlight moved some more.

More bodies.

Dead scientists.

Tattered labcoats.

Walls coated in dried juices.

Everything else pitch black….black….black…..

He is……here……

In this very same building.

On this………very same floor………

I swallowed.

The dead faces gaped.

The half-decayed eyes crawling with little, squirming things.

Clear.

Emotionless.

Save for the tooth-ful howls of terror.

Rrrrrrred Aviarrrrryyyy……

I shivered.

I clenched my teeth….

And crept forward.

Squishing….crunching….squishing…crunching….

The amber circle started to shake.

I had to re-grip Myrkblade's hilt.

My breath was short…but visible all the same in the dim light I produced.

I moved on.

Across the soggy, littered hallway.

Following the dancing pixie-glow of the electric torch.

I felt a cold rush of air suddenly.

I froze.

"……."

I looked over my shoulder.

"……."

I momentarily pivoted my grip of the flashlight and shone it back over my shoulder.

A beat.

Nothing.

I saw nothing.

I closed my eyes. Breathing gently. Meditating.

I sensed nothing.

I reopened my eyes. I followed the amber glow again.

Nothing……

But……

Red Avvvvviary………

My metal arm shivered again.

The flashlight shook.

I bit my lip…concentrated…and calmed the prosthetic.

Dammit……

Why won't it stop doing that?

A beat.

I exhaled.

I turned, pointed the flashlight ahead again….and crept along through the unholy 'graveyard' of Alpha Department Two.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was passing by numbers.

Numbers above the doors.

I found this out by lifting the flashlight up to each laboratory entrance.

The amber light revealed eight digit numbers above every frame.

'38392810'

'39104820'

'40281948'

I was at a loss as to what they meant.

But then something trivial came to mind.

Trivial, but helpful.

I took the blueprint scrap out of my pocket.

I stared at the number of the 'Experiment Records' room that I was headed for: '57583902'.

"…….."

I put the scrap back away, tilted the flashlight up, and scanned the numbers in the cold, dark air.

Two doors away, I found it.

A frame that was half open with someone's leg partially sticking out through the panels.

'57583902'.

I took a deep breath.

I walked over.

I pried the doors open.

Gritting my teeth.

"……."

CRkkk-kkkk-krak!

The doors opened.

I made to step through—

FLASH!

"Tempest!" Lindsay shouts on the smoking, ruined streets of the City. She points: "Look out!"

Battered and bruised, the Atlantean stumbles up to his feet. He grips his side, pants, and turns around.

SCHLIIIIINK!

A two-edged sword rips through his neck from gills to gills.

Lindsay screams: "NOOOOOO!"

Tempest gurgles, rolls his dark eyes back, and falls gazing dead towards a red sky above Kobayashi Tower.

FLASH!

I stumbled over the dead scientist and collapsed against a table.

CR-CRK!

I nearly dropped the flashlight.

I was shivering all over.

My metal arm the most.

I panted.

Sweating all over, despite the intense….intense cold…..

Rrrrred Aviarrrrrry……

I swallowed.

I looked over my shoulder.

Black eyes wide.

"……….."

Nothing.

Nothing but darkness.

And the vapors of my breath in the corner of the flashlight's glow.

"…….."

I pushed myself up straight.

I hobbled around the table.

I came to a row of filing cabinets.

Panting, I yanked them open.

One by one.

With the shaking, amber light….I perused through as much as I could.

Titles and names of experiments flew viciously past my sight.

'Volcana Rebirth.'

'Brainiac Contact #1.'

'Kryptonite Excavations.'

'Vandal Savage's Bloodstream.'

'Trident Clones.'

I flipped and flipped and flipped through files.

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness overcame me.

A dizziness…and then a chill.

I shuddered.

A gasp—

FLASH!

POW!

P-POW!

"There're two many!" Lieutenant Smith shouts from behind a squad car. He fires a pistol madly at lumbering, gold giants in the ruined streets.

Eventually, the commanding officer spins around and shouts to two other cops.

"Crews! Blenden! Send for backup! We've already lost contact with the Titans! After what happened to the Tower, who knows how many could be—"

SWOOOOOSH!

A shadow billowing red smoke soars through the Lieutenant.

THWACK!

Smith's head falls off.

His blood-soaked body slumps to the floor.

The other two cops scream in horror for the entire two seconds before the red cloud streaks at them and rips them each in half.

SLIIINK!

CRKKK!

FLASH!

"!"

I fell against the filing cabinets, spilling papers everywhere.

Panting.

"……."

I gripped my metal hand and stared with weak eyes down at the scattered pages.

And in the dim glow of the shaking flashlight, I saw something.

Names.

Words.

"……"

I knelt down and scooped up a handful of papers.

My lips parted.

'Pertaining the product to be housed at Area 51.'

I swallowed.

I shakily flipped a page and stabbed the flashlight down onto the sheets.

'Following the Dragonflare distribution back east, forces are under way to clear out the experimental chambers for Dr. Jace's arrival. Dagger's edge has been given. Dent is supplying the coverup needed in Nevada. But more money will be needed for the final movement of product.'

My black eyes scanned down the pages.

'Lexcorp itself cannot handle this project alone. A memo to all executives. Meetings with the representatives of the Wayne Foundation, Powers Incorporated, Queen Company, and Vreeland International shall commence on July Fifteenth in anticipation of the beginning procedures. All operations in Gotham City shall be covered in this commission.'

"……..," I exhaled. A blink.

The Wayne Foundation?

Powers?

Queen?

Vreeland?

"………"

But those are all legitimate business entities……

My black eyes trailed off beyond the amber circle of light.

How in the Hell are they involved in this deadly, Triangular mess?

A beat.

I flipped through a few more pages to a last sheet.

I scanned over it.

'Preparation of the nether chambers now complete. Once the nature of the Product is accurately ascertained through Dagger, the business talks shall commence. Luthor suggets a competent force of fifty men and women to operate the channels and submerged passageways. We are still working on a way to supply power regularly to the facilities.'

"……."

I flipped one more page.

And I saw a photo.

A photo that looked to have been taken underwater.

A photo—grainy as it was—depicting a tunnel built into the earth.

Completely filled with water.

And on the side of the tunnel….huge pipelines.

Carrying electricity, oxygen, and illumination.

"……….."

Kl-Klink!

"!"

I spun up to my feet and aimed both Myrkblade and the flashlight out the door of the Experiment Records room.

Silence.

Nothing in the amber light on the outside.

No movement.

Just still…..air.

"……………," I breathed gently.

Standing as still as a statute.

Mute…..

"…………….."

……………….

Klink.

I shuddered.

My metal arm twitched.

I stuffed the notes, files, and photos into a back pocket of my fatigues.

I slowly…..slowly….crept out towards the hallway.

I flashed the flashlight one way.

Stained walls.

Dead bodies.

"….."

I flashed the torch the other way.

Dark-brown streaks.

Cold vapors from my breath.

"….."

I walked forward

And stumbled with a sudden wave of shivers—

FLASH!

Raven floats backwards, her tattered robe billowing.

She clutches a bleeding arm for but a second before summoning strength, summoning a pose, and chanting: "Azarath……Metrion……ZINTHOS!"

A field of debris rises up from the ruined streets around her. Illuminated by a red sky, the shrapnel and shards spin around her like an atomic shield as she faces a shadowed figure and utters:

"You killed Robin, didn't you? Now Starfire and Beast Boy. I should have known all along……," she seethes. She shouts: "I should have known all along!"

SWOOOOSH!

The red-trailing figure soars at her.

She flings the shrapnel at it.

"YAAAGH!"

SLICE! SLIIIINK! CHIIIIIING!

The red cloud breaks through and rushes up to her.

Something explodes through Raven's body and SPLORCHES out her backside in a crimson fountain.

She gasps and tilts her head to the red sky.

Gurgling.

Eyes wide and leaking red tears…

FLASH!

I was on the floor.

Besides a dead scientist.

Panting.

Shivering all over.

Rrrrred Aviaryyyyy……

I gritted my teeth.

I hobbled up to my feet and limp—freezing—down the black hallway.

My flashlight dancing.

My scarred face and neck sheen with sweat.

I was terrified.

I felt more afraid than when I fought my way onto Slade's frigate the night that he died.

More afraid than in the howling caverns of black Mortuana.

Shivering more than on the day Dagger's Dragonflared armies ripped apart the very same people I had sworn to protect.

Red Aviary……

He is here.

He is preying on me.

Tracking me down like a wounded gazelle.

I panted….panted…panted…

Hobbled forward in the cold dark.

I got what I came for……

Did I?

Or did it matter anymore?

This is a death trap……

The tiger pit for the most hunted soul in all of the Western Hemisphere.

Teetering on a blade's tip formed by red vapors.

It's not that I should have listened to the Oracle.

I just should never have been born.

I should never have been born……

Terra.

When he takes me.

He'll be coming after you.

I can't let that happen.

I can't.

Kara……please……

I……I……

I came to a stop.

Shivering.

Blinking.

For I had seen something.

"….."

I tilted to the side.

I lifted the flashlight.

I illuminated the wall to my left.

And….

The blood.

The blood took on a pattern.

Rising up towards the ceiling in stalks, only to meet a space…and only for that space to be topped with a layer of red.

Like the billowing clouds over a dark landscape.

Over a dark bay.

My breath wavered.

The vapors lingered in the air.

My mind wandered….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir…"

Glover slowly spoke to me from his sick bed in his apartment complex.

"I came into this whole mess by being drawn in by the violent, the disturbing, and the bizarre. A pair of nasty murders at Pier 7123 in Gotham and Pier 4146 in this City."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I traced the red bands of dried blood on the walls.

Stepping over bodies.

Shivering.

Slowly breathing.

Naked black eyes tracing….tracing….tracing….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pier 4146.

The Titan's City.

Lieutenant Smith gestured to Glover.

Glover approached the inside of the warehouse.

He eyed the wall.

Above the bodies—the heaps of flesh—the warehouse wall was plastered in red blood.

Across the wall—in wickedly thin lettering—the blood reads: 'Stroke'.

"Numbers that coincidentally map out a bayside chemical factory in Gotham……"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……where a terrible tragedy happened long ago and remains largely untold."

Pier 7123.

A photo.

Bodies lining up against a warehouse wall.

Stalks of bloodstains stretching up above them.

The crimson letters spelling out plainly: 'Death'.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

My flashlight followed the dead bodies.

The stained blood.

The hackjobs.

And….

I came to a stop.

At a door.

And I looked above.

With the flashlight shining….

Illuminating the number.

'29531958'

"……….," My black eyes narrowed.

A beat.

I'm no math expert……

But……

"………."

My lips parted.

29531958……

I swallowed.

It's 7123 multiplied by 4146……

My metal arm shivered.

I took a breath.

I walked forward….and wrenched the automatic doors opened with Myrkblade.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The names of a deadly hit list hinted in letters carved on mutilated victims' bodies. Trails of blood spelling a stroke of death to cover the land. A razor-edged playing card pointing me in a direction that would take me through interviews with invisibly-cloaking assassins, fate-bending sorceresses, a man helplessly possessed by a young hacker and forced to steal a very precious video tape to me, and finally a revelation of a phone call from a mysterious entity with whom—in some awkward fashion or another—I could relate."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRKKKKK!

I forced the doors opened.

I stumbled in.

It felt arctic inside.

Freezing.

My teeth chattered.

I calmed my nerves some.

I aimed the flashlight in.

The room was a conference hall of sorts.

A meeting table in the center had been shattered to splinters.

The pungent order of blood and organs filled the room.

Hideously stronger than ever before.

I walked forward.

Flashlight trailing the floor.

And….

Meeting bodies.

Eight….bodies….

Eight bodies with letters carved on them.

Ripped and scratched into the last stretches of flesh left.

"'T...R...V...G...K...T...J…G…'"

"………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover held the photos from 7123 and 4146 up for me to see.

The bloody warehouse walls formed a perfect landscape of a Bay in Gotham City.

With a lighthouse towering and strobing in the center.

The two words in the space between the bloody 'waves' and the bloody 'sky' becoming one.

'Death-Stroke'.

"By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die. Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………."

The amber light crept up the black wall.

There they were.

The brown-red stalks.

Four-month-old blood.

Caked and staining.

"………"

And I raised the flashlight up.

Up.

Up.

And found two words written across the conference room wall in fading life juice.

'Hello, Noir'

I blinked.

CHIIIIIIIING!

From behind.

A red glow.

"!"

I gasped and spun around—

Clamp!-Thwomp-Thwomp-Thwomp-Thwomp-THWOMP-THWOMP!

A rushing shadow.

Billowing red smoke.

Something flying. Something glinting.

I jumped back and ducked.

SWOOOOOOSH!

CRACK!

The flashlight shattered.

My black eyes twitched as I was bathed in absolute darkness.

Red Aviary!

CHIIIIING!

Something came bleeding through the air towards me.

I howled mutely and raised Myrkblade with two hands.

CLANG!

Sparks flew.

The snapshot breath of a tall body pressing down against mine.

With what?

A sword?

Claws?

FWOOOSH!

A cold, searing force of icy breath.

I was shoved back.

I slid through a sea of splinters and body parts.

Shivering all over.

My metal arm hissing and begging to pop.

I couldn't see a thing until—

FLASH!

The shadowy figure lit up like a Roman Candle.

A red cloud billowing out from tiny, thin arms.

Like the ashes from an angry Balrog.

Red vapors pouring out of the face.

Making the features indistinguishable.

I shuddered. Breathless.

A blink.

FWOOOOOOSH!

He was on me.

Shit!

I spun and twirled Myrkblade to meet the red stream.

CL-CL-CLANK!

I was shoved back.

But by what?

CHIIIING!

Red hot serration.

Swinging down at me.

On crimson streams.

I rolled out of the way.

The precious paper files and photos fluttered out of my back pocket.

I tumbled through a pile of shredded skin and brown stains.

I rested on propped elbows, panting.

In a fading red glow, I saw the papers.

I reached a shaking metal hand for them

THWAP!

The red glow strobed as the papers exploded from a crimson cloud's impact.

The evidence…completely shredded.

I hissed through clenched teeth.

Shit!

FWOOOSH!

The red streams shot at me.

I jumped to my feet and murked blindly out into the black hallway.

A cold fire at my feet.

Red tongues of Death.

Destruction.

Rrrrrred Aviarrrryy!

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!

The black hallway was a catacomb of dead bodies lighting up with red at the last second.

The red cloud gathered thicker and thicker at my heels.

The brighter the corpse-filled labyrinth became, the closer he was.

I summoned energy and prepared to bolt my body forward in smoke form—

Red vapors shot forward….

…and encircled my metal appendage.

I winced all over.

Arrrrrghhhh!

FLASH!

The girl in red points at me.

Her short black bangs shaking in the wind.

"Robin! Run, Robin!"

Mud caking the hallways.

Catwalks crackling.

"Don't you see? I'm not real!"

FLASH!

I stumbled.

I fell.

I slid on the cold metal floor of the Alpha Laboratory.

Shivering so much, I couldn't feel up or down.

I slid and slid and slid and slid.

Past bodies and limbs.

TH-THWAP!

Into a door.

Wincing.

I opened my black eyes wide.

Tall grass.

N-No……

Cedar trees.

No!

The Washington sky……gray.

It's not REAL!

FLASH!

Ana giggles.

He laughs.

I crawl on all fours.

Over the grass and soil.

Panting.

I shake.

My brown eyes close.

A cringe.

My black eyes open.

I look up.

Tears bleeding red.

Ana spins on white bolts of energy.

Within the pedestal.

He screams at the top of his lungs.

Some skeleton across the way leers over a catwalk.

Someone else, spinning a knife in his nimble hands.

And someone is laughing.

Laughing.

I'm standing up suddenly.

Staring down.

Rusted metal.

Rusted blood.

Entrails and limbs.

And I tilt my head up.

And I'm laughing.

Laughing……

FLASH!

I gasped.

I clutched the 'X'-shaped scar on my throat.

My naked black eyes blinked.

FWOOOOOSH!

The shadowed figure streamed at me with red trails.

Swinging something.

I gasped.

I pressed up against the doors.

Doors!

Elevator doors!

SWOOOOOSH!

The figure pounced.

Strobes of red flying at me.

RRRRRRRRREDDDDDD AVIARY!

My eyes flickered white once and fade back to black.

I held my breath, concentrated, and teleported backwardsFWOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

into the elevator car.

CL-CLANG!

I landed clumsily with Myrkblade against the metal floor and wall of the car.

Panting.

Shivering all over.

My metal arm convulsing.

And red seeped in after me.

Eating at my legs.

Squeezing along the walls.

Red vapors.

A crimson ice settled along the walls as

WHANG!

The elevator doors pounded in from the Alpha Laboratory hall.

I shuddered.

I struggled to get up.

WHANG!

The doors shook.

The car rattled.

My hair curled.

The plastic of the button panel started to crack.

The emergency light fixture above me shattered.

Metal started to squeak as cold, cold Destruction seeped its way into the very atoms of everything around me.

My metal arm felt like it was going to implode.

WHANG!

The doors dented in.

I panted.

I stared down.

The floor….

SWOOOOSH-CLANK!

I stabbed Myrkblade down into the metal ground of the car.

I pulsed murk.

I struggled.

I sliced….sliced….sliced open the floor.

WHANG! WH-WHANG!

The doors dented and dented.

They started to crack.

With a hissing-click-click-click-click, Red Aviary's crimson breath filtered inward hungrily for me.

I felt like hands of Destruction were reaching in towards me.

Trying to fill the gaps in my throat that were missing.

And rip me apart from the inside out.

I let out a mute scream and shoved Myrkblade down through the fresh tear I made.

CRKKKKKK!

CRASSSSSH!

The elevator doors shattered.

SWOOOOSH! I teleported and dove down through the crack in the bottom of the elevator car.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I plummeted.

I fell.

I soared down the elevator shaft.

Down in pure darkness.

With a blur of red billowing above me.

I held my breath and shot Myrkblade out in front of me.

CLANK! CLANK! SCRKKKKKKK!

Sparks flew as the smoke-enveloped blade ate its way into the blurring shaft wall and grinded my body to a dangling stop right before the fifteenth story's doors.

I hung.

Panting.

Shivering….

CRWNNNG-CRWNNNG-CLONG!

"…..," I looked over my dangling shoulder.

The elevator cords were shaking.

"….." I looked up. "!" I gasped.

The elevator car was full of red cloud. Shaking. Vibrating. Jolting downward…downward…

Being severed….

Jesus!

I panted and faced the doors I dangled before.

I snarled, swung my legs up, and kicked the panels.

CLANG!

Again.

CLANG!

Again.

CRWWWWNNNG!

The heavy elevator far above me jolted and lurched downward more like a death weight.

I held my breath, hung by my right arm, and swung my titanium limb into the doorfram.

SMACK!

SMACK!

SM-SMACK!

My shivering prosthetic dented the panels inward.

Crunching the frame and supports—

SNAP!

From above.

I stupidly glance up.

SCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPEEEEEEEE!

The red glow was gone.

In its place was a series of fireworks sparks shimmering down at me as the elevator car plummeted on a deadly collision course.

The Death Express.

Destruction.

Rrrrredddd Aviaryyyy.

I raised my fist one last time and swung with all my might at the doors before me.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaughhhh!

SWOOOOSH-SMASH!

The doors fell off the frame.

I held my breath, swung my legs, and tossed myself in.

Plant!

I landed in a dark utility shed.

A breath.

I spun around, reached into the shaft, grabbed Myrkblade's hilt….

…and jerked the weapon in with me.

SWOOOOOOOSH!

The plummetting elevator car barely skimmed past my retreating limb and Myrkblade.

It flew down the shaft with its ripping, tearing 'tails' of elevator cords trailing wildly behind.

SL-SL-SLINK!

They ripped into the frame—and the room—forcing me to jump back before nearly getting grazed at a hair's width.

Th-Thwomp!

I landed on my rear.

Panting.

Sweat filtering down around black eyes wide.

THUDDDDD!

…was the sound of the elevator crashing below.

I gulped.

I jumped up to my feet.

Panicky, I spun and dashed towards the first door I saw.

A thin, metal frame with a thin line of light beneath it.

Light……

CRACK!

I kicked it open and immediately flinched as I stumbled into a room awash with bright, electric light.

Like a squirrel caught in the spotlight of a semi truck, I froze with my flesh and metal arms raised over my head. I was a terrible sight—I imagined—with my camouflaged jacket and black undershirt soaked with cold sweat and my hair and fatigues disheveled from the flight in the deadhalls.

"Who is that?" uttered a voice with a Swedish accent.

A beat.

"…………."

"Oh my………ha….ha ha ha….ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" a woman's voice chuckled merrily.

"…………," I slowly lowered my limbs and squinted my black eyes open against the brightness.

A woman scientist stood in the middle of a brightly lit laboratory. Beside her was a gurney with a body on it. A body hidden by white veils and sheets erected beside her. She laughed in a gut-wrenching manner, her face and eyes disguised by an operating mask and magnifying goggles.

After her hysteria dwindled, she stood up straight and gestured: "It's you! The Black Eyes! I thought I'd never…ever see you again. Much less alive."

"…………..," my black optics narrowed if that was possible.

That voice.

I……recognize the voice……

"I wonder if Dagger knows. Oh, I bet he does. He'd ramble on that the Parasite is all about you and such nonsense. Perhaps it's true. Perhaps it's not. But fancy you being here on the eve of Triangular's greatest moment."

"…………"

"I can see that you don't recognize me. It can't be helped. You were the most naïve of the three. Though….to be honest….you didn't scream the loudest."

My lips parted.

She was……

Part of the Experiment?

She slowly gripped her goggles….and her mask…and peeled it off.

A shaking of red, strawberry locks.

She struck a 'seductress' pose and smirked at me.

"Hello, specimen. My….how indeed you have grown…."

My lips parted.

You………

I felt my fingers instantly clench into fists as murderous thoughts swam bitterly into my head.

You………are Dr. Helga Jace?

Red Aviary had long faded.

The past came throttling hotly to the front.

But……she looks so……so……

"I know what you're thinking……," the woman winked. "I'm quite the young fox, aren't I not?"

"………."

"I was responsible for Project Enoch…," she cooed. "I'm sure you've heard of it before. It was something I worked on…..long before I got my hands on you. Long before your New Master took command of the Eyes….."

"……….," I seethed. Teeth clenched. Blood boiling.

You………

I will………

K-Kill……you……

"You met my precious darling, didn't you?"

I blinked.

"My precious…little Terra….," she murmured. A feminine sigh from her lips. "The most gifted of all the children I ever worked on." Her eyes thinned. "Of course you had to have met her. For one….she has eyes like someone else you know. Or at least—if Dagger still had his way—she could."

I snarled mutely.

I took a step towards her-

"And you were at Vegas!" she pointed. "Thus…you unknowingly helped me with my greatest contribution to Triangular yet!"

I froze in mid step.

Blinking.

Wait a damn second.

The cylinder……

Anderson's precious, Intergang cylinder……

Dr. Jace smiled. "Oh….how I longed for a reunion of this sort. I almost wished it was White Eyes I'd be meeting first out of you three. She's definitely the most talented of you bunch."

"………."

"Not thrilled to see me, boy? Well….Mommy's got you a playmate. Besides…..I think it's time you two made up."

I blinked.

Who the Hell are you talking about?

"Snkkkt! Helga! There's an intruder alert! Noir is still in the building! He's on your floor—"

The Doctor glanced halfway at the intercom system, smirking: "I know, Mr. Luthor. The Black Eyes is right here. And my….he's gotten handsome."

I gritted my teeth.

Luthor's next, electronic words shook me: "If Project Enkidu II is finished, then send John after the damned punk!"

"But wouldn't Dagger—?"

"Do as I told you!Snnkkkktt!"

"Hrmmm……heheheheheh…..very well," Dr. Jace murmured. "Besides, my Dagger days are over with."

I icily marched towards her.

She stood her place: "Let's see if my improvements are still in that body of yours…."

And she snapped a finger.

Snap!

Zzzzzt!

Suddenly, the body on the gurney rose in a sharp shadow.

I skidded to a stop.

I looked over.

The shadow beyond the white sheets sat up, turned, and 'looked' at me.

A familiar voice. Haunting. Laced with ever-so-slight an accent. And a metallic ring….

"Oh…..well doesn't this beat all? Ha…hahahahahaha ha ha ha haaaa! Oh how finely succulent the day of vengeance is!"

"Do your dirtiest, John," Dr. Jace folded her arms and smirked in my direction. "I intend to watch….every….bleeding….second…."

"Nnnngh!" the body jumped up from behind the sheets.

I raised Myrkblade at the last second

FWOOOOOSH!

A titanium form billowed through the sheets.

Face half flesh and half glinting metal.

SWOOOOSH!

A fist—

WHAM!

I felt like I was struck by adamantium.

I soared back, tumbled, toppled, and slid hard into a computer console.

CLANG!

"……," I winced, standing on wobbly legs.

I jerked my shades out of a belt pocket and slipped them over my black optics.

And I gasped…..

"Heheheheh….," Metallo stood up from his striking crouch. He turned his neck about, cracked metal joints, and smiled at me. Half-flesh-and-half-skull-smile. "Well hello there, little squirrel. Remember me?"

"………," I blinked.

"No? Pity. I happen to have faint….fleeting memories of your face," he hissed. A glinting smirk. "And the ever-shitting need to punch the Hell out of it."

FWOOOOSH!

And Metallo charged me across the laboratory.

"RRRRRRRRAAAHHH!"

SWOOOOSH—SMACK!