Cypher wants revenge against Batman and his former third Robin. What better way to get revenge than to use the Wayne Family to lure everyone to their doom.

Subliminal Death

By

AJ

Part 12: Cypher's Frustration and Revelation

'Wayne should be done giving me his entire fortune,' Cypher thought to himself. He had taken a break to eat a meal. Watching the computer go through the transfer of funds felt like it was taking forever so he stepped away from the computer and did a little introspection.

'Everything I thought up took weeks of planning. Once I have Wayne's fortune, I can improve my equipment ten-fold. I can go after other people's fortunes. I could even go after Lex Luthor's. Just think, I could become the richest man in the world, all from the comfort of my private hidden lair. Then I can go after Batman and his side kick, the one who destroyed my equipment the last time, four years ago.'

After having a hearty lunch, Cypher went back to his computer and checked the transfer. The transaction had stopped filtering at 30 million, a mere drop in the bucket compared to everything that Wayne owned. What happened?

'Someone must have got to him, but that's impossible. Wayne and his boys should all be dead by now.'

Cypher checked the programming and discovered the flaw and quickly shut down his own program. He at least was able to grab that much from Wayne's account. He had to secure it before the reverse could happen. Cypher transferred the funds to another account, one that was secure. Now Wayne couldn't get that 30 million back. When Cypher thought about what happened, he realized it had to be the Boy Genius who stopped him. He was a computer Wizkid and the one who stopped Money Spider.

'I must make my subliminal messages stronger,' Cypher thought. 'Tapping into people's minds, their brainwaves didn't work. I can only do one person at a time. I want to affect millions. There must be another way, one that I am overlooking.'

Cypher needed to find a way to get his messages out there faster than a spreading virus. He tried using computers. He tried setting up his devices in Wayne's home, but that didn't work either. Somehow his devices were found. Frustration was giving way to anger, and when he got angry, he tore things apart.

'That's just what they want me to do,' he thought. 'They must think I'm a joke. Well, I'll show them.'

"Shouldn't we go after Red Robin?" Robin asked. "All this waiting is driving me crazy."

"Red Robin did suggest you look for devices that might have been planted in the house," Red Hood stated. "If Red isn't back within a couple hours, we'll go look for him."

Bruce hadn't said anything yet. This newfound cooperation between his sons was glorious to see.

Robin nodded his head, got changed, then headed up the stairs to check on certain digital and electronic devices in the living area and game room. Damian checked for any hidden device, but didn't find any.

'That's odd," Damian thought to himself. 'Tim was sure there would be some kind of device added to our electronic devices. It's like everything was checked over already.'

Damian examined one TV in a smaller sitting area. 'How many of these things do we have? I don't remember there being one here.'

A sudden revelation hit him. "Because there isn't one. This parlor is used for greeting guests.'

Damian checked the TV and found that a certain part was removed. What's going on? Damian went to check the sunroom. The television was okay and so was the digital clock, but the desktop computer that hadn't been used in years wasn't. It was missing something.

'Huh, that's weird. What if father already did it? He would have said something. Can't leave anything unchecked though.'

Damian continued his search, going through all of the rooms. He found a few unusual electronic devices that didn't belong to the original equipment, but only a few. Those devices were placed in rooms that no one had been in for a long time. Damian detached them and slipped them into his pocket. It was unlikely that an electronic device of this type had been placed in the nursery, but he decided to check anyway. When he entered, he saw something weird. Jaxon was sitting in the middle of the floor with Cypher's devices around him.

"Jax, where did you get those?" Damian asked.

^Pretty metal,^ Jaz cooed.

"They are kind of pretty, but you didn't answer my question."

^Found them,' Jax answered. ^Here you go. You can take them.^

'That was weird,' Damian said to himself. Damian examined the devices and found they were intact. 'I'll talk to him later about it. And how the hell did he get out of his crib?' Damian put his nephew back in his crib and placed a couple of stuffed animals with him. He gathered up the devices and headed back down to the cave and placed them on top of a workbench.

"You found then all?"

"Um, yeah," Damian stated, not revealing where he found them. He removed the three devices he actually found from his pocket and placed them with the rest.

Bruce changed into his uniform leaving his cowl off. He picked up one of the smaller devices and began his examination. "Better get back into your uniform. You three are going back out there. Red Robin is out there alone, and he hasn't checked in. He may need back up. I'll let you know if I get any clues off of these things."

Damian nodded his head, still puzzled about his nephew. He needed to clear his mind. He went over and put on a clean uniform.

"Come on, we have to go back for Red Robin," Nightwing encouraged.

"Don't be in such a hurry," Jason stated as he placed his helmet back on his head. "I'm sure Red Robin's fine.

Even so, all three rushed from the cave, each thinking almost the same thoughts. What was Cypher up to and when was he going to strike next?

As Cypher got to work on his plan, his phone went off.

"Oh really," he listened to the person on the other end. "Thank you, for letting me know. You can forget this conversation." Cypher hung up the phone. His mole in the home told him some very interesting details. So, his devices were just discovered. It was quite possible that whatever messages he planted in their brains hadn't been discovered yet. That spurred Cypher on. He stared at the phone.

'Why didn't I think about this before?'

A wicked grin spread across Cypher's face, and he knew how he was going to pull it off. It would be the most insidious plan yet.

Continues with Part 13: Distractions Along the Way