GOTHAM CITY
April 1, 19:52 EST
The moment Batman stepped out of the Batmobile, the smell was already driving him nuts. The air, even at the edge of the city, reeked of smoke, burning plastic, and dead bodies (he'd smelled enough dead bodies in his line of work that he could pick out the familiar sickly-sweet stench from a metaphorical line up).
Resisting the urge to pull on his air mask (the things didn't have an unlimited air supply, and he needed to save it for something more serious than a bad smell), Batman unhooked his grapple gun and shot off a line to the nearest building. As he rose through the air the overwhelming stench dissipated slightly with the flowing breeze, and he decided he'd race full speed across the city if it meant giving his nose a reprieve.
"Hahaha!" A joyful cackle whizzed past him on his right. Quirking his mouth up slightly, the Batman watched his partner fly through the rising smoke resembling the bird he was named after. Graysons truly do belong in the air. It's in his blood.
Glad that the simple act of grappling seemed to have raised his son's grim spirits just a little, Batman pushed himself to catch up to the young acrobat.
Dick did a triple flip, then casually glanced back at his incoming adopted father. "53rd and Huntington, right?" He asked, double checking the address of Jianyu Ha's lab.
"Correct."
"We should swing further uptown then, the buildings are higher so even though it's a longer route we could get there faster." Robin flashed him a smile, already knowing his answer.
"Ok." I'm so proud of you, son.
"Race you!" Thanks B. Let's go kick some ass.
And so they swung through the skyscrapers, over the infested streets and sick, mutated people, holding their breath as they passed through billowing fingers of smoke.
When they reached the correct building, they had to wait a long time for the street to be clear enough to kick in the door and enter unnoticed. Robin and he had talked in the Batmobile on the way over, and they'd decided that avoiding combat situations was preferable to being swarmed by a horde of mindless, innocent Gothamites.
When the street was finally clear of roaming Infected, Batman kicked the door in and stormed into the building, Robin watching his back and bolting the door shut behind him.
The building seemed abandoned. They crossed the horribly decorated waiting/lobby area and entered the doors under an "Employees Only" sign. The hallway was painted blue, and had way too many pictures of beaches lining it.
There was a tinkling sound, of glass hitting glass, and Batman motioned for Robin to freeze. Holding their breath, they waited.
Clink. Clink.
It sounded like test tubes accidentally touching each other, and it was coming from a hallway on the left. No words needed, the Dynamic Duo soundlessly glided towards the noises.
At the end of the hallway there was a room with a light on. A light, in an empty building, in the middle of the end of the world. Not suspicious at all. Batman took out a stun grenade and motioned for Robin to wait.
Barely opening the door, he rolled the device through, then turned his face away in anticipation.
BOOM. Even with closed eyes he could see the brightness of the released light, and his ears rang with the concussive noise. Moments later he charged through the door, batarang in hand.
A very dazed, momentarily blind and deaf, zombie was stumbling back and forth. The man was Asian, and clothed in a bloody lab coat.
Robin swiftly dispatched him with a kick to the temple. "So that's probably Ha." Peeking at the embroidered name on his coat, Robin nodded in confirmation. "Yep, it's him. Wonder why he didn't take the antitoxin, though?"
"Maybe he didn't have enough warning." Batman pondered, taking in the lab that had created the worst bioweapon he'd ever seen. It was long and rectangular, split into two halves by a long island. There was a bank of heavy, expensive machines lining the back wall, including a centrifuge, sonicator, freezer, autoclave, fume hood, spectrophotometer, and biosafety cabinets. The island was covered inch to inch with shiny glassware and racks of colored chemical compounds. Cabinets lined the wall closest to him, along with two state-of-the-art computer monitors and large hard-drives.
It was illicit scientist heaven.
Robin moved towards the two computers, unhooking a cord from his hologlove and plugging it into the monitors. Hacking them wouldn't be a challenge for the mathlete.
Batman began collecting samples of everything he could get his hands on. Thank god, he'd come prepared for doing just this, he normally didn't carry this many evidence collectors with him at one time. Once he'd safely tucked them away in his belt, he collected any printed evidence in the lab area. From behind him he heard Robin opening drawers and searching for hidden compartments.
They kept at this for an hour, sweeping the room clean and going over everything they'd collected.
They still had nothing.
"From the look of these electronic payments we know Ha was definitely colluding with Harold Barker, but there's no digital mention of what they were collaborating on! They must have kept their meetings strictly in person." Robin debriefed.
"Security cameras catch anything suspicious?" Batman asked, even though there hadn't been enough time to fully analyze the footage.
"Nothing in the ten minutes I super-fast-forwarded it through." Robin explained. "Any luck on your end?"
"No. It's clear Ha was working on something big, but none of these chemicals make sense. They're not nearly powerful enough to mutate and enslave an entire city. They're mostly variations of typical human neurotransmitters."
Robin huffed, recognizing the dead end as the one he'd been stuck at all day long. "We're not going to find the antitoxin here, are we?" He asked sadly.
"No." Batman answered. "Transfer everything you downloaded to the Batcave's server. We'll go over it in detail tomorrow." He made sure not to bring up the fact that they were probably going to have to pull another all-nighter. I'm ruining this poor kid's sleep habits.
"It's time to go back to Arkham, isn't it?" Robin wearily asked. Batman understood the sentiment all too well. That place was a hellhole even when it wasn't overrun with zombies. With its narrow, enclosed hallways and flickering luminescent lights, it would be a nightmare to face off with a horde of Infected guards and prisoners.
"Strange's cell walls were covered in pages of writing. It's crucial intelligence we need to collect." Also, I can probably beat any answers I need out of the son of a bitch.
"Great." Robin sighed, locking eyes with him through the masks, "but that's exactly what he wanted, remember? 'You'll never figure it out, and when you give up I'll be waiting right here safe in my cell, yada yada yada?' The idea of doing exactly what he wants is not exactly whelming, ya know?"
Batman considered the options. If this was a normal investigation, and the city wasn't on fire and overrun with Infected, he'd have been working his way through Harold Barker's smuggling business to have a nice little chat with the man. If this was a normal investigation, he would have personally interrogated every guard in that asylum until he found the one who let Strange get two vials of antidote into his cell. He'd coordinate with Gordon to keep watch on all of Strange's suspected accomplices, and maybe had a chat with the sketchier ones. But he couldn't do any of that, because every person in the city was a walking corpse. Strange was right (ouch, that hurt to admit), he couldn't solve this case with the resources and the data he had right now. And they were running out of time. The only move that was left was to do exactly what Strange wanted them to do. He was playing some sort of sick, twisted game with them. Strange designed this whole scenario, piece by piece, and had likely already anticipated every one of Batman's reactions.
"We don't have any other options." Batman growled, mad at being backed into a corner like this.
"I was afraid you'd say that."
Grappling across the entire city was really exhausting.
Robin loved it more than almost anything else in the world, but his shoulders were aching horribly. Nevertheless, the slight pain was helping keep his mind off the burning warzone beneath him.
At least the air was clean and crisp, slight scent of smoke notwithstanding.
He released his grapple hook at the top of the arc, doing a lazy backflip before shooting out another line towards a tall housing complex. Batman was just ahead of him, and he watched his mentor stop and catch his breath on a nearby roof. Yep, grappling may be fun, but it's getting old fast.
Out of the corner of his eye Robin saw a sudden movement. Twisting his head, he scanned the area. There were a few Infected stumbling around in front of a CVS, but nothing alarming.
His peripheral vision picked up another blur, somewhere off to his right. Two times is not a coincidence, something is up. Quickly landing on a nearby roof, he grabbed a batarang from his belt and readied himself in a steady fighting stance.
His pulse pounded in his ears, but he quickly calmed it with a few breathing exercises Batman had taught him. Then he saw another blur of movement out of the corner of his eye.
Something was definitely tailing them.
Robin breathed out slowly, expanding his other senses and waiting for the whatever-it-was to show itself. Batman would have noticed that he'd stopped by now and would be here in roughly thirty seconds. He could do this.
The tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and on the very edges of his sensory perception he felt something racing towards him from behind.
It was fast.
Very fast.
Robin reacted instinctively, flinging a batarang towards the oncoming figure before he had even turned around fully.
Time seemed to slow down. He watched with wide eyes as his sharp projectile sliced through the air on a direct path for the head of the incoming yellow figure. An uncomfortably familiar yellow blur.
Oh God, KF.
He was streaking straight at him, and Robin had just thrown a batarang right at his face! Without thinking, he opened his mouth to yell a warning. But there was no need. In the blink of an eye Kid Flash moved with the incomprehensible swiftness of a speedster; he brought his hands up and stopped the metal object from slicing his face in half.
Robin felt a moment of relief, and then his brain finally got around to processing what he was seeing. His relief turned to horror.
Kid Flash was standing twenty feet from him, holding his batarang in a threatening stance. And just like the last time Robin had seen him, he was a zombie.
How the actual hell did Wally suit up and get to Gotham if he's infected? I just assumed the Team would be locked up in the cave during this disaster (very heavy on the dis-), why did I assume that? Are they all running around Gotham right now? Kid Zombie obviously still has his speed (which is a total nightmare situation but I'll freak out about that in a second), so what about the rest of them? Is there a Superzombie crashing through buildings in the Bowery right now, or a Miss Zombie flying around Gotham U? Why is he just standing there? Oh God my best friend is standing right in front of me looking like a walking corpse!
Kid Flash jerked his arms in a sort of muscle spasm, and the batarang clattered to the ground. He then groaned, and the sound nearly broke Robin's already bruised heart.
"Roooobb….. iiiiinnnn."
Robin stumbled back a few steps, reaching for his belt in preparation of a sudden charge. He didn't want to have to hurt his best friend, but an infected speedster was an extremely dangerous opponent. Robin regularly creamed Kid Flash during sparring sessions, but in a real fight he would have to be completely, one-hundred percent focused, because his opponent wasn't going to hold back. Especially in his current condition.
Robin began recalling every lesson his paranoid mentor had taught him about fighting a speedster. He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, like a goalie about to dive for a penalty kick in a soccer match. Fighting a speedster depended on your instinctive reflexes, and the quicker you were in relationship to them, the better. He also had to predict where they'd move, memorize how they dodged blows, etc. That part would be easy, he'd been sparring with Wally for years. Go for the legs, if you take out a speedster's legs you effectively take him out of the fight.
Kid Flash was growling louder now, staring with a disturbing intensity into his masked eyes. "Fiiiii….gggghhhhtttt…..Diiii…ccckk."
Robin's eyes narrowed, and his heart nearly skipped a beat. Kid Flash knew his secret identity, and now apparently Kid Zombie did too. That could be trouble.
He didn't have time to think over the implications though, because three seconds later Batman arrived.
The Dark Knight swooped in from behind Robin, flaring his cape to ease his heavy landing (also, Robin knew Bruce really liked looking like a total badass and when he'd confronted him the billionaire hadn't disagreed). With a growl that rivaled the Infected's he too flung a batarang at the speedster.
And the fight began.
It then ended in about five seconds, but a lot happened during that brief period. Kid Flash dodged Batman's thrown projectile and surged forward, arms outstretched. He was a blur of movement, crossing yards within one heartbeat. But Robin had been mentally and physically preparing himself for that moment. He sharply kicked the air to the right of him just as Kid Flash materialized in front of his foot. The kick knocked him back a step, and then Batman swung a punch at his face. He ducked with a blur of movement, grabbing Robin's arm. But Robin had just started a front flip over the Infected speedster, and when his groping hand contacted his costume he used his movement to jerk him off balance. While Robin was in the air Batman had begun swinging another punch, and when Kid Flash was unsteadied he connected. The blow threw the zombie to the ground, where Robin finished him off with a kick to the back of the head.
The Dynamic Duo wasn't even breathing hard, but they took a moment to catch their breath anyway.
Seeing his best friend on a screen was one thing, but seeing him in person, fighting him, that was a whole different level of disturbing.
"Infected Metahumans retain their abilities." Batman stated, no doubt making the connections that Robin had while he'd been attempting to communicate with Kid Flash. "If Kid Flash had enough intelligence to change into costume and track us down hours away, then we can probably expect the rest of the Team to be doing the same. We have to go, now."
Robin's blood ran cold. His whole team, infected, zombified, and hunting the city for him. That was a nightmare scenario he'd never truly considered possible, but had been preparing for since Batman taught him the necessity of contingency plans.
He quickly made a mental list of what he could expect from his friends.
Kaldur'ahm, better known as Aqualad, was the strong and stoic leader. He was an Atlantean, and his thicker skin, combat skills, and electrical prowess would make him a formidable opponent even unaffected by the viciousness of the toxin. Robin would need to isolate him from his main fighting element, water, in order to finish a fight with him with minimum injuries.
Connor, aka Superboy, was a clone of the Kryptonian leader of the Justice League: Superman. He possessed much of Superman's strength, stamina, and invulnerability, and if let loose to reign terror upon the city. He was no doubt going to be the toughest to take down without the help of kryptonite.
M'gann, codename Miss Martian. Shapeshifting, flight, invisibility, psychic abilities, potential to be extremely lethal. Weakness to fire. If the toxin allowed her to retain her mind-altering powers, she could be the most dangerous opponent of all his teammates.
Artemis, trained by her villain father Sportsmaster and the Justice Leaguer Green Arrow. Highly skilled in multiple forms of weaponry, ridiculously accurate with a bow and arrow. Would be an extremely formidable opponent, but one Robin felt confident he could take on.
Individually, each of his teammates would be a challenge. Unprepared, some could be lethal. All attacking at once, while he was unprepared? He didn't like those odds. But thankfully, he wasn't fighting alone.
Batman and I can handle this. We've had worse, and as long as we stick together, nothing can take us down.
Robin was aware that he was just repeating hopeful statements rather than coming up with a logical attack plan, but continued with his small optimism streak anyhow.
"Let's go." Batman repeated, placing a comforting have on his partner's shoulder.
Robin took a deep breath and readied his grapple as he walked to the edge of the roof. "Yep. Time to go back to hell."
A/N: The posting time between chapters is probably going to be 2-ish weeks now, just because I don't want to catch up too fast to where I'm currently at in the story and the later chapters are getting pretty long. But thanks for tuning back in! For reasons you'll soon see, the next chapter was my absolute favorite to write.
Comments are super appreciated! :)