"The last thing I saw, Benjie ripped that thing apart, and the big guy told him what a good job he'd done." Sadie slumped back in her seat aboard the train and looked away from the uncomfortable looks Tim and Stephanie gave her. She glanced at the sliding door of their compartment, which they'd all been assured would afford them privacy, but couldn't shake the thought anyone who might have overheard would give her a similar, confused, discomforted look. With a squeeze of her arm by Cassandra, she opened and her out her stigmata hand. "I don't know if any of this is real. But my dreams aren't usually this vivid, and when they are, they don't make anywhere near as much sense."

Tim crossed his arms. "The priest didn't mention anything about seeing things in your dreams. But he didn't tell us a lot of things. Some of that stuff the vampire told us, he said himself he was talking in Tagalog, remember? Anyone else ever heard of that language before yesterday?"

The others shook their heads. After a few key punches into her phone, Stephanie said, "Okay, so I butchered the spelling a couple times, but it looks like Tagalog is a language they speak in the Philippines. And, what do you know." Stephanie turned her phone around. At the center of the screen was a crude rendering of a horrific creature on haggard, yellowed paper. The creature flew with a wide-open mouth of spike-like teeth and organs spilling from its waist. "This thing is the first result when I search, 'Filipino vampire.' I don't want to butcher that pronunciation, but do you think that's what you heard, Sadie?"

Sadie leaned forward and squinted at the image. With a mix of disgust and excitement, she said, "Yeah, I think it is!"

Cassandra asked, "And sure you've never seen it before?"

"Positive. I don't think I could spell it if you held a knife to my throat, but it just looks right."

Stephanie let out a long sigh, mimicked Sadie's posture, and slumped in her seat. "This is too wild. I'm used to weirdos in clown makeup. I can handle guys in power armor. I'll even grin and bear the fight with an occasional monster made of clay. But I never signed up for vampires."

Sadie slipped on a smile she knew was inappropriate. "You work for a guy literally named Batman and you didn't sign up for vampires?"

With a deadpan stare, Stephanie moved her hands in the motion and rhythm of a rimshot. With a a little of the tension broken, everyone else uttered a short laugh.

As the sun rose, the environment outside the train changed. The cool blues of La Rochelle's seaside gave way to miles of old, stone cities and acres of vineyard country in the Aquitaine region. There wasn't much to occupy their time, the four took turns making bits of conversation or swapping stories or settling in to rest their eyes for a bit.

At the five-hour mark, Stephanie said, "This is the last time I pack a bug out bag without headphones. I know we were instructed to stick to necessities, but some things are necessities, even if you aren't going to digest them."

Tim, with his head resting on her shoulder, chanted, "Here here."

Sadie asked, "Would Batman have just sat here stone still?"

All three of his allies replied with some version of, "Yes," without even thinking about it.

"That's the thing though, he wouldn't be sitting here bored." Tim's head was still leaned over and his eyes still closed. "He'd be meticulously running over the details of the case in his brain over and over again. Or picturing just the right angle to knock around the bad guy to break his clavicle. He doesn't need music or video games or whatever, because his headspace is already running at a hundred miles an hour and never stops."

"Some of my friends back in Chicago say they never really stop picturing paintings or trying to write scenes in their heads. I guess it's just the crime fighting version of that," Sadie said.

Tim shrugged and opened his eyes enough to check his phone for the time. "Maybe something like that. Heads up team, we'll be there in another two hours."

The scenery outside the train shifted again as they passed through Montpellier. Watersides swiftly became visible again, palm tries rose high throughout the bits of streets that could be seen. The buildings nearest to the water were stylized with bright white pillars that resembled the other towns and cities along the Mediterranean.

Sadie dug her impromptu sketch pad and tried to document a few details, but the train was moving too fast. After a few frustrated attempts, she shrugged and kept marking the paper anyway. "Maybe I'll just do that blurry thing that happens when you mess up a panorama photo."

Stephanie smirked. "I don't know who you think you're fooling talking about, 'Your Chicago friends,' because you're obviously channeling that same energy right now."

"I get bored until I remember where we are, okay?" Sadie looked up for a moment as she continued to scrawl. "I'd give anything to be out here on my own terms."

The little compartment settled into a calm quiet again, most of the sound came from the scratch of Sadie's pen. Cassandra rested a hand on her knee and gave it a little squeeze, which Sadie only briefly acknowledged. But when she imitated Tim's pose and rest her head of Sadie's shoulder, Sadie turned slightly and planted a kiss on her forehead.

The calm lasted about fifteen minutes before Sadie lowered her sketchpad and squinted at some shape in the distance. "What the hell?"

Cassandra was first to stir. "What is it?"

Still squinting, Sadie rubbed her eyes and looked again. "Maybe it's just an optical illusion? Looks like something is leaping along the tracks…. If I said the phrase, 'runalongs,' would any of you have any idea what I'm talking about?"

Stephanie just asked, "Hm?"

"I've tried painting them a couple times. You ever go on a long car trip and imagine this thing jumping from street light to street light beside you?"

Tim's eyes popped open. "Holy crap, I thought I was the only one who did that."

"Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, it kinda looked like—"

Sadie didn't get to finish the through. An enormous smash reverberated forward from the back of the train. The sound of smashing metal echoed closer and closer. Shouts and screams of terrified confusion rang from the back of the train, and all four of the travelers suddenly felt wide awake.

"What the hell is that?" Sadie looked to the door of the compartment.

Cassandra stood up, exchanged nods with Tim and Stephanie, and slid the compartment open. The smashing overhead continued directly overhead. The metallic clangs stopped for a few seconds before there came another clang, not from above, but from her right. Two more thunderous smashes followed, and a screech slashed with a high-pitched tear, like a metal cutter.

Sadie's body started to shake. "Oh God, what's going on? What is that? I don't like that sound. It sounds like—I don't know—stuff getting ripped up. Sounds like—"

The flicker of recognition hit Cassandra too. "Like bits of building being smashed in."

"Is—is that is?" Sadie lowered her head into her hand. "Why is freaking me out? I—I think I'm gonna be sick." Sadie's breaths went shallow and she started swallowing hard and fast.

For a moment, Cassandra sat torn between the sounds outside and Sadie's harsh reaction. Then she put an arm around her and pulled her close. Even if Sadie couldn't remember the disaster of that building burning back in Gotham, she suddenly couldn't get those horrific sights out of her head. "Got you. Not letting you go."

The force outside tore the door asunder from the outside.

"No, no." With some struggle, Sadie evened her breaths. "Go see what's going on. I'm—I'll be fine. Promise."

Cassandra channeled her disbelief into her look, but still felt compelled to see what they might be up against.

As she struggled with the thought, Tim extended a paper bag toward Sadie. "They keep these under all the seats," he said. "For if you need to hyperventilate or throw up."

"You're a lifesaver." Sadie accepted it and breathed in and out.

"I'll be last line of defense this time," Tim said. "She'll be all right."

Cassandra gave him a nervous nod before se yanked the long tube out of her backpack and drew her katana. After another second of searching, she confirmed the dagger from her first fight with Nijah still laid within. She reached for it, hesitated, thought better of the matter, and only took her sword. By this point, other riders poked their heads out of their own compartments, everyone Cassandra saw looked outward with looks that ranged from shocked to terrified.

"Stay in," Cassandra said. "And stay back."

"Admirable as ever. I knew I liked you."

Cassandra turned back toward the empty doorframe. A distortion in the air formed between her and the further sections of the train, amorphous at first, but soon it found its shape. Nijah materialized out of the shifting blur, satisfied smirk on her face, hand on the sword on her back.

Despite her best efforts to suppress it, a shudder ran through Cassandra's body. The hallucinatory effects of Nijah's dagger remained at the forefront of her mind. Still, paranoid or not, she shifted into a fighting stance.

"Leave," Cassandra said. "Three of us are fighters, and only one of you."

Nijah let out a chuckle. "But I'm not constrained by mother church here. And besides, I didn't come alone."

A pair of large hands grabbed ahold of the top of the doorframe from above. Down from the top of the train came a tall, fit man, the extra inches of his afro enough to make him touch the train's ceiling. He wore a white vest with a red cross down the center similar to Nijah's, and nothing underneath, which exposed his muscled arms. Once he stood within the train, he unzipped his vest a few inches, reached in, and pulled out a pair of spectacles, which he then slipped on.

Nijah asked, "It's here then, we're sure?"

Her tall companion took in a deep breath through his nose and said, "Oh yes, no doubt. I can smell it from here." His voice was deep and marked with some kind of accent—something African, maybe, Cassandra would have guessed. He turned his attention toward Cassandra and, amused, glanced down at her sword. "Do you plan to kill me with that, friend?"

"Don't kill," Cassandra said. "Beaten bigger opponents with it through."

"It doesn't have a cutting edge," Nijah said. "It's like a stylish, impractical quarterstaff, that's all. Besides, the bats don't kill."

"No, but that first guy you sent after us is lucky he can fly, considering we sent him out of a jet."

Cassandra turned as Stephanie stepped forward, her staff collapsed but at the ready.

"So how about you guys back off before we reenact the 'no ticket' scene from Dogma, huh?" She beat the staff like a baseball bat in her hand.

Both of the enemies stared at her for a few seconds before the giant utter a long, ragged sigh, pushed his glasses up, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That was from Indiana Jones. You referenced a reference. Ugh, nevermind that movie's blasphemy, that's just filmgoing ignorance—"

Stephanie thrust forward her staff like a pool cue and smashed the end into the giant's face. He shouted, his arms windmilled, and he collapsed backwards from the pain and shock of the blow.

Nijah turned to her comrade and shouted, "Gedeyon!"

In the brief distraction, Cassandra closed the distance between them and swung with her sword. Nijah's previous, mocking comments were rewarded by a trio of harsh, blunt shots to her stomach. She yanked out her sword and caught a third strike just above the hilt before she punched Cassandra in the face, forced her backwards, and made some space between them. At least one traveler looked out from every compartment up and down the train car and struggled to process the scene before them.

Stephanie pressed the end of her staff to the neck of giant—Gedeyon, apparently. She glanced back toward Cassandra and called, "You good?"

"Fine." Cassandra held her nose, a little bloody then, and spoke through her teeth. Nijah swung at her, overhand, but Cassandra caught the strike with one of her own and the two locked blades.

"Nijah!" Gedeyon called from the floor. "Those two are out fighting us—the other two have the icon—"

Stephanie pulled her staff backwards to strike the big man. But as she swung, Gedeyon caught the weapon, pulled it back, and shoved it forward with a sudden burst of strength. The force in the sudden push sent the staff square into Stephanie's gut. She wrenched back, cried to in pain, and released the staff.

Distressed, Cassandra broke the lock and took a step toward Stephanie. Nijah stepped into her path, intercepted the attempted assist, and punched Cassandra—first in the sternum, then across the face—with the bottom of her sword. Stephanie got enough of her breath back to try rushing to her side, but Gedeyon threw a backhand across her face and knocked her to the floor.

A smirk crossed Nijah's face. "Two down. Two to go."

As Gedeyon took a step toward the compartment, Cassandra rushed back to her feet, jumped, and wrapped herself tight around the big man's body—arms clasped around his neck, legs around his midsection. Cassandra snarled, "Not down," as she struggled to get a headlock around his neck or at least force Gedeyon off balance.

At the same time Cassandra did, Stephanie grabbed ahold of her staff, used it to leverage momentum, and swung in for a rock-solid kick to Gedeyon's midsection. The giant utter a quick, breathy of pain as she said, "Not out!"

The united attack stalled him for only a moment. Like a running bull, Gedeyon already stood fixed on his target. Without regard for the two that still clung to him, Gedeyon charged at the cabin as his body the instants after he started moving, the big man's muscley flesh went taut. Something—in his speed it was difficult to determine what, rose like thousands of tiny, gray scales up from his skin. And what little was visible from Cassandra and Stephanie's angles of his face distorted and elongated. A sound at once like a snarl and the trumpet of an elephant slipped from his lips as he opened his arms wide as he rushed into the bat-family's compartment.

Tim stammered, "What the—" and Sadie screamed before Gedeyon reached them. As his body grew even larger and the spines consumed his color, he caught and then the remaining two in his extended arms and leapt. The window of the compartment shattered as the giant leapt forward.

Cassandra and Stephanie both shut their eyes tight and braced for impact. The utterly monstrous Gedeyon hit the ground and maintained his footing with a pair of legs thick and blunt as the trunks of trees. As Tim and Sadie kicked and struggled in his grip and against a case of whiplash, he tossed all four of his captives aside, stood up straight, and uttered another trumpeting screech. A ten-foot-tall creature of gray spines with a face like the blade of an axe stood before them. An extra set of eyes appeared on either side of his face, so after a moment he fixated one on each of the four. Then he settled them all on Sadie.

"You've got the icon, little girl." Something demonic mangled his accent and voice. "You ever hear of an Ethiopian bulgu? They tear defiant little girls apart." After just a moment to prepare his stocky legs, he charged, a terrified Sadie in his sights.