"Alert! Alert! Alert! Fuel levels low, insufficient to reach destination. Alert! Alert!"

Sadie groaned and Cassandra shook her head as she rose and rushed into the cockpit. Tim leaned over the console and flipped a few switches, Stephanie rubbed sleep from her eyes.

"Wha- what's going on?" She said.

"I don't know." Tim pressed a few places in frantic rhythm. "It doesn't make any sense, we had more than enough gas a bit ago. It's gotta be a glitch."

Cassandra asked, "Or sabotage?"

"It would have to have just happened," Tim said. "Like, just now. How could- "

Sadie screamed and ran into the cockpit. "There must have been a trapdoor in the kitchen or something, because somebody's back there."

A moment after she said so, a calm voice tinged by laughter followed. "Yes I am. Come on out, let's talk like civilized people, eh?"

The four exchanged uneasy looks with one another before Cassandra said, "I'll look. Someone cover my back."

"I'll do that." Tim looked to Stephanie and lowered his voice. "Can you cover Sadie if he makes it past us?"

"Roger roger." Stephanie raised a thumb's up.

Cassandra and Tim nodded to one another and stepped into the plane's main cabin. In the center of the kitchenette stood a man, taller than Cassandra, shorter than Tim. A pair of golden, rectangular sunglasses covered his eyes, and a friendly, closed-mouth smile crossed his tan face.

"Magandang umaga," he said. "I'll bet we don't have any Tagalog speakers aboard, but a man's gotta try." His English was seamless apart from pronouncing one v as a b.

Tim shared a glare with the stranger's covered eyes. "You damaged the fuel line?"

"I did," he said. "You've got plenty of time for an impromptu landing though." He leaned against one of the kit1chen countered to get a peek inside the cockpit. "One of you ladies wanna bring her down gently?"

Tim asked, "Did you come here to talk or to kill us then?"

"I don't wanna kill anybody," the stranger said. "I'm just here for the icon. So, if whoever's got it would please hand it over, I'll leave you to land this plane safely."

Cassandra studied his casual demeanor, nothing about the situation made sense. Even if Sadie wouldn't be helpful, it was still three against one, and he'd be stuck landing at the same time as the rest of them. Hushed, she told Tim, "He's hiding something."

"I know." Tim nodded. "But we might have to start the fight with him to find out what." He straightened. "Listen, you—"

"Benjie, please," their opponent said. "Modern twist on a good, Old Testament name. Benjie."

"All right, Benjie," Tim said. "We're not about to—"

Benjie took a running leap at Tim. As he did, his body rose off the ground and invisible seams at his waistline split. With a rip a pair of wings burst out of his back at the same time his belly split from his legs. The suddenly-monstrous Benjie grabbed Tim by his throat and threw him across the cabin, toward the kitchen. Before anyone could react, Benjie, with his lower organs practically dangling from his waist, flew to his side, grabbed Tim off the floor and raised his head. Tim groaned in pain before he took in a sharp breath, a set of claws emerged from the tips of Benjie's fingers, which he used to open a set of scratches down Tim's cheek.

"You're the talker, you've gotta be this operation's leader, right?" Benjie's words acquired a hiss. "Do you have the icon then?"

Cassandra took half a step forward before Stephanie grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back. "Hold up," she said through grit teeth. "Let me get this."

"I try my best to abstain from human blood the same way others try to avoid alcohol." Benjie flashed a smile, at some point all of his teeth transitioned into canines. "But the thrill of battle makes me want to indulge."

"So— what?" Tim struggled, but the beast holding proved too strong. "You're a vampire?"

Stephanie slipped a hand into her backpack and slowly slipped out a batarang.

"Manananggal, but close enough," Benjie said. "But enough about me—"

Stephanie threw the batarang. Benjie caught sight of the throw and leaned his head to the right. The projective struck one of the cupboards behind him and the bladed edge stuck.

Benjie laughed. "Sorry, kid, I was already watching you." He clutched Tim's face with one of his hands. "You're his woman I assume then, huh? Tell me where the icon is and I'll let him free."

An instant after Benjie renewed his demand, the little green light at the center of the batarang stopped blinking. In an instant a blast of immobilizing green goo erupted from the weapon and coated half of the manananggal's body. Benjie shouted, released Tim, and clawed at the mess that held him in place. One of Tim's hands was caught in the blast with him, but with the rest of his body Tim turned and smashed a fist between Benjie's eyes.

"Hell yeah!" Sadie pumped her fist. "Get him, Tim, kick his vampire ass!"

"Alert! Alert! Alert! Fuel levels low."

Stephanie looked back at the central console, wide-eyed. "Crap, that's right. We need him back here, he's the only one who knows how to land this thing."

Cassandra felt inside her jacket and confirmed she still had the dagger she'd stolen from Nijah at the ready She fought back the urge to pull it, "I'll get him," then ran.

With Bejie half immobilized, Tim laid a flurry of punches across the monster's face. But with his sharp claws and strength, it didn't take Benjie long to tear himself free of the goo, catch one of Tim's punches, and rake a bloody slash across Tim's chest. Tim howled with pain and fell backwards, Benjie gently beat his wings and maintained his height.

"You've had your fun." He spoke with a sneer as he wiped a line of something yellowish, maybe some kind of monster blood, from his nose. "But this game is over."

Cassandra emulated Benjie's first move, rushed like a blur through the cabin, not perceived by Benjie until it was too late. She lunged, tackled him out of the air, and pinned him to the floor with an arm over his throat. "Go!" she said to Tim. "I'll handle him."

As Tim stood and ran for the cockpit, Benjie laughed. "Come on now, a tiny thing like you? You're quick, but that's it, isn't, ack!"

With her left arm, Cassandra held down on his neck. She raised the other and beat two finger into the pressure points on his shoulders. As Benjie's raised arms went limp, fear crossed his face.

"What the hell, little girl?"

Cassandra released some of the weight on his neck. "Temporary," she said. "You'll recover feeling later."

A second later, something wet grabbed ahold of her hands. Cassandra yelped as her arms were spread and immobilized. She turned to look and her stomach turned as she saw what looked to be a pair of bloody pink tentacles had ahold of her.

"What a devil you must be," Benjie spoke with a chuckle. "But I'll bet you've never tried pressure pointing a man's intestines, have you?"

Back at the cockpit, after a struggle for whether or not to feel around of a vomit bag, Sadie took a step forward. Stephanie rose an arm and blocked her way. "I have to help her!" Sadie said.

"You aren't built for that." Stephanie looked to Tim. "Babe, you got what you need for the landing?"

"Working on it, but I will," Tim said. "We're dropping altitude already."

Stephanie reached into her bag and drew another batarang. "Good, that'll make this easier. You two buckle up, this is gonna get bumpy."

"Wait, what?" Sadie said. "What are you going to do?"

"Cass, heads up!"

Stephanie threw the batarang. Benjie, with some feeling already returning to his upper body, pulled himself away. The weapon erupted and it was Cassandra covered in the immobilizing goop.

"That trick wasn't going to work again," Benjie said.

"No, but reverse psychology sure did."

The manananggal frowned as Stephanie ran into the cabin and hung to her right. He realized a second too late what she was doing when she laid her hands on the lever marked, "Emergency Exit."

"What the— no, no!" Benjie leapt off the ground and flew at her.

Despite her slim size, the years of training with the Bat-family gave Stephanie strength enough to yank upward and force open the door. Wind roared from the outside and buffeted those within, the sound was like a roaring lion, but between the lever, seatbelts, and the goop, the four Gothamites all had something to cling to.

The blasting outside sucked up Benjie's discarded legs like a vacuum. The manananggal screeched and beat his wings fruitlessly as the suck from outside yanked him from the cabin. By the time the emergency breathing masks fell from the ceiling, he was out of sight and out of earshot.

"Looks like there's a stretch of countryside coming up here right after we fly over France." Tim needed to shout to be heard. "I'm gonna drop altitude so breathing is easier. We'll regroup and figure what we're gonna do next from there."

After some struggle, Stephanie slowly pulled herself into one of the airplane chairs and pulled her seatbelt on. "You okay down there, Cassie?"

The feel trapped beneath the goop was utterly bizarre, like being locked into a warm swimming pool of something thick. But Cassandra nodded toward Stephanie and gave her best reassuring look to Sadie. "It'll be all right, now that the monster's gone."

But in spite of everything, unsure of what he was or if he was truly as amiable as he initially acted, Cassandra said a silent prayer. He was something more than human, something that could fly, even. She hoped that meant he could reach the ground safely.