This Isn't The End

To think this is where it would lead. The Green Lantern had said he would do his best and help out Strom, but he hadn't known that Gotham is where this favor would take him.

There had been some hope that he wouldn't cross paths with Batman, be in and out. The gunfire had been the first sign that it wouldn't be that easy. Sometimes it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Batman had been in a vulnerable position, one that had a bad guy in a diver's outfit about to blast him off the face of the Earth. Nobody was dying on his watch, so he intervened.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

The man with the bug-eyed helmet answered with another energy blast, but the ring's power gave him a shield that took the attack easy. As soon as he lowered the shield, he found that the helmet-wearing man was making a break for it, dashing for the submarine.

Swinging his arm around, he fired a construct that stretched out, the end forming a hand. The construct's fingers reared back and swung forward, crashing down in the path of the fleeing man and blocking him. Booted feet skidded against the floor, but instead of waiting for this man to dart off, Green Lantern willed the hand construct back to himself. This had the effect of dragging the construct's fingers through the floor and ramming right into the helmet-wearing man.

The man landed on his back with a grunt and quickly rolled onto his feet in a single maneuver. The helmet's eyes continued to radiate red, getting ready for another blast. The Lantern let the hand construct dissolve while he readied his next one. The second that blast was fired, he thrusted his right arm forward, firing a construct that took the shape of a large block of brinks.

The construct not only took on the brunt of the blast, it propelled through it until it slammed into the helmet-wearing man, throwing him across the large room to land on the gangplank that connected the submarine to dry land.

Cuff constructs came down, latching together and restringing the helmet-wearing man to the gangplank. He wasn't going to be leaving any time soon.

There was a brief feeling of triumph, but that was the key word. Brief.

"What are you doing here?"

The Lantern held back a grimace. His face stoic, he turned to face Batman who was standing barely a few feet away from him. The white-colored lens that made up the vigilante's eyes were narrowed, almost to the point of slits, and his mouth was curved downward to the point that to call it a frown was a disservice.

He could have been belligerent, but that wouldn't help anything. The Lantern held up his hands in surrender to show he meant no harm. "It wasn't my intention. I was doing a favor for a friend, and it led me here."

Not even a twitch. Lantern lowered his hands, keeping them at his side. While he wasn't completely under threat, it just took a thought to use his ring. If he was fast enough, it would stop anything from hitting him. However, Batman was a man who was completely in control of himself, so such a response was not needed. That didn't mean there wasn't an intimidation factor, but as a Green Lantern, he had to face his fears if he were to continue possessing the will needed for wielding his ring.

Even if a man who embodied fear peered straight into his soul, demanding answers.

It was difficult, if not impossible, to guess what was running through Batman's head, his poker face as impenetrable as ever. When he did speak, "Did you find what you were looking for?"

A precursor for Lantern to know that he needed to be leaving and soon. That part, he could predict.

Nodding his head to the submarine, "Yeah. Seems like these guys stole this and brought it here. Why, I don't know."

Instead of the response he was anticipating, there was a subtle change, one that indicated that the vigilante was using that bit of information to add up to a puzzle. Clearly, it was one that the Lantern himself was not entirely aware of. He knew about this submarine being stolen, that was why Strom had approached him. Batman didn't know that.

"What can you tell me about it?" Batman asked, though his question came out more as a demand.

As much as the Lantern was…distant with Batman, he did respect him. It was enough he didn't think it would make any difference if he did speak up. It wasn't as if word of this would get back to Strom.

"Top secret, nuclear class, it's supposed to go to some of the deepest parts of the ocean. Brand new, there hasn't even been a press release about it. My friend wanted me to keep it under wraps, if you get my meaning."

Not even a nod, but there wasn't a rude dismissal either. Batman turned his gaze to the submarine, the military vessel now the latest victim of Batman's scrutiny. The man's head had to be full of questions, but he wasn't about to speak any of them aloud.

When he did speak, "Your friend will have to be disappointed. Someone will have alerted the GCPD to the gunshots. They'll be arriving any minute."

How did…? Almost forgot who he was talking to. This time he didn't hide his grimace. Strom was not going to be happy about this, but what was done was done.

"Your friend. Did he have any leads or information on these people?" The question was unexpected, and that it came from Batman meant that the detective hadn't solved this mystery yet. The Lantern was getting the feeling that both of them had come into the middle of something and both were missing details.

"He neglected to give me any of his suspicions," he confirmed, crossing his arms.

Batman's gaze fell onto the helmet-wearing man, still restrained to the gangplank. "He called himself Black Manta. Have you heard of any such individual?"

He shook his head. "We haven't crossed paths before."

Neither had Batman since he was asking about him.

Whoever this Black Manta was, he had gone out of his way to steal a brand new submarine from the United States Navy. He was up to no good, you didn't have to be a genius to figure that out, but neither of them knew what this man intended to do with his ill-gotten gains. Too much was unknown, and the Lantern didn't like it.

Batman was on the case, at least. If he stuck around, he might be able to learn what this was about.

Batgirl watched the two men converse. What had started as a routine mission had nearly ended in tragedy. Even now, she knew there was no way she could have stopped that red beam from killing her father.

So she had a lot to thank for the green-glowing man, the Green Lantern. It had been awhile, but it didn't feel like it, not since the last time she had met him; he had been brainwashed into trying to kill her. That ring of his was powerful, and thankfully this time it had been used to save someone she cared for.

And just like that, their fight had become a conversation, one she wasn't privy to. As much as she wanted to, she didn't feel comfortable enough to approach the Green Lantern, not if it would only bring up some unpleasant memories. They didn't need to make things awkward. The sinking feeling she had in her stomach only confirmed a growing conclusion the longer she watched the two men talk.

However, she wasn't the only one left out of the recent change.

Next to her stood Redbird, who was openly glaring at the two men. Well, he wasn't glaring at their shared paternal figure so much as he was irritated by the interference of their mission. It was no secret the boy wanted to impress Batman, and this was his latest chance. Well, make that the latest lost chance.

"Why is he here?" Redbird pointedly asked.

Batgirl shrugged her shoulders, crossing her arms across her chest. "Don't know."

"Do you think he was after the same man we are after?"

"It would seem like it." Though they were within viewing distance of the two men, they weren't talking very loud. She was only able to pick up the occasional word here and there. She knew Batman wanted to know why Green Lantern was here, but all she caught of his response was something about a submarine and secret. Was the submarine a secret? She also had a bad angle on Green Lantern, so she couldn't read his lips adequately. "He said something about the submarine."

"Then maybe he was following the submarine?"

Why did this boy have so many questions? It wasn't like she had any of the answers. "Maybe."

"None of your answers have been helpful."

"That's because I don't have any answers." She turned her gaze onto the…huh, had he been getting taller? She wasn't looking down on him like she usually did. "Maybe if you stopped asking questions, we can hear them being said."

The familiar scowl was on his face. "Father would have known already," he shot back.

"Then why don't you go ask him?"

Redbird made no such move. He was rooted to the ground, same as her. It seemed he finally learned his lesson about knowing his place. It only took several months. Satisfied that she had shut up the boy, Batgirl returned her attention to Batman and the Justice League member. They were both looking at the submarine now.

Several moments passed.

"Do you get the feeling that our involvement in this case is about to be over?" Redbird suddenly asked.

That was the root cause of the sinking feeling she had mentioned earlier. If it had been anyone from the Birds of Prey, this case would certainly remain a Gotham matter, as it should. The presence of the Green Lantern, and thus the Justice League, meant there were elements that would remove it from their jurisdiction.

Which meant they were about to lose whatever role they had on the case.

Batgirl sighed. "Yes, I have the same feeling."

Redbird's scowl deepened. "Curse him. Curse him for making us agree on something."

Batgirl couldn't help but give the boy a look. Surely they had agreed on…something before. She felt they had. Yet, there was this gross feeling about it, as if it felt unnatural to be agreeing with anything this demon spawn said.

Damn the Green Lantern indeed.

The old shipyard was cordoned off. Gotham police had the area shut down, though word from above had it that the Feds would be moving in shortly. This meant that time was limited.

The men who were taken into custody were similar to the descriptions of the thieves who had crashed that press conference that Wayne had held earlier in the day. Their boss couldn't have been more obvious.

His name was David Hyde, or better known on the other side of the world as the Black Manta. Pirate, murderer, and a lot of other stuff was connected to him. Interpol had multiple warrants on top of nearly twenty other countries doing the same. A lot of people wanted this guy.

Right now, Hyde was being held in an interrogation room within GCPD headquarters. Lieutenant Harvey Bullock had drawn the long straw when it came to questioning this scumbag. The Feds were on their way, but Bullock would be damned if he didn't get something out of this creep.

With his men in lockup, waiting for their turn, Bullock entered the interrogation room and got a look at the headliner of tonight's shitshow. Seated at a table, the man's hands were handcuffed together and looped under a pipe that was attached to either end of the table. The wetsuit and helmet weren't present; they had been stripped and replaced with a jail-issued jumpsuit. Soul-sucking gray that almost blended in with the table, and only the white undershirt peeking out from below the collar gave any real splash of color.

Dread Pirate Dave here was black, so it made you wonder if the black part of Black Manta referenced it. Was there a White Manta out there? Yellow? Brown? Anyway, skin color wasn't what jumped at you. It was the scars. Three of them, thin in width, and they stretched from around the upper right part of Hyde's head and sliced over his face, stopping near the jaw. Each scar was about the same distance from one another and they weren't straight. They curved a bit, made you think he got into a fight with a pitchfork.

But forget about the skin and the scars. You know what really had Bullock's attention from the brief glance he gave Hyde? The eyes. Naturally dark, but there was a deadness to them. It made the lieutenant uncomfortable. This wasn't his first rodeo, though, and dead eyes or not, he was going to be finding out some answers here.

With heavy footsteps, Bullock lumbered his way over and pulled out a chair opposite of Hyde. The chair legs screeched against the floor, but what did he care? None, and so he sat back, resting his weight on his seat.

"You sure came a long way just to wind up here," Bullock remarked, staring this pirate man in the face. He would say eyes, but Hyde didn't seem to be keen on that eye contact thing. "What's the deal? Why'd you have to park in my front yard?"

No response. Completely expected. Any guy with the kind of reputation Hyde here had wasn't easy to crack. No, he was a tough nut. It was going to take more than your usual techniques to get a word out of this guy.

"You got a lot of people wanting your head," the lieutenant continued, leaning forward and placing an elbow on the table. "The Feds will be here any minute, and they really want a piece of you. That sub you have, where'd you get it? Uncle Sam's Wholesale?"

No snort, no sign that he had heard the tough as nails lieutenant, and all silent. Hyde wasn't going to be making this easy, was he? Typical.

"Forget Uncle Sam. You know what I'm really curious about? That radar. Trust Fund Wayne wants it back real bad. You know something about it? Something Wayne don't want getting out about it? That sub already should have its own radar, unless it's half-baked and why would a guy like you want a half-baked sub. Doesn't make sense."

It really didn't. You didn't need to be a smart guy to know that subs like that at the shipyard? They didn't belong there. In fact, they belonged in places that James Bond tried to sneak into. This whole thing smelled bad, it really did. But stealing that radar, why? It was being loaded onto that sub, why again?

Hyde might know something about it. Or maybe he wanted a high-tech radar system just because. There was an answer somewhere in that scarred head over there.

"You looking for new real estate? Gotham's got quite the beachfront property. All underwater, if you get my drift. Mind if I ask if you found old Loeb's piece? Asking for some friends."

The joke fell flat, but Bullock didn't mean for it to light up Hyde's socks anyway. He wasn't a comedian for a reason.

Hyde's dark and dead eyes flickered up and made contact with Bullock's. They pierced right into his soul, but the lieutenant wasn't about to let it show he might be a little unnerved. You needed to look tough to these guys lest they stop respecting you.

That said, there was this…hypnotic feel to those eyes. They drew you into their dark depths and you can wonder if you weren't looking into some bottomless pit of nothing. It was like there was no soul in there, and Bullock wasn't necessarily a believer himself.

There was a reason Hyde had those men following him. Money might help with that, in fact a lot of money would, but when you wore that ridiculous-looking helmet, there had to be more to you than looking scary.

"I wanted the submarine. I took it," Hyde stated, and Bullock felt proud that he didn't jump in his seat. "I needed the radar. I took it. I have no other reasons."

Bullock cracked half a smirk. "I don't believe that. Everybody's got reasons. What's yours?"

Fingers twitched, and that was the only thing that Hyde gave away. The lieutenant felt that he was about to get another sentence or two out of this pirate, yet nothing could prepare him for the words he heard next.

"I took them to find Atlantis."

This was Gotham City. They had some of the craziest people around. Some of them drove other people crazy. You could say it was Crazy Central and that you had to have a little craziness to even want to live here.

That said, this was the craziest thing Bullock had ever heard.

"Atlantis," he repeated, almost letting out a laugh. "You…stole government property, and robbed Bruce Wayne…to find a place that doesn't exist. Now I know you're pulling my leg."

Hyde gave a snort. "I know it exists."

"Oh really?" Bullock challenged back. "Okay, this I gotta hear. People have been looking for that place forever and you know what they've found? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. It don't exist. What? You know something the rest of us rubes don't?"

Pirate man wasn't taking the bait. "I know enough. The submarine was designed for the deepest sectors of the ocean, able to withstand the pressure down there. It can reach the depths I need to find it."

"And the radar?"

"I need to see."

This was getting more and more ridiculous by the minute. A crazed lunatic was what they were dealing with here, and every word he spoke brought him that much closer to a padded cell in Arkham. Of all the places to be caught, he had to be caught here where they had an actual nuthouse. Really sucked to be him. For the time being, he'd play along until the Feds got here.

The Feds might even agree to locking Hyde up in Arkham once they got a piece of this.

"So you're going to find Atlantis. What do you plan to do there? Visit Disneyland Atlantis? I'm sure they got a park opened up there too," Bullock said.

Okay, so he couldn't help the mocking. Seriously, Atlantis? This didn't deserve to be high priority. Stealing a submarine from the Navy? That was important and high priority. It just seemed like he was going to be chatting up the latest looney and hoping the Feds packed him off and stuffed him into a deep, dank hole somewhere.

And once again, Hyde had to go and ruin his mirth.

Leaning forward, dead eyes finally burning with something far darker in them, Hyde uttered, "I'm going to destroy it."

Well.

That was a new one.

"So you're going to find Atlantis. What do you plan to do there? Visit Disneyland Atlantis? I'm sure they got a park opened up there too."

Silence.

"I'm going to destroy it."

"He can't be serious."

Batman glanced away from the receiver he was holding. The bug that was in the interrogation room had caught Bullock's interrogation, which was honestly going along quite smoothly. This Black Manta wasn't even trying to hide what he was up to. He was talking so matter-of-factly, it was almost discerning.

Next to the Dark Knight was John Stewart. He had a dubious look on his face, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Perhaps without proper context, that was understandable.

"Atlantis, as in the lost city of Atlantis," Stewart continued. "That's just a story."

"He certainly believes in it," Batman remarked. "In fact, he's certain that it does."

"Don't tell me you believe him.."

"Every action he's taken makes sense in the context that it is. If you were going to go searching for the city, you'd want a submarine since it would be underwater. You'd need a radar system too, to detect its location if you weren't certain of its exact coordinates. The submarine you've been tracking is state of the art, the best the military or government could make. The radar system he stole from me is for all intents and purposes the most advanced radar system in the world."

"But still, Atlantis?" Stewart pressed. "This guy is one of Interpol's most wanted. Hell, just about any country in the world would want to get their hands on him for the crimes he's committed. You can't tell me he did all of that to go searching the bottom of the ocean for something that most likely isn't there."

"Who says it isn't there?" the vigilante countered.

"Just about everyone that's ever gone looking for it. No one has ever found it—no one."

"The ocean is a deep place," he pointed out. "And humanity has only explored five percent of it. That's a lot of places to look for a lost city."

Stewart considered this. "I guess you have a point there. Seriously though, you think Atlantis could be out there?"

"Black Manta does; I'm inclined to believe him," Batman responded. "Otherwise, none of his actions makes sense. Even admitting to searching for Atlantis doesn't make sense as a lie. Everyone would know for certain that it was a lie the moment they heard it, which is how the detective with him currently will take it."

There was silence between the two men. "Assuming there really is an Atlantis, what's our next move? Do we go looking for it? Or do we make certain that our infamous pirate friend never gets the chance to destroy it?"

Well, logic dictated that they keep Black Manta locked up, so whatever his claims of destroying an underwater city would be for naught. However, there were other things they could do in the meantime, so long as the GCPD kept the man locked up until the FBI took over and got him out of Gotham.

For instance, Batman doubted Black Manta just stole a submarine and didn't make alterations to it. Though this sub was most likely the most advanced one ever built considering its secrecy, there may be other alterations made to ensure that it could succeed in its job at finding the lost city. The radar system was evidence enough that Black Manta felt more upgrades were needed. Whatever changes would he have done to it?

"We need to go back to the sub and see what else Black Manta did to it," Batman finally said after a few moments. "There may be other upgrades he installed, which would give us a better idea on how to locate the city."

The Green Lantern slowly nodded his understanding. "I'll get in touch with Strom and see if he will go through the sub with me and see if anything was changed."

The vigilante also nodded. "I'll keep an eye on Black Manta. I may pay him a visit to get more out of him, though I doubt I will." The man was being pretty straight forward so far, so doing his own interrogation seemed pointless. Perhaps learning why he wanted to destroy Atlantis would be helpful.

There was also the possibility that Black Manta had contingency plans. After all, he had admitted to expecting to meet the vigilante following the theft of the radar. Was it possible he had expected to get caught as well? If so, he must have a contingency plan in the event he was. The man didn't seem to be the type that planned for everything to go his way only. He was straight and to the point, which was not how your average criminal acted.

"Think the guy may escape?" Stewart asked.

Batman turned his gaze towards the GCPD building. "I'm certain he'll try."