Tuesday 13 January 2015

Countdown to Justice, Vol II: Chapter Three

Chapter Three: A Momentary Lapse
     In Gotham, Bruce was stuck in a waking nightmare. He wanted to inspire the people of Gotham to take back their city, using the bat as a symbol of justice, but instead a new group of radicals had warped it to their own ends.
     The Arkham Knights. Militaristic, capeless versions of the Batman himself. They sought an ordered Gotham; they committed heinous acts themselves, killing any criminal they deemed ‘too dangerous’ and organising the rest into something more manageable. The Batman was constantly having to deny his involvement with them to GCPD, through Gordon. Bruce was not a killer, and he would not watch a group of killers use his image to turn his city into a place that nourishes crime while murdering criminals.
     But now he was surrounded. He counted seven of them, each carrying a dagger that glowed orange. The metal was being heated. It went without saying that Bruce had to avoid taking a hit.
     The ringleader spoke. He had a voice modulator, adding a metallic grate to his speech. “You will submit, Batman.” His grip on the hilt of his sword tightened. “We will have order.”
     Bruce could feel the ring slowly moving in on him. He lowered his hand to his utility belt, ready to spring his sonic disruptor while striking the nearest Knight, but there was a flash of black and red. The ringleader’s sword was knocked out of his hand, just as he was thrown into two of his comrades.
Bruce seized the moment and jabbed his elbow into the next Knight, flipped him over his hip, and pinned his hand to the ground with a batarang. Before he could remove the Knight’s mask, another one was on him, driving him back towards the edge of the rooftop.
     He dropped all his weight into his feet, tried to slow his attacker down, but ultimately it was the dark-haired, black-jacketed metahuman who saved Batman from the fall. She was tall and muscular, and wore a golden tiara. A lasso was strapped to her hip, a sword on her back, and a shield in one hand.

 (Click for detail)

     Batman looked around. The other Arkham Knights were lying around him, disarmed and either unconscious or heavily dazed.
     “I had this,” he said.
     “Probably.”
     Before she could say anything else, Batman had launched himself across the Gotham skyline, on his batrope. He didn’t seem to keen to talk.
     She was waiting for him when he landed a block away.
     “You can’t outrun someone who’s faster than sound,” she smirked.
     “What do you want?”
     “To learn from you,” she said. “I’m not...used to my powers. I’ve had them all my life, I just didn’t have to use them until recently. I need to control them.”

(Click for detail)

     Batman sized the woman up. Despite the sword, she didn’t have the air of a killer. For a moment, his harsh, untrusting demeanor lapsed. It was enough.
     “Meet me on the roof of Gotham Central Bank tomorrow at eight.”
     And then he was gone, disappearing into the swell of the city.
     Tomorrow at eight, Diana thought. Tomorrow at eight.

To be continued...

Finally, the continuation of Countdown to Justice! Volume II will predominantly follow Wonder Woman, as well as the animosity between Batman and Superman. I'm not setting a regular upload schedule this time because of uni life, but I'm hoping Vol II won't drag on for too long.

The first three chapters are now available here and on my Flickr, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

Countdown to Justice, Vol II: Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Throwbacks

Deep in the rainforests of the Congo...
     Racing ahead of his colleagues, Fine rushed over the brow of the forested hill and was faced with a beautiful sight: a sheer cliff divided by a waterfall, surrounded on every side by dense forest. Among all this green, there was a tiny, bare oasis of pure blue. This would make for a good campsite.
     Milton Fine and his team of LexCorp scientists had been on the move for only a day and a half, and already the others were flagging. Fine was holding up - after all, he was no ordinary man - but while Luthor’s ‘best and brightest’ were experts in their fields, they had never been out in the field itself, so to speak. Also, Fine’s nanoprobes were slowly draining them of all of their data; their energy and strength came in as a nice addition to that. An early Christmas bonus for all of Fine’s hard work pretending to be human.
     The doctor sighed and ran further in to the waterfall, snapping a handful of photographs along the way.
     Then the rainforest exploded, and a wall of brown fur came haring towards him.
     Western lowland gorilla. Fine remembered its taxonomical name and chuckled.

(Click for detail)

     The gorilla was getting closer. One of the other scientists screamed. Foolish boy. It was almost upon him now. Fine raised a single hand, and the creature went limp as soon as it made contact. The doctor’s inhuman strength had damaged its skull.
     Fine set his nanoprobes to work repairing the beast. This hadn’t been his reason for coming to the Congo and spending so much of Luthor’s money, but it would make for an interesting side-project.
     Realising that his compatriots would no doubt be shocked at the display of strength, he mentally switched them into hibernation. He would need their minds for processing power, at least until he got his own body back, and that required their individual personalities to be inactive.
     The nanoprobes worked their way inside the gorilla’s central nervous system and got to work, feeding Fine everything from memories to evolutionary data. How did one species of ape evolve into the planet’s dominant species, while others were relegated to glorified national parks?
     But the gorilla had potential. Its brain was small, but underused. The nanoprobes increased its size and its mental capacity...unlocking a power buried deep within, something most humans didn’t even know they had the potential for.
     Fine’s work took three minutes and seventeen seconds, and then he recalled his nanoprobes from the gorilla. He took a few steps back, and waited for the beast to wake up naturally.

(Click for detail)

     A finger twitched. An eyelid fluttered, then opened completely, followed by the other. It lumbered off its stomach and onto its hind legs, and then howled at the sky. For a moment, Fine thought that his work had been in vain, that the beast didn’t recognise its own capacity for greatness, and then the gorilla fixed its iron gaze on him. Its eyes were now filled with emotions that no gorilla could form to be so coherent and...human. Confusion, then anger, then understanding.
     And then, it spoke.

To be continued...

Finally, the continuation of Countdown to Justice! Volume II will predominantly follow Wonder Woman, as well as the animosity between Batman and Superman. I'm not setting a regular upload schedule this time because of uni life, but I'm hoping Vol II won't drag on for too long.

The first three chapters are now available here and on my Flickr, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

Countdown to Justice, Vol II: Chapter One

Chapter One: Who Rules The Night
       Two weeks ago, I went to Metropolis in search of Superman. You’d think with senses as acute as mine, and with my particular skillset, that I’d be able to track down the world’s most powerful superhuman with little more effort than I would a wild boar.
       But no. Every time I get close to finding the Man of Steel, the trail vanished. It is erksome not being able to find him when my intentions are good, but it’s no doubt that he doesn’t want his ever-expanding list of enemies finding out his identity. I’d hazard a guess that the people in Superman’s life - parents, friends, lovers - don’t share his invulnerability.
       I have other problems, too. Ares hasn’t found me per se, but he’s looking in all the right places. A minotaur hunted me in DC. Two makhai warriors attacked me the day I left Metropolis, less than a week ago. I’ve must have been careless and let something slip somewhere. That, or Ares has found a new oracle. If he has, then Steve is in a lot of danger as well; a man who has learned some of the ways of the Amazons could be a powerful asset to the wargod.
       A car rushes by, fishtailing over the black ice that had compacted on the road. Then it pulls over, and I’m running before I see who gets out. Somehow I know. I just know.
       Another of Ares’ minions.

(Click for detail)

       I sprint down a side alley. Dead end, but I can make the jump over the wall before the minotaur rams me. I leap-
       On the other side is a small garden. I don’t want to disturb these people, so I scale the building. In less than a minute I’m on the roof, far away from that horned demon.
       I need to get out of Washington DC again. There’s no point trying Metropolis again, but there is another. He may just be a man, but some believe he is a vampire. Some say he can turn invisible, or command the shadows to do his bidding. That he can fly.
       Man or super-man, I have to hope that - assuming I can find him - there’s something this Batman can teach me.

To be continued...

Finally, the continuation of Countdown to Justice! Volume II will predominantly follow Wonder Woman, as well as the animosity between Batman and Superman. I'm not setting a regular upload schedule this time because of uni life, but I'm hoping Vol II won't drag on for too long.


The first three chapters are now available to view here and on my Flickr, and I hope you enjoy reading it!