#45: The Exit Interview, Pt 2 (Vasquez)

“There they are, move, move, move…”

“Come on; don’t give out on me now… you’re too damn heavy…”
I don’t know what’s going on, where I’m going or who’s saying what. Everything is black and spinning, with an occasional color or two popping into view. My whole body hurts, my joints feel like they are going to explode and every movement feels like I’m going against a current. I can feel someone guiding me, holding me up and wisps of hair whipping against my face.

“Oh my God,” I hear a voice, a female voice shriek as the familiar sound of gunfire echoes behind us. We tripped and fell forward. I didn’t have any time or energy to brace myself and fell flat on my face. I’m beginning to feel nauseous while a wave of cold overcomes me to the point where I’m shaking and my teeth are chattering. I hear a rapid beeping and as the beeping gets faster in succession, I can hear it getting fainter before feeling the gust of wind and the sound by an explosion. Whatever I ate for lunch is now either on the ground or on me.

“Ewww…gross,” I can hear her say, grabbing my arm and trying to help me up. “Come on Batman, just a little further. I tried as best as I could to accommodate with my wobbly knees. The rest of the journey was a blur of nausea and the last thing I remember thinking about before passing out, was it was just another day in paradise.

I left the motel and made my way towards Amusement Mile. My symptoms began to get worse. Breathing through my nose became impossible, my throat felt like it was going to swell shut, and the back of my mouth felt like it was being burned by acid. My eyes grew heavy and I alternated between cold and hot. Stephanie said she thought I was going through withdrawal and I thought about my first encounter with that shape changer. When it had me in its grasp, the energy flow was almost euphoric, which made sense in an evolutionary perspective being that you want the least resistance out of your prey. But the idea of withdrawal, I couldn’t see any sort of competitive advantage to that, especially with the corpses this thing left behind.

But it is what it is and I’m going to have to deal with them and take this thing out. Behind the rides, booths, retail stores, restaurants and other amusements that lined the river walk, was a small storage complex that was primarily used by those businesses, but also had a reputation for drug and arms smuggling which made it a point of surveillance not only for the GCPD but for us bat people as well. It led me to believe that this was a temporary stop and they would be moving soon.

I landed on the roof of a large building in the center of the complex, where my tablet indicated that thing I fought was being held. If Stephanie did what I told her to do, then this place should be swarming with MCU shortly and the smart thing to do would be to wait for my backup, but there was this internal tugging at my insides, telling me to go in. I crept my way to the ledge and opened the nearby window and swooped in. It seemed like I was in an office that was currently being used to store boxes. I opened one and saw an assortment of red and blue syringes, not unlike the ones I saw earlier. I grabbed a few of each and stuck them in one of my utility belt compartments for later analysis. I opened the door to the office and carefully looked out into the building.

It was dark, save for the center light that illuminated everything below me. A catwalk connected the office I was in to a staircase to my left, the center light ahead of me and probably another office like structure on the opposite wall. Making my way toward the center light, I snuck into the warehouse, keeping as quiet as possible while creeping across the catwalks, which was easier, said than done with my condition. It was a struggle to keep my balance, and to keep myself from coughing and wheezing while another wave of cold sweats passed through me. Whatever I fought earlier was in a cage in the center of the warehouse. There was only one guard there, standing in front of the cage while the shape changer ran her fingers through her jailor’s hair. Judging by the contortions on his face, he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, despite that his body was beginning to shrivel. My eyes fixated on her hands, noticing the white glowing around her fingers. My mouth began to water and my mind was telling me that’s what I needed to fix me. I bit my lip to snap myself out of the trance and to hold back a cough. After taking a moment to refocus myself, three guards entered the building, not that the other two took notice.

“Get off of him!” The lead guard said as he drew his energy weapon and fired at his colleague, but intentionally missing. She immediately dropped him and scurried to the back of the cage while he fell down. The other guards drew their weapons, but the lead held his hand up and they did not fire.

“What happened?” The dazed and confused guard stammered as he looked around. He looked at his captive, who was curled up in a ball, like a dog. His body started to fill out, but his eyes told the story of a broken hearted lover.

“What’s the matter with you, you know the rules. No interaction with it under any circumstances.” The lead guard said walking towards the guard. “You were supposed to give it water and that was it.”

“But I was in paradise… it was perfect,”

“You can be there again, all of you can,” She said rising a bit, on all fours, her voice split into two dissonant tones. She took a quick look in my direction, as if she knew I was there and was keeping me frozen in place with her yellow-bubbled eyes.

“Shut up!” The lead guard said, focusing his weapon on her and walking up to his colleague. “Don’t listen to her. It was an illusion.”

“You know what you need to do to experience all of those pleasures again…” She said. “Just think of what awaits you.”

“I don’t know what the hell happened to Boss Synth, and right now, I don’t give a $#@&.” The large smile spread across the guard’s face while his commander spoke. “I don’t know what you are, but I’m going to take you out.”

“I don’t think the man with the mask would appreciate that,” the shape changer said.

“I’ll deal with it,” He said raising his weapon. I grabbed a batarang.

“No!” The guard that was in the trance screamed as pushed his commanding officer, causing him to miss his shot. He drew his weapon and I threw my batarang, but was hit with a wave of dizziness and missed my target. I didn’t disarm him and the shot was diverted and he hit the lead guard in the chest. He then took two quick shots at the other two guards who were behind them and hit them both in the head, killing them instantly. He fell to his knees and with his smile bigger than ever, placed the gun to his forehead and pulled the trigger.

A sharp dissonant laughter fills the warehouse as the shape changer began to prance around her cage before bending the bars apart as if they were putty and walked out. “It’s okay lover, you can come down now,” She said looking up at me. “I can’t stop thinking about you and given how your condition must be, you must have been thinking about me too.”

I need to wait. I can’t fight this thing in my current state. MCU will be here soon. I just need to hold out until then.

“Come on, why are you being so difficult?” She said stamping her feet. “I’m only offering you a paradise of your own creation. I know you can feel it in your bones.” Behind her, I could see the lead guard begin to stir and grab his gun. “Well, if I can’t get you to pay attention to me, I guess I’ll find someone who will.” She turned sprinted towards the guards and picked him up by the throat. Sparks flew from her hand as energy flowed from him into her.

I jumped from the catwalk, extended my leg and kicked her in the back. She stumbled forward, letting go of the guard. My landing wasn’t so smooth, as I stumbled and fell down on my face.

“Well, I’m glad to see that you’ve decided to come out and play,” I heard her say from behind me as she wrapped her arms around me and began to squeeze me with her super strength. She pressed her nose against the exposed part of my face and then licked me through the latex-like material, causing some literal sparks to fly. She spun me around once and threw me into a wall of stacked boxes, causing red syringes to fall on the ground.

“Now, now, we must be careful with those. They can ruin our fun.” She tip-toed around the syringes and picked me up. “I’ve never tasted anyone as good as you, and I can tell you will appreciate the talents I have to offer. Just give into me and I’ll fulfill your every desire”

“I’m more of a great personality kind of guy,” I said, trying to break her grip.

“I’ve touched your mind, I know what you like.” A white light surrounded her as she changed herself into Batwoman, then Kory, then Barbara. “I could fulfill your deepest desire with any of them.”
“I doubt it would compare to the real thing.”

“Don’t knock it until you try it,” She said as she kissed me through her mask. I could feel my energy being drained and it felt euphoric. I could feel her manipulating my mind’s eye, creating numerous scenarios, trying to lower my defenses. Every symptom I’ve been feeling since the first encounter began to wane away and it took a lot to keep fighting. As I felt myself beginning to black out and my eyes began to roll in the back of my head, she let me go. I fell to the ground and saw the lead guard still alive, holding a smoking gun.

“The red syringes. Use the Red syringes,” the guard screamed as the shape changer ran towards him. I swiped one off the ground and stumbled after her. The guard began shooting at her, which slowed her down enough for me to reach her and plunge the syringe into her neck.

“No,” She screamed as she dropped me and grabbed the syringe out of her neck. She fell to her knees and ripped the bottom part of her mask off. She began to gag and dry heave before vomiting up what looked like a swarming black fluid. “Do you realize what you’ve done?” She asked her voice sounding normal now.

She passed out and after a moment, I could hear the police sirens closing in the distance. I managed to stand up and wobble my way towards the wounded guard from earlier. He was in bad shape, but was still alive. I thanked him and then checked up on my tormentor, who seemed to be okay. I removed her mask, letting her long red hair to flow out and checked her vitals. She was still alive and to my surprise for someone who concealed all of her body, she was quite pretty. The doctors at New Arkham are going to be pretty busy with her. Once I heard the police on the loud speakers, and knocking at the doors, I grabbed a few more syringes and made my way back into the shadows.

Here I am again, putting this costume back in its case and closing this glass door for the last time. Alfred took care of me these last couple of days while I recovered. He’s since left, long overdue for some personal time. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get some sun and have some fun and come back better than ever. I know Bruce and Tim are going to need him down the road.

Tim got back in-between my recovery and I filled him in on what happened with Stephanie. He seemed surprised, and felt guilty that he wasn’t there for her when she needed him. He promised to check up on her. I also told him he was going to have to be patient with Bruce, especially with Alfred gone. Bruce works different and It may take him a while to earn the trust with him that he’s earned with me. But he’s got what it takes; he’ll turn out better than all of us. The only person left is Bruce, who is, as usual, in uniform and sitting at the batcomputer, analyzing the syringes I brought him and researching the information I brought to him. Knowing him, he’s figured out who is really behind this and is making plans, backup plans, and backups to the backups for whatever bad guy is in his crosshairs.

“So, finally leaving?” Bruce asked, without taking his focus off the screen. “Where are you heading?”

“To the Tower for a bit, then … I don’t know.”

“Dick, I’ve told you many times I was very pleased with your work during my absence. You exceeded all of my expectations,” Bruce said as he stood up, holding a box.

“Well, I was trained by the best.”

““You more than earned this.” He said, handing me the box.

“What’s this?” I asked, taking the box from him and opening it. It was a batsuit, a newer version of the one I had been wearing. “Bruce… what’s this about?”

“The one you’ve been using has seen better days. This one is updated with the latest technology and lightweight Kevlar fabrics. I’ve lightened the cape as much as possible without compromising its usefulness. I know how much you hate them.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I said as i sifted though the box .I looked at Bruce. By his reason, he didn’t know what to say either. “Bruce, I mean, I know there’s a bunch of Lanterns, Flashes and Arrow people out there, but there can really be only one…”

“Dick, you’ve proven yourself over the past year to be just as capable as I am in the suit, and ultimately that’s what it is. Whether your Robin, Nightwing, or Batman, or in Gotham, New York or someplace else, it’s the determination, relentlessness, dedication and bravery of who’s in the suit that defines it and makes a difference in this world. And there’s not many in this world that makes a bigger difference in it than you.”

“Bruce… Thanks…that meant a lot,” I looked down, trying to hold back a tear. Bruce isn’t someone who has many heart to hearts. “Honestly, the last couple of days I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to miss wearing this outfit… I mean I want to, but now that your back… I just think I need to live some of my old life for a while. I need to start this next phase of my life for me and get me straightened out before I can put this on again.”

“I understand. You’ve earned that too. Keep it for when you’re ready for it.”

“Thanks Bruce, for everything.” I extended my hand.

“No,” Bruce took my hand and shook it. “Thank you.”

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