#56: Puncture Wounds (Part 2 of 4)

Previously, in JUSTICE LEAGUE…

The JUSTICE LEAGUE investigated a tip from the mysterious PATHFINDER that led them to an Apokoliptian weapons cache in New York. With evidence mounting, could the threat of the Dark Gods of the Fourth World be lurking around the corner?

Meanwhile, GREEN LANTERN was compromised by a mysterious book, leading to the JUSTICE LEAGUE’s island base of LAPUTA going into emergency lockdown with him and BATMAN still inside and at the mercy of the monstrous things that have manifested fromJOHN STEWART’s power ring!

With two of their own trapped on the island, the rest of the team regroup at BLUE BEETLE’s lab to plan their next action.

With all this in mind, please join us now for the continuing adventures of the JUSTICE LEAGUE--


Blue Beetle was pacing, trying to figure out the situation as it related to his interactions with Green Lantern earlier that day. “See, I gave John a book. Nothing that I thought was magic, nothing that I thought had an agenda, just a stupid book by an author I like, and it seems to have been haunted. Or something. have another copy here, first edition, snazzy as hell, ‘Concerning The Angle Of Horror’--”

After collecting it from the shelf above his work station, Ted held up his copy of the book, but Big Barda slapped it out of his hand abruptly.

“Ah Jesus! Bard, you dislocated my finger.” With a jerk, Beetle popped it back into the socket, but everyone else was more concerned with Barda’s actions. “Just because you’re a celestial being doesn’t mean you can go around and do crap like that…”

The New God was incensed. “Damnation, Ted! Can you not see the aura around that book? The vibration it’s giving off?”

The others shared looks but Blue Beetle shook his head. “…What now?”

Barda extended her Mega-Rod and lifted the book with the tip. “Just me? There’s something so very off with the pages inside. I can feel it. And you’re saying you can’t?”

“Could this be connected to the Apokoliptian war cache you took out earlier?” asked the Guardian.

“I didn’t sense anything like this before. I felt nothing at all. And you say you feel no different from handling it?”

“Nope,” said Blue Beetle, shaking off the pain in his hand. “It’s not even the same copy I handed to John, you know? The only thing I do know is that it’s a book and a second printing has caused us trouble.”

“We don’t know what it’s capable of,” said Barda, dropping the book onto the worktop and retracting her Mega-Rod before sheathing it at her side. “The disorientation I feel just looking at it… we shouldn’t treat it so lightly.”

“You’re right, but what I do know is that it’s… oh… oh, that’s good,” said Beetle, thoughts springing up, mental gears grinding together and sparking a theory.

“What are you thinking, Ted?” asked Doctor Light.

“Books are used to transport you to other dimensions, right? Sure, the dimensions are fictional, they exist in our head after we start to read, but what if they don’t? What if that book is just a book in the hands of most folk, but if you put it in front of someone capable of shaping reality, or creating their own, it becomes an architectural blueprint?”

“You think that the book was a trap designed for a Green Lantern?” offered the Guardian.

Beetle nodded. “Why not? We’ve seen crazier. Barda, can you pass me-- okay, no, I’ll grab it, sure--” Ted picked up the discarded tome. “I mean, I don’t know what this will prove, but Vic, can you run your eyes over the digital copy of the book? See if there’s anything in there that can help us out?”

“I’ll download the text and shut down external connections, just in case. Give me a second.” Cyborg closed his eyes, and when he opened them they glowed red as data shot through his brain at impossible speeds. “Wow. There’s a pattern in the words. Subtle. Some kind of subliminal direction… how can I describe this… it’s like it’s pushing the reader to imagine a door that something can come through. I’m not sure what though. I’ll analyse further.”

Beetle felt untethered. “This is an Enos Godwyn book. The ‘what’ is inevitably something horrible. I think GL opened a door to a higher reality where some kind of other-dimensional beings exist. And he just unleashed them on Laputa.”

The Guardian cleared his throat. “What?”

“I have no idea, but if this has anything to do with the content of the book, then those things on Laputa? They’re horrors.”

LAPUTA:

Angela Spica didn’t know what was going on, but she knew it wasn’t good. The lights were still off, and the emergency generators had yet to activate. That shouldn’t be the case, but she’d never been involved in a full lockdown before, and she knew that if she was anybody else, the panic would have begun to set in. Thankfully, due to her specific circumstances, her body wouldn’t allow her to succumb to the fear response.

Angela checked her phone but there was no signal. She checked her wristband, and it was still functioning, and she put two and two together. External power sources were down and the back-ups weren’t coming back. Her wristband was powered by her own body’s electrical signals, same as the nanites in her blood, and her phone wasn’t in any way connected to the main grid.

From her lab, overlooking the other half of the island, she could see from her window into all the others that littered that side of Laputa. Every now and then she thought she saw something. Flickers of emerald light moving through the corridors, but when she concentrated, the lights would vanish, and there’d just be more darkness.

Who was on the island when she last checked? Blue Beetle had said his goodbyes earlier that evening, given her a bottle of that lychee juice he was mad for at the moment. What else was in it? Aloe Vera pulp? The taste was sweet and the texture smooth, but then gummy, odd and interesting.

Ted told her he was going to pop over to the monitor womb, say hello to Green Lantern and then head back to his lab in Midway City. A few hours later, the island was in lockdown.

No, thought Angela, you’re moving too fast.

Batman arrived and headed to the New God tech chamber in the lower laboratories on the other side of the island, away from her labs. It was just the three of them, then. Angela thought she had seen Hawkman at some point, but she couldn’t be sure. She’d dismissed the rest of the support staff because the automated processes needed a full system test, and what better down time than the middle of the night, when the world was sleeping? She could handle the analysis by herself.

Laputa was in lockdown, and a full system test was running in the background.

“Oh… no,” said Angela, realisation slapping her in the face. “Oh, shit; oh, no.”

The system would boot back up after the test was completed. It would reset. The shield would come down, and whatever was being contained would be let loose. That meant she’d need to-- need to do what? What could she do? She was just a scientist. Not a superhero. She looked back across the island, through the window. There it was again. Emerald light. Moving fast. Was it Green Lantern?

{Hello? Is there anybody out there?} asked Angela, accessing the private communication channel of the Justice League she’d been instrumental in building. The nanotelepathic channel was also powered by her body’s own electrical energy, but there was no response. If the shield was up, no signals could get out, but she had hoped that anybody inside might be able to answer.

There was a noise outside her lab. The blast door was stuck open. She couldn’t close it, not with the power out. Too heavy. Too thick. The source of the noise was unknown to her, but she couldn’t see anything out there. No emerald light. No nothing. She didn’t know what to do. She looked around the lab, and picked up a piece of equipment that would do nothing against the threat of a real supervillain. She put it down, and then cried out when the noise grew louder-- just outside the open door--

Batman appeared, half-falling, half-stumbling into the lab. “Green Lantern… has been… compromised…”

“Are you okay?” said Angela. He was shaking. Physically convulsing as he slumped against the wall nearest the door. She’d never seen him like this.

“Can’t… struggling… to think…” Batman motioned around his temple, “fear centres on overdrive… can’t… calm…” He closed his eyes tight and she watched as he focused on his breathing. In and out. Slow inhale, slower exhale. The action was working, and she saw the Dark Knight reassert control over his body, albeit not by much. “Whatever is out there… got its hooks… in Green Lantern… the constructs it’s generating are nightmarish. Manifesting the worst things you could possibly imagine.”

“How is that possible?”

“No… no idea.” Batman took a bottle of water from his belt and took a hurried sip that turned into an almost desperate gulp. He grimaced, his lack of self-control needling at his brain. “Do you have anything in here that can disrupt energy constructs?”

Glancing around the room automatically, Spica bit her lip when she came to her conclusion. “Umm, no, but, I wish Doctor Light was here, that’s kind of her thing. Besides, power is out, it’s like an EMP fried everything but the shield generator.”

“Unfortunately it’s just us then. Us against the deadliest weapon in the universe. In the hands of some thing that can drive your terror impulse into overdrive-- but you’re doing fine. Why… why is that?”

Before Angie could answer Batman’s question, he looked behind her and she watched his eyes widen.

“We need to move!” barked the Dark Knight.

“What? What’s--?”

Angela turned, and in the building on the other side of the island she could see a stationary, emerald light that throbbed with an unholy intensity. Her eyes focused to the odd wavelength of the glow and she saw that countless shifting, demonic forms stood perfectly statue still, filling every single visible window. Their faces-- if that’s what you could call them-- twitched and writhed. Their eyes-- oh-so-many-eyes-- blinked in unison. Massive fanged teeth chattered and some raked their claws against their own bodies, emerald ichor dribbling from the wounds in thick spouts instead of crimson blood.

“Oh-- oh, my God.”

Batman took her by the hand and pulled her around to face him. “Run.”


“Why would anyone want to do this?” said Cyborg, working side-by-side at a bank of computers with Doctor Light. “Enos Godwyn. Who is he, really? Some kind of magician? Could this be an alias of Felix Faust, or, I don’t know, an agent of Trigon?”

The Guardian shook his head. “We won’t know until we find him, whoever he is or isn’t. Beetle, you know more about this guy than anyone else here, so I suggest you and Wonder Woman go to the guy’s publisher, his editor, whoever, and see what info they have on him. While you do that, Cyborg, we need to get eyes back on Laputa. Do you have what you need to do that here?”

Cyborg gave a nod in the affirmative. “We back everything up here. One of the contingencies we put together in case we got hit like we did with the Thinker virus* a few months back. If it’s possible to get the camera feeds back up, I can do it here.”

“Good, in the meantime, let’s hope that our people are safe. Because we can’t do anything until we figure this one out,” said the Guardian.

Barda slammed her palm against the wall, causing the work stations to shake. “We can’t even access Laputa if we tried! Boom Tubes bounce us out above the shield, the teleportation Doors are closed, and we don’t have the firepower to bring down the shield. Not even the immensity of Orion’s Astro Force could break through.”

“The shield cannot come down,” said the Guardian. “If I’m tracking what Beetle is saying, whatever is in there is bad, and we’re the second line of defence against it. I just hope the first survives while we work on figuring this out.”

“Keep in constant communication,” said Wonder Woman, halfway out the door. “Give us any information you have. I don’t want to lose anybody else to whatever this is.”

“Of course,” said the Guardian. “Good luck.”


Francis Strieber awoke with a start, the sound of his wife’s gasps stirring him from a particularly enticing dream involving a number of fictional characters he’d always had an eye for. At the foot of his bed stood Blue Beetle and Wonder Woman, their silhouettes exaggerated by street lights outside piercing through the burgundy curtains.

“Mister Strieber, the Justice League have an emergency and we need your help,” said Beetle.

“How did you get in here?” said Francis. He picked up his glasses and pulled them on clumsily, tired hands making a meal of the action. He spoke with a British accent tinged by decades spent in the States. “What time is it? Who, what, why?”

“One of your authors snuck subliminal messaging capable of taking control of readers into one of his books. Mind control,” said Wonder Woman.

“Yeah, something your editors didn’t take into consideration when they pushed it through to release. Imagine if that got out to the world,” said Beetle.

Diana’s brow furrowed at Ted’s words, but she cast a gaze back toward Strieber. It looked like they were going to attempt good-cop-bad-cop, with Beetle in a role she didn’t think him capable of.

Francis was taken aback. “What-- are you threatening me?”

Beetle shook his head. “I’m stating the obvious. We need Enos Godwyn’s location and we need it now.”

“Of course it would be Godwyn. Jesus Christ. I never liked that man but his work sold in their millions. A ruddy great big cash cow, that man, but his work was trash. It was all trash. The reader base though, good lord. Regardless…” Strieber picked up his phone and held up his other hand to keep the Justice League waiting. Moments later, someone picked up his call on the other end. “Madeline, its Francis. Yes, yes, I know it’s early… that’s all well and good, but I’ve got the Justice League with me right now …”

Francis’ wife stood, pulled on her dressing gown and yawned. “Tea, anybody?”

“We’re fine, thank you,” said Wonder Woman, noticing Beetle going to say ‘yes’.

Francis look befuddled by whatever was being said to him on the phone. “Yes, yes, I know he’s not one for… okay, all right… sure… what… what do you mean?”

Beetle glanced over to Wonder Woman, whose expression was one of grave concern.

Francis ended the phone call and shrugged. “We’ve not seen or heard from Enos in months. Madeline-- that’s his editor-- tells me he sold his house in Rhode Island and just left.”

Beetle slammed his fist into his open palm. “Damn. I’d heard those rumours. Did he leave a forwarding address? For royalty cheques or whatever?”

“Nothing of the sort. Money went straight into a bank account we set up. No withdrawals since he vanished. But the last manuscript he sent in, ‘Concerning the Angle of Horror’? The postmark said it was sent from a town called Ugthothlhem. Madeline laughed when she told me-- it’s where all his books are set. It doesn’t exist.”

“I was going to say,” said Beetle, rubbing his chin. He was thinking through what he’d been told. Building up a theory. “I have an idea.” He looked over to Wonder Woman. “I think we’re done here.”

Deferring to her colleague in this matter, Wonder Woman nodded in thanks toward the man whose home they’d entered. “Thank you for your assistance, Mr Strieber.”

Mrs Strieber re-entered the room with two cups of tea and she watched as the two Justice Leaguers exited through their bedroom window, Beetle waving as he closed them after him.

Mrs Streiber shook her head as she placed the tea cup in her husband’s hands. “That was odd, Francis, dear.”

“Yes,” said Francis, taking a sip. “They could have knocked. Bloody millennials.”


Rushing through the corridors of Laputa with Batman, Angela analysed her situation. Without the lights on, with the generator down and the shield up, the headquarters of the Justice League had taken on an unearthly quality. Sound travelled horribly, so they half-ran, half-tiptoed through the now-dank halls. Echoes of their footsteps throbbed outward, doubling back when they turned a corner. The place was both alive and dead with activity, haunted by their own escape from what pursued them.

The air was cold, the regulated temperature plummeting when there were no working sensors to tell the deactivated internal air flow units to warm things up. All necessities when you floated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where cold winds travelled with regularity across their bow.

“I don’t understand what’s going on. Those things-- they’re constructs? Green Lantern constructs?”

Batman checked behind him then answered. “Yes… we’re not going to… win a fight with them. We need to keep moving.”

“The shield is going to come down, Batman. Tonight’s the full system test. Everything will reboot in a few hours, we need to, uh, find out what’s going on, or, stop it, or, something.”

The Dark Knight said nothing as they hurried through the corridors, the sound of claw and tooth and bone skittering far away from them-- but getting closer. “I need to find John Stewart. But first, I need to get you to safety.”

“Safety? These things are trying to what, kill us? Where’s safe?”

Batman came to a stop beside an empty wall, and removed a panel using a small lever taken from his belt. A small handle became visible, and he strained against it, wrenching it open and leading Angela inside. With the action complete, he returned the panel to position and closed the door after them with an immense, muscle-straining push. Just because the main doors relied on electronics to work didn’t mean the secret passages built in by the World’s Greatest Detective couldn’t be prised open and shut.

“What is this?”

“I helped design Laputa. There are whole subsections that no one knows about, other than Superman. Hard to explain away lead-lined walls to a man who notices he can’t see through them.”

“You built secret tunnels into the Justice League’s headquarters? I’d say you were paranoid, but right now it sounds like you were preparing for--”

Batman held a finger to his lips to quiet Angela and it became clear why immediately. Outside the secret room, they could hear the emerald creatures roaming, their shrieks filling the corridors.

After the noise had passed, Batman turned to Angela. “We can get to the other side of the island using these tunnels. We find John and we figure out what to do.”

“You don’t know already?”

“I have contingencies in mind, but implementing them? Easier said than done. Now, you need to tell me why you’re so calm.”

“What? I don’t--?”

Batman shook his head and pressed a button on the side of his cowl, his white lenses sliding upwards revealing his bright blue eyes. His pupils were black dots nearly drowning out any hint of blue. “I’m terrified, Angela. Your pupils haven’t changed dilation once. Are you on something?”

“I…” started Angie, before sighing. “Batman, I have nanites in my bloodstream regulating my brain activity. I suffer from... severe depression… and I programmed them to keep me straight. Right now they must be fighting the fear response that’s being broadcast throughout the island. If it wasn’t… I don’t know if I’d be alive right now.”

“Nanites,” repeated Batman. “Considering your area of expertise, I shouldn’t be surprised--”

There was a quiet skittering outside the door and the duo snapped silent. Batman motioned for Angie to move quietly, and the two began to creep down the secret corridor.

Abruptly, loudly, a razor sharp blade of hard emerald energy tore through the wall and prised the secret door open-- allowing one of the horrors that chased them to shriek when it located its quarry.

Batman pulled a batarang from his utility belt and threw it at the thing’s head, and while it dug in deep, it didn’t stop the demonic shape from scrambling down the corridor toward them.

“Here!” Batman kicked through a grate and pushed Angie through, down into a sloped tunnel that caused the young scientist to vanish from sight. He followed her down and, before the thing could follow after, he pressed a trigger on his wrist that obliterated the construct, thanks to the explosive batarang embedded in its skull.


Blue Beetle and Wonder Woman re-entered the former’s laboratory. Cyborg was still, his electric eyes dim, while Doctor Light and the Guardian were reviewing the data pulled from Laputa prior to the protective shield being erected. The others were elsewhere.

The Guardian caught the returning duo up. “Cyborg got us eyes on Angie, Batman and Green Lantern prior to lockdown, then he shut down to begin analysis on Godwyn’s books. Anyway, the internal sensors detected movement in the aviary, but the security system can’t track what’s up there.”

“An intruder?” asked Blue Beetle.

“We’re not sure. But I’ll keep reviewing, see if we can backtrack and get a face. Anyway, Batman was in the basement levels, using the New God tech for who knows what. Angie was a few floors up, reviewing systems. As we know, GL was in the monitor womb, in the second tower. With all the power down, that means it’s going to be a trek for one to reach the other.

Doctor Light looked unhappy, she knew something that would make this day even worse. “There’s a full system reboot scheduled to take place in five hours’ time. Everything is going to reset.”

“That means the shield is going to come down and whatever’s inside is going to be able to get out,” said Wonder Woman.

The Guardian nodded. “Worst case scenario, yes, but Batman’s on site. If there’s a way to rectify the situation before that, it’ll get done.”

“Batman is one of the best,” said Beetle, looking at Wonder Woman. “They’ll make it out of there.”

Wonder Woman felt something stir in her, beyond the concern she felt for her colleagues inside the locked-down headquarters where horrors roamed. Batman was in peril. But he was in peril every day. So why should she feel even more scared for his safety? Their developing relationship was having repercussions; she knew that immediately. “Where’s Barda?” she asked Harper.

“She joined Mister Miracle and Majestic over Laputa, being in the same room as that book was making her skin crawl. I’ve tried contacting GL’s partner but I can’t get through. Not even sure who he’s working with right now.”

“According to GL, Henshaw is off-world*,” said Cyborg, surprising everyone as he emerged from his silent fugue state, active and aware of everything that happened during the time he was still. “And Guy Gardner is a wild card. Hey. I have something, guys.”

Blue Beetle clutched his arm. “Jeez, give a guy a heart attack, Vic. Go on, go on, while I recover…”

“You’ll like this, Ted-- I’ve just read every book that Enos Godwyn ever wrote or contributed to. Novels, novellas, anthologies, essays… the only memetic infection is in ‘Concerning The Angle Of Horror’, his last book. There’s no hint of a ‘Green Lantern trap’ in any of the others. There’s also a marked change in prosaic style when it comes to that title.”

“A lot of critics have said that,” said Blue Beetle. Doctor Light rolled her eyes. “…Sorry.”

Cyborg didn’t pay attention to the look the two science heroes shared. “Don’t apologise, they’d be right to criticize. I can analyse massive amounts of data when required. I’ve designed numerous data analysis packages, and had some of the smartest people in the world provide me their own. As the novel progresses, the prose style changes, almost as if someone is going over his work and adding certain key phrases and language that I think contributed to what snared GL. Now, onto something that Ted probably is aching to share--”

Vic held out his hand and projected a holographic map of the United States in front of everybody. Ted smiled. “You’ve figured out where Ugthothlhem is? The town Enos sets all his books?”

The map zoomed in and a location became clear, a town called Whilkirk, in New England. A second land mass materialised in a darker shade of blue and overlapped with the town. This segment of map was labelled Ugthothlhem.

“Thanks to my data-dive, I have the longitude and latitude from his second book, ‘Night Stalking Day’. But from the dimensions provided by his first book, it overlays an existing town, a lake, and a forested area. A place called Whilkirk.”

“Is there anything special about the place?” asked Doctor Light.

Vic smiled. “I did some digging. Don’t ask me where, you won’t like the answer. Whilkirk is where Godwyn was born.”

“But… even I didn’t know that,” said Beetle. “No one knew! It’s part of his whole mystery!”

Cyborg nodded and a projected a birth certificate and numerous photos of a man no-one but Ted recognised. “Because Enos Godwyn is an alias. For Bert Hanley. A man who should by all accounts be in his late sixties-- if he hadn’t vanished in 1979. Then Enos Godwyn emerged on the horror scene in--”

“--1983. When his first book was published. So, where was he for four years?” asked Beetle.

Cyborg shrugged. “No clue. But Whilkirk is a real place and Bert Hanley is a real person. So why don’t we hustle and get over there-- and see what we can do about figuring out what this book is doing driving GL loopy?”

Harper patted Cyborg on the back. “Good work, Victor. You heard the man-- let’s get moving.”

Doctor Light saw Blue Beetle hesitate as the others headed out of the laboratory, and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. He smiled as he was pulled out of whatever state he’d fallen into, and turned his attention onto her.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“I think Barda might have broken my finger.”

Kimiyo wasn’t impressed. “Ted…”

Blue Beetle’s shoulders slumped and he resigned himself to the situation. “This whole thing is a nightmare, and I can’t help but feel responsible.”

“You weren’t to know.”

“I get that, but that doesn’t help my crippling sense of guilt. And there’s this other thing. I’ve read every book Godwyn’s written. And they were fun but they were garbage, written like crap, obvious characters in obvious situations, and now it’s escalated to this terrifying situation where we’ve got one half of the team trapped and the other half-- us-- chasing our tails.”

“Ted, don’t be stupid. We’re not chasing our tails and the others will be fine. This is what we do.”

“Ah, I guess, I know, I know. But I know how these stories go. I know them like the back of my hand. And I just think… If we’re living in a world written by Enos Godwyn, if that’s what’s happening, then it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”


Angela cried out as the sliding tunnel suddenly spat her out in another section of the island base, and she rolled out of the way as Batman emerged from the shaft. Without a word of warning, he grabbed her and yanked her away as shredded metal and debris tumbled down soon after.

“That was loud,” said Angela, rubbing her ear.

“Pardon?” said Batman.

Angela almost repeated herself but Batman was shaking his head. “I didn’t think you made jokes.”

“I’m nervous,” said Batman, checking the room for any enemy combatants. “I don’t normally get nervous. This is an odd experience for me.”

“So whatever is doing this has hijacked Green Lantern’s ring and has managed to broadcast some kind of fear response that’s transformed you into John freaking McClane?” Angie ran her hands through her hair then looked around. “Where are we, anyway?”

“The cargo bays. This whole island wasn’t designed to be the headquarters of a superhero team; it was designed to be a refugee centre. The UN didn’t like the idea of us dropping into situations and inserting ourselves into foreign policy. Diana-- Wonder Woman-- has fought for it during closed sessions, but she’d had no luck as of yet.” Batman motioned around the area. “These bays should be filled with medical supplies, bedding, food--” He shook his head and turned back to her. “Do you know this island can fly?”

“You’re trying to distract me, calm me down, but I’m fine, Batman. Right now, with my nanites? I can’t be anything but calm…”

“Then maybe I’m trying to calm myself down. I need to think… I need… Angela, can your nanites power up any of the consoles here?”

“There’s no way. I’m sorry, it’s…”

“No, you’re right, they’re powered by your bioelectricity. I’m just… trying to unpick the problem.”

A number of muted explosions rocked the cargo bay, causing Angie to grope at the nearest wall to prevent herself from falling over. Batman looked around, confused by the sounds.

“There are no power nodes in this section. That noise--”

There was another sound, louder, metal on metal, and emerald constructs tore through the nearest wall and sent Angie and Batman back toward the sliding tunnel they’d come down. They couldn’t go back up-- from out of them slid more of the constructs, their horrific visages shrieking and clicking.

Surrounded, the constructs got closer and closer to the duo… and Angie didn’t know what to do.

Batman stepped in front of her, raising his hand to prevent her from getting any closer to the constructs.

“What do we do?” whispered Angie.

“I’m working on it,” said Batman. Angie could hear the fear in his voice. She tried to ignore it, but even with the nanites keeping her head straight, she began to feel panic creep in.

Batman grimaced. “Stay calm.”

The emerald demons skittered and shrieked as they closed ranks around the duo.

“I can’t not be calm, it’s in my blood. Unless you’re… trying to convince yourself… again?”

Batman grimaced and addressed the nearest construct directly. “John! John, it’s Batman. You need to exert control over the ring! You can’t let this alien consciousness infect you!”

“John’s not here anymore, Dark Knight,” said one of the constructs.

The Caped Crusader took a back step as one of the creatures slashed at him. A distraction. Moving a step back, he pedalled into the attack of the second and third beings that began to swarm over him. His bicep was torn, his flank ripped. Blood flew but he didn’t cry out, doing all he could to protect Angie from their claws and teeth.

Batman threw down a smoke pellet followed by a minor explosive and after a loud bang the floor was cleared. He grabbed Angie and made to fire his grapnel over the heads of the constructs but they swarmed once more. He doubled over and saw green. Green and red. More red spilled out and then he heard Angie scream.

This was it. Angie could feel their groping, scratching limbs all over her, teeth and talons biting into her as she struggled. Batman was on top of her, taking the worst of their attack, and she couldn’t help but fear that this was it, this was the end of her, and of him, and even with the nanites in her blood fear began to bleed in as her blood began to bleed out and there was emerald light and the growing darkness and then--