บท 216: Human Monsters
[These next 6 chaps are for today, the day before that, and the day before that... sigh actually I'll post an extra 3 chaps and take a short week of no uploading so I can have my schedule sorted out.]
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Batman landed with a soft thud beside the crash site, his armored boots crunching against the debris-strewn ground. The air around him shimmered with residual heat, a stifling wave that rolled off the molten cracks spider-webbing through the ground. Without wasting a moment, he activated Detective Mode, and a series of blue and red overlays flickered into view, scanning the surrounding area.
Honestly, it wasn't that hard to find her.
With her body heat turning the ground into molten slag, she glowed like a beacon on his HUD. Streams of superheated air distorted the space around her like a mirage.
A pulse of light shone through the cracks in the ground, a red-hot glow that gradually intensified, melting the concrete beneath. A beam of searing fire burst forth like a volcanic eruption, shooting upwards and trailing sparks and embers. It was as if a river of lava had suddenly been released into the air.
Out of this inferno emerged two serpentine tendrils of molten fire, whipping through the air with a crackle, drawing patterns of heat as they spun. After two full loops, they plunged back into the ground, pulling up a small, glowing figure from the depths below.
Leila emerged, her body radiating with an inner heat that set the air around her ablaze. Her colorful wings, lined with glowing streamers, flared open behind her, the flames coursing along the feathers like living veins of fire. As she ascended into the air, her eyes locked onto Batman below. A flicker of surprise crossed her face.
Even though she had braced herself for the worst, she hadn't expected the human's weapons to be so... devastating.
The Apocalypse missiles had ripped through her Tisshield, a protective barrier that was ancient, but formidable. Her body bore signs of the damage—blackened scorch marks, cracks where her molten essence bubbled through. But already, those wounds were closing, knitting together as lava-like substance flowed beneath her skin, sealing the cracks with a glowing, ember-red hue.
It should have hurt, but it didn't.
In fact, her senses felt dulled, like the world around her was coated in a thin layer of frost, muffling her perception. Pain, which should have been overwhelming, was instead a distant throb, an almost forgotten sensation.
Emotions were like that for her—faded echoes of what they once were.
For example, joy or anger. Even fear. They weren't entirely gone, but they flickered like dying embers rather than roaring flames.
Ancient humans had once believed that her kind fed on negative emotions. They thought despair and pain were their sustenance, their power, their way of controlling others.
It was true, but only partially.
Absorbing emotions wasn't just about gaining strength. It was a way for them to feel—something they had long lost touch with. The rush of despair or fear flowing into them brought a fleeting reminder of what it meant to be alive. Without it, emotions were like shadows—visible, but without substance.
For a brief moment, as she fed on the anguish of others, she could almost feel... alive.
Almost.
She shook her head, dismissing those thoughts, and refocused on the battlefield. Her eyes, glowing like twin stars, ignited with a new intensity, blazing with the internal firestorm that roiled within her.
The illusion of the human girl melted away, revealing her true form. She expanded, swelling like a furnace that had finally burst through its containment. Her wings remained, massive and radiant, but her body twisted into a shape that no longer bore any resemblance to human or bird. It was a grotesque, otherworldly form, with limbs that seemed to shift and flow like molten glass, yet retained a strange symmetry that was both alien and beautiful. Transparent flames danced across her skin, curling around her frame like ethereal serpents.
Charlie's eyes widened slightly behind the visor.
"Friday, did we break this thing's disguise?"
"It appears so, sir," Friday's voice came through the comms, as calm as ever despite the escalating chaos. "Be careful, sir. The opponent's temperature is continuing to rise, even higher than before. The bat suit isn't designed for prolonged exposure to such extreme heat. It's advisable to keep your distance."
"Yeah, I figured," Charlie muttered, flexing his grip on the controls, eyes scanning for a tactical advantage.
The creature hovering above him roared, the sound more like the rumble of an erupting volcano than anything from a living throat. From somewhere deep within its molten chest, a series of enormous fireballs gathered, each one the size of a wrecking ball, glowing with an intensity that made the night seem like midday.
With a mighty heave, Leila unleashed the barrage, the massive fireballs hurtling downward like meteorites, trailing streaks of flame. Each impact sent shockwaves through the ground, cratering the earth with explosions that shattered nearby structures.
Charlie leapt from the ground, using the explosive force as a springboard, launching himself into the air. The shockwave of heat blasted upward, nearly singing him as he barely managed to open his wings in time, catching the updraft and soaring into the sky. The cloak's reinforced edges hardened into a sleek delta wing, and the back thrusters roared to life, pushing him higher at supersonic speeds.
If their earlier battle had been a swift, near-invisible dance in the sky, this new clash was impossible to ignore. The entire city below had woken to the spectacle—a fiery giant clashing with a black-winged figure that tore through the night, illuminating the sky with their battle.
Back in Pine City, civilians roused from their beds, rubbing their eyes and staring out of their windows in awe. The sight of the burning, phoenix-like entity hanging over the skyline, its wings of fire spreading across the night like a cosmic bird, left them breathless. The glow from the flames turned the darkened streets into rivers of gold, shimmering with reflected firelight, as if the city itself was on the edge of being consumed.
It was like an apocalyptic vision come to life—streets once quiet now awash in the red glow of reflected fire. Some people stood on their balconies, phones in hand, recording the strange, surreal scene as their breaths fogged the glass.
In the meantime, agents from the Ninth Special Service Division scrambled into action, but the sheer speed of the battle meant they could only observe from a distance. Despite the chaos, neither Batman nor Leila allowed the fight to stray into populated areas. They kept to the outskirts, the suburbs and industrial zones, where their devastating exchanges wouldn't level entire city blocks.
In the sky above, the fireballs continued to detonate, each burst like a miniature sun going nova. Charlie twisted and rolled through the explosions, the suit's thrusters pushing the engines to their limits. His visor fed him trajectories and vectors, guiding him through the labyrinth of flaming death that Leila unleashed.
With every swoop of her fiery wings, Leila gained altitude, her form blazing ever brighter. She tracked Batman with unwavering focus, her burning eyes locked onto him. She knew how Laitos had fallen—how he had been outsmarted and overwhelmed by human technology. She respected the power of these new humans, especially the bat-like weapon flying around her.
But unlike Laitos, she believed she could win.
In the battle with Laitos, she had seen that while the human's weapons were potent, they weren't all fatal. The truly dangerous strike, the one that had cleaved through Laitos like a hot knife through butter, was the energy beam that the flying machine had fired at the end—a weapon that left no room for survival.
Even she wouldn't be able to survive a direct hit from that. But if she could avoid it, she believed she would outlast him. She was sure of it.
No matter how powerful a weapon is, it's useless if it can't hit its target.
Just as this thought crossed her mind, a streak of red and gold ripped through the night. It tore through the roiling clouds of heat like a shooting star, moving at supersonic speeds as it homed in on her position.
Leila's gaze shifted, catching the new arrival—another human, clad in metal, surrounded by glowing red jets that propelled him through the air like a comet. She felt a pang of disbelief—just how many of these humans had learned to fly?
In her time, such feats would have been considered divine. Now, it seemed like anyone could master the art of flight.
But she dismissed the new arrival quickly, focusing on the true threat. After all, she thought, her current form made her nearly untouchable. The only real danger was that bat-shaped machine.
Until two brilliant beams of energy surged from the red-and-gold figure's hands, slamming directly into her chest with the force of a runaway train.
The impact shattered her protective shield, sending molten fragments flying outward. Heat and pressure blasted through her body, cracking her outer form. Leila, caught off guard, reeled from the strike, her head snapping back as she struggled to regain control of her wings.
She stared at the red-and-gold figure hovering before her, her molten eyes wide with shock.
What kind of monster have these humans become?
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