Beginnings in Darkness #4

The sewers were living labyrinths of tunnels and rushing water and stinking sewage. The storm had flooded the system with rainwater, making finding a relatively dry patch of anything next to impossible. Jason flung out tendrils of swirling black metal and managed to wrap himself around the railing of a service platform. He gooed his way to the floor and took up a solid form once more. The whole process was, quite frankly, disgusting. Not only did he get to mingle with Gotham’s you-know-what, it got into his every poor and he had to literally keep himself together. It took a serious amount of concentration.

He weighed the brownish bundle. Fear, the policeman had called it. What did that mean? It was some sort of drug, that much was obvious, but other than that he had no idea. In the half hour or so that he spent wandering through the tunnels along adjacent platforms and walkways, the sun rose and the rain stopped; bringing a new day on the weary inhabitants of Gotham.

He made his way along a walkway to a growing pool of light, slashed and criss-crossed by the dark lines of a grate high above on the street. Something made him hesitate; a tingle of apprehension along his spine. Tentatively, he extended his hand into the jail-bar pattern shed by the grate. Where the stripes of light fell, the warm touch of the sunlight made his skin crawl and bubble. The black layer of akletine burned against his skin. He recoiled, retreating back into the dark of the tunnel. Nausea oozed in his gut, and he had to snatch the rail to stay upright. After a few seconds the dizziness wore off and he managed to stand without toppling over again. Curious, he retracted the akletine from his hand (It was like taking off a glove, only..no hands!) and reached back into the light. Nothing. Not the slightest tingle. He formed the akletine back into its oval, laying gently against his chest from a black chain, and slipped it under his grimy t-shirt before he squinted up through the grate to the street above. Two pairs of men’s shoes passed overhead; one worn from years of abuse, the other meticulously shined. Jason listened in on their conversation as one yawned and said:

“Lovely morning, don’t you think detective Stevens?”

“Yeah. Anything would seem like heaven compared to last night.”

“So, how was your first night on duty in Gotham?”
“You’re a cruel, unusual breed Bullock.”
“At least he didn’t leave you at Central on your own like he usually does with the noobs.”

“Noobs? You’ve been spending too much time on the internet, Tom.”

“Hey, free entertainment…”

They babbled on-Jason wasn’t listening anymore. He’d just caught wind of the most wonderful, welcome smell imaginable; fresh doughnuts. Trust cops to have doughnuts. He thought, grinning as he climbed up to the grate and peered through the bars. The three men had their backs turned, the doughnuts sitting conspicuously exposed on the hood of a nearby car. Jason carefully slid the grate to one side and crept to, just as Tom was asking;

“So, how is Metropolis these days? Come to the dark side yet?”

“No, not in the least. Have you heard about him? I mean, about Super-hey!” Jason grabbed and ran; bolting back to the grate and jumping back to the walkway with his prize. Stevens, a tall, haggard man with black hair and strikingly blue eyes behind dorky glasses started after him, but then thought better of it. Jason could hear his footsteps on the sidewalk above.

“Kid probably hasn’t eaten in days.” Stevens mumbled. “We weren’t going to eat all of them anyway.”

“What’s that? Metropolis made you soft?”

“Give him a break, Harvey. He’s got a point.” Tom pointed out.

Jason walked back down along the tunnel and ate his newly acquired doughnut, heading for the general direction of Wayne manor. He’d had enough of the city for one day.

--

“You mean he’s gone?” Bruce said, gaping.

“Yes, sir. I found his room empty and his window open this morning.”

“Great.” Bruce groaned. He had no idea how they were going to track Jason down. No real name, no papers to speak of and no identity. Plus, Lucius was going to rub his nose in this when he found out. Speak of the devil, he thought and wheeled around to face Lucius as he walked in with a cardboard box and a smug look on his face.

“I heard you’ve got a bit of a problem.’

“He probably would’ve gotten out anyway, Lucius.’

“Cool it, Bruce. I didn’t come here to chastise. Although..I can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Yeah, yeah. What did you find?”

“This,” He set the box down in front of Bruce. “And another more...unusual item.” There was a file, a rolled blueprint and a black ingot of the same black metal Jason’s pendant had been made of. “There are a few more ingots of that metal. It’s called akletine, a lead alloy that’s supposed to be radioactive and highly unstable. Somehow..Cadmus found a way to stabilize it. There are a few more ingots back at the lab.” Bruce picked up the file and leafed through it. “That’s all we could find on him. His full name’s Jason Todd. He’s 18. No parents, no contacts, no medical records.”

“What about the ‘item’ back at the lab?” Lucius pointed at the blueprint. Bruce picked it up and spread it out on his lap. “Wait a minute…you said the akletine was radioactive?”

“Yeah, why?”
Bruce was already rolling towards his study, the blueprint tightly rolled in his hand. He switched on his computer and pulled up the WayneTech server.

“What’re you doing?” Lucius asked as he followed Bruce over to his desk.

“You remember that nuclear plant, the LexCorp project, that was built in Gotham a few years back?”

“Yeah..it was shut down because of suspicions about a leak.”

“Sensors were installed to monitor the radiation levels-“ He pulled up the page for the sensors. “-And maintained by WayneTech.” Just a little smugly, Bruce turned the monitor to face Lucius.

“And you’ve got a trail straight to him.” Lucius smiled. “Wait, isn’t that the manor?”

--

Jason had hit a dead end; a solid wall of rubble and steel, dubbed in dull red spraypaint like old blood in the dark:

DEAD ZONE

He shivered at the name. Despite the irony, something about it didn’t look right. The blockage was a little to purposely haphazard, all the places where there might’ve been holes were plugged with twisted beams or chunks of concrete. It was as if the tunnel had been hastily dynamited and sealed for fear of something inside escaping.

He stepped up and pressed his ear against a chunk of concrete; testing the limits of his hearing. He almost made out something, a strange sound in the dark; a roar of anger muffled by layer after layer of protection. Still, he thought he felt the wall shudder. He backed away, his sneakers splashing in the muck. That definitely isn’t somewhere I want to worm my way into. He thought as he scoured the walls for another way out of the tunnel. His eyesight was keen, like his hearing, and it didn’t take him long to find the fissure in the tunnel wall. A cold draft seeped through it, and he could hear the sound of water trickling down into a deeper cavern.

He hesitated, he had no idea where the crack would lead, but..what the hell, why not? The akletine slid back into place over his skin and he fell down into a liquid. He flowed with the water trickling through the crack. The stream meandered and twisted through solid rock and gritty mud, until Jason was completely turned around.

The crack dropped off into nothing, and he fell with a splat into a grand expanse of empty space. He re-formed, and found himself standing on a ledge. The cave extended before him farther than his eyes could penetrate the dark. He stretched out a tentative foot and slowly made his way along the ledge and out onto a wider platform. Bats hung in all corners above him on the ceiling, the shuffling of their wings and their small squeaking calls filling the cavern with a quiet melody. This is too cool. He thought.