Chapter 5: New Beginnings

"Argh…"

Arias, who was still lying in the debris of the car, slowly opened his eyes and understood that everything that had happened had to be real.

He felt heavy all over, yet his outward wounds were healing at a startlingly rapid rate.

All of his dislocated joints and damaged muscles had been reattached as if nothing had happened.

The unfixed voice echoed in his head as he was assessing himself.

[ It was a success… our existential energies are one. ]

Arias held his head for a moment, but he didn't appear surprised. After the unusual healing he was experiencing, it only made sense that the so-called infinity would now be there in his consciousness.

"I feel like multiple individuals are screaming in my mind, do you not have a fixed voice? Locked to one gender?" Arias questioned in his conscience, unable to conceal his annoyance whenever the infinity within him spoke.

[ I spoke only by borrowing the voices of the countless energies that had been in the abyss before, as for a gender I have none. If you a preference that will make our coexistence more appealing then feel free to state so. ]

It responded in the same way as before, which led Arias to hold his tongue in annoyance.

"Argh, something soft and low. If it's a gender then female. Also…"

Arias was exiting the automobile wreckage and surveying his surroundings as he spoke. He observed Dmitri's body was intact and had only a few superficial scrapes and cuts.

"Did you heal him as well?" Arias asked, not expressing satisfaction or dismay over the situation.

Dmitri had indeed been a good friend to Arias in his younger days but time had him all but forget about that bond they shared.

At the moment, he was nothing more than a tolerable individual. But given their shared past, he was possibly the only person he could call a friend.

[ No I did not. This region was in a space where all living things acquired reparations all the way down to the molecular level during the collision of our existential energies. This is because your body would be restructured so you could support calling forth the powers and laws of the abyss. Had the process lasted longer then you wouldn't even have those scratches on your body. ]

Arias looked over himself again and then at the landscape around him before seeing that it was exceedingly lush and vegetative in some parts, in contrast to the rest of the surrounding woodland, as the infinity described in a now tranquil feminine voice.

"How can I control this? What is the extent of my power?" With a gleam in his eyes, Arias enquired because he now saw a chance that had never been available to him before.

Sadly, he didn't get the response he had been hoping for.

[ If I did have a vessel prior to you then I have no recollection of it but your ability to manifest and or manipulate the energies of the world should be open to you the more you grow accustomed to being a vessel. You are currently a tangible representation of the abyss; hence, you don't need to worry about dying right now, unless it happens instantaneously.]

Arias started to look around himself after hearing the soothing, soft words in his head, and he immediately noticed the change from before.

His senses all felt greatly enhanced, to the point where he could selectively hear everything going on inside the woods where they had fallen.

The tree their automobile had smashed through caught his attention, and he moved over to lift it as if it were weightless.

"I see, it almost feels like it weighs nothing but upon matching my strength to something that exists it's weight varies to different levels. I think I understand but for now…"

Arias hesitated and then turned to look in what appeared to be a random direction.

"I hear sirens, this place will become a scene of investigation soon. We need to leave." Before turning to face Dmitri's body, Arias paused to consider.

He approached and, by concentrating his hearing on Dmitri's heartbeat, could tell he was still alive.

[ where will you go? ]

The tone of the question was one of audible curiosity.

"Away from here for the time being." Arias quickly picked Dmitri off the ground and fled the area, giving no thought to the clues he had left for anyone who might come to conduct an investigation.

He was currently too preoccupied to worry about such things. He felt very fortunate that he was still just alive.

…

A automobile pulled up at the location where their car had been knocked off the road and forced down the hill, just as his senses had warned him.

However, the car that showed up was not a police vehicle from Gotham; rather, it was the iconic car driven by Gotham's Dark Knight, Batman.

Two figures—Batman and his protege Robin—came out of the strange armored vehicle as it rolled open its door.

Batman approached the cliff and pressed a button on his mask to turn on his lenses' investigative function.

They gave him the ability to focus on minute information and have the super computer back at his hideout analyze them in real time, producing, in most situations, prompt and nearly correct results.

This time, he simply needed to look at the tire prints to identify the two passing vehicles' makes and estimate the velocity at which they collided.

The bat-computer quickly constructed a simulation to identify every potential spot where the car could have crashed.

He silently carried out these actions as the boy wonder crossed his arms and appeared bored.

"Do we really need to investigate a shooting between mafia families? I thought you'd be busy solidifying this whole justice league thing you started." Robin asked, peering over the edge and conducting his own investigation of the situation.

"It's rare for a shooting to receive this much attention, I want to know why. As for the league, I didn't start it, the people did through rumors, Flash's big mouth didn't help in drowning them out either. We all just worked together to stop Darkseid from invading…however it made me realize the good we could do as a unit."

Before adding, Robin cast a skeptical glance towards Batman.

"It's also the best way for you to monitor all the other big heroes and make counter measures right? That's the reason you want me to join the team made up of the other side kicks right?" The implication of Batman's words was immediately apparent to Robin, who spoke in a casual manner.

"You are protégés, not sidekicks. One day you'll be on your own protecting Gotham and the world even, but for now, you're not ready." He didn't confirm or refute the implications Robin had made, just lectured in a stern manner.

When Robin heard the last portion of his statements, he was not amused.

"Then when will I be be ready?" He impatiently asked, only to be met by the Bat's icy look.

"When I say so. Let's go, I found the crash site."