Chapter 36: Bat-Meeting (Part 2)
[Clock - 09:33 | 09:33 AM]
[Calendar - 01/03/2003]
[Location - Croc Kingdom (Name Pending) - Old Gotham, Gotham City, New Jersey]
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Flashback
[Calendar: 18/02/2003]
[Clock: 17:08 | 05:08 PM]
[Location: Healer's Bath House - Croc Kingdom (Waylon's still thinking about a name), Old Gotham, Gotham City]
"You want us to do what."
"I'm pretty sure there should be a question mark at the end of that sentece..."
"You're the one who wants to meet the fucking Bat! Are you insane!?"
"...Do you mean, batshit insane?"
"..."
Waylon slammed his head against the nearest surface without hesitation. There were shards and pieces of rock and marble flying everywhere, and there was a small flash of magic as the runes on what he had just broken lost their magic.
"Not the pillar! I spent hours on that! Do you know how hard it is to enchant a big stone pillar with enough magic to turn into stairs to go up to a planned second floor!? Imagine the gay- I mean, the good things that could come out of having a second floor! I was planning for a warm, bubbly, cozy giant rock version of a jacuzzi."
...Waylon slammed his head against the pillar again.
Let's go back, shall we?
Atlas had just finished the giant, public pool he wanted to make. It was located close to the House of Hathor, in a part of the carvern that was naturally lower than the other regions around. He used the lowered section as a natural pool, he just had to make a small tunnel tube for the water going from Isis Fountain to this place- Which was easy for him. He made a line of hard glass to allow him to see the water and notice any clogging or anything blocking the water, going from the bottom of the fountain through a sma opening and going down with the flow of water that would depart and go into each house. The bath house itself was this one floor building, the walls were just these beautiful intricately "carved" pillas of stone and marble (Made with [Transmute Earth]) that carried symbols of flowers blossoming on the stone, the pillars carried no weight on them and served as a beautiful decoration. Atlas had intricately designed each flower from the pillars to have a rune in them, and once he was finished with the pillars he activated them- there was this almost fuzzy, weird and hazy mist that constantly surrounded the pillars.
Atlas had, essentially, created the ecchi anime classic of mist and steam hiding naked bodies.
But it only worked from the outside looking in! If you were inside the bath house, you can see everything outside. Atlas erected a pillar right by the center of the pool that was filling with water, and he carved out in that pillar the visage of a beautiful woman wearing only a cloth that wrapped around her body. On the cloth, there were illustrations of lions, and if you closely looked over the entirety of the cloth, you'd see it had snakes, scorpions, cows, and other animals carved on it as well! And each animal, as small as they were, had small runes in their eyes. Each rune was necessary for a complicated spell he wanted to get- Atlas planned on planting a Sycamore Tree right above Hathor's statue, mostly because it is Hathor's tree, a symbol of her power, and he also wanted the tree to be on the second floor of the bath house he will still create. He had the image of a flat second floor with a beautiful sycamore tree with its roots hanging down to the first floor, full of these beautiful bioluminescent pale blue mushrooms that gave it a more mystical feeling... But that will take a while because with the sheer weight of the tree in the plaform above, it'd probably collapse with the passage of time.
Which is why Atlas is enchanting Hathor's statue right in the center of the lower pool.
"Huh... Let's see... [Immovable Object] to make it so it can also serve as a pillar, [Bless Water] so it has magical properties of divine nature, [Water of Life] for magical and constant healing, [Healing Rain] for emergencies... Seriously, I'm glad I decided to make this place also dedicated to Khepri." Atlas dragged his fingers across the stone as it shifted, and under his control, some of the rocks around seemed to melt and turn into goo, only to be reshaped and crawl out of their gooey forms to climb up the pillars, settling softly into their positions- With the [Color] cantrip he was also able to paint the new addition a beautiful shade of gold, so now there were golden scarab beetles on all the pillars, but there were also a few blue, green, red, and white beetles flying across the place and landing on their respective pillars: "Heh, this spell is pretty cool..." The spell in question was called [Create Construct], a spell that allowed him to breathe life into non living things... or a form of artificial life. These little buddies were responsible to cast, when activated, a few other spells too! They could fly around and spread mist and airborne [Healing Mist] to heal, [Light] to glow and look pretty like the rising sun, [Cure Wounds] whenever they touched something, [Lesser Restoration] to remove diseases and other magical ailments, and once they can cast [Major Restoration]. As offensive capabilities? They don't really have any... they're kinda fragile too, could break easy. They need to recharge in the pillars whenever they cast spells, and they can't fly fast.
But Atlas made them as decoration for the bath house and as another means of healing in case of an emergency or something similar.
"Ah, there you are-" A large shadow casted, covering his smaller body completely as he was sitting by the edge of the pool, working on it by dragging his finger through thick stone like it was wet mud, drawing the runes he wanted to add. He was going to add [Prestidigitation] to the pool itself, and a timer too! It would take a while to work on the time, but it would make sure to cast the spell through the entire pool to clean it up and constantly keep it warm. "-found you!" Strong arms pulled him up, much to his dismay, because he still had some work to do! He was turned around to meet Waylon face to face, and he could now easily tell he had grown about an inch or two. "Hey, Atlas, check this out-" He released him (Atlas was used to this, do he simply floated up with [Fly] cast on himself) and flexed his hands hard- In a honeslty impressive display of shifting power, Waylon's scales all seemed to click and move, as if they were getting closer together, and with a click, they completely changed colors from a green into a deep, deep dark green that almost looked black. "-cool, right? Sobek's been teaching me some stuff, turns out the adoption process is going faster than he thought... apparently I am a direct descendant of one of his children, so it's more like awakening some magical Demigod genes instead of making me a Demigod."
"That's really cool- Hey, I've been thinking, I want to do some... changes, let's say, to Gotham." Atlas felt a little nervous- he just had this idea while he was working on the bath house in the name of both Hathor and Khepri, when it came to him. It was... honeslty? Kinda risky, but he remembered something that could be used to their advantage, and that thing was something he wasn't sure could ever happen, but if did happen then they could take advantage of that- and for that plan to truly work, they'd need to have some sort of connection to the bat. But that's not the only reason he wants to meet Batman- This is only one of them. He wants to meet him because some spells need him to at least have seen the target in person once, he wants to get the bat out of Pamela's and Waylon's ass, he wants to warn him about the land being curse, he wants to tell him about Arkham Asylum being a really bad place and that maybe they should make a new place to put the criminally insane that does not have a ghost that feeds on suffering, fear, insanity, and pain, and he wants to to other things.
And also because he kinda wants to meet the Bat... And, well, establish a line of, perhaps, communication.
They don't have a concrete reason to be hostile to Bruce- sure, Waylon is technically a criminal, but we all make mistakes in the heat of passion, jimbo. And he has some ideas on how to get the law off of their backs, and, well, it's not like the law can catch them when their kingdom goes to the clouds! (It can, but he won't really let it) Also, with the Justice League on their neutral side (he doesn't really has any hope for them being on good sides) they could get a few benefits too... And, well, in the end of the day, he doesn't want the Justice League thinking he was a threat- I mean, he is one, but not to them, alright?
Or at least he doesn't want to be.
Regardless, he is planning on making first contact with Batman because he has a plan. What is Gotham's main source of problem? Villains. And what has he done? Stopped villains! Poison Ivy will no longer cause problems, and neither will Killer Croc, so why not offer Batman his services? He'll be taking one Man-Bat and one Mr. Freeze, thank you very much~! Why Man-Bat? Well-
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Book of Living Beings
Name: Robert Langston
Secret Identity: Man-Bat (Father Bat, Mad Scientist, Friend of the Werebats)
Affiliation: Werebats of Gotham
Race: Homo Beastialis (Bat)
Age: 26
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Height: 7'6
Weight: 404
Blood Type: AB
Mental Health: Stable, Partially Feral, Happy
Health: Slightly Malnourished, Exhausted
Location: Underground Cave of the Werebats, beneath Blüdhaven
Analysis: Robert Langston is a genius scientist that developed a powerful serum that seemingly transformed him into a Werebat. However, all it did was awaken his dormant Werebat genes. He is very friendly if not provoked or attacked but is wary of strangers, has a grudge against the Batman for ruining is research and destroying his cure, causing a few children of Gotham to awaken their own Werebat genes.
He is a man that dreams being a father. Has been slowly going feral due to the lack of control over his Werebat nature.
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This was the reason. A serum... a serum that can awaken someone's Werecreature genes, their Homo Beastialis genes, and turn them into a Werecreature. He also wanted to have Robert as a part of the kingdom- they do need scientists and researchers, which is also why he is getting Victor Fries, the famous Mr. Freeze, whose wife is frozen like a popsicle. Two scientists, one who just somehow managed to awaken his own Home Beastialis genes and went to live with a bunch of Werebats (children, apparently?) and the other who is desperate for a cure for his wife's illness.
"Waylon... I want us to meet the bat."
And we're back!
Looking at the destroyed pillar, Atlas sighed heavily- It'll take some time to repair it -before he went on to explain the reasons he wanted to meet the bat: "And, I'm pretty confident in the fact that if I can't convince him, I can get him out of the way- Just to be clear, I don't want to kill him. Sure, we could go more into hiding... But Waylon, our numbers, I see you want to increase them and we can't do it without suspicion. I'm doing this for the kingdom and for you... And, well, I wanna call him a furry to his face too."
"...fine..." Groaning, Waylon slapped his own forehead: "But you'll deal with him. If he tries to do anything funny, I'll eat him."
"Well, don't worry, I have a plan."
Oh boy, did he have a plan... Pretend to be strong when you're weak, and weak when you're strong, right?
They would get found out regardless, and the people were getting restless, humans can't stay in caves for extended periods of time without a break every once in a while- and, well, getting more people seems pretty important to Waylon too.
Oh, and also, remember the fact that the Bat has a lot of contingency plans? He wants the bat to make one about him. Why? Because Atlas has a special function on his system called [Book Autocopy], where he copies information and makes a book... It also works on computer files. Risky? Yeah, but why not get the world's most paranoid man dog at your weaknesses so you can improve? And the best part is, he can keep doing it, over and over, to always improve. Crazy ideas, he knows.
But... Well, he was kinda afraid.
He had cast a Divination spell called [Question Fate], he just wanted to try it out, and he asked "Will the kingdom be prosperous?"
The response he got was "Chaos". He had the inkling that they had to develop faster, something was coming, and it's not going to be good- it was ridiculous, right? But every single time he thought about it, a sense of doom seemed to fill his heart. And it feels real to him- he can't worry Waylon about something that hasn't even happened and might not happen, but his mind kept flashing through an event that he had only read about once in the comics...
This is also another reason he has made the healing bath house with so many healing spells. He was worried about people getting hurt, and to get his head out of his sense of doom and to prepare just in case, he made this whole healing pool. He will meet the bat too, just to warn him, just in case its something the Joker is doing or something similar.
After working on this kingdom for so long, he won't let it fall.
Not on his watch.