Butterflies

} These events immediately succeed “Setting the Stage, Part 3” {

 

Int. “My Alibi” - Afternoon

 

“They didn’t have a price they wanted. They just said that you’ll go, and you’ll die for him.”

 

“I would.”

 

Len mumbles and turns back to his sweeping, and I swivel around to observe our strange assembly again. Cassie stands resolute in the dead center of the room, daring the the other occupants to try anything. Gar pretends to be engrossed in his lighter, while Zodiac tucks himself into “the gunfighter’s seat,” sucking in uneasy breaths. And Ivy, furled up like an autumn leaf, still wordless, with Morgan lumbering back and forth beside.

 

Cassie (throws her chin at Gar’s trinket): You going to have a smoke eventually, or is that your date?

 

Gar: Juice-boxes are a few doors down, kid.

 

Zodiac titters.

 

Cassie: I was actually in the mood for fruitcakes. Conveniently.

 

Zodiac frowns again.

 

Gar (labored exhale): Bat teaches ‘em everything he knows, except how to keep their traps shut…

 

I glare at the ensuing folderol as I walk towards Morgan.

 

Myself (watching Ivy same as him): How did they take him?

 

Morgan’s pupils tighten, and a rumble builds in his chest.

 

Myself: It’s not an insult to your abilities.

 

Morgan (barely relaxing): Was just the one time we left him on his own. He was gettin’… almost normal.

 

There’s a pause.

 

Morgan: He’s grown already. Sometimes he talks; tries to talk like you… like you used to.

 

Myself (scowling): Why. Why did she tell our son… so he would wind up in all the same madness…

 

Morgan: She didn’t tell him nothin’ Basil. He just knew. Your name, how you dressed… Ivy tried to get him to think for himself. An’ he was; just starting to, when they got him. Ivy thought YOU had taken him.

 

Len: … You still think he’s your kid, Bas? Or another fragmen-

 

Myself: HE’S MY SON!

 

Zodiac, Cassie, even Morgan flinches. Len’s eyes don’t waver for a moment, though.

 

Myself: He’s… our son. He has to be.

 

The quiet only goads my frustration. I kneel next to her.

 

Myself: … Won’t you say anything?!

 

This time we all flinch when she meets my gaze, sprouts from between the floorboards beginning to wreath her and help her stand.

 

Ivy: My plants’ seeds are all their parents’. Their zygotes are their parents’. When they die, they live on all the same. But my son… is my only son.

 

I didn’t think my throat could still feel dry.

 

Ivy (already receding back to the ground): Why, Basil… did we make something that could die?

 

Cassie grabs her under the arm as the clinging plants rapidly become brittle and drop her. I’m fuming now.

 

Len (drying a stein): She rips up my floor, she’s out. No exceptions.

 

Cassie: Dr. Isley, you need to focus. You’re stronger than this.

 

Zodiac (his voice comically shrill): “Dr. Isley you’re stronger than thi-”… twerp really thinks she’s the next Dark Knight, or somethin’s.

 

Cassie: She’s a human being.

 

Gar: Take another look.

 

Myself (to Morgan): I want to settle this tonight. Can’t you contact them?!

 

Morgan: They said the shipyards, tomorrow. It wasn’t a negotiation.

 

I indignantly snarl, returning to a seat.

 

Morgan: I’m going with you. He’s…

 

Myself: Not your son.

 

Morgan: … I know.

 

Myself: Then, I would be indebted to you if you joined me.

 

Cassie (rising): Basil for godsakes, there’s only one person that needs to stop this.

 

Myself: No.

 

Cassie: If you go there with an intent to kill, I’ll bring you in. Or Batman will. That’s how this story ends.

 

Myself: You tell our dear old friend it’s a personal matter…

 

Cassie: Oh what, like the first time with you? How did that turn out?

 

Myself (harsher): … and that he’s a few years late to pretend he’s in the business of saving souls! If he comes between me and my son, I’ll have his head!

 

Cassie stamps towards the door. Zodiac peels a pair of bolas off his suit to hurl at her, but Gar’s faint, derisive chuckle makes him reconsider.

 

Cassie: If you’re as smart as I give you credit for, you’ll leave it to us, and GCPD.

 

At that, she vanishes with the breeze.

 

Gar: You’re a real marshmallow, Bas. You let Robin lecture you on skin hygiene?

 

Myself (refraining from trashing the counter): Are you considering being useful?

 

Gar (finally setting aside the lighter): Are backstabbing crooks still flammable?..

 

Len (under his breath): Most of them.

 

Gar: Yeah, I’m going.

 

Myself: You have a friend I know… Killmoth-er… something… He has connections to every villain in Gotham, new and old, with that “for hire” stint of his. He has to know some of the names.

 

Gar: About that… he does. And he’s no rat. Didn’t even tell me when I asked.

 

Myself: Then he’s out.

 

Gar: “Conflicting interests” are his words. He wants to get in good with whoever it is.

 

Zodiac (spits): Loyal-less. Who needs ‘im anyways?

 

Morgan (gnashing at the air): YOU wouldn’t lift a finger to help us. … unless I bite some off.

 

Zodiac (merrily): Nah, but I recruited someones for ya! … Uh, he was here…

 

??? (from the back room): I HAVE FOUND YOUR CAPSULES OF INEBRIATING FLUIDS! Unimaginative Terrans, keeping their desirables in but one of your Euclidean dimensions!

 

Len (wielding his broom): That’s it. Out, you cretinous scrounge! Out!

 

He chases a man, garbed (and pigmented) in primary colors, out of the “employees only” area.

 

The man (hugging his wine): You would deny your pitiful mutiny’s savior his well-earned accoutrements?!

 

Myself: … I don’t want him.

 

Zodiac (through his teeth, away from the man): Give Electro a chance! He’s here to conquer Earth with all these crazy gadgets, but I convinced him we’re a rebellion doin’ the same thing. He… ain’t the brightest.

 

Gar: That’s funny.

 

Myself: Zodiac, this is your second master-plan hatched from a stranger you met in a bar. “Electro” stays. You go.

 

Zodiac: Aw, what wouldja need me fors?

 

Myself: Nanotech weaponry.

 

Gar: Your complete disregard for fair play.

 

Morgan: You’re someone else for them to shoot at.

 

Zodiac (grumpily leaning on the counter): Was just about ta’ offer.

 

Electro: A toast! To a swift deposition of the MEAGER-

 

Len (snatching the bottle): Not on your life.

 

Electro: … But you offer the very same to the bawling child!

 

Then I remember.

 

Sims. How did I forget, even amongst all this..?

 

He’s still there, in a nook where Len hasn’t had time to install light fixtures. He’s back in his rumpled costume, sans the helmet. The same stare he’s had since Belle Reve. The bottle is dry. His brow isn’t.

 

Sims: Did you ever meet Kyodai?

 

It’s the seventh time he’s asked. He claws at the back of his neck.

 

Myself: You’re not going. I can’t and I won’t ask you.

 

Sims: I could go.

 

Myself: Look at yourself Harry. What you’ve already sacrificed for me and my stupid…

 

And then, in a moment of unfounded clarity, he speaks. It’s more haunting than if he had never spoken with a sound mind ever again.

 

Sims: You used to say things like, “anything to get ahead.”

 

Myself: I…

 

Sims: “Damn your own; everyone in this business knows what they’re in for.” Well, I tried it. It felt great, Karlo. It…

 

And then that bleary mask descends again. My broken toy that won’t blame me for its misuse, even now.

 

Len (having walked up): He can be here overnight. Get everyone else out.

 

Myself: I will.

 

Len: If you had a use for a forensics cleaner, I’d have offered…

 

Myself: It’s a nice bar, Len.

 

Len: … Break a leg.

 

***

 

Ext. Perimeter of Wayne Estate - Light fog

 

Cassandra Cain knew how to sense being followed even before she was a vigilante. Without looking back she could tell her tail was taking unnaturally long strides, favored their right leg, and was wearing a great deal of silk.

 

Cassie (halting): Basil?

 

Myself: … It’s not everyone who can make Basil Karlo come to his senses.

 

Cassie: And you called off the rest of them?

 

Myself: I’m done using them. I have to be.

 

She smiles. I hoped she would.

 

Cassie (leading the way again): Bruce has wanted to help you more than he’s wanted to lock you up, even when you left. Even since your first ki… crime.

 

Myself: I didn’t want to tell myself that… but I knew. I’m not too proud anymore.

 

We push further into the trees. When the branches become so numerous they’re virtually walls, it again clears. A shallow drop-off greets us, and an isolated waterfall on the opposite hillside. The only place the water could be emptying into was behind the waterfall itself. Cassie glides through the false barrier with her cape, and I rush under the cascade to stay intact. As simple as that, we behold the monumental chasm of the fabled Batcave. Thousands if not millions of chittering residents dangle from the ceiling. A great white screen atop the furthest rock face. Assortments of infamous and peculiar trophies. An alarming lack of handrails.

 

Myself: Is he here?

 

Cassie: Not likely, unless his patrol has changed in these past weeks. For all I know, he’s still looking for me. But Alfred or any of the others could be…

 

I tune her out and make a mental note of every exit. Every alarm, every piece of surveillance. Everything that needs to go first. There’s no way I’ll catch them all. But I need only to create a slight delay.

 

Cassie (hopping onto a crate): What do you say I explain Belle Reve, and you explain the rest? Looks like we’ll have plenty of time to come up with the best words.

 

Myself: I’ll just… allow my actions to speak for me.

 

One swing of my fist splinters the vaulted platform we stand on, and another shoves an off-balance Cassie into a dark pool several stories below, far too unconscious to save herself. I wonder if it’s deep enough that she won’t…

 

Myself (softly): I wanted to say I’m sorry. A sincere sorry, not the phony kind supervillains like to dole out. It’s not my choice. They want The Batman to show, and even the best performers get butterflies sometimes…

 

I stretch my way up to the central hub. His computer or his car is definitely next.

 

Matt Hagen: … All they need is adequate motivation.

 

} Part 5 of 7 {

Done