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DC Next presents:BATMAN & ROBINIn Final AbyssIssue Nineteen: Fields of MourningWritten by AdamantAceEdited by ClaraEclair, GemlinTheGremlin & PatrollinTheMojave << | < Prev. | Next Issue > Coming Next Month Dick Grayson knew the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland well. The story of a child who fell down a rabbithole and found herself trapped in a maddening world of peculiar figures and the strange games they played. In the story, the more Alice explored and the more she searched for the rules to these nonsensical games, the less things made sense to her, yet the more she felt at home. For a long time, Dick had related to the story - with his Wonderland being the colourful and intense world of Batman and Robin - long before villains like Mad Hatter, the Tweedles, and the White Rabbit began stealing from Lewis Carroll’s playbook even.Recently, Dick had learned that the story happened to have played a formative role in the childhood of one Artemis Crock, with her and her sister Jade obsessed with Carroll’s works from a young age, inspiring her sister’s nomme de guerre as the disappearing, rule-breaking Cheshire. And what Dick learned from Artemis was of the book’s sequel, a tale Artemis loved even more.Of course, Dick read Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There as soon as he could, keen to impress and learn more about what made his sweetheart tick. What he found was a very different story to the one he knew.In this story - having taken on Wonderland and won - the curious Alice ventured through the mirror atop her fireplace only to find herself in yet another strange world. At first, the looking-glass world seemed very much like Alice’s own, only reflected. She at first felt very much equipped to take on this new world, especially with all the skills she had mastered in Wonderland, but quickly realised that what lay through the looking-glass was an entirely new challenge. This began when she met the Red Queen, an imposing figure with unmatched strength and speed. Searching for answers about this strange world, Alice pursued the Red Queen, running her ragged to keep up with her. Yet, no matter how quickly Alice ran, she remained firmly rooted in the same position.The Red Queen asked Alice what the problem was, to which Alice replied in her exhaustion:“Well, in our country, you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”“A slow sort of country!” bellowed the Red Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”That concept had haunted Dick since he read it, of racing tirelessly to push forward, only to remain where he started; to make no progress at all.The Red Queen had revealed to Alice that her world was much like a chessboard: the entire countryside laid out in a chequered pattern. She told Alice that - like in chess - the only way was forward, promising to make Alice a queen herself should she progress to the final rank of the board. And so Alice set off on a journey through the backwards world of the looking-glass, through mind-bending woods, across twisting brooks, and past an array of both eccentric and dangerous characters, all in pursuit of the promise of power.But when Alice finally reached the back ranks, while she received her crown, she only invited even more chaos and confusion. Queens White and Red confounded Alice, demanding she throw them a party with no planning in between unintelligible riddles and jests. Rightfully so, Alice lashed out at the Red Queen for leading her down the path to insanity, only to find herself wrenched from his strange world, back to her armchair at home, left to question whether anything she had endured ever really happened or whether she had walked this path for naught.The story was absurd, even more so than the original adventure in Wonderland, but it struck Dick in a way he couldn’t describe. He knew what it was to run in place tirelessly in an attempt to reach the back ranks, to attempt to conquer impossible odds and make sense of maddening impossibilities. For a long time he had found himself trapped in an unknown world, forced to venture deeper and deeper into the uncharted, further and further from his familiar world, with the promise of salvation at the end of his endless journey. For a long time, he had known no rest, fearing what shadowy abyss would swallow him up were he to slow.To the second Batman, the Red Queen’s race was his life. But now, as he stood in the centre of the Belfry mission room, his failure paralysing him, he knew what it was to stop racing, for - as he sprinted forward towards progress - he had tripped on a rock, and learned there were far worse things than being stuck in place.Jason Todd was dead, and it was all Dick Grayson’s fault.Had he only run in place faster, worked even more restlessly, fought even harder, then things might have been different and Dick might have still had this brother. But the pieces had fallen where they had, and the race still needed running.Behind Dick stood Steph, Helena, and Alfred - the rest all still rushing to keep Gotham together. Every second Dick wasted mourning, he felt the threat of further damage to his city and its people looming, but he was in no state to save anyone right now. He had to do something about that.As Helena reached out a hand and placed it on Dick’s shoulder, he thought to what Hurt had told him. A universe of power was available to him - power that would make the enhanced strength and speed of the Suit of Sorrows seem insignificant - if only he accepted the spirit of the dark god Barbatos. He thought of what that power could do, the wrongs he could right even after he had driven Hurt out and put everything in Gotham back where it belonged. He thought of finally stopping Joker and the Legion of Doom - a shadowy alliance that still eluded the Justice Legion - of averting any New God incursions before any prospective Steppenwolfs could even say a word. He thought of finding Hal Jordan and finally getting justice for Bruce and the others.But then he remembered that this was Hurt’s game, with rules not of Dick’s world but of his. This was exactly the reaction Hurt wanted; he wanted Dick to fail to save Jason and he wanted that loss to push him into his clutches. He couldn’t let him win.Dick tensed as he felt Helena’s touch atop his navy cloak. He remembered Helena as an infant left on the doorstep of Wayne Manor; before then it was just him, Dick, and Alfred.Alfred! The old man was silent as he failed to summon the words. Dick and Helena had lost a brother, but the old spy had lost yet another son.“Dick…” Helena’s voice trembled. “I’d try and tell you it’s all gonna be alright but… the truth is we don’t have time. Exits in and out of the city are barricaded, anti aircraft guns are sweeping the skies. Escapees and assassins are terrorising the streets, and the last route to evacuate anyone is blocked by the bloodbath on Gotham Bridge.”“Machin?” asked Dick, detached.“He’s actually one of the ones trying to keep things together,” Helena replied.“It’s true, I saw him myself,” Steph interjected, finally finding a use in this whole mess.“Dick, we can’t stop,” Helena affirmed. “We need a plan.”The simple truth was, as spread thin as the whole Bat-Family was, they weren’t powerful enough to stop Hurt’s multi-pronged campaign from tearing the city apart. They needed something bigger. But what?“The Justice Legion,” Dick remarked, turning to face the assembled members of his family. “I’ll contact them. The skies are blocked, but the Boom Tube networks aren’t.”“You said you sent the new Batgirl after a psychic,” Helena replied. “Someone capable of mind control? The last thing we need is Hurt pulling Superman’s strings.”“Then I’ll tell them not to send Jon.” Dick adjusted his cowl, pulling it back up over his head. “I’ll tell them to not send anyone too powerful. No Jon, no Barry, no Cassie. I’ll do that then head back out, find some fires to put out.”And with the mask of the Batman firmly reapplied, Dick took off, pacing towards the door beyond Steph and Alfred. The young Robin moved to stand in his path.“If you’re heading out, I’m coming with you,” Steph stated. Dick searched her eyes and saw the pent up frustration behind them. He knew that look because it was the same look he saw in the mirror every night he and Bruce failed to save someone in the old days. And while she mourned Jason’s loss in her own way, that look wasn’t grief. It was fear. Fear of how the hell she was going to help her Batman get past this.But then she smiled, and that fear turned into determination. “Come on then, don’t let me stop you,” she chirped. “Batman and Robin take on Gotham!”And, however briefly, Dick smiled too.Soon thereafter, a ping sounded and Helena leapt to the Batcomputer terminal. “Three new incidents; Oracle’s asking for any and all units.”“Is anyone else free?” asked Dick.“Doesn’t look like it,” Helena replied. “In fact, looks like Tim’s in trouble.”“Send me his coordinates, I’m on it,” replied Dick determinedly.“But—”Dick cut Steph off. “I can’t let him get hurt. Huntress, Robin, spread out. We’ll meet back as soon as we can.”Through frustrated reluctance, Steph nodded.Helena took a step aside. “Alfred?” she spoke softly. “Are you going to be okay?”A short silence, then:“Oh, me?” replied the butler just as softly, shaken from his stupor. “I’m… I will be. I have a friend visiting town who might be able to help. I should make myself busy and make contact.”“Alright,” Dick nodded. “Good luck everyone.” 🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹 The Dark Knight cut through the air, his cape carrying him across convection currents with supernatural speed. Before he could even get close enough to spot Tim or his assailant, a blinding white beam of light swept upwards from ground level, travelling up into the cloudy sky without resistance before blinking out just as quickly. Dick hadn’t seen this weapon in person, but he recognised it from reputation instantly.Another burning beam arced through the air from the street and Dick dropped into a nosedive, plummeting down to where he could soon see Tim, who manoeuvred through the air low to the ground, carried by his mechanical wings, weaving in and out of his assailant’s attacks.“Well, look who came to save you!” cried Crazy Quilt from atop a truck, light cannon slung low. He appeared to be wearing a helmet equipped with two antennas and goggles that circled through a rainbow of colours. “I may have targeted the wrong Robin before, but now I don’t care which I get! And I’ve got two for the price of one!”Dick dropped out of his descent and landed deftly on the ground, his shadowy cloak falling to the floor from his shoulders. He looked up to Crazy Quilt and narrowed his eyes.A chime sounded in Dick’s earpiece and then came the voice of Tim Drake from up above, broadcast right to him. “His run in with Batwoman last time left him blind. Those goggles let him see, but only one colour at a time!”“Well, chum,” Dick smiled. “You’re red, I’m blue. He can’t track us both at once!”With a fluid motion, Dick traced his fist to his belt and then forwards, hurtling a Batarang at the colourful crook. Paul Dekker reacted in turn, firing a blast from his light cannon at the projectile. Dick expected the Batarang to be fried, but instead it just dropped to the ground, scalding hot.“My mistake was I amped this baby up too high,” Crazy Quilt bellowed. “I don’t need to go overkill, I’d rather have something left of you when I’m done!”He turned again and fired in Dick’s direction as his goggles flashed blue, and Tim seized the opportunity. Dick strafed to the side so quickly he almost left a blur and Tim rocketed towards Dekker. As Dick found his footing, he watched Tim expand his collapsible quarterstaff midair and strike out, but as Dekker’s eyes flashed red he swung around, beating the bo staff aside with the butt of his gun and then blasting Tim in the centre of his chest.“No!” Dick exclaimed as Tim fell out of the air and hit the pavement with a crunch. He ran to his side, forgetting Dekker, and found the centre of Rook’s chestplate simmering.Tim coughed, “I’m… I’m fine.”And then Dick heard the hum of the light cannon charging.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTSomething crashed against metal and then asphalt. Dick turned and slowly rose from the ground by Tim to find Dekker collapsed on the ground, having fallen from the truck. Over him stood a familiar figure in black and red, a giant of a man that Dick had put away not too long ago, another escaped convict.“You’re welcome, Bat,” said Lester Buchinsky.“Electrocutioner…” Dick replied before snatching a breath. “Thank you.”“Hey, you can pay me back by not arresting me again,” replied Lester, his facial muscles not betraying even a hint of a smirk. “Is your pal okay?”Dick turned back to Tim and held out his hand. “You good?”“Nothing’s broken,” Tim took Dick’s hand and pulled himself to his feet. “I think.”Together, Dick and Tim looked to Lester, who stood alone.“I’m one of the good ones,” he replied. “I have family in Gotham. Hell, Arthur’s girl’s in Gotham. I don’t wanna see it burn.”Dick smiled. “That’s good enough for me.”“I’m not asking for your approval,” Lester stopped him. “In fact, I have a demand.”Dick looked at Tim and then sighed. “Rook, get out of here. Get back to the Belfry, I don’t want you out here again until Oracle’s checked out your wounds.”“I’m fine, I promise,” Tim put his hand on Dick’s shoulder.“I know,” Dick said. They shared a knowing look. “But I don’t want to take chances.”Tim sighed and bowed his head. “Okay.” He then retrieved his grapnel and aimed it for the skies, and with a squeeze of his finger was away, leaving Dick and Lester alone.“What do you want?” asked Dick.“Word travels fast, I know what happened,” Lester replied. “I’m sorry about your friend, Grayson.”“My brother,” Dick corrected him.“All the same,” Lester affirmed. “The city’s on fire. You say you don’t wanna take chances but the fact is Gotham won’t survive if you don’t. And things are gonna get worse before they get better. And I need you to make sure that Stephanie ain’t gonna be the next to get hurt.”“I…”Dick frowned. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t mortally afraid for her safety. She was already the least trained of them all, and didn’t have a penchant for cautiousness. In many ways, she had a lot in common with…“Okay.”“Okay, what?” asked Lester.“I’ll make sure,” Dick nodded.Then an explosion lit up the distance and Dick’s comms lit up.“We have a fire on Gleason and Gough,” came Oracle.“On it,” nodded Dick and he fired his grappling hook to the sky.“That’s not all,” Barbara continued as Dick ascended.“It never is.”“Word came back from the Justice Legion, it’s not good news,” she explained. “They had a team, sent them through a Boom Tube, but the signal was disrupted, sabotaged.”“Sabotaged?” Dick replied. “As in…?”“As in they’ve been sent God knows where instead of Gotham,” replied Barbara. “We’re on our own until we can take down the jammer.”“You say that like you know where it is,” Dick replied against the rushing wind. Even if their romance was a lifetime ago, and even during a crisis, he still admired her deeply.“I do, but that’s not exactly much help when it’s coming from an air gapped server from within Director Hurt’s HQ in the GCPD building,” Barbara replied. “We aren’t getting in there easily.”Then came another voice. “Who needs easy when you have a retired SAS agent?” asked Alfred dryly.“Alfie, you’re not going in there alone,” replied Dick.“Who said anything about being alone?” asked Alfred. “I told you I had a friend who might be able to lend a hand.” 🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹 The brawl had only grown since it began, working its way towards and eventually onto Gotham Bridge. Hundreds of Gothamites clashed against each other, but this was no war. Where there were weapons, there were baseball bats, lead pipes, crowbars and pieces of shrapnel. People slugged against each other, beating each other senseless while the few that had held onto their firearms went high, stood elevated on abandoned cars and fired blindly into the crowds. To many, it didn’t matter what side you were on, chaos was chaos, and that was all they wanted from Gotham.Lonnie Machin was different. He, like many of the people he had assembled, wanted an end to the bloodshed, wanted Gotham unified, not divided. He didn’t know who the instigator of this riot was, this gold-masked Anarky, but he was pretty certain he was a stooge of the FBI’s Director Hurt. The timing was too perfect for a warmonger like him to appear from nowhere, and it was from nowhere; Lonnie had gotten to know the criminal populace of Gotham well during his stay in Blackgate, and this Anarky was a ghost.The regretfully once Joker hunkered down behind an overturned station wagon, shielded from the large proportion of gunfire that was focused on him. He scrambled for a plan, anything to turn the tide, waiting for a miracle, until he spotted one. A small, red-headed woman raced through the melee, ducking and weaving. One rioter surged forward, recognising her and throwing his crowbar her way, but a well placed punch knocked the man to the ground.“Thank you!” spoke Vicki Vale breathlessly to Ted Carson, former head of Monarch Security, who nodded before continuing to fend off any who targeted the journalist.“Over here!” Lonnie cried out, grabbing Vale’s attention. “I need to talk to you!”With nowhere else to go, Vale continued sprinting and dived to behind the car Lonnie was using for cover. “I don’t think now is the time for a chat!”Behind her, her colleague Alexander Knox dived similarly to safety.“Both of you,” Lonnie replied, exasperated. “I need your platform. I need to put out a message.”“Excuse me, who are—” Vale suddenly moved away. “You’re him. The fake Joker. You killed a councilwoman.”“Doesn’t mean I want the whole city to burn.”Lonnie watched as three men rushed the bruiser Carson, only for him to puff up his chest and knock them all down, attracting even more attention from even more rioters.“You’re a terrorist,” Knox added. “You’re no better than any of them.”“Grow up, this is Gotham!” Lonnie exclaimed. “If you want to get technical, Batman’s a terrorist and I hear he’s had you guys on speed dial from time to time. Look around you - plenty of people here want Gotham reduced to rubble. Director Hurt and his ‘leadership’ - if this wasn’t planned from the start - is doing a lot more damage than I’m capable of if you put a camera on me.”Knox looked to Vale.“No,” Vale shook her head.Knox grumbled. “Vick, we gotta swing for the fences.”Lonnie Machin gripped his megaphone tightly and began to stand.“People of Gotham!” His voice boomed. He looked directly at the smartphone Vicki Vale had trained on him. “I come to you to ask… to beg you to reconsider your actions.”Some of the rioters stopped to heed his words, only for others to use the opportunity to jump them, continuing the melee.“That includes you, people of Blackgate, of Arkham,” he continued. “Here are your friends and your families; Gotham is your home.”A stray gunshot whizzed past Lonnie’s head and he flinched. But he continued.“But Gotham is also the place that condemned you,” he added. “That took away your prospects, pushed you down these paths, jailed you for it. I know, because I am the same. Gotham gave me nothing and then still took from me. I allowed the city’s failings to corrupt me, and I did horrible, horrible things. And I was condemned.”Another gunshot missed Lonnie, but this time he didn’t flinch. He rose higher, stepping up onto the nearest car. A half dozen surged towards him, but Carson intervened.“Nonetheless, Gotham is my home. It is where my mother lived and died. It’s the city I dreamed of making a better place for the people it forgets like you and me. Don’t forget that!”As Carson began to grow overrun, Knox and a dozen others rushed to his side, focusing the struggle around Lonnie and his plinth.“I know you are angry, but if you destroy this place it will never improve. All you’re proving is that they were right, that we’re all mad here, determined to hate and demolish. But we’re people, goddamnit! And we need to act like it if we want them to see that! And so I beg you - to the condemned souls of Gotham and the 99% - rise, don’t sink to their level. We can still fix things!”Lonnie felt a kind of electricity in the air. Something shifted in the crowd, even just for a moment, as he felt his words reverberate across the bridge, knowing they would also be broadcast to screens across the rest of the city and across the world. The city held its breath, millions paralyzed by Lonnie’s words. The bridge fell silent, apart from the crackle of a few drum fires and car alarms in the distance.A shot went off, and as the smoke rose from Anarky’s revolver, Lonnie clutched at his chest and fell. 🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹 Stephanie Brown staggered forward as the floor beneath her began to disintegrate, the roaring flames rapidly consuming the tower block. Behind her was a nine year old girl whose hand Steph gripped tightly, and behind them still was Sarah Essen, former police officer and Gotham’s mayor. A dozen people had already been evacuated, and flames only grew higher and higher.They reached the fire escape together, the door flung wide open, the flames surrounding it flickering from the plentiful oxygen.“Don’t be afraid,” smiled Robin, the Girl Wonder, who pulled the young girl close and placed a Batarang in her hand. “Go, we’ll be right behind you!”With some trepidation, the young girl stepped onto the fire escape, which promptly juttered and ricketed; they couldn’t risk putting all of their weight on it at once. From the top, Steph and Essen watched the young girl descend slowly, before she disappeared into the arms of police officers waiting for her down below.Steph turned back to Mayor Essen and gestured to the fire escape. “Now you, ma’am!”Essen approached the edge, ready to follow, but was knocked back as the flames about the exit suddenly surged. Ahead of them, hovering in the air, a fearsome figure emerged. Cameron van Cleer - the third Firefly - cackled wildly from the safety of his winged armour. “Oh Mrs Essen, you’re too kind; I get to roast a pig and a city official at the same time!?”Steph bent her knees and readied herself as Cleer levelled his flamethrower. She reached for her belt and—The Firefly’s fuel pack exploded, and Cleer began to spiral out of control, hurtling towards the burning building. Steph threw herself in front of the mayor, spreading her cape wide to shield them both best she should, and looked over her shoulder at the ensuing carnage. But what Steph saw surprised her, as a jet black shadow streaked through the air, pouncing upon the torpedoing Firefly. There, she saw him - the acrobatic marvel himself - Dick Grayson, clinging to Cleer’s back and steering him until they both crashed through the wall of a lower floor and out of view.Steph and Essen felt the ground shake, but they were secure. The fire escape remained, and so Steph gestured the mayor towards it again.“Robin,” Batman grunted down Steph’s communicator, “Get out of here and take the mayor to the Belfry. We’ll regroup.”“But what about the fire?”“I called in a friend,” Dick replied.“Who else is there?” Steph asked as she watched the mayor reach the foot of the fire escape, only for a voice behind her to grab her attention.“That would be me,” spoke a man of almost seven feet in his bulky armoured suit. A glass dome covered his head, shielding him from the smoke, and he heaved a large, clunky cannon that was sure to be of use in leeching the flames of their heat. Victor Fries readied his weapon and nodded to the young Robin. “I took some design cues for upgrades from Leonard Snart; so this should work wonders.” 🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹 As instructed, and choosing to trust Dick’s judgement in recruiting the reformed Mister Freeze, Steph led Mayor Essen back to the Belfry, numb to the mayor’s sheer surprise and wonderment at the Bat Family’s base of operations just from the sheer shock of everything that was unfolding. Her muscles ached, her lungs especially after all of the smoke inhalation, but her self satisfaction kept her going. She had to admit to herself that she had done well saving as many as she had, but she still had something to prove to her mentor.The pair weren’t waiting long in the barracks before the Dark Knight came charging in.“Batman,” Essen stood. “Your protégé told me you wanted to speak to me.”“She did?”“Well, I told her you wanted us both here,” Steph replied.“You’re safe here, Mrs Mayor,” said Dick. “It’s Robin I need to speak to.”“What’s up?” asked Steph.“Follow me.”Dick led her out of the barracks and down a winding corridor, up a flight of stairs and to a door on the end of another corridor, all the time silent.“Did I do something wrong?” asked Steph, as she stared at the door on the end of the hall.“This way.” He nodded towards the door.They approached, and the door swung open automatically as Dick reached it. Behind it was just a small room with a table, an interrogation room Steph had never seen before. “Come on,” he gestured inside.“Dick…” Steph said, knowing Essen was far, far out of earshot by now. “I know that… well… everything is going on, but are you alright? Did I do something wrong?”“Of course not,” Dick spoke tersely, as if she had wounded him. “You’ve done everything right. You fell into this world, and you hit the ground running. You’ve never let anything slow you down, and you make me want to be better every day..”Steph couldn’t help but think this was very out of left field until she saw him step out of the door.“And I’m sorry.”Dick pressed a button on his gauntlet and the door slammed shut.Steph leapt towards the door but found no handle. She pounded against it. “Dick! Stop it! This is ridiculous!”“I’m sorry, Steph…” he replied weakly. “I need to keep you safe.”“I’m supposed to be your partner - Batman and Robin!” she cried. “We need everyone we can get out there!”“You’re safe here…”“I know I’m not Cass, or Tim… or Jason…” she bellowed, tears streaming. “I’m not nearly as good as them, but I can help!”“You’ve done more than enough already,” Dick scrunched up his face beneath the cowl. “I can’t lose you.” ‘Like I lost Jason’, he left unsaid.“You can’t do this!” She continued to resist. “Babs will let me out!”A chime sounded in Steph’s ear.“I’ve disabled your comms,” Dick explained. “And Babs doesn’t even know this room exists. Please, don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”And, with a heavy heart, away marched the Dark Knight, determined to keep his family safe, and save Gotham, whatever it demanded of him. To be continued in Batman & Robin #20And then: See the thrilling conclusion in Batman & Robin Annual 1Coming Soon
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