When Relatives Come to Visit...

  Outside the crashed Synth airship in the Forbidden Zone, Lena Marr thought to herself, "Why do big bads always talk so much? It's soooo easy to buy time!"

  Then Lena said to the bat-Messiah, "Yeah, those guys in the tank are beneath your notice, total losers, most ex-s are,! So, your whole plan is to challenge the original Batman, grab his wife - okay your wife, it gets a bit confusing without a flow chart - and then... do what? And what if HE wins? He's a pretty tricky opponent, believe me! Aren't you curious What all that energy in the crater and infusing the Synth ship is all about? What if you could harness that energy? Old Bat-Boogie wouldn't have a chance! Of course, you probably couldn't absorb all that energy noway nohow!"

  The Bat-Messiah spat out, "He will NOT win now that I have my own body! It took two minds to keep me trapped...three if you count that parasite in him! However outside of his skull, he doesn't have their help and I am more powerful than him! As for all of that amazing energy, I am a God so I can absorb all that I need of it, if I so desire but I will not need it to take out my weaker counterparts no matter which is in control of their mortal body! Hell even if your Bat-Boogie were to release his full power, I could still defeat him one-handed. These new electrical powers that I now have, and his mortal ass lacks, will just make it a lot easier than taking a tit from a toddler!! So again it is simple. I go in and if he still refuses to give into his true potential, I crush him into dust and get my wife back! If he does actually give into his instincts, I get a great workout before still crushing him and I get MY wife back! Then I examine what is causing all that energy and either absorb all that I desire of it, or destroy it so none of my potential enemies and my miserable bat-brother can't find a way to use it themselves, not that he ever would given his stupid attitude about his form of justice anyway! Now Wench I grow tired of this and hunger for my brothers' mutual destructions! So either keep up or stay behind!"

  With that the Bat-Messiah started running toward the crashed ship.

---

  Looking sad, Yvette took a breath even though she didn't have any lungs before continuing to answer my questions, "What the hell have you and your sister done with her? You guessed right, this Lady is a Synth - new kind, really sophisticated, Whitney could explain the science but that's not my thing. The real Lady is with Ruby in our colony in Sacramento. How the hell did she and Whitney both get subjected to so much of that Omec energy, when you and your deactivated crewmen don't seem to be affected by it? Again, don't know - but I suspect it has something to do with the Olmec machinery down in that crater. Why do you sense a highly concentrated form of it coming towards our wrecked ship from the direction 'Lady' and I came from? I'm betting it has to do with that selfsame Olmec machinery."

  Yvette grinned mischievously but stating frankly, "You go any booze? All this talking is making me mighty thirsty. Or am I getting ahead of myself - get it, ahead of myself!"

  Yvette's head began to laugh echoing throughout the ship for what seemed to be a very long time.

  I replied with, "Of course I have booze. That is a silly question."

  With that I pulled out my flask as I said, "..but my 'silly' question is what good does it do a head without a body?...Forget it, I doubt I want to know the answer anyway."

  Saying that I gave Yvette a sip of my rum and said, "Speaking of silly questions, you mentioned that you have a silly idea of what caused the possession. Look I have witnessed a lot of things that shouldn't happen some indeed were quite silly or absurd. So tell me this silly idea, as it is possible it may at least give me something to work with. So that I can save you, your crew, and our adorbale but synthetic Lady. Something tells me that even if she isn't the real Lady, it is quite important that she live as well. That of course could just be my love for all that is Lady, or it could be linked to my ever-present paranoia but it doesn't change the fact that I feel she is currently just as important at this moment, as my actual wife is always to me."

  It was as if outside forces heard my paranoid hunch, for at that moment a hulking brute came barreling into the ship. As I turned to see what made the commotion, I saw 'me' standing in front of me wearing cracked red 'Harbinger of Death' garb. Not ony did he not have a helmet on, but one side of his face was masked with a mask similiar to the one I wear under my helm, but in dark red instead of Grid-Blue. The other side of his face was...well...not there. Instead it was synthetic with a beedy dark red eye staring back at me.


  I responded with, "Yvette what the hell?! Your daking All-Father stupidly synthesized me as well?!"

  Yvette responded with, "I don't know. I mean I know it was a planned idea, but your mental scans are so limited. We managed to 'acquire' one from Fortress K'shaa, and your Nephew had one on file in the V.C. capital when Skar was using synths to take control. Recently, thanks to some of your sister's files, we discovered something called, 'Project Grid-Infusion' that was ultimately deemed a complete failure, scrapped, and permanently put in cold-storage. Almost everything about it was redacted or missing because of that. However there was a list of it's 'volunteers'.

  As you know one was called Kabule. Although we can find very little on Kabule other than he was a soldier with the Ekaru Kome and rumored to be a government-sanctioned assassin, we knew from one of Erika's files that she had suspected that you were Kabule but had faked your death all those ears ago during the battle of Defiance, and after staying off the radar for awhile you came up with this new identity as Atticus Batman, infamous bounty hunter who earned the title of 'Harbinger of Death', from one Law-Keeper Jon Cooper.

  Sooo...after a little more digging we discovered that some of the research and files from 'Project Grid-Infusion' were once housed in an old wing of the V.C. Capital's military complex. So 'we', as in those that call the shots, took a chance and sent somebody to that forgotten wing to try to find those files. Unfortunately all they were able to retrieve that was even remotely usable was an old mental scan of Kabule right before the project. Unfortunately for our inside man, even though he managed to make the drop-off of the scan, he was apparently discovered for he was found with a bullet through his synthetic skull and a bullet containing Kabule's rumored trademark etched into it between his synthetic teeth. We still aren't sure how you managed to do be in both countries at once, given that we now you you and Kabule are indeed the same person. Anyway...."

  The red-clad intruder bellowed, "Brother I have come to claim MY Lady! So unhand her and perhaps I will kill you instantly instead of slowly crushing you!"

  Then as if Yvette's words just registered, he snapped, "What the hell are you talking about Siren?! I am The Bat-Messiah, a GOD among men! I am no duplicate of HIM for he is the inferior!"

  I snapped back, "Yes I know! Crush the Bat! However the real you is still safely locked away in my head, so shut the daking hell up and let her finish before you try destroying everything for once!"

  As the synthetic Lady suddenly seemed confused at two of me, even in her still-trance-like state, I said, "Yvette please continue but do hurry. He has even less patience than I do, if you can believe it."

  Yvette replied with, "um ok...anyway as I was saying, it appeared Kabule was in the V.C. and killed our man. However by the time of that discovery, our scientists had already concluded from similarities in the 3 scans that they were all from the same individual, although the older scan seemed to have some corruption that our scientists felt was from the age of the scan but were sure they could compensate for.

  That proved wrong in so many ways. Our scientists tried using each of the three scans separately in the synth but never got full activation. They tried with a combination of two and although got some activity none to the extent that was needed. It ended up taking all three. However...the results ended up with a being that only wanted to watch the world burn and was uncontrollable in any way, even proving immune to the All-Father's direct-control-techniques. So as far as I knew that project was ultimately declared a failure, scrapped and the synth destroyed; with you being deemed non-duplicative due to unstable mental deficiencies."

  Hearing that, the Bat-Messiah snapped, "I am NO failure! He is!"


  Then he rushed forward. I released 'Lady's' hand and moved towards him to protect her and the others as he lunged at me. I was able to dodge and counter several of his attacks. However I misjudged one and he managed to grab me by the throat because of it. Then he hurled me at the hull of the ship. I crashed through it landing on the outside near Lena. So as I stood, I said to Lena, "Nice to see you Lena, but it appears that my daking craziness has caught up to me. So if you'll excuse me, I have to go back in there and punch it in it's daking face!"

  With that I ran back towards the ship, jumping through the hole that my body's exit had made, and used some energy to infuse my gauntlets with electricity. Then as I punched the Bat-Messiah in his face, I growled, "You want to earn Lady's love, then you need to pull your psychotic head out of your ass and listen for once!"

  As he transferred Omec-energy into his own heavier gauntlets and back handed me across the room, he replied with a chuckle, "So your time with humans and other inferiors has made you think that you are a negotiator now?! We know better than that, don't we?"

  As I shook my head to try to clear it of the grogginess that blow caused, and wished I had chosen to wear my heavy 'Harbinger' armor instead of this medium weight armor, I said, "You are right! Everybody knows that I hate negotiating but that isn't what this is! Look at Lady and the purple-glowing Synth, Whitney, in white! Whatever energy is flowing through this place and apparently through you, is controlling them and keeping Lady in a trance-like state! If either of us ever hope to get her back we need to work together to figure out what the problem is and how to stop it without destroying Lady!"

  The Bat-Messiah replied with, "Work with you?! Why would I do that?!"

  I replied with, "Because I know something that you do not!"

  As he hurtled a lightning bolt at me that slightly singed my armor, he snapped, "And pray-tell just what that may be!"

  I responded with, "You, me, Lady! Not only did they find a way to give you your own body but they also found a way to duplicate Lady! My Lady...the mortal Lady is not here and I can not hope to find and rescue her until I have saved these 'sirens' from what is controlling them. This Lady, was made just as immortal as you and is indeed the correct Lady for a 'god' such as yourself. However she will not be back to herself until we have managed to stop what is controlling her without doing something to it that could kill her."

  The Bat-Messiah stated matter-of-factly, "We do this and save MY Lady, then I kill you."

  I responded with, "Well that is your right but we both know I will not die so easily, especially while MY Lady is still in trouble elsewhere. I know MY mortal Lady, isn't your Lady, but she is still Lady CHristianna, even if she is a different part of her. The part that is the other half of the Harbinger of Death, while this one is the Lady that is the other half of the Lord Death! I know you want to watch the world burn with Lady by your side, but can you do that knowing that another version of Lady may be getting tortured elsewhere by the same people that consider you, both of us, a double-failed and mentally deficient experiment instead of acknowledging you as the god that you THINK you are?!"

  The Bat-Messiah, summoned an energy ball, and as he was about to throw it, he suddenly reabsorbed it's energies. Then responded with, "No I can not....Fine Brother. We figure out how to save MY Lady and your friends without killing them. Then you tell me where your Lady is located. My Lady and I will meet you there and you and your team of inferiors will assist us in saving her. THEN I WILL PROVE TO THE WORLD THAT I AM SUPERIOR BY CRUSHING YOU TO DEATH! Then perhaps I may offer your Lady a position in my harem as well."

  I replied with, "Yes, yes. Crush me. disintegrate me. Obliterate me. Rip me limb from limb. I have been hearing that from you for years."

  The Bat-Messiah suddenly hit me with an energy ball. As I staggered back but kept my balance he snarled, "Yes but this time I have a body. One more powerful than that one and with electrical powers at that!"

  As I threw my own energy ball at him and caused him to stagger, I replied with, "As you can see, the electrical energies may be new to you but NOT new to me! Now will you help or not?!"

The Bat-Messiah replied with, "I will help save MY Lady, no promises after that. However If MY Lady does not agree with you that we should save your mortal love, then I crush you here..but if she does insist we help you save your mortal Lady, then MY Lady and I will meet you at the location you give us, so you and your team can assist us in saving her, and witness a true god in action!...Then once your Lady is safe with your team, I crush you at that time! Then MY Lady and I will go find our own place to call home and rule this world from as we watch it burn!"

Then seeing Lena walk in near him, The Bat-Messiah said to her, "Wench, you are right about my brother's trickery being unpredictable and formidable but you did not warn me that he now uses actual words of significance in his fucking trickery attempts! He now uses words when destruction would work faster and they think I am the corrupted one?! These sirens are definitely NOT worthy of my harem or even to lick my boots...if I do still let them live that is!"