Snippets, Omakes and Short Stories

[AntonioCC]

Gotham Monarch Hotel​

Charles Xavier was lying in his bed trying to sleep, but dream eluded him. He had never liked Gotham City, the aura of darkness and despair around the city was almost palpable sometimes, but this time around it was... different. As if there was a little light fighting against the darkness.

'Very poetic, Charles. But it doesn't help you to sleep any.' he snarked to himself, as he grabbed the wheelchair back handle, brought it to the bed and sat on it, wheeling himself to the desk in the room to use his laptop to work.

Or at least that was what he tried to, but he had received an anonymous e-mail to his personal account that very few people had. The email told him that a common friend was trying to find frozen goods from outside, and that the email was going to try to dissuade this common friend from doing this. Mostly because those frozen goods weren't there, only old leftovers. A strange message with random capitalization... one moment. If one discounted the words that should be capital letters, the capital letters out of place spelled janhwatson or Jan H Watson...

"Irene and her Holmesian aliases." Xavier groaned as he decoded it.

From there, it was easier. The common friend was Erik or Magneto, as he called himself now. The frozen goods from outside... something alien crashed in the Arctic? And probably it was only an old plane crash, instead, if he was reading this right.

But, that meant that Erik was going to go back to whatever his primary plan was. And he was no closer to knowing about it than before. Though, he had his suspicions that his brother Cain had a role to play on them…

Wayne Manor​

"So, it is pretty obvious that Dala and Nicholas haven't fled Gotham." Buffy said, when Bruce told her the news that Gordon had told him earlier, "And they have recruited Blackout for some reason."

"What interest do they may have in Gotham? As you said, this city holds very little interest for…"

"Not exactly, Gotham has little supernatural activity, but…" she facepalmed as she realized what had been in front of her all this time, "Of course, I have been slightly creeped out since I stepped into here, and my slaydar tends to be somewhat bad in pinging supernatural stuff. There is some bad mojo in Gotham that actively repels supernatural stuff."

"So you think that they are looking into that 'bad mojo'?" Bruce asked.

"Wouldn't be the first time. How far back does the history of low supernatural activity in Gotham go?"

"As far back as the founding of the city, if I remember correctly. Let me check, anyway." he said, starting to key in the Bat-computer.

 

[AntonioCC]

"Interesting…" Buffy said when she read what appeared on the screen.

"Indeed. I would have to make some correlations, but there are some midwestern legends that talk of a similar messianic figure. The fight against a demon of darkness and its sealing is new, though." Bruce said, "I think that there is some additional material in the Kyle collection, including a book of stories collected by one of my… well, our ancestors from the Kyle family, back in the XVIIIth century. It's one of the things I was planning to show Julie tonight, actually."

"That was the manuscript that was damaged in a fire, right? Can you wait until Dawn gives it a look? She is pretty good at researching books for stuff like that." Buffy said, "Actually, what material do you have from the tribes? Just in case there is some kind of curse."

"I remember a few figurines representing Native Americans as their animal totem…"

"You mentioned a bat-headed warrior, now that I remember, any relation?"

"Not that I know of, I was always more into the European knights than into Native American stuff. You see, both our great-grandfather and our great-uncle were great collectors of Native-American antiques." Bruce said,thinking back to happier times when his parents lived, "And I have no problem with Dawn looking it over the collection, and you too. Just because Gotham now is a low magic area doesn't mean it was the same in the past."

He then used the intercom,

"Alfred, can you open the hall of the Kyle collection?" Bruce said "We need to examine some artifacts in it, and warn Dawn to wait for us at the door of the hall."

"Of course, Master Bruce." Alfred answered, "If I may ask, why the sudden interest?"

"Some sudden connection with Native American legends." Bruce said, "In particular, we want to examine the manuscript from Old Jeremiah Kyle."


A few minutes later they met Dawn at the door of the hall that contained the remains of the Kyle collection, which was in the Eastern, semi-abandoned wing of Wayne manor.

"What was so important?"

"We think the DuBois are after something that is sealed under Gotham. There are fragmentary legends of some kind of powerful demon being sealed under the city."

"Of course it had to be something like that." Dawn said, rolling her eyes.

"You should be used to it by now. The Powers that Be have never been remotely subtle." Buffy said with a wry smile, as they entered the room.

It was like entering a closed exposition room of some museum, with shelves covered by tarps, and display cabinets gathering dust. Alfred gave surgical gloves to everybody and cleaned the dust from one such display cabinet, revealing an old book, with some fire damage.

"XVIIIth Century?" Dawn said.

"Good eye, Dawn. This is the last volume of the diary of Jeremiah Kyle, one of my ancestors. He supposedly gathered some of the legends of the native american tribes that lived in the area that would become Gotham in this volume."

"Why isn't this in a museum? Or in a University?"

"Beats me. My grandfather should have been able to sell it to Gotham U, but it's strange that he kept it, while a lot of other pieces were sold." Bruce said, as he opened the cabinet.

Dawn took it with care and started to pass the pages carefully.

"Hmmm… It seems that in his later years Jeremiah Kyle did somewhat repent of his life of crime, trying to use his fortune to help the poor and doing charity work. He protected several members of tribes, and collected their stories in this diary." She passed another page, and read silently."I need to transcribe this, Giles needs to know."

 

[AntonioCC]

"What have you found?" Buffy asked.

"Okay, there are some fragmentary legends here and in the midwest, especially in Kansas, about a messianic figure that came from the sky. The variant of the legend of the tribes in Gotham talks about that figure fighting some dark god or dark devil or something like that and sealing it." Dawn said, "Jeremiah Kyle collected a much more complete version of that legend."

"And let me guess, there is a prophecy of the return of the dark god." Buffy said.

"Not really, but apparently the figure sealed itself with the dark god in the depths of the Earth under the bay." Dawn said, "Basically Gotham is built over the seal of a Dark God."

"Okay, that gives us an inkling about the motives of the bad guys." Buffy said.

"They want to free the Dark God." Batman said.

"Don't think so, even the worst of the vamps didn't really want to end the world, only to end at the top of it. Unless they are completely gone cuckoo, of course." Buffy said, "But, from all that we have seen, they are too entwined in the mortal world for that. No, I think they want power, and they think they can get it from the Dark God, or maybe from the Seal, somehow." Buffy said.

"The book mentions that the shamans of the tribes strengthened the seal by diverting the veins of blood of the earth." Dawn mentioned, "I don't know what that can possibly be."

"Ley lines?" Buffy said, "Hey, I caught some of Giles' explanations."

"And you mentioned that Gotham felt weird to your supernatural senses," Bruce said, thinking aloud, "If Gotham ley lines have been diverted to feed that Seal, the feeling as a repellent for the supernatural could be a welcome byproduct of the Seal." And then added upon the surprise of the sisters, "I studied things like that during my martial art studies. Pretty theoretical, I was more interested in the practical rather than the esoteric aspect of martial arts, but I caught more than a few things."

"Good point, but until Giles comes here, we can't confirm or deny that in any meaningful way." Dawn said, "He is the expert, and the one that would know how to test if that hypothesis is good or not."

Buffy then looked away as if she was hearing something far away.

"I think your friend Julie is coming already." Buffy said, "At least, a car is coming up the road to Wayne Manor."

 

[AntonioCC]

Gotham City International Airport​

Barbara's plane was just about to land. She was finally back with her father after all these years. After so long enduring her mom's...well, attitude about everything, it was a relief to be home again—even if home was here, in Gotham.

When the plane touched down, she waited through the usual disembarking shuffle. Finally, she stepped into the bustling terminal and scanned the crowd until she spotted him. Her father looked older, his face lined with new creases, and gray had started to creep into the sides of his hair.

"How are you, pumpkin?" he called out, a familiar teasing note in his voice.

"Dad, I hated that nickname when I was ten," Barbara replied, rolling her eyes.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright—my bad."

They chatted about family, catching up on lost time, as they made their way out of the airport.

"Did you keep that old jalopy, or did you finally—?"

"For your information, it was a classic," he replied with mock indignation. "But no, it gave up the ghost a couple of years ago, so I had to get a new car after that."

"Good to know," Barbara said with a small smirk as they walked toward the parking lot.

They finally reached the car, and Barbara placed her bags in the trunk. Just then, Gordon's phone buzzed, and he checked the caller ID.

"Barbara, it's work. Just hop in—I'll only be a minute."

She slid into the passenger seat but left the door open, casually listening in on her father's conversation.

"I hope this is important," Gordon said, a hint of irritation in his voice. "I was picking up my daughter from the airport."

The response on the other end was muffled, unintelligible, but Gordon's expression soured as he nodded.

"Another burglary at some rich idiot's mansion right after he threw a party," he muttered, shaking his head. "This really sounds like a case for Robbery and Homicide, not Major Crimes…" There was another burst of chatter from the phone. Gordon sighed. "Ah, right—politics. The Mayor wants to look like he's doing something for his donors."

"Yes, I understand. Harvey and I will handle it professionally," Gordon replied after another round of chatter. "Goodbye, sir."

He ended the call with a sigh, then turned to Barbara. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to drop you off at home and head back to work. Duty calls."

"As always," Barbara replied with a small, understanding smile. "Don't worry, Dad—I'm used to it."