The Interim
“Peter,” he managed when he woke up. It had been an eventful night of investigation; he had volunteered to help Batgirl with looking into a ring of dirty cops that had basically been working for the mob families. “Peter,” he repeated. “That’s my name.”
Getting out of bed, he thought about how he had been trying to prove that he understood corruption, and he found that even though he had known that the world was corrupt, he really had no idea how it worked. As he had at the informal supper at the manor, he could go on about how newspapers would lie to people, and how large corporations could get away with committing crimes, and he even had some experience with corrupt self-styled heroes- government corruption, however, was not something he really knew how to handle. Even though Dick had talked up his successes so far, he felt like he needed to do more to prove himself.
“Good morning, Alfred. I just remembered that my name was Peter.”
“Truly?” He took a sip of tea. “Well, I should hope that we do not have to remember your surname to check the records, provided that in itself is not a futile effort. I am afraid I am convinced by Master Drake’s theory that you are from an entirely different world.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to be convinced by that myself. I don’t know how it all works, and I don’t know how to get back, but what if it doesn’t really matter? What if there’s no way back? I’m starting to think I should just be focusing on these Red Lantern things.”
Not long ago, there had been an update from the local Green Lantern, to the effect that the red variety was going to search for an Orange Lantern hiding in the same sector as Earth, and because they had a tendency to destroy whatever was in their way, the human Lanterns were objecting. They insisted there was insufficient evidence that Larfleeze was anywhere near Earth, and if they found any, it would be their responsibility to track him down.
“Are there any other colors I should know?” he had asked after that much had been explained.
“Yes, fortunately,” Nightwing said. “The Green Lanterns we know have asked the Blue Lanterns for help in keeping the reds from destroying us, but, well, the accusation that the human Green Lanterns are abusing power and exercising favoritism for their home planet actually holds water. I really couldn’t say how Earth manages to attract so many problems, but pretty much everyone on the Justice League says that the favoritism is justified.”
“Are we responsible for these problems?” he asked. “Is it just that the aliens are better at dealing with their problems?” It seemed hard to see how, exactly, since it looked like Batman was doing about the best job he had ever seen anyone do, and under the worst of circumstances.
“Not entirely, not except in the sense that we’re all humans and you could say that since we share in the joint venture of society and share in the reward-”
“Then we share the blame?” he supposed.
“Some people see it that way. Imagine there’s a robbery. Two steal, one drives the getaway car. Unbeknownst to the driver, one of the thieves killed a security guard.”
“Was it necessary for the robbery?”
“Who can say? Maybe they wouldn’t have gotten away. Maybe the guard was standing in front of the jewels. Maybe they just didn’t like him.”
He thought for a moment.
“I know this lawyer. Don’t ask me what his name was. He’s a really fair guy, though, and he cares a lot about the law and justice, and a lot of what you guys told me, well, it reminded me of things he told me. I get the idea that in this case, he would probably say that the thieves should testify about why they killed the guard, and that would determine whether or not the other guy was responsible. They wouldn’t really know that, and even if they did, it wouldn’t be reason enough for them to lie about it. If they killed him out of some personal moral failing, then that’s on them. If they killed him to benefit the conspiracy, then that’s on all of them.”
The discussion returned to the Red Lanterns after what he presumed was some test to see whether he was trustworthy. Apparently, the Green Lanterns could stall any official ‘investigation’ by the reds, and that would keep them from sending the barn, and require them to operate in relative secrecy, but there was only so long that could last.
“It’s actually quite fortunate for us that the Red Lanterns, by nature, have self-control problems. There is no way that they’re going to cool their heads and wait; they’re going to try to prove Larfleeze is here as if gaining such proof justifies the means by which they found it. When we catch them crossing the line, and investigating unofficially, we can reasonably establish that their presence is worse than that of any Orange Lantern for the safety and order of this sector.”
“Okay, but how do we know they won’t find Larfleeze?” he asked.
“Unfortunately, we don’t,” Nightwing said. At this point, the other two had left. “We’re keeping an eye out in all directions, because even if we don’t think he’s here, he’s actually gotten really good at hiding in recent years. The Orange Lantern basically represents greed and selfishness, and all Larfleeze really wants is to keep it for himself.”
“That doesn’t seem like much of a problem.”
“The trouble with greed, though, is that you’re never alone. Various alien groups and other entities perceive him as being weak because he’s all alone, even though he has a whole Lantern to himself, and they try to take it from him, which fuels his paranoia. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect what’s basically a battery for his ring, and that makes more enemies for him.”
“It sounds like a vicious cycle.”
“It is, and that allows the Red Lanterns, or the ones who can actually talk without screaming for five minutes at a time, to argue that they’re going after Larfleeze to protect the surrounding area from those who might try to seize the Orange Lantern.”
It sounded like the quagmire to end all quagmires, when he thought about it. The Green Lanterns had probably already tried to do something about it themselves, and he went ahead and assumed they had been unsuccessful. They wouldn’t be better off than anyone else who’s tried to take it so far, at least I wouldn’t think- they also couldn’t try to make an ally of the owner, to work with him rather than against him. Even if they just tried to protect him, would he approve of that? Or would working with anyone else go against his ideals?
At the present, they were getting an alert from their local Lanterns themselves, and the fact that he had only just remembered his name would probably not do him any good if Hal Jordan or John Stewart wanted advice on how to proceed. He was really the worst person to call.
“I don’t get it Alfred,” he said as the phone rang once more. “Why would they call a guy who dresses up like a bat to talk about interplanetary conflicts?”
“It seems most likely to me that they would think Master Bruce would be interested in arguing with their opponents. Many a time, he has opposed even the Green Lanterns from interfering in matters concerning this city, and other places on Earth. In a conflict on the morality of eating other organisms, a sensible rabbit would request the help of a head of lettuce, making his own position of only eating plants appear quite moderate.” He sighed. “Perhaps that is only the occasional cynic in me, though. Batman has been involved in the conflicts of the Lanterns more times than I care to remember, and though it pains me, he even wore a Black Lantern ring. The ideological angle explains why Sirs Jordan and Stewart would request his help as opposed to any other hero, but he has proven himself to be a dependable ally many a time.”
“Do you think I should tell them that I’m a different guy?”
“No, ideally, you would not be speaking with them. If you must, at some point, talk to our allies, I would recommend pretending to be a different man who has modeled himself after the example of the Batman, and you are simply filling in for him.”
“That makes sense. We wouldn’t tell anyone else that, though.”
“No. Master Bruce was rather secretive, even with those of exemplary character, and our experience with body swappers is not the least of his reasons. In all probability, he would not reveal that someone else had taken over for him to the general public under any circumstances.”
All at once a man in a green costume appeared in the cave with them.
“Batman, I need to speak-”
“I’m not sure how you got in here,” he said. “You’re a Green Lantern, then?”
“Allow me to introduce you to the interim Batman,” Alfred said, going along with it. As he had suspected, it was futile for him to try to pretend to be Bruce Wayne because he could not even say whether or not it was a strange thing for an ally to appear in the cave without warning. Maybe it’s a Justice League thing.
“Interim what?”
“Yeah, sorry, but the regular guy is kind of sick right now. I’m filling in for him.”
“I’m sorry, I must not have heard you correctly. You’re making it sound like Batman trusted someone enough to wear his costume for him. He had a million requirements for when we installed this boom tube in this ‘Batcave’- and he just allowed someone else to-”
“Whether you believe it or not, that’s what’s happening,” Peter said. “I’ve been training under him and he said I could take over if he ever went into a coma or came down with an infectious disease.” That should cover enough of the bases for now.
“Why, pray, would we be lying about this?” Alfred asked.
“It’s not that I think you’re lying- I'm just seeing something absolutely ridiculous and I can’t just accept it that easily.” He sighed. “I assume you’re under extremely specific instructions at the very least. Anyway, for the record, I didn’t really come here to ask your help, I came here to warn you that we’ve detected Red Lantern energy close to Earth. They might be taking advantage of a loophole to try and get past us, looking for the Orange Lantern.”
“What would that be?”
“In our arguments against them, we’ve said that they couldn’t cross the sector boundary and that they had to let us investigate here. Even now, I’m supposed to be doing that. Unfortunately, I think they might just be sending spare rings across the boundary so they can recruit new Red Lanterns, probably humans from here.”
He had heard about the manner of their recruitment. In the words of Guy Gardner, another Green Lantern, a red ring would fly up to someone experiencing great rage, inform him or her of the selection, and if taken, would attach itself to them. The ring was powerful, but it came with a dire cost. If taken, it would override the heartbeat of the wearer, whom it would kill if removed. The Red Lanterns were dependent on the rings working not just for their powers, but for their lives, meaning they depended also on the red power battery on the planet Ysmault, which was controlled by Atrocitus, their current leader. Whether or not they were technically evil was up for debate, but they had been useful to the Guardians, who contended that they represented a legitimate part of the emotional spectrum.
Peter wanted to deal with something more direct than arguments and jurisdiction, but those were arguably nice problems to have. As long as each Lantern Corps was not corrupt and trying to do the best they could, then they represented a legitimate force for good, and being a superhero was more of an administrative job than that of a rogue do-gooder, hounded by crime and the law alike. There had to be a reason, however, why Bruce had not simply joined their organization himself, and even though he knew the man was paranoid, he also knew that he was quite accomplished at building this entire revolution against injustice; there were times he felt like he had been moved from the mail room to the board room.
“Hey Alfred, can you pull up everything that we have on the Green Lanterns? Did they ever do anything ridiculously corrupt?”
“I find that to be a matter of opinion. Master Wayne has stated that they have overstepped their bounds on planets that do not consent to their authority. He has compared Earth to a child in the sense that she cannot consent to any interplanetary governance. There have been those who have come here asserting that since we have nothing to hide, we must have nothing to fear.”
“I guess that’s not that bad, but I can see why he’d want to keep them at an arm’s length,” he decided after a moment. “I can’t ruin what he’s built here by turning over authority to this massive organization when we don’t really know that much about them.” He paused. “I hate to ask this, but do we have a way of beating them?”
“I may as well tell you that we have ways of taking down everyone on the League, as well as several others with no affiliation,” Alfred said, turning to another panel that made a slight mechanical noise after he pressed a fingerprint scanner. Several secure containers came out of the panel. “This happens to be a piece of Kryptonite, the only known weakness for Superman, at least out of what will fit in a box. For any Green Lantern who makes himself an enemy, we have this.”
He took out a yellow ring. Yeah, I guess that’s a color too. Are there purple rings?
“Yellow is the weakness of all Green Lanterns, making the Yellow Lantern Corps a particularly troublesome adversary. The emotion that they represent is fear, which is arguably something of a weakness, and something of a strength for Master Wayne. I know not whether or not you would be able to use it.”
“I hope not,” he said. It was strange to even look at the collection of contingencies against other self-styled heroes. Why do they even trust Batman if he doesn’t trust any of them? Is this even the right thing to do?
Only a moment prior, he had been thinking that he wanted to preserve everything, or as much as he could that his predecessor had put together, and it was like fate wanted to challenge him on that. He could not imagine having a collection of methods to fight those he counted as his friends, always ready at a moment’s notice; it was like he planned to turn on them all at some point, even if he argued he was just hedging out the chance that they would turn on him. If everyone thinks like that, no one ever trusts anyone. Is that even a good thing?
“It seems you do not sympathize with this level of paranoia. You are not alone in that regard. Master Grayson has no such collection, and neither has any of the Batman’s other protégées. There are members of the Justice League, however, who regard these measures as fair, given that he has no superhuman abilities. They recognize that their own perspective comes from a position of incredible power. Even if he were to trust in them by not collecting their weaknesses, they would have no reason to make themselves weak enough to not be a threat to him.”
Peter knew that would defeat the whole point of assembling a team of powerful heroes. There would always be threats out there and they would always have to be ready to face them; it seemed Batman was inclined to believe that they could even come from within. He’s not worried about other people not trusting him as a result of this kind of thing. If anyone ever said anything about it, he could just say something like ‘well, if I ever worry you, feel free to put have on hand something that could take care of me’, and in his case that might as well be a regular gun.
“I’m not going to carry this around with me,” he said. “I don’t know if this makes me stupid or something, but if these people are heroes, they don’t deserve to be treated like this.” He thought for a moment. “Is this why Bruce doesn’t consider himself a hero?”
“This is one of the reasons he does not take the same title as many others, yes. One could argue that styling oneself as a hero requires something of a swelled head, though I don’t doubt that many deserve it. The Batman is a revolutionary, a caped crusader against injustice.”
“Is it okay if I don’t wear a cape? I kind of don’t like them.”
Alfred seemed to know not to bother answering the diversionary question that was just a way of lightening the mood. Is that what I always do whenever things get serious? I tell a joke in order to lighten things up? What if things should just be serious sometimes?
“It seems we have an alert,” the butler obviated as a red light flashed, briefly illuminating most of the cave. “I doubt it relates to finding a way home for you, but it may well relate to the Red Lanterns, if they are indeed here already.”
“Okay, I’ll check it out,” he decided quickly. “Did I mention that I don’t like being so far away from the city whenever something happens? I know it obscures where exactly I’m going, but I feel like you could also do it by just putting on a jacket and waders or something so that they wouldn’t recognize you and drive a regular car or a motorcycle, because you could park that anywhere.”
“Ah yes, Master Wayne did come up with a plan of that nature to be at the crime scene more quickly. We have an advance base in the service tunnels that should allow you to do just that. In the long term, we have every intention to have a tunnel going from the cave to the advance base, but that will only be after we can certify that the advance base will never be discovered.”
“Yeah, or that tunnel would make it obvious that the Wayne family fortune paid for it,” he said, throwing on a jacket and a baggy pair of pants over his costume. He had to take off the mask and the gloves, or gauntlets, really, but apart from that he was ready to go in a matter of seconds.
He set off after saying goodbye, thankful that he had someone working with him. Was it not always like this? Speeding through a waterfall, he would have to hope that the spray would be off his clothes by the time he was in town. I didn’t think I was much of a loner. The motorcycle’s controls felt more familiar than those of a car, suggesting he had at least had one before. I’m pretty sure that I would be more likely to trust someone than Bruce. For me to have a reaction at everything he does, I can’t imagine that any part of me sympathizes.
More than anything, he wanted to remember his friends and family. He knew he had them, and he knew that not being close to them was hurting, as much as that made him sound overly dependent. The relative solitude that Batman imposed upon himself, or rather, his secret identity, was truly punishing and Peter could only wonder how he could stand it.
As he had learned, Bruce had another identity, another mask he wore for different purposes. Whenver he wanted to go undercover and hide among criminals, he went under the name Matches Malone and dressed like an old-time gangster. Even though his face was visible, no one recognized him, apparently, and that was probably because they were not expecting to see him, and the whalebone suit he wore exaggerated his size and build rather than understating it, like with the pinstripe leisure suit he frequently wore as Bruce Wayne. His foray into the muddy waters of behaviorism allowed him to act like a completely different person whenever disguised as Malone, though at least to Alfred he never said where he derived the inspiration for the persona, or the costume for that matter.
When he arrived in town, he found the advance base in a tunnel as expected, and it was really just a place to store the motorcycle, as well as the jacket and pants. He wished he could have taken them with him for a quick escape, but he could get into the service tunnels from a sewer, and he was close to the crime scene already. Popping out of a manhole in an alley, he used one grapnel to get him started going up the side of a building while aiming with the other, firing it with a trigger he had managed to embed into the gauntlet. It would not, most likely, be possible for anyone else to press it for him, but if anyone did, it would be a painful mistake.
Climbing the buildings quickly with the two grapnel-gauntlets, he reached a vantage point and scanned the area with the optics in the cowl, finding the source of the alarm, a bank robbery. Usually, the police can handle these by themselves. It’s not really a matter of being strong enough to defeat the enemy, or detective work, it’s just having the patience and the resources to outlast the robbers. Why would they take a Red Lantern ring? Is it just an unrelated event?
A police sniper on the next rooftop saw him and waved him over.
“Didn’t think I’d see you here, Batman,” he said. “Is that a new suit?”
“There’s a reason for it,” he explained, trying to keep it at least somewhat secretive. There really is, though. “What’s going on here?”
“It’s Mr. Freeze. Go ahead and make a joke about freezing assets, but yeah, he’s in there and he’s got hostages. I don’t have a clue why he wants all that money.”
“I do.” He remembered that Batman was supposed to be laconic, or at least not given to long elaborations.
The danger with Freeze was that if he broke through the ice, everyone inside the bank would know, and that would be all the reason he needed to waste the hostages. He basically had an alarm system that he could set up in minutes that also served as an active threat to everyone’s lives. It was not clear how he intended to exit the encirclement, but whenever he decided to attempt that, the first priority was going to have to be the hostages who would probably already be unconscious at that point. What that means, though, is that he has to get in and out before the average person would die from being in sub-zero conditions for too long. If all the hostages die, he’s lost all the advantage that they would have given him.
“How long has he been at this?”
“Just like twenty minutes or so, why? You got any way of getting in there?” the sniper asked.
“Yeah. You’re not going to like it.”
“Yeah, I was ready for that.”