Issue 3: Wading Between Worlds

Bruce grunted as the fair-haired witch struck him once, twice, thrice on his ribs, abdomen, and calves. He whirled around, staff at the ready, as the muted strain of her laughter floated out the mouth of the cave.

"Why do you fight it, Bruce?" Branwen appeared to his right, a wooden cup in her hand.

Bruce knocked the cup away and backed up, shaking his head and groaning at the pain in his back and midsection.

The witch sighed, her lips setting in a thin line. "I do understand what you're going through. Once Shea had had his way with me, I couldn't eat, could barely sleep, for that matter. Everything and everywhere that he touched was poisoned, or rotten, or deathly for me to even be near. But then-"

Her eyes lit with a strange fire.

"The Brightseer came to me, in the dark of my dreams, and oh! The plans he has for this place!" She laughed, arms outstretched as she twirled about.

Bruce bit down on his tongue, hard enough to draw blood. "You can't hold me here forever," he ground out, his mouth feeling like it was filled with lead.

Scooping her staff from where it laid against the wall, Branwen gestured towards the mouth of the cave. "Then go. I am not holding you here."

She waved her hand, and Bruce felt a weight settle on his chest and limbs. He glanced at the dark grey fabric of the Batsuit, flexed his newly-gloved hands, then, shooting a glare at his captor, turned around and strode forward, out of the cave-

And into a shrieking storm of ice and nightmares.

Dried grass crunched beneath Diana's feet as she ran across the marshy, frost-encrusted plains stretched out before her. Her breaths came in short white pants that blurred into the fog before her, in-out-in-out, and her lungs burned within her.

Wincing as an ear-splitting screech echoed in the vast cavern, Diana mentally cursed herself as to be so foolish to forget a cloak and shield. Even with the gods-given speed she was traveling at, the unnatural chill that pervaded the air in this place cut to her very bones, slowly, inexorably sapping her energy.

The grip on her sword tightened as she sighted a pool of shimmering water just ahead of her; unsheathing it, she whirled around, bringing up her guard as the darkening fog parted, seemingly of its own accord. A hiss ripped past her ear as she hopped backwards, feeling invisible claws swipe at the air where she once was. Claws scraped against her blade, rocking her backwards, straight into something long and cold.

Diana shouted in enraged surprise as she threw her elbow behind her, only to find it restrained. Her vision blurred as a scream tore past her left ear, and she slumped forward, onto her knees. Almost instantly, she could see nothing, could breathe no longer, as she was slammed face-first into a shallow puddle in the ground before her.

"Téigh ar ais chuig d'oileán scamallach, bréagán; D'fhulaing an nochtadh go bhfuil deireadh do ghearán trua."

A numb feeling of pressure pushed at her forehead, her scalp, and she heard, as though from a mile away, "Die, you stupid mortal. Die, as your father died, begging for your pathetic lover."

The pressure snapped.

Diana thrust herself into the air, vision reddening, and drawing her blade to the heavens, thrust out an arm and struck the flat of her sword against the bracer.

As dust arose from the blast that emanated from her bracer, she spotted shapes; that was all she needed.

Drawing in on herself, she blurred forward, arms coming together with the clang and scrape of metal against metal, and knocked down the forms before her with a blast of ruddy energy. Grasping two of the shapes by their necks, she squeezed.

At the sound of her compatriots strangled, final gasps for life, the final shape shimmered into view, revealing a gaunt woman clothed in nothing but a green-grey cloak. She hissed at Diana, revealing bloodstained fangs. "You disgust us. Why do you even care for such a fool mortal? You are no god."

Diana punched her in the jaw.

The banshee skidded and skipped along the marshland like a stone, cratering next to the shimmering pool. An instant later, Diana was there, grasping the broach at the dark fae's breast and hauling her off her feet. Drawing her close, Diana met the monster's eye and said, in a voice of frozen rage, "Let me show you what. I. Am."

His ribs felt like they had been wrapped in frayed jumper cables and punched by Black Lightning.

Batman sucked in another breath, crouching behind the crumbling wall of what was once a church, and peeked around the corner.

The black-cloaked rider raised its pale whip of bone and ligament, and, faster than he could blink, lashed out at thin air. The whinnying of the red-eyed horse on which the rider was saddled echoed off the walls of the flash-frozen town, mixing with the croaking cries of the blurred and twitching forms yoked to the horse's harness as the whole grotesque lot started forward.

A chill ran down his spine as the rider raised the green-spotted head crowned with eyes high above its body; the severed body part cried out, or rather screeched, "Fir-íaltóce, Fir-íaltóce, Fir-íaltóce."

Bruce tensed, but nothing happened.

"What the-" he began, when something whispered in his ear, "Time to come out and play, Darkie."

He whirled around, only to come face-to-face with the wet snout of a very angry horse.

Oh, sh-

The PEG-suspended sheets of graphene cushioned his sternum and breastbone from the shock of hooves pounding against him, as Batman allowed the slight backwards motion of the force to push him to a safer distance. Palming a mini-flashbang, he tossed it at the whip-wielder, backflipping further away as the entity raised its bone-whip for another strike.

"Bruce Thomas Wayne." The rider brought down the whip, the jagged tailbone shearing just past Batman's cowl to tear into the hard-packed earth.

"Bruce Thomas Wayne." The head roared its fury as the spasming horrors behind it surged forward, breaking through their iron collars that bound them to the harness.

"Bruce Thomas Wayne."

Batman shifted into the first stance of Alnahr Alththani, slipping by the first of the twitchers as it lunged at him, and redirecting the momentum of the second into its other two comrades. Gritting his teeth at the sensation of his hands and forearms turning inside out, he backed away.

"Plútón Helios."

His chest began to ache, and his bones felt like they were turning to gelatin inside him.

"Plútón Helios."

Batman pressed the release latch on the bottom of his batarang compartment, and, clutching the crude, but freshly-whetted weapon between his index finger and thumb, flung it at the head. The hand holding the head let go-

Dropping it straight into the path of another batarang.

The fiendish creature made no sound at first, then-

Batman winced as an inhuman shriek tore through the air, eyes squinted and watching while the head began to crumble into dust, with the body following suit.

The horse neighed, rearing up and lashing out with both hooves, then settled back down, looking Batman dead in the eyes.

Thank you.

Batman simply inclined his head.

The horse tossed its head back. Come. I have much to show you.

Batman glanced behind him. The twitchers remained where they were.

He looked back to the horse, then walked over to it. Picking the batarang up off the ground, he sliced off the lines of leather connecting the iron collars to the beast, then reached over his head and cut off his cape. Cutting it into three sections lengthwise, then bisecting two of the pieces and draping the longest section of cloth across the back of the horse, he wrapped his hands and feet in the fabric, and swung up onto the horse's back. Pressing at the horse's flanks, he eased it into a canter.

"Then show me," he said, eyes fixed on the dark and stormy horizon.

She awoke to the crack of lightning and the sensation of floating.

Diana sat up, letting out a short yelp as her hands temporarily found no purchase, and took in her surroundings.

A castle, black as stormfronts in the dead of night, loomed over the silvered clouds; bluish gold lanced through the numerous cracks in the curtain wall, giving the structure a sense of fulmenic fury frozen at its peak. A cold wind blew in from the west, carrying a faint, haunting shriek with it; the sound built upon itself, thousandfold upon thousandfold, until the very heavens seemed to split, and from the breach…

Black birds, tens of dozens, darkened the sky, crows, ravens and rooks alike. The downbeat of their wings were like thunder, and the caws of "Tagann an fear liath" shook the very fundament Diana stood upon. They swarmed the Amazon like moths to a flame, and through the clamouring horde, she saw a shape, huge, yet formless, pass before her.

She tried to retreat, but they were behind her, and above, a dome of flitting shade. The squawks of the corvids fell, only to be met by a sound like rushing wind, and the echoed pfft of struck meat; then- a crushing, stabbing pain.

By the goaaaAAAA-

"AAAIIEEEE!" Diana screamed, blinking back tears as she was lifted into the air by a massive hand. The wound inflicted by the cavern-dwellers felt as though it was on fire, and her bones creaked at the sudden pressure. Feeling the hand slow, she saw nothing but grey through the film of tears, heard naught but an ever-present rumble.

Yet, strangely, as the air shifted, she did not feel afraid, and when the grey separated into an iridescent red-black iris, her resolve strengthened. Working to free her arms, she'd just managed to unsheathe the gods-forged sword from its scabbard when the giant began to speak.

Paaags, swesreeeinosoy. Eǵhóm juweeeey ceeeemjō, moneeeejōy juuuuweeee.

Diana roared against the rumble of the giant's strange tongue, bringing the blade down on the being's thumb. The giant reacted violently, flailing its' arms and flinging the Amazon to the ground. Dazed from the impact, she watched as it crouched down, its' face feet away from her's, and bellowed in a tone she recognized as frustrated anger.

Mlākós maaaaqā.

She heard the swoosh of air near her ear, then a splitting pain erupted from her temple, and the world went black.

Translations

Téigh ar ais chuig d'oileán scamallach, bréagán; D'fhulaing an nochtadh go bhfuil deireadh do ghearán trua. - Go back to your shadowed island, toy; you cannot endure the revelation that your questions end at. (or something to that approximation)

Fir-íaltóce - Man-of-Bats

Alnahr Alththani - the martial arts devised by the League of Assassins over the centuries

Plútón Helios - "Sun Pluto", the male aspect of the married relationship between the moonrise, Koure Selene, and the sunset, Plouton Helios, as well as the relationship between Hades/Pluto and Persephone/Proserpina

Tagann an fear liath - The greyman comes

Paaags, swesreeeinosoy. Eǵhóm juweeeey ceeeemjō, moneeeejōy juuuuweeee. - Peace, sister. I come to you, to warn you. (original text is Proto-Indo-European)

Mlākós maaaaqā. - Stupid girl.

Author's Note: Well, I feel like this was a shitshow. Just finished my third semester at Uni, and I'm just so fucking sick of all this shit.

Anyways, I'm splitting this issue into two parts; with this "issue" introducing some of the "realms" of the Celtic otherworld, I plan on fleshing out the McGuffin of the original series in the next, as well as continuing to build on Diana, Bruce, and their relationship.

Hope you enjoyed, if you're still reading.

-Nate