"Argh…"
Arias, still lying in the debris of the car, slowly opened his eyes and realized that everything that had happened was real. He felt heavy all over, yet his wounds were healing at a startlingly rapid rate. All of his dislocated joints and damaged muscles were being restored as if nothing had happened.
The unfixed voice echoed in his head as he assessed himself.
"[It was a success… our existential energies are one.]"
Arias held his head for a moment, but he didn't appear surprised. After the unusual healing he was experiencing, it only made sense that the so-called infinity would now be present in his consciousness.
"I feel like multiple individuals are screaming in my mind. Do you not have a fixed voice? Locked to one gender?" Arias questioned in his conscience, unable to conceal his annoyance whenever the infinity within him spoke.
"[I spoke only by borrowing the voices of the countless energies that had been in the abyss before. As for a gender, I have none. If you have a preference that will make our coexistence more appealing, then feel free to state so.]"
It responded in the same way as before, which led Arias to hold his tongue in frustration.
"Argh, something soft and low. If it's a gender, then female. Also…" Arias was exiting the wreckage of the car and surveying his surroundings as he spoke. He observed Dmitri's body, noticing that it was intact with only a few superficial scrapes and cuts. "Did you heal him as well?" Arias asked, not expressing satisfaction or dismay over the situation.
Dmitri had indeed been a good friend to Arias in his younger days, but time had all but erased that bond. At the moment, Dmitri was nothing more than a tolerable individual. However, given their shared past, he was possibly the only person Arias could call a friend.
"[No, I did not. This region was in a space where all living things acquired reparations down to the molecular level during the collision of our existential energies. This is because your body was being restructured so you could support calling forth the powers and laws of the abyss. Had the process lasted longer, you wouldn't even have those scratches on your body.]"
Arias looked over himself again and then at the landscape around him. He noticed that some parts were exceedingly lush and vegetative, in contrast to the rest of the surrounding woodland, just as the infinity described in a now tranquil feminine voice.
"How can I control this? What is the extent of my power?" Arias inquired with a gleam in his eyes, seeing a chance that had never been available to him before. Sadly, he didn't get the response he had been hoping for.
"[If I had a vessel prior to you, I have no recollection of it. But your ability to manifest and manipulate the energies of the world should become more accessible as you grow accustomed to being a vessel. You are currently a tangible representation of the abyss; hence, you don't need to worry about dying right now, unless it happens instantaneously.]"
Arias started to look around, noticing the changes in his senses. He felt greatly enhanced, to the point where he could selectively hear everything happening within the woods where they had fallen. The tree their car had smashed through caught his attention, and he moved over to lift it as if it were weightless.
"I see. It almost feels like it weighs nothing, but upon matching my strength to something that exists, its weight varies to different levels. I think I understand, but for now…" Arias hesitated, then turned to look in what appeared to be a random direction. "I hear sirens; this place will become a scene of investigation soon. We need to leave." Before turning to face Dmitri's body, Arias paused to consider.
He approached and, by concentrating his hearing on Dmitri's heartbeat, could tell he was still alive.
"[Where will you go?]" The tone of the question was one of audible curiosity.
"Away from here for the time being." Arias quickly picked Dmitri off the ground and fled the area, giving no thought to the clues he had left for anyone who might come to investigate. He was currently too preoccupied to worry about such things. He felt very fortunate just to be alive.
...
A car pulled up at the location where their vehicle had been knocked off the road and forced down the hill, just as Arias's senses had warned him. However, the car that showed up was not a Gotham police vehicle; it was the iconic car driven by Gotham's Dark Knight, Batman.
Two figures—Batman and his protégé, Robin—emerged from the strange armored vehicle as it rolled open its door. Batman approached the cliff and pressed a button on his mask, activating the investigative function in his lenses. These allowed him to focus on minute details and have the supercomputer back at his hideout analyze them in real time, producing prompt and nearly accurate results in most situations.
This time, he simply needed to look at the tire prints to identify the makes of the two passing vehicles and estimate the velocity at which they collided. The Bat-computer quickly constructed a simulation to identify every potential spot where the car could have crashed. He silently carried out these actions as the Boy Wonder crossed his arms, appearing bored.
"Do we really need to investigate a shooting between mafia families? I thought you'd be busy solidifying this whole Justice League thing you started," Robin asked, peering over the edge and conducting his own investigation of the situation.
"It's rare for a shooting to receive this much attention. I want to know why. As for the League, I didn't start it; the people did through rumors. Flash's big mouth didn't help in drowning them out either. We all just worked together to stop Darkseid from invading… however, it made me realize the good we could do as a unit."
Robin cast a skeptical glance at Batman. "It's also the best way for you to monitor all the other big heroes and make countermeasures, right? That's the reason you want me to join the team made up of the other sidekicks, right?" The implication of Batman's words was immediately apparent to Robin, who spoke in a casual manner.
"You are protégés, not sidekicks. One day you'll be on your own, protecting Gotham and even the world, but for now, you're not ready." He didn't confirm or refute the implications Robin had made, just lectured in a stern manner.
When Robin heard the last portion of his statements, he was not amused.
"Then when will I be ready?" he impatiently asked, only to be met by the Bat's icy look.
"When I say so. Let's go; I found the crash site."
Load failed, please RETRY
Weekly Power Status
-- PowerRanking
-- Powerstone
Vote
