GCPD Forensics Division - 3:00 AM]
The air in the lab was sterile, a sharp contrast to the iron-scented grime of the warehouse Leo had vacated an hour ago. Batman stood in the shadows of the corner, watching as Commissioner Gordon stared at the data on a tablet.
On the table lay the iron gear Leo had thrown. It was deformed, the center of the solid metal plate bearing the clear, deep imprint of a human thumb and forefingers.
"The lab results came back on the blood spray, Batman," Gordon said, his voice weary. "Or... whatever that substance is. The technicians are losing their minds. It's human DNA, but it's behaving like a predatory colony. When they put it under the microscope, the cells started 'eating' the glass slide."
Batman didn't move. In his mind, he was replaying the fight. He felt the dull ache in his shin where the boy had gripped him. His armor, a tri-weave carbon-fiber composite designed to withstand small-arms fire, had been crushed like a soda can.
"He knew my name, Jim," Batman growled, his voice a low vibration.
"What?"
"He called me Bruce. He's not just a meta-human. He's an intelligence. Someone with access to data that shouldn't exist." Batman stepped into the light, his cowl reflecting the sterile white LEDs. "And the way he healed... I hit him with enough voltage to stop a heart. He didn't just survive; he adapted. His cellular structure was hardening against the electricity in real-time."
"So what are we looking at? A new Ivy experiment? Another Lazarus Pit freak?"
"No," Batman said, looking at the screen. "Something worse. A virus that thinks. Keep the Narrows on lockdown. If he's as hungry as the biomass at the scene suggests, he won't stay hidden for long."
[The Narrows - Two Days Later]
I sat on the edge of a stained mattress in a squat-house that smelled of damp wood and ancient cigarettes. I had spent forty-eight hours doing nothing but vibrating.
The T-Virus was finished knitting my organs back together, but the cost had been steep. I looked like a skeleton covered in grey leather. My cheeks were sunken, and my ribs stood out like the hull of a shipwrecked boat.
[Biomass: 7%.][Warning: Host entering 'Autophagy' state. The System will begin consuming non-essential muscle tissue to maintain brain function in 12 hours.]
"I get it," I rasped. "I'm working on it."
I looked at the pile of clothes I'd lifted from a laundromat three blocks away. A heavy grey hoodie, baggy cargo pants, and a beat-up baseball cap. I pulled them on, the fabric feeling scratchy against my sensitive skin.
I looked in the cracked mirror in the corner. With the hood up and the cap low, I looked like just another nameless junkie in the Narrows. My eyes were the problem—the dull crimson glow was still there, flickering like dying embers.
"Syphonis, hide the ocular glow. Mimicry mode."
[Request processed. 0.5% Biomass per hour required for visual camouflage.]
The red faded, replaced by a dull, muddy brown. I looked human again. Twenty-one, scrawny, and haunted. Perfect.
I stepped out into the street. The Narrows was crawling with GCPD. Blue and red lights flashed at every intersection, and I could hear the distant, heavy thrum of a Bat-wing drone circling overhead.
Thump... thump... thump...
My Tactile Sensory Array was screaming. I could feel the city breathing. I felt the heavy pulse of a police officer's heart behind a riot shield fifty yards away. I felt the twitchy, rapid heartbeat of a dealer in the shadows.
But I wasn't interested in them. I needed something bigger. Higher genetic density.
I walked past a newsstand. A tabloid caught my eye: "GCPD SHUTS DOWN GOTHAM ZOO FOR 'SECURITY MAINTENANCE' AFTER STRANGE ANIMAL DISAPPEARANCES."
I smirked. It seemed I wasn't the only hungry thing in this city, but I was definitely the smartest.
'If I can get into the carnivore exhibits,' I thought, my Otaku brain cataloging the possibilities. 'Siberian Tigers... Silverback Gorillas... maybe even the reptile house. The T-Virus combined with that level of muscle density and predatory instinct...'
[Calculated Probability: 100% Biomass achievement is possible within the Zoo perimeter. Unlocking 'Nemesis-Type' physiology will require a core of concentrated predatory DNA.]
"The Zoo it is," I whispered.
I started walking, keeping my head down and my hands in my pockets. I walked past a group of teenagers talking about the "Batman sighting" in the Narrows. They had no idea that the thing Batman was looking for was walking right past them, smelling like cheap detergent and impending extinction.
I felt a sudden, sharp pang in my head.
[Sensory Alert: High-Frequency Scanner detected. Proximity: 10 meters.]
I didn't look up. I didn't change my pace. An GCPD officer was walking toward me, holding a handheld device—a thermal scanner. Batman had given them the tech to find my "overheated" viral signature.
As the officer raised the scanner toward me, I felt the T-Virus in my chest go cold. My body temperature plummeted. I felt my heart stop beating for exactly ten seconds, my blood turning to slush in my veins.
The officer looked at the screen, frowned, and tapped the device.
"Stupid piece of junk," he muttered, waving me past. "Go on, kid. Get off the streets. Curfew is in an hour."
I nodded, my heart kickstarting back into a slow, rhythmic thud once I was five steps past him.
"Close one," I breathed.
[Efficiency improved. Mimicry levels rising. We are becoming the perfect glitch, Leo.]
I reached the outskirts of the Gotham City Zoo just as the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, jagged shadows over the iron gates. The area was fenced off, "Under Investigation" tape fluttering in the wind.
But the smell... oh, the smell was glorious.
The scent of raw meat, musk, and powerful, untamed life. My blood began to boil again. The hunger wasn't just a whisper anymore; it was a roar.
"Time to eat," I said, my fingers elongating, the nails turning into sharp, black points that bit into the iron of the gate.
I didn't climb the fence. I simply walked through it, the reinforced steel snapping like toothpicks as I stepped into the shadows of the park.
Tonight, the Prototype dies. Tomorrow, Gotham wakes up to a Nemesis.