{Case Red} was a text document that appeared on my phone. I didn't know why, I didn't know how. It just did.
And whoever had managed to put it here wanted it to be read. It was after all the only thing on my normally deserted homepage.
I bit my lips. No one. No one can hack Bat tech, at least that's what Barbra said.
Still, at least she had also told me what to do if it ever was.
With one finger on the front camera, covering it, I passed it along to Damien who was sitting next to me on the Javelin. He didn't notice it at first, his hands on his phone, a frown demarcating his lips, then he turned—eyes widening the instant he saw what was there, "You too then."
Fliping his screen he showed her what was there, {Case Red.}
I didn't get it.
He noticed the confusion and mouthed, 'Read it.'
Not a sound, not a whisper. He didn't want to be heard—that made me consider her surroundings. We were taking shelter inside the grounded bird. Around us even by the open hanger door, a plethora of supers with various support abilities were working.
Some were even hauling unconscious Superman off into another bird.
It was entirely too feasible for someone or another to eavesdrop or just hear it on accident due to superhearing.
Pulling my phone back in, I flipped it over, my thumb pressing down on the document. The screen blacked for a second before it lit back up.
{Case Red}
{Author:Batman}
{Permissions: Batman, Alfred, Nightwing, Oracle, Red Hood, Red Robin, Robin, Vandal.}
{Objective: Elimination of the threat titled Trigon.}
{Reason: Although Trigon has been forced back by the well-intentioned but ineffectual attack headed by Nightwing he has not been eliminated yet.
He maintains agents that have subverted a few league members and while we know most, there are more.
Even more so, Trigon can initiate a similar attack on us again. We are aware he has decided to bide his time. He will try again.
(This information has been obtained by tapping subverted members—Especially the leaguer known as Stargirl, the leader of their operations and the one who maintains direct contact with Trigon.)
In consideration of all the information communicated the league has approved a surgical strike to neutralise Trigon.}
{Procedure(Individual only): Vandal is to move with Robin and keep Raven secured. Further instructions will be conveyed when and if needed through Robin. Follow his orders.}
{*Note: Overall procedure and plan are being kept hidden in case of possession during combat itself.}
...So, I just got included in a secret op?
I turned to Damien, but he was still looking at his phone, so I snapped my finger in front of him. He turned to look at me, "What's up?"
"We are going to be sitting out here or are you going to tell me about the constellations?"
He raised his brow, so I signed and pointed my finger to the stars, well, to the hull of the Javelin but he got the message. Nodding he unbuckled his seat belt and went outside with me following along.
Knowing what our job was I patted my buckle, doing a check on my stock. I had nothing. My guns were there but the ammo was limited and I had barely any stuns on me.
Fuck all this, it's not enough to carry me though another encounter.
Putting my hand over my side with the chunked armour I started uncranking it, ripping out pieces to expose my flesh.
After all, I had limited conventional firepower right now, so I was gonna have to rely on my unconventional side.
What I was doing did not escape Damien's notice, "Ripping off your armour?"
"Too stuffy."
He rolled his eyes as he turned back, "So, which constellations did you want to look at?"
I gave him a blank look, "You think I know jack about constellations?"
It was a meaningless conversation, maybe it was meaningful. I couldn't tell. Not truly.
"The north star, kid, ever heard of it?"
I nodded, my eyes looking at the sky, at the brightest star—yet it was not what I was seeing. My sight crawled into the earth. A row of teeth turned to ingest the mud and throw it out back. Worms, as I had commanded them, tunneled a slow path to the hive below.
To the bodeis. To the dead.
"It's the great marker in the sky," He spoke. I could barely listen.
They had found food, they had found mass and they started the process of parasitising. Of the slow take over, as a worm broke skin and then found muscle, ripping through the fibers to find the blood vessels and then the crawl through them to the heart and then to the heard.
One beast was found in the earth, crushed into paste—it couldn't be taken, but had nutritional value.
It was surreal to think that way, of the value cursed meat had.
But it felt right.
Was this what I had always been? A hive mind? The thoughts turned in my mind but I kept my lips kept moving. "So, Great dipper, tell me about it brother."
He spoke something, "That right..." ponting as a rought shape of stars.
In my mind was the start of an assembly line, the worms moving, taking, consuming and growing till they could not more. Then they broke segments off, making smaller worms that continued the cycle. Sending of portions beneath the platform, congeling into a mass of meat and flesh—biomass. My fuel.
Was I too biomass? This form of Mira? Did it even need to exist for me to survive?
It was needed because it was my identity in the waking world but if destroyed would I go with it?
Not somthing I was eager to test for sure. But it was a question I couldn't help but ask myself.
What am I really?
A human with a mutation?
Or somthing else entirely?