anwhile, Superman had already arrived at the central building and was currently cautiously scanning the area. However, when he tried to scan the building, he found that he couldn't see through it. 'Lead,' he thought to himself, just before noticing that Batman had already gone inside.
Without hesitation, he rushed in as well, communicating telepathically through Martian Manhunter not far, "J'onn, tell the others Batman and I are in the island's central building. Not sure if communication is still..." Before Superman could finish speaking, Batman's voice resonated clearly.
"Don't worry, it's clear. But, you need to co see this," Batman revealed, prompting Superman to frown as he imdiately turned and flew into the central building through the open entrance.
Shortly after entering, Superman first encountered a large set of hangar doors, rusted and in disrepair, marring much of the surrounding exterior.
Creeping vines partially obscured faded insignias that were visible here and there. As Superman walked past the hangar doors, he found broken panels and tangled wires littered on the ground, while many deactivated drones and chanical sentries lay aligned against the walls, covered in dust as if they had long since been abandoned.
Superman soon entered what seed like the main hall. He first looked above and could see a set of scattered skylights that allowed streaks of moonlight to pierce through the darkness that engulfed much of the hall, casting sharp shadows and illuminating scattered remnants of strange-looking technology. The unfamiliar machinery possessed nacing contours and dark glossy surfaces that seed to absorb light.
Batman stood near one such device, currently observing it. Having already taken a picture and sent it to Alfred to dig through the databases, he slowly turned his head to see Superman hovering close.
"Do you have any idea what kind of tech this is?" Batman asked Superman as he felt it was alien. Superman wore a deep frown, narrowed his eyes, and reviewed it. "It's Apokoliptian."
Batman imdiately shifted focus. "Are you sure?" he asked.
Without hesitation, Superman affird, "Yes. I wasn't on War World for long during their invasion, but I can say for certain that this is definitely Apokoliptian, and moreover, dangerous."
Hearing the strong affirmation, Batman now began to churn through his mind for what could possibly be happening.
Why was Arias coming here? Did he know that Batman was following him or was he simply lured here? Or was he also unaware of the presence here, thinking that it was only remnants of the HS group?"
It was very easy to see Arias as a suspect, but without solid proof, Batman couldn't really settle on it. It just didn't seem to make sense how everything was happening right now.
This was only natural, as even being the world's greatest detective, Arias knew that Batman had limits to the information he had.
Such as information about soone with a greater communications network than him, Vandal Savage for example. According to the knowledge Arias gained from Lex—he knew that Vandal Savage and Darkseid had fought before and even co to a sort of treaty. Hence the Light giving away tahumans to Apokoliptians in exchange for their technology.
As it stood, Batman didn't even know who the mbers of the Light were. That was simply the power of nurous high figures working together with collective wealth, intelligence, resources, and connections.
As good as Batman was, he had been blind to all of that happening for years, sa with Superman and the cloning experints being done by both the Light and the U.S. governnt surrounding his DNA.
Arias simply took advantage of similar approaches, only he did so more boldly and thus left more of a trail for them to follow. They were now slowly catching on to how big of a threat he truly was.
Unfortunately, they now didn't have the ti to focus the investigation solely on him, as one after another, they kept uncovering deeper and more threatening rabbit holes.
Both Batman and Superman stood in mute silence as they looked over the Apokoliptian technology. Suddenly, Superman shifted and looked behind them. His super hearing caused him to turn due to sothing he had heard—Arias's voice, as he soon appeared in the hall with Kara hovering behind him, arms crossed, her expression clearly one of anger.
Batman also turned to look at Arias and observed his body language to see if it would reveal any reaction toward this. Arias instead simply glanced around and then looked at the devices scattered everywhere.
This was simply a front, as Arias, of course, knew everything that was happening. The present scene was simply the product of magic, constructed through the joint efforts of Enchantress and Tala. However, much of the tech present was in fact real, a diversion sourced from the Light and Lex's leftover resources.
"Hm? They all got away?" Arias suddenly asked, as if he had known they were there already here. Batman was about to question exactly that when Superman spoke first.
"You knew they were here?" Superman asked.
Arias nodded. "Of course. Let's just say they did sothing that caught my eye. However, it worked to my advantage, so I saw no reason to bother," Arias cryptically revealed, causing Batman to frown as he inwardly felt that Arias did in fact know sothing they did not.
Superman was also quick to reach this conclusion but couldn't help but feel angry. 'If we had known that there was an Apokoliptian presence here, then perhaps we would've prevented...'
It was easy to link the two events, though in actuality, they had no real correlation aside from acting as a deeper plot chanism for what Arias intended. "Did you ever think that if you had revealed that information, you could've saved lives?" Superman asked.
"I did," Arias surprisingly answered. "However, I would've equally lost more lives if I revealed the information. At the end of the day, it worked in my favor, with the only other option all but guaranteeing that I'd suffer imnse losses, and not only in the form of lives," Arias responded rather bluntly, words so harsh they made Superman tighten his fist in anger.
However, he made no move. He knew for a fact that Arias had asures against him and that there was no way he would appear sowhere where he wasn't confident in being, so he held himself back from acting on emotion.
Batman showed no such indication of anger and simply observed Arias as he spoke, now slowly trying to piece together what information he knew and how it related to everything present. That would, of course, require an in-depth investigation into the systems of the facility and the technology found. Arias knew this, and because of that, a distraction had been set.
At this ti, both Superman and Kara's ears seed to catch on to sothing, as both turned their heads in a certain direction, asking simultaneously, "Did you hear that?"
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