JL Finale 15: Strange Revelations

As soon as Bruce was in the air he contacted Julia.

“Oh Bruce.. er, Batman. I'm glad to hear from you.”

“It's okay Julia, you can call me Bruce.”

“Okay Bruce. The machine is ready and tested. The positronic brain is fully prepped and ready and the machine is in good shape. There should be plenty of power from the power plant here and the locals should only experience a minor brownout or at worse a few minutes of blackout.”

“Excellent! How did you test it?”

There was silence for a moment then Julia said, “I think that will be easier to explain when you get back here.” Then. “Oh! Everyone's here!” Bruce could hear Julia greeting his comrades as they came in. “I'm sorry. You still there Bruce?”

“Yes, I'm here. J'onn said you had some info on the mechs that might be useful. What does that mean?”

“Well, I was hoping to get to you before the fight started or you encountered them, but I guess it was too late, so in the end it may not matter.” Julia said.

“Everything matters. You know they are on the loose.” Bruce countered.

“Yeah, that's not good, but they may have another vulnerability we did not realize.”

“Explain.” Bruce said.

“Well, when we moved everything to this location I came across one of Dr. Bryce's older laptops, from the time she was working on Tank, Angel, Ripper and Reaper. It seems she did not have a fully functioning mind transfer machine yet. There is also the finished plan for the positronic brain, but it seemed incapable of holding an organic mind or spirit/soul or whatever you want to call it. I also have the plans for the next version of the brain and those issues are addressed. But, that was after she had already created the first four mechs.”

“So, what you are saying is that all the mech's are machines? How could they have such detailed personalities, memories and emotions?”

“Because they are cyborgs. Dr. Bryce led Angel, Ripper and Reaper believe they were full mech's, when in fact she had transferred their brains and full spinal columns to cybernetic machines. Her initial “emotion fluid” is actually a nutrient rich substitute to keep the brain and nervous system alive and active. I mean, really, it's a whole 'nother level of genius in itself. She must have wanted then to believe they had now free will at all.”

“Fascinating.” Was all Bruce could muster at the moment. Then he remembered Reaper in the back of his ship. “Julia I have to go, but I'll get right back to you soon. Get Diana ready.”

“Will do. You will probably be here by the time everything's ready.”

“Good, I wouldn't want to miss it.”

Bruce left the craft on auto and went to the back. He saw that more of the black fluid had leaked from Reaper. Drawing from his multitude of tools he sealed up everywhere he could find a leak. He realized that if Reaper's brain was not already dead, it surely would be without the sustaining fluid. With great effort he propped the mech's torso and head into an upright position and made things as stable as possible. This was all quite remarkable. He did not wish to exact death on anyone, but Reaper was among the most ruthless beings he has encountered. If his brain no longer functioned, then so be it. But to the information that could be gained from this work was immeasurable. He sighed as he pondered the genius of Dr. Lavinia Bryce, AKA Dr. Cyber, AKA Scorn, and thought of how much of a waste her work went to ego and destruction. But then he was glad there were people like Julia too.

In another hour Bruce was landing at the hydro dam. He was greeted with a much better healed Jason Todd and bubbly Julia. Diana was his first priority, but when he got inside he had J'onn bring in Reaper while he talked with Julia.

“Show me what you've got.” Bruce said. This section of the hydro plant had been made secure in the last twenty four hours and only people that new him were allowed in the vicinity, so masks were not required. Julia led him to the machines and Vic was already at an open panel making adjustments. The familiar table and ring were there and Diana's body was already in place. A modification had been made to the table converting to a cryo tube. When Dr. Bryce's mind was removed from Diana's body they needed something to perserve and secure Diana's body until her spirit could be returned. It's likely that her body might never decay, but no one knew what might happen to the body lacking a spirit. Bruce would take no chances. A mild sedative was used to keep Dr. Bryce under, but she would have to be awake for the process. Likely she would resist.

Julia spoke up. “Normally resistance to the process could potentially foul it up, but if we keep Dr. Bryce's mind aware but a bit groggy there should be no issue. Besides, this is not her original body and that will further allow an extraction of her consciousness and transferral to the positronic brain.”

The cyber brain was right next to Diana's head and was in a large bell jar filled with cloudy and oily looking fluid. Cables and wires were attached and even a monitor was there with a small speaker visible underneath.

Bruce asked. “I'll assume this allows us to communicate with whoever is in the brain?”

“You got it!” Julia exclaimed.

“How did you test this? And by the way, where's Hespira?”

“Ahh.” Julia paused and she looked at the floor. “Hespria did not make it. Her body could no longer function, so she volunteered to test the machine.”

“You mean she's in there now?!” Bruce exclaimed.

“Well..no.”

“I'm here.” Julia said, but it was not quite Julia.

“Woah. What's going on?” Bruce said.

“It's me, Hespira. I'm in Julia now.”

Bruce slapped his forehead with his hand and drew it down over his face in incredulity.

Continued...