Totally Brave and Bold

Chapter 4

Gotham City- Batcave

Underneath Wayne Manor, a black portal appeared in the cavernous area near the expansive Batcomputer. The spies stepped through it, followed by Batman. He pressed a yellow button on the Oscillator, and the portal vanished.

A strong-looking brown German Shepherd wearing a dark cowl with white eye holes and bat ears, similar to Batman's, trotted towards the group, sniffing the air curiously. Batman leaned forward to pat his head affectionately.

"Hey, Ace," he said to the dog. "It's okay, they're with me."

Sam and Clover smiled at the unusually-garbed pet, while Alex crouched down and held out her hand for him to sniff. She looked to Batman questioningly, who nodded an approval.

"Good boy," Alex said cheerfully. Then she looked to Batman, "We've got a pet too; a cute pig."

Batman looked at her for a moment with an unreadable expression, then crossed the white ceramic square-tiled floor in the circular work area. His computer workstation curved inwards, forming a semicircular shape. The keyboard had large, colorful buttons, and many large monitors were set into an enormous black bat with red trim.

He eased into his tall red chair with pointy bat ears and tapped a few jumbo-sized orange keys. Ace padded along dutifully after his master and eased down to the side of the chair to rest.

The spies slowly followed, eyes wide and mouths slightly agape. To the far right of the computer, a set of orange panels shaped into a somewhat cylindrical shape grew wider as it reached towards the ceiling. Brown striated stalactites covered the ceiling, and a few stalagmites grew up from the floor, inset with mysterious lime green lights.

"Whoa," Alex said, followed by sounds of assent from the other two.

Clover noticed a huge black car with a design of wild curves and red trim, topped with two blue glass cockpits, and a jet engine in the back. A batwing-like vertical racing fin shot up from the rear of the vehicle. The headlights resembled the white eye holes of Batman's cowl.

Alex marveled at the Hall of Trophies: a green T-Rex, made to scale, a massive penny, held in place by a sturdy base and perched on one of two large archways, and an eerie oversized Joker playing card suspended by cables.

Sam continued to follow Batman to his computer, and noticed a long row of bars along the wall off to the side wall that made up a small prison. Metal stairs with red railings soared up to a catwalk above.

"Mind putting this on that scanner?" Batman's deep voice queried. "Then just push the green button."

Sam blinked to refocus and saw Batman holding the Phase Oscillator towards her with one hand. With the other hand, he pointed to a small machine off to the left and opposite of the computer.

"Sure," she replied.

She grabbed it and walked towards the photocopier-sized device, set the gadget on the scanner bed, and pressed the button. White light enveloped the Oscillator, then faded away.

At his computer, Batman observed the data transferred from it to his monitor. He nodded, typed a bit, and swiveled in his chair to look to the others. Sam carefully picked up the Oscillator and walked back to join him, followed by Clover.

"Didn't want to distract you while you were working," said Clover with a slight smile. "Nice, ah-- man cave you have here."

She clasped her hands behind her and stood next to Sam. Batman smirked in response.

"We do the same thing on missions when we get a clue," Alex said, joining them a moment later. "But we usually send it to WOOHP for analysis."

Batman cleared his throat, and gestured to the screen. The spies smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, got a little chatty," Alex said, fidgeting with hands and dipping her head a bit.

"Not a problem," Batman replied. "We've got a trace on Owlman's Oscillator signature."

"Sir, I-- oh my," an older man's voice with a British accent interjected.

Everyone turned to see a man in black suit with an open jacket framing a white shirt, and black bow tie. He had a thin moustache and black hair, though it was balding with a few hairs in a comb over.

"I wasn't expecting visitors," the man said as he approached. A pair of steel-grey elevator doors closed behind him.

"Girls, this is Alfred," Batman said with a gesture to the man. "Alfred, they're from an earth without superheroes. We're working together to stop Owlman."

"I see," Alfred replied, white gloved hands folded before him.. "May I offer you ladies drinks or refreshments?"

"No time, thanks," Sam replied, blinking in surprise at the man.

Alex stood before Alfred in thought. "You wouldn't be related to someone named Jerry would you?"

Alfred smiled politely and gave a short shake of his head. "Can't say that I am."

"Well, we work for a guy who looks and sounds a lot like you," Clover said looked at him closely. "Except no gloves and a regular tie."

Alfred looked to her questioningly until Batman rose from his chair.

"Back to the matter at hand..."

All eyes shifted to him, and the girls looked a bit sheepish.

He held his hand out to Sam. She glanced down at the Oscillator she held, smiled, and handed it to him.

"He's back on his own Earth," Batman said.

The girls' eyes widened and their mouths shrank to thin lines. Sam and Clover quickly composed themselves, and Alex adopted an overly-casual expression, arms folded.

"Oh sure. We have our own rooms at our place," she said knowingly with a nod. "This guy has his own Earth," she added with a wave of her hand.

Batman looked from her to the Oscillator and pressed a few buttons.

"Owlman's Earth is like any other, except the heroes on this Earth are villains over there, and vice versa," Batman said, and pushed one more button to cause a portal to appear. "We'll have to be ready for him gathering reinforcements. And he may be searching for a way to upgrade his Oscillator to eliminate other Earths besides yours."

The spies looked from him in stunned silence to each other. Sam tensed in reaction, a fierce expression on her face.

"Then we need to hurry!"

Batman, Alfred, Alex, and Clover looked to Sam in agreement, faces set in determination.

A/N: Thanks for all of the support so far. Lots of fun inline comments over at Wattpad as well. Very talented writer and great supporter, theinkslingrr, requested Alfred, so I put him in. Batman: The Brave and the Bold has a great soundtrack on YouTube you can listen to while reading if you choose. :) I'm going to move up to two chapters week at this point!