Work Text:
10:00 AM
Somewhere in the Pacific
A black helicopter slowly descended over the tropical Chiropteran Archipelago. The helicopter, adorned with a white Wayne Enterprises logo, made a landing approach towards the largest of the islands. Coming in for its landing, it hovered over a helipad situated a few hundred feet from the shoreline. As it approached the ground, sand and leaves on the ground were pushed away by the force of the helicopter’s whirlwind blades.
The helicopter finally landed on the island. As its rotor powered down, its doors slid open. A young woman with orange hair stepped out from within the helicopter, shielding her eyes from the bright sun.
Barbara Gordon had been operating as Batgirl for years now. In her years working with Batman and Robin, she’d dealt with psychotic clowns, mob bosses, and femme fatales galore, and she’d specifically been trained to deal with any life-threatening situation. Even then, she’d mostly kept to Gotham, only occasionally taking trips beyond the city’s borders whenever one of Gotham’s rogues decided to join forces with Luthor in Metropolis, or melt the polar ice caps, or something equally absurd. Travelling this far from her home turf, by herself, was something she only tended to do as a civilian. Despite the picturesque scenery, however, she wasn’t here for a vacation.
Barbara stepped back inside the helicopter. She approached the cockpit, and tapped on a screen embedded in the dashboard. The screen lit up, displaying the message that had sent her out here in the first place.
Barbara,
Oceanic monitoring satellites have detected abnormally strong ocean currents in the waters surrounding the Chiropteran Archipelago. I have a suspicion that some of ours are involved. Contact me when you learn anything.
-Bruce
Barbara sighed. Not a lot of information to go off of. But then, it’s not like these kinds of missions ever came with clear answers from the start.
Turning around, she moved towards the back of the helicopter, where her equipment had been stored. A large, black plastic box was mounted on the helicopter’s interior wall. With a grunt, Barbara lifted the box off of the wall and carried it with her towards the door.
Barbara carried the box with her down the beach and towards a nearby wooden dock, having only minor troubles getting it through the door. Setting the box down on the dock, she undid the clasps keeping the box shut, and opened the box to evaluate the equipment she’d brought on this mission. She checked each present item off of her mental checklist. Scuba tank, regulator, diving mask, wetsuit, flippers… everything looked present and accounted for. She pulled the wetsuit out of the box and examined it. It was a dark purple, and was exactly her size. Might as well start here, she thought.
Barbara began unbuttoning her shirt, revealing a purple one-piece swimsuit underneath. After all, purple really was her color, and besides, ocean water is cold as hell. She would need to layer up to withstand it. She tossed aside her shirt and undid her belt, letting her jeans fall to the ground, leaving her in only her swimsuit.
Putting on the wetsuit without much issue, she looked herself over, and mentally thanked the gods that none of her gear was bat-themed. Bat imagery may scare Gotham thugs well enough, but it would rather stand out on an underwater reconnaissance mission. She reached down, and pulled a weight belt out of the box. It had a bit of heft to it. If she had to guess, it had to be fifteen, maybe twenty pounds? More than enough to keep her under, and to keep her from being thrown around too much if she were to get into an underwater fight. She wrapped the belt around her waist.
Barbara inspected the scuba tank and regulator. Judging by the air gauge, and the heft of the tank, the tank was full, and had enough air to last a few hours. She placed the regulator in her mouth, and took a few experimental breaths from the tank: it worked without a hitch. Removing the regulator from her mouth, Barbara smiled. Even thousands of miles from Gotham, this was effectively a routine mission.
Barbara slipped her feet into the flippers, and stretched the diving mask over her face. She finally hoisted the scuba tank up onto her back, and slipped her arms into the harness. Anyone else would have to take a moment to adjust to the tightness of the diving mask on their face, and the shift in center of balance caused by the tank, but Barbara had been scuba diving in and around Gotham before. In her mind, she was more than prepared for this.
Barbara sat down at the end of the dock, looking over the calm water. From what she could tell, the water right below her was about a dozen feet deep. Barbara closed her eyes and took a breath in, then exhaled. Her last breath of fresh, non-pressurized air before her dive. She placed the scuba regulator back in her mouth, leaned forward, and splashed down into the ocean.
The roar of ocean water filled Barbara’s ears. She righted herself, and stared out into the open ocean. The sight was breathtaking: the sunlight diffracted against the waves above, creating a picturesque scene of dappled light texturing the sea. The sandy seafloor was littered with algae-covered rocks, and deeper into the sea, a rainbow of coral reefs. Even the laser-focused Barbara Gordon couldn’t help but be awed by the sight. Putting the perfect scene in the back of her mind for now, she looked down at her regulator. She was still receiving air just fine, and bubbles spewed from the regulator with every exhale. All systems go, she mentally noted. Barbara looked down to her wrist. A miniature, top of the line computer was giving readouts of the water’s temperature and her depth.
Barbara began swimming, pushing through the water with her arms while kicking through the water with simultaneous power and grace. Her flippers curved in the water with mermaid-like smoothness. Her orange hair, tied in a ponytail, flowed behind her head. Her eyes slowly scanned her surroundings, keeping her mind alert for any signs of unusual activity. If she so much as felt one of these unusual currents, she would know immediately.
Barbara swam silently through the water. Nothing but the occasional schools of fish, and the bubbles billowing from her regulator to break the silence and monotony of her swim. For minutes on end, she swam farther and deeper into the water, her eyes sweeping back and forth, searching for whatever it was that necessitated her dive.
Eventually, she came to a drop-off in the sea. From where she was, she was about twenty or thirty feet deep. This steep underwater cliff went down for a couple hundred feet at least. At the bottom, Barbara could make out rock formations. Caves. If there were anywhere a hidden nefarious plot might be unfolding…
Barbara checked her air gauge. Still firmly in the green. With confidence, she flipped herself upside-down, and started the swim downwards.
As Barbara swam, she began to feel the water pressure increase. It was nothing she couldn’t handle, of course, but it did feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. Around a hundred feet deep, the light from the sun began to fade, almost as if twilight were descending over the sea. Finally reaching the bottom of the cliff, Barbara looked up. She could barely see the surface from here. The sunlight at this depth looked more like moonlight. Barbara could still see easily, though. Years of night patrols had done wonders in that regard. At this depth, it almost felt like she could walk along the seafloor.
Regardless, she kept swimming. Looking around, Barbara could see several large cave entrances scattered around the seafloor. As she swam, she kept her eyes and ears open… and felt herself beginning to drift.
It was a slow drift, at first. She felt herself veering slightly to the left, and she wondered if some of the equipment on her back had shifted somehow. But then the water started moving. From behind her, the water began picking up speed. Her ponytail was pushed forward and onto the side of her head. Barbara glanced to her left, and saw where this current was taking her: a large cave that, from here, looked to descend even further from the surface.
This definitely isn’t natural, Barbara thought. Rather than try to fight the current, she relaxed her muscles. She had a feeling that being drawn into this cave system would lead her to whatever it was she was looking for.
As Barbara was pulled into the cave, what little light remained from the sun faded entirely. She was moving in pitch blackness, but only for a moment before a pair of lights embedded into her goggles switched on automatically. She was pulled deeper into the cave, with only walls of rock to look at. There was no real telling how far below the water’s surface she was now.
Before a particularly sharp turn in the cave system, the current suddenly gave out. Barbara was now hurtling towards a wall of rock with only a split second to react. Barbara’s mind raced at supersonic speed. She couldn’t avoid the collision. All she could do was mitigate the damage. She squeezed her eyes shut, rolled to her side, and slammed into the cave wall, holding her arm in front of her to shield herself. The force hit like a truck. It took everything she had not to cry out in pain.
Barbara opened her eyes and pushed herself away from the wall. She winced. The pain in her arm and side throbbed. She felt around her injuries a bit, squeezing and checking for broken bones. As far as she could tell, nothing was broken, maybe a fractured rib? But she could walk, or rather, swim it off. She’d suffered far worse injuries in her day, anyways. More concerningly to Barbara was that her dive computer had broken from the impact. Damn it, she mentally cursed. It wasn’t the biggest loss, but it was a bit frustrating to have to continue the mission without those readouts.
Barbara restarted her journey deeper into the cave, tragically unaware of a silent but steady flow of air bubbles from the back of her tank…
The minutes ticked by, and Barbara was seemingly no closer to finding any leads. Not to mention, down in this cave, every twist and turn looked the exact same. On the plus side, that would make any abnormalities very obvious. On the other, she ran the risk of getting lost down here. Not a large risk, but a risk nonetheless.
Barbara cautiously navigated each of the cave’s twists and turns. Eventually, she saw a soft blue glow emanating from around the corner. She rounded the corner, moving slowly just in case of any hostiles.
She swam into a large, dome-shaped opening in the cave. The blue glow was emanating from a large, cylindrical machine, easily fifteen feet in height. Water continuously flowed in circles around the machine. Bingo. Barbara had found exactly what she was looking for. What exactly this machine’s purpose was, she could figure it out later. Right now, her priorities were to document whatever this machine was, search for a method of disabling it, and report back to Bruce.
She swam with the flow of the water, observing the machine from every angle she could. It didn’t look like it had any exposed screens or wires, or anything she could use to disable it short of violently scrapping it. She’d have to get closer.
Taking care not to let the current drag her, Barbara swam closer to the machine and ran her hands across its surface. Thankfully, whomever had set this up decided against electrifying its surface. She came across what looked like a panel hiding the machine’s power source: however, it was screwed tightly shut, and she didn’t have a screwdriver with her. Of all the things not to bring on this dive…
Barbara shook her head, pushing her frustrations to the back of her mind. Nothing to do but resurface and report, then. Barbara turned away from the machine, and pushed off of it with her legs. Out of habit, she checked her air gauge. With the time she’d spent down here, there should be a little over three-quarters left in the tank…
HUH?!?
Barbara’s eyes widened in shock. According to her air gauge, the tank was less than half-full! But that’s impossible! She hasn’t been diving nearly long enough for that! Unless…
Come to think of it… my tank has been feeling a bit heavier… but the only way for that to be possible…
Barbara’s heart rate spiked. She flipped onto her back and held her breath. If she was right about this, then the only bubbles should be coming from… her back.
Her suspicions were confirmed immediately. A stream of bubbles continuously flowed from the tank on her back, and upwards past her face, collecting on the cave chamber’s ceiling. Barbara exhaled, letting bubbles flow from her regulator once again. Okay, don’t panic, Barbara thought to herself, flipping back upright. She looked at her air gauge again. The needle had moved again. Not by much, but far faster than it should have been moving. Judging by the speed of the needle, I’ve got about five minutes of air left. New plan: get out of this cave, ditch the tank, and resurface as quickly as I safely can. Barbara was confident in her ability to hold her breath long enough to make the ascent, she just needed to get out of the cave first. Without a moment to lose, she torpedoed herself through the water, making a beeline for the cave entrance.
Damn it, Barbara thought. Getting caught in those currents had disoriented her worse than she’d thought. There were a few moments where she’d had to second-guess her judgment in deciding which path to take to exit the cave. She couldn’t afford any slip-ups. By her mental math, at her top swim speed and without any mistakes, it would take her exactly five minutes to reach the cave’s entrance. She tried her best to keep her heart rate steady. Getting panicked or stressed would just use up what remained of her air sooner.
She rounded each corner with speed and precision. Half-guessing her path was working out for her so far, but she would need to do better than half-guessing, or her luck would run out eventually.
As she swam, small pieces of glass and plastic glinted on the cave floor. This was where she’d been smashed into the wall earlier. Barbara mentally sighed in relief. She was definitely making progress, and more importantly, she hadn’t gotten lost yet.
Barbara began swimming up an incline. This was much slower than being carried by the current. She almost wished that the current could start up again, and spit her back out of the cave. Unfortunately for her, her wish was about to half-come true…
Barbara, at this point, was almost singularly focused on her goal. What exactly she’d found down was of no concern to her by now. All that mattered was resurfacing as quickly as… was she slowing down?
…oh, no.
Barbara wasn’t putting any less effort into her swimming, but she realized immediately what was happening.
No. No, no! Shit!
It was that damn machine! It had started up again, and it was slowly pulling her back down into the cave! Why?! Barbara screamed inside her head. What was the point of even pulling something like this off?! When she made it out of this, she was going to make putting an end to this her top priority.
After some time, the current slowed down again, and came to a halt. Barbara looked down to the cave floor, and there it was again. Those broken bits of glass and plastic. She’d just lost so much time and progress! That could have been the difference between life and death!
Barbara’s frustration boiled over. She let out a massive gurgled scream through her regulator. Massive clouds of bubbles danced up to the cave ceiling. She started swimming again, much faster in order to try and make up for lost time. She grabbed her air gauge and stared at it. Nearly empty.
By her estimation, she was about thirty seconds behind where she should have been. The air from the tank was getting harder to breathe. She couldn’t afford to keep replying on it. It was do or die time. Barbara took the deepest breath she could, and pulled the regulator from her mouth. From there, she rounded one more corner, and there it was! The cave entrance!
Stopping just outside the cave entrance, Barbara looked up towards the surface. How far was it? A hundred feet, a hundred and fifty? It didn’t matter, she could make that distance, so long as she shed all this weight she was carrying.
Barbara started fidgeting with the straps on her chest, loosening them somewhat. She rolled her shoulders a few times, slowly pushing the tank off of her back. The tank finally fell from her back, and sank to the seafloor, hitting the ground with a soft thud. A small cloud of sand was kicked up from the impact.
By now, Barbara had been holding her breath for about a minute and a half. She pushed off the seafloor and began to ascend to the surface… only for her ascent to come to an unexpected halt only a few dozen feet above the seafloor. As she began sinking again, Barbara found herself unexpectedly panicking slightly. Why isn’t she rising? Barbara pondered this as she touched down on the seafloor. Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized…
The weight belt!
How could she have been so stupid? She still had something weighing her down! And combined with the sheer depth, she was effectively negatively buoyant! Damn it! Am I really going to drown down here-
Barbara’s panicked train of thought suddenly stopped as she had an idea. It was a long shot, but it might be her only way out of this. She’d have to climb the underwater cliffside. The cliffside itself was at least a hundred feet in height, and she’d only have a couple of minutes before her lungs gave out. Still, it was a better idea than giving up and drowning. Barbara steeled herself for what might be the most challenging few minutes of her life.
Barbara leapt towards the imposing rock wall. She grabbed onto it, and clung on for dear life, as precious air bubbles slipped through her lips. That was the easy part. It was only going to get more difficult from here…
The process was painfully slow-going. Barbara pushed herself up, propelling herself through the water slightly, and grabbing any outcropping in the cliff face she could find before she sank back down again. Doing this, she gained about four or five feet with each leap. If she weren’t still wearing her flippers, she could maybe gain some footholds and make better leaps. She tried pressing her flippers against the wall to pull her feet out of them, but she had no luck. If she tried to take them off, she would lose too much time. She had no choice but to make do in these unideal circumstances.
As Barbara leapt, and reached for another outcropping in the rock, her chest heaved. Bubbles forced themselves from her pursed lips, and the shock nearly caused her to miss her target and sink. Barbara had to fight the urge to slap a hand over her mouth. Doing so would only slow down her progress. Her expression became strained, and a blue blush began forming on her face. This is bad. It’s only been about three minutes since my last breath…
She kept up her climb as best she could. With each passing second, it became increasingly difficult to keep her remaining her in her lungs. From her estimation, she was about halfway up the cliff face. As she was about to leap, another convulsion struck. A massive one.
Barbara coughed up a huge cloud of bubbles, and before she could stop herself, sucked down a bit of water. Her eyes widened in fear as she realized what just happened. Oh no.
The salty water stung her throat, and splashed down into her lungs. It wasn’t much water, but it was enough to make the otherwise well-trained crimefighter recoil in pain. She lost her grip, and sank back down the side of the cliff. She instinctively tried to cough the water back out, and through sheer force of will, stopped herself from inhaling again. Her mind, now running in about ten different directions, tried its best to analyze the situation. Water’s beginning to pool in my lungs. I’m almost out of air, and I’ve just lost about fifteen feet of progress. There was only one conclusion that Barbara Gordon could come to…
This was the end for her. She was going to drown, with no one to save her. Fear was a natural instinct, one that Barbara had spent years training herself to suppress. And yet, here and now, she could feel fear bubbling up inside of her. Barbara’s entire body trembled from the lack of air, and from the shock of water in her lungs. With all the strength she had left, she gripped the cliff face, determined to see this through to the end. She was Batgirl! Bruce Wayne’s protégé! And she wasn’t going to go down without a fight!
Barbara leapt up through the water one more time. Her movements were fierce, feral, a beast fighting for survival. Despite everything, her years of training, her peak physical and mental fitness, however… it just wasn’t enough. The odds of her resurfacing- hell, her odds of even scaling this wall- were zero percent. And she knew it. Her chest and stomach convulsed with increasing frequency, forcing her to expel the remainder of her stale air. For a moment, she stared up in silence, at the surface, at air that would remain out of her reach. It would feel so good to breathe air again. But it seems that it wasn’t meant to be.
Barbara’s biological need to breathe finally overcame her willpower. She inhaled, sending what felt like gallons of water racing down her throat and into her lungs. She doubled over in pain, letting go of the cliff face. This time, she wouldn’t have it in her to make another attempt. She repeatedly slapped her broken dive computer, as if by some miracle, it would send out a distress signal, and someone, anyone, would come to her rescue.
Barbara could feel her lungs getting heavier as they filled with water. With each breath of water, Barbara hiccupped and gurgled pathetically. Her buoyancy only got worse as she continued to breathe the liquid. The blue blush on her face deepened as she sank back down to the seafloor.
So… that’s it, then… Bruce… Dick… I’m sorry…
Barbara’s breathing reached an equilibrium as her lungs filled to the top with water. As she laid motionless on the seafloor, she stared, blankly this time, at the surface. From here, she could barely see the dappled light of the sun. What she wouldn’t give to feel that light on her face again.
So… beautiful… Barbara thought as she began to black out. Her mind got hazy, her thoughts no longer concerned with things like breathing, or reconnaissance missions, or vigilante justice. All her slowing mind could think about was how beautiful the ocean was.
Barbara Gordon’s eyes closed, and with time, so too did her breathing come to a halt. Her orange hair gently flowed in the deep ocean water as her body laid still. Claimed by the ocean, her crimefighting days had come to an end.
END