Chapter Text
Late night in Gotham, the night was murky, with his arm still recovering he was left stuck at home. Even whilst recovering Bruce can’t stay still, can’t stop whilst Gotham is under siege. Unfortunately, the only thing he can do is search online for whatever info he can get on Ark M. There was nothing on any repute website, so Bruce ended up deep into the dark web looking at conspiracy sites and forms. The info was unreliable and inconsistent, mainly just ramblings and made-up stories people used to make sense of a messed-up world.
Bruce was able to give up and call it a night when he stumbled upon a post about Lazrus Corps. The name was slightly familiar to Bruce. At first glance it was just another thread collecting random links trying to force whatever predetermined conspiracy the writer had already came to, but with greater inspection Bruce saw that this one was different. It was well written for one, the poster knew how to string their ideas together and make a narrative without loosing any of the facts. The links brought Bruce to a mix of public record, primary sources, and real photos (Bruce had seen too much slop A.I. used as proof). The post focused on the large-scale destruction of the company but never lost site of the plight of the individuals affected.
Bruce was thoroughly impressed; it was something he expected to read in the Gotham Gazette or Daily planet. He tried to find more about Lazarus, unfortunately he was quickly found himself back to the silly conspiracies about cults and aliens. With a bit of looking he did find other beautifully written pieces, it took Bruce no time at all to notice that they were all written by the same user, Lost-in-Space52. The only thing that kept him confused was why all these pieces were posted on this site; these were headline worthy pieces and yet they stayed on the very depths of the internet. Lost-in-Space52 had made post about Lazarus dealing across seven different countries. Bruce was scratching his head trying to figure out what they were.
An independent journalist would be selling this story, or at least posting on mainstream websites, if they’re a local they wouldn’t be able to get so many places, Bruce puzzled out the possibilities, a whistleblower. It was the only thing that made sense to him. It would explain why they didn’t go to the press if they were afraid of being tracked down. The theory still felt incomplete; he needed more information. He commented on one of the posts.
1<3BatZ: This is probably the best thing I read on here in years, good reporting. Got a question?
1<3BatZ: Do Lazarus operate in the US? Most your post are about their operations in South America.
Bruce cringed at his account name; he originally made the account back in his teen years. He never felt the need for a new one as he typically a lurker. Bruce starred back at his message knowing how much of a long shot this all was. It wasn’t like this could be easily linked to anything happening in Gotham and he’s not about to head halfway across the world to beat up a peace maker, no matter how much he wanted to. Still, if there was a chance this could help it would be worth knowing, and it wouldn’t stop him from being curious.
The reply came quicker than Bruce had expected.
Lost-in-Space52: Yes
Lost-in-Space52: Away from cities, less people to see them.
Bruce was a bit confused by their language; the post had been on a near professional level, but their comments felt too simple.
1<3BatZ: Any known locations Sources would also be nice.
Lost-in-Space52: Only 2 known
There was longer pause, Bruce was waiting nearly 10 minutes.
Lost-in-Space52: Smallville Kanas - small farms are being brought up in large quantities for the last 6 years to be replace with their own mega farms. Link, Link, Link
Lost-in-Space52: Nevada desert - Known to host their computer servers. Link, Link
Bruce was still noticing how Lost-in-Space writes, their language skills seemed inconsistent as they went from high to low to somewhere in between. He needs a lot of time to write, maybe a language barrier? He clicked on the links finding press reports, new article, and a single photo. It seemed to be of the Nevada compound. The photo stood out to Bruce as it didn’t seem to have any clear source. A reverse image search came up with nothing and the other link, an old puff piece showing off their growth, didn’t show any images of the place itself.
1<3BatZ: Where did you get that photo?
After 30 minutes of waiting Bruce gave up on getting a response tonight. The lack of answer did confirm to Bruce that the photo was either taken by Lost-in-Space52 in they got a hold on information they clearly were not supposed to have, but Bruce was still left with many questions.
Kal sat in his make shift shelter in his make shift shelter, a corrugated iron held up by two wooden and hanging cloth for privacy. Just one of many in the shanty town he finds himself in. Sol hacked into a private telephone line to connect Kal to the internet. With his suit and what was a broken tablet he scrolled across meaningless websites. Kal knew his random post won’t do anything, he could only post on some of the most hidden places online unless he wanted them to get deleted. And it didn’t help that it wasn’t worth risking cause most of the mainstream sites would track too much location details for Kal to even feel comfortable visiting.
To make matters worse it seemed that even the small audience on the site he was able to use still didn’t care. He guessed that his writing wasn’t up to earth standard. The limited number of replies he did get was mostly accusations of him lying or people trying to add random conspiracies to his reports. Sol had to explain how this planet had a misinformation problem, leading people to either believe everything or nothing at all.
So, when Kal finally saw someone complimenting his work it left him very eager to reply. On top of that the person seemed to be wanting to engage with him and not just argue or rant back at Kal. It was refreshing. Kal happily tapped away replying to ‘1<3BatZ’, it sometime took time get make his comments come out right, Sol had helped get the basic grasp of most languages, but he still found writing hard. And outside of writing post about Lazarus, he didn’t get many chances to practice writing in English. He would have loved to continue writing to BatZ all day, but when he started asking about the photo he had taken over Nevada he knew he had to stop. He forgot that it wasn’t public record, just a picture he had done once when looking into Lazarus. He couldn’t think of a good enough lie and Batz felt like the type of person who would have pressed him if given the chance. The risk was too high.
He instead went to look through 1<3BatZ’ profile. It had existed for just over ten years but was very sparse. Batz was more of a lurker on this site. Some comments here or there over the years, mainly showing interest in something and probing for more.
Kal knew it was wishful thinking, but Batz seemed like someone who actually cared about people. They often look for the bigger problem, tried their best to understand issues. They never seemed to jump to hasty conclusions but was willing to change their mind when presented with information and reasonable evidence. They were even willing to call people out on some of the more harmful conspiracies going around the site. He continued to read the profile before finally falling asleep thinking about what he was going to write next, hoping that 1<3BatZ might reply again.