about a giant bat monster What could it mean he thought Everyone knew there were large bats in the rainforest but not one large enough to be considered a monster Have you ever heard of a bat-like monster in Brazil Bruce asked Ms Pantozzi Nope Just the one in Gotham City she said with a smirk And Batman’s not even really a monster Take good notes for me Bruce said I’m going to talk to the protesters Ms Panzotti nodded Bruce slid out through the audience and exited through the back door of the auditorium Outside security personnel and police officers were loading the protesters into police cars Scanning the crowd Bruce noticed that the woman who cried out about the bat monster wasn’t among them Bruce walked past a protester being led to the police van by an officer I’m looking for one of
the protesters Bruce told the policeman The woman who talked about the bat monster The officer shrugged You mean Erica an arrested protester asked She escaped into the rainforest You’ll never be able to find her now Lately it’s like people just disappear in there Do you know about the so-called bat monster Bruce asked the protester Yeah of course But why should I tell you the protester snarled All you want to do is destroy the rainforest I can help Bruce said But only if you let me The protester’s expression softened a little Bruce could tell the man wanted to believe him The bat monster first showed up a few weeks ago the protester admitted Right after the big construction project started in our village in the rainforest At first it would appear out of the shadows then some of the construction workers would disappear We guessed they were taken by
the bat monster But then it started taking random men from our village Erica’s husband was one of the ones who disappeared The police officer started pushing the protester into the van None of this would have happened if people like you hadn’t decided to destroy the rainforest with your terrible construction projects the protester said People are disappearing and so is the rainforest And despite all your money people like you can’t help with any of it The police officer shut the door on the van A moment later the van carrying the protesters was gone Bruce stared into the rainforest The protester was probably right Bruce Wayne probably wouldn’t be able to help But Batman could
CHAPTER 2 BATS Erica moved quickly through the rainforest toward her village It was the middle of the day but the trees were so large and full that it was nearly as dark as night She was glad she hadn’t gotten arrested with the other protesters especially since she hadn’t actually been protesting like them She was just desperate to find her husband Godofredo and had been looking for help As a little girl Erica had heard the legends of the bat monsters They were supposedly human sized bats that would terrorize villages to protect their own homes in the rainforest The bat monsters stole villagers one by one until everyone had disappeared Then they would
