Yongye smiled, looking perfectly at ease.
"If I can give Natasha Mjolnir, I can certainly transform you too."
He reached into the void with his right hand and closed his fingers.
A blinding golden light burst from his palm as he pulled the Golden Cloth out of System Space. Its radiance lit the entire living room like daylight.
Selina's pupils contracted sharply in the golden light. The divine pressure pouring from the Cloth forced her half a step back, until her spine pressed against the bathroom's glass door.
Yongye held out his hand to her.
"Come on. I'll take you somewhere."
Selina hesitated for less than half a second.
She reached out and took the hand that still held a trace of golden warmth.
The Golden Cloth settled over Yongye, and its radiance flared, enveloping them both. A square dimensional portal opened silently in the center of the living room. Threadlike golden patterns churned within it, while dark folds of space lined its edges.
Yongye put an arm around Selina's waist and stepped through.
The portal closed, and silence returned to the living room. Only the gramophone's horn went on working soundlessly, carrying the last traces of sound through the air to Gotham's sewers thousands of miles away.
Gotham, deep within an abandoned main sewer line.
Batman's earpiece fell completely silent.
He leaned against the damp pipe wall, his mouth slightly open beneath his mask, his face taut as a sheet of steel battered flat. His clenched fist slowly loosened at his side, and he let out a low sigh.
Selina's voice was gone.
Yongye's voice was gone too.
But he knew the two of them had simply gone somewhere else—somewhere he could neither bug, track, nor reach.
And the thing he feared most had happened.
Selina was going to