Chapter 1: Chaos Erupts
Disclaimer: Own NADA!
Revised 8/2/2016
It was quiet.
Now it wasn't the type of silence that people could lean back and relax. It was the type of silence that made you hold your breathe, the same silence that made your eyes dart continuously around the room in search of the problem. Hoping that you could get rid of it and cure it so that stupid sacred silence could leave.
Normally you found a way to rid the silence, maybe with a light-hearted joke or just a simple conversation.
This Silence couldn't be lifted.
It's even more disturbing with the fact that a place like this, never got this amount of silence. A tower filled with rambunctious and sometimes obnoxious superheroes, could never be this silent.
But it was.
To be fair, it wasn't exactly for no reason. A single person was the cause of everything going wrong. Yet he was the only one who could really get a whole tower to stay silent.
Every hero and superhero was there, friends and stalkers sitting or standing around one place to look at what had happened and what was the problem.
Most couldn't believe their eyes.
A young boy lay on a bed in the medical Bay, the other beds and equipment pushed aside so there was room for friends to watch over him.
Many of the heroes tried to ask questions, wondering if questioning what was going on and who the kid was would help quench their curiosity.
Their answers stopped questions alright, in fact their answers made most of them go pale with worry.
"So what happened Hawkgirl?" A man with a green aura asked the winged woman beside him.
Said woman was in a yellow and black jumpsuit, her stomach and arms were showing as a Mace lay beside her feet. She had her hands on her face, her fingers spread apart lightly so she could at least see.
"I don't know." She whispered hoarsely finally looking up to glare at the man. "I don't know what the HELL Happened! One moment I'm fighting some random grunt, I turn to see Bats and Morgan gone. I see a Flash and hear a cry for help on my right and once I get their Bats is like THIS!"
The man rubbed his temple with a grunt.
"Shayera people don't just turn into kids."
"Well don't ask me!" She roared. "I Have NO clue what happened and he is the only one who does John!"
The silence resumed.
This is what happened, their strongest non Meta human was now lying unconscious on a bed. Most of them were surprised to hear that he had actually called for help, but considering his condition they knew a little too well why he did.
But with every passing second it was starting to be worrying. He hadn't moved an inch since he was laid upon that bed, no unconscious turning, and no snores. It took them over five minutes to realize, yes he was breathing.
"How long has he been out' Diana muttered with worry.
Her bright baby blue eyes scanned the room in worry, trying desperately to keep her eyes away from the motionless body on the bed. But when that body was the center of her stress and worry, it was much too difficult to even think of averting her eyes.
"About two hours Di." Flash stated.
He himself was having an attack of a lifetime. His heart was beating faster than normal, his hands twitched so much it looked as if they had never moved. His heart clenched with worry and fear, wondering what in the world happened for someone like Batman to deserve punishment of this kind.
They all stared and watched in the dreary silence to see if the Bat would ever move, every time they laid a hand on him his body felt as if it were dry ice. Cold but still burning your hand if you left it there too long. His body was pale, and the only reassurance they had was the heart beat monitor, and the breathing masks that fogged up every few seconds.
It was terrifying to see the strong man they knew look so frail.
He should never be this way, he shouldn't be unconscious. They SHOULDN'T be afraid.
But it seemed that today flipped everyone's perspective.
Everyone held their breath as the Heart beat monitor slowed down, ready to get something to shock his heart back into a regular beating motion.
To everyone's surprise it jolted upwards rapidly, the sound causing everyone to scramble and throw their chairs back in excitement.
J'ohnn struggled, pushing everyone away, before he was hovering over the boy with worry etched on his face. He had been the one to take the man's mask off in order to connect the breathing mask on his small face. For a second he was worried that Batman was having an attack of sorts until eyes began to flutter open.
If this wasn't a dire situation, he was sure people would comment on how girly the boy looked.
"J-J'ohnn?" Bats whispered hoarsely, his voice cracked and dry as if he had been screaming for hours on end.
His struggle to speak ended in a psychotic struggle to breathe, coughing heavily to try and rid whatever was murdering his throat.
"Batman," J'ohnn hesitated looking around at the group of heroes. "Are…Are you alright?"
The boy waved a gloved hand dismissively in the air, his voice going sarcastic in a matter of seconds.
"Fine, fine." He ground out as Superman handed him a glass of water. "You know I just LOVE when I'm turned into a kid because of Magic." He gulped down the water. "It's just fucking PERFECT!"
With that he crushed the glass within his grip, his arms shaking with unperturbed anger. Everyone flinched back, some even gasped in surprise.
"You remember?" Superman asked.
"Of course Boy-scout." Bats ground out angrily, absently wiping his now bloody glove on the white sheets. "It's not like I wasn't THERE when it happened!"
Superman scowled. "Than what happened, you had us worrying for two hours!"
"I don't recall asking for sympathy Superman." Batman snapped. "As for what happened, she cast a spell that's it!"
"Morgan?" Green Lantern asked rather surprised.
"Who else?"
"Why though?" Diana asked. "The Last we saw of her she was dealing with an aged Mordred."
Bats sighed, looking at her with hollow and dead blue eyes.
"That was the main reason she returned, I assume she was tired of treating an old man as she was mostly complaining about his lack of social skills." He began to hiss angrily a dark look shadowing his face. "She NEEDED her little boy back! Despite knowing the complications we did and that she had agreed to our plan in the first place of tricking him, she had pinned all the blame on me."
"That doesn't give her a reason to lash out on you like that!" Shayera called back at him.
"Not unless her sweet little boy said he hated my entire existence." Batman scowled. "It's even worse for me because I changed her once happy-go-lucky and arrogant man into a shriveling old coot who can't even say a sentence anymore. And it just so happened the first sentence he says in months is how much he HATED me." He laughed, a sarcastic and empty laugh that sent shivers down their spines. "I hated being a kid, and that's literally the only thing she remembered. She was angry, she chanted…something and boom I'm a kid. I panicked for a bit before I fell unconscious."
"What was that something?" One random leaguer asked. 'Was it in English?"
Bats rolled his eyes, but nodded nonetheless.
"Yeah I just," He scrunched his face in anger, his eyes wide and pupils dilated as he struggled to remember. "CAN'T!"
Diana winced as he brutally started to rip the sheets apart, she could hear a faint ripping and laid a hand on his shoulder. He glared at her. Know she had the sudden urge to hug him until his dark anger would finally go away. He'd probably hate her for doing that.
Then he paused and looked up.
"Darkness, Memory." He muttered letting the bloodied white sheets fall from his grasp. "I remember that."
J'ohnn nodded, that was something he could work with.
"Wait can't the other Magic users just try to...You know?" Booster struggled to finish his sentence. "Fix it?"
Bats swiveled his head to Zatanna and Etrigan, his eyes wide and questioning.
Zatanna shrugged.
"I can try."
"No." Etrigan growled. "Morgan's magic shall not be trifled with, her spells are a far cry from a myth. When her spirit begins to show displeasure, to her there will be no such thing as a defensive maneuver. She will not leave her spells of this caliber alone, she has added a defense to seek the displeasure you will soon sow."
"So you're pretty much saying that something will happen to the user who tries to dissipate her spell?" Batman deadpanned.
Etrigan looked away before nodding.
"I am sorry that we are of no use, and we cannot use anything for you to get loose."
Bats nodded, even when there was a sharp intake of breathe from everyone.
Whispers began to be thrown about swirling around the room in a rapid amount of chaos. What would happen to batman? What of Alfred or Bat's lil batties. What of the villains in Gotham City that prevented nearly every Meta to go there.
Batman cursed softly, holding his stomach as he tried to rid the oncoming onslaught of pain and Sadness.
This was the worst day ever.
First his coffee spills on him, along with Tim complaining he didn't go out on patrols like Richard or Jason. Alfred had also given him a good smack up the head for being an idiot 9not that he'd ever admit it) There was traffic and he was late to work. Not to mention he was called in for petty crime that didn't really need any of their services and the police were just being lazy now. And that had all led him to here.
His heart clenched in worry ignoring the questions around him and desperate attempts for him to answer. He really couldn't even hear them.
He never wanted to be a kid, despite his sometimes childish envy against his own kids for having somewhat good childhoods. He had never wanted to relieve this shit again. He didn't want to relive his whole life. He didn't want to walk along those empty halls all over again hating himself for causing his parents death. He just couldn't stand the pain, he wasn't the strong person everyone assumed him to be. He pushed everything away too much to be considered strong.
Everything was swirling around him his vision blurring out all the people around him. Bile rising up in his throat as if he were suddenly on a roller coaster.
He felt sick to his stomach.
He let out shivering breathes, why was it so hard to breathe now?
He let out a scream, a hollow and empty, yet scared and shrill scream. His lungs began to burn at the lack of air and he was being pulled back. Black dots covered his vision, his head pounding in a rhythmic thumping. His heart stuttering so quickly he felt his chest would explode.
People were screaming, people were Touching HIM. He writhed in their grips, arching back as pain shot through his entire body. He let loose another scream. His throat burned at the abuse.
He felt as if he was being chained to the bed, as if someone were above him holding him down by the throat. But he saw no one except blurred colors of his comrades, moving erratically around him.
He could faintly hear the mentions and pleads for him to wake up.
Assholes, he was awake. Tired, hurting, and pain shooting throughout his body, but he was awake damn it. Their voices swirled, and he yelled again, static filling his mind.
Their voices seemingly swiveled around each other, creating a singular voice that sounded like scratching your nails on a chalkboard. Loud and raspy, but with an edge to it that made people cringe away just from the sound.
"Darkness consuming your mind, memory wiped from existence, no longer believing or trusting. Shadows surround your mind dancing and taunting show this man the meaning of fear. This is a final run of longing and anger until you fade."
He struggled to let out his surprise, but he was too busy choking and screaming, and dear god he was going to die like this.
He struggled to get his breathing under control, but a soothing pressure was placed on his chest.
He could finally breathe again.
His body relaxed, falling limply to the bed beneath him, reassuring and calming the erupting chaos around him.
"You will be fine."
Will he? He didn't have too much time to ponder over it, as he soon fell into the loving and fragile embrace of the darkness he knew so well.
A/N: Well this took a while, and I'm sorry for the long wait everyone, I had a major writer's block for this story, and I've been down in the dumps lately so don't worry about anything. This entire story will be rewritten with the same concepts of the previous writing of the chapters. I guess this is okay? Might change it later but here you go. I'll try to get most of this revised before August 10th because that's when school starts for me so I hope you enjoyed!
-Maiden Out.