Everyone wonders what it would be like if they met their hero. How cool would that be?

Well…here's what REALLY happens.

Meet Your Heroes

I was alone. Alone and very afraid.

I scanned the room I was being kept in. It was metal, with a single dim light in the center. The floor had some sort of radiating pattern etched in it, making it appear to be created from panels. The rest of the room seemed to fade into an endless umbra, as though the world had been swallowed up by the Langoliers. I thought that maybe if I could find a pry bar of some kind, I could pry up a panel and get out through the floor. I scanned the room for anything of the sort, but all I saw was the dull, blueish light from above fading into darkness.

"Hello?" I called out, just in case anyone was listening. If they had some sort of video system…maybe I could charm my way out…? Hey, it's an idea. It could work, right?

"Hey, I don't know if you realize this, but people are gonna miss me!" I cried out into the light. "My name is Richard Castle." No answer. "The writer…? I'm famous—and rich too! If you want, I could pay you. I could pay you whatever you want…?"

Silence.

Well, whoever they were, they didn't seem to care much about money or consequences. I started to doubt charm would get me too far either. I began feeling around the dark edges of my lonely spotlight, trying to find any hope that might be hidden in the abyss.

"They're not listening," growled the darkness.

I jumped back as best I could on all fours. Who was that? A thousand crazy theories popped into my head. Ghosts, demons, the devil come to offer me a deal, a living shadow brought to life by a nuclear explosion, a…

"Who—who are you…?" I ventured, not entirely sure this was a who.

I waited for my answer, barely breathing. Wow, this was taking a long time. I mean, I'm all for suspense, but I'd rather save it for my books. I started to wonder if he was even going to answer. Dark spirits aren't too chatty. Or maybe he left? Maybe he just doesn't want to answer? What if he melted through one of the walls to go escape and I'm just talking to myself here? It's not like it hasn't happened before—well, the talking to myself part. Not melting through walls. But it'd be really cool if he did that!

I decided to try another question, but while I was thinking, my answer finally came.

"A friend," the darkness intoned.

"A…a friend…" Wait, that's it? Just 'a friend'? And in that creepy voice? He sounded like every supervillain I'd ever seen on TV. I was just waiting for him to tell me the really important but crazy reason he had to kill me, like God told him I was evil or he thought I was working with the alien shapeshifters who were taking over our world! Which, they totally were… Just saying…

Or maybe he wanted to eat my brains because he had joined the army of the undead and they put me in here as an offering to Hades, god of the Underworld?

Yeah, all those stories made so much more sense than this one. 'He was a friend'? What kind of a fool did he take me for? Don't answer that.

Yeah, I don't buy it.

"So you say you're a friend…" My voice unexpectedly broke and dropped into a hole. I had started strong, but then it occurred to me that he might turn on me the second he realized the jig was up. I rallied again though, recognizing that if I want to get to the truth, I needed to cut through all the lies. "Why should I believe you?"

"Because we're both in the same boat," he rasped, with an edge of danger in his deep voice that scared me. "Because I—"

"No, I mean why should I believe someone who hides in the shadows?"

More silence. I'd called him on his bullshit and he knew it.

Without seeing him, I couldn't tell if he was just thinking or trying to decide how to kill me. But the longer the silence went on, the more sure I was that he would have killed me already if he was going to do that. I was terrified. I wasn't sure about anything. I had zero combat training if anything happened and Detective Beckett wasn't even around to save me this time! But I'd faced down spies before. Been abducted and returned by the government. Survived serial killers who detested my very existence. I had to be extremely lucky to survive all that with just my wit and experience as a mystery writer. If I ever wrote a book about my life, they'd laugh me off the shelves for such unrealistic drivel.

More doom-filled fantasies played out in my head, but I shoved them back, trying as hard as I could to stay serious and resolute. Not my best look, I'll grant you, but if I were writing this, it's what my character would've needed to do to get an answer. I got a little bored and started looking around the room again. There really wasn't much to see. My eyes had adjusted to the low light and I could see a little further into the blackness, but all that revealed was more metal plating on the floor. I did notice that the air smelled unusually…clean. And fresh. Not like your normal piped-in air, but not like natural air either. There was just nothing to it at all.

Finally it came, but not the way I'd expected it. A piece of shadow grew out of the blackness before me. It rose up, seemingly ten feet tall. It took a second for my eyes to adjust; at first, the sheen of light surrounded him like a brilliant halo, making him seem only a silhouette of a man. But then I noticed features. And color. And skin…

"Hey, you're just a guy…" My eyes fell on his chest. A darker blob was appearing there.

"Wait—You're Batman! You—" I looked around, trying to find the cameras, or Beckett. They're punking me, right? Right…?

Batman continued to stare at me, drilling holes into my soul. I was starting to feel it, like my heart would cave in or something. It made me really uncomfortable.

"We need to work together. You and me," he growled. "There has to be a way out…"

I stared at him, dumbfounded. Oh. My. God. It's really him! It's really—

"You're him, aren't you? You're Batman. You're the Dark Knight, the Dynamic Duo—well, actually you're only half the Duo, so the…Dynamic Uno? No, that's not it. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it…?" I looked up to see what he thought.

I was alone. Alone and very afraid.

"Uh, Bat—"

Creak.

Metal squeaked above me. When I looked up, I saw a cape hanging down, twisting feverishly above me. Batman was hanging from the lamp cage, struggling with it but I couldn't really see anything with the cape in the way. I did hear a lot of metallic scraping and something broke off. A piece of metal hit the floor.

"Man, I didn't even hear you! How'd you do that?"

He growled and dropped himself down again, almost on top of me. I barely had the time to scurry out of the way.

Rude much…? I watched him wordlessly glide into the dark as he ignored me yet again. It was eerie how he moved with almost no sound. I could barely make out the rustle of his cape! I squinted into the light to see if anything had changed, but it looked the same as it always did. A thick metallic cage over a shimmering blue light.

"Uh, Mr. Batman, sir…Um, what exactly are you doing?"

I had to wait another unbearable eternity before he confirmed I was, indeed, not alone.

"Trying to find the way out," came the words, drifting out of the gloom.

Part of me wanted to follow him and help. The other part was watching slasher films. After a few moments I decided to help anyway, but a shadow walked straight into me and stopped.

"You could help." Batman let the words just hang there. Half accusation, half command. And half threat.

I started to stammer, but he cut me off.

"Check the walls. See if you can find anything."

"Um…" There are walls? I wasn't sure what to do. My mind had gone blank somehow. Then suddenly it hit me: It's Batman!

"You're Batman—Like, the actual Batman!" My mind was racing; Adam West, the comics, Robin, bird puns—movie references!

Batman had disappeared into the darkness again, no doubt checking the walls like he'd asked me to do, but I was busy trying to remember everything I'd ever wanted to ask him. I mean, Batman was here. In my presence! It was now or never.

"Hey, I always wanted to ask you, whatever happened between you and Selina Kyle? I mean, she was totally hot, you liked her…why'd you break up?"

Stillness greeted me for a beat as I stared into the void, but then the void launched at me, driving me back across the room. The wind was knocked out of me as I was slammed against a metal wall. My head pounded. What the hell happened?

"How do you know about Selina Kyle?!" he demanded, his rage filling my ears.

"What? I don't know…" It was hard concentrating. Why was he doing this? He's supposed to be one of the good guys. Like me! Why did he just attack me? It's not like I was threatening him or anything. Unless maybe…maybe he thinks I was…? But why would he think that?

I could still feel him waiting for an answer, so I gathered my thoughts and refocused on the question. How…know…Selina Kyle…? Oh, right. "I—the comics…? I—I don't know, why are you asking me?" I was a little too scared to be embarrassed at how my voice squeaked. It started to dawn on me that I might be in real danger here. He wasn't acting like the Batman I knew. And yet, he kind of still was…

His eyes had narrowed to slits as he scrutinized my face. He didn't seem to like what he saw because he screwed his face up and sneered. But he let me go.

I finally started to breathe again when I fell over, suddenly aware that the wall was curved and I was leaning against it awkwardly. I scrambled back to my feet, and scanned the area as quick as possible, just in case he attacked again.

Nope. Gone. Empty…just empty. A brilliant blue spotlight shining down the middle of an endless night.

I was too scared to go back out into the light where he could see me, but staying where he left me seemed like a bad idea too. My hand against the cool metal wall, I edged around the room, noting the distinct lack of corners and seams. At least, until my hand dropped low enough. Up at shoulder height, there was nothing, but down near my waist was a horizontal seam, and below that were vertical seams every couple yards. Like it…

"Opens from below…" I whispered.

"What?"

"It opens from below…" I answered, immediately wishing I could take it back. What if he attacked me again? What if he was the enemy? What if he wasn't really Batman, but was just wearing a costume to trick me? Everyone knew I was gullible—well, not gullible but—okay, I was gullible. Sue me. Who wouldn't want a little magic in their lives?

He joined me in my dark non-corner of the room, running his fingers through the seams I'd found, working through the same thoughts I'd had. It was as if the previous few minutes had never happened. It was amazing to watch the complete focus he had. It was as though everything else disappeared, just like with Beckett. I shivered involuntarily. I really didn't want to compare him to my wife.

A smile crept across his face.

My blood ran cold. "What…?"

Obviously he'd figured something out. But whatever it was, he wasn't sharing. He charged back into the spotlight and crouched down, running his hands through the seams in the floor. Whatever his inspiration, I couldn't follow. We were in a metal box—well, squashed sphere—with no buttons, levers, knobs, handles or tools of any kind. Unless he had something on himself…

"Oh no…"

He was charging me again! I crouched into a ball and tried to hide against the curved wall, mostly just falling over again. He tackled me and I thought I was done for, but he just held me there for some reason. I was about to ask what was going on when something hit my ears and knocked me senseless.

We were crushed hard against the wall and all sound was gone. I had a vague sense of movement near me, but I'd completely lost my bearings. As my vision started to clear, I looked back at the spotlight and noticed dust settling. A bomb…a bomb! Explosives! Batman always carried explosives with him! He tried to blow the floor open so we could get out! Elated, I tried to get up to see if he'd succeeded, but my legs failed me. My vision went black and suddenly everything seemed so far away…