Hey! Sorry the next chapter took a while! But here it is fresh of the plate! :) ~DDM


Bruce Wayne was crisscrossed on the carpeted floor of Wayne Manor. A quick change from being in the mountains, Bruce was adapting nicely to his now new cushioned environment…

"Where's my freakin' tea, Alfred!" Bruce spoke with a mouthful of cookies, with some crumbs flying out. He went for his glass of juice.

"Do we even have any milk around here?"

"That's all we have, sir, I haven't had the chance to go to the grocers yet." Alfred's voice was echoing down the hallway.

"But this is Wayne Manor! Don't we have like a walk in fridge with our own carts or something?" The butler sighed.

"No, Master Bruce, we don't."

"That sucks…" He downed the juice anyway. He then continued looking through public pictures and newspaper clippings; briefing himself on what Gotham's been doing since he was away.

"Hey, we got a new supermarket, alright! ALFRED!" After a moment, and a clash of a few dishes, a gray head popped out from the side of the kitchen entrance. Bruce pointed at the paper.

"You never told me about this! How 'bout you go there and get something better than these stale granny cookies you're feeding me!" Alfred sighed once again, his eyes half lidded.

"Well for one thing those are scones you are eating, Master Bruce and if I may say, they are quite delicious in my opinion. Second, I checked the fridge and the only thing we have close to milk is soy." Bruce gave Alfred a look. Whipping out his cellphone, he started to dial. Alfred walked in with the tea.

"What on earth are you doing, Master Bruce?"

"I'm ordering take out. I'm trying to decide whether Chinese or pizza... Ha, screw the Chinese food! I must be crazy! Pizza..." Bruce began to redial.

"But I just made you a fresh salami sandwich." Alfred retorted, sounding almost exasperated.

"'Salami?' Alfred, I've been in the hills for seven years! I need real food. Preferably, American food?"

"This is better for you."

"Thanks mom,I'll consider it when I'm old…"

"By that time you might already be dead by the over consumption of American cheese burgers…"

"Cheese burgers... Hey, good idea! I'll call them first."

Siiiigh... Alfred just shook his head.

'Squeak-squeak-squeak!'

"What the heck was that?" Bruce dropped the cell phone and got to his feet. Walking into the other room, He looked up at the ceiling. Alfred walked as well, glancing up where a bat was flying about the crystal chandelier.

"Blessed bat again, sir."

"Wooow…" Bruce stared and gawked at it, almost drooling. You could see the gears turning in his head. Alfred looked at him cocking an eye brow.

"Do you want me to leave you and the bat alone for a while, sir?" Bruce shook his head.

"Where do you think it came from?"

"They nest somewhere in the grounds."

"In the grounds… Hmm… You don't say..."


Bruce bounded down the steps of Wayne Manor. He was giddy as a school boy at Christmas and was most eager to get where he wanted to go, fast.

I've been waiting for this moment!

Running through the garden, Bruce then stopped by a spot where some vines and black berry bushes were. Bruce dove in, tearing it up with his bare hands.

Yes…YES!

"Master Bruce! MASTER BRUCE!" Alfred hollered from the top of the steps, holding out the tea tray.

"NOT NOW, ALFRED!" Bruce was pulling the turf up like a madman.

"You're insane! Your hands will get torn up…AT LEAST WEAR SOME FREAKIN' GLOVES!" But it was already done. In the place where Bruce pulled away the vines, was an old, discarded well.

"AAAH…" Bruce exhaled. He then threw down the rope he brought. Alfred was shouting behind him.

"Master Bruce! Don't…!"

"BONZAIIII!" The billionaire propelled down the line.

"Rubish!" The butler muttered to himself, waving his hand. Pursuing no further, he went back inside to begin to prepare the medical kit.


Bruce landed with a thump, the air damp and cool. Memories flooded back to him when he once fell in this well long ago as a small boy. But now he was a man, and ready for his destiny.

Bruce glanced around and found the hole leading down to the abyss.

"Come to papa, baby." Without hesitation, Bruce scrabbled through the opening like a burrowing squirrel.

It was dark; a dark dripping cavern of stalagmites and stalactites. It was also quite spacious, its ceiling reaching high and lofty, disappearing into the shadows. Bruce stood in the middle of it all, quiet and listening…

"The time has finally come… I've been waiting a long for this moment…"

Bruce glanced up. The sound of fluttering wings could faintly be heard. Bruce whipped out his flash light.

"It is now time…for my initiation…" In a split second, Bruce flicked on his LED torch and pointed it 'Skywalker style' to the ceiling. A rush of millions and millions of bats scattered and swarmed around him, filling the whole cave with loud piercing screams. Still holding up the torch, he closed his eyes and soaked in the sudden feeling of power… The power of the darkness!

"Yes…Yesss…YEEEEESSS!" The bats screeched as they all circled like a cyclone about him. His hair flew in the whirling wind created by the beating of their leathery wings.

"Heh-heh…hahahaHAHAHAHAHAAA!" It felt like a symphony had erupted at its climax and Bruce was its conductor, he had past his test. Now, with his ambition ignited, the burning fire now blazing within him and his destiny written in stone... Gotham now had hell to pay…

"I AM YOUR MASTER! I HAVE BECOME ONE WITH THE DARKNESS! I…AM…BA…!"

'Screeeech!' A bat then flew into him, taking a big chunk out of his neck.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Bruce clentched his neck, now gushing blood. Then it happened. Gradually, like a pack of wild mammaled mosquitoes, the most awesome scene on earth, soon spiraled and turned into an ugly, living nightmare as they all began to descended upon him...

"Oh...Cra..."

Alfred sat in a lawn chair with his sun glasses. Leaning next to the well, he was reading a magazine and drinking... what else... tea. The medical kit was laying at his now sandaled clad feet.

"ALFEEEEEEED!" Alfred flipped to the next page and sighed contentedly.

"ALFREEEEEEEED! HEEELLLP MEE!" The butler turned his head.

"Just let me finish this column, sir, and I'll be right with you…" He then turned back to his magazine. The echoes of screeching bats could be heard far below.

"STOP! STOP! I AM YOUR MASTER NOW! OW! ALFREEEEED!" Alfred sighed again and tossed the mag aside.

"To think, it only gets worse from here on out…" Grunting as he got up, he then strapped on the twin tanks to his back. Then making a few adjustments, he tested the hose nozzle of the blow torch. The flame billowed ten feet in front of him.

"Perfect… Coming Master Bruce!" He threw down the medical kit first before Alfred, with nozzle between his teeth, slid down after the screaming Bruce Wayne.

"I think I need a bandage, Alfred..."