The Mortal Gods
Chapter 9: A Side Journey
Sorry for the super long time to update school has been hectic but I hope you like the 9th chapter
Bruce lay on the medical bay cot; it had been two days since their first meeting with Xanthias. Bruce hadn't woken up yet though; he had spent two days lying there, shivering with a clenched scowl on his face.
Diana was by his side a lot. Bruce was getting worse and worse and she was worried if he could recover or not, he was now the leader of the league, he was holding them together.
She was still thinking about all that was going on when it happened, "Jonn, Wally, John, Shayera, get in here!"
The founding members rushed in, Wally came in babbling, "What is it no…?" He stopped mid-sentence as they all stared at the words appearing above Bruce's body:
When I'm here, I can be clear
And when I'm here, I can be vague
The game is getting boring, let us advance.
"What," John asked, "What the hell is this supposed to mean?" The words were fading fast, Diana wrote them all down before they disappeared entirely.
"It is a riddle," Jonn the Martian stated, "I think that Xanthias finds Batman as a sort of fun game, maybe even a slight challenge for him.", "Yeah, but what could it even mean?" Wally asked.
Diana was reading the words and looked at Bruce. "It's… uh…the…mind, the mind; Bruce's mind isn't it."
"Yes, I think Diana is right, but what must we do with Bruce's mind?" Jonn Jonzz inquired. "I think we have to go into it, into his mind," Diana said "Jonn, is that new system operating?"
"yes but it has not been tested yet," Jonn replied, "I do not know the safety of it, we could damage Bruce's mind." Bruce shook and shivered
"It doesn't matter, Bruce is getting worse, we have to try.
All of them agreed, something had to be done and there wasn't really any other choice. They all laid down and attached the headsets and as they drifted off they all left their consciousness' and descended into darkness.
They all reappeared in a dark area, "wooooah, where are we." Wally thought aloud. A bright light shown above them, a fiery bat symbol. "We're here," Diana spoke, "We're in Bruce's mind, let's get him back."
"We have to get to his core, we have to get to his center, we'll have to go through his entire mind, I've only been on the outer part when I've communicated with him telepathically and read his mind and those parts have given me nightmares, almost as bad as some of my memories of the Martian war I was in." Jonn told the group.
"Well then, let's set out." Shayera said. They started walking, walking through the darkness until they reached a door, then tentatively; they opened the door and entered into the threshold.
They saw Batman, fighting, failing, winning; they saw things they knew he would never, ever tell them. Flash got spooked when hundreds of bats would swarm them, but they kept going, forging on through the chaotic mind.
Once they saw Batman fighting his enemies, different enemies, different Batman's, different battles.
After what seemed like days of wandering they finally made it to a building. Lightning flashed and they heard one sound that they had always feared, even if they had only heard it once before, the cold laughter of an insane clown. Thunder boomed, lightning illuminated the sky and the saw a name on the side of the building. Arkham Asylum. "I hate this place." John Stewart said.
They walked in, doctors were rushing about, patients were screaming from near and far, all the doors were locked except for one at the end of the hall. They had to fight their way through the hordes of doctors, patients, and villains that Bruce fought on a regular basis.
They passed the scarecrow, reaching out with his needled hand trying to make their fears come to life, he looked at Diana, "My dear, what is it that you fear, hehe we should see what collapses your mind into Oblivion." Diana shivered, she had developed a strong hate for the villains of Gotham, they weren't like any others in the world. They didn't do what they did for money or something to gain, they were simply insane, they were mad and only understood pain.
Finally they made it to the door at the back of the hall. John turned the handle and lightly threw the door open, they walked in and the door closed and locked, "Well I guess we're not leaving the way we came." Wally commented.
They all stared at the room they were in, a small light was hanging from the ceiling, flickering on and off but giving no light to the room. Lightning flashed through the bared windows, illuminating the space, it was a padded room but there were long scratch marks and rips in the walls. As well as that the walls were covered with oozing words, hundreds of words and they only said one thing: HA.
"Let's get out of here," Wally said nervously, "I don't like it here." As he finished speaking a slow chuckle started in the corner of the room but it built steadily turning into a maniacal laugh that turned everyone's blood to ice. The Joker sat in the corner, laughing his head off, water was pouring in from the window and was soaking his head; he had cuts covering his face and the blood was washing down his face making a wet puddle of blood in the room.
They all advanced on the bleeding, giggling clown, but then as lighting flashed again the group jumped back in surprise, "What the Hell?!" John swore. Sitting in the corner now was Batman, tied in a strait jacket, with blood rushing down his face, his mask was torn, he had lifeless eyes and he was laughing a much darker laugh that was just as crazed.
"I think we have made it," Jonn spoke, "We have made it to Batman's core, his inner battle is always fighting his madness, making sure he does not succumb to insanity like the Joker."
Lightning was flashing every five seconds now, every time it did The Joker would switch to Batman and Batman would switch to Joker, the laughs combined making an eerie mix of their laughs and it was even stranger when they spoke, their voices mixing together, the first one to speak to them directly in Bruce's mind
"You're pretty close, you're one out of two BUCKO, heeheeeheee… you're right about the madness," Lightning flashed once more and thunder boomed as Batman barked out laughter,
"Please make it stop!" Shayera was holding her hands to her ears trying to blot out the sound of the Joker and Batman, Joker/Batman continued, "You're right about the madness kiddies, but...ah..Ha...Ha…HAHAHA, you're wrong about his core, you're not even there yet, you're close, but you still have to get deeper HAHAHA. You…you…wanna hear a joke? What happens to three little birds when they leave the nest?" No one wanted to hear the end of this one, "No comment huh… ah well…I'll tell you anyway, nothing happens to them, unless they're Robins, then two are ok and the other gets beaten to death with a crowbar!" Everyone paled as the sick humor sunk in. "What you don't like it, ah what the hell I'll laugh anyway, AHAHAHAHAHA!"
Diana was crying now, she lunged forward and grabbed the Joker/Batman by the neck and lifted him up, "Shut up and tell us the way to Bruce's core!"
Lighting flashed behind him and she stared at the laughing Batman, "Hehe, tsk tsk my dear, I've already told you HAHA you need to go deeper WOOHOO, don't you listen you dumb BITCH HAHAHA!"
Wally and Shayera were basically close to madness, crying and hugging each other, as the insanity permeated the air, "Please stop it, STOP IT!"
The Joker/Batman then kicked Diana in the stomach and did a flip before delivering a huge kick to the floor, and then he jumped up and hanged by the light on the ceiling. Huge cracks spread out on the floor, "Have a nice trip," Wally, Shayera, and John fell into the blackness, Diana held onto the wall with Jonn as they attempted to keep from plunging into the darkness, "See you next fall! AHAHAHA!" The hole had a gravity and suddenly sucked Diana and Jonn down, down into the pitch blackness.
BOOM CLIFFY, That's it hope you like this chapter, already got my next chapter idea in my head so you know review because they give me inspiration to write.
