The Mortal Gods

Chapter 10: Origin

WOOHOO guys tenth chapter, I left you off with a cliffy last time so here it is. Remember to review I'd like some more, I haven't got any for like 3 chapters, let me know what I'm doing right and wrong, what you like, anything.

Diana, Jonn, John, Wally, and Shayera fell, they fell on and on through the black hole from the joker cell above, the laughing was still clear as all hell though, no matter how far they went.

They hit a darker area, colder, the temperature plummeted and they sped up through the icy blackness, then they hit cold hard concrete.

"ughhh where…where are we?" Wally murmured weakly, "I think we have finally reached it, Batman's core, the thing that makes him who he is." Jonn spoke. "Well this place is nothing, just a dirty alley." John stated.

Suddenly they heard doors open and voices as they exited out of a nearby building. Diana wouldn't have paid any attention but even without her powers she still had exceptional hearing and she heard one name: Bruce. "This is it; we're in the right place." Diana reassured.

"Haha, slow down Bruce." They heard from a nearby woman, a little boy rounded the corner with a bright smile and happy eyes. "Oh let him have fun dear, he loved that movie." A man said as he rounded the corner with his arm around a beautiful woman. "Let all evil-doers who stand in my way cower under Zorro." The young Bruce laughed as he swung his arm like a sword.

No one could believe their eyes; they were seeing Bruce as an 8 year old boy, happy, energetic, and imaginative, like a real happy kid. "That's Bruce?! What must've happened to him to make that happy boy into the Batman?" Shayera spoke out. Honestly, no one knew, Batman kept his secrets, well…secrets and while they were all friends, all of them knew Bruce would never divulge this information. "I think we are about to find out what happened, let us watch." Jonn said. All the leaguers backed into the shadows.

That's when it happened; they saw a man walk out of the side alley. He wore a large trench coat and a ripped hat, it looked as if he was just going to pass by harmlessly but then he pulled out a gun, an old, rusty, lethal killing device. Everyone that looked on knew they couldn't change what was about to happen.

"Uhhhh, those are some nice pearls miss, hand them over nice and quiet and there won't be any problem, oh and all the cash youse have got on you, NOW!" The mean looking man demanded.

"There won't be any trouble ok." Thomas Wayne slowly said to the man. He took out his wallet and threw it to the man. "I said I want those pearls." The man lunged forward to rip them off Martha Wayne's neck but Thomas Wayne instinctually got in-between them.

Time seemed to slow down, the leaguers saw the firing pin push back, they heard the click and then in one motion they saw the firing pin slam back, they heard the bang, and saw the spark the gun gave off as the bullet flew out and hit Thomas Wayne right in the chest, picking him off his feet with a gasp and pushing him down in the wet alley.

Martha Wayne let out a loud scream, as chilling as the Joker's laugh, because it was a primal sound of fear and anguish as she saw the life leave her husband's eyes. Then, as quickly as the first, Diana and the rest of the leaguers saw the gun fire, the bullet fly, and Martha's scream get cut short as the bullet pushed through her heart and lungs, throwing her down on the ground.

She looked up at her son one last time as the blood drained from her face and her heart and into a puddle, staining the white down feathers of her coat crimson. She whispered one last thing to her son as she died: Bruce, be brave, be strong, I love you…. Her last words came out with the last of the air in her lungs and her death rattle was the last sound she made as her eyes became cold and lifeless.

All of them were horrified; they had seen death before, but not like this, not a brutal, filthy murder in front of the eyes of a little boy. Diana suddenly remembered about Bruce then, and so did the others, they watched on as a life-changing scene happened.

The little boy stumbled as if confused and dazed, he made it to where his parents were lying and he fell to his knees, a pool of blood soaked through his pants and stained his white shirt. It started to rain, a shower poured down on top of them, it washed the blood into the sewers, Garbage floated in puddles and they heard rats scuttling to and fro.

"M..mo..mom, dad?" the little boy Bruce shook his parents gently, as he tried to speak to them and wake them up, but he only pushed blood out and into the alley. Hot tears dripped down his face, his hair was matted down and Diana saw a change happen, Bruce squeezed on his mother's coat with his hands, staining his hands a dark warm crimson. The light left his eyes just as it had done with his parents and they became darker, he seemed to age years in seconds and Diana was scared of this little boy, Lightning flashed and a boom thundered loud, and there on the ground, was a bat symbol illuminating the alley and shining down on Bruce, It was Bruce's symbol.

They heard a sound, "SCREEEEEEE!" Diana and the leaguers looked down the alley and they saw red eyes, followed by glimmering teeth and flapping wings, a bat flew out heading straight at Bruce and just as it was about to hit him it seemed to hit a glass wall, the bat shattered into sharp shards and then into sand as it blew around Bruce and was gone.

Bruce said two words, "Never again." Lightning flashed and there, in the alley was Batman. He rose up and stared at his dead parents, slow tears ran down his face and mixed with the rain, despite all his strength, he was just a little boy still, wanting his parents. He then looked up and around at this city, this disgusting rotting hell, but this was also his city. He needed to reclaim it from hell.

Diana couldn't take it anymore, she came out, "Bruce, come on wake up." Batman stared at her blankly, "Who are you?" he inquired. "Dammit!" Diana thought, this was his past, his origin, his history, she wasn't part of his past.

"This isn't real, we're in your mind, you're trapped here," She slapped him, "Come on, wake up, we need you. We need you, there's a job for you…I…I need you." Her head dropped as the rain came down.

"Di…Dia…Diana." Realization dawned on Bruce's face and suddenly all the alley started to disintegrate, "Xanthias!" Bruce snarled, "He's had me replaying nightmares over and over." The world was disappearing, bars of lightning seemed to form around Bruce, trying to keep him locked in his own head.

"Diana, we must leave now or we will be trapped here!" Jonn called to her. She ran back and Jonn activated a button on a device and Diana started to feel her consciousness being sucked back to her body through Bruce's mind, the last she saw was Batman with a scowl on his face as he stared down at a younger Bruce looking at his dead parents and fought the magic of Xanthias to escape his own mind of a prison.

Diana woke with a start, she jumped up and ran to Bruce's bed, and so did the others as they woke. "Can he do it; do you think we did enough?" Wally asked. "I don't know, it's up to him now." Diana responded.

Bruce had a pained look on his face, clenched muscles and a scowl. A computer voice sounded out from next to his bed: Warning, Warning, body temperature at 150 degrees, pulse at 234 and rising, warning, warning. "Come on Bruce, you can do it." Diana pleaded.

And that's when eyes opened.