Gotham Nightmare.

Chapter Two

*This story is set after Terry graduates from high school, but before he starts college. Yes, it is a crossover. All characters copyright 2001 DC comics and/or Warner Bros. I don't own Terry McGinnis or Bruce Wayne. I do, however, own all characters I created which are mentioned in this story. *

The salty smell of seawater permeated the air. Not that he could smell the salt. His body could only smell one thing. Blood. And some was very close by. Warily, he scanned his surroundings, looking for the source of the blood scent. It was coming from the warehouses. He made his way to the warehouses, sniffing the air.

"He's heading right towards me, Wayne... and he's smelling the air..." Batman whispered. He clung to the wall of a warehouse in stealth mode. "I think he knows I'm here..."

"Impossible. Nothing short of a heat detector could see you," Wayne snorted.

Terry didn't reply, as the man floated up to where Terry clung, and sniffed the air again. Irrational fear gripped Batman as the man brought his face with in an inch of his own.

The man was horribly deformed. It looked like someone had taken a hammer to the man's forehead and smashed his brow ridge down. He had no eyebrows, his eyes were those of a cat, his mouth was filled with sharp looking fangs.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it. I can't see you, but I can smell your blood," The deformed man hissed.

Wayne was roaring through the com-link. "Get out of there McGinnis! Right now!" The man inched closer, his mouth opening. Two very sharp looking fangs elongated from his canine teeth. He was coming close to the Batman's neck...

"That's far enough," an icy cold demonic voice rasped. The vampire whipped around.

"YOU," he snarled, and leapt away from Terry. Batman breathed a sigh of relief as he decloaked. Then a movement from the shadows caught his eye.

No... it was a movement of THE shadows themselves. They were bubbling for lack of a better term.

Batman blinked, not believing his eyes as a tall figure flowed from the inky blackness. The shadows seemed to rip from the wall and form around him, cloaking the figure in darkness.

"Are you seeing this Wayne?"

There was no response, or if there was one, Terry didn't hear it. He was transfixed on the scene below.

The shadows had shifted, forming a pitch-black ankle length duster around the human figure. Bladed blood red gauntlets adorned his forearms; his legs and chest were covered in dark body armor. A board hat topped his black featureless face, and long brown hair spilled down his back. Two long chains dangled from his hips. And he was huge. Every inch of his body was muscle.

The vampire circled around him, moving cautiously.

"I thought I lost you in L.A..." The vampire rasped as he readied himself for a fight. The Shadow man didn't say a word, instead, he just held his hand out to his side and opened his palm.

A jagged patch of blackness ripped from the wall the man had emerged from and took form in his hand. The vampire swallowed hard. A gleaming sword was now gripped firmly in the Shadow man's fist. Shadow man crouched and motioned the vampire to come on.

The vampire turned tail and ran. Shadow man relaxed almost instantly, the sword vanishing form his hand, and he shifted to regard Batman. With a curt nod, the man shattered like a pain of black glass, and was gone.

Batman stood there for a moment, blinking. "Wayne... what.... Did you just see what I saw???"

"Yes."

"You have any idea what the hell it was," McGinnis asked.

Wayne was silent for almost 2 whole minutes, and then finally answered. "It was a Nightmare." Terry was about to ask more but Wayne spoke up. "Get back to the Cave. I'll explain when you get here..."

Terry grunted in response, and took one more quick look around the dock. Satisfied there was nothing let for him to do here, he snapped his wings into place and disappeared into the night.



*



The man from the jet plane calmly checked his wristwatch, and smirked to himself. If the old man was anything like he remembered, he would most defiantly still be awake. He jammed his free hand into the pocket of his long black trench coat and pulled out his cell phone. He pushed a single button and waited for someone to pick up.

"Ring, ring, ring, a ding, ding, ding bob, bob, bob, bob-a-Barbara Ann Heya," a hyper sounding male voice answered.

The man could help chuckling. "Tony. Where's Bekka? It's important."

"...Well... to be honest... she's in my back pocket...." Tony replied.

"Don't make me reach through the phone and strangle you, Tony..."

"She asleep. She's hot... want to touch the hinny... but anyway.. what can I do you for, Lancey?"

Lance sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that.. anyway.. I was wondering if you had any new info on our 'friend'..."

"Well.. it turns out Johnny is a drug dealer... and he thinks God smokes cannabis... Oh! You mean our 'friend!'" Tony grew silent for a moment while he looked for what Lance wanted. "Well it turns out Mr. Satin has turned some of the most notorious mob guys throughout New York to his way of un-life. But so far he's only done the sucky sucky thing to one hooker in good ol' Gotham."

"Old news. I'm gonna go see the Old Man. Keep me posted..."

"Well... you already knew what we knew so you'll know new stuff before we do... Later."

Lance smirked as the line went dead. He checked his surroundings quickly, making sure no one saw him, and he quickly dashed into a nearby alley.

With the sound of shattering glass, Lance was gone.



*



Bruce Wayne was feeling very impatient. And worried. Very worried. He had had his suspicions before, and they had been confirmed: at least one Vampire was in Gotham City. And where there was one Vampire, more would follow.

The sound of turbine engines filled the huge cavern, and inwardly, Wayne sighed. Soon came a soft thud, and the sound of the cowling sliding back. Terry exited the craft and proceeded over to Wayne.

"Okay. Answers please," McGinnis said as he tossed his cowl onto the keyboards.

Wayne turned and regarded the young man in the suit sternly. "What attacked you was a vampire..." Terry stopped dead in his tracks.

"Vampire.. as in 'I've come to suck you blood, drink from me and live forever' Vampire??" Wayne cocked a single eyebrow.

"It good to know you at least paid attention in some of your classes..." Wayne paused a moment. "...and yes. Vampire."

"Well that explains the fangs and the bad breath. And the floating. What I'm wondering about is that... Shadow guy. You saw what I saw. What was THAT?"

Wayne was about to reply, but was cut off by a new voice. An ice cold voice.

"I prefer to be called by my name."

McGinnis grabbed the cowl and hurriedly pulled it over his face to turn and confront the intruder. He promptly froze in his tracks.

The cave wall was rippling, just like the one in the alley had earlier that night. And then, out stepped the Shadow Man. The temperature in the cave instantly seemed to drop 30 degrees.

Terry instinctively slid into a fighting stance, and flicked a batarang into his hand. "Alright ShadowMan, that's close enough. What do you want?"

The Shadow man chuckled, and it sent chills down Terry's spine. "Relax," Was all Shadow man said. Terry did relax slightly, but didn't drop his guard.

"Alright. First off... just what the hell are you? That.. Thing you did at the docks was... I don't know what it was..."

"I'm a demon. At least partially," the dark figure replied. Something in the atmosphere shifted, and the cave seemed to grow warmer "And the name's not ShadowMan," the Shadow man replied in a very normal sounding voice, "... it's Nightmare." The Shadow man... Nightmare looked up at Terry to reveal a normal looking face instead of the featureless black void he swore he saw earlier. "Bekka sends her Love, Ojiisan."

Wayne slowly swiveled around in his chair to regard Nightmare. He looked the man right in the face, and offered a grunt as his reply.

Terry looked at Nightmare, then at Bruce, and then back at Nightmare.

"I thought you didn't want to be a crime fighter," Wayne asked in a low monotone. Nightmare shrugged.

"It wasn't my choice..." Nightmare replied. Suddenly, his mode shifted. "I didn't come here to talk about old times, Bruce."

Wayne snorted.

Terry cleared his throat. "Someone mind filling me in?"

Nightmare grunted. "I'm assuming you know what you saw tonight?"

"A Vampire."

"The vamp you saw is named Anthony Satin. He's a Master Vampire. I know how you are about your city, Bruce, and I'm not expecting your or Batman's help on this...."

Bruce turned and glared at Nightmare for what seemed like an eternity. "I want you out of my city..." Nightmare simply nodded, and his presence shifted again sending chills down both the current and former Batman's spines. Terry shot a look at Wayne, which would freeze any other man's blood. Wayne grunted in response.

"I'm going with you," Terry stated. Nightmare glanced back at Wayne, who nodded an affirmative.

As the two dark figures exited the cave, Wayne couldn't help feeling a sense of dread build up in his gut.