In the Dark - Ch. 2
Warning - not editted, 'cause I'm lazy like that. Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm an incredibly insecure writer, so every constructive or positive comment helps.
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The darkness receded slowly.
Waking up was a battle in of itself. My lips were parched, and my head felt like it had acquired a permanent dent in my left cranium.
The blackness of unconsciousness first softened its hold, and then suddenly a white painted face pierced through the shadowy haze.
"Wake up, you dog."
My head jarred violently to the side from a blow and though I still couldn't see clearly the obvious guess was that Queen just tried to bash my skull in with something hard.
"Queen, ease up!" An annoyed female voice spoke up from somewhere beyond the Royal Flush Queen.
I blinked hard a few times to clear my vision and saw a black, fluid form shape into a human body.
"If anyone gets first smack at the Bat, it's me."
Inque's black form slithered forward like a solid shadow.
Instinctively, I tried to reach for a Bat-a-rang. No use, of course. The suit was out of action and out of power, so at that point I was really no more than a statue with sensitive pain receptors.
"What's wrong Inque?" I tried to distract her with some banter. "Too weak to take me on your own? Had to team up with these losers? The Royal Flush Gang? The Jokers? Who's next, your grandma?"
"Oh yes, your hide and that loathsome tongue is definitely worth 'teaming up with losers.'"
With a swift convulsion of her body, one of Inque's limbs shaped into a mallet. A really, really big mallet.
Staring straight at me, the eerily haunting words slithered through the silence the same way that she glided across the floor. "I've been waiting a long time for this Batman."
She raised her mallet arm back, winding for the strike. "A long, long time."
Then there was a sudden burst of pain against my head.
Everything was dark again.
------------------
"Were you ever afraid of the dark as a child?"
Wayne once asked me that during my night patrol of the city. Standing there high atop the Gotham power plant I was speechless for a moment. I guess I shouldn't have felt too bad about my reaction, considering his query came entirely from out of the blue. But being in Batman-mode makes me impose certain expectations on myself. I should be faster, smarter, more alert, more perceptive. I should have been able to respond sooner.
"Well yeah, I guess I was," I answered hesitantly into the mic in my headpiece.
"Did you ever have a night light?"
Again there was that stunned flash in my brain. And after a moment...
"First of all, night lights were before my time, old man. Our generation had the lumin-orbs."
"Oh, my mistake." I could hear the sarcasm in his tone. "Well McGinnis, did you have one?"
Pause. I wasn't exactly eager to give him the information.
"Yes I did." He creeps me out a bit sometimes. How would he know something like that? Why would it even occur to him to ask? "You want to know what type of diapers I wore too?"
"Are you sure diapers weren't before your time too?"
"That's cute Wayne," I answered dryly.
Then I took a minute and zoomed in my night vision to peruse the Southern downtown district. Nothing was happening. It was a quite night I guess.
I broke the silence a few moments later. "Hey Mr. Wayne. Why did you ask me that anyway? About the dark and everything." Is he going to hold it against me? Does he think I'm less qualified to be Batman now?
"I wasn't really asking. More like I was affirming my suspicions."
What the heck was that supposed to mean?
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" I hope he didn't take that the wrong way. It came out of my mouth before I could adjust the attitude level.
"You show it in the way you interact with the night Terry. You have a healthy relationship with darkness." It sounded like it could have been a Wayne wisecrack, except there was no caustic or sardonic tone. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Childhood fear of the dark grows into a respect for everything that happens at night."
"Uhhh right... So what about the lumin-orb or the night light?"
"I could tell because you don't settle for blindness in the darkness. Others let the darkness mask their fears for false security. You would rather have the light and see your enemies face to face. That's why night after night you see more details from rooftops than most people do on danger's own level. You make yourself face the horrors that most people choose to shield themselves from."
For the third time that night I was again at a loss for words. Granted, he didn't even ask me a question that time, but I still felt like I needed to respond to that somehow.
"Was that a compliment Wayne? You'll spoil me yet."
"Don't get used to it McGinnis."
-------------------
The dream, the memory, dissolved before my eyes. And I awoke to the most frightening situation I could face at that moment. I was strapped to something. The wind resistance against my body and the mechanical rumbling beneath me told me it was a vehicle. A moving vehicle going high speed.
My head. I wanted to clutch it and rub the stabbing pain away. I wanted to rub my eyes and clear away the haze. I can't even see clearly anymore. It was like looking through gauze, or viewing the world through a 20th century TV with bad reception. I could feel heat of the sun through my suit so I knew it was day, but the dark swirls before my eyes suggested the darkness of night.
When are they going to stop hitting me in the head?
Then I heard the unmistakable sound of hover-cycles beside me. Jokers. A pack of them. The vehicle under me took a sudden dive. The abrupt vertical turn made my stomach lurch.
I swallowed. I was strapped to the Batmobile. No other hovercraft could do a straight drop with such terrifying ease. The Jokers were behind my wheels and messing with me.
"Hey Bats! How do you like this?"
I couldn't see who was yelling at me. One of the Joker pack. I blinked hard. No good. My vision was not clearing.
Under me, the Batmobile swooped from the down motion into a smooth horizontal glide. Just then I realized I had been holding my breath, and willed myself to breath again. It was terrifying not being able to see and anticipate what might come next.
I needed to fight, but I couldn't move, and I could barely see.
Just then, I heard the Batmobile hatch slide open behind me.
"This has been fun Batman, and it's a shame we have to total these wheels." I recognized the voice. Spike? Freddie? One of the leaders. "Say hi to City Hall for me."
What was he talking about? What was going on?
Suddenly one of the hover-bikes roared up close. Then I felt the side of the Batmobile dip down a bit before bouncing back up. I realized he had jumped from the vehicle and onto the hover-bike.
He had jumped ship and left the Batmobile moving on auto-pilot. Why?
I blinked hard and through my already dimmed vision, I saw the vague outline of a building getting closer.
City Hall, I was about to crash head first into City Hall.
I bit down hard, trying to brace myself for an impact that would most likely kill me.
But as if a miracle had been issue from some heavenly place, I felt the Batmobile starting to decelerate. It was slowing down.
Slowing, but not slowing fast enough. Inertia itself worked against me and we slammed into a brick surface, breaking through a layer of wall and finally coming to a painful stop.
Once again, my head had gotten the brunt of the damage. Before I could finish groaning, the Batmobile backed out of the wreckage. As the vehicle ascended into a higher altitude and began gliding away, I found that I couldn't sustain consciousness anymore. I drifted off into darkness again.
-------------------------
I'll have more later about what the Brady Bunch of villians are doing. Plus an explanation of what just happened to save Terry there.
Warning - not editted, 'cause I'm lazy like that. Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm an incredibly insecure writer, so every constructive or positive comment helps.
--------------------------------
The darkness receded slowly.
Waking up was a battle in of itself. My lips were parched, and my head felt like it had acquired a permanent dent in my left cranium.
The blackness of unconsciousness first softened its hold, and then suddenly a white painted face pierced through the shadowy haze.
"Wake up, you dog."
My head jarred violently to the side from a blow and though I still couldn't see clearly the obvious guess was that Queen just tried to bash my skull in with something hard.
"Queen, ease up!" An annoyed female voice spoke up from somewhere beyond the Royal Flush Queen.
I blinked hard a few times to clear my vision and saw a black, fluid form shape into a human body.
"If anyone gets first smack at the Bat, it's me."
Inque's black form slithered forward like a solid shadow.
Instinctively, I tried to reach for a Bat-a-rang. No use, of course. The suit was out of action and out of power, so at that point I was really no more than a statue with sensitive pain receptors.
"What's wrong Inque?" I tried to distract her with some banter. "Too weak to take me on your own? Had to team up with these losers? The Royal Flush Gang? The Jokers? Who's next, your grandma?"
"Oh yes, your hide and that loathsome tongue is definitely worth 'teaming up with losers.'"
With a swift convulsion of her body, one of Inque's limbs shaped into a mallet. A really, really big mallet.
Staring straight at me, the eerily haunting words slithered through the silence the same way that she glided across the floor. "I've been waiting a long time for this Batman."
She raised her mallet arm back, winding for the strike. "A long, long time."
Then there was a sudden burst of pain against my head.
Everything was dark again.
------------------
"Were you ever afraid of the dark as a child?"
Wayne once asked me that during my night patrol of the city. Standing there high atop the Gotham power plant I was speechless for a moment. I guess I shouldn't have felt too bad about my reaction, considering his query came entirely from out of the blue. But being in Batman-mode makes me impose certain expectations on myself. I should be faster, smarter, more alert, more perceptive. I should have been able to respond sooner.
"Well yeah, I guess I was," I answered hesitantly into the mic in my headpiece.
"Did you ever have a night light?"
Again there was that stunned flash in my brain. And after a moment...
"First of all, night lights were before my time, old man. Our generation had the lumin-orbs."
"Oh, my mistake." I could hear the sarcasm in his tone. "Well McGinnis, did you have one?"
Pause. I wasn't exactly eager to give him the information.
"Yes I did." He creeps me out a bit sometimes. How would he know something like that? Why would it even occur to him to ask? "You want to know what type of diapers I wore too?"
"Are you sure diapers weren't before your time too?"
"That's cute Wayne," I answered dryly.
Then I took a minute and zoomed in my night vision to peruse the Southern downtown district. Nothing was happening. It was a quite night I guess.
I broke the silence a few moments later. "Hey Mr. Wayne. Why did you ask me that anyway? About the dark and everything." Is he going to hold it against me? Does he think I'm less qualified to be Batman now?
"I wasn't really asking. More like I was affirming my suspicions."
What the heck was that supposed to mean?
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" I hope he didn't take that the wrong way. It came out of my mouth before I could adjust the attitude level.
"You show it in the way you interact with the night Terry. You have a healthy relationship with darkness." It sounded like it could have been a Wayne wisecrack, except there was no caustic or sardonic tone. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Childhood fear of the dark grows into a respect for everything that happens at night."
"Uhhh right... So what about the lumin-orb or the night light?"
"I could tell because you don't settle for blindness in the darkness. Others let the darkness mask their fears for false security. You would rather have the light and see your enemies face to face. That's why night after night you see more details from rooftops than most people do on danger's own level. You make yourself face the horrors that most people choose to shield themselves from."
For the third time that night I was again at a loss for words. Granted, he didn't even ask me a question that time, but I still felt like I needed to respond to that somehow.
"Was that a compliment Wayne? You'll spoil me yet."
"Don't get used to it McGinnis."
-------------------
The dream, the memory, dissolved before my eyes. And I awoke to the most frightening situation I could face at that moment. I was strapped to something. The wind resistance against my body and the mechanical rumbling beneath me told me it was a vehicle. A moving vehicle going high speed.
My head. I wanted to clutch it and rub the stabbing pain away. I wanted to rub my eyes and clear away the haze. I can't even see clearly anymore. It was like looking through gauze, or viewing the world through a 20th century TV with bad reception. I could feel heat of the sun through my suit so I knew it was day, but the dark swirls before my eyes suggested the darkness of night.
When are they going to stop hitting me in the head?
Then I heard the unmistakable sound of hover-cycles beside me. Jokers. A pack of them. The vehicle under me took a sudden dive. The abrupt vertical turn made my stomach lurch.
I swallowed. I was strapped to the Batmobile. No other hovercraft could do a straight drop with such terrifying ease. The Jokers were behind my wheels and messing with me.
"Hey Bats! How do you like this?"
I couldn't see who was yelling at me. One of the Joker pack. I blinked hard. No good. My vision was not clearing.
Under me, the Batmobile swooped from the down motion into a smooth horizontal glide. Just then I realized I had been holding my breath, and willed myself to breath again. It was terrifying not being able to see and anticipate what might come next.
I needed to fight, but I couldn't move, and I could barely see.
Just then, I heard the Batmobile hatch slide open behind me.
"This has been fun Batman, and it's a shame we have to total these wheels." I recognized the voice. Spike? Freddie? One of the leaders. "Say hi to City Hall for me."
What was he talking about? What was going on?
Suddenly one of the hover-bikes roared up close. Then I felt the side of the Batmobile dip down a bit before bouncing back up. I realized he had jumped from the vehicle and onto the hover-bike.
He had jumped ship and left the Batmobile moving on auto-pilot. Why?
I blinked hard and through my already dimmed vision, I saw the vague outline of a building getting closer.
City Hall, I was about to crash head first into City Hall.
I bit down hard, trying to brace myself for an impact that would most likely kill me.
But as if a miracle had been issue from some heavenly place, I felt the Batmobile starting to decelerate. It was slowing down.
Slowing, but not slowing fast enough. Inertia itself worked against me and we slammed into a brick surface, breaking through a layer of wall and finally coming to a painful stop.
Once again, my head had gotten the brunt of the damage. Before I could finish groaning, the Batmobile backed out of the wreckage. As the vehicle ascended into a higher altitude and began gliding away, I found that I couldn't sustain consciousness anymore. I drifted off into darkness again.
-------------------------
I'll have more later about what the Brady Bunch of villians are doing. Plus an explanation of what just happened to save Terry there.