Dick Grayson
Chapter 24
The End (Part 10)

Here I am, sneaking my way inch by inch through a long dark tunnel that seems to never end. All the while, I feel excited about holding Barbs hand. She seems to be pretty scared since she's holding my hand so hard. As we walk, we stay in silence until we both see a small hint of light in the distance. I stop and let go of her hand. We both quickly race to the corner of the wall and poke our heads around. There appears to be a long corridor full of doors on each side of the walls. At the very end we could see what looks like an elevator door.

"Looks like we found an exit." I say as I smile at Barb.

"No shit Sherlock. Quit standing around and let's get out of this place. I hate being in caves." She grunts and rushes ahead of me.

I move in behind her, but my legs suddenly stop moving and I fall face first into the ground. I land so hard that I must've blacked out because all I see is darkness. All the while, I continue to fall until I land on some weird soft cushion. Light quickly flashes before my eyes and a dark figure could be seen making its way towards me. Before it could touch me, sirens fill my ears and I awake. I'm standing still while Barb is in the distance racing to the elevator.

"Come on Dick, hurry up!." She says as the sirens all around us continue to go off. Just then, all the doors open and smoke fills the air. As I was about to enter the corridor, a glass wall quickly drops down in front of me and Barb is in the hallway by herself. She stops running and stares back at me. I can see her lips moving but I cannot hear anything she is saying. Her face says it all though. Not moments later, did men in hazmat suits come out and begin heading towards Barb.

"Hey! You leave her alone! Leave her alone!" I should as I begin pounding on the glass wall in front of me. But the men did not care, they just continued to walk towards her. She starts kicking and punching as they neared her. One by one did they go down, but no matter how many punches and kicks she throughout, it seemed like the men would not stop coming out of those rooms. I look through my pockets, but find nothing of any use. I look around the area, but all I see are rocks and more rocks. So I lean down and pick up the largest boulder I could find and start slamming it against the glass. One, two, three slams and a crack begins to form. Before I can slam it again, a hand comes out from behind me and grabs the boulder. It is taken away from me and an all too familiar voice is heard.

"Oh little one. You should not try to help. No matter if you break your way in, will it help you in any way to help her escape. You would just be taken down with her."

I turn around and see that it is Vandal Savage. He smirks and throws the boulder to the side. He lands one good punch to my stomach and I go down on my knees almost instantly. The pain in my stomach is unbearable. It felt like I was punched with a bag full of bricks. Even the taste of blood fills my mouth as I try to speak.

"Vandal…..so I guess my hunch about you was right…"

He laughs at me and places his hands behind his back.

"Oh dear boy. Of course you were right. I'm the one who directed you this way."

"What? Why and how?" I raise an eyebrow and try to take a stand.

"You see, ever since you saved me from the League, I've had some sort of strange link to you. At first I thought I was just having some type of fantasy about you for saving me, but night after night I would have unusually dreams. I would dream of dressing myself up as a crime fighter and began running around a city fighting off bad guys. I began to talk, think and act like a child when I would be awake and I could see very well that it was no mere dreams or fantasies. I spoke about it with a friend of mine and they told me I was magically linked to you."

"Yeah? I'm surprised he didn't say you were gay for me too while he was at it." I let out a chuckle and press my right hand over the glass to help me stand up straight.

"But let me guess….you want to kill me or something in order to cut off our connection?"

He laughs at me again and steps closer to me.

"Kill you? Hah! Don't be stupid child. If I wanted you dead, you would be already. Oh no no. On the contrary. I need you to be alive. There is something inside of you that I must have if I want to rule this world."

I raise an eyebrow and shrug my shoulders.

"What are you talking about? I'm just a kid. I don't know what I could possibly have that you would want."

"Why the light of course dear boy. You carry the bolt of magic. I'm not sure how you got it or why I am so drawn to you and it, but all I know is that I must have it!" just then he punches me in the face and wraps his arms around my arms. He squeezes me so that I am unable to move but can still breath.

"Don't worry my boy, I know all too well what happens if I threaten your life. So don't even worry about passing out again." He nods his head and the glass wall opens. I see barb panting hard as the men are only inches away from her. Vandal moves in and takes me into one of the rooms. All I hear is screaming as the door behind us shuts. I feel so bad for being here. I should have never brought her with me. This was something I should have done on my own.

"Bah, don't feel so sad. I can feel what you feel boy. She will be fine. I ordered them to restrain her until we are done." He throws me into a chamber and the whole room begins to move. I turn around and the wall behind me is see through. A giant dome was before us and it was glowing yellow. Quickly the room moved. It took us close to the dome and a piece of the wall opened for our room to enter. Inside the dome was pure darkness. Only Vandals cold red eyes could be seen in the distance as the room slowly stopped. The chamber I was in began to fill with water.

"Hey hey! What's going on here!"

Vandal vanishes and a light turns on. I see him in the distance. He too was now in a chamber as well. One that was directly across from mine.

"Relax boy. Like I said before, your not going to die."

He says that, but this water is up to my neck already and it doesn't seem like its going to stop any time soon. I continue to stare at Vandal as the water now reaches the top of the chamber. I can hear nothing but the sound of my own heart beat as I try my best to hold my breath. I'm sure that it has been a minute by now. I can feel my lungs start to give out and I can't help but to grab my nose and grind my teeth. No matter how much I tried, I cannot seem to hold my breath anymore. Life slowly drains away….

Grayson blacks out.

The scene turns to Barbara Gordon who is now in the custody of the hooded man. The are in a large Hub room that is above the dome that Grayson and Vandal are within. From where they are, they can bare witness to everything that is happening and will happen.

"Oh come on now, stop doing that to him! Please let him go. He's going to die!." Says Barbara as she tries to break free from two Hazmat men holding her down. The hooded man slowly walks over and places his hands over his hood. He pulls it off and the face of what appeared to be a skeleton with a crown over his head is seen. Barbara gasps in fear and stops struggling at the sight of such a creature.

"You children and your fascination with death. First the boy and now you. Do you really think we look like the kind of people who kill children for the fun of it?" the skeleton grinds his teeth and turns around to look at Grayson from afar.

"And no child. I am no Grim Reaper if that's what your thinking. They once called me Faust. Felix Faust until that stupid Amazon boiled the very flesh off my bones centuries ago….but no worries. After today, I will have flesh once again."

Just then, all the lights shut off and emergency red flashes begin to go on and off. One of the men's radios turn on.

"Kzzzzz, he's here! Gah! The freakin Bat is here and he's…AHH!"

It shuts off and all flashing lights shut off.

"Bah! Stupid men." Barbara could hear the Felix doing something with his hands from where she was and in a matter of seconds his hands begin to glow. Although, his arms were encased in some type of tube that is connected with wires that seem to go from their room, all the way to the dome below. In an instant, the word…

"SHAZAM!"

Could be heard in the distance and a lightning bolt shot straight down onto Grayson's chamber. Down below in the chamber, a large man was now standing and punching on the walls. With every punch, thunder could be heard. Vandal on the other hand was standing in his chamber. He stood there dressed in a black suit with a yellow lightning bolt over his chest. His arms cross over one another as he watched the other chamber.

Back to Barbara, Faust is laughing like a mad man as he starts to chant some words in an unknown language. Every word he muttered, the chambers would glow brighter. At the very top of the dome, a small globe could now be seen. Within it was the shard that Vandal held earlier. The globe suddenly turned into darkness and what appeared to be a black hole sparked from within. Felix stops speaking and pulls his hands out of the tubes. His hands were once again flesh, and so was his face. He smirked and placed his hands over the windows and they vanished into thin air. He began floating to the black hole and in seconds he was sucked in. Batman soon appeared in the room with Barbara and quickly knocked out the two men holding her. He rushes to where the window once stood and took in the scene. The hole continued to get bigger and bigger. It soon consumed Vandal and the man in Grayson's chamber. Batman quickly rushed to Barbara and wrapped his cape around her.

"Sorry miss Gordon…I think I was too-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM

From far above the grounds of the Park, the entire earth sunk down. The entire stretch of the park was consumed within the black hole which soon vanished after devouring all that it wanted. In a matter of minutes, the police, firemen and even unseen heroes appeared to investigate. All that could be found was a single Batarang at the center of the large crater below.

Green Arrow who was on the scene, jumps down to pick up the Batarang.

"Hot damn….no way this is it….is this The End of him?"

The End

Authors Note:

Thanks for reading and waiting so long to get a conclusion to this never ending ride. This may be the end of this story, but a new chapter will surface soon. So sit back, relax and wait for the next story arc to begin.

Thanks readers!

J.S.