The story continues... thanks for the reviews... oh i own none of em, just my story :O)
"So, you going to fill me in?" I asked without trying to sound to petulant, I mean what can I say, things were starting to get just a little serious.
"I suppose it is time Richard, however, it shall not be I that, fills you in, as you put it. It shall be someone else with whom you are acquainted." Said the women, who in all honesty I had just realised that I had not called her by her name since I met her, or whatever this was, in whatever this existence passed for.
That's when things just went from normal night with twenty thugs wanting my attention at once, to like forty or fifty thugs wanting my attention at one time, in other words, right out of control.
From within a golden light, well I could see someone, what looked like a woman, and before I knew what was happening, the woman I had been talking to was gone, and this woman was in her place, and this woman, I knew her. Yet I shouldn't have.
Something wasn't right.
"Hello again Richard, or should I call you Dick?" She said in a voice filled with pride, which was also somewhat unnerving.
"Uh, either will be fine... I know you don't I?"
"Of course you do Dick, we met last time you died."
**
Back in Gotham the calls had gone out. Alfred had invited the heroines known as Batwoman and the Birds of Prey to the Mansion. It was time to get going. Wasn't it?
Alfred was busying himself upstairs in the manor preparing various things for their arrival and Selina had been taking a catnap in her room, which left me on my own, down in the cave, in the darkness, and yet, I was bathed in the dull glow of one of the massive screens in the Batcave, so even though it was dark and I had the main lighting off, it was still light enough to see me from the staircase.
On the screen in front of me was a list of various crimes that had been committed in the last few weeks that I hadn't had a chance to deal with yet. Bruce would have dealt with them by now, but I wasn't Bruce, was I? I stopped myself, berating myself for not being Bruce wouldn't get me anywhere.
Another screen popped open on the main display, a car was just outside the main gates, and it was quickly joined by a second. I hit the comm button and told Alfred our guests had arrived, only after I gave both cars a quick scan with the new sensor grid I had installed in the Manor grounds.
Alfred in his traditional manner informed me Miss Kyle was waiting for them at the main door, and I should make sure I was there to greet my guests. My guests? In the past they were Bruce's guests, which I guess made it easier for me, I was his side kick along for the ride. But Bruce was gone, and now I was the main attraction, I was the drawing card, I was the Master of the Manor, and they had come when I had called.
I looked down at my suit and wondered if I was making the right call, sure they were all capable heroines in their own regard, and some damn good ones at that, but this was Gotham, and people who were known as heroes and heroines of Gotham had a nasty habit of dying lately. Or was it just people who were linked to me?
**
The Darkness was near now.
Yes to its destination, but even nearer to what the fireflies would have called a gateway, had they still been alive. Yes a gateway, a short cut, a hyper speed slip portal or something to that effect.
Its travel time would be greatly decreased. Instead of months it would be hours. It would have its herald. Even from this great distance, it could feel its herald's bones lying in slumber. The gateway allowed it, and so much more.
The false prophet was already on Earth. The man known as Black Hand, a pawn in the Darkness' game. It would use him to bring his herald from death's cold door and bring him back to existence.
But even from this distance, it felt something else. It did something that humans would call smiling. Or it would have had it had a face.
Space in front of the darkness began to change, it began to become murky. The stars became dull, the space became distorted and the darkness moved forward, and into the gateway.
**
I was still sat at the massive screen when I heard a small noise come from the top of the stairs, the clock was being moved out of the way, someone was coming down. How long had I zoned out for? I turned off the screen and the cave was plunged into darkness for a split second before the sub-lighting on the stairs came on.
Even from where I was seated I could see the soft blue light reflect up from the stone steps that had been carved out of the cave walls. For a few seconds that would be all the light the systems would turn on. When whomever was coming down the steps made it a quarter of the way down, the cave's systems would start turning on more lighting, nothing major, but just some more of the sub-lighting that would let people see their way around the massive cave.
I listened, footsteps, from one, two, no four people. Women, no men. That meant Alfred was probably coming down in the elevator with Barbara, Babs, Oracle, man I was getting nervous. I didn't know if they were coming here to yell at me or to talk to me, or with me. I mean I did kick everyone out of Gotham.
Sure enough the gentle hum from the elevator could be heard filling the cave. I reached over and typed in a silent command to illuminate the area where the elevator opened out onto, which just happened to overlook one of the major vehicle bays the cave had somehow housed for all these years.
The footfalls were becoming louder, I could already pick out Selina and Huntress, otherwise known as Helena Bertinelli, a school teacher by day and a crime fighter by night, but the other two I couldn't quite pick out. One was Misfit, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe, a young woman who had recently joined up with Oracle after a stint as a new Batgirl, and had the ability to teleport, whilst the final woman was Kate Kane, otherwise known as Batwoman.
No Black Canary, unless she was in the elevator. But I'd doubt it. I had heard there had been a rift between Dinah and Barbara but didn't know anything concrete. Guess she wasn't coming.
The footfalls stopped at the bottom of the staircase, the elevator doors opened and Barbara Gordon rolled out in her wheel chair with Alfred behind her. I stood up and walked over to the edge of the main platform, the lights still not fully on. Everyone in the cave could just about see the outline of the Batmobile which was surrounded by mini spotlights sunk into the floor, and the outline of the speed boat which was known as the Batboat which was resting in water and lit from underneath in a similar manner to the car.
"Computer, lights, fifty percent." I uttered to no one in particular.
Slowly but surely lights began to come on around the cave, they gently came on, so not to blind anyone with their sudden brightness. Sure enough there everyone was, just where I thought they would be. Everyone of them was impeccably dressed, it looked like a small army of fortune 500 types posing for a fashion shoot. Hell who was I to talk in my five figure three piece suit.
"Welcome." I said with a smirk, "to the Batcave." I noticed a smile on Selina's face, and what I thought was the start of a smile on Helena's but I wasn't quite sure. Barbara looked neutral thus far and Kate looked a little nervous standing alongside Charlotte who looked like she didn't know whether to be delirious or scared, this was the Batcave after all and she was still relatively new to the game.
I ushered them to the table which had one chair removed for Barbara and waited for everyone to take their places until only Alfred and I were left standing.
Alfred looked at me and I nodded, I knew he wanted to head back up to the Manor and continue preparations for dinner. He had faith in my abilities, he knew he didn't have to stand watch over me.
I waited till he was at the elevator and the doors were closing before taking my seat.
I looked at the faces looking back at me and smiled.
**
I was walking alongside a lake with this woman, and listening intently to what was happening. The Green Lantern Corps had been corrupted. A Guardian had turned rogue and they didn't even know. The Guardians themselves were corrupting the Corps with the new rules, or the abolition of the old ones. I wasn't quite sure on that point.
There was an entity coming for revenge.
Something more fearful than the Sinestro Corps.
Something angrier and more full of rage and hate than the Red Lanterns, which I had first hand experience of.
No this would be the end.
This would be the reset switch being hit.
Whether there would be an actual restart or just everything being wiped out would be another story.
"So, you have told me hell is about to rain down on Earth, you haven't told me why?"
"That's simple Dick, it wants something, something that can only be found on Earth."
"What's that?" I asked, half dreading the answer, half already wondering if I already knew.
"It want's a herald, someone who can control and lead its Armies into battle."
"An ultimate warrior?"
"Something like that."
"It wouldn't be Superman Prime would it?"
"No, its not Prime." The woman said with a sad voice. "But he is another issue for another day."
"Okay, I see, then who is it?"
She didn't say anything, she just looked at me and I knew, the sadness in her eyes told me it wasn't going to be good. This darkness was going to raise the dead.
"Part of the Darkness's powers is that it can reanimate the dead. Give them a second chance at existence." The woman began. "But you must understand, that this existence is by no means life."
We started walking again, or rather, she started walking again and I followed.
"It brings them back to existence, and they walk like they did when they were alive. They act with traits of their past lives, their abilities, their memories, their characteristics that made them who they were, all returned to them intact, but with one difference, and only one, they are filled with pure malevolent darkness, and nothing else."
"So no good at all?"
"None. But there is hope." She began before stopping to look at me again. "There is you."
"Wait, me? How can I stop this?" I blurted in shock and awe.
"Because it is your destiny, and if you accept our offer, our request, you shall be our champion, you shall be heaven's only hope against all the hell that is about to be unleashed on the universe in which you came from.
"As we speak the darkness is heading to Earth to claim its champion, but it cannot, for even though its champion's body is indeed dead and buried, he lives on in the past. Lost in time, but forging through it like the legend he was, and when the darkness realises it cannot have its herald, we will have a chance."
"How so?"
"The darkness will still attempt to raise its herald, and in doing so will bring forth the man lost in the past."
"Are we talking about the same man here." I said, hope beginning to build that he was actually alive.
"Yes. His return is closer than ever intended, but his fate, along with the rest of reality lies in your hands."
She smiled at put an old hand on my arm.
"If you take up our offer we will send you across realities to another world where you no longer exist in any form and will give you knew life, you shall be reborn in the truest sense of the word, and with this new life we shall give you a way to return home and battle the darkness. It's herald, its army, will all be unstoppable without your help. Do you accept the challenge before you, I will not blame you if you say no?"
I stopped and thought. Looked into the sky and looked around at this "limbo" I was trapped in. It wasn't a bad place to spend eternity. I had fought so long. So hard. Lost so much. Given so damn much.
"Is their a chance that the darkness will be defeated without me?" I asked turning away to look out over the lake.
"There is always a chance Dick, but your destiny was to be the one to lead the light. If you decide to pick another destiny it will be done, your destiny will pass to another. But what you must ask ..."
"Send me back." The words came out without me thinking.
"Pardon?" She asked.
"Send me back, or to wherever it is I am going, and do it now before I change my mind." I said. No smile, no hint at wit. I just wanted to go, go before I changed my mind.
"I knew you'd make the right call." Another voice.
I spun and looked past the woman I had been speaking to.
It was them.
"Who...?" I already knew.
"You make us proud every day." Now he spoke.
I felt a tear roll down my cheek. This wasn't happening. Not now. Not after all this time.
"We knew you'd do the right thing, no matter the cost." It was her voice. I knew it so well, even though it had been so long.
"Wait, you... why now?" I asked, tears streaming down my face.
"This is Limbo my little Robin. You aren't meant to see us, but they are looking the other way." It was him, it was him and it was her.
"Be strong, do what has to be done, and don't worry, we will meet again, when the time is right." I was losing it.
I could smell the fragrance she wore the night she died, the fragrance that she always wore, the one I hadn't experienced since that night.
Then they began to fade. The light began to take them, the same way the light had brought them.
"One day?" I asked as they vanished back into the light.
"Yes my boy, my son, my hero, one day." It was her voice, and it was gone.
I spun to look for the other woman.
She was gone.
The lake, the surrounding area. All gone.
I was alone in the light.
Then I was falling.
A word.
A destination.
I was falling faster....
The light was bleeding....
I was moving so fast the light was whipping past me and instead of light at the end of the tunnel.
It was darkness.
I heard a voice.
Old, as if it was from before existence existed.
I smiled.
I thought I saw a glimmer of something off to the side, a reflection of light on a dark surface.
"I'll be seeing you." I whispered to my self as I continued to fall, and the light enveloped me whole.
