No Wayne Home

Chapter 5

Present Day

Earth-66

"Dick." A man's voice whispered from the alleyway near Pearl and Phillips, just outside the newly remodeled Monarch Theater.

Dick Grayson, now seventy seven years old, was walking back home towards his apartment when he heard the voice. He instantly dropped what he had in his hand because it was the voice of a man he hadn't heard for nearly fifty four years.

"Bruce?" Dick shuttered, squinting his eyes, piercing into the shadows of the alleyway.

Dick then shook his head. "Nah, that couldn't have been Bruce. I must be imagining things," he said to himself. "Bruce left a long time ago," he muttered under his breath.

Then, from out of the shadows, walked Bruce Wayne.

"What the hell is going on here!?" Dick blurted. "You can't be Bruce Wayne. You are too young to be him." he made note of Bruce's ageless appearance. "Bruce would have been ninety three years old by now… and probably DEAD! You don't look a day over forty!"

"It's me, old chum." Bruce piped up, holding his hands out, waving for Dick to get a better look. "I can explain everything."

Dick thought the man's voice replication of Bruce was uncanny.

"This is impossible! I don't believe you! You're an imposter!" Dick bellowed. "The real Bruce Wayne left and never came back! So, whatever it is you think you are doing, I'm not going to be fooled."

"Dick, I swear to you it is me! You must allow me to explain what happened… PLEASE."

"Fine!" Dick projected. "You have one minute to explain where you have been for the last fifty some odd years and how it's possible that you don't look any older than the day you left!"

"It might take a bit longer than a minute to explain, but do you remember the last day we worked together? The Bat-computer had been receiving strange signals from an unknown source. It didn't seem like a threat at the time. But… the next day, while you were heading off to class, I took the liberty of further studying the signals. First I realized the signal was some sort of count down; and it was getting faster and faster. I then discovered that the signals were coming from an area in the Bermuda Triangle. I knew I had to investigate the anomaly. I wanted to let you know, but you were taking the midterm exams for your freshman year of college… and you know how important a good education can be… so I took the Bat-copter and went to investigate it for myself. I'm sorry, I should have told you what I was doing. I didn't even let Alfred know. I was foolish.

I was going to report to you what I had discovered, but upon entering the Bermuda Triangle, the Bat-copter malfunctioned, and I was forced to make an emergency landing on a desolate island. Being a man of excellent geographical knowledge, I knew this was an island that nobody had ever discovered yet… or so I thought.

The island was magnificent. It had the most colorful flowers I had ever seen before… and they were much larger than most other Eukaryotes by their same name. Plus… it seemed as if they had a way to communicate with me… almost as if they knew what I was thinking. I know it sounds weird… and it's still difficult for me to fathom, but I actually believe the plants were evolving like humans.

Upon further exploration of the island, I discovered that Mr. Freeze was conducting experiments there."

Dick quickly interrupted. "That's preposterous! Mr. Freeze would never be caught doing experiments on a tropical island!"

"Exactly, old chum! Those were my thoughts as well! But… upon stumbling on his operation, I learned that he was being controlled by someone I had never seen before; a beautiful redheaded vixen of vines named Poison Ivy. She was holding hostage Freeze's wife, Nora, making Freeze do whatever she wanted him to do. Her plan was to freeze every major city in the world, sending them back to the ice-age. Then, after the cities thawed, plants would thrive like never before; free of pollution... and mankind."

"Freezing cities? Again… this all seems impossible." Dick declared.

"Nothing is impossible, Dick. In fact, Impossible. Is. Nothing."

"But how? How would this Vixen of Vines be able to pull off such an elaborate plan? It would take a form of technology nobody had ever seen before."

"Exactly right, my old friend! Technology. Nobody. Had. Ever. Seen. Before.

It all started July 16th, 1969, when the mission for the Apollo Eleven space shuttle was launched towards the moon. At the same time, Freeze had launched his own shuttle. But… it was no shuttle he launched… It was a giant freeze ray, capable of freezing major cities in a matter of seconds. Poison Ivy must have found out about the weapon and decided to use it for her own dastardly deeds. And- their first city they were going to use it on was none other than Gotham City itself.

When I discovered their plans, I knew I had to stop them, but I only had a matter of minutes to think of a plan because they had already initiated the weapon.

After quickly rendering Ivy and Freeze unconscious, I moved in to try and stop the weapon from firing. But, upon doing so, I discovered that the weapon had no fail safe… and it was going to fire within seconds. I knew if that happened I would lose everyone I had ever cared about.

There was only one option at that time… I had to change the coordinates of the weapon. I figured if I made the freeze ray blast the island, it would seize up the telecommunications being relayed from the operating system to the weapon in space. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but I had to try.

When the freeze blast hit, everything on the island turned to ice… including me. Despite being in a complete frozen state, my brain was somehow still able to function. However, I couldn't feel anything. I didn't even have a heartbeat.

For years I pondered how any of this was possible. The only conclusion I could come up with was that there must have been something special about the experiments that Ivy had been performing; allowing me to stay in some sort of frozen dream state of mind. Nevertheless, I couldn't move, and I didn't know if the ice weapon had been stalled or not. It wasn't until I was finally thawed out from several years of sunlight shining down that I could finally move again. Imagine how relieved I was when I discovered that the machine had indeed stopped its transmission and everyone on the planet was saved. I was also shocked to find out that I hadn't aged a day since the incident."

"Hmm… Poison Ivy might have been onto something." Dick stated.

"How so?"

"Well… over the last fifty years, the planet has become polluted with natural resources, causing our atmosphere to become thinner, allowing the Polar Ice Caps to begin melting. One day our entire planet may be under water."

"What?! Why haven't the powers that be stopped this from happening?"

"Greed! Our politicians would rather accept bribes than stop it."

"Money! Of course... The root of all evil! I should have known!"

"Maybe you should have allowed Ivy to succeed. Then, I wouldn't have had to live such a terrible life."

"What do you mean?"

"Things were never the same after you left. Alfred and I spent years looking for you… that is, until Alfred fell ill. He just couldn't believe you were gone. He soon died, leaving me the entire estate.

I tried continuing to fight crime for a while, alongside Batgirl, but terrible things would soon transpire."

"What? What terrible things, Dick?"

"First, I should tell you that Batgirl and I got married. Her real name was Barbara Gordon, Commissioner Gordon's daughter."

"Hmm… that actually makes a lot of sense."

"A year later Barbara was pregnant with our child. Barbara had to stop fighting crime. It didn't take long for her father to figure out that we were Robin and Batgirl. He already had his suspicions when Batman and Bruce Wayne came up missing at the same time. After he confronted me, I told him the truth.

After that… I still continued fighting crime, except, Barbara didn't work with me anymore and her father decided to start working with me instead. Knowing he had a grandchild on the way made him want to get back out on the streets and clean them up. Not to mention, it also seemed to revitalize the old man.

One day, after Barbara had been pregnant for about six months, I discovered that the Joker was up to no good again. I followed his goons to an abandoned fairground where I discovered that the Joker had gotten ahold of a nuclear warhead. He must have known I was following them because when I got there they managed to trap me in a warehouse. The Joker then began trying to bludgeon me with a crowbar… nearly killing me in the process. However, thankfully Gordon found me just in time and shot the Joker directly in his chest before he could do any more damage to me. After Joker was hit, there was nothing but silence… no more maniacal laughter. I then checked for a pulse, but there was nothing. I didn't even try to do CPR. At that moment I knew the world was better off without him… especially since Barbara and I were bringing a baby into it. But… karma would soon have the last laugh.

About nine months after Junior was born, one year to the day that Gordon shot the Joker, I was trying to round up the last of the Joker's goons, when I realized there was something big going down. The goons seemed to have gotten wise to my strategies, almost as if they knew my every move. I figured they might have now been working for the Riddler or Penguin.

Soon, I found myself trapped in an endless maze and I needed help.

Barbara had been visiting with her father that day, allowing him time to spend with his grandson, but I decided to call Gordon and let him know about my location. He left his house and tried to find me.

And… That's when it happened.

Somehow the Joker was still alive… and he showed up at Gordon's home to seek revenge for what had happened a year before. Instead, the Joker discovered Barbara was there. He shot her in the stomach, paralyzing her instantly. He raped her... And then that bastard took our son!"

"Oh. My. God!"

"I tried looking for him, even more than I tried looking for you… but they were nowhere to be found. They just disappeared off the face of the planet… just like you did. The Joker never showed his face ever again. I have no idea what became of mine and Barbara's son."

"I'm so sorry, old chum. I had no idea."

"After that, Barbara and I decided to go our separate ways. I hung up the Robin outfit and became an alcoholic, stewing away in my own sadness. I lost all of the Wayne fortune. Now I live in a small crappy apartment about a mile from here."

Bruce looked down at the broken bottle of wine on the ground that had fallen out of Dick's hands after he first startled him in the alleyway. "I can totally understand why you gave up. That is a terrible thing to go through. During my years, frozen in solitude, I too had given up hope that I would ever be freed. I had terrible visions about other men dressed up as Batman trying to destroy the world. I'll never forget the wicked grin on the face of the Batman who laughed. He looked as if the Joker and I had somehow been morphed into one another. I just wanted it to all be over with. After I was thawed out, I immediately found my way back to Gotham City so that I could look for you."

"What will you do now?" Dick asked.

"I will return to fighting crime as Batman. I will find out what happened to your son."

"HA! You think you will be able to figure out something that I wasn't able to do for years? That's a joke! Maybe you and him did morph into one person! The world forgot about Batman. I forgot about Batman. I suggest you do the same. Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman are all dead. Joker is probably dead as well… and I'm willing to bet… so is my son."