"Damian… Damian wake up." Waking up to his mother's troubled voice, his sleepy eyes met with her worried gaze right above him.
"What happened?" He asked her as he tried piecing together the events from the previous night.
"I was hoping you could tell me. I found you passed out on the ground and was so relieved when I found your beating pulse. "
"I was attacked by a Intruder." He reported, quickly getting to his feet as he made full recollection of what had happened to him.
"He's being taking care of as we speak." She assured him, trying to keep Damian as far away from Tom a she possibly could.
"I wish to claim his head myself" Damian said to her, letting his anger known as he furrowed his eyebrows.
"You have to let go now, the others will take care of him." She said with a serious tone.
Surprised by her sudden change of tone, he pressed on no longer. "Okay." He replied.
"How do you feel?" She asked Damian, worried about what Tom might have done to him as she had seen first hand how creative Tom could get when causing others intense agony.
"Apart from a slight tingling sensation at the back of my neck, I think am alright." Damian reached for the back of his neck as he spoke, accessing it in check of injury.
"I'm glad you're alright, you can't possibly imagine how I felt when I saw you on the ground laying unconscious."
"Who is he anyway? As far as I know, there's no one who's crazy enough to infiltrate the League's base on a solo mission."
"It's a long story but your grandfather lured him here. On two occasions he has refused your grandfather's request to join the League as the right hand man to Ra's AL Ghul." Damian's eyes slightly widened in surprise upon hearing this.
"For your own safety you should stay in your room for the rest of the night, this isn't your fight. I'll check on you in the morning, got that?"
"Got it." Damian replied as Talia exited the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.
…
Taking a casual stroll along the hallways, Tom quickly ended every assassin who attacked him along the way.
There were so many booby traps planted at every corner and Tom triggered everyone of them as he admired how creative the league could be when it came to the art of killing.
The traps were embedded into the walls and the grounds of the hallway, making every turn a dangerous turn for intruders, but not for Tom.
He finally arrived at the underground cave of which Ra's was supposed to conduct the ritual, but no one was there. The huge underground space was dimly lit as a thick fog filled the air, completing the creepy contrast portrayed by the scenery.
"Hello Tom, I've been expecting you." A voice echoed from a distance. "You took longer than expected, but you are here now, that's what matters." The voice said as the figure of a man came into sight.
He got complete silence in return, as Tom intensely glared at him for a second before darting his way, grabbing on to his neck as he lifted him off the ground, one hundred and fifty percent sure that was the man who was behind all that fiasco.
"With the slightest squeeze of my hand, I could kill you right this instant. So better start telling me where you are holding Raven and I just might consider sparing your life, even immortals can be killed." Tom threatened as his pupils illuminated with an ominous glow, that was when he began to experience a strange feeling.
Tom abruptly dropped him as he stumbled a few steps backwards. "It seems to have finally kicked in, now we can have a little conversation before I proceed." He remained standing on that spot as he continued.
You are quite a remarkable young man for you to still have your sense of self after being exposed to a concentrated dose of a specially made vertigo formula, and still be on your feet after three minutes."
"Am assuming you must have already figured out who I am, come on, you're a smart kid." He said to a dizzy Tom who had slowly started hallucinating a second figure standing next to the man in front of him.
"Not entirely, but I'm guessing you're probably the narcissistic immortal bastard who kidnapped my girlfriend for power, and has had his men stalk my every move since I rejected your offer. Ra's motherfucking Al Ghul." Tom responded to him, squinting his eyes as he experienced difficulties focusing his eyes.
"I have to say I am quite impressed by the will power you display. If it had been someone else, they would have lost their sense of self already and given in to the narcotic's merciless influence."
'I don't have a single scratch on me, so how and when were they able to drug me without my knowledge?' Tom pondered, struggling to get his thoughts in order and forming an understandable sentence.
His eyes suddenly widened as the realization dawned on him. "The fog!!" He exclaimed, gesturing his hand into the air as he tried creating a strong gust of wind to clear the atmosphere but it yielded no results.
"I should probably warn you, you won't be able to access your powers for the meantime because your brain and other senses are completely disoriented by this specially formulated formula"
As Ra's spoke, Tom was distracted by a sudden loud ringing in both ears as he stumbled a little on his feet before dropping to the ground, leaning on one knee, as he suffered a severe loss of balance.
"You are temporarily disconnected from your powers for roughly twenty four hours. Which is more than enough time for me to subjugate Trigon and transmigrate my soul into you as I use your body as my new vessel."
Cough…*
"A vessel?"
*Cough…*
Tom asked, coughing through each word as he struggled with the effects of the narcotic, refusing to let go of his mental grip on reality as he was hallucinating the ground spinning and the rocky ceiling drawing way closer to his center of gravity as it morphed into an indescribable fourth dimensional shape.
"At long last." Ra's declared.
"After the long game of cat and mouse, I will finally take possession of that body. I've wanted it since the night I received a full report about the league's encounter with a boy who single handedly defeated an unit of assassins without getting as much as a scratch from it." Ra's took a brief pause as he stared at Tom for a few seconds.
"By acquiring your body and making use of your powers as I please, I will be reborn not just with your powers but also with direct access to the outer worldly powers of Trigon."
"Hold up, so the only reason you wanted me to join the League was so you could take possession of my body ad powers." Tom clarified.
"That's some seriously fucked up Orochimaru type shit." Tom muttered, as he tried getting up on his feet but found himself laying on his back all of a sudden.
"It's almost dawn, I suggest you save some of your strength by complying rather than fighting against the current. Both rituals will take place tonight and there is nothing you could do to stop it." Ra's said to Tom as he backed his words with an evil laugh, but didn't get a response from him.
"Take him away." Ra's ordered as he gestured towards Tom. Two assassins with their presence perfectly concealed in the dark, immediately emerged from the shadows as they both threw Tom's arms over their shoulders.
Ra's watched as they slowly carried Tom away, waiting to see if Tom would cave in to the fear factor of the drug and plead to him for mercy.
Annoyingly for him, Tom was stubborn and a bit too prideful to beg for his mercy. He refused to give Ra's the satisfaction of watching him gravel before his feet, begging for his life to be spared.
Taking one last glance at Tom before moving on, Ra's turned around and walked towards the opposite direction.
Although Tom's brain and senses were totally muddy, he maintained a neutral expression even as he looked behind, only to see an hallucination of two Ra's walking on the ceiling, upside down.
The assassins chained his hands and legs, as one of them aggressively pulled on the chain, dragging him like a slave as they pushed him to the ground of a dungeon cell before returning to their respective posts.
"There's no way in hell I would let him get his way." Tom declared in his dark cell, having a serious look in his eyes as he tried making use of his powers to escape his shackles but it was just one futile effort after another.
Unfortunately, Tom's powers enabled him to manipulate anything that possessed vector qualities, influencing them at an atomic level.
Due to his heavily disoriented state of mind, he was unable to access the mental connection he had for the manifestation of his powers. Tom leaned his back against the walls as he got into a meditative posture, trying his best to concentrate but his thoughts was more like a mosh pit up in his head.
Making his way into another area below the underground caves, Ra's proceeded to check up on Raven who laid motionless on a sacrificial alter. The alter was right at the middle of a pentagram which was drawn with blood they had extracted from her while she was sedated, blood related to Trigon.
Already lit candles were placed at specific points on the pentagram, completing the magic circle. Ra's walked around the consecrated grounds, supervising how far they had gotten with the preparations.
"Good morning, father." Talia greeted, from beside him.
"How are the preparations going?" He asked his daughter, Talia.
"Smoothly, all going according to plan." She replied.
"As expected, make sure everything is in order by tonight." He ordered.
"How about our intruder?" She inquired from her father, trying to conceal her curiosity.
"I admit his mental will far exceeded my expectations, at first he was unaffected but with time he eventually succumbed and is being held captive in the deep layers of the dungeons." As Ra's spoke with Talia, she observed Ra's ceremonial coffins were rolled in.
"What are those doing here? You don't need them for the ritual, do you?" Talia asked, wondering if the Head of the Demon wished to transfer his soul into the body of an actual demon child.
"Of course not." Ra's answered as he slowly walked around both coffins, inspecting the sacrificial blade as Talia followed by his side.
"I finally got my hands on an exceptional vessel, although he was quite elusive."
"He?" Talia inquired, hoping at the back of her mind that Ra's wasn't about to do what she was thinking. "You mean Tom?" She demystified.
"That's right. Tonight I will transmigrate my soul into his body so I gain full possession of his powers and vessel." Ra's made a sudden stop as he turned to her.
"By possessing both his unknown powers and that of Trigon's, I will be reborn with so much power that I could finally shape the world as it should be." He said with an barely noticeable hint of excitement in his voice.
"You don't seem pleased with the idea." Ra's pointed out, taking note of the unreadable expression she had on.
"It's a great plan, I was just taken by surprise that's all." Talia replied. "So that kid matches your definition of a perfect specimen for a vessel?" She asked. Although she was not sure of what made Tom so special but she finally realized why Ra's wanted Tom to join the League when he first heard of a kid who effortlessly slaughtered a number of his assassins.
"You don't have to worry about anything, daughter. You and Damian would join me at my side as we create a new and peaceful world, we would put an end to humanity's evil which has deeply poisoned the earth.
"Father, I look forward to the day you birth this dream into reality. It would be an honor wielding my blade in support of your vision ." Talia declared unto him as she was starting to have second thoughts about helping Tom stop her father.
Her earlier objective was to stop her father from dabbling with some kind of ancient magic which had no guarantee of subjugating Trigon, a demon who is known to be the personification of chaos and destruction.
As Ra's left to go prep up for the ritual, Talia was perplexed coming up with the right way to tell Tom that she betrayed him, but also try convincing him that she wasn't his enemy.
A wave of relief swept past her as she remembered Tom was in a dungeon cell and was soon to be injected with another dose of what he was previously given.
She let out a deep breath of relief as there was no better timing for Tom to be held captive in a dungeon. The ritual was to take place at the rise of the full moon that night and Tom was to be pumped full of another shot of his high.
…
The one mistake they made when capturing him was leaving his wrist watch on. After waking up to the dimly lit cell about half an hour ago, Tom woke up with the worlds biggest hang over, reminiscing on the nostalgic feeling of being ran over by a truck.
"It's finally morning." He muttered, reaching for the side of his head as he awoke to a banging headache.
"Damn, that's one hell of an hangover." It immediately came to his notice that his wrist watch was left on him and the thought of using it to laser through the locks of his cell was quite tempting.
As Tom surveyed the surroundings, he ran a quick assessment of his situation when it came to his notice that he could almost feel the vibrations of elementary particles on the ground he had his hands on.
Shutting his eyes, he tried bypassing the banging headache and ringing in his ears as he focused on reconnecting and strengthening his mental amplitude to wielding his powers.
About thirty minutes later, he was able to sort out a bit of his messy head and get a weak grip on his powers. "It's about damn time." He said with a smirk as he got an hang on his powers and levitated a few inches off the ground but fell back down as his powers flickered.
"I might only be at twenty percent and that should be enough, only downside would be I can barely focus on one thing at a time." He mumbled.
He could have probably started up his search for Raven that minute but instead he stayed behind to gather his strength, laid back as he tried adapting to the hangover from the vertigo when he heard the sound of people approaching.
The gate at the entrance to the dungeon was swung open as two assassins cautiously approached his cell.
"His acting a little differently from earlier, I think the drug is out of system. We have to warn the others." One informed the other who immediately jolted back out the entrance he just came through.
Haha Haha*
"Haha, very funny." He sarcastically remarked upon hearing the laugh of mockery from the other.
"He's still knocked out on his ass, "You could some see for yourself." He called the other, barely able to contain his laughter.
"There's no need to approach him like he's some wild animal. He should still be under the influence, after all the type of vertigo he was exposed to was so concentrated that it would kill a normal individual. " One whispered to the other, playfully slapping his head as he was almost scared to death by the thought of Tom having regained himself.
They quickly hushed themselves as they cautiously draw on to the bars of his cell. "Hey, where did he go?" One asked the other with a frightened voice as they noticed Tom was no longer laying there as he was doing about a second ago.
"Gentlemen." They froze right that instant as the voice addressed them from behind. "Welcome to my dungeon, it's the best low budget getaway you could get around these parts, except with terrible customer service, you guys really suck at that." He added as they simultaneously raised their hands in surrender.
"Get in the cell." Tom instructed, following behind them as they complied and went into the cell.
Without saying another word, Tom ripped off one of the metal bars, easily bending it to seal the cage. Since the locks had already been broken by him about half an hour before they came for him.
As he made his way to the surface, he came up to the night time, with a full moon high up in the night sky. "Oh, shit." He muttered as he realized his watch meant eleven PM and not eleven AM.
The ritual was bound to take place at twelve midnight when the moon is at its apex, that was why they came to grab him so both rituals could be done before twelve thirty.
Enraged by this realization, he knew he definitely had to hurry if he was going to stop Ra's al Ghul from getting his hands on the power of Trigon and definitely off Raven.
"Face me Ra's, or are you too busy hiding behind the skirt of your daughter!!" He yelled, amplifying his voice as it reverberated through the halls.
"His awake, he must have regained himself before the guards were able to inject him with another dose." Talia said to her father who seemed like he was infuriated, but looked pleased by how reluctant Tom could be.
"Finally, it would have been quite a bore if that was all it took to keep him down." Ra's said with a smirk tugged to the side of his lips. "Place her on the alter, we shall begin the ritual before he makes it down here." He instructed.