The phantom turned slowly, his hands slowly moving above his head. Behind him is a strong-looking man with a strange gauntlet on his arm, and a laser sight aimed directly at his chest.
Batman:You must be the one I’m looking for.
Tony:*motioning toward Juan* And you must be the one he’s been waiting for.
Wise you are, my sons.
A moment later, Yoda pops through the window and sits on the desk, awakening Juan from his sleep as Pete flips on the light of the room.
Yoda:Bruce Wayne, meet Tony Stark.
Batman:Delighted.
Tony:Likewise.
Aye-Aye:*sleepily* Hi Master Yodaz.
********
In the moments that ensued, Juan told Batman and Master Yoda of the boys’ kindness in letting him stay, and the great anguish that had gripped his heart. Yoda told Juan of his coming to this world. Batman said nothing at all. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the strange object on Tony’s arm.
Batman:*to Tony* That’s quite the bit of hardware you have there.
Tony:Oh, thanks. The pieces to build it are hard to come by.
Batman:Pieces?
Tony:Old stereo systems, computers – you know, stuff no one wants anymore.
Batman:Impressive.
Tony:Well, it’s really just a prototype at this point – once school calms down I should be able to focus on it more.
Peter:By “more” he means “more than five hours a day.”
Yoda:Bruce, Tony’s brother this is.
Peter:Peter Parker.
Batman:Brothers?
Peter:Uh, yeah.
Batman:So how come the names...?
Peter:Um, well... we don’t really don’t know, actually.
Tony:But we look close enough, don’t we?
Batman:Yeah. Your resemblance is... striking.
Aye-Aye:They’s been really nice to me’s, Batman. I was gonna drownz before they’s came and brought me here’s.
Peter:Good thing, too – as we picked him up, I felt like something was watching him...
Tony:He gets those “feelings” sometimes. But they don’t always add up all the time, if you know what I mean.
Batman:Well, I don’t know about any “feelings,” but I had to fight off a bear outside on my way up – looked like he was heading for the same window I was.
Tony:Really?
Batman:Not to say there’s any causal relationship or anything...
Peter:I knew it! I have a gift!
Aye-Aye:*gulp*
Tony:Oh, nevermind that. What brings you here, Bruce? Juan here was trying to tell us that you come from another world... and at this point, I guess I could believe it.
Yoda:Far away indeed this world is, and yet, so far it is not. It is to this world they are returning, and it is there, too, we home you will come.
Tony:What?
Batman:He’s right. Before Juan and I came here, we and many more – all of them heroes, good friends of mine – were attacked by a dark power rising from the shadows. We were driven from that world by those forces...
Yoda:The whole truth, Bruce, you must reveal.
Batman:I tried to take them from that world, and ended up here with Juan, the rest of our comrades lost. They are still trapped in that space between worlds, and the road back... it has been blocked to me. Now Master Yoda has a small opening of time in which he can get me back.
Aye-Aye:We’s is going home?
Batman:*smiles* Yes, Juan. We’re going home.
Aye-Aye:Hurrayz!!!!
Batman:But our world is still far from perfect. It is dangerous. That is why I need your help.
Tony:Our help?
Yoda:Your company, he means to say. To go with him, he is asking of you.
The boys are understandably shocked at this proposition – if it is indeed a proposition. They’ve heard of strange things, mysteries happening before, and had even read of stories where people from our world were transported to another, but never for even a moment had they ever fancied it to be true.
Batman:*earnestly* Please. The fate of my world may depend on it.
Peter:But why us?
Yoda:Gifted are you both, and no accident was this that so you are. Courageous as well, as soon you shall see.
Batman:I will not lie to you. The road away is dangerous, more so now than ever before now that I have abandoned it.
Tony:But you made it here, didn’t you? You survived when others did not. Surely if you made it in the darkest hour, you are strong enough to fight the darkness you speak of.
Batman:*angrily* I am unworthy even to stand before you! I am unworthier than any of you can possibly imagine!
Then, as suddenly as it began, the anger melts away, leaving only pain and desperation in its wake.
Batman:But I am asking you to help me. The consequences are mine alone to face... but I know that I cannot face them alone.
Yoda:Our world, it has no more heroes. Its new heroes you can be.
Tony turns to Peter, who nods.
Peter:*smiles* Well, I’m still not sold that we’ll manage to be of much help, but we’re in anyway.
Tony:I hope you’re a good teacher – we’ll need to learn every trick you have.
Batman:*smiles* Master Yoda, I am ready.
Yoda:Good. We have not much time.
********
In less than an hour, the scenery has changed dramatically. Instead of being snug and dry in the boy’s dorm room, they are now standing atop the tallest building, and looking up at the copula stretching toward the storming sky.
Peter:Um, you didn’t say anything about heights...
Batman:Don’t worry – you get used to it.
Peter:*grits teeth and doesn’t look down*
Yoda:*to Batman* To the top of the tower you must go. Once there, a beam will come and away take you. Brace yourself, for this road, easy it will not be. Painful, searing, torturous, yes, the road will be. Break you, it will try to. Endure you must, or survive its fury you will not. The last time this is when between the worlds this way we may go.
Batman:The last time?
Yoda:Ruptured, this portal nearly is. This journey, to the brink of destruction will bring it, but not over it I think.
Batman:You think?
Yoda:Trust me you must, my son. And be wary. Alone you must go, for our enemy, he will sense you upon your return. Follow you by another route we will, but fend for yourself you must until our arrival.
Batman:Don’t worry. With all this gear, I should be able to stay invisible until you arrive.
Yoda:Your gear will not make it, nor anything else you bear. This way you will pass through, but only as one escaping through fire.
Suddenly, the sky above begins to thunder and flame. A vortex begins to form, as the clouds recede.
Yoda:Hurry, you must! At hand, the time is!
Batman:Where shall I go?
Yoda:To your old factory in Gotham’s heart you must first go. There, a dreadful sight you must endure. When beheld it you have, then meet you we will.
Lightning flashes above. The storm increases in violence and intensity.
Yoda:Ready, are you?
Batman:Yes, Master Yoda. I am ready.
Yoda:Then go you now, and quickly. Before long, we will find you again.
Batman:*nods* Farewell, master.
In a flash, the vortex opens, the beam descends, and the Dark Knight vanishes from sight, leaving the others alone on the crest of the building.
Tony:Are we going like that?
Yoda:No. By another way.
Peter:That’s a relief. Is it closer to the ground?
Yoda:It is a secret way, one which, detection, it will hopefully avoid.
Peter:I sure hope that means “yes.”
********
A world away, the warlords of a rising world order are gathered together to hear the bidding of their great leader and master-mind. Their victory is almost complete, their conquest nearly won. Then suddenly, a great dread like a shadow falls on the assembly, and their leader suffers a piercing pain in his heart, drawing all the color from his pale face and plunging his followers into a dark, nameless fear.
What is it, my lord?
The pain passes almost as quickly as it began. Their chief says nothing. He simply smiles – the most terrifying, horrific smile imaginable.
The end of the show, gentlemen – the last curtain-call. The Bat’s coming home.
The images that plagued his thoughts grew suddenly sharp and acute, and he felt a piercing, burning pain all around him, as if he was burning. Then, as soon as it began, the images left him, the light faded, and the vortex disappeared behind the stormy clouds, leaving Batman alone with a familiar friend and mentor.
Batman:Master Yoda?
Yoda:*nods* Returned for you have I, my son.
********
When Batman left Juan, the poor little guy was still thinking all about Meiri, oblivious to all else. He thought about the way that she sat and the way that she walked, the way she would climb trees, and the way she was staring at him intently on the day that the two of them wound up in the woods alone and he tried to tell her about the giant chrysanthemum flower on their right and how she looked much prettier than said chrysanthemum, but how the words just wouldn’t seem to come and how he must have looked like a complete idiot to her but she was really nice and just sat there waiting for something to come out of his mouth until that fateful moment when a woodsman threw a sack over him and tied it up and that was the abrupt end of the whole affair.
There seemed to be so many memories of Meiri – all of them sweet, all of them wonderful, and all of them silent and surprisingly short in duration, since he didn’t make much of them. The very thought of all these missed opportunities left him mesmerized and sad at more-or-less the same time.
Juan was so caught up in his remembrances that he didn’t even notice when it began to rain, then pour, then storm. He didn’t notice that he was getting drenched. He didn’t notice that the water around him was rising and that he was now sitting in a pool of water. He didn’t notice the pair of boys who were walking past him in front of the great brick building. And he definitely didn’t notice the pair of hungry eyes that were silently crawling through the muddy grass toward him.
But one of the boys did.
Boy 1:Hey, did you hear that?
Boy 2:Hear what?
Boy 1:I guess not.
Boy 2:You and your hearing.
Boy 1:At least I’m hardly surprised anymore.
Boy 2:Well genius, did you notice that cat drenched in the rain over there?
Boy 1:Why no, but he sure looks miserable.
The two boys walk over to Juan, still entranced in his contemplations. In fact, he didn’t even begin to notice them until they were standing right over him and one of them said...
Boy 1:Here kitty, you alright boy?
Aye-Aye:WUAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! *springing back*
Boy 1:Whoa there, kitty, it’s alright.
Boy 2:Now you’ve gone and scared him!
Boy 1:It’s ok, boy. We won’t hurt you.
Aye-Aye:Who iz yous?
Boy 1:Gadzooks! It talks!
Boy 2:What in the world?
Aye-Aye:Who iz yous? Are yous with Batmanz?
Boy 2:Batman? No, I don’t think so. We were just walking by and saw you getting drenched out here in the rain.
Aye-Aye:Iz raining?
Boy 1:Uh, yeah. For like an hour or so.
Boy 2:Storming, actually.
Aye-Aye:Wows, me not noticed it.
Boy 2:*smiling* I can believe that. You must have been thinking about someone really hard.
Aye-Aye:Not "somethings" – some "ones.”
Boy 1:Ahhh. One of those thinkings.
Boy 2:Well, we don’t mean to interrupt, but if you’d rather think somewhere dry, you can come back to our room. Technically we’re not allowed to have pets, but then again, you’re more like a person than a pet.
Aye-Aye:*smiles* Me’z would like dats.
Boy 1:Great! Well, I’ll pick you up I think, since you can’t exactly just follow us in. *picks up Juan* Hmmm, maybe I should wring you out or something...
Aye-Aye:My’z name is Juan du Aye-Aye. Who’s is you?
Boy 1:My name’s Pete, and that’s my brother Tony.
Boy 2:Pleasure to meet you, Juan.
The threesome begin their walk toward the brothers’ room, unaware that the pair of malicious eyes are still tastily following Juan. Suddenly, Pete turns to Tony warily.
Pete:Hey, you hear that?
Tony:Like always, no. What now?
Pete:Not sure... just got another one of those feelings.
Tony:You’ve had a lot of those lately. You’d think something earth-shattering was about to happen to us.
Pete:Maybe we’d just better get back inside, ok?
Tony:Fine. *to Juan* We’re just about there, little guy.
********
For a moment, Batman was speechless as he gazed at his great teacher.
Yoda:Surprised you are to see me?
Batman:I am, master. I thought that my way back to our world had been forever barred. How is it that you have come for me?
Yoda:Come for you, I have not. Been sent for you, have I.
Batman’s eyes suddenly narrow in suspicion, as he clenches his fists and grits his teeth.
Batman:*angrily* Sent for me? By whom?
Yoda:*sternly* Calm yourself, you must. Your friend am I, and always will be. No fear have you of the dark one, for he I do not answer to.
Batman:*relaxing slightly* I’m sorry, master. I know that he is searching for me – I just had to be sure.
Yoda:In time, him will you face, for our world now he holds in his hands, and of the heroes to challenge him, none remain.
Batman:Then the others – they did not make it back?
Yoda:*nodding gravely* No more have they in our world been, since last you saw them. Between the worlds they are, ‘til you return and set the balance right.
Batman:Then you have come to help me return?
Yoda:I have, and more. For help you will need, and not from me. Others there are here, who the stuff of heroes with you share.
Batman:Here? But I’ve observed all the people here. They’re alright as people, I guess, but there aren’t any heroes among them.
Yoda:Like you, my son, they wear a mask within that needs a mask without. Eluded you, they have, but not much longer. Two warriors of great strength seek you, whose courage and fortitude you will need. The fate of worlds it never was to live without a hero. Our world, in need of heroes it desperately is.
Batman:*nods* How do I find them?
Yoda:Found them already, your lone companion has. Find him, and your task, done it is.
Batman:My companion? Wait... you mean Juan?
********
The boy’s bedroom was a very snug, two-person room on the second floor of their dorm, with windows that looked out on the small lake, which by this time looked more like a boiling cauldron than a like. Juan was very comfortably situated on a desk near a window, dry and fast asleep on a pair of very comfortable pillows. He was dreaming – not happily, but not restlessly either – though the subject of his dreams is always a mystery to all but himself.
The window near him was closed except for a small crack, left open to allow some slight ventilation, and also to let in a very faint sound of the rainfall outside, which had a very soothing affect on Juan. The lights were out and the room was dark, except for the occasional flash of lighting across the stormy sky.
Lightly, ever so lightly, a dark shape quietly clawed is way up the wall of the dorm and raised its glowing eyes up into the window. The small crack became a wedge, then an aperture, and the dark figure slid soundlessly inside.
Juan, lost at last in slumber, was completely oblivious to the presence of this intruder, who was now staring intently at him on his bed of pillows.
Suddenly, just behind the stranger there is a click, then a deadly silence.
Turn slowly. One false move, and you’re dead.
The phantom turned slowly, his hands slowly moving above his head. Behind him is a strong-looking man with a strange gauntlet on his arm, and a laser sight aimed directly at his chest.
Batman:You must be the one I’m looking for.
Tony:*motioning toward Juan* And you must be the one he’s been waiting for.
Wise you are, my sons.
A moment later, Yoda pops through the window and sits on the desk, awakening Juan from his sleep as Pete flips on the light of the room.
A single, solitary tear runs down Juan’s little furry face, his eyes swollen with sadness and regret. Batman rises, his great cowl barely masking the tortuous pain in his eyes.
Batman:*softly* I’m sorry, Juan.
Then, silently as the shadows descending upon the earth, the Batman turns away and vanishes into the night, the blackness of the moment descending upon him like a flood.
********
Within a few short hours, the campus had been swallowed by the blackness of a cold, rainy winter night. The wind began to whip across the landscape, the rain began to fall in sheets, and in the sky the flash of lighting was answered by the peal of thunder. It was one of those evenings when you wish yourself back at home, warm in your own kitchen and eating a hot bowl of soup prepared by your mother. The memory is hard enough for those who are separated from their families: it is doubly-painful for those who have no home to call their own.
High up, at the tallest point of the tallest building, crouches the Dark Knight, the thoughts within his head thundering louder than the thunderclaps that shook the earth around him. His mind was astorm with a thousand memories and ten thousand regrets, mementos of a life of hardship, suffering, and a secret shame.
His eyes race and dart all about, nothing in this world could capture their erratic gaze. He is consumed by a great inner anguish, in abject turmoil, hating the world and everything in it.
Batman:*to himself* Just one more chance... if only.
Caught in the trance of emotion, he remains still, pelted by the storm and the rain as a fearful display of images play through his mind, like a sinister slide show. Images from the life he had lived, seared into his memory as if by a branding iron, now played out their terrible dance before his mind’s eye.
First, a gunshot. Fired that fateful evening when his young life was forever changed outside an operahouse in GothamCity. No one should be forced to watch as their parents are killed before their lives, especially a young boy with his life still before him.
Then a pledge. The pledge to fight injustice, to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. If only he had known then how much those words would cost him, how much he would suffer, how much blood would be spilt in his quest. Had he known then what he knew now, perhaps our great hero would never have been born.
Then the lovely voice. The voice that drew him from his pledge, offering him a life of love and happiness. Before her, life had been cruel and heartless, a thing of death and destruction. She had almost made it seem beautiful... she made every day beautiful.
Then a scream... the scream he would never forget. The scream of a young actress at a charity event, amidst the thunder of machine-gun fire. The fall from a balcony, and the sickening sound of her on the ballroom floor beneath. The shrieks and the cries of the honored guests, the shudders of the rich and famous, and a peal of sadistic laughter that grew and grew until all other noises were drowned out.
HEEEHEHEHEHEEEEEHEHEEEEEHEHEEEEE!!!
Batman:NOOO!!!
That grotesque sound was too much. Seized by emotion, Batman leaps from the building, falling to the earth as he spreads his great cape. In a moment, his fall is checked as he glided silently through the stormy night sky. He flies faster and faster, as if by his speed he could outrun the frightening images that grew more disturbing and painful in his head, as their dreadful dance continues.
Then the search. The year-long search that consumed his life, occupied his every waking thought, tormented his every dream, commanded every ounce of his strength and energy. The trails, the clues, the riddles, the frustrations, and the control – the control he exercised every step of the way, lest his passion betray his efforts and deprive him of his prey.
Then the slash. The slash he dealt that sadistic maniac as retribution for his crimes. A slash that cut him deep across his face, marring his sickly complexion for life. A slash that cut his own face just as deeply, forever changing him. Instead of being the face of justice, of calculated restraint, of a crime-fighter, it became the face of a beast, of rage, of a vigilante.
Then the steeple. The one on the great cathedral of Gotham, where he had stood on a stormy night like this one, looking down at great deep beneath and wondering whether he should jump, forever ending his pain. But something on that steeple had checked him, refused him access and made him come down. Even now he could not name it, could not place it. Now, as the images continued their course, he wished with all his might that he had ignored that still, small voice on the steeple.
Then the offer. An offer of purpose. An offer as a hunter in the services of a mysterious master, a “Phantom,” who sought not merely to fight injustice, but to destroy it, to obliterate it until there was no further trace. A hired hitman, a secret shadow, a midnight stalker, a hidden savior. These were his services, as a servant of justice, to the people of Gotham.
Batman:Get out of my head!!!
Batman veers suddenly to the right, and flies swiftly into the blackness. His memories become even more erratic, as if they themselves were being churned by the frightful storm.
Then the sound of screams. The screams of those he stopped, then killed. The cries of men who were helpless before his wrath and rage, who were powerless before his “justice,” who he had sentenced to death because of their crimes. The “Caped Crusader” had all but disappeared. Now he was a violent man, a hunted man, the most wanted of criminals, and the most deadly among them.
Lost in his emotions, Batman strikes the side of a building and falls toward the ground, but recovers quickly, digging his claws into the side of the building. He laboriously drags himself up to the roof, and looks out over a small lake that appears to be boiling in the midst of the storm.
Utterly broken, Batman removes the cowl, releasing at last the pain and regret of a thousand sleepless nights. The tears flow readily, as the sheets of rain soak his skin and his hair. He is as one who finally realizes that he is helpless in the midst of the storm, and in the face of the mighty thunder, all he can do is whisper his final, desperate plea to anyone, anyone who could hear him.
Batman:Please... please help me...
But it was then, in that darkest of moments, that something truly amazing – and utterly unlooked for – happened. For the storm clouds in their fury suddenly abated in the east and then, for just a moment, a great red light flashed in the night sky, illuminating the deepest darkness. Batman raised his head and watched in wonder as a swirling vortex of clouds descended from the sky, and a single, great ray of light – no larger than a laser – stretched to touch the roof around him.
The images that plagued his thoughts grew suddenly sharp and acute, and he felt a piercing, burning pain all around him, as if he was on fire. Then, almost as abruptly as it began, the images left him, the light faded, and the vortex disappeared behind the stormy clouds, leaving Batman alone with a familiar friend and mentor.
Suddenly, there was a voice behind him – a steady, caring voice... like a voice out of a dream.
Don’t worry, Juan... if they’re here, they’ll find you.
Juan turned around to see a familiar face, shrouded in cape and cowl, standing just behind him.
Aye-Aye:Batman?
Batman:Hey, buddy. I’ve come to bring you home.
********
The meeting was a strange moment for both of them.At first, neither could speak, though there seemed like so much to tell, and even more to discover.Finally, Juan nervously broke the silence.
Aye-Aye:What happeneds, Batman? I remembers the ship, and the stars whizzing pasts us, and then nothings but lying on the grasses and watching kidz run abouts in costumes. Was it all just a bads dream?
Batman:All that you remember is true, Juan.
Aye-Aye:But whys? If we was flying in space, why is we’s here?
Batman grew silent, and stared off into the black night. Even though Juan wasn’t the brightest of creatures, even he could tell that something was wrong... that there was a secret which his comrade wasn’t telling him.
Batman:*sadly* Because I tried to bring you all out of our world, through the dark window.
Aye-Aye:But you’s brought Ethan through befores, right?
Batman:No, that was Maul, aided by the dark power which controls that window. I used it rebelliously, and recklessly.
Aye-Aye:But all for goods, right?
Batman:I thought so, Juan. I thought I could save us... so I took matters into my own hands. I broke a sacred rule, a trust that I made many years ago, when I first learned of that cursed window and its many uses. Yes, I meant it all for good...
Aye-Aye:But it wasn’ts good, Batman?
Batman:*nods* No, Juan... it wasn’t.
Aye-Aye:Can you’s get us back?
Batman:I wish I could, but I haven’t been able to manipulate the window, no matter how much I try.
Aye-Aye:What you’s means?
Batman:I was never to use the window to remove others from our world and bring them to this one... now that I have, the power has been taken from me.
Juan is silent and serious – a rare sort of affairs for his usually-very-chipper self. But these circumstances are quite rare, and most unexpected, as the gravity of the situation begins to settle on him.
Aye-Aye:I’s is afraids I still not understands...
Batman:What is it?
Aye-Aye:Well, if everyone else is still there’s, and wasn’t alloweds to leave... then why am I here’s?
Batman:I truly don’t know, Juan...
Aye-Aye:That’s ok, Batmans. *smiles* It doesn’t really matters to me.
Batman:*Smiles* I’m glad.
Aye-Aye:*contemplatively* Do you think we’ll ever get back, Batmans?
Batman:I don’t know, Juan... but I can’t get us back.
The little creature’s eyes sank, and a strange look crept slowly over his face. Batman was afraid to read the look in those big, penetrating eyes... but when he did, he saw that they weren’t filled with the look of anger or frustration. They were filled with sadness, and even more so than sadness, a look of longing.
Aye-Aye:*sadly* I misses her, Batman.
Batman:Miss who, Juan?
Aye-Aye:Meiri... I’s not know why’s – I guesses we’s never talkeds much – but I does. I wishes that I had just one more chance... that would’s have been enough for us.
A single, solitary tear runs down Juan’s little furry face, his eyes swollen with sadness and regret. Batman rises, his great cowl barely masking the tortuous pain in his eyes.
Batman:*softly* I’m sorry, Juan.
Then, silently as the shadows descending upon the earth, the Batman turns away and vanishes into the night, the blackness of the moment descending upon him like a flood.
