Dark Knights (Fan Fiction)

Into the Deep

Chapter 6-Into the Deep

Bane held Bobby, the child he'd kidnapped a few days ago, by his skinny throat. The blond teenage football player stood no chance against the chemical induced criminal that laughed at his pathetic stature. "Hey, Batman, guess what'll happen if I do this." Bane squeezes Bobby's throat. Bobby, as a result began to struggle, kicking violently as he gasped for air. His shallow and quick breath slowly became a wheezing choke while his eyes rolled into his head, and his heart beat against his chest like a drum.

Batman knew what Bane was trying to do. He pulls out a bat-a-rang hoping that when he threw it, it wouldn't miss...or they'd all die.

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Sara panics. She spends the next thirty minutes pressing a multitude of buttons. Hoping desperately to find something she slams on the large keyboard in frustration.

Blink.

A map of Gotham city appears zooming into a corner labeled BLUDHAVEN where two light blue dots, labeled Batman and Nightwing, flashed. The back alley of 49th street, underground. Then, in her moment of peace the dots disappear. Sara screams. Once again she returned to the multitude of buttons. After another ten minutes she gives up, falling back into the leather arm chair, she sighs. They're okay, they're okay, she continues to tell herself while doubting it full heartily. She hated not being able to help them, she hated not being able to do something and being stuck in an underground cave of who knows where.

Then something caught her eye.

A sleek black motorcycle, obviously custom made, sitting under a spotlight beside a row of cars she'd never dreamed of touching. Back during her freshmen year Sara had a friend, Holly Suthers, who rebelled against her parents on a daily basis, it almost didn't even seem like rebelling anymore. She would steal her step-father's Yamaha FZ8; an expensive, sleek, leather seat motorcycle,and take it for a ride. As Holly's only friend, Holly, would take Sara along, and whenever Holly got drunk Sara would take her home, making sure to return the bike to its original place. But that was a while ago.

Without a second thought Sara jumps on the sleek leather seat, turning the key luckily already in the ignition, and revs the engine to life. In seconds after pressing the gas she was speeding down the metal drive way until it touched the outside air of Gotham.

Just you wait guys, I'm coming to help.

Batman and Nightwing trudged through the filth of Gotham's sewage flowing beneath them. Rats skittered from place to place, little dark creatures of the blackness shrouding them. Even through Batman's gas mask he could not ignore the putridity, or the smell, of his city. His solemn face grew darker as he followed the small signs of a trespasser, someone who did not belong here.

"Look Batman." Nightwing points at a shoe, Booby's shoe. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah." Batman looks at the fallen shoe, then turned a corner where they followed, cautiously, the faint voices in the distance. Ominous flickering lights lighted a dark path of old rusted grates, and the stench fading was replaced with another, one more sour and human. They reach the end of the tunnel to find a gray-rust-stained door with a plate labeled Control Room. Inside, Bane had strapped Bobby to a chair. He laughs as he pops his knuckles, "looks like I get to find out what my employer finds so special about you."

"And just who would be big guy?" Nightwing interrupts as he stood tall and confidently behind Batman, the ominous demon-like shadow that stood like a beast as his cape covered him completely.

"Finally, Batman, and his little side-kick."

"Hey!" Nightwing Protests.

Bane laughs, "and here I thought I wouldn't get any fun tonight." He turns a knob on the back of his hand and an orange chemical bubbles, coursing through his veins. Bane yells, almost howls as he grew almost two times larger than he was before with muscles the size of barrels. He roars, throwing his head back, then immediately charges Batman and Nightwing. Batman leaps up going for an offensive on his head, but was stopped as he was tackled at the waist through the wall. In that moment Batman could feel the impact and was glad the kevlar suit took the brunt of the damage, but the sound of one of his ribs cracking under the pressure did not comfort him. Bane flings Batman aside almost ten feet making roll another five before skidding to a messy stop. Nothing broken, keep fighting. He reaches into one of his many pouches and flings several exploding capsules at Banes face. Bane bring his arm up to block but they hit him hard and he lets out a roar that shakes the walls around them. Nightwing, still back in the control room cuts Bobby free, "run," he shouts as he runs out to assist Batman. But before Bobby could turn the corner Batman and Nightwing are flying past him into a wall with a sickening thud, and Bane stood towering above him chuckling as he grabs Bobby by his throat. Bobby's scream is cut short. He kicks and claws away at Bane's hand, his football figure turns into that of a puppet's as he dangled in the air.

"Hey Batman guess what will happen if I do this!"

Bobby's choking. Batman reaches for his Bat-a-rangs hoping that when he threw them they'd hit something useful.

He hurls them.

One hits a wall.

One flies a millimeter from Bane's head, just barely missing him.

The last one hits the mechanical knob on the back of Bane's hand and ricochets.

Damn it!

Bane laughs as the kid begins to pass out, his eyes rolling into the back of his head and his body going limp. His deep, rumbling howl of a voice echoes. Batman prepares himself for the unknown, pulling his cape to his face. Nightwing saw Batman's distress and backs away, still ready to fight. Then, all of a sudden...

"Take this!" Sara springs up from behind Bane and thrusts a broken pipe into one of several tubes in Bane's back. Bane bellows in pain as he reached for his back. Green liquid gushes from the mechanism embedded into Bane's lower back skull. He flails, desperately trying to close off the leak as he slowly shrinks back to his normal human size, running away. Batman launches another Bat-a-rang. It hits Bane square on the back of his head making him black out and tumble lifelessly to the sewer floor.

Nightwing runs up to Bobby lying motionlessly to a side. Sara looks over his shoulder. "Is he alive, Nightwing?"

"I don't know." Nightwing checks for a pulse. "Nothing."

"Nightwing, Sara get away from him!"

"But-"

Without warning Bobby lets out a strange gasping noise, as if he was unable to get any air even though his chest heaved up off the cold brick floor. His eyes were white and lifeless. His body began to turn blue. The mortar and brick beneath him began to freeze over. Ice formed on the water's surface, spreading rapidly like wildfire all around. Nightwing grabs Sara and heaves her away. They run along side Batman who, amazingly already had Bane tossed over his shoulders, until they found a ladder. Sara was the first up. She didn't see the ice making it way towards them faster than they could climb, she didn't feel the abrupt temperature, or feel ice form on the soles of her shoes. They were lucky to get out just before the ice froze over. For a moment they looked down the man hole and wondered, what the hell just happened?

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Back at the cave Sara sat quietly on the operating table. Batman was once again researching, digging through every data base he could infiltrate until he could find an answer, a solution to this mystery. He had gone back under when the ice had stopped building up and the temperature stopped dropping. They went to find Bobby only to discover he wasn't there anymore. His body was left in several parts scattered around the ice as if he had imploded. Bobby, as far as they were concerned, was dead.

Something nagged painfully at Sara's chest, it heaved and tossed and beat and turned. It pulled heavily on her shoulders. "Batman," she finally manages to croak, "was he like me? Was that kid just now the same thing as me?"

"I don't know."

"Come on! You have to know something! You're supposed to be Gotham's greatest detective, the best in the world! Why can't you tell me anything about what's going on?!"

He turns. With one look Sara could feel the ice, this time in her soul. He silently returned to his work. Sara sat quietly again, feeling a burning sensation in her heart she had mistaken for anger, a fire in her she never thought she could possess.