Chapter 33

The moment I blinked awake, I realized I was sitting in a chair. A fact that had alarm bells sounding off in my head. Despite being a light sleeper, I couldn’t fall asleep sitting up. Laying on my side or back was a requirement.

So that was already a red flag. The second red flag was the room that I was in. Some sort of…circular room with stone walls that seemed like they were from medieval times. A castle maybe?

The third red flag was the fact that I couldn’t move my limbs. Each one was strapped and secured with some sort of leather. Fastening it in place against a chair.

Which wasn’t a big problem for me. I could just use my power to-

And for some reason I couldn’t use my power. Alright, this has gone from very bad to…bizarre. Looking around the dimly lit room, I didn’t see much besides a spiral staircase upwards and-

A head piece for the chair. Great. So, it was an electric chair. That made me feel so much better about my current situation.

“Are you enjoying your seating arrangement? I made it just for you.”

A very young and girlish voice came from up the spiral staircase. Looking over towards it, I noticed a little girl with ginger hair holding a teddy bear to her side. She gave me an amused look that left me with the impression that her looks didn’t match her true age.

“Oh yes. This must be the best seat in the house. Why don’t you try it out yourself?”

I offered, to which she simply smiled and shook her head. Instead of continuing to walk down the spiral staircase at her slow pace, she proceeded to walk off the edge of the stairs…only to continue to walk on the wall as if gravity was a suggestion.

Oh, for fucks sake, was this another dream?

“I’ll have to pass on that. Hmm…I wonder what will happen if I mess with this dial?”

Looking over to where she was gesturing at, I noticed that a strange generator and a machine with dials had magically appeared there. In response I simply cracked an eyebrow at the girl.

“Go right ahead. Let’s find out together.”

She laughed at that. A rather intense one that saw her gripping her stomach and throwing her head back. Opening her mouth wide as she did so, revealing several rows of teeth that were jagged like a shark.

Creepy kid.

“Haha, you’re no fun to tease, but you know what? That’s what I like about you.”

“Enough to release me from this chair?”

I asked, shooting my shot.

“Unfortunately, no.”

Which was of course shot down mercilessly. Well…at least she hadn’t turned on the electric chair. I had a high pain tolerance and could resist it for a good bit depending on the setting, but that didn’t mean I would enjoy it.

The kid had gotten a lot closer towards me than I had expected. She had closed the distance the moment my focus on her wavered. Likely on some sort of broken dream logic.

“You see, I’ve been enjoying my stay here. It’s very…entertaining.”

“Just make sure to have your rent ready by the end of the month…”

I answered back, to which she promptly ignored. Rude. That had been a fucking good one too.

“You could say that I’ve been watching everything like some sort of audience member. Which is very fun, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t want to be just an audience member. I want to be a movie director!”

She gestured towards the empty wall ahead of us. Which suddenly had a large canvas rolled up onto it. As well as a movie reel thing that was used to play movies in theatres.

The numbers three, two, one appeared on screen before finally showing a scene from a movie. One which was located in…Gotham. I could recognize the streets from the overhead shots of the city below.

Finally, the camera lowered down into an alley. A disgusting slime filled shit hole with trash everywhere. The only cleaning it’s ever gotten was from the occasional rain.

Several gang members were laid out on the floor. Unconscious, but they didn’t seem to have been roughed up to hard. Which implies a different way of fighting. The camera zooms up to show a kid who was sitting on some unconscious guy’s back.

He was dirty. Street orphan by my guess. His clothes didn’t look like they had been washed in months. And his face didn’t look much better. Messy and greasy looking brown hair and sunken cheeks. Probably hasn’t had a decent meal in a while.

His eyes were different from most street urchins that I’ve met though. They were a reddish amber like color. Yet they held a certain amount of determination in them.

…I could respect that. It wasn’t easy to keep any sort of hope in Gotham. Especially as street trash. His mouth was held in a perpetual frown, that reminded me of…

Oh for fucks sake.

“Seriously? What the fuck is this shit?”

In my annoyance I prompted the kid next to me, who simply giggled at my expression. What a piece of shit…

“I was wondering when you’d figure out who that was. What’s wrong? Haven’t you looked in the mirror before?”

“…”

I glared at her, but didn’t say anything else. She wanted a response from me huh? Then I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. She gave an exaggerated pout in my silence before turning back to the ‘movie’.

The kid after a moment of contemplation got off the unconscious guys body before looking up to the sky. It started to rain a few seconds later. That’s that perfect Gotham weather kicking in alright.

“This city…is corrupt to it’s core.”

The kid whispered dramatically in a voice that sounded absolutely nothing like a kid, much less a kid version of me.

Oh, fuck off.

“What the actual fuck?”

The kid next to me shrugged her shoulders. Smiling slightly.

“I may have taken a few artistic liberties.”

A few!? The kid sounded like Patrick Warburton. How the fuck was I suppose to watch this without cringing? This was much worse than the electric chair…was that still an option?

The kid started to ruffle through the pockets of the downed gang members. Likely trying to fish out their wallets and take their cash. A smart move. But before he could continue, his head snapped up. His eyes side eyeing the alley behind him with a frown.

It was a very dark part of the alley. One that was covered in shadows and silence. The only noise was the light rain that had started to drizzle onto the city. Even when a clawed hand touched the visible part of the wall, there was no noise.

I sucked in a breath as a nightmarish humanoid bat creature stepped out of the shadows. Man-Bat was quite obviously just an oversized creature, and wasn’t truly very scary. But this? This was very different.

White light filled it’s eyes as if it attempted to suck in all light through it. It’s mouth was open in a wordless howl of anguish. It scuttled around the floor before closing in on a scared shitless younger version of me. There was little that it could do before the monster was upon it.

And then the ‘movie’ abruptly ended.

I took a few breaths to steady myself. Ignoring the smug satisfied look of the kid next to me in order to get myself under control. I needed to be calm. In control. Otherwise, I would be helpless.

And I wasn’t helpless.

“I see you enjoyed my little movie.”

I glared at the kid as my breath came back to me. This time my silence got a small frown before she shrugged and continued on.

“You know, out of all the artistic liberties I took with the movie, I didn’t take many in regards to that in your memories.”

…It was true. I could remember that monstrous form like it was yesterday.

It was the first time I had run into Batman, after all.

In Gotham, there were many things to be scared of. Mutants, suspicious green gas, green question marks, surprise bomb threats, overpriced gas prices, and plants.  There were too many to choose from. But there was one that would always trump all of those for me.

The Batman.

He was undoubtedly the biggest monster that Gotham had created. Part of it was my childish fear of him, and the other part…well, it was the truth. The Scarecrow was just some loser in a suit relying on gas to scare people. Batman? He was fear.

“Hmm…seems like I’ve started to run out of time for today…”

“Perhaps you should find someone else to torment then.”

I bit back, which saw the kid chuckle at my words, before turning her back to me.

“Ah…but I don’t want anyone else. The rest are either boring, weak, or would attempt to use me to their own ends.”

The kid gripped the sides of my face with a gentleness that was almost out of place compared to the almost monstrous look on her face. It was the kind of shit you’d see on a serial killer.

“…You exaggerate. I’m pretty boring. I even have a stamp collection.”

She giggled at that.

“No you don’t.”

…I didn’t, but she didn’t know that. Or maybe she did? That thing with the movie said otherwise, but then again, we were working on dream logic here so…

“Which is why you’ll be my…what did you humans call it…ah right. You’ll be my champion. My connection. My tether.”

Definitely not.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.”

That got a different response than her constant smiling face or that deranged look. Her face didn’t go into a frown, but the smile was definitely gone. Yet she didn’t look panicked or annoyed. A strange calmness was over her.

“Perhaps for now. But in the future…you won’t.”

“And what makes you say that?”

“Because…you’re you.”

Flawless logic. Not sure why I expected anything differently from a dream. She smiled a bit when she saw my expression, putting a hand up to her face before lowering it down to my sealed-up arms…

Before breaking them. The straps that were keeping me contained, that is. She only did the first one, leaving me to get the others but it was more than enough. I hummed after finally getting my arms free and rubbing them. Despite having been contained, they didn’t feel too badly.

“Thanks…”

I muttered, to which she giggled at. Looking up, I realize she had disappeared from her previous spot, and was now simply defying gravity once again by walking on the ceiling.

“Despite probably being the one who put you in that chair in the first place, you still thank me for letting you out. This is what makes you so interesting.”

I was starting to get the distinct feeling that being interesting to this kid was a very bad thing. Though…I can’t say they didn’t have a point. Why did I thank them after breaking my bindings? Had it just been something I said out of habit?

But then…why did a part of me still feel thankful nonetheless?

I’m going to just chalk that up to dream logic rather than look at it too deeply. It wasn’t as if I’d remember this five minutes after I wake up so it was better to not waste my time with meaningless thoughts. Instead…it would probably be better to just relax and get as much of a restful sleep that I could get.

Especially as Robin had already set up a meeting for me with the Justice League tomorrow. I needed to be on my A game around them. This time I won’t be distracted by Black Canary and will get to the heart of the matter.

“Oooh, I like that phrase…’the heart of the matter’.”

The kid clapped her hands before muttering to herself that she’d use it later. Man…why did my dreams have to be so fucked? Was it me? Like…specifically?

“And you’re talking about the blonde one, yes? She would make a very interesting toy…”

I…got the feeling that my definition of toy, and her definition of toy, were two very different things. Besides, I was pretty sure I didn’t say anything. I thought it, but then again it shouldn’t be too surprising. This place was running on dream-