To tame a Demon (english)

Chapter 5: Loneliness

Warning: Suicidal thoughts/ madness

"...And remember that time you were hanging under the helicopter with that shark on your leg? I always thought the anti-shark spray was just a joke from you, but then it really helped. I still don't understand why the shark exploded afterwards. I mean how careful can you be Bruce? And then I always came up with something like 'Holy oil sardine Batman, you're right again'.*

God, I was so naive. You probably could have told me that pigs can fly and I would have still believed you. I guess it was because I was so happy to be fighting with the Batman. But at that time I didn't know what a huge asshole you could be sometimes. I mean, did you really have to slap me just because I disagreed with your actions once? By the way, you never apologized for it prick. And always this 'I'm the hero Gotham needs, but not the one it deserves'. Don't you think that's a bit too melodramatic? Well, I probably shouldn't tell you. You can take the boy out of the circus, but you can't take the circus out of the boy. I'm glad we stopped doing that. It got ridiculous at some point. By the way, Joker's right. You should smile more often. Maybe then you'll have more fun in life someday, don't you think Bruce?"

Dick looked amused at the photo hanging on the other side of his cave. He was in a T-shirt and sweatpants, lying on some blankets and pillows he found in the remnants of his world, and was eating the last pack of chips he owned. Staring back at him from the photo was no other than Bruce Wayne.

 Richard had been here for about four weeks, or so he thought. He spent most of his time looking for usable stuff in the remains, but by now Dick had gone through everything three times. He can't find anything there anymore. Since he didn't find a clock in the rubble, he simply started marking the number of times he slept as days on one of the cave walls with lines, just like a little child. So 29 sleeps equals about four weeks.

And what had happened in the meantime?

Well a few days after he landed here, he started collecting newspapers and magazines in addition to survival essentials. It was initially just to pass the time, but eventually the walls of the cave filled with faces he knew. What started out as just Batman, Robin and Red Robin, as they filled the front page more than once, quickly became an entire gallery of superheroes and celebrities he knew. Consequently of that, it also didn't take long for the isolation to get him talking to them. Dick always had a lot of people around him. He craved conversation, so he talked either to the pictures or to the small voice recorder hidden in his back bracket. Originally it was meant for interrogating or spying on criminals, but in fact of his boredom he now used it as a logbook to pass the time. Kirk always did that too.

So Dick now took the little device and pressed the button on the side while he looked around the cavern:

"Captain Grayson to log, it's a light day outside with some sulfurous haze, they smell worse than the Eggman after three showerless weeks. So the usual. Co-pilot Mr. Wayne is mute throughout, but is still awarded employee of the month for not loosing his cool even in the worst of situations. However, unfortunately the supplies are no longer enough for his party. One food can won't fill our crews stomages. Mr. Drake should come up with a solution for this. The ribs and the burn almost don't hurt anymore, fortunately there was no inflammation, but a scar will remain. At least I can move properly again, so the two defense admirals Todd and Wayne Junior can no longer call me a nicely paraphrased obstacle. Hopefully there won't be any more grumbling on the next mission."

Dick paused briefly as he looked at Red Robin's picture and thought before sighing and continuing in his pseudo-captain voice:

"Mr. Drake seems to have found a worst case solution to our little food problem. Protocol 4.7. hunt and consume the native individuals. With the acid cocktail they always have in them, this will probably be hotter than freshly cooked curry from Starfire. My stomach is already looking forward to it. In the best case the portal opens before and we would finally see something else like stones, lava and monsters. But we can't hope for that. Get the men ready with weapons. We're going on a hunt. Captain Grayson out."