Chapter 8

The first week back was somewhat eventful. I had awakened from a nightmare and was consoled by Alfred, who had stayed close in case I had a nightmare, and it made me happy. The entire week Alfred, Dick, and Bruce were overprotective, like I would break like an egg, and Bruce or Alfred had gotten me a psychologist to talk to; she was very professional, and it did make me feel a bit better after the first session with her. I was afraid to leave the house, thinking I would get attacked as soon as I did. Even if I know logically that it’s stupid, it does not make the fear less real. Bruce had been gone most of the week. I presume he must be in the batcave and working extra hard. I should give him a hug when he comes back. I can't really help with the hero stuff, but I can do my best to support him, and getting a hug and a welcome back should cheer him right up.

I have been trying to find the entrance to the batcave, and so far I have failed. It's been what? a bit over a month, and I still haven't found it, so I am going to cheat and use Plan B, and it's simple as long as I don't get detected. You might wonder what my super secret super plan is? Well, it's simple... to follow Dick when he goes to the batcave, then come back when no one is in there. My first few days of stakeout were a bust. I lost my target or got distracted watching TV because stakeouts are boring and I can somewhat multitask. It’s my second week of Plan B. I finally got a break in my case. I followed my target successfully, as he forgot to close the door completely to Bruce office as he rotated the grandfather clock in the office to 10:30 p.m., and I could hear a faint click and the clock opened up. I had thought of the clock in there as one of the potential entrances, but I am too short to reach the clock handles. I would need to climb a stool, so I had not tried the clock, and it looked antique, so I was afraid to mess with it. I left and went back to the TV and watched it for a few more hours. I wanted to go in when I thought no one would be down in the Batcave, but I was too impatient and went to the office the next day.

I made my way to Bruce's office, and my heart was racing. I would finally get to see the famous Batcave, and the excitement made me almost vibrate. I entered the office and could see Gotham City from the window in his office. Bruce's office looks really cozy, with a leather couch and an ornate desk with an office chair. That was my target. I pulled it over to the clock, but the chair was wobbly with the wheels, so I held on to the grandfather clock for stability as I put in the time of 10:30 p.m. I heard the click and promptly fell back on the chair as the clock was now open. Now that I thought about it, the time of 10:30 p.m. might be significant to Bruce; it might be the time of the deaths of his parents. I thought to myself as I pulled the chair back a bit so I could open the clock and walk down the stairs.

As I walked down the stairs, I wished he had an elevator. It took me a while to get down because of how far under his house the batcave was. The cartoons and movies lied to me. They walked down and entered the cave directly, but I must have walked down like 10 floors worth of stairs before it finally opened up and I could see the batcave, and it was... Darker than I expected, Bruce really is thematic with his broody counterpart, or I had not found the light switch. First, I had hoped they would be sensor-activated, but nothing happened. I tried calling out "Lights on," but nothing happened, so I opened my inventory and pulled out a flashlight from the emergency pack.

After I got kidnapped, Bruce and Alfred upgraded it and added even more stuff to keep me safe. He even gave me a GPS tracker puck that he could use to find me in my inventory. Of course, it only works if I pull it out. I turned on the flashlight and explored the entrance. It was very dark, and I was afraid that a bat would fly down or something. On the right side of the entrance was the famous Batcomputer. It had several big screens and looked very high tech, and past the computer were the display cases of the batsuits and Dicks Robin suit, still no pants. Dang, I hoped they changed it.

As I was walking around, all of a sudden the lights turned on and blinded me. Going from slight night vision to full-on brightness is not fun. As I was rubbing my eyes, I could hear someone clearing his throat behind me. I slowly turned around and saw Bruce standing there, his arms crossed, not looking happy that I had found the batcave. I shuffled my feet and quickly turned off the flashlight and put it back into the inventory, like it would hide the evidence.

"Ehh… Hi Bruce," I said while fidgeting with the bottom of my Superman shirt.

I heard a soft sigh from Bruce as I heard the echoing footsteps as he got closer. I shrank down on myself even more as he got closer.

"Leo," Bruce said, and it startled me in the quiet of the cave.

"Y... yeah," I said as I could see that Bruce had kneeled down in front of me to get to my eye level. As he pulled me into a hug, it surprised me for a bit before I hugged back, and we stayed like this for a bit before he pulled me away from him and said,

"I should have told you about all of this earlier, but then..." he trailed off.

"The kidnapping," I said bluntly.

"Yes," he answered.

"I am not angry, but it’s not safe here, and if you get hurt again, I... I don't want to see you hurt again," he said in a friendly tone.

"I'm Sorry" I said I did not notice how badly he had taken the kidnapping, and when I think about Batman, I know he would learn from it but also blame himself 10 times as hard as anyone else, even if it’s not his fault.

"Come over here," Bruce said as he stood up and walked with me over to the batcomputer. As he sat down in the computer chair on the table to the right, I could see several books. There are books on how to deal with a child who went through trauma, how to deal with children, child psychology, and dang, he has been reading up on how to help me. That makes me really happy.

He pulls up a video of him sitting at the batcomputer and I see a rift open up, and... that’s me falling out of the portal, and the video stops there as Bruce is walking over to my body. It must have been from the day I came to this world.

"I wanted to show you this; it's the day you came to this world through that rift. Do you remember anything after you came through it or do this jog any of your memories?" he asked.

"Ehh, no, nothing, I'm sorry," I say.

"It's ok," he answered.

Bruce swiveled the chair around to look at me and ask.

"Do you have any questions?"

"Ehh… Are you Batman?" It was the most obvious question, and it would be weird if I didn't ask.

"Yes, I am Batman," he said while holding his hand in front of his face, like I did that one time in the kitchen, and that made me giggle so hard watching an adult do it, and Bruce doing it in his iconic voice really broke the small tension I still had. I gave him a bright smile. If I were in Harry Potter, this memory would be what I used for my patronus.

I looked around the room and saw a few of Batman's trophies, and then I spotted the batmobile, and it gave me a brilliant idea. I pointed toward the car and almost bounced in excitement.

"Can I sit in the bat car?" I asked, because this is totally on my bucket list.

"It's called the batmobile," and after thinking for a bit, he said, "Yes, you can sit in it, but don’t touch anything without asking first."

That was all I needed to hear as I ran over to the batmobile and waited in front of the car.

"Come on, come on, come on," I said.

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As he walked over, the top of the car opened up, and I could see inside on my tippy toes, but it was too high for me to get inside, so I looked over to Bruce. And he got my meaning and helped me sit inside. I was giddy with excitement. It had so many buttons and looked really cool, but I was too short to see very well over the steering wheel.

Some people recreate the Batmobile as it’s an iconic car, but I get to sit inside the real deal, and I now wish I had a smartphone so I could take a picture of this because I want it for bragging rights. Bruce was standing on the side of the car, looking at me, looking all around in excitement. After some time, he said it's time to go and that I am not allowed to go down here without him or Alfred accompanying me. I gave him a nod and told him yes, sir, with an overdramatic salute. We were walking up the stairs to the mansion, and as I thought about it, it struck me that I had not asked Bruce how he knew I was down in the batcave, so I turned around and just asked it.

"Bruce, how did you know I was down here?" He gave me a friendly smile, or was that a smirk? as he stopped and pointed at something on the side of the cave walls, and in confusion, I looked where he pointed, and I could not see anything.

"I don't see anything," I said.

"That’s the point; there are invisible sensors all the way down to the batcave, and you activated all of them on your way down," he said.

"Ohh," I said, and that sounds like something Bruce would do. Batman is really known for being really smart and really paranoid, but it has saved his life multiple times in the past, so I guess it's not paranoia if it works, right?

We continued our walk back up, and my legs were burning. Walking for several stories down was easy, but up was a pain, and stairs are a bit bigger when you are small. But it gave me some time to think, and after Bruce told me he would have told me the truth about him being Batman, I feel bad that I still have not told them my real name; they already know of my world, and at the time I told them my name was Leo. I mostly went on instinct and lied about my name, but as I have been using it for a bit over a month now, I really started to love it, and I think I will adopt it as my name when I travel to other worlds. It might even be for the best. I know from stories that there are powers in names, and some creatures, feys, and gods can use your name against you, so I might as well continue with it. I decided that I would tell them later, like at lunch… or dinner. Am I procrastinating about it? yes… yes, I am.

We finally got up, Bruce closed the grandfather clock, and we walked out of his office. I still had some time, so I walked to the living room and decided to watch some TV until it was time to eat. Bruce watched me go and turn on the TV before walking off and doing whatever Bruce did when I was not around. I took out my journal from my inventory. I started on it last week and used it to write stuff I wanted to remember. It was mostly empty and not really a journal book, but I got one that looks cool and official later. I flipped to the last page and wrote bucket list on the last page, made a few checkboxes, and wrote sit inside the batmobile after the first box just so I could check it off my list. I want to get a book that is specifically for a bucket list, but this will do for now. I wanted to write a few more things so the list wouldn't feel so empty.

Bucket list

[x] Sit inside the Batmobile.

[ ] Get my own Harry Potter wand.

[ ] Meet Superman

[ ] Fly

[ ] Hire or make a superhero suit.

[ ] Make my own trophy room.

[ ] Travel to 5 other worlds.

[ ] Travel to 10 other worlds.

[ ] Travel to 50 other worlds.

[ ] Travel to 100 other worlds.

[ ] Learn magic

[ ] Learn how to fight.

[ ] Create a superhero name.

After I got done writing a few of my ideas on my bucket list, I got really excited, and I would probably make the list even longer in the future. When Alfred called for lunch, we all sat at the table. Today, we were eating lasagna. It would have been really fun if we had an orange cat, because then I could make Garfield jokes. Am I procrastinating by thinking of other things? Nope, I say to my imaginary audience as I start to eat. When we were done eating, I metaphorically pulled off the bandage and just blurted it out.

"I lied about my name," I said in one jumbled sentence.

Bruce, Alfred, and Dick all looked over at me, and Dick said

"what?"

"Ermm… well… You know, when I said my name was Leo, I lied. I said this while looking at my plate.

"Then what’s your name?" asked Dick.

"Ehh… "It's Sora Nakamura," I said.

"Well, it's a very nice name," said Alfred, and it made me smile. I really like my name too.

"Do you live in Japan, Sora?" asked Bruce, and I nodded my head.

"My parents moved to Japan and met there. Mom said it was very romantic. My dad is from the USA, and my mom is from France, and her name is Marie, and my dad's name is Robin," I said. I glanced up and saw Bruce doing his thinking face while Alfred was giving me a bright smile, and Dick just looked confused.

"Why is your last name Japanese?" Dick asked.

"Mom and Dad are huge nerds, or so Asami said'' Asami is one of my mom's friends. When I asked her what she meant when she told me that my mom and dad are weird sometimes, maybe it was some cultural clash or something?

We talked for a bit more, and Bruce said it was ok, but that I should not lie and that it was not nice to do, so I nodded and told him I wouldn't, and then I went to my room. My social batteries were exhausted, so I flopped down on my bed and took a nap, because naps are the best.

It's now October, the month of Halloween. Not much has happened in the past few months. I have been here for about four and a half months, and in this time I have been in the batcave a few more times. I even got to see Bruce dressed up as Batman before he went out on patrol with Robin. It was really cool, and Alfred let me talk with him when he was out on patrol. After I officially learned he was Batman, I would give him a warm welcome home hug when he came home from work or being Batman. I wanted to give him something to look forward to, and the hugs were nice to

I taunted Dick about not having pants and got Bruce to update the costume, so he finally had pants. It was really funny when he showed it off to me and bragged, and I so wanted to prank him for it, but I somehow restrained myself from doing it. Alfred and I set up some Halloween decorations around the house, and together we pranked Bruce as he walked into the kitchen in the morning. Me and Alfred stood there in some professionally made dracula outfits and some fake fangs, and I got a cheap Halloween Batman mask, and that’s what Bruce walks in on as he freezes up in the doorway. Just looking at us, I waved enthusiastically at him. Not much else happened. Of note, my points have been ticking up, but I needed to save them for the protection power, so not much happened there.

I heard a loud thud sound as something fell over. I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes as I looked around the room for what could have fallen over. My room was relatively clean for being a kids room, and the reason was that I cheated with cleaning my room by just storing most of my stuff in my inventory. I thought I saw something at the foot of my bed. I slowly pulled away my cover as I was about to crawl over and look at something BIG, blue, and hairy that rose up and ROARED at me loudly. It scared me half to death, and I will deny I ever screamed that loud and high pitch. I called out for Bruce as loud as I could, and not even 15 seconds later, Bruce burst through the door, ready to fight whatever made that loud roar, but he only found me alone in the room, crying my eyes out. I thought I was going to die. Bruce turned on the light, made his way over to me quickly, and asked what happened while holding me. I stiltedly retold him that I heard a loud thud sound, and then something big and blue monster roared in my face, and I lost sight of it as I started to cry. After I sufficiently calmed down, I noticed Bruce was scanning the room for any clues or to find the monster. When I looked over to the side, both Alfred and Dick were there. Bruce asked if they had seen anything. Both of them shook their heads and started to look through the room and wardrobe and found nothing. I got out of bed and could feel something, and I walked over to the closet where the feeling came from. I searched what this feeling could be, and I felt a connection, and after some thinking, it finally clicked. It was my power to travel that I felt. I turned around to tell Bruce, but he was following me, and Dick and Alfred were already looking over to me, and I said I could feel something from the closet with my power, like the time I opened my rift, the portal thingy... I need to come up with an official name, I thought to myself.

"It feels like my power," I say, pointing toward the closet.

"Do you know what it is?" Bruce askes

I try to follow the residue I could feel, and it's a long string that is slowly fading away, but I find where it leads, and it’s not what I expected at all. I see a big room and the blue monster talking to a green ball with a… single eye. is… is this bloody Monsters, Inc!?

Did I get scared half to death by James Sullivan!? That’s when I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned around.

"Are you ok, Leo?" I saw the concerned eyes of Bruce, and I felt that I had clenched my fists, so I forcibly calmed myself down.

"I figured out what happened," I said as I took a large breath.

"I saw a big room filled with monsters on the other side, and I could see the big blue monster there, and I recognized it. They are working for a company called Monsters, Inc. They gain energy by scaring kids like me and turning that scream of fear into energy," I said, and I could see Bruce clench his fists.

"Do you know how to stop them?" asked Bruce, and I could only shrug my shoulders when I followed the energy. I could feel that their world was far away. They probably send out their monsters to different worlds. I thought they were only locked into one world, but apparently not.

"As far as I know, they are not evil or hurt children, but their only energy comes from scaring children, and I can feel their world is very far away." With the residue disappearing, I lost connection to their world and could no longer find it, but now I need to make a new list of people I want to get revenge on. He scared me, so I will mess with him. How will he like it if I drop a sock on his head while people can see I think evilly.

"Hmm… Will they come back?" Bruce asks after thinking for a while.

"I don't think so, but they got my door, so they can come back in the future, but removing or destroying the closet door will probably work," I said.

Bruce removed the closet door and took it away. I don't know where, but I don’t think I will ever see that door again. Alfred helped me back into bed and stayed with me until I fell asleep.