L's of hell

“Limbo?” Tim questioned as he looked around, “Hold on! You can’t seriously mean all this s**t is real? What did that, ‘angel’ drug us with?”

“Nothing young mortal,” The poet replied, his wispy blue form standing over the male, “This defies all science and reason but I assure you it’s very real… Now to get to the circles below you must ride the boat across the river and face Minos… Minos will not let you pass so you will have to fight your way in.”

“I thought Cerberus protected hell.” Dick pondered as he looked at the aspiration.

“In a different universe yes… But not this one….”

Bruce was done with the chatter and gave a soft sigh before he began walking along the path. It wasn’t unusual for Batman to just up and leave after all. Once the children noticed Batman taking leave they began following him, keeping silent as they took in all their surroundings.

Bruce looked down at the river studying the souls that were reaching up and pleading for help however he ignored them. According to his research Limbo was a place for the non believers. The people who didn’t really sin. People who simply weren’t baptized or didn’t grow up in faith, people just awaiting for the true judgement day.

Once the four made it to the boat they got on and rode it across the river with no complications, this made The Bat feel very unsettled and suspicious. It shouldn’t be this easy. He drew two batarangs as he waited for the boat to come to a complete stop at the docks.

“Come on Bruce there’s nothing to worry about here.” Nightwing reassured as he casually walked off the boat.

Batman had let out a grunt before following after his oldest son, he didn’t put his weapons away however, for he could sense that something wasn’t right. Sure enough it didn’t take too long until he was proven right. The second all four of them made it off the boat they were attacked. Despite how prepared Bruce was he wasn’t at all prepared to take down...Babies. Babies who were aborted or not baptized. Babies who were still birth or miscarried. Babies that didn’t get a chance.

Dick had frozen solid, there was no way in hell he could bring himself to hit a child, even if they had horrifying blade arms and seared faces residing in the depths of hell.. One of the hell babies charged at Nightwing and cut his chest very badly, he stumbled back and grit his teeth before he began using his escrima sticks to block the next coming attacks.

Bruce threw his batarangs at the children as he constantly reminded himself they were already dead… They were already suffering. Not that it made it any easier, but nonetheless he had to do what was necessary. Bruce threw explosive batarangs at the ground to sway off the course of the infants but they didn’t stop, they didn’t care. One jumped up and sliced Batman’s cheek open before stabbing into his shoulder in order to stay attached to him while it sliced at him with its other arm. Bruce didn’t hesitate to rip the child off of him, breaking its blade as he did so before throwing it into the river. Batman then pulled the blade from his shoulder and took on a fighting stance prepared to defend himself further.

Damian, being raised by Talia, didn’t hesitate a single bit. As far as he was concerned these things weren’t even children. The boy had both his katanas drawn and was slashing and cutting through each and every hell child that came at him, so much so that Dick had even tried to stop him. Nightwing threw an escrima stick in front of Damian’s sword saving the life of one of the children before he got sliced up by more of them due to not paying attention to his own well being. Robin snarled and continued fighting making a mental note to get back at Dick for that idiotic move, which he did moments later by kicking one of the children directly at Nightwing’s head.

For once Tim was on the same page as Damian, he was using his Bo staff to strike at the children keeping them from getting close to him in any way shape or form. It wasn’t easy but they didn’t have much time to complain, especially when the swarm seemed to be absolutely endless. Tim stepped back and used the wings of his Red Robin suit to block the blades before shoving the children back.

“They’re not stopping! We have to do something!” Dick yelled as he swung at one of the blades half heartedly, barely knocking it off course.

“Hold your breath.” Bruce ordered before he reached into his belt and threw several smoke bombs at the ground causing thick smoke to fill the air. Originally the gas would cause anyone who inhaled it to fall asleep however naturally Bruce assumed it wouldn’t work in hell.

The batkids all promptly held their breath once the smoke filled the air. Bruce grabbed Dick and Tim to pull them out of the fog, Damian followed swiftly and closely knowing that despite being creatures of hell, the infants couldn’t see.

He continued slashing at the occasional child keeping up the line of defense as they moved past the infant children. Once the family was in the clear Bruce set them down.

Dick sighed and touched his bleeding chest before frowning, “I didn’t think they’d have little Damians running around here”

“Excuse you!?” Damian growled, “How dare you call me a hell spawn!”

“I called the hell spawn you… That’s worse.” Dick responded.

Damian aimed his sword at Dick however Bruce quickly intercepted, “Enough!” He growled sharply, “We can’t afford to do this now…” His eyes set in a glare, generally Damian and Dick got along though they went through phases where they fought worse than Damian did with Tim. Bruce had sighed before his eyes shifted towards a platform.

On the platform there was a line of souls all waiting to be sniffed by the mighty Minos. Minos was a bluish color who sat tall. He was bigger than most skyscrapers and appeared to be blind.  His body was serpent like while his chest arms and head were similar to a mans. His head almost looked as though it wore a crown of flesh. Each hand rested on pillars that sat on each side of his body. The only time Minos released them was to grab a soul and throw it onto a spiky wheel where he’d send it to the correct circle.

“We’re gonna cut in line aren’t we?” Dick asked before looking at his father figure.

Bruce didn’t so much as nod as he began walking towards the judge of hell. He walked passed all the damned souls and stepped right out onto the platform as Minos leaned down sniffing the male.

“Lust.. Greed… Wrath.. We have quite the concoction here. You’re not dead.. You can not pass.”

“I beg to differ,” Batman protested  harshly, “You’re going to let us pass… Even if I have to defeat you first.”

“And that’s how our whole family got murdered.” Dick remarked sarcastically as he braced himself for one hell of a fight.

Minos growled as he sat up fully, towering over the mortals below him, “You dare challenge King Minos? Very well.” The judge confirmed as sharp tendrils shot up through the ground sealing the group into a small arena.

Damian gripped his sword tightly with his left hand as he braced himself for the fight. Surely this wasn’t going to be easy. Minos raised his hand over the ground causing demonic entities to rise from the dirt. Tim ran to the demons and swung at them with his bo staff, quickly making contact. The demons were almost defeated by Tim too easily causing the teen to step back.

“They’re analysing us… studying how we fight to use it against us” He deduced earning a laugh from Minos.

“You’re smart for a Heretic!” The mighty judge of hell cooed with pride.

Tim glared before he threw a shuriken at Minos hitting him in the eye with it. The judge of hell released a pained scream before ripping the small object from his flesh, throwing it back at Tim. Tim went to hit it with his Bo staff however the force behind the shuriken caused it to cut through the staff and stab the teen in the shoulder impaling the bone. Minos then slammed his arm onto the ground before swiping at everyone. Bruce had quickly looped an arm around Tim before grappling onto a large pillar to avoid the blow of the arm. Damian managed to jump clear over it while Dick managed to move closer to Minos’ body avoiding the hit all together.

Bruce yanked the R shaped shuriken from Tim’s shoulder, “You alright?”

“Yeah just...grnn, Keep fighting” The teen responded as they lowered to the ground.

Damian ran up to Minos and began slashing at his stomach however the flesh was thick and impenetrable. Dick twirled his escrima sticks before slamming both the electric tips into Minos’ flesh only to get no response aside from him reaching down and picking the hero up. Minos squeezed Dick hard causing his ribs to break. Bruce shot his grappling hook directly into Minos’ eye before pulling himself up. The mighty judge of hell dropped Dick which Damian quickly jumped up to catch.

Minos ripped the grappling hook from his eye however Bruce had enough momentum to land on the judges shoulder, from there he used his Batarangs to scale up the side of Minos’ head planting bombs on his fleshy crown before leaping off, using his cape to glide down while he set off the explosives causing the judge to fall backwards exposing soft flesh on his stomach.

Damian ran up and began slashing at the flesh violently. Soon sharp tendrils shot from the ground whipping and stabbing at the heroes in defense. Tim stood behind Damian smacking the tendrils with his broken staff, Dick soon joined keeping the tendrils off Damian while he cut deep holes in Minos’ flesh. Bruce quickly ran through the assault of whip like  tentacles placing a bomb within the gashes. Surely one couldn’t permanently kill  Minos, but he knew he could stop him long enough to get through.

Minos soon sat up causing the soft flesh on his belly to be covered by a hard shell, that’s when Batman detonated the bomb causing the judges insides to explode. Minos’ hands slipped down from the pillars as his body began slipping off the platform and into the depths of hell.

Tim held his shoulder tightly and winced slightly as he slowly moved to the edge of the platform watching as pieces of rock rose from below creating a pathway for them, the teen stepped onto one of the stones as a light swirled around his shoulder healing it. Bruce looked over at Tim’s healed flesh suspiciously however he shrugged it off as he began walking towards a platform that sat before a large tornado. The same white light swirled around Dicks ribcage and chest causing him to give a relieved sigh.

“This week on storm chasers we travel through the depths of hell to face the mighty winds of debris and naked people.” Dick chuckled as he put his escrima sticks in their holster.

“The winds of lust,” Damian acknowledged before glancing up at Dick, “I expect you’ll behave Grayson.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you lose your head when a redhead catches your eye… Michael warned that we each have sins we must overcome so I figured lust would be a calling for a harlot like you.” The boy said coldly.

Dick glared, offended, “I am not a harlot!” He barked, “I would think growing up with Talia you’d learn what a real w***e wa-” Before he could finish his sentence Damian swung his sword at him cutting his chest.

“You might want to bite your tongue before you lose it!” The boy yelled.

Bruce smacked both of them on the back of their heads before they could hear a chuckle, “Now now now boys… You aren’t even at the circle of violence and wrath.”

“Man and I just healed too.” Dick whined looking down at his chest before his gaze shifted to the blonde man.

Bruce’s gaze shifted towards the figure, he took note of the nice suit, fedora and brilliant blue eyes. The males blonde hair was neatly slicked back and he had a perfect plastic smile on his lips, “Who are you?” Bruce asked, cutting to the chase.

“Oh how rude of me,” He hummed  in a malice tone however, despite the ill intent behind it… It was soothing, “You can call me Azazel, and I’m here to bargain…”

“Not interested.” Bruce said coldly as the other chuckled and shook his head.

“Michael sent you here… With no concern about your safety.. I mean.. He was kind enough to bless you meaning that every injury you obtain in a circle will fade when you enter a new circle of hell but… That won’t do much good if you die down here.” Bruce’s eyes merely narrowed at the half breed, “I’m only here to warn… If you keep up your pursuit you will lose yourselves..” The smile remained on his lips while he spoke.

“We’ll see about that.” Bruce responded as he walked forward earning a soft glare from the half breed; whom he walked up to. Azazel was only an inch taller than the bat, “You’re here in an astral form.. That tells me either you don’t have the strength to protect yourself from us down here or you’re not a threat.” Bruce soon smirked, “Either way… I’m not afraid of you.”

Azazel grinned, “I’ve always wanted to play with you mister Wayne… Let the games begin.” He purred before a black smoke engulfed his body causing him to fade.

“...Wow…. He was like… a hot Saw.” Dick mused, “Do you wanna play a game?”

Tim rolled his eyes and smacked Dicks arm, “Maybe you should wait here… There might be a tall blonde and handsome in the circle of lust.”

“Who said tall blonde and handsome is my type? Damian was right about the redheads, sugar.” Dick chuckled.

Tim opened his mouth to say something however, Bruce beat him to the punch, “We need to keep moving, we don’t have much time.”

Dick rolled his eyes slightly before patting Tim’s shoulder, letting his arm rest around it as they walked. It wasn’t long until they stood at the foot of the tornado. Dick looked up watching the poor souls that were caught in the violent winds. He watched as their bodies slammed into one another causing them to break apart, his eyes caught sight of some of them fornicating however the act seemed quite painful; for the souls doing it were getting torn apart in the act.

Bruce shared a frown with Dick as he silently questioned what the inside would look like.

Damian approached looking up at the winds before letting out a grunt as he looked at Bruce, “How do we get in?” He questioned.

“Resistance.” Bruce quietly glanced down at him before he ran forward, jumping through the violent winds. Tim and his siblings exchanged glances before he too leapt through the winds catching glimpses of faint fantasies though he pushed past the images landing beside Bruce. Damian was next to follow though due to his age his mind wasn’t exposed to much turmoil.

As Dick jumped through he felt his arm get grabbed causing him to look back at who was touching him. His eyes fell upon his ex lover Raya.

“Dick...Help me.” she mewled softy.

“Oh my god Raya…. I… I had no idea this is where you wound up….”

“It’s not your fault…. Come I know how we can get help.” She smiled as she began leading him up the tornado. It wasn’t long until their surroundings shifted into a bedroom.

“Raya…. What is this?” He questioned suspiciously.

Raya smiled back at him sweetly before grabbing a phone, “We need someone on the outside to pull us back…. Here..” She handed Dick the phone.

Dick took the phone and put it to his ear listening to a soft melody. His head began feeling dizzy and foggy before he felt a set of arms wrap around him followed by a soft familiar voice.

“Well well well Hunkwonder… looks like you got yourself in quite the mess.” The voice  giggled.

“Come on Barbara, it’s Dick we’re talking about.” Another voice said.

Dick turned around seeing Barbara and Kori, Barbara was in a short red dress while Kori was in a black one. Raya chuckled and held Dick from behind, “looks like help arrived handsome.” She chuckled planting kisses up his neck.

Dick smirked softly and let out a soft chuckle, “Is it my birthday or something?”

“Something like that.” Barbara said seductively before she kissed him deeply, leading him towards the bed.

Tim and Damian glanced behind them, “Where’s Dick?” Tim asked as Bruce frowned glancing back.

“No time for that now…. If we want to save him we need to get through this circle.” His words echoed while  he moved forward. The room they were in looked quiet empty aside from a single red door. Bruce put up a hand telling the other two to wait while he peaked behind the door, his face showed disgust as he moved back and released a sigh. Bruce then pulled a black cloth from his glove and began blindfolding Damian.

“Father is this really necessary?” The boy asked.

Bruce was silent before looking up at Tim, “keep your eyes on the ground.”
He ordered before opening the door and stepping through.

His hand was on the back of Damian’s neck as he lead him through. The room looked like a large scale sex club filled with men and women dressed promiscuously. There were various demons and souls inside. The demons seemed to be consuming the souls while they fornicated, there were various combinations between genders, races, mortals and demons. The souls seemed to be in complete agony, some experiencing a mix of pain and pleasure. Bruce walked through hastily, Tim glanced up quickly feeling his stomach churn as he watched souls being torn apart and reborn for a demons pleasure. He shuddered and stared down at the floor that bore no relief from the mix of juices it was covered in.

One by one the demons caught the scent of the living.

“Hello handsome” One of the women purred as she placed  her hand on Bruce;s chest running it down his abdomen. He grabbed her wrist and threw her off earning what sounded like moan, “Mmm a rough one~.” She purred.

“How about you play with us?” One of the men cooed as he and a young woman clung to Bruce’s side, “The kid can join too~.” The woman giggled.

That set Bruce off causing him the throw the woman to the ground before kicking the man in the gut. This caught the attention of the other demons. Tim reluctantly looked up as Damian took a fighting stance listening to gage where the other demons were since he couldn’t see.

“I really don’t want to fight naked people.” Tim grimaced, barely able to keep his eyes on the enemies.

“Why the bloody hell not? Haven’t you ever seen a party?” One of the demons remarked with a smirk.

Bruce’s eyes narrowed as Tim looked over at the  half dressed demon in the room, “I prefer parties of one.” The teen responded.

“Well you can touch yourself all you want right here, they  won’t mind.” He said gesturing to the other demons.

Tim flushed a dark red before gasping, “That’s not what I meant!!”  

The demon grabbed Tim’s face before licking his cheek, before Bruce could react the demon flew across the room hitting the back wall.

“I didn’t bring your a*s from London to have you assaulting a living mortal.” another Brit sighed in an annoyed tone. This male was dressed nicer than Azazel. His black hair slicked back, bright blue eyes. A black suit that had a purple handkerchief neatly tucked into the pocket, his eyes flicked around the room at the other demons as he released a low growl, “Back off before I ship you all back to the City of Dis.” He warned as the Demons muttered to one another before going back to their dirty sensual  activities.

Bruce glared and opened his mouth to speak however the delightful stranger beat him to it, “I’m a friend.” His wings sprouted from his back, they had a granite coloring causing them to fade from white, to gray and finally leaving the tips black. “I can’t help you fight the keeper of the tornado but I can keep these guys from jerking it with your intestines….” His gazed shifted to meet Tims.

Tim was absolutely captivated in a weird way. Hell they all were but Bruce was better at controlling his thoughts and feelings. “Who are you?” Tim asked softly.

“Ezekiel.” The male said sweetly, “Now as much as I’d love to chat, I believe your eldest son is on the verge of losing his soul…. Let me take you to him before she gets to him.”

“Who?” Bruce asked plainly and sternly.

“Why… Cleopatra of course, who better to reside in the circle of lust?” Ezekiel chuckled.

He lead the others through the club with ease before they reached a top floor. “He’s in a room down the hall to the left… I would suggest leaving your kids here.”

“You say that like I trust you.” Bruce growled.

“Have I given you a reason not to?” Ezekiel pondered.

“You showed me your wings as though that’d make me believe you were an angel… But angels can’t enter hell…” Bruce explained  as he removed Damians blindfold and softly pushed him forward. Damian and Tim walked with Bruce as Ezekiel followed.

They paused outside the room as Bruce pressed his ear to it listening. He cleared his throat before kicking the door in. The second the door was open they could feel the violent winds of the tornado. They were at the top on a large hunk of rock, Dick was being held down by two demons while a woman with gray skin, no shirt and a breechcloth was straddling him and assaulting his mouth with her own.. There was a long tentacle emerging from her mouth trying to bore itself

into Dicks mouth.

Bruce quickly threw a batarang at her causing her to shriek and turn around in a spider like fashion. She sensually rubbed her body releasing a moan before she began crawling at him, “Do you want to play?” She purred seductively.

Bruce got tackled by Cleopatra who moved down in attempts to kiss him though he managed to boot her off shortly before rolling backwards and taking on a defensive stance. His gaze narrowing coldly as she did a seductive dance, it certainly took a lot for him to keep his head clear between her actions and the pheromones she had released. Luckily Batman had plenty of experience thanks to Poison Ivy.

Damian had run forward to attack the demons holding Dick down,  they looked like Cleopatra only with red skin, Damian cut the head off of one before kicking the other in the skull. Dick had quickly sat up running a hand through his hair in a bit of a daze, his eyes setting on the change of scenery. The raven haired male stood up adjusting his clothes which almost felt tighter than usual due to his arousal.

“You sure know how to crash a party.” He stated in disappointment.

“You were the one who said you wouldn’t think with the wrong brain, Grayson… Just look at the trouble you got yourself into.” Damian responded as he gestured to Cleopatra.

Cleopatra moaned out as she crawled towards Bruce;  a long tentacle rolling out of her mouth like a tongue made the Batman shiver in disgust. Bruce decided it would be best to act now so he moved swiftly and used a batarang to cut into the piece of flesh that protruded from her mouth; it was surprisingly easy to cut off especially with such a small blade. Cleopatra screamed out in pain as she cupped her mouth holding back the pool of blackened blood that began to drip from the injury. The blood had seared through Bruce’s glove burning his hand badly however he hardly flinched.

Damian and Dick decided to use this moment as an advantage to flank her. Dick had used both the stun tips of his escrima sticks to electrocute her, pushing them against her ribcage. Damian run up, jumping into the air before the bottom of his boot crashed into the side of her head with full force knocking her unconscious. All the boys watched eerily and suspiciously seeing that it was an extremely easy battle.

“Was I out that long?” Dick questioned as he lowered his weapons.

“Cleopatra uses fantasies and illusions to win her battles… A siren's song can snap almost anyone into a daze however, if you have the resilience-”

“You won’t even hear it.” Bruce finished the sentence as he turned to look at Virgil the poet though his eyes didn’t stay fixed on the aspiration for long. “Where’s Tim?” He questioned hastily.

Bruce circled the whole platform scanning the edges of the tornado while Dick and Damian glanced at one another before looking around the platform that had begun moving upwards.

“He was just here, father.” Damian noted, “Shall we point out that Ezekiel is gone as well?”

The moment that name was uttered a growl had escaped Bruce’s throat, “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted him…. He’s a fallen angel.” The male grimaced.

No more than a second after the platform landed Batman had stepped off. A mist swirling everyone’s wounds healing them as the entered the next circle. This whole war became very personal, Damian and Dick knew it and followed Bruce quietly and quickly. The anger was nothing short of apparent leaving even Virgil speechless.  This would be the start of a long hellish battle…