Fan Fiction: Crossovers
Lineage

  Five years ago...

  I'm standing in front of my parents. There is a man in front of us with a gun shouting. I look above his shoulder and on the roof top above him I see a shadow. The shadow seems to briefly regard us before jumping over the alleyway and into the night. As the shadow slips into the darkness, the man reaches for mother's pearl necklace. My father grabs the man. As they struggle, the necklace shatters and pearls litter the sidewalk. The gunman fires and kills my father. My mother screams as the gunman shoots her. He turns and runs away. I'm all alone.

  Bruce Wayne sat straight up in bed. He had to know, if the creeping suspicion he had was right. He did not want to believe that it was, but he had to know. Prior to coming here, he had worked with some of the world's greatest detectives and one of the main lessons he learned was to follow your instincts if you felt something was out of place. Follow your instincts and investigate. Looking around the small enclave that he and his four block mates used for sleeping, he could see that his fellow trainees were asleep. The room was small and completely made of stone as it was a small cutout inside of a huge cavern deep inside a mountain. Bruce slid down from his bunk, careful not wake the trainee below him or the other two across the room. Gilding across the floor Bruce carefully opened the door and crept into the cavern used as a hallway.

  As Bruce walked down the hallway, he replayed the afternoon's events in his mind. He and the other trainees had just gone through five hours of rigorous training. That is not what bothered Bruce, after all he had joined the Army of the Shadow to be trained as an expert warrior, a warrior that would fight to rid the world of evil men. Few people knew the army of the shadow existed. Few knew they were an invisible army who fought for no country but who fought against evil in general. When Bruce was sent to them by his Jujitsu master he thought this is where he was destined to be. This is where he could get the training he needed and find the allies necessary to fulfill his promise and protect the innocent while attacking the criminal element in the world. At least that is what he thought, until today when he heard their leader address his followers.

  Bruce replayed the scene in his mind. Ubu was The Master's personal body guard. He was a well built dark skinned man with a bald head. He had instructed all of the trainees to gather below the small cliff which extended from the cave in the mountain used as the army's headquarters. When they were all there the regal figure who was known only as The Master stood before his followers. Bruce was impressed by The Masters physical presence. He was an imposing figure dressed in an aristocratic cloak. Physically he stood at a statuesque 6'5". The look of The Master is not what concerned Bruce it was the speech. Bruce could remember the speech word for word. Part of his detective training had taught him how to have a photographic memory that paid attention to detail. The Master had spoken about how he was going to leave for a short while and embark on a rejuvenation cycle as he called it. The Master then said, "When I come back my followers we shall begin our quest to rid the world of the evils of man!" Upon hearing this, the hundreds of trainees cheered, but Bruce was taken aback at The Master's choice of words: "The evils of man." Not:"The evil men in the world." But: "The evils of man." Did this mean that The Master saw mankind as whole as evil? That the entire population of humans on the planet needed to be cleansed in their quest? Could this mean a worldwide holocaust? Bruce was not sure; the only thing he was sure about was he needed to find out.

  Bruce continued down the hallway/cavern until he came to the area where The Master's room was. The Master himself was out on his rejuvenation cycle and Ubu was with him. There were only two guards in front of the Masters personal living quarters. Bruce thought to himself, I could take the two of them out easily. A quick strike to the nerve center in the larger man's neck and a thrust kick to others temple. That would take them both out. No! I have to be smarter then that. What happens when the patrolling shift guards come around this way and the men who guard the Master's room are down or missing? That would cause a commotion. This is an instance where stealth would be more productive then force. The cavern was dimly lit by a series of sconces running through it, creating an aura of shrouded darkness throughout the hallways. Bruce was able to use the shadows to slip by the two guards without being noticed. Another skill he had learned in his detective training. Bruce was pleased he had kept his detective skills sharp while engaging in his combat training. Approaching the door of The Master's room, he removed a lock pick from his pocket he had fashioned from a knife taken from the mess hall. After thirty seconds of working on the lock, the door opened. To long! Bruce thought to himself, I have to be better, no more then ten seconds should be taken up on a lock.

  Bruce looked around the dark room and was amazed to see that this part of the cave was not only finely furnished as it had a chandelier hanging from the center of it, an oak dinning table and wooden chairs but also that it looked like a military instillation which could rival The Pentagon. There was a huge mega-computer along the one wall, a personal gym in another corner, a world map hung from a wall next to the computer, and on the far wall was an arsenal full of swords, guns, knives, spears, and other gadgets which Bruce assumed had to be high tech weapons The Master kept for himself. Amazing, Bruce thought to himself, an entire fully functioning high-tech headquarters in a cave, surrounded by hundreds of feet of rock and in a place where most people would not even think to look for a base of operations. Bruce took note of this fact and put the idea in the back of his head.

  As he walked into the room, he noticed what appeared to be a doorway into a second chamber. When he entered the second room he noticed all of the walls were covered with book shelves full of books from the floor to the ceiling. Bruce thought if he knew what The Master reads it might give him some idea as to what the man was really like. As Bruce approached the shelf closest to him, he noticed this particular book was a journal. This journal belonged to a man named Ra's al Ghul. He glanced over the next book and saw that it was also a journal of Ra's al Ghul. Bruce then noticed the entire shelf was full of journals from this man, as he continued to look around it became apparent the entire room was nothing but the journals of Ra's al Ghul. Bruce realized Ra's al Ghul must be The Masters real name and that these were his journals, but how could they all be his journals? While The Master appeared to be in his mid forties he would not have had the time to fill out all of these journals. There were thousands of them, he would have to write down every second of his life in these books in order to of filled them all up. Reaching out Bruce picked a journal from 1950 he realized this must have been from when The Master was a toddler, but looking through it he found not the writings of a small child but those of a well educated extremely sophisticated man. He looked at further volumes, 1938, 1918, 1890, 1851, 1830. These could not all be from one man, The Master could not possibly be well over a hundred and fifty years old. Even though logically Ra's al Ghul could not be that old Bruce could not ignore the evidence in front of him. All of the journals were written in the same handwriting and writing style, moreover the condition of the paper in some of the books indicated they were indeed some one hundred years old. There was more to Ra's al Ghul then met the eye Perhaps he has some kind of mystical powers, Bruce thought. While he did not really believe in magic, he knew it was the fool who did leave the slight chance of the improbable in any of his investigations.

  Bruce realized he was digressing from his original intent he had not come here to find out how old Ra's al Ghul was but to find out what his ultimate goal is. Reading through some of the journals Bruce began to realize Ra's al Ghul was a mad man bent on restoring the world to its natural state where Mother Nature is left in perfect harmony. Ra's eventually came to the decision that the only way this could be accomplished was by destroying the current population of humans and starting a new civilization with his followers, one in which he could lead this new generation of humanity into a new life in peaceful coexistence with nature. Bruce realized he had to leave the army of the shadow and somehow find a way to take down Ra's al Ghul. Bruce then remembered the first lesson he learned in the army of the shadow. Know your enemy. Bruce decided to read through as many of the journals as he could. Throughout history, he read how Ra's al Ghul had tried on numerous occasions to find weapons and means capable of murdering large numbers of people. After a while, Bruce came across a journal which spoke about an item which Ra's seemed obsessed with. It was called the Talisman of the Cortez. There was also mention of a man Ra's seemed to be interested in, known as Zorro.