Chapter 19: Intentions (Part 5)

Quick shoutout to this weeks Patreon, @Erik Vorlicky! Your support is extremely appreciated.

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Date: August 16, 2008

Location: Downtown Gotham City, New Jersey, Old Gotham, Destroyed Storage House Near Gotham Clock Tower

Time: 3:38 P.M.

*SQUEEEEEEAAAAAK - THUD!*

With a deep creak, a shambled wooden bookshelf was chucked away from among the wreckage of an apartment bedroom, light streaming into the den made up of plaster, brick, and concrete.

Shuffling sounds were heard as Ben peered inside, gaze meeting that of a trembling young girl. Eyes puffy and marred with tear stains, she choked the daylights out of a Wonder Woman plushie held in her arms.

"It's alright." Ben tried gently coaxing her. "I'm here to help."

A few minutes later-

'2.36 minutes.'

-it was the girl's turn to have the stuffing squeezed out of her by a pair of concerned parents.

Turning away from the lovely sight, Ben moved to depart the area, sirens off in the distance reaching his ears as he grappled to an unblemished rooftop.

"You're a real grouch, you know that?." Selina spoke in annoyance. Bruce, who was leaning his back on the roof's ledge, was unflinching in demeanor as she harshly bandaged his shoulder. "You should've just stayed back if it was this bad."

"And you…" Selina didn't turn back, having heard Ben once he softly set foot on the gravel lining. "Why didn't you heal him with that mystical bullet-ma-jig or at least prevent him from fighting?"

Ben closely observed her, trying to see if she was serious. After all, earlier, she made it clear how she would help out with or without his approval.

"Firstly, I did heal him with it." he retorted easily. "Secondly, Pot…" Ben pointed at her, "Meet kettle." back to Bruce.

The unknown young girl watched all this with a tilted head.

The bullet in Bruce's shoulder had already been removed and Ben had indeed shot him with a few blue and indigo bullets, but again, they wouldn't make much of a difference without extensive treatment. He only managed to seal the wound, but due to his father's constant jostling and heavy movements, it reopened mid-fight.

"How much longer?" Bruce questioned, not once taking his eyes away from Thomas' unmoving body lying behind Selina as the woman finally placed a safety pin to hold the bandages together.

"He'll be here in a few seconds." Ben replied.

'47.4 seconds.'

Julia had already given everyone an update on what occurred while they were unavailable during their earlier brawl, blaming herself for Dick's undetermined state. Ben had consoled her while going off to help with the more dangerous relief efforts in the area surrounding the wreckage, waiting for the proper emergency responses to quickly arrive thanks to the city's heightened alert levels.

The reason nobody else was scrambling to find Dick was simple. They were first waiting for one forgotten Jackalope to meet back up with them and share his findings.

While the fight went on in the storage house earlier, Wyle went unnoticed in the confusion as he remained perched on the ceiling beams, mainly staying out of sight while helping out where he could with minimal illusions to distract the more common ninjas.

Throughout the ordeal, the Jackalope had tried and failed to patch through to Ben for further instructions, his master already lost to the Black Light's snares at that point.

So, Wyle took it upon himself to go after Ra's and try and figure out how the man would escape, scavenging for extra information.

But, after all this time, Bruce looked like he was done waiting…

With a growl, he pushed himself off the ground and moved to the unknown girl standing by the side. Although she was already pretty small, she seemed infinitesimally tinier in comparison to the shadow Bruce cast over her.

"Start talking." Bruce's grunt caused the girl to step back. "What are Ra's goals here? What role were you assigned to play in them? Is he responsible for Robin's disappearance?"

Bruce would never lay his hand on a child, regardless of their criminal ways. Instead, he'd use his usual intimidation and fear tactics to get what he wanted.

But right now, he seemed uncomfortably close to breaking that line.

"Enough." Ben separated the two, gently coaxing the girl when she tried backing away even more. "She won't answer you."

"She will soon enough…" Bruce darkly promised.

"She won't ever." Ben looked at his father, eyes lighting up in sadness stemming from his disappointment. "She is physically unable to speak."

While that little tidbit caused everything to pause for proper processing, Ben walked up to the girl and extended his right hand out, motioning to the back of his left ear with the other.

Earlier in the warehouse, Ben learned a lot of things about her when he absorbed the most recently bled emotions that unexpectedly returned to his senses. Other than some concerning bits of knowledge that lead to more burning questions, one thing stood out the most…

The girl hesitantly turned her head between Ben and Bruce, slowly reaching behind her mask's ear-shaped indent and bringing her hand back to the one Ben outstretched before her.

"What is that?" Selina's eyes widened in disgust when she saw the object that was deposited.

It was a small, blue oblong pill-shaped device with black lines circling around it, a line forming out from the center part to form a rectangular patch with three tiny needles. The part that made Selina so repulsed was the two mini tentacles stretching out from each circular end and currently wriggling all over.

Before anyone could better examine it, the tentacles stopped what they were doing and retracted back into the center along with the needles in the middle, the entire device seemingly going inert.

"This is what was responsible for me being unable to sense anyone." Ben explained, motioning towards the unknown girl. "I saw in her past emotions that Ra's handed this out to everyone only when he stepped foot in Gotham."

Ben glanced between the device and the girl's ear. "Judging by the placement, I'm sure that it functions on a neural transmitter connected to the temporal lobe. Its deactivated state is due to the loss of feedback being acquired from its host. Further tests would be needed later to determine its fullest extent and other functions."

"Gee Sherlock, you think that you can trivialize it for us common folks." Selina sarcastically commented.

"Basically, it works on direct mental commands." Ben looked back to Selina while handing the object to Bruce when he reached out his hand in request to better check it out.

"Ra's had explicitly ordered them all not to mess with the device in any way, but she disobeyed in order to ask for help in staging a capture." Ben continued, motioning to the quiescent girl as Bruce turned the device around in his hands for a moment before locking eyes with his son. "She wanted to escape."

Bruce looked away, walking back to Thomas' body and checking behind the corpse's ears.

"Nothing." he soon spoke, not sounding entirely unsurprised by the result.

If Ben was correct about the device's basic functions, it implied that once Thomas died, the device could have unlatched itself from his ear once it stopped sensing his life signs. It's likely that it was buried under all the rubble by now.

But that was just one idea…

"You don't want to entertain the other alternatives?" Ben questioned, causing Bruce to pause. "I can tell just from meeting your friend today that he was a great enough actor for hiding his jealousy around you all these years."

Today's proven to them that Ben's emotional sensing wasn't perfect. Although the girl's memories showed Ra's handing out the device to everyone, it didn't show the man himself equipping one.

Although Ra's Al Ghul is ruthless and inconsiderate of almost everyone, facts have shown that he treats those close to him, like his daughter, with some form of care.

But how were they supposed to believe that wasn't just a front to hide his unfeeling nature, Thomas included? After all, most psychopaths only mimic most emotional responses in order to fit in, meaning that they don't actually go through the same processes that Ben's psychometry would need in order to work.

Sure it seemed like Ra's controlled Thomas with some sort of mental switch that he used to end the man when he started running his mouth, but so far, there was no evidence to support the theory of how they got in contact, meaning that the two groups could have no other relation but that one trigger.

In fact, Ben didn't see Thomas enter Gotham with Ra's and his group in any way when he combed through the girl's past emotions. Clearly, the man was already on Riddler's side before all of this.

"Thomas could've gotten into contact with Ra's anytime before or after he met with Edward, acting out as a double agent in order to get closer to something of interest. The device could have been passed on during that time period." Bruce walked to the roof's edge.

"I believe that Ra's wanted him to go on with the ruse for a while longer, which is why he had him captured alongside Edward and Jonathan at first. Due to what seemed like Thomas' incapableness of controlling his violent feelings against me, Ra's decided that he was no longer worth controlling either."

Bruce was right. Ra's insinuated that he wanted to punish (kill) an interloper (Riddler), but other than the first time when he put a sword to Edward's neck, he made no further moves trying to achieve his objective right away. Everyone's attention had just shifted over to Ben.

Even though he was first captured alongside Riddler and Scarecrow, Thomas was the only one that Ra's purposefully killed, taking the other two alive.

It was obvious to all that he was trying to buy time for something. Julia had filled them in on the police reports coming in about the demolished ships at the harbor carrying insane traces of gunpowder and missing a possible arsenal of explosive materials ranging between unknown levels. Because the cameras around the area were disabled for unknown reasons, it was impossible to find out exactly what occurred.

But, as Ben locked into one thing that Bruce had spoken, all of his thinking just evaporated.

"Ra's isn't the only one who wants to remain in control..." Ben's insinuation came out intense, cold, and a bit scary.

When informing everyone of the situation, Julia also informed them about her decision to continue having the Justice League hold back on assisting, even when the bombs went off in the harbor. But she only decided since Bruce and Ben weren't available to do so otherwise. Once she got back into contact with them, she left it up to Bruce to reconsider the matter.

His answer?

A resounding no.

Previously, Ben wasn't lying when he told Julia to inform the League not to interfere or provide assistance due to the possible ramifications it would cause. Years before Dick or Ben started helping out, Bruce had considered the idea of bringing in other help from outside, refusing in the end after crunching the numbers and mapping out the repercussions.

Although Ben had also seen the data and found it to be mostly accurate, he was starting to realize that wasn't the only reason why Bruce was so against outside help either…

Since the Waynes built Gotham up from the dirt it was founded on, nobody had as much claim to the city as they did. Bruce grew up watching his parents toil away for this city, doing the same in return.

In a sense, he grew up forming a type of OWNERSHIP for the place, and in a teeny eeny way, that ownership branched out to be expressed through so many of his other actions too. Bruce could feel genuine love most of the time, but sometimes, that love was a result of his responsibility towards his assets as a possessor.

Bruce turned to Ben, a rumble escaping his throat with equal intensity. "I. Didn't. Know."

"And what about the parts that you did know?" Ben didn't back down. "Were they considered unimportant?"

As the surroundings quickly started heating up, Selina got ready to step forward and break the two off each other. Thankfully, before things could get that far, a small object darted into Ben's arms at high speed.

"Jackalope." Ben acknowledged before he looked down, using Wyle's race in order to keep his name secret. "It's nic-"

Ben paused, finally noticing that his familiar was shivering violently, his beady eyes darting around in their sockets. Horror was practically bursting out from the poor thing as he tried to curl up deeper into both his own body and Ben's arms.

"...What happened?" Ben turned solemn, never having seen the familiar react this way before.

The only thing that ever came close to "terrifying" the mischievous guy was Kenzo chasing after him…

The Jackalope's antlers lit up as a beam shot outward into the air, forming something similar to a small TV screen.

Judging from the shaking images, rapidly interchanging alleyways following the group of Assassin's back, and small filthy puddles being tiptoed around while an animal equivalent of a retching noise sounded, the footage was from the Jackalope's own point of view.

Soon, the picture became much more stable as Wyle came to a stop on a signpost near a Chinatown boulevard. Across from the Jackalope was the crowd of Assassins, led by Ra's, as they met up in front of an old bus stop showing off bits of graffiti and triad logos. Carried respectively by Sportsmaster and Cheshire were an unconscious Riddler and Scarecrow.

'Merlyn, David, and Bronze Tiger aren't here…' Ben noticed.

Bronze Tiger's absence could be attributed to the man still duking it out with Killer Croc somewhere, but Merlyn and David's fate was entirely unknown.

Wyle remained in the same spot for a few minutes, circling around the nearby trashcans and lamposts in hopes of inching closer when no change occurred. Soon, however, a scarlet portal appeared a few steps away from Ra's.

A foot came out first, followed by a young boy in a black suit and tie. His hair was styled into two devil-like horns standing atop his ears, an orange cat lying wrapped around his neck and shoulders.

But that's all that was clearly shown as Wyle had already started quaking in his boots when the first signs of the portal appeared. The image only became still once more before cutting out, the last scene showing that of the Jackalope holding its breath-

-when the boy zeroed in on him right away, the cat around his neck following a second later as it locked eyes with the critter.

As the screen dissipated, Ben silently rocked his arms back and forth in an attempt to pacify Wyle.

"Were you followed?" Ben gently yet solemnly asked his familiar, the Jackalope shaking his head no.

"Recognize him?" Ben filtered through his own memories before asking his father, earning a no in return.

Hopefully, he was telling the truth…

"Alright then…" Ben looked back down at Wyle. "Do you want to go back to the manor with Selina and this young lady right here, or stick with us?"

"Come again?" Selina uttered in surprise. "In case you forgot, I want to look for Robin too."

"Right now, I need you to stay with her." Ben spoke, going into further explanation before Bruce could object. "I already know she's on our side and that she needs rest, but since you guys still don't trust her, I also know that she needs supervision until I give all the details at a better time."

Seeing that Bruce remained unresponsive, Selina accepted the reasoning and signaled the young girl who hesitantly glanced back at Ben, only following after the departing Cat's back when she received a nod.

Ben silently glanced at Bruce, meeting his father's eyes in what seemed like a tense moment, the two men and resting Jackalope grappling and leaping rooftops in the direction of Dr. Thompkins's clinic.

The whole time they were on the move… no one broached the topic of their cracked bond of trust.

Date: August 16, 2008

Location: Downtown Gotham City, New Jersey, Old Gotham, Gotham Public Library

Time: Unknown

Starting his journey back into the waking world, Dick felt like he was blown away by a nuke.

Mind booting back up in a turtle-like fashion, his ears were the first to come back online as they began to acknowledge the sounds of quiet whimpering, hiccups, and labored breathing.

Nose unconsciously twitching, Dick swallowed the bile welling up in his throat as a revolting smell hit him, a mix of sweat, piss, and… fresh paper?

Opening his lead-filled eyes with a jolt, he met the gaze of some random guy who seemed to be in his thirties, the adult shaking in absolute torment while hiding behind a bookshelf.

Except, for Dick, the man was upside down in his vision…

'What in the merry-go-round?'

Looking up, Dick found that he was hanging in tight chains looped around the second-floor railing. He witnessed many more civilians huddled together in different corners of the room doing the same as the guy from earlier, some others also sheltering themselves underneath wooden desks and chairs.

Books were sprinkled all over the floor, hardcovers bent with some pages ripped out. Decorations were mangled and computers were shattered, bolts of electricity exiting the few badly broken ones that were still plugged in.

'Gotham City Public Library…'

Belatedly realizing where he was, Dick tried testing his bonds by wiggling around, stopping a moment later when a tickling pain flared up. Blood was flowing over the pores of his skin, a quick unconscious lick of his chapped, and most definitely cut, lips allowing him to taste iron.

But that wasn't the worst of it…

The majority of his left arm was charred black beyond recognition, parts of the limb lined with metal shards as the red and pink of his inner dermis pulsed in rhythm with his breathing.

'Holy smokes!"

The sight caused Dick's brain to realize its earlier mistake of calling it a "tickle". As the floodgates opened, his muffled screams of misery were kept to himself in a moment of small awareness in order to keep himself inconspicuous. And yet, it did nothing for the tingles giving way to a phantom burn that made him feel like he was simmering alive.

After an undetermined amount of time had passed, when the pain started becoming bearable once more, Dick tiredly let himself continue to hang.

'That blast must have been just short of a volcanic eruption in terms of heat…' he eyed the bits of his costume that melded into his dead skin. His whole getup was supposed to be heat-resistant, but the explosion clearly laughed in the face of that knowledge.

'At least it didn't reach the bone.' he tried to give himself a modicum of comfort. 'Hope Ben won't scold me later.'

After all, his arm was supposed to be freshly healed…

Better enough now that he rested a short while, Dick set out trying to accomplish completing his earlier attempt. Conservatively swaying the chains back and forth, he circled the room from overhead to find out why everyone was so terrified.

It went without saying that the furthest thing his mind expected was witnessing multiple armed men in clown masks stationed around the room, several of them shoving around a couple of civilians while jeering at them.

'Oh dear Pennywise…' dread started settling in. 'Why'd it have to be him…'

*HEE-HEE-HEEEEE-HEEEEEE*

Yelping at the sudden sound, Dick tucked his body up when he felt a breeze caressing his hair, a hyena almost having managed to snap it's jaw over his head. Looking down showed another one prowling in tandem with it's partner, the two cackling as they looked up at him.

Stopping what they were doing, the armed men perked up as they circled around him from the ground, standing at attention.

"Look what we have here!" a cheery voice drew near. "How wonderful it is for you to finally decide to join us, ey Boy Blunder?"

Stopping what they were doing, the masked men perked up as they formed an open circle around Dick, standing at attention as a purple-suited male clown walked into the center, a mere glance at his grin making the people in the room shake like a leaf.

Trying not to show how spooked he was, Dick realized just how dangerous this had become.

Joker, a man that no one was capable of anticipating, was now involved.

Usually, only Bruce was able to barely predict the guy, specifically when he was searching for the clown actively and not being distracted by other things. If that wasn't the case, Joker would purposefully leave behind tracks for his favorite Bat to follow. That was before Ben could also anticipate him with enough clues.

But not this time…

The entire family had been tracking the man down for weeks as they combed through every possible lead.

No dice.

'Of course, he comes out at the first sign of pandemonium.' Dick sighed.

"How's it… hanging?" Joker chortled at his little wisecrack. "What a lovely surprise it was finding you in that plane. I was expecting Batsy-Poo to be in there, but all I dragged out was a little bird who apparently can't fly on its own instead."

'...Batman can't fly on his own either.' Dick mentally retorted.

"I know what you're thinking little Boy Blunder." Joker's smile somehow turned annoyed, Dick flinching in surprise. "But come on! Everyone knows that only Batman can ride the Batplane, it's in the name!"

A few goons moved to a nearby Shakespeare sculpture mounted on a stone pedestal as they grabbed the chain end strung around it, slowly lowering Dick to match Joker's height.

The hyenas below were getting excited, clearly eager to get a bite as they yipped away while waiting for Dick to come closer.

"Pipe down!" Joker suddenly kicked one of them, sending the animal crashing into his friend. The two whimpered as they got up and moved to the side. "Find some other roasted robin to feast on."

Dick maintained his silence, knowing that any form of input would just set the madman off, causing him to end up worse than the duo of carnivores.

…Unfortunately, the last thing the man needed was encouragement.

"Now then, you must be wondering what's going on here, hmm~?" Joker questioned in a sing-song voice.

'Of course.' Dick sarcastically agreed in his mind. 'Not like I'll tell you that though.'

"The thing is…"

"I have no idea either! Hahahahahaha!" he laughed maniacally.

That actually brought Dick up short, enough for him to reassess his surroundings one more time.

'Civilians sweating in fear? Check. Armed minions? Check. Wrecked property? Check.'

'...He's pulling my leg, right?' Dick narrowed his eyes at the psycho.

Without warning, Joker sent a heavy hook to Dick's jaw, causing him to lurch like a boxing bag while the goons held the chain steady.

"I know that look in your eyes, and I don't like it!" the clown maintained his grin while snarling. "Only Bats gets to glare at me like that! In fact, I should kill you for trying to copy him…"

Dick tried to settle his racing heart at those words, refusing to let even an ounce of the fear he was starting to feel show.

"But if I kill you now, then Bats won't play along with me like I want." he eventually concluded, shrugging his shoulders in a 'what can you do' kind of way.

Dick didn't answer as he tried to keep his dizzy mind in check, spitting out a wad of blood when he stopped swinging while feeling relief that he was safe for the time being.

The grin on the man's face wiped that thought out real quick though.

"That's why, while I come up with a much more genius alternative, I'll mash a few bones into powder for now!" Joker cackled before turning behind him.

"HARLEY SWEETY! GET YOUR MALLET!"

While the civilians shivered at his voice, their reaction only increased when another voice responded to the man from one of the upper floors.

"ON IT MISTAH J! MAMA'LL BE RIGHT THERE!"

The man grinned in delight at that, Dick's heart sinking even further.

'Damn it.' Dick took the chance to look around. 'I gotta get out of here.'

Before his right hand could slowly creep up to his waist, Dick froze when he failed to sense the familiar weight of his utility belt.

'Oh, Wyle almighty…' his face turned white. 'Don't tell me I lost it in the blast.'

In fact, the weight in his ear, his communicator, was also missing.

"Hi ya, Bird Brain!" a ditzy voice forced Dick out of his thoughts. "Thanks for the little trinket!"

The circus terror's right-hand woman, Dr. Harleen Quinzel, also known as Harley Quinn, walked up to the Clown Prince of Crime, a blue spray-painted mallet with the word *POW* on one end hoisted across her shoulder. Meanwhile, slung over the other one was the very same yellow loop Dick needed right now.

'Great…' Dick lamented his luck.

"Hi, babies!" Harley cooed at the hyenas, the downtrodden duo perking up as they rapidly scampered over to lay at her heels. "Awww, I missed ya too!"

"Harley…" Joker insinuated.

"Oh… sorry puddin'." Harley scratched the back of her head, stretching out the bludgeoned weapon. "One mallet, courtesy of muah!"

"Hmm..." Joker rubbed his chin, weighing it in his hand. "...I change my mind. I feel like a metal bat would work better.".

"But we don't got no bats!" Harley complained. "You threw em' out sayin' they didn't hold up against the real thing. How 'bout a crowbar?"

"No no that won't do." Joker heavily waved his hand in denial. "I have a feeling that I'll need that later for something more… memorable." a sadistic smile sprawled onto his face as he hummed in delight. "And you know how much I like a joke that can stick."

"And besides…" he swung his arms in a batting fashion, cackling maniacally. "Doesn't the idea of swinging a bird out of the air fill you with excitement? HAHAHAHAHA!"

"I thought you told 'em the quip you practiced earlier about how he has no wings?" Harley tilted her head in genuine confusion, looking between Dick and Joker. "How can he be flyin' in the air then?"

That brought Joker up short, his laughter swiftly being replaced by rage as he smacked her in the face.

"Stop ruining my fun and just get me a golf club then!" Joker loomed over her fallen form, spittle spraying. "He'll be soaring through the skies by the time I'm done with him!"

As Harley rushed away to fulfill his wishes, the hyenas chasing after her, Dick made use of the duo's bantering to start looking for an exit off this crazy train he was forced onto. He didn't even know how long he was unconscious.

'Oh. Right.' Dick remembered something, looking at the far wall towards a clock that was ticking away. '3.42 P.M. Around 25 to 30 minutes since I was knocked out.'

Although Dick wanted to have confidence in Ben and Bruce, it was hard to tell whether the time that passed was enough for him to rely on the assumption that the two were finished with their predicaments.

'...Guess I can only buy some time and try to get some information first.' he decided.

In the meantime, he could also take the chance to think up a proper plan.

"Just so you know." Dick expressed calmly. "I'm not buying your words for a moment."

"Hmmm." Joker stopped his impatient pacing as he thoughtfully gazed back at Dick. "What's there not to understand? I'm going to see how long it takes for the remaining two-thirds of the Terrific Trio to make their appearance while I slowly turn you into ground robin."

"Not that." Dick denied. "I'm talking about how you're pretending to not know what's going on."

"...You're telling me…" Joker stopped in his steps, smile turning baleful as he moved to Dick and held him by the sides. "That you don't understand the joke and want me to explain it for you…?"

'Ah crap.' Dick paled in both worry and agony as the clown's fingers dug into his burnt shoulder. 'How did I set him off?'

Although he studied most of the files on the Batcomputer by now, Joker's files being one of the most extensive, Dick already knew that he wasn't ready to fight him. Ben and Bruce believed that he still had to experience some things personally first in order to get a better jist of it, but at the same time, they would never let him face off against the clown alone.

'Clearly they weren't expecting this situation.' Dick sighed.

What Dick failed to know is that usually, although just telling a joke adds to the Joker's satisfaction, when the man learns that his wisdom wasn't properly conveyed…

"You know that a joke isn't a joke if I have to explain it to you, right?" Joker theatrically put a hand to his forehead. "But since you're still pretty green and Batsy hasn't taught you better, it doesn't seem like you'll understand the hilarity of the situation unless I get you up to date."

"The things I do to make my audience laugh." he complained as he signaled to one of his henchmen.

The goon fearfully walked away from Dick's vision alongside a couple of other people, the sound of grunts and groaning wood filling the room.

"See, what's going on here couldn't be more obvious." Joker waved all around at the civilians who tried avoiding the direction his arm moved. "I tried telling a joke to all these fine Gothamites, being met in return with nothing but lousy crickets chirping."

"But out there…" he motioned to beyond the walls and paused.

"Lookie here, little clipper." Dick was twisted around to face the library's door as he followed Joker's finger pointing to a group of men tied up back to back, another tied separately from them on a wooden chair.

'Bane?' Dick questioned himself in slight astonishment.

Since this was also the first time that Dick met the man in person, it was hard for him to match the broken and bruised toothpick before him with the built-like-a-brick picture in his memory. It was only thanks to the Spanish wrestler mask loosely fitted around the man's head that he identified him so easily.

"You see…" the clown dragged a knife across Bane's mask, a shallow cut forming from which blood flowed. "Even if I don't know exactly what kind of shenanigans they're up to, I like to keep an eye on all these new… pests popping up in this city."

"I mean, think about the good old days when I was the only person graced with Batsy's surprise visits." he patted his chest and signaled between himself and Bane.

"Oh the FUN we had!" he laughed heartily in reminiscence, his henchmen following a moment later.

"But then… these two-bit hustlers started multiplying like rabbits!" Joker took a handkerchief from his suit and slapped it down to start stomping on it. "Suddenly, every thug and his mother needs to only take part in one game with Gotham's hero to gain the right to finish him off."

"But who?!" hysteria filled the room as the clown pulled at his hair. "Who was it that gave them the right?!"

Dick's heart turned into a jet engine.

"You wanna have a little tango with the big bad Bat?" Joker kicked Bane hard, the chair toppling over as one of its legs flew off. "Fine, go ahead!"

The infamous, sick, rictus grin made its appearance once more.

"But only I get to participate with him in the biggest, baddest, most barbarous of boogies!"

'Maniac.' Dick shivered a bit as he was, unfortunately, a bit more enlightened on the man's mindset at this time.

Joker doesn't need or want to know what other people's plans are. He takes pleasure in working around their hatched-up plots, assimilating them, and making them more presentable as something funny for his audience.

Even though Bruce wasn't the one in the Batplane this time, Dick was enough of a spectator for the clown. And it wasn't all that bad for Joker since, by welcoming Dick to his stand-up show, Bruce had to come by extension.

Joker took his knife again, raising it up high over Bane's head…

…and pinning it into the man's left ear over through his mask, causing the man to wake up with a jolt as the shock tried registering.

"Still… I have to thank El Simio here for letting me borrow the nifty little toy he brought with him." Joker picked up the dirty handkerchief and wiped his hands, squeezing Bane's cheeks to pop open his lips as he carelessly stuffed it inside.

"In fact… I suppose I have to thank most of those fools since they make things interesting in their own little ways." the clown admitted, pinching his nose in distaste. "Except for Riddler. Between all his games, people keep confusing me for the guy."

"I tell sophisticated jokes!" Joker slapped a nearby henchman, causing the rest to laugh. "I don't host contests just for some two-year-olds to beat them!"

Dick wasn't hearing the man any longer for the moment. His brain had practically iced over when taking in one piece of info from what he just heard.

'I don't like anything he considers a toy…'

His gut was giving him a really bad feeling, one that caused him to tremble in cold sweat.

The dizziness from swinging around, stacked up by the blood loss, brought him a major sense of vertigo as he puked.

"Hey!" Joker jumped at the first signs of the kid's sickness, backing away in disgust as it rained stomach acid. "Not on the shoes. It took me some work taking 'em off that walking piece of lard last week."

Dick wasn't listening, too busy trying to keep his mind from spiraling downward.

'Is this what it means to be a hero?'

Images of his previous fights flashed through Dick's mind alongside the many hours of having his feet swept from under in training.

'Do I have to start fearing the idea of dealing with this from now on?' he looked at all the armed thugs.

'Is this it for Gotham? What about Ben, Bruce, and Alfred?'

'Alfred…' the image of the feeble butler wheeled into an ambulance took over. 'Is he still okay?'

Thoughts like these kept tormenting him, poisoning him, drowning him…

'Who's going to save us?' the question instinctively popped up.

'...'

Time stopped, the thought lingering in Dick's mind.

All those times in the manor's gym bounding between the trapezes and weights were to prove that he wasn't helpless like before... they were meant to show his strength to those who wished him and others harm! To show that he was better than them!

To show everyone... that he could be a hero.

'Wamma make me soar through the sky?' Dick's eyes sharpened, glancing at the annoyed clown looking down at the goon wiping his bosses' shoes with his thumb. 'The idea's nice, not so much the person and intentions behind it.'

A slight smile made its way onto Dick's face before swiftly giving way to a stoic mask, not unlike that of Bruce's.

'Guess I just got to stay out of his hitting range.' Dick concluded in determination, an unknown glint momentarily crossing his eyes.

"Seems like you're done making a mess of everything…" Joker noticed Dick's recovery.

"Now before we were interrupted by your weak stomach… Ah yes! I came here looking to teach a lesson to Riddler and that paper-toilet-wrapped guy for trying to make a fool out of an innocent old me by faking a death…" Joker trailed off in the end to build suspense.

'A fake death?' Dick started assembling the pieces, mind running miles per minute. 'He wouldn't be talking about some low-level petty murder since it would just slip through the cracks. The only recent attention-grabbing murder was… Thomas Elliot!' he connected the dots.

The murder of Bruce's friend a few days before the Justice League's inauguration for new members. It seemed to be the catalyst for all of this.

'Do the others know that he's Hush?' he thought for a moment before shaking his head in annoyance. 'Never mind. Dumb question.'

"But I came up with an even better plan! This hunkering heap of meat was planning on blowing up Gotham, so I decided to play his game of hot potato, only with a little twist of my own."

"You see, there are always survivors, stragglers, the lucky few… yada yada you get my point."

"Somehow, there will always be someone still alive to tell the tale."

"But think about a world where everyone dies with a smile on their face!" the clown laughed hard. "To know that they aren't immune to the wonders of joy and laughter!"

"It makes me so happy!" his howl was deep and filled with bliss. "And when I'm happy…"

He looked straight into Dick's eyes, another knife magically appearing in his hand as he threw it.

*SCHPLUNK*

"I kill!"

Dick was drawn up short, looking at the man he had locked eyes with earlier clutching at his throat before he slowly fell into the arms of a woman who ran to catch up. Shaking him back and forth to keep him together, she wailed as his body went forever static.

"So… now you have a shower of new and improved Joker Venom ready and waiting to be spread as the finale to one giant mushroom of an explosion! No thanks needed." Joker revealed, bragging proudly at the end.

Right on cue, the henchmen started clapping, fearing the consequences if they didn't.

Dick continued looking at the man who lived only moments ago, feeling strange with himself. Although he felt sadness for the life lost before him… something fierce burned within too. A fire that made him want to hustle double time in trying to prevent the worst case scenario.

'I just need a single opportunity.' Dick concluded.

Luckily, his opportunity came in the form of a loud blond with two blue and red-dyed pigtails waving in the wind as she ecstatically showed off a golf club, hyenas right behind her.

"I got that club Mistah J! All I had to do was go to one of em' rich houses and knock down the door. The guy there was real' nice to just hand it to me."

As everyone turned their attention to Harley, Dick took his chance. 'Now.'

Holding in his wince, Dick shook his left arm a bit until a small unblemished card came out of his disfigured gauntlet. After making sure it was angled out of sight, he placed it against his bindings, causing them to promptly vanish.

The men previously holding the chain steady stumbled at the loss of weight while Dick flipped himself upright mid-fall, hopping between a few henchmen's shoulders before he reached Harley, nabbing his belt off her shoulder and leaping over a bookshelf out of sight.

"Hey!" Harley shouted in alarm, swinging her mallet too late. "Haven't you heard of no-take backsies'?!"

"Forget that!" Joker shouted, waving his hand to the golf club he was now holding. "He ruined a chance for me to start up a new pastime. Spread out and find him!"

The men raised their assault rifles and Harley her mallet, scanning their surroundings as they moved to follow the man's orders.

"Bud, Lou, sick em'!" Harley shouted.

The two hyenas cackled as they quickly sniffed the blood Dick left behind in his time hanging unconscious before turning towards the stairs. Just as they were going to prowl the steps, a body dropped from the second floor and crunched through a table beside the group, the hyenas yelping in fear and confusion alongside some of the men.

"Hehehahahahaha!"

Laughter started echoing off the walls, everyone inspecting their immediate vicinity in a tense manner.

"I hate it when they do that." Joker complained, throwing the golf club away in favor of drawing a small pistol from his suit's inside pocket. "Takes all the fun out of everything."

Panting heavily, Dick leaned his head out from a desk by the railing on the second floor.

'Low on blood and down an arm while facing the most psychotic killer on the planet….' Dick kept track of his lightheaded state, gazing between Joker, Harley and the men, and the civilians. 'As long as I keep their attention on me, this is lightwork.'

Reaching into his belt, Dick threw a couple of smoke pellets, the obscure cloud swiftly spreading out to the library's every corner.

"Stay with me Harley-girl." Joker warned, the woman happily going to stand back to back with him.

A shadow passed behind the group unnoticed, making its way to the woman weeping over the man killed earlier.

"Psst."

Startled, the woman looked up to find Dick beside her. "I need you to secretly evacuate everyone while I keep these guys distracted."

"M-M-My boyfriend…" her voice came out brittle and in stutters.

"...I'm sorry for your loss." Dick solemnly spoke, gazing at the corpse's wide-open eyes. "I'm sorry that I couldn't save him. But right now, I need your help to get the rest out, can you do it?"

As she paused for a moment, Dick got to work when she eventually nodded her head.

Grappling to the top of the bookshelves on the upper floor, he slowly began taking down the scattered goons there before turning his attention back to those at the bottom. Glue pellets, freeze pellets, birdarangs… all sorts of gadgets accurately rained down from above, a few small explosions sending grunts flying into books and chairs as the rest began firing madly in the direction they felt it originated from.

More laughing rang out in the surroundings as they continued falling one by one due to controlled scatter shots, a few more getting taken out by a hit in either the head or neck. As the smoke eventually cleared, everyone was on the ground disarmed and groaning in pain, or completely unconscious.

Dick stood there grinning for a moment, stumbling as he leaned on a nearby column for support.

He turned quickly with a few birdarangs in his left hand in order to finish the job…

…only to pause at the sight in front of him.

*CLICK*

"Really smart of you to attack from above baby bird. Guess you weren't as stranded on the ground as I thought."

"But did you really think I wouldn't notice you trying to have us aim away from these cattle?" Joker questioned sarcastically, his gun pressed to the temple of the currently terrified woman from earlier.

Dick's jaw clenched tight as he tried to figure out a way to best solve the problem in front of him.

"Did you think that they would just run if you gave them a distraction? Hahahahahaha! They're just sheep waiting to be slaughtered." the man laughed as he motioned towards said people.

Everyone was currently shivering in fright, a few looking away in shame at the truth in the man's words. They couldn't muster the strength needed to save their lives, mental or physical.

'At least a few left the place…' Dick furtively glanced at the entrance.

"Harley sweety. Give him a few good whacks. If he so much as twitches… we'll be enjoying the sight of brains today!"

"You got it puddin!" the blond responded as she got to work, crossing the distance spanning the two while swinging her mallet, a slight whistle sounding through the air in the wake of its descent.

Forcefully suppressing his instinct to dodge, Dick accepted the impact as he was violently flung away, unable to hold the slight cry of pain that escaped his lips after he hit the wall. The echo of his ribs cracking reached everyone's ears, his left arm becoming further damaged as he tried cradling it.

"Was that the sound of agony I hear?" Joker chuckled, the woman crying out once more in response to him pushing the gun against her head forcefully. "It better not be!"

As Dick watched Harley slowly approach him once again, another voice suddenly rang out in the area.

"Even if it was, what can you do about it?"

Joker reacted fast, whipping his head around while trying to pull the trigger still aimed at the woman.

Sad for him, his finger couldn't press down.

A figure suddenly appeared in front of the woman, grabbing the gun as he twisted the clown's hand in a safe direction and kicked him down to his knees.

"Peek-A-Boo." Wildcard spoke.

Harley tried to run over to help, abruptly ducking at the sound of whistling wind sailing over her head.

Turning back, she was met with just a slight glimpse of Batman helping Robin as a couple of batarangs that had escaped her notice exploded in front of her, causing her to be the one sent flying this time.

"Ah! If it isn't my favorite Bats! I thought you'd never come." Joker grinned.

Bruce ignored him for the moment, examining Dick closely to assess the extent of his injuries, his gaze lingering over the kid's burnt arm for a bit. A pair of cuffs appeared in Ben's hands as he also ignored the guy. After binding the madman as best as he could, he then moved on to doing the same to his men.

He soon paused in his work, looking over the stick figure knocked out on the ground as he tilted his head.

'Bane, what's he doing here?' Ben wondered.

Not worrying about it for now, he secured the man too while dealing with the wound at his ear, also checking on the civilians as they began leaving the place and making sure none of them were severely injured. After completing all of this, he then moved towards Dick and Bruce.

"I'd ask how the other guy looked, but I don't want to embarrass you." Ben spoke as he observed his brother's pained face.

"Tis… but a scratch." Dick panted before laughing slightly.

"Enough." Bruce interrupted as he continued prodding Dick all over. "Second-degree burns, two ribs fractured but they seem to be non-displaced, class 3 or possible class 4 abrasions and lacerations due to the metal embedded in your skin…" Bruce listed out multiple serious injuries one by one before he turned to Ben. "Cool and clammy skin alongside the loss of fluids indicate he could go into hypovolemic shock at any moment now."

Not needing to hear more, Ben took out a card while placing a hand on his ear. "Penny-Two, come in."

"I'm here." Julia replied.

"We need you to prepare for a plasma transfusion while we send Robin over. There should be packs stored in the cryogenic chamber nearby."

One thing that Bruce always made sure to stock up on in the Batcave for later use was blood in case of emergency. When the man had first understood the significance of what it meant to be a universal donor with O- typing, he made it a necessity to draw his own whenever he was replenished enough.

"Jackalope." Ben looked at his shoulder. "I need you to go back to the Batcave and take care of Robin and Penny-Two."

A shimmer passed through the room as Wyle appeared, much better than before as he nodded his head in assent and jumped off, bending his body beside Dick's head.

Ben and Bruce gently carried Dick, moving him around to hide behind a toppled bookshelf as they set him back down.

Ben had two entirely different portal spells that functioned in different ways. The first was the one he used against Merlyn that one time, functioning as a miniature deep pit in reality that can fit smaller objects to and from its hole. The second one, what he was about to use now, functioned like a gateway. He needs to leave behind one card in a location of his desire, the other remaining either with him or in another location for later access. Afterward, he'd need to store the spell again in another card to use it once more.

The reason they carried Dick out of view was that this portal functioned on a window theory, meaning you can see the other side. They didn't want anyone peeking into the Batcave and guessing its location even with just the scraps of hints it could provide.

"Wa…it." Dick stopped Ben before he could drop the card, his face looking like it was moments away from fainting. "Bane… brought a bomb… Joker moved somewhere in Gotham… Joker Venom."

The two froze for a moment, piecing the words together in a more decipherable format before Ben nodded his head. "Rest for now. We'll take care of it." he assured.

And with a drop of his hand, the portal appeared, Wyle hopping through as the duo carried Dick onto a table in the med bay, Julia ready and waiting with the plasma hanging on an IV pole.

"I got him." she inserted a needle into Dick's right arm once he was settled, stitches, pills, and other medical equipment beside her at the ready.

"I didn't know you were a capable doctor?" Ben raised a brow. Bruce was ready to stay behind himself and use his own medical knowledge, stopping when he noticed the same thing.

"Biology, medicine, it's all the same." she spoke in annoyance, grabbing some tweezers after threading a knot through a needle.

Although Ben didn't agree, he was forced to acquiesce as Bruce went back through the portal, a silent agreement to leave Dick in her hands. Clearly, the man was more in favor of dealing with the bomb.

"Did Selina and the girl come back yet?" Ben asked, Julia merely nodding her head as Ben moved through the portal too. As Ben watched it close, he walked back around the bookshelf to find Bruce already moving to where all the criminals were being held.

"You know that he's not going to give you the location regardless of what you do to him, right?" Ben said. "How about we now call the League for assistance in rapidly scouring the city?"

Bruce ignored him, moving up in front of the handcuffed Harley and Joker, the latter grinning.

"Batsy Batsy Batsy… so nic-"

*BAM*

"Puddin'!" Harley exclaimed.

Ben's eyes also lit up gold-orange as Bruce punched the man's face, beating him down to the ground. "I'm only going to ask this once." Bruce grabbed Joker by the collar, blood dribbling down the clown's chin. "Where's the bomb?"

"Well, if you had asked nicely the first time, I'm sure you'd know by now." the clown chuckled. "It's neatly packed up for you at a sewer entrance near the reservoir, your name written in bold letters too."

His effortless admission and casualness screamed that something was wrong. Although the man's mind couldn't be fully understood, it also didn't make sense for Joker to just give away such information without reason.

"Portal." Bruce turned his head to Ben. "Now."

Ben held his tongue as he took out a card and dropped it to the ground once more, a gate opening up to show a pathway leading to a giant timber and steel dam.

Although it's impossible for him to scatter the cards everywhere around Gotham since it's still a pretty big place, Ben still managed to do so for most key areas in case of emergency. At the very least, due to the first incident where Poison Ivy appeared, he had left some cards around Robinson Park which was right next to the city's reservoir.

"Here." Ben handed Bruce two more cards as he threw another to one of the library's corners. "This is to replace the one I just used up and the other is for you to come back with or escape when needed."

Bruce nodded his head, walking towards the path laced with trees, shrubs, and branches.

"Keep a close eye on him." were Bruce's last words as the portal closed.

'Don't need to tell me twice.' Ben glanced back at the grinning loon as he sat in front of the man, most of the other goons were already awake but choosing to remain silent in fear.

"How've you been kiddo?" Joker greeted casually. "I've been thinking about you for a while now, you know, the last gig you crashed was one of my most explosive ones yet. Hahahahahaha!" he laughed hard at the end.

"So that's what this is all about." Ben met the clown's eyes. "You're trying to one-up yourself since last time wasn't enough? What was the problem though, not eye-catching enough for your tastes? Thinking that this time will fancy Batman's attention and fulfill your craving for his validation?"

As he was watching over the clown, Ben kept trying to read his emotions, but realized something disturbing. Unlike back at Mt. Justice where he could sense him to some extent, now he was a blank slate. Ben had already patted down everyone earlier, and while Joker and Harley were basically clean and didn't have the same blue-pill like device, Bane and his men did.

The grin on Joker's face widened to horrific proportions.

"No no no. You misunderstand me. I could care less about Batsy at the moment."

"I'm sure you've heard the story of the boy who cried wolf, eh? A little children's tale meant to teach you about the importance of telling the truth, about how we should take emergencies seriously."

"But… that's for those common germs!..." the man suddenly turned solemn, his change causing an eerie atmosphere to descend onto the room. "See my job is to make violence fun! The work hours are sparse enough as it is and I don't have time for competitors trying to take away my one and only customer."

"You remember what the rules I set last time were? If you survive, we'd continue this little farce of a war that you one-sidedly declared. Well guess what? All the cards are on the table, and I wasn't even the one to deal them!"

The man started guffawing in a strange manner, his throat rolling around until he…

…spit out a switch into his hands.

'Not again.' Ben reacted fast, trying to cross the distance.

Of course, he couldn't beat the speed of a simple button press.

"...Tell the truth? HA! Clowns are actors, and actors lie!" Joker said.

Green vapor suddenly started filling the room as Ben took out a gas mask and equipped it, holding an antidote for Joker Venom too just in case.

'He should know this wouldn't work against me…' Ben felt strange as he looked back at the man, his heart turning cold. Joker was still grinning, but it had suddenly turned much more sinister.

*BANG!*

As he heard the sound of the gunshot and the nearby window shattering, Ben automatically leaned his head back in reflex.

He hadn't sensed anyone earlier…

Unfortunately, he failed to realize the slug's true mark, the entire front of his gas mask being rendered off as the bullet grazed it.

'An armor-piercing round.' the thought flashed through his mind.

Although it could still be knocked off his face if not secured properly, the masks were reinforced to withstand levels of blunt force from foes who could pack quite the punch. Normal bullets couldn't have done what this one just did.

Ben ripped the remaining pieces off his face, looking back at Joker in annoyance. Now that he was exposed, it was too late to replace it.

"Is this your grand plan? You set up a sniper as insurance so that I could breathe in your proudest invention? Well, you really are one hell of a comedian since I'm one of the few immune to your Joker Venom."

The "comedian" just continued chuckling hard at that. "Oh no, I didn't set the sniper up, you have yourself to blame for that!"

Ben felt weird at that sentence, turning his head to look out the window and freezing as he found something incomprehensible.

He tried to open his mouth to speak, but coughing noises escaped him.

"Didn't I tell you earlier, clowns are supposed to lie! I may have lied earlier about using Joker Venom alongside that nuke, but I never said that this was Joker Venom either now did I?"

Ben froze as understanding dawned on him. His senses started to go from being fuzzy to unresponsive, but he plugged the syringe into himself anyway, believing that the man was still deceiving him and that this was at least some kind of variation of his usual concoction.

Unfortunately, he was wrong once again.

"I told the runt earlier… I like a joke that can stick, and there's nothing like a little glue called 'trauma' to make it happen. HAHAHAHAHA!"

'Scarecrow's brand new trauma toxin.' Ben noted his weird wording. 'How?'

"You know, at first I thought you could become another customer alongside Batsy, someone else who needs to learn to laugh and let go of his repulsive 'joke' at the idea of sanity. But then… I decided that he was enough for me. It's better to find a way to remove you from the equation so that I'll not only snag him back to my side… but finally break him too!"

Ben started wobbling on his feet, stumbling around the area as he tried to stop the world from spinning in his vision. He fumbled around his neck to try and find a Traveler's card to help him, but he couldn't focus enough to do so.

"See, this formula doesn't make you laugh… oh no no no. It'll put you into a coma where you can count the number of jumping clowns all you want for the rest of your life! And just for that, I decided to call this baby Joker Jab." his voice mimicked a TV announcer throwing their sales pitch. "All it takes is one hit to knock you out, PERMANENTLY! Hahahahaha!"

"Way da go Mistah J! You got 'em real good!" Harley cheered him on.

Ben crashed to his feet, losing feeling in his body that wasn't even trying to put up a fight.

"Go ahead, call out for Batsy, he'll never hear you…"

Ben could no longer make out the clown's words, his eyes managing to rest on him instead.

And yet, as the Joker grinned one last time in his vision, his voice somehow still ended up being the clearest Ben's ever heard so far in this life.

"Nighty night Wildcard! Hope you enjoy the rest of your days in a comfy hospital bed till I put an end to your misery. Who knows? Maybe it'll be worse than dying and I'll let you stay that way. I'll even drop by to give you some daisies to share the joy I'll feel. Hahahahahaha!"

All of Ben's waning thoughts halted as he latched onto two specific words.

'…'

'…hospital…bed?'

Darkness fell over Ben's vision...

...and black encompassed the world as something inside him snapped.

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Hey guys, sorry for not updating yesterday. Saturdays are already not working out for me. I've decided to try Sundays again. I know it seems like I'm jumping around, but I want you to bear with me while I experiment with how I organize my time so that I can keep a consistent release schedule for every week.

Plus, since Sunday is when the power stone ranking reset, you no longer have an excuse not to give them to me. Hehehehehehehe....

Finally, two more chapters till the end of the arc...

1) Comment if you're feeling lonely.

2) Drop your power stones for Gollum (me) or get shanked (MY PRECIOUSSSS!!!)

3) LEAVE AN AWESOME REVIEW AND SHOW SOME LOVE GOSH DANG IT! WE'VE BEEN STUCK AT 36!

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(Note: An extra chapter will be added to each tier starting the week after we reach the first goal of 40 Patreons.)