8 Why Am I Doing This Again?

Ben and Dick were speeding through the streets of Gotham. Dick was having somewhat of a hard time thanks to Ben's reckless driving, the injured man on the back was relatively fine since Dick strapped him to a table and Ben is just driving as if nothing bad was happening.

"Left, left, left!!!" Dick.

"Gotcha!" Ben.

Making a dangerous U turn, Ben starts backtracking.

"No!! I said left, why did you go right?!" Dick.

"Honestly, I saw one of those speeding cameras and wanted to avoid it." Ben.

"By backtracking?!" Dick.

"Yeah, sorry, old reflex. Now, where?" Ben.

"Right!!" Dick.

'I swear, the Batmobile wasn't as rowdy as this ride.' Dick.

After a few more driving, the two kids and injured adult arrived at the hospital. They took the man inside and the doctors and nurses took them for treatment.

"*WHEW* Glad that's over." Dick.

"Yeah, who could've guessed all the shots I didn't had." Ben spoke while showing the many band-aids on his arms. Ben.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad, and totally free of charge since I'm paying for them." Dick.

"You're lucky I like free stuff and health stuff, or else I would've bitten one of the doctors." Ben.

"I take it that you don't like shots." Dick.

"Not unless those are of Vodka." Ben.

"You've drink?" Dick.

"I'm a street kid, I bet I can tell you half of what the adult world has to offer if I'd want." Ben.

"That sounds both disgusting and disturbing." Dick.

"You live in Gotham, aka, the city of disgusting and disturbing shit." Ben.

"Fair point. By the way, how can you drive?" Dick.

"Elaborate." Ben.

"How can you reach the pedals?" Dick.

"Ah, with these." Ben.

Ben pressed a button on his sneakers and the soles expand, giving Ben some extra height.

"Wow, that's impressive." Dick.

"Yeah, picked a little from here and there. At first, I wanted some shoes with cans but, this seemed like a better long-term solution." Ben.

"Is it like a complex mechanism to extend your shoes?" Dick.

"Nah, just a small balloon between the sole of the shoe that gets inflated by a smaller pump and gives me the support." Ben.

"Oh, interesting." Dick.

While they were speaking, a nearby tv on the news channel explained the current situation.

"In other news, Gotham's under siege by the supervillain known as Chemo. Green Arrow and Red Tornado are currently dealing with him but there's no sign of The Batman."

Dick flinches.

"I better call Bruce, just to tell him that I'm ok and that he can be eased about my disappearance." Dick.

"You do that, I'm gonna "borrow" the lollipop supply from here." Ben.

"Don't steal anything." Dick.

"I said Borrow!" Ben.

As the two kids went on different directions Ben sneaked his way towards the roof and saw where Chemo was fighting.

"Well, well, well, time to see what stores has the giant blob of snot has destroyed and most definitely won't miss a few merchandises." Ben.

With a quick dial, he went Stinkfly and flew towards the area where Chemo was fighting. Meanwhile, Dick got permission to use a phone from the hospital and contacted Alfred.

"Wayne residence, may I know who I'm speaking to?" Alfred.

"It's me Al." Dick.

"Master Grayson! Do you have any idea how worried you've made both me and master Bruce?" Alfred.

"I'm sorry." Dick.

"Apology accepted. Now, where exactly are you?" Alfred.

"First of all, I'm not injured but I am at Gotham's General Hospital." Dick.

"I know you've stated that you're not injured but, may I ask why are you there?" Alfred.

"Dropped an injured civilian from Chemo's collateral damage." Dick.

"I see, I'll be on my way immediately." Alfred.

"Thanks, Alfred. And again, sorry." Dick.

"Alright, Master Grayson, I'll be there as fast as I can." Alfred.

Alfred hung up and called Batman.

"Master Bruce." Alfred.

"Any news on Dick?" Batman.

"As a matter of fact, I do have news, sir. He's currently staying at the General Hospital and before you ask, he's not injured, just took an injured civilian there." Alfred.

"Glad to hear that, Alfred. You've got no idea how much that puts me at ease." Batman.

"Dully noted. About the Chemo situation." Alfred.

"I'll aid Green Arrow and Red Tornado before Chemo's radiation spreads any further." Batman.

"Understood, sir. Deploying the Radiation Hazard version of the XE suit immediately to the following coordinates." Alfred.

"Got it, thanks Alfred." Batman.

"Take care, Master Bruce. And don't forget to talk to Master Grayson when you return." Alfred.

"I will." Batman.

Batman then hung up the call and went towards the coordinates that Alfred sent him.

[Back with Ben]

Ben, still transformed as Stinkfly, hid in a nearby alley to escape the heroes' and villains' gaze while he prepared himself to "borrow" some stuff from the stores.

"Alrighty then, time for a change." Stinkfly.

He pressed the Omnitrix symbol on his head and changed into the vampiric Aluzard.

"Aluzard? I was actually aiming for Upgrade but, this'll do." Aluzard.

Aluzard turns into a colony of bats and disperses himself. He destroys the cameras on a nearby electronics store and begins his "borrowing".

"Okay, now to move all this junk." Aluzard.

Aluzard bit his thumb and blood began to uncontrollably come out of it until the wound healed, he then covered most of the electronics in his blood and carried them.

"Ok, that should take care of a fourth of the Rustbucket's (Name of the camper) needs for repairs. Next should be either a hardware store or a mechanic." Aluzard.

*GRUMBLE*

"*SIGH* And of course, the grocery store for supplies. What's with me always working while starving?" Aluzard.

Just as he began to transport his new belongings, he hears a something passing on top of him at high speeds. He divided himself once more and saw that a big black pod fell right on top of the store's roof.

Noticing the bat symbol, he decided to retreat before the bat could catch up to him, and he did manage to escape just in time.

[Back with the heroes]

Batman arrived at the roof and inputted some codes for the capsule. Inside the capsule resides a black suit with a greenish glow on the extremities.

Batman enters the capsule and after some rumbling, he comes out wearing the suit. He then grapples unto a nearby roof and joins Red Tornado and Green Arrow in their fight.

"About time you decided to show up, bats." Green Arrow.

"Sorry for the tardiness, focus and distance yourself more from the area, unless you want Chemo's radiation to corrupt your DNA." Batman.

"Dully noted." Green Arrow.

"Batman, it appears that Chemo's usual radioactive body is even more unstable than usual." Red Tornado.

"I've noticed, it's just that these chemicals don't match Ramsay's database." Batman.

(Ramsey Norton is Chemo's accidental creator. Look it up.)

"Still, what's the plan, Bats?" Green Arrow.

"Since there are no civilians, shoot some Boron arrows towards him to stop his radiation as much as you can. Red, trap him within a tornado and prevent him from moving anywhere else, we don't need more affected areas from the radiation." Batman.

"Roger." Green Arrow/Red Tornado.

The trio began their plan, Green Arrow shot his Boron arrows to absorb the radiation inside Chemo's body, Red Tornado shot himself upwards as he created a tornado around Chemo, preventing him from moving forwards.

While they were doing this, Batman threw a Batarang and extracted a sample from Chemo's body. The sample got uploaded to the Batcomputer and found some matches on the detective's database.

"Hm… it appears that something or someone added a sample of various chemicals to Chemo's biological radiation body. The data shows signs of Venom, fear toxin, Joker toxin Ivy's pheromones and even a sample from the Lazarus pit. Whomever altered Chemo's body must have a considerable number of connections and power to either get or steal these chemicals." Batman.

 "The biochemistry class is entertaining and all but, we need to stop this Chernobyl wannabe before Gotham becomes one of those Fallout cities." Green Arrow.

"I'm working on it, Boron won't be enough to damper the radiation from the area, we need something more resistant and bigger." Batman.

"Where's supes when you need him?" Green Arrow.

"I recall hearing that he's out of the planet aiding Green Lantern capture some of Starro's offspring." Red Tornado.

"Bummer." Green Arrow.

The trio kept fighting the gigantic radioactive monster known as Chemo whereas Ben was busy shoplifting.

[With Ben]

"Done, done and......…done. My wish list is finished and I've managed to eat quite the handful of food to make it through the night." Ben.

Ben is in his human form and is pulling a line of mart carts filled with his stuff.

"Now, all what's left is for the watch to recharge so I can XLR8 outta here." Ben.

Just as he said that, the watch glowed green and he went alien.

"Good, no glitches so far, except the Aluzard mistake." XLR8.

He tied the carts unto him and ran out of Gotham City, surprisingly NOT letting anything fall out from the carts in the process. XLR8 arrived shortly after at the Rustbucket and immediately transformed into Upgrade and got down to work.

After several minutes of trial and error, he finally managed to permanently enhance the Rustbucket as much as he could. It still looked like a crappy camper from the outside but inside was like a masterpiece of technology and fictional bullcrap.

"Ah... home sweet home. Next time, I won't need to transform to illegally fly towards another country, the fuel's gonna cost me around 10 kidneys or so though." Ben.

Ben entered his van and turned the TV on. He put on the news and saw a reporter, sorry for being redundant, reporting from a chopper the battle between the heroes and Chemo.

"This is Vicki Vale of Gotham Gazette, informing you about the current situation about the Chemo incident." Vicki.

"Tell us, Vicki. What's currently going on with the radioactive theme supervillain?"

"The monstrous entity known as Chemo is fighting the heroes Green Arrow, Red Tornado and our home player, Batman. Unlike past encounters, it appears that the villain is no longer vulnerable to certain anti-radiation materials, given that he's unaffected by both Batman's and Green Arrow's attacks." Vicki.

At that moment, Chemo's chest begins to glow and he shoots a beam at Red Tornado. Tornado tries to evade but the beam barely grazes him, which was enough to cause some Total Ionizing Dose (TID) Effects on him.

His arms and legs were malfunctioning as he crashed unto a building, leaving Chemo free from his grasp and continue to expand the radiation particles over Gotham. Ben looked at the scene and felt conflicted.

"Red Tornado is down! I repeat, Red Tornado is down! And Batman and Green Arrow (mostly Green Arrow) are being pushed back by Chemo's radiation." Vicki.

As Vicki kept narrating the situation, Ben was having thoughts about playing a hand on the current situation.

"Ok, I could just go and let them handle this but how many people would die due to radiation, not mentioning the Peter Pan without a hazard suit. Then again, I DID just take over a thousand dollars' worth of stuff so, it could be as a way of repaying them?" Ben.

He then thinks about the friend he made in Gotham and reflexes. The city's a shithole, he just went there by accident and already looted what he wanted, and he's really not that attached to Richard, yet, he felt uncomfortable with himself when thinking about doing nothing to deescalate the situation.

"Fuck it! At least this time, I'm not hungry. Time to ChatGPT a solution for this." Ben.

[give me an object that can nullify nuclear radiation]

[Scintillation Materials: Certain crystals, such as sodium iodide or cesium iodide, are used in radiation detectors and can absorb and detect radiation effectively]

"Crystals, huh? Will Diamondhead's do the trick? I guess there's only one way to find out." Ben.

He dialed XLR8 and rushed out of the Rustbucket.