BREAKING NEWS:

** Hannibal Lecter transferred to Arkham **

After being apprehended late last night the infamous shrink turned homicidal cannibal is said to be moved into a more secure facility, indefinitely. The long-time maximum security insane asylum, Arkham in Gotham City. However, officials have growing concerns of the safety of the other prisoners as it wouldn't be the first time he has seriously harmed fellow inmates both mentally and physically.

Arkham spokesman said in response to the poor timing of the transfer: "We ensure that the staff and budget cutbacks are but a rumour, Arkham will be operating as normal throughout the time of the transfer."

The transfer is thought to take place early hours of the morning between 1 and 3am.

"A man like that doesn't belong in Arkham, they had facilities catered specifically to him in the southern states. Putting him there of all places doesn't make sense. I think he wants to be in there." Batman theorized, his eyes studying all the data on his bat computer like a chessboard.

"Perhaps he has a connection to the place, sir. Or Pulled some strings?" Alfred intelligently suggested.

Batman made a 'hmm' sound in thought. What kind of history? What connection would allow him to go there over any other facility?

Batman read from his computer to Alfred after pulling up all Hannibal's known records. "It is a well-known fact he was an accomplished forensic psychiatrist before Will Graham apprehended him. He may have ties to the Asylum and influenced the right people to ensure he goes there. Exactly where he wants." Batman began tapping away at his batcomputer, homing in on the armoured transport. "Transport arrives in approximately thirty minutes."

"I'll put your tea on hold then sir." Alfred joked.

Batman, already in his suit made a move for the batplane, which was raising from a circular platform from the watery depths of the batcave.
"A little overkill don't you think Master Bruce?"

As Batman hopped in and started the jets up, he explained himself "I'm not taking any risks, the faster we are the less damage he can do from the inside if his intentions are as I suspect."

"Not to mention Arkham is on an island sir."

Batman nodded, the Batplane faced the exit of the batcave, water pouring down from the outside rain like a waterfall conveniently concealing the cave. Batman pushed the thruster to maximum, and after about a two second wait the Batplane shot off in a stream of fog, spraying the pools of condensated water all over Alfred. "Charming." He said, wiping his face and mounting the batcomputer.

As the Batplane gained altitude, Alfred's wet face popped up on the pilot's heads up display.

"Judging by your current speed, you should be there within a few minutes." Alfred said.

"Alfred, start scanning the Asylum, I want to know what security is like."

"Uhh...The budget cuts were no rumour. There seems to be ten, maybe eleven perimeter guards and an additional two-dozen inside the entire Asylum from the scheduled shifts."

Batman tensed, feeling something was very wrong. There should be way more guards on duty, he hoped that hadn't underestimated Hannibal. The wind began to pick up as a storm started to roll in. It was 2am, and the rain had just started pelting the Batplane like bullets as it roared into the sky. As he got closer to Arkham island the rain got heavier, its wings shook under the increasing turbulence causing Batman to activate additional thrusters under the plane's belly. Now cutting through the storm, Batman could now see that Arkham was in viewing distance. Strangely, the West lighthouse was off for the first time in many years. In fact, some of the perimeter lights were deactivated.

Suddenly, Alfred interrupted. "Sir, after checking the forecast the storm looks to be getting worse."

"I know, but by applying maximum thrust I should be largely unaffected by the conditions."

"That's not the biggest problem, sir. All the lights on your landing zone seem to be switching back on."

Now Batman was worried. He could now see the perimeter lights all switching on, forming a bright haze where he needed to land. Arkham owed its survival to Batman, maybe they were trying to help. "It may have worked in our favour." Batman suggested.

"I can try to find out why the lights were off in the first place." Alfred informed him. Batman began to slow his speed, approaching the island but was now a little more affected by the wind.

The plane rocked a little now, and Batman countered this by turning the other way slightly, an easy maneuver to stop a potential disaster.

Alfred came back, intrigue strained in his voice. "It seems they were manually switched off and now back on, no doubt by Arkham's staff. Definitely not a power cut."

Batman was practically there, he was set to engage hover and land around the back of the Asylum, on the rocky coast. It was there Batman knew of an entrance that he could use to sneak in and scope out the area, if there really was something going on.

"Alfred, you said Lecter may have connections with the staff of Arkham…"

"Yes sir, I did indeed."

"If you're right, I think he could have used his connections to the staff to manipulate his incarceration, he may even have people inside the Asylum helping h-" Batman was interrupted by what he could only perceive to be beam of light out of nowhere. It was so bright and sudden Batman didn't have time to reach down to activate the cockpit's sun-shield. Already having it sear his vision, he had to let one hand go to protect his eyes. Slowly, the thruster he had his hand on decreased in power, causing the hovering batplane to rumble and start to flake away against the tidal wind. Batman, realising that by releasing manual control the batplane was quickly losing altitude, to save the plane and himself he would need to get out of the way of the light first. All of this chaos happened in less than a few seconds. Seeing Arkham's roof sliding away to be soon in the distance, Batman opted to eject in the hope of falling onto the roof, rather than the 40ft drop onto rocky ground level head. Quickly, the roof was melting away from him and so was his time to make the jump. Still being blinded by the constant light, which was still in mystery, he flicked up the eject button and was launched upwards and outwards. Keeping his eyes low to avoid the light, he extended his cape to slow his fall and landed on the roof like a feather. Suddenly the light was off of him, and followed the rapidly descending batplane until it was inches from the ground. Batman, now being able to see what he was doing, managed to save the batplane from a rocky demise by switching on the autopilot via his wrist's device. After a single bump and tumble across the rocks, the batplane's engines powered back on and soon it was high up in the air, making itself gone from sight. Batman lowered his wrist, sending the batplane back to the batcave on standby and for repairs. He could finally see where the harsh light was emanating from. It was one of the island's huge watch-tower mounted searchlights. It pierced the mist easily, as if it was made for that exact purpose. No wonder Batman couldn't see, it's glare was penetrating and escape once targeted was near impossible. It was still searching the air, trying to find where the batplane was lurking, but by that time the plane had already disappeared from detection. Luckily, the plane had provided a distraction and allowed the tiny figure of Batman to safely reach the rooftop. It wasn't a complete failure after all. But someone was operating that light, and it wasn't someone who wanted him there. Batman could see what was going on, Lecter has some of the staff in his pocket, that's why the power switched on when Batman arrived. That's why he was targeted by the light and is why he must exercise extra-caution when infiltrating the building. At this stage, he had to presume every member of the Arkham security force was working for Lecter. They couldn't all be working for Lecter...What people would he have influence over?

For once, Batman felt protective over Arkham's patients. Their lives were in as much danger as any innocent hostages in the building.

"Do you read me sir? Master Bruce?"

Alfred was a little fuzzy because of the storm, but luckily Batman could hear him fine.

"I'm here."

"Where exactly is 'here' sir?"

"I ran into some trouble whilst landing. The 200watt spotlight on the tower targeted me. I had to eject on the roof. Can you tell me what wing I'm above?"

"Yes, one moment." Alfred began tracking Batman's GPS module, while processing. Alfred asked. "And how do you plan on getting back? The batplane seems to be hovering outside the cave."

"I'm not planning on swimming."

"Yes well, trained by the League of Shadows and afraid of a little water. Very well...Ah, yes, you're on top of the West Wing."

There, Batman figured it out. "The West Wing…- Above the medical medical facility?"

"Correct."

"No wonder the other searchlights didn't target me." Batman paused, Alfred waited intently. "Lecter has control of the West Wing, using the few staff on shift tonight to do his bidding. No wonder only the West Wing took defensive action. The rest of the Asylum are completely ignorant of his takeover. That means that the few members of staff left on the West Wing have some kind of affiliation with him. Lecter wouldn't have access to his funds, so they must either be sympathisers or…"

"Ex-colleagues, perhaps? I don't think it's a coincidence he has control of the medical facility."

"I need you to look into this while I find a way inside."

"As you wish." Alfred went off comms to further his research, looking up how a renowned psychiatrist such as Hannibal Lecter could be affiliated with the medical staff inside an mental asylum. The dots started to connect. It quickly became obvious to them. Lecter must have been there at some point during his career, and has come back for someone or something.

Batman moved along the roof, searching for a top window he could break. But he didn't want to alert the guards, of which there could be ten or so of them in this wing. He thought about wrapping his fist inside his cale to muffle the sound of the glass breaking. But he didn't need to do that. Batman had a micro laser cutter tool less than a centimeter thick in one of the pouches of his utility belt. It was a tiny device, and could be easily mistaken for a mini maglite torch. Carefully Batman began cutting the window's rusty lock open. That's when he counted only one lonely guard below him, armed only with a baton. The loft was small, with two adjacent side windows and a single stairwell.

Batman slowly opened the squeaky roof window. He had hoped its screeching would quiet down as he inched it open but instead it just whined loud enough for the security guard below to hear.

Just as the guard raised his head, Batman dropped straight down on him like semi on a sedan. The floor below him must have heard the bang of the guard's limp, unconscious body. Batman knew they would be rushing up the stairs immediately, he could hear their booted footsteps against the creaking wooden steps.

Batman dragged the body enough to hide it from being instantly spotted. Batman had a plan.

The guard's were mere feet away from the room and there was no door separating him from them. He held his breath, sleek as a shadow next to the doorframe.

Batman exhaled, clutching a single batarang. He threw it quickly at the window, smashing it to pieces as expected. The guards rushed up the stairs straight to the broken window, completely unnoticing of the figure that lurks towards them.

There were two, one with pistol in hand and the other, attempting to click on his radio. Batman swooped behind them, kicking the radio operator out of the window to a nasty, fatal fall. Batman then deflected the armed guard's attempt at a pistol whip with his arm and crashed down on his collarbone with his elbow. This sent him to the floor instantly, enabling Batman to retrieve his grappling hook and save the other from a concrete splatter demise just in time. Batman reeled the panic stricken guard back up to the window, who was too much in shock to scream as Batman hoped. Now at the window, Batman interrogated him, capitalising on the fact he was hanging upside down twenty five feet in the air suspended only by a single grappling cable.

"Hannibal hired you. Why?" Batman roared.

"H-Han..The prisoner?" The guard stuttered underneath Batman's gaze like many before him.

"I know you're working for him!"

"No...nn-no Batman, we were just expecting him now. I swear if he's here I don't know about it!"

"Then why is your security team trying to kill me?"

"W-we had orders - from the doctors….They told us that you were gonna try and snatch the prisoner up..I swear that's all I know."

Batman could see he was telling the truth, and stunk of sweat….or another bodily fluid.

"We've been played. Lecter must have control over just the psychiatric staff which in turn order you. Don't you understand? He's running the place."

Batman hoisted him up and back into the room, he sat next to his colleague, who was clutching his broken collarbone. 'Explain the situation to them. Keep quiet. When I'm finished here I'll reach you on radio when you can alert the authorities. For now, we stay quiet."

"What about him?' The guard pointed, looking at the unconscious one slumped to the side of the doorframe.

"He's just unconscious. Be next to him when he comes around and tell him what happened. "

The guard moved toward the unconscious one, checking his vitals which were indeed intact.

He then looked back up while saying "What do we do if you don't come back?"

But to his surprise, Batman had disappeared from sight. This was no surprise to collarbone man, who tutted after seeing that old trick too many times to count. They sighed, and got as comfortable as the loft allowed.

Apprehensively they waited. They knew that Batman would have to take more than just them down. The guards just hoped Batman doesn't hurt their ignorant colleagues too badly, but took pleasure in knowing Hannibal wouldn't be spared that same mercy. They worried that if Hannibal could fool the whole wing's security, and had control of the high ranking staff, he had complete control on his own terms...His own battlefield...Perhaps then he could be the one to equal Batman. That one man after all was no common psychopath - a master surgeon, psychologist, an agent of unpredictability and one with no code or morals and therefore no boundaries. Batman's new, greatest adversary.

One thing was sure of, whether Batman would indeed return as promised - they were in for one hell of a night. .