A Violent Question
Disclaimer: The rights to Batman are not my own and this is made without the interest of profit nor the benefit of it. This is not a Riddler fick as the beginning may suggest and it will involve a lot of the ROgue Gallery. This also has an interpretation of the Riddler that is a bit different but not too dramatically different.
"Has the patient been awake since the surgery," asked one of the doctors as he started to tinker with the question mark cane that belonged to the red headed man on the table.
"No, Dr. Napier, there appears to be no change in the patient," said one of the attendants as they started to pick up the charts and then went back to monitoring the screen. "The damage to the brain was able to be repaired quite easily, but the real trick was getting his body to accept it. I've never seen someone react so violently to steroids like that."
"It's not surprising, he never was a physical man, but I suppose now he has some muscle to him," replied Dr. Napier as he started to pick up the piece of paper. "Of course this is only natural that his body would resent itself due to his father being a physical man and his immediate distaste in his family. How is the computer chip in his mind holding up, the mind controller?"
"Well it seems to be stable and ready for the patient to wake up," replied another attendant who was monitoring a graphical design of the brain of the patient and the places in which the chip affected. As the attendant turned back the brain started to move to a red zone and the chip graph started to move to a red as well. "There is an increase in the brain activity, it seems to be overloading the chip!"
"I want an electrical current sent through the left side to take out the logical resistance," ordered the doctor as he turned to the person operating the chip functions, but found that the person was no longer at their station. Instead there was a figure dressed in black body armor with an insignia marked out in the black armor with different patterns on the body raging from lighter to darker shades based on protection of the armor. The figure wore a mask that covered most of his face except for the mouth area, which was equipped with its own scowl.
"So this is where you've been keeping Nygma, Napier," said the figure as he stalked towards the doctor, knocking out the attendants that charged at him. "Now then you can tell me what you've been doing to the Riddler while you've had him here."
"All I've done is test one of his experiments that he once tried, an experiment in a chip that could bring out the best in a mind," said the good doctor as he tried to get back away into one of the drawers that he kept his gun in. "It was one of his best inventions while he was a genius still making his money with research, but during the unfortunate accident with a test of one of these in which his own professor was killed in. I've modified it a bit to give me the ability to control it, just like the chips used by the Mad Hatter. The chip process is not easy as I had to do many things to get him to accept such a thing I had to pump him full of steroids just to survive everything that I did to him."
"Now you have a bigger problem," said the dark figure as he pointed one of his gloves to the glass case that the Riddler was in. The doctor turned around to see that the room was empty with the lock hanging from its place. "Your patient is not there anymore."
The door to Grace's apartment was already open when she arrived from grocery shopping and a pair of wet footprints led the trail inside of the door up to a closet that she had never opened. Her landlord had told her never to open that door and so she had never once gazed into its contents. As such she was ignorant as to why anyone would want to go into that closet for she felt that it was the holding of probably some filthy secret that the landlord kept. She moved to the kitchen silently and picked up a skillet form the counter top to confront her burglar, but found that he was already walking out. Instead of some man in dark clothes and a nylon stocking over his head, she found a man dressed in a green suit with a bowler hat and a purple domino mask. In his purple gloved hand was a cane that was in the shape of a question mark. The man looked at himself with a very curious look, as if he didn't remember who he was but somehow connected with these foreign objects in his hand. They somehow called to him, as did his namesake, and slowly the gaps in his mind were starting to fill up ever so slowly, all it needed was one final push.
"What is an eleven letter word that everyone pronounces incorrectly," asked the stranger in the green suit as he looked at the blank television and then turned his hand to study his palm. "It seems like the right thing to do, but for some reason I cannot think of why I'm asking such a thing. I suppose it just amuses me to ask that question."
"You're him aren't you…the one they call the Riddler," asked Grace as she looked at him and there was semblance of confirmation in his eyes before he started to fiddle with his cane. "What…what are you doing in my apartment?"
"Considering that I've got spare clothes here I'd think it was obvious," said the Riddler as he put his feet up over his leg and started to pick up a crossword puzzle. "This place is an old lair of mine, though I haven't been here in ages I still pay the landlord a bit of money from a secret bank account. I know that he's been extracting money so your occupation of this place is by all rights, illegal."
"What, I had to work hard to find a place this cheap," cried the woman as she tried to find some way to keep her house, but she didn't want to get on his bad side for despite the credit that he lost he was still a rogue. The Rogues Gallery was the most notorious criminals in Gotham that most every villain aspired to get on, but few were allowed to be a part of the crew. "I have been paying for this place just like you have so there is no reason why I shouldn't be allowed to stay here as well."
"You know this is a very odd place because by all rights I should have shot you the instant you walked in," said the Riddler as he got up from the couch and started to put his hand into his pocket in the most intimidating manner. "If it were anybody else the moment you'd have stepped into the door you would have been dead or something worse."
"I'm pretty good at screaming, I could wake the entire building up," threatened the woman as she started to raise her skillet in defense, but was caught off guard by the emotionless glance that the Riddler gave her.
"I'm already in your room, the time for screaming has long since passed," said the Riddler and he took his hand out of his pocket revealing that there was nothing in his hand. "Now then, I believe my riddle has been left unanswered. Get it right and I'll let you stay here provided you pay your half. Get it wrong and you'll be looking for another apartment. So then, are you smart enough to answer my riddle?"
The days passed by as Batman continued his pursuit of the elusive Riddler, who had not shown any sign of return to his old ways and soon it seemed like Batman had seen the last of the Riddler. It wasn't so much as a comfort as it was a burden because he had dedicated his life to helping some reform, including the Riddler. If he had not returned due to brain damage from the chip than the burden would fall onto the shoulders of Nightwing, who had given Riddler over to Dr. Napier. No one had ever seen the prominent professor as being one to take control of things in such a way that would be entirely criminal. Most people believed that Dr. Napier was only trying to cure Riddler of his problems since the two had been good friends before the unfortunate experiment that made Nygma into the Riddler. Now there was an ongoing investigation as to whether the accident was an accident or if someone had tampered with the chip, but it seemed impossible for Dr. Napier to do so at the time since he was far from an engineer.
"It just doesn't add up, Napier wasn't even able to get near the technology because they kept it so secretive," said Batman as he started to examine the chip display that he had downloaded onto his computer. "Perhaps there was someone else with Nygma during his college days, someone who might be able to tell us just how it would be possible for someone to sabotage it."
"I do believe, sir, that there is another scientist on the research team," said Alfred as he brought the page down to a picture of Edward Nygma standing next to a beautiful woman with glasses on and brown hair. "A Ms. Ilene Dorson, who is currently the head of the lab in Gotham University, if I'm not mistaken, sir."
"Perhaps she'll have the answers I need," said Batman as he started to put his mask on and walked over to the Batmobile as it lay, a huge hulking mass of tank and car mixed together. "Maybe once this is all over the Riddler can finally reform and I'll have one less person to worry about."
"So do you always keep laptops in your secret lairs stockpiled in some secret compartment," asked Grace as she watched as the Riddler continued to hack into Gotham main frame for anything about the Riddler. He had so far recovered his name, Edward Nygma, and had been getting his whole history back throughout the strings of his criminal record, tracking his movements and motivation through each one.
"I find that it helps sometimes when I think ahead for any emergencies," replied Nygma as he started to look up his real name for any records and his face buzzed with a wave of activity as the computer brought up multiple scientific achievements. His caught onto a headline from a newspaper. "Well, well, what do we have here? 'Famous prodigy nearly kills his professor."
"I remember that incident from the news in Metropolis," said Grace as she peeked out from behind the kitchen door. "You were supposed to be making some advanced chip to help the mind's ability to remember, but it went wrong and nearly killed the professor. Last I heard they were going to press charges against you so you disappeared and reappeared as the Riddler."
A good piece of his memory fell into his lap as he started to look up his main reason for becoming the Riddler, the vengeance that he had tried to enact. The first victim that he popped up was a business man named Rockridge who he had remembered to be interested in getting his hands on the chip technology. Then he looked up the next victim as one professor, who he had in the lab to work with him, but this one faced the same problem that Rockridge had, neither victim had any background in computer chip technology. He would have to do some thinking on this matter, a deeper questioning that was far greater than the way that he had been doing so far. Someone had betrayed him and this revenge was long overdue.
Ilene Dorson was a woman who had a habit of working late on her research as she tried to look further at the chips uncovered by the police at the scene of the Napier crimes. It was very similar to the ones made by her lab partner, Edward Nygma, the original genius of the chip and now the missing piece to the puzzle. Her own abilities only went so far as she couldn't do anything without the genius of Nygma, but she would still try to work on it until they finally found him. That was the reason why she was up at night trying to look at the data computed form the chip through the highly encrypted channels that Nygma had put up to make sure it could never be duplicated. Looking up at the clock she saw that it was 2:30 in the morning with no sign of any success to be found in the encoding of the chip so she walked to get some coffee to keep her awake long enough for her to see at least a hint that it was working.
As she got up she noticed that the window was open in the coffee room when she was certain that she had closed it. Cautiously, Ilene walked to go lock up the door when a hand grabbed her arm in a manner that was similar to a cop's grip. She turned to look at a figure dressed in what looked like black armor that was padded similar to Kevlar but with different reinforcement almost like different patches. The armor was adorned with a chest plate in the shape of a bat. The hand that grabbed her was a menacing black glove that was similar to a gauntlet and had what appeared to be small fins sticking out of the forearm part. The face was disguised under a pure black mask that was smooth and shiny indicating the hard shape of it.
"I need to ask you some questions about your work with Nygma," said the figure as he started to step out of the darkness to reveal his full form. His voice was a harsh rasp that sounded like a menacing demon. "You worked with him during that time and you were also very close to him from what the others said. You'd know more than anyone who he was going for."
"I don't know anything of what happened except that he always believed that someone had sabotaged our experiment," replied Ilene as she started to back away from him in a bit of terror. "The only person I could imagine him going after, if any, would be Napier so as long as you have him locked up in there, Edward is sure to come for him."
"What makes you so sure it was Napier who did it," asked the figure as he looked at her and she slowly crumbled away under the pressure. "Napier would never have the ability to do anything like that and that only leaves you, a person who knows the schematics well enough to sabotage it. The only thing I don't know is why. You two got along and were very close."
"It was true we were very close and he did come to me with an engagement ring," admitted Ilene as she started to slowly back away. "But then I saw how he was so obsessed that he would throw away our chance to profit from all the research and years of work that it took to make just one prototype. For years I had tried to get my name for something worthwhile and then live comfortably off of it, but I could see Edward slowly pushing into the tide until it was lost into the sea of his obsession. With him gone all I had to do was encrypt it, but I never counted on him being so careful so that his precious research wasn't taken."
"I'm going to ask you to turn yourself into the police, for your own safety," said the figure as he let go of her arm. "If his obsession is revenge then you better be careful and you can't be protected in a place that's wired with technology for him to use."
"I don't know if I can," said Ilene as she started to draw a gun on figure. "My employer cannot allow me to be taken into police custody."
"Did this employer make you sabotage the experiment," asked the figure as he started walking forward, each step getting him closer to the panicky Ilene. "Who are you working for?"
The men were tied down with rope as they were left to hang on the lamp post as the laughing man left them to hang while taking the money out with his oddly dressed assistant holding a gun on the driver. A simple bank robbery was never what the Joker planned out; it was just an impulse gig that happened as soon as he saw that truck rearing its head around the corner. Whether or not the gun in his hand was real or a fake one, the cops didn't want to find out or to find out what his backup defense was. With the Joker, it was unsure whether he would kill you at the slightest distaste or if he would just kill you regardless of how well you been. Panic and fear were on the faces of the bank truck drivers that were just food for his insanity as he felt something very good slip into his gut as he felt a fit of laughter rising. It was the catch of dealing with the Joker, he would either shoot you as soon as look at you or give you that creepy smile from his Joker venom. The pale faced man traced the Chelsea Smile with his finger (A/N: By now you know that I'm sort of taking stuff from Nolan films. I like the mixture of some things) as he tried to think of what to do with the guards.
"I could just hit them with the venom and leave them or kill them," mused Joker as he started to pace around and then looked at something that wasn't there. He started to move his finger around in a curious manner before pulling out his gun. "It's kind of boring to just shoot them, but I have people to kill and places to blow up."
"How about neither," said a grim voice as a figure in a dark blue suit jumped out with a dark blue domino mask on.
"Oh, Nightwing, you know I could have sworn I killed your predecessor," said the Joker as he pointed the gun at the hero only to feel the sting of a Wing-Ding hitting the gun out of his hand. "Ah so you have some tricks up your sleeve to, how come you didn't use those when you tried to kill me? Wait correction, you did kill me and Big Daddy brought me back. Isn't hard having someone watch over your shoulder to always correct those little mistakes that you make?"
"Your tricks have gotten a bit tiring," said Nightwing as he threw a punch at the Joker, but the Joker, in his usual fashion, did a whimsical ballerina twirl to move out of the way of the punch before throwing one of his own.
Nightwing was forced back right into the awaiting mallet of Harley Quinn, who was waiting for her boss to set him up for the knockout. Dick was sent sprawling to the floor as the Joker started to contemplate what to do this time since he always wanted each "gag" to be different in order to keep the
grand joke of things. Harley was an impatient one who often thought that a simple bullet would solve the problem, but that was something that Joker could not have when killing someone very close to the Batman. He had to draw it out into a production of some sort with over dramatized action as was related to his own fashion, that is how he had to have things or else things did not get done at all. Of course this was often the reason why things didn't get done the right way in the first place, but if anyone ever questioned the Joker besides Batman then their chances of death would increase.
"Now this bird isn't that hard to skin, of course that was never the problem," said the Joker as he crouched down to where Nightwing was lying. "The problem here is how to skin the bird in a way that would give us the bigger laugh and continue the gag."
"The only thing going to be skinned tonight is your hide," said a raspy voice from behind him as strong hands grabbed him by the collar and flung him into a wall. "So you managed to get out of Arkham again and now what is your scheme?"
"Oh Batman, you seem to think too much of me," said Joker as he tried to act bashful in a mocking way. "And too little of me at the same time, for its always easy for me to get out of Arkham. But right now I don't have a big plan as I've been spending most of my time trying to figure out what I haven't done already. Then one of your kids shows up and presents me with the decision of how to kill him, but yet once again I have no clue on how I do that. So from now until I figure out something I plan to just improvise as all the greatest comedians do."
"He's right about that," said a very seductive and feminine voice from right behind him as a prowler stepped out of the shadows to reveal the feminine form of Catwoman standing in the shadows of the alley. "Right now he might not be the biggest threat as it seems that there has been a big break in Arkham, releasing the high level cells."
"What, that was the next plan that I had," said Joker in a slightly disappointed manner before regaining his very cheerful composure. "Well I suppose this is a sign that it wasn't a good enough scheme if I didn't think of it."
"You're not doing anything, except going straight to Arkham," shot Batman as he set his glare on the Joker and then pointed at Harley, who was trying to ease away very carefully. "And don't you even think about trying to run because that will only make it worse."
"Ouch, did you have to give him his extra dose of grouchy," asked Joker before being slugged by Batman. "The crowds at Gotham have not lost their harsh criticism I see. Well that's a good sign! Just gives me more of a challenge to make them laugh!"
Author's Note: Well this is the first chapter to this fan fic that i hope to do well on this even though my ideas are kind of bouncing from the movie verse to the comic book universe. Please review.