12:51 AM
2nd of October
Abandoned Farm, North of Gotham.

Jim Gordon was smoking his pipe as he mulled over the sight before him. It was an old grain silo that was long since empty. The farmhouse and barn had long since burned to the ground but the silo remained. The wooden structure was painted red but the paint was fading or otherwise chipped. Taped to the side of the silo was a piece of notebook paper with a crude drawing of a stick figure in the center and the word "NO" repeated over and over in two parallel vertical rows on the edges. Behind Jim were three squad cars with their lights flashing, two bicycles, an SUV, two police officers, Detectives Montoya and Bullock, a teenaged male and an older man, both shivering and shaking underneath the blankets the cops had provided them with. However it wasn't the cold that made them shake, but fear.

"Twice in one day, huh?" Jim asked as Batman approached from the shadows over his shoulder.

"Same as before?" Batman asked, stopping next to the Commissioner.

"Yeah only this time we have two witnesses." Jim said as Batman snatched the paper off the side of the silo.

"Another paper?" Batman asked, analyzing the page with his cowl's equipment.

"It's obviously not a ransom note. The kids are saying that it was some thin male again, probably the same guy who took our first victim." Jim said as Batman looked up from the paper.

"There's something else." Batman said, holding up the paper, "I'm picking up faint traces of the same psychotropic compounds that are used in the Scarecrow's fear toxin but missing a few ingredients."

"That explains why you asked your friend Oracle if Crane was still in Arkham." Jim said as Batman placed the paper in an evidence bag then handed it to the Commissioner.

"That and the state of fear the first witness was in." Batman said.

"So what would the toxin do without the missing ingredients?" Jim asked.

"I don't know. Not yet." Batman said as he turned and looked towards the two boys. Jim looked over towards them as well and predicted Batman's next question.

"Dumb kids were coming out here for a drug deal. An out of town trafficker comes here at night to do some distributing on occasion. That's his truck behind us." Jim said, motioning to the SUV.

"The dealer wasn't the one taken?" Batman asked, Jim shaking his head.

"No, one of the kids was. The Dealer has no idea who the attacker was but he gave us a better description than the kid but I'm kinda on the fence as to whether or not I believe him." Jim said.

"Believe him. If something had him scared enough to run to the cops, knowing full well he would be arrested for dealing, he's telling the truth." Batman said as Jim sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"You haven't heard the description of our guy yet though. Tall, arms that reach his knees, dress suit and tie, and here's the best part, no face." Jim explained, earning a curious look from the Dark Knight.

"What?" Batman asked.

"No face. They said he just has no face. He's got a head, just no eyes, mouth, nose, hair, ears…just a head." Jim explained, taking a drag of his pipe.

"Tell me the boy's exact words in describing the culprit." Batman said as Jim blew the smoke from his pipe out of his mouth before answering.

"It's the strangest thing. He used the exact same words used by the other witness, Ramirez, when describing the guy who took the first victim. He said he was a slender man." Jim said.

"Not a slender man, he said the slender man. I think Slender Man is a title not a description." Batman said. Jim tapped his chin with the end of his pipe in thought.

"Another new freak show?" Jim asked, but he had no reply. Batman had vanished once again.

1:51 AM
Gotham National Park

Robin and Blackbat had easily entered the area and were picking through the long abandoned campsite from the night before using night vision sensors in their masks.

"Find anything?" Robin asked as he turned to Blackbat who shook her head.

"There's gotta be something. Oracle, anything in the police reports that might give us an idea what to look for?" Robin asked.

"You may want to go to the men's room." Oracle replied over the comms.

"Why?" Robin asked, curiously as he turned towards where the public restrooms were located.

"It's where they found a piece of evidence. It's also where the witness claims to have seen the kidnapper before going into a fit of hysteria." Oracle replied.

"Oh. For a moment there, I thought it was some veiled putdown." Robin said as he and Blackbat started running towards the restrooms.

"Well…there's that too." Oracle chuckled.

"I'm starting to miss, Dick." Robin mumbled.

"I heard that." Oracle commented. Robin could notice by the slight decrease in her pace and the odd shoulder movements that Blackbat was laughing. Finally they arrived at the restrooms. The building was larger than one would expect to find for a campsite restroom facility. It was fairly new as well, four stalls in the men's room along with two urinals and two sinks while the women's room had six stalls and two sinks. Outside the building was a streetlight built into the side of a tall oak tree, illuminating the area outside the restroom entrance.

"You want me to go in?" Robin asked Blackbat who glanced towards the men's room, then back to Robin. She then ran towards the tree with the streetlight, clamored up the tree and proceeded to perch herself atop the streetlight, her costume allowing her to remain hidden to the naked eye. Robin simply shrugged with a smirk.

"She's taken on Killer Croc singlehandedly and yet she's afraid to into go into a men's restroom." Robin mumbled as he stepped into the men's room. He reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small sensor device. He held the device into the air as he moved around, the device scanning the walls and air around him, sending readouts to his mask's displays.

"Oracle, are you seeing anything in these readings that I'm not?" Robin asked as he scanned.

"Aside from a concentration of flatus that's common to men's rooms, no not really." Oracle replied. Robin paused for a moment with a furrowed brow.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Flatus…fart gas?" Oracle asked before an autonomous deadpan voice spoke over their comlinks.

"Are you quite finished?" the voice spoke. They recognized it as Blackbat's voice emulator for the comlinks.

"I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary except…wait; didn't you say that the witness saw the kidnapper inside here?" Robin asked.

"Yeah. He said he saw the kidnapper clearly against the wall beneath the window." Oracle replied as Robin turned and looked at said wall. It was a simple wall with white tiles that ran up to the same height as the stall walls but then stopped, leaving white paint over the concrete walls and ceiling. A lone wide window meant to provide fresh air and sunlight during the day was located near the ceiling. Robin's mask quickly displayed the measurements of the window and it only confused Robin even more.

"Then how did the kidnapper get out? This is a solid wall and the window is far too small for someone to climb through." Robin said as he knocked on the wall, looking for some kind of weak spot but he couldn't find one.

"Are you sure?" Oracle asked.

"Positive. There's no way anyone could get out through here unless they went through the front door." Robin replied.

"Found something!" Blackbat's voice emulator said. Robin quickly turned and ran out of the men's room in time to see, Blackbat tearing off into the woods. Robin quickly followed after her but Blackbat being the more agile of the two, easily outran him.

"What is it?!" Robin asked as he ran until she finally stopped and dropped down onto one knee. Robin finally caught up to her and saw what she did. It was a yellow flashlight with a cracked lens.

"A flashlight?" Robin asked as Blackbat examined the object before holding the blunt end of it up towards Robin, pointing at something on the bottom. Someone had written in permanent marker, "Josephine Williams" and then proceeded to give an address and phone number for someone in Gotham.

"We've found a flashlight. It looks like it belongs to our victim, but the name is wrong. It's not Elaine Williams, but a Josephine Williams." Robin said into the comlink as he waved the sensor over the flashlight a few times.

"Josephine Williams is the victim's mother." Oracle replied.

"I figured that." Robin said as Blackbat shrugged and put the flashlight back down.

"Hold on, I'm getting something about that flashlight. There's some kind of residue on it." Oracle said as Robin switched his mask's view to a different setting, switching from night vision to "detective" mode. The mask proceeded to highlight spots on the flashlight that were covered in some strange substance except for a spot where the victim held the flashlight in her hand.

"You're right. What is this stuff?" Robin asked, Blackbat rubbing her chin in thought.

"Hmm, according to the feed I'm getting off your scanner, the substance is a near match for Scarecrow's Fear Toxin. But Crane's still in Arkham. How could he be in two places at once? This doesn't fit him M.O." Oracle said.

"He could have one of his crones doing his dirty work." Robin suggested.

"Crane usually works alone though." Oracle replied.

"It's not Crane." Batman's voice rang through the comlinks.

"Who is it then?" Oracle asked.

"I don't know yet, but I'm going to pay a visit to Dr. Crane in Arkham anyway. I'm heading there now." Batman replied.

"We're pretty much finished here at the crime scene anyway. We'll head back to the cave, see what we can find." Robin said as Blackbat transmitted the scans of the flashlight to the Batcave computer.

"I'm forwarding some of the evidence data on the second victim to the Batcave. See if you can find a connection between our two victims while I deal with Crane." Batman instructed as Robin and Blackbat started to run back towards where the R-Cycle was.

"We're on it. Robin and Blackbat-…Blackbat?" Robin asked as he saw Blackbat slide to a halt, gripping the sides of her head and putting her back to a nearby tree in agony, sliding down towards the ground.

"Black! What's the matter?" Robin asked as Blackbat reached for her mask, pulling back the top layer before reaching for the layer that covered her mouth and pulling it down, showing that she was breathing heavily. She still had her domino mask on over her eyes.

"Her pulse is increasing! Something's wrong!" Oracle exclaimed as Robin quickly scooped her up in his arms.

"Hang on Black! We're getting you out of here!" Robin exclaimed as Robin continued running, Blackbat beginning to hyperventilate.

"Bruce, are you-?" Oracle asked but was interrupted.

"I'm five minutes out." Batman replied as Robin reached the R-Cycle, setting Blackbat down against the side of the bike before reaching into a storage compartment and pulled out a breath mask. He quickly placed the mask over Blackbat's face. As she continued to hyperventilate, Robin quickly grabbed an emergency kit from the storage compartment. He opened it up and pulled out an injector with a small phial of clear liquid. He attached the phial to the injector and pressed it up against Blackbat's neck.

"Here, this'll help until Batman gets here." Robin said as he injected her with the liquid. Her breathing quickly slowed down until she let out a sigh and drooped her head down, asleep from the drug. Robin wiped the sweat from his brow and started to look around.

"Is she okay?" Oracle asked.

"Yeah. I hit her with the knockout stuff. She'll be fine." Robin said as he continued looking around.

"We'll learn more when we get back to the cave." Batman said. Robin didn't reply, he had spotted something.

"That wasn't here when we first arrived." Robin mumbled, looking at a red truck sitting near a small cargo container like one would use as at a construction site.

"What is it?" Batman asked.

"Just a truck and a cargo container. Is there construction going on here?" Robin asked.

"Yes, they're building a covered picnic area just up the road from where you are." Oracle replied.

"That explains the container." Robin said as he sat down next to the unconscious Blackbat. In the distance his trained ears could hear the sound of the Batmobile's engine as it got closer.

2:22 AM
Wayne Manor

Cass was still in her Blackbat costume only without her masks and gloves, still unconscious. She was lying on her bed in her room, the covers pulled over her as she slept. Tim stood outside with Alfred. Tim was still in his Robin costume too only without his mask.

"I just don't get it Alfred. What happened to her to make her just suddenly lose it?" Tim asked.

"I'm afraid I do not know, Master Tim. Hopefully, Master Bruce will discover the reason." Alfred said as Tim nodded understandingly and started heading towards the secret entrance to the Batcave.

"Maybe I'll go check on him." Tim said, leaving Alfred to tend to the unconscious Cass. Down in the Batcave, Bruce, still in costume but with his mask pulled back, was examining something with an electronic microscope.

"Alfred says she's going to be alright, just in case you wanted to know." Tim said, annoyed that Bruce wasn't showing the least bit of concern for his adopted daughter.

"I already knew that." Bruce replied as Tim sat down at the computer chair.

"Of course you did. You could still show a little concern." Tim mumbled, still annoyed.

"You mentioned that the flashlight found at the crime scene had traces of the fear toxin on it?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah. It was covered in the stuff." Tim replied, glancing at the bagged flashlight near the microscope. He also noticed Cass's gloves near the microscope too.

"Did Cassandra put her hand to her face after handling the flashlight?" Bruce asked.

"I guess so. Why?" Tim asked as Bruce turned a computer monitor next to the microscope towards Tim, showing Blackbat's lower mask was under the scope's lens, but with a similar mode of vision as the cowl and mask's detective mode.

"She didn't realize it but the fear toxin got on her hands and at some point she rubbed a little bit of it onto her mask and she slowly inhaled it." Bruce said as Tim blinked surprised.

"So that's why she was acting strange. She was afraid of something." Tim said in realization.

"That's just it. This is a close facsimile of the fear toxin used by Scarecrow, only there isn't any sort of hallucinogen compounds in it. Meaning that all it does is trigger a sense of fear in the victim without a cause." Bruce explained.

"So she could've looked at a tree and suddenly become scared of it." Tim said, worried for Cass.

"She would've had an inexplicable wave of fear overtake her, for no reason." Bruce replied.

"Oh. So do we have any leads?" Tim asked.

"None yet, and my instincts tell me that whoever the culprit is, they only strike once a night." Bruce said.

"So he won't be striking again tonight?" Tim asked, with a yawn.

"No. You may know the second victim. Jonathan Raymond, he's a student at your school." Bruce instructed, causing Tim to scoff.

"Him? Yeah I know him. He's part of the bad crowd at school. Tries to sell drugs to the other kids, but gets caught all the time." Tim said with a roll of his eyes.

"See if there's a connection between him and Elaine Williams, the first victim." Bruce instructed as Tim started removing his gloves.

"I know of one off the top of my head, actually. They both attended the same High School, mine. Williams graduated last year and Raymond is a senior." Tim said, earning Bruce's attention.

"That's a start. See if you can find any more connections between them. I'm going to search for information on this 'Slender Man.'" Bruce said as he pulled his cowl over his head and headed back towards the Batmobile, leaving Tim looking curious as he watched the Dark Knight depart.

"Slender Man?" Tim asked before he turned back around towards the computer as the Batmobile roared out of the Batcave.

End Chapter 2.

Please R&R…