This is a continuation of Lotus's tie-in. At this point, you might wanna go grab some milk. This is gonna be a bit...crazy

It wasn't his first time dealing with killer yo-yos. Not in the slightest.

Vp. Vp. Vp.

TUNK! TUNK! TUNK!

KABOOM!

But suffice to say, the likes of Joker & Toyman had never quite taken it this far.

"No One Could Survive That!" what was obviously one of the greener recruits cried. "Negi X Konoemon 4-Evah!"

"YOU IDIOT!" his comrades screamed as the dark-knight detective emerged from the smoke right on cue, a feral snarl on his face.

A gloved fist found its way into one of the lowlives' noses, while a booted foot smashed the jaw of another. When another half-dozen Cartel members poured into the small area, the Batman quickly reached into his utility belt and produced a gas grenade.

Tssssssss...

"Don't breathe it!"

"Get your gas mask-yoyos out!"

"... say what?"

Krunch! Whap!

One down.

Splam!

Two.

Krack!

Three. Fo-

Thwip.

ZZZZZZT!

Any man without the proper insulation would have been fried to a crisp there and then. As it was, the yo-yo's 10, 000-volt shock still wasn't pleasant.

"Don't get cocky, cape-man!"

A fist plowed into the Batman's Lantern Jaw Of Justice. The Caped Crusader grimaced and somersaulted backward, putting distance between himself and his new opponent.

The cowl's computerized lenses scanned the areas. Six... seven still standing. Not a sign of Mage himself.

"Make this easy on yourselves, " he growled. "Your leader is obviously losing it, getting caught in the middle of an operation. We'll find his primary base of operations any moment now."

"That's what you think, Fatman!" a particularly skinny Cartel member snarled before letting loose ten yo-yos at once, one for each finger. And then the ten yo-yos attached to each of those yo-yos revealed themselves.

I. Hate . Wednesdays… the dark knight noted to himself in tried-and-true gritty monologue fashion.

It was not a happy caped crusader that dragged himself back to Arkham to check on his newest partner. Not with two dozen cuts in the Bat-suit, innumerable burns, and twenty-seven different flavors of pudding soaking through the cloth, anyhow.

"Joker?" he rasped, absentmindedly wiping the blood and tapioca from the corner of his mouth. On the bright side, his cape, now half the length it normally was, was no longer doing the janitor's job for him.

He knew something was wrong the moment he saw the cell from the other side of the corridor.

"JOKER!"

The homicidal harlequin lay in fetal position, shivering. Mumbling.

"A-all those people I've killed. Ha ha ha. That I-I've crippled. Why aren't I dead? Ha ha ha..."

Before him laid a mountain of computer equipment, now producing nothing but smoke and sparks. Bruce would have smelt it long before, had his nostrils not been filled with a much, much worse scent from the battle.

"Joker...?"

"D-don't come near me. I-I'm dangerous... I'm a killer..."

"ARE YOU INSANE?" Chamo screamed. "Do you even know what you're asking?"

"Don't start playing the morality card on me, " Batman scowled. "You're almost as bad at Lotus. Skimming profits from the Cracklords."

"Ah, look, " the ermine began to sweat. "I admit that they're a bit... unorthodox, but-"

"They. Drove. The. Joker. Sane."

"I-isn't that a good-"

"What part of "millions of people become as crazy as he is" sounds good to you?"

"Y-yeah, but still-"

"You will be compensated."

"Look, we both know you're loaded, but you'll have to do-"

The Batman held a brown paper bag up. A slightly-suspicious Chamo peered inside and withdrew his head a second later, ready to vomit his little ermine-y guts out.

"GAH! What the hell?"

"I'll show you worse if you don't give me the address."

"Fine!" the ermine huffed, lighting a new cigarette. "Your funeral, Battyman!"

Half an hour later, the caped crusader found himself in a small wooded area, miles away from civilization. The church that stood before him beckoned, like a lady with long hair and big eyes and the sweetest of smiles just waiting to feed you a strychnine pie the second you let your guard down.

There was no thunder in the sky. Nor lightning. Not even clouds. And the air was downright sterile. No crickets chirping. No mosquitoes buzzing.

He'd definitely come to the right place.

Booted feet strode toward the picket fence-white double doors. Before he could even touch them, they creaked open by themselves.

"Enter, stranger. Know that you will be shown hospitality and kindness. Know that this is a bastion of sanity and rationality. Know that we will not harm you."

He took a tentative step inside, knowing anxiety that he had not faced in years.

"So long as you do not defy our creed. So long as you do not defy the Church.

Another step...

"The Church of the One True Pairing."

And the darkness swallowed him whole.