The Batmobile was the best urban pursuit vehicle money could buy, and Jason was loving it.
He shifted the wheel in his hands, making a sharp, screeching turn. Dick sat shotgun, making sure his seatbelt was still in place. They were closing in on Scarecrow's armored car. "I don't get why Bats never let me take this out for a spin more often!" Jason joyfully exclaimed.
Dick sighed, "Maybe he doesn't trust you around the spare tires?"
"I was just a kid, okay?! It was either that or not eat for the rest of the week!"
The Batmobile grazed into the truck's rear bumper and sparks flew. The truck tried to speed off, but Jason kept the pursuit up and as close as possible. He wondered how Batman did this as often as he did, it was chaotic. Cars were grazed and hit as they tried to pull over and out of the way. A broken rearview mirror nonchalantly bounced off the Batmobile's windshield. Civilians screamed and dove out of the truck's way as it barreled through a streetlight without losing any speed. Jason didn't slow down either. Maybe the chaos was the nature of the pursuit, maybe it was the nature of the driver.
The Batmobile moved a lane over and pulled up adjacent to the truck. One of Scarecrow's thugs rolled down the passenger window and leaned out, firing off shots at Jason's window. They bounced off the bulletproof glass, but enough shots at that range would eventually do some damage. "We need to cut them off!" Jason frantically yelled, "Which button is the boost?!"
Dick laughed his head off, leaning forward and hitting his hand against the dashboard. "The boost? Is this like Mario Kart to you?" He erupted into another laughing spree as Jason's window started to crack. "The nitrous is the third switch to the left of the-"
Jason immediately flipped it and the Batmobile began gaining on the truck. In retaliation, the truck slammed into a complete stop and began reversing before making a complete 180. The Batmobile left it in the dust, and they were getting away.
"Well shit." Jason flipped the nitrous off and shrieked as a tanker truck began crossing the street only a block ahead. There was no doubt there would be a collision, the only variable was how bad it would be.
Jason sat behind the wheel frozen in panic, as Dick reached across him and pulled a lever next to the emergency break. The Batmobile's wheels shifted and it made the tightest and fastest possible u-turn that a multi-million dollar corporation could engineer. They were inches away from the tanker truck. Jason and Dick immediately felt the effects of whiplash, but they sped up once again to continue the pursuit in the other direction. They had a lot of ground to cover.
Jason had lost visual on the Scarecrow's truck, so they had to rely on the computer's predictive targeting system. The console screen displayed a map of Gotham with a flashing red radius; the area where they truck and scientist could be. The atmosphere inside the Batmobile got even more tense as they passed the Iceberg Lounge again, fear toxin-infected partygoers still spilling out and raving in fear on the sidewalks and in the alleys. Police were trying to contain the crowd, but some odd officers got infected as well. Jason, not slowing down, crashed through a police barrier.
"Jason!"
"What! This is a high speed chase, shit happens!"
"No! The barricade! We're the first ones through it!"
Jason felt defeated. "Oh."
Dick glanced at the car console again, noticing the radius getting even wider. Scarecrow's scientist could be anywhere in Gotham City in not much longer. Jason made a sharp turn down a narrow alleyway, sparks flying as the Batmobile scraped against the brick walls.
Dick got curious. "Why would they hide down backstreets? We're in the Batmobile! They should know how these kinds of chases end."
Jason rounded another tight corner, slowing down. "Exactly, that's what they're trying to avoid."
They parked right next to the armored van, which was parked in the middle of an empty intersection, lit by a lone streetlight. The van sat there, completely empty of passengers and cargo. Jason opened the Batmobile's gull doors and stepped out. He pat the car like a childhood pet. "Sorry girl, maybe we'll get to use more of the fun gadgets next time."
He began visually scanning the area. Bruce may have been the world's greatest detective, and Dick, Tim, and Damien were all worthy proteges, but Jason wasn't dull either. He just had his own senses, a product of growing up on the streets and fending for himself. He walked over to the middle of the street and crouched down next to the manhole cover. "There's scratches on the side of this, it's been pried open recently. Scarecrow has a history of using certain sewer routes for fear toxin distribution." He looked up at Dick. "Acting all tough and violent as the Red Hood in Gotham's underground helps me out sometimes, eh?" Dick knew Jason's smirk was lingering there under the helmet yet again.
"Well then let's get moving, we have no time to waste." Dick helped Jason pry the manhole cover open, and the smell hit the pair like a brick wall. Nevertheless, they climbed down the ladder, descending into Gotham's sewers.
. . .
The barrel almost fell off it's pushcart as it rattled along the narrow, uneven concrete path above the current of sewer water. The scientist felt his heart skip a beat, but it didn't fall. He looked behind him to make sure the two henchmen, each with their own pushcarts and barrels, were still behind him. "So how much further do we have to go?"
"We're around the sewage treatment plant, so only a couple more blocks," one of the thugs responded, tiredness in his voice.
"Yeah, but these barrels are hea-" The second thug's complaint was cut off by a huge CRASH. The scientist and first thug looked back at where he used to be, his barrel on the ground. The two looked at each other and shared a mutual scream as they felt the presence of something else near them, something much larger than them.
Killer Croc revealed himself when he tore the henchmen's arm clean from his torso mid-tackle, turning the man into hamburger with the ensuing flurry of claws and bites.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Okay, it's been a while. Well, more than a little while. And I apologize to everyone enjoying this story for taking so long. I'm mostly writing for fun, and I haven't had a ton of free time for this or the motivation to continue. When I did want to get back into writing this, I hit a bit of writer's block when figuring out how to describe the car chase, and I sat on it for a little too long.
But hopefully the next couple of chapters will come out a lot sooner. I'm not giving up on this, I still have a ton of ideas that I'm excited to show off. Did someone say the Joker gets involved? What? Who said that?
But trust me, these next couple chapters are where this story kicks into gear and really begins. I hope everyone is excited! As usual, I'd love to hear thoughts, criticisms, and predictions!