If it wasn't for the ingenious invention of fast-forward, viewing Bruce's home movies would've been a pain in the ass.

Night after night, the guy had made these videos, saved them on his computer, and dated them for easy access, assuming he recalled what happened on each and every one of these things. It was alarming to see just how obsessed he was with this Batman thing.

Of course, Zatanna found herself keeping on her toes for some of the videos. One thing he had neglected to tell her was that someone other than herself had figured out who he was. Though his fight with the bandaged guy—Hush, she thought his name was—had been intense, Hush had used his real name a few times. Things could've gotten awkward real quick had she not been quick to skip over those small seconds.

Of course that had Flash complaining. "Why'd you do that? What did mummy guy say?"

Giving him a look a parent would give to their whining brat, Zatanna calmly answered, "Mummy guy was about to say something you shouldn't hear. Any of you. It'd make your virgin ears bleed."

Suffice to say, that hadn't gone well with the others. Fortunately, they were easily distracted when an explosion went off on the screen. Whatever the blast had been, they were all treated to seeing the bottom of Hush's boot slam in Bruce's face, follow by Hush grabbing onto one of the horns of his cowl and using it to hold Bruce still while he nail him with a fist.

When Hush went for another punch, Bruce had blocked it out of nowhere, before yelling out as he charged into mummy guy. The two then pushed against each other, neither one willing to give up the stalemate until Hush suddenly moved to a side, sidestepping out of Bruce's way until he ran right into a bunch of barrels. It was pretty comical to watch.

But when Bruce turned to look at Hush holding a detonator, he barely just had time to whip his head back around and cover them with his arms as the barrels exploded, sending him flying through the air.

"Ouch, that had to hurt," Flash remarked. "Anybody got popcorn? This is better than pay-per-view."

Unfortunately, due to the blast, they lost half of the screen and the audio went out, so they ended up finishing the fight and Bruce's frantic battle with that giant mud monster through one side of the screen and without sound. That had put a damper on Flash's praise.

Aside from the fight though, much of it was basically Bruce running around Gotham and beating the ever living crap out of criminals, thugs, and rapists. Zatanna would give him this though, he kept coming up with different ways to do that. Then there were the interrogations, usually from high buildings and usually ending with the criminal crying, screaming, pissing their pants, or a combination of all three.

Those parts had sparked a heated debate amongst the others, Superman in particular. Apparently he was uncomfortable with threatening others for information.

"I don't see why he had to drop them off the roof. It was totally unnecessary."

Wonder Woman backed him up. "There are other easier ways to obtain the truth."

Surprisingly, it was Hawkgirl who disagreed. "Not all of us have magical ropes from Zeus that force people to tell us the truth, Princess."

Wonder Woman frowned. "Hephaestus forged the Lasso of Tr—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You told me like ten times. The point still stands though, not everyone has your lasso and not everyone can hear other people's pulse rates go up when bad people lie. For us mere mortal, we have to get inventive."

"But what Batman did is tantamount to torture," Superman protested. "He's using their fear to terrorize them. How is that any different from what torturers do? He can get any of those men to say anything he wants, even if it wasn't true."

Hawkgirl crossed her arms over her chest. "Alright, how many times did someone give him a false confession? How many admitted to a crime they didn't commit?"

There was a brief pause as the attention was focused on the Man of Steel, mostly to see if their own estimates were similar or not. Even Zatanna was trying to run a count in her head as she tried to count the number of times she saw Bruce get a bad tip.

Apparently, even aliens had difficulty counting. "Well…" Superman began, but trailed off just as quickly.

"The answer is zero. Not once did he get a bad confession." The Thanagarian paused to let that sink it before beginning a new point. "I think what we're failing to address her is that we're dealing with one smart son of a bitch. Every action he's done on these tapes were pre-planned and executed as efficiently as possible. That's not the actions of a guy just winging it. So looking at it that way, you can see that he's not just going after random people to interrogate, just the ones he knows has the information he wants. If he were a real torturer, he'd be terrorizing the entire city, not just the criminal element. There would be no discrimination."

"Hey, I've been saying the same thing," Flash pointed out. "You just have to look at all the toys he's got in this cave to figure that out."

"Being smart isn't the point though," Stewart disagreed. "Hawkgirl's right about him going after select people, but torture is still torture no matter who it's being done to. There's no way you can justify it."

"Tell that to the American government," Hawkgirl muttered.

Stewart glared at her. "What was that?"

"I believe we have gotten off point," J'onn spoke up then. "Our main objective was to determine the identity of the presence stalking the Batman, was it not?"

"All we've been able to see are a bunch of moving shadows though," Flash replied. "All we can say for sure is that there are people out there following him, but no clue about them."

"It seems like some of Batman's description was accurate," J'onn agreed with a nod. "He mentioned in his records that no matter how many times he tried to confront them, they would avoid a meeting."

"And there's no guarantee that he did get a better look at them either," Stewart added, his temper calming down, though he pointedly avoided looking at Hawkgirl. "At this point in the videos, the only major incident we can confirm is his last two weeks against the Joker."

Zatanna considered that. Perhaps there was a way they could speed up this research of theirs. "Computer, can you identify in Batman's entries whether he positively identified his stalkers?"

The supercomputer immediately began processing the request, the cave falling silent aside from the sounds of the computer and the occasional chirp from the bats above. Eventually, the search was completed and a small window appeared with the results. "Negative," the magician read aloud, feeling disappointed. Looked as if one mystery was going unsolved.

"I guess that settles that," Superman said as he stared at the screen.

"Not necessarily," Stewart spoke up. "Zatanna's command was about all of his entries, right? But if we check his video logs, there are three videos not dated like the rest. I'd be willing to bet that there aren't any written entries for them either."

Immediately, the magician began typing on the computer, going to Bruce's written logs. Going to the last on the list, she looked at the time and date the last entry. "Lantern's right," she confirmed. "There aren't any entries for the last three videos."

"Then perhaps that is where we should pick up our search," Wonder Woman suggested, her hands moving to rest on her hips.

Immediately, Zatanna felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. While it was a sound idea, the dark-haired woman felt a sense of dread at the thought of watching the third and last video. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was on that one and she wasn't sure if she could force herself to watch. Swallowing a growing lump in her throat, Zatanna decided to prolong that experience for as long as she could, accessing the first Untitled video.

Like all the others, a view of the Batcave appeared; however, this time he was walking towards the Batmobile. For the most part, Bruce had been standing still when he activated the recorders in his lens, but this one stood out for already being motion. The canopy of the car was open and he leapt in, the canopy sliding shut a moment later. Soon, the car was rocketing down the tunnel as usual. It wasn't until the feed was out of the tunnel and on its way to Gotham that Zatanna recalled what was going on.

"Hey, can you hear me on this thing?"

Several heads perked up as Bruce replied, "Loud and clear." The attention of the cave was soon thrust upon her. "Was that your voice?" Flash asked surprised.

Zatanna shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I did tell all of you I was here when all of this went down."

"I don't remember hearing that!"

"Well, you know now."

Unfortunately, a terrible thought hit Zatanna. Throughout her communication with Bruce on this night, she had used his name throughout. Oh Lord, this was going to be another Hush watching with her ready to hit the skip button at every mentioning. There had to be a better way to do this. If only she could edit the video…

Wait, she had a goddamn supercomputer in front of her. It should be able to do anything she wanted it to. Pausing the footage, Zatanna began typing a command in. "Sorry guys, if y'all could turn around for a second, I'll be finished in a jiffy."

"Mind telling us why?" Hawkgirl asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Secret identity stuff. Unless you want me hitting skip like last time, just do me a favor and turn around."

Thankfully they all turned around, though Zatanna heard some grumblings from the people without alter egos. Let them whine to themselves if they wanted, the magician was not going to expose Bruce's secret if she could help it. She had promised him and Alfred she wouldn't—even if he was doing crazy things right now.

As her fingers punched in keys, Zatanna mentally read out Replace all verbal usages of Bruce with Batman by USER Zatanna Zatara in video logs. There, that should do it. Hitting the enter key, she waited until the computer gave her an affirmation on her command, a message of COMPLETE appearing on screen.

"Alright, all done." Starting the video up, she heard the other heroes turning back around. Watching as countryside blurred around the Batmobile, Zatanna decided to fast forward until they hit the city streets. No one else complained about that choice.

Releasing the button, they were greeted by Zatanna's own voice complaining "—idea what it's like having to go through a million different traffic camera to find one—"

"Zana, where's the truck?" Batman interrupted her.

"It's on Opal and 1st, north side of downtown, heading west. Just to let you know, the truck isn't alone. There's two armored trucks, one in front and one behind. They had some real dirty windshields so I couldn't see who's in them and how many."

"That's fine. Just let me know if they change streets."

"Will do. They're passing 2nd Street now."

"Mind telling us what's going on?" Stewart asked as he continued to watch the screen.

"The Joker had made an announcement that he was sending a bomb into the city," Zatanna answered him. "Right now, I'm tracking down where the truck with the bomb is and Batman is going to stop them.

That was when red and blue lights began flashing from the screen. "Uhh, BATMAN?" Zatanna jerked her head back at the clashing sound of voices. Apparently the computer did as she instructed it to, but instead of using her voice to make the cover more natural, it just used a feminine one from the computer banks and substituted it in. God, she hoped she didn't say Bruce's name too many times; this was just jarring. "You do realize you have some cops on your tail."

"I noticed," Batman responded dryly.

"I hope so, cause you've got three of them on you. One behind you, another one behind you and to the left, and the other to the right. Huh, it's like watching a diamond moving down the street."

Bruce activated his radio then, listening intently to it. "—patch, this is Unit 71 over. No sign of the Joker's bomb, over."

"Roger, Unit 71. Keeping looking."

"Hey, Dispatch, this is Unit 29. Me, Ramsey, and Davis spotted the Batmobile hauling ass down 15th. We're following 'em, over."

There was a brief moment of silence before dispatch ordered, "Unit 29, you stay on his ass, you hear me? If there's anyone that knows where that bomb is, it'll be him. Stay on him and give us frequent updates, got it? Over."

"Smart guy," Zatanna remarked on screen at the same time Hawkgirl did next to her. "You should tell that commissioner friend of yours to give that guy a promotion."

"Noted," he deadpanned. "Where's the truck?"

"They just passed 10th street, still on Opal. So, do you have a plan for this? Cause now would be a good time to have one."

"We'll be finding out soon, won't we?"

"Finding out? BATMAN! This is not the time to be making stuff up!"

And making up is exactly what he did. At least, that's what she considered Bruce blowing up the back end of an 18-wheeler and ramming through the engine of an armored suburban. While Bruce didn't see the semi-truck flipping over onto its side and skidding down the street, he did see all the scrap iron and pieces of a car motor pelt and scrape against the windshield of the Batmobile. That was kinda neat to watch actually. Hearing the squealing of rubber burning due to friction, Bruce swung the car around, coming to a stop where he could see two policemen pointing shotguns at the Joker's thugs in the leftovers of the truck.

Once he started moving again, turning onto the street with the fallen semi, Zatanna's voice came over the speakers again. "Alright, I'll admit it. That was pretty cool."

"You said it," Flash agreed.

"Thanks."

Of course, the twist with the bombs showed up soon, with Batman standing on the turned-over truck, staring into the empty trailer. "Uhh, BATMAN? I think we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"I'm picking up at least two more trucks."

Without needing to be asked, Zatanna explained, "Turned out this was a decoy. The Joker had two more trucks in the city and there was no way to know if they were also fakes or if they both had bombs. We called in the GCPD to handle one while we took care of the other. As it turned out, they were both duds."

Hitting fast forward again, Zatanna waited until Bruce was a few blocks away from the next truck, staring it down as the caravan approached his location. Releasing the button, again she heard her voice asking the pig-headed man about his next stunt. "So, what's the plan?" Silence. "You do have a plan, right?"

All Bruce did was hit the accelerator, the squealing of rubber spinning on asphalt being heard before the Batmobile shot down the street.

"Uhh, BATMAN? What are you doing?"

No answer.

"Are you playing chicken with him?! Is that your plan?! You're insane! In! Sane! Are you listening me? BATMAN? BATMAN!"

Zatanna frowned at that. She didn't remember sounding so naggy. She had definitely been alarmed and there was the passing thought that Bruce had some kind of death wish, but now that she watched the footage, she was beginning to wonder whether Bruce just muted her voice or just ignored her. Kinda looked like the second one at the moment.

Of course, she went completely silence when Bruce spun his car around and began driving it in reverse. It took a moment before Stewart exclaimed, "He isn't going to do what I think he is!"

A second later there was a loud crash and the camera jerking back from the collision. An instant later, the car began spinning around, Bruce shifting his gears in time to face down the right way on the street, the 18-wheeler at his side and the second armored truck right in front of him. With a push of the accelerator, Bruce rammed the Batmobile into the second truck and forced it into a streetlamp.

The next thing they saw was Bruce just sitting there, trying to catch his breath before he pulled back from the smashed side of the truck, just in time to watch as the 18-wheeler had all of it tires blown out, which caused the truck to weave out of control until the trailer began to jackknife, and finally flipped over, rolling over itself several times before coming to a stop on its side.

"Okay, now you're just showing off."

"No, GL, I don't think he did what you thought he was gonna do," Flash eventually said. "Heck, I had no idea he was going to do all of that. Crazy, wasn't it?"

"It got the job done," Wonder Woman replied, her eyes narrowed somewhat at the screen. "It was reckless though. Everything had to go exactly as he planned it for it all to work out that way."

Hawkgirl snorted at that. "Which brings us back to what I said: this guy is pretty damn smart."

"I don't think anyone's debating that at this point," Superman said in an attempt to pacify the winged woman. "But this does convince me about some of things I heard about him, that he was crazy and violent."

"Says the guy that punches giant robots for a living," Flash jabbed.

Superman looked as if he were about to argue, but Stewart cut him off. "Knock it off. We've been over this before. What we need to do is use what we know about him to figure out what his next move will be. It's obvious he has some sort of plan, otherwise why would he bother attacking us?"

"Do you have any suggestions?" Hawkgirl inquired.

"It'd be easiest to find out where he holing up," the green-glowing man replied. "To do that, we can use those traps of his to get some kind of idea. Obviously he has some access to a lab of some kind. If we can isolate a location, it'll make it easier for us to find him."

"I think you're onto something John," Superman agreed with him. "Do we have any of his traps here?"

"Aside from the nanites in Wonder Woman, I don't believe so," J'onn answered him. "But it is likely they were destroyed when we used the EMP. The trap set for Hawkgirl and I would not give us any clues and I had to destroy the bullet in Flash. That would just leave the kryptonite, which I don't believe is here."

"It might be at the tower still," Zatanna pipped in. "I could magick it here, but Superman will have to be elsewhere unless he wants another dose of it."

"Hey, that's not all we have," Flash suddenly spoke up, his voice picking up with excitement. "I had to draw some blood from GL to find out what kind of toxin was in him."

J'onn caught what the red-clad man was getting at. "If we can isolate some of the ingredients in the samples, we may be able to triangulate where they came from. Perhaps the computer can assist us with a ma—"

Suddenly a new window popped up on the computer screen, silencing their discussion. Confused by it, Zatanna stared at the flashing red window before accessing it. At first, a muffled voice came over the speakers, taking a moment before the dark-haired woman figured out what was being said. "—got a lot of movement from Jokerz, Dispatch," the voice said, a police officer most likely. "They're all heading southwest, but its like they're zombies or something."

"What's going on?" Stewart demanded.

Zatanna was frowning as she began doing a search on the computer. It didn't make any sense to her why an alarm like this would come up. "I have no idea. Batman didn't tell me about this."

As it turned out, Hawkgirl realized what the reason was. "Check the frequency. If I'm not mistaken, that's an emergency channel the police use."

Then, as if to prove her right, "This is Officer Michaels on Walnut Grove; I'm seeing a lot of Jokerz out here. They seem to be heading somewhere, not sure where."

"I get the feeling that's not normal for these Jokerz guys," Flash surmised. "Anyone got an idea on who these guys are?"

At that, Zatanna felt something vile work its way up her throat. "A gang of miscreants and idiots," she spat out, staring heatedly at the computer in front of her. "A bunch of people got together and thought the Joker was a man worth idolizing and formed the gang in his honor. If they actually knew the guy, they'd run away screaming."

"Did you ever meet him?" Stewart suddenly asked her. "It sounds like you're speaking from experience."

"Yeah, I have. The Joker crashed a show of mine in Gotham. Killed one of my stagehands right in front of everyone and tried to rob the audience. Believe me, he's not a man any of you want to meet."

Due to Zatanna's souring mood, she missed the uncomfortable shuffling behind her. "So, these are bad guys," Flash said in an attempt to go back to the original topic. "Is this something the police can handle or do we step in?"

"Perhaps it would be best to know if this is normal behavior for them," J'onn suggested. "If it is normal, it would be best if the police handled it."

"I think it's pretty obvious it isn't," Hawkgirl interjected. "Just listen to the cops; they think its odd."

"Then we should investigate." Superman took center stage. "Some of us should stay in the cave to further investigate the Batman while a team goes out to see what this Jokerz gang wants."

"I'll go," Stewart volunteered. "I'm used to dealing with large crowds if the need arises."

Hawkgirl stepped forward then. "Me too. It would be a good idea to have someone familiar with detective work too." She paused for a moment. "J'onn too. If we need to get a closer look, he can get closer than either Lantern or I can."

"Is that wise?" J'onn questioned, his tone bland, though Zatanna detected a trace amount of skepticism. Or maybe she was just imagining things. "I believe it would be best if I stayed her to assist in running the tests."

"It's no big deal," Flash responded then. "I can run the tests faster than anyone here. And since Zee here is the only one with an idea on how to use the Batcomputer here, she can handle that part."

Zatanna raised an eyebrow at that. "Batcomputer?"

"What? It's not like everything else here isn't named after a bat."

"Very well then," the Martian gave in. "I believe we need to head to the southwest?"

"Just a second," the magician said as she turned in her seat to a cabinet. Opening the drawer, she stuck her hand in and pulled out a handful of earpieces. "Take these. They should be able to help us keep in contact with each other."

"Good idea." Stewart stepped towards he and took the offered earpieces. He then handed one to J'onn and Hawkgirl, each of them placing the receivers in their ears. "Do a test on them while we're on our way out."

"Righto." Zatanna then pointed towards a platform, the one that Bruce used to keep his car on. "See that tunnel over there? That should take you outside. When you come back, be sure to use it."

"Roger that."

Sorry if this chapter comes off as filler-ish. I hope you can bear with it though as things are about to heat up very soon.