A/N: I always wondered what Batman would do if he had "powers"… I had a few different ways of how this played out, but I think this was the best way to go under the story's circumstances. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!
The Dark Knight's Wrath
"What! What's wrong?" Donna saw the disheartening look on her sister's face.
"I… I'm not sure. I just know he's hurting. We have to go back to him!" Diana turned and was about to head towards Gotham when Ares and Circe appeared in front of them.
"Were you looking for us?" Circe said with a mischievous smirk on her face.
"YOU!" Both Diana and Donna yelled out in rage as they immediately bolted towards Circe. Ares quickly formed giant hands out of pure energy to grab the two Amazons. They both tried to break free but couldn't move as Ares and Circe floated closer to them.
"Princess, Princess, Princess…" Ares put his hand under his chin as if he were thinking. "Were you watching TV?" Ares spun around and looked at Diana with a smirk on his face. "No? Well then, you're missing a really good show."
Circe floated over to Diana and placed her hand under Diana's chin, lifting her head to face her. "I don't want to spoil it, but there might be a possibility that something could happen to your pointy-eared husband."
"I've figured it out my lovely Amazon. You are protected as long as my mother's blessing stays with you. However, the instant your love for him dissipates, her spell will be lifted. So naturally, all I have to do is destroy your love and faith in the ever-so-noble Batman. Soon the Batman you know and love will cease to exist and everything you despise and vowed to fight against will remain… and with that, the love you have for him will die… leaving me free to make you mine." Ares' smirked quickly turned into a giant grin. "And the best part about what's going to take place is that I actually didn't have to do anything to make this happen." Ares waved his hand as the four of them teleported to Arkham.
"Now that those three are safe, that witch is mine…" Ghost appeared back in the cave to look for anything to help him defeat Circe and Ares. He walked up to the table by the computer console to see what Batman was last looking at. "Hmm… This might be useful."
"Good evening Master Colby. It is good to see you again, you should visit more often. I'm afraid that Master Bruce is still at Arkham at the moment." Alfred walked up to him while dusting the computer console.
Colby took off his mask with a sigh. "It's been a long time Alfred. That's quite alright… I'm on my way to assist Bruce at Arkham." He walked over to the special cell. "I just thought I'd come by to see how she's doing."
"Don't worry Sir. Master Bruce will do everything he can to return all of them to normal. And with your help, I know it's only a matter of time before she will be in your arms again." Alfred placed his hand on Colby's shoulder as he looked at what used to be the batclan with him.
"Thank you Alfred." Colby put his mask back on and headed back out towards Arkham.
"You've got to hand it to The Joker… he knows how to make one hell of a TV show." Flash said as he began eating some popcorn.
"Shut up! This isn't funny!" Green Lantern spat out as he turned up the volume on the control console. The whole league was watching it on the gigantic screen in the central hub.
"What are you talking about? This is great! Bats is about to fight every single villain in Gotham by himself! This is can't miss stuff! He's going to mop the floor with these idiots! Or have you forgotten that Bats is super buff now?" Flash tossed the empty popcorn box behind his shoulder and grabbed another.
"Seriously… I'd like a shot at taking on all of those morons myself." Shayera crossed her arms over her chest while looking at Green Lantern.
Green Lantern shook his head. "Do you ever stop thinking about getting into fights?"
"No, not really… That reminds me… I feel like sparring tonight." Shayera grinned seductively at Green Lantern.
Green Lantern raised his eyebrow as a smirk appeared on his face. "Whatever you say…"
"Something doesn't feel right about this…We've got to help him." Superman began to leave.
"No" J'onn raised his hand to stop Superman. "He has to do this on his own. I believe that there is more to this than just pride." J'onn sighed and went on to check other activities around the world just incase something else required the league's attention.
Everyone around the world who was watching Batman brutally beat down Bane dropped their jaws in disbelief. It cemented the fear of what Batman was truly capable of. It especially established a new state of fear to the ones witnessing it within Arkham. Batman was relentless in his fight with Bane. Easily dodging and countering every single attack while pummeling him with one lethal hit after another. Bane stumbled to his knees as he tried to breathe in much needed oxygen. He couldn't believe it. Batman was humiliating him, he couldn't touch him. Batman was too fast, too quick… too strong. Bane couldn't connect a single strike on Batman. "I'll kill you!" Bane roared in rage as he turned the dials on his venom injecting device.
"You're going to die by my hands!" Bane turned the dial until the arrow pointed to 'max'. He was going to use to all of the venom he had left, even if it was going to kill him. Bane wanted to be as strong as he possibly could to kill Batman regardless of the repercussions of what that dangerous amount of venom would do to his body. Bane's muscles viscously pulsated to extreme sizes as he grew to monstrous proportions. Bane screamed in pain as the venom surged through his body, expanding his muscles to be more than ten times the size of Batman's. "You die now!" Bane swung his fist down at Batman.
Batman easily dodged it as Bane's fist went elbow deep into the concrete floor. Bane's gigantic muscles had made him significantly slower than before. Bane pulled his arm out of the floor, sending chunks of concrete rocks flying all over the place, before turning to face Batman. He wound up and threw another punch with his right fist at Batman's face. Batman caught his gigantic arm and quickly snapped it in half. Bane's eyes widened in horror as he saw his bone sticking out of his arm. Before Bane could react, Batman shattered his right kneecap with a devastating kick. Bane crumpled to the floor in pain as he looked up at Batman. "Impossible… how… NO! You can't you be this strong!" Bane swung his left fist at Batman, desperately trying to hit him. Batman easily grabbed it, and with a chopping motion, shattered the bones in his forearm.
With blood all over his gauntlets, Batman savagely broke the rest of Bane's bones as he continued to mercilessly hammer him into the ground. Batman's adrenaline continued to make each hit harder than the one before it as Bane's body stopped moving. Blood continued to splatter onto his suit with each and every earth shaking punch he threw. After throwing Bane's broken and bloodied body thought the wall on the south end, he turned to the rest of them with the most intimidating batglare any of them had ever seen. Of course the fact that Batman had just ruthlessly destroyed Bane with ease made the intimidation factor increase exponentially. "One way or another, this all ends tonight."
No one moved. The Joker didn't have any jokes or asinine remarks. The Riddler couldn't think of any sarcastic riddles or comebacks. Batman was human. He wasn't supposed to possess this kind of power. It was one thing to force Batman to lose control and go on a rampage, but it was another to have him do it with such incredible strength and power.
"He's just a man! I'll tear your flesh from your bones!" Killer Croc tackled Batman to the ground. Croc viciously tried to bite Batman's head off but was stopped as Batman quickly grabbed the top and bottom of Croc's jaw and held it in place. Killer Croc's eye's widened in shock as he looked into Batman's stone cold glare. With one quick powerful motion, Batman brutally snapped off the lower half of Croc's jaw before picking him up and slamming him into the ground. Everyone watched in horror as Croc slowly got back up to his feet with his lower jaw lifelessly hanging. Screaming in rage, Croc went after Batman again only to have Batman take him down and break both of his legs. Blood splashed out as the broken bones of Croc's legs tore through his armored skin. Croc screamed in pain as he tried to crawl away from Batman. Killer Croc's eyes bulged in horror as Batman walked up to him and stomped on his forehead, cracking his skull in the process. Batman continued to repeatedly slam Croc's head into the ground even after his body remained limp and lifeless. Croc's blood was slowly oozing out of new the crater that his head made in the ground. Batman didn't stop slamming Croc's head into the ground until The Riddler spoke.
"He's just one man! We work as a team, he goes down. Get him!" The Riddler motioned for the countless Titan infused goons to attack Batman.
With his adrenaline endlessly fueling his rage, Batman completely annihilated the goons… breaking ribs, arms, legs, and skulls without restraint as countless bloodied, battered, and broken bodies piled up on the floor. All the rage, the anger, the frustration, the suffering, the pain… everything that Bruce kept inside ever since he was eight years old was finally being released. He held nothing back as he ruthlessly beat down everyone that came at him.
"Forget it! Just shoot the bastard!" Two Face pulled out his machine gun while motioning to Scarface to take his tommy gun and shoot down Batman.
Batman quickly threw out two explosive bat-a-rangs at Two Face and Scarface. They both went flying into the air from the explosion. The Scarface dummy burned up in flames while The Ventriloquist unconsciously landed on the floor. As Batman began making his way towards Two Face, Mr. Zsasz and Clayface jumped in front of him.
"You might have taken Bane and Croc out Batman. But you can't hit what isn't solid!" Clayface turned his left hand into a large axe while transforming his right in to a hammer. Mr. Zsasz took out several knives as they both began attacking Batman together.
Batman easily dodged both of their attacks while setting both of them up to attack each other. Batman dodged Clayface's axe-shaped hand at the last second, leaving Mr. Zsasz's right arm in its path. Mr. Zsasz dropped to his knees and screamed in pain as his entire right arm fell to the floor in a bloody mess. Batman quickly dodged a few more of Clayface's attacks before freezing him with a special bat-a-rang that traps whatever it comes into contact with in a giant glacier. Batman walked up to Mr. Zsasz just before he heard a faint sound of a gun cocking. He instantly flew up into the sky as Two Face began shooting his machine gun at him. The bullets missed Batman but hit Mr. Zsasz several times in the chest as he fell down in a pile of blood.
Batman took out another bat-a-rang and threw it at Two Face's hands. Just as he dropped the gun, Batman landed in front of him, broke his left arm and elbowed him in the ribs, completely shattering them in the process. Two Face fell to the floor gasping for air as he glared at Batman. His glare quickly disappeared as he saw a fist coming at him. Batman pounded Two Face's face into the ground until nothing but blood covered the white half of Two Face's suit.
"You can't do this! This doesn't make sense!" The Riddler shouted. Realizing that he now mistakably got Batman's attention, he began to backpedal away from him. Batman threw Two Face's body aside as he got up and started to make his way towards The Riddler and The Joker with both Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn shaking in fear behind them.
"Yea… even I must admit that I never thought you were in to this kind of fun." The Joker grinned as he shoved The Riddler into Batman and laughed while running in the opposite direction.
Batman caught The Riddler by his throat, cutting off the airflow to his lungs as he squeezed it tightly. Without any hesitation, Batman head butted The Riddler, instantly shattering his skull before throwing him to the side. Harley and Ivy were paralyzed in fear as they held on to each other, staring at The Dark Knight.
"Ple… please don't hurt us! I… I swear never to hurt anyone again!" Poison Ivy squeaked out as she closed her eyes and prayed that Batman wouldn't beat her into oblivion.
"Yea… wha… what red said!" Harley said as she curled up, scared out of her mind.
Batman walked right past the two terrified ladies. All of his attention was fixated on The Joker and his futile attempt to run away. Batman flew straight at The Joker and grabbed him by his hair from behind before slamming the back of his head into the ground. Batman continued to beat The Joker like never before. He hammered away while breaking just about every single bone in The Joker's body. Batman didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered. Jason was right, Joker deserved to die, and he was going to make sure that The Joker was going to suffer tremendously before begging for death. His gauntlets were dripping with blood as he continued to pound away at The Joker's face. Harley and Ivy sat in the corner of the courtyard, as far away from Batman as possible. They were traumatized by the brutality of the beating that The Joker was receiving.
"Stop…" Batman ignored him, hitting him across the face.
"Stop…" Batman broke his eye socket with another blow.
"Stop…" Batman cracked The Joker's skull with a strike to the temple.
"Stop…" Batman's fist struck and shattered The Joker's jaw and teeth as blood continued to spill out of his mouth.
"NO! Please Bruce! Don't give in! Don't kill him!" Diana couldn't believe what she was seeing. Ares had covered both Diana and Donna's mouths with tape and forced the both of them to watch. The sight was almost unbearable. Not because The Joker and the rest of them were so brutally beaten down. As far as she was concerned, they all deserved it. But Diana couldn't stand to see her husband lose control. She watched him roar in an uncontrollable rage as he savagely beat down his enemies and now on the verge of beating The Joker to death. Diana could feel all the pain and suffering embedded within Bruce's heart grow with each and every strike he threw. She felt all the anger, the rage… everything that Bruce went through since he was a child, and she was powerless to heal him… to save him. It broke her heart. Diana couldn't help but cry helplessly as she watched the darkness in her husband take over. She wasn't strong enough to stop it. The darkness within him had won. Ares had won. Circe had won. The Joker, to a certain extent, had won. Batman was going to cross the line and kill The Joker. She was going to fail him. Fail to save him from himself. Bruce was going to give in… and he was never coming back.