Anything in Italic means the character is thinking to themselves
The rematch and the first joke
When Batgirl and Spider-man arrived in front of the asylum, after a tediously long road that made Peter wonder why in the world an asylum would be so remote to the rest of the city, they clearly heard the alarms inside.
The asylum is so far from Gotham it's almost on a separate island god damnit. How can this city be so corrupted that they basically turn an asylum into a prison that sucks? Peter while he mentally sighed.
"So what's the plan Batgirl? You familiar with this place?"
"It's more Batman's specialty, but we can do without him, it's only the one threat opposed to every single criminals escaping."
"How is that even possible?"
"Don't ask. Keep radio contact so we know what's going on at all time." Batgirl said seriously. This was one of the few times Batman was not there and she had no intention of disappointing him this time.
Spider-man nodded then jumped through the front door before Barbara could lead the way. Peter saw a few people in the hall, judging by their uniform they were doctors.
"The cavalry is here people! I would advise to go someplace safe while we take care of the big guy." Every doctor in the room left almost as fast as he came in and he moved forward only to see a few security guards putting stuff in front of a door, distant roars being heard. Batgirl caught up to him and scowled a little at his boldness.
The guards turned around briefly but their panic dissipated as they saw the heroes. One of them approached the two and looked strangely at Spider-man with his colorful costume compared to the bat-themed hero.
"I was expecting Batman to be honest, no offense."
"None taken, what is…" Peter tried to say before Batgirl spoke up.
"Where is the titan?"
"He is trying to get out of the asylum, we managed to contain him in the main elevator room behind this door but he already did major damage to the building and we know we can't do anything against him, we tried everything, we're down to trying to tire him out by blocking the only exit with everything we have but he does not seem to be tired yet…"
"Did some inmates escape?" Batgirl asked with slight anger in her voice.
"Not many, most of them were tossed aside during the titan's rampage when he recovered in his containment chamber. No casualties yet, we evacuated the staff almost instantly after he woke up and most inmates were smart enough to stay out of his way. What do we do?"
"You do nothing for now, stay where you are and try to help the cops when they get here, we're handling him, is there any way behind this door besides the…well… door?" Spider-man asked while slightly tilting his head on the side.
"There is a ventilation shaft on the ceiling, during the last incident here, Batman often used them."
"Wait, what last incident?"
"No time for that, we must stop him before he gets out through the wall or something, thanks for your efforts chief." Batgirl said firmly before grappling to the ventilation shaft, followed shortly by Spider-man.
While they were crawling in the vent, the roars of the monster were becoming clearer by the second. After a few minutes Peter suddenly stopped when he felt a familiar tingle and whispered.
"Batgirl, you may want to stop here, there's danger somewhere…."
Batgirl activated her own detective vision and looked through the ventilation shaft to see the titan starting to make dents in the big metal door the guards had blocked, she guessed they had little time before he went through it. But she did not understand the danger until they heard engine sounds from where they came. In a split second, Batgirl turned to Peter and whispered back.
"I'm going back to check on the guards, this engine was too loud to be a police car and you just detected a danger, you focus on the titan, I will catch up as soon as I can." Without leaving him time to protest, she started to back-track, leaving a worried Spider-man alone.
She can handle it, I have a bigger fish to fry. Peter thought as he continue his progress and eventually broke the vent bars to jump in the elevator room the guards talked about. The room was basically another corridor leading to another metal door, the only difference being that you had to go down an elevator to get to this one. He was looking at the titan's back as he was pounding on the blocked door.
"Hey big guy!"
The titan suddenly turned, and when he saw Spider-man, he roared even louder than before, completely forgetting the door. The hero braced himself and went in a fighting stance.
"Ready for a rematch?"
With Batgirl…
She was right to come back, some of Penguin's henchmen were getting out of a truck in front of the asylum. They would kill the guards if she did not do something.
Ten armed men, no real way to hide and no Batman to assist…Those odds will do.
When the guards stopped feeling the titan punching the door they turned back to see Batgirl running toward them.
"Armed men are coming here, hide while I take care of it." She ordered, but to her surprise the guards looked at each other then smiled.
"With all due respect, we are not going anywhere, we will fight. If Spider-man can fight this giant monster, then we can fight these idiots with you. Just give us a signal." With these stunning words the guards separated and hid behind various objects and in the small entrance cabinet. Batgirl grappled up and used her grapple to hang high from the ceiling. She prepared two smoke pellets with one hand while the other held the grapple gun.
"Allright guys you know what to do, we help the experiment escape so he can try again. This time the Bat is not here to help." A bulky man in some sort of dark-green suit of armor said, probably their leader.
When the men advanced, Batgirl threw the smoke pellet and fell down, starting to strike the weapons the men had while they were blinded. When the smoke dissipated, she finally said something.
"Now."
On cue, eight security guards got out of their hiding and joined the brawl. The henchmen were completely dazed by everything and were defeated in a matter of seconds despite the guards not using their firearms. Even the leader was on the ground.
"Thanks for the assist chief, get out of here, Spider-man and I will take care of the rest."
"No problem, everyone already evacuated it was just us that remained anyway. It was good to finally feel useful in this god forsaken place. We will wait in front of the gates for the police to arrive." With these words that surprised Batgirl the guards left and used the truck the goons used to go back to the gate, out of view. She was baffled that not only these men stayed behind to stop this monster, but also that they fought alongside her against criminals. If Batman was here, he would be impressed.
"So finally I can have some fun." A voice said. Batgirl turned to see the green-armored man casually get up from the ground and turning to her. Even if she did not see his real eyes, she knew they were evil.
After the initial surprise that he actually faked to fight her alone, she went in her fighting stance and ran at him. He did not move an inch and she delivered a powerful kick, aiming for the head.
He just lifted his arm and grabbed her leg, squeezing so hard she felt it through the suit. He laughed at her expression and threw her back with his hand. She rolled back and he was still laughing, the Joker and this guy would probably understand each other. Though this guy was superhuman so he was more dangerous directly. She threw a batarang at him and he merely back-handed it away, he laughed again. She ran to him again and used every combat move she knew: Even if a few ones actually hit, he did not seem particularly hurt and his blows were far too powerful for her to block so she dodged everything she could. She was starting to get tired while he did not seem to, she knew that now she needed help.
Peter come on, finish this I need help…
With Spider-man and the titan…
The battle was intense, Peter had to move constantly to avoid the titan that was rushing him down without showing any sign of weakening. Suddenly he heard a laugh behind the door, a laugh that paralyzed him, he could know this laugh anywhere.
It's impossible, there is no way he got here! If he's here, I'm going to get rid of him for good! Wait, why am I thinking like that? His thought were interrupted by the titan colliding into him, sending him in the already damaged door. He shook his head and jumped just in time to avoid his charge. But this time the door broke from the impact and the titan ran through.
"You are not getting…" Peter did not have time to finish his sentence when he saw the titan smashing into Batgirl and some guy dressed in green he did not clearly see. Both of them were sent outside the asylum. Spider-man dashed to Barbara's side, now just outside the asylum's main door, and checked her. She was dizzy but allright.
The other guy took most of the blow I'll check on hi-Spider-sense! He grabbed Batgirl and jumped to see some sort of grenade explode where they were a second ago. He landed away and put her down before looking back to see the man.
"So you are Spider-man…I expected something a little more scary than that, even the bat-lady is more scary than y-OOF!" The man did not have enough time to finish as he received a swift punch from Peter that made him stagger a few steps back. 'I stand corrected, you actually pack a punch hahaha!"
Peter saw from the corner of his eyes Batgirl recovering and getting up. The man simply stood there, slightly chuckling from time to time.
Both heroes were about to charge but they heard a roar in the distance, realizing they forgot the titan.
"So heroes, fight me or stop the titan from making a carnage?"
The man laughed as both costumed heroes swung their way towards the city, leaving him alone.
"So easy, I love this stuff!" He then calmly walked away, not aware of the small emitter Batgirl stuck to him during their small fight.
With the heroes…
They eventually caught up with the titan who was for some reason not stopping for killing random people, he was just running non-stop. Peter thought about Barbara and the fact she was in no condition to fight him right now as he was hearing the occasional grunt of pain while going after the monster. He had an idea he knew he was gonna regret.
"Batgirl, go get your dad and the police, I'll take care of him." She looked at him with a stare that would kill him if it could.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"You are in bad shape, you can't fight him after the fight with that other guy. Anyway, Batman would say the same thing." He tried in his most concerned voice.
Barbara thought for a second before nodding angrily and turning sharply without a word. Peter hung his head for a second then swung faster to catch up.
With Batman…
Bruce was angry, Alfred informed him of the recent events at the asylum and he immediately started to search for the titan from the sky. He was not that hard to spot since he was always roaring and was bigger than a car. With the zoom from the Batwing he could see Spider-man swinging after him and catching up. The tracker on Barbara indicated that she changed direction and went to the GCPD.
My guess is that Peter told her something, she would not leave a fight on her own accord. I am not sure what he has in mind but I have to help. The night is not over yet and since my trip was shorter than anticipated I will not have missed much. No one will take this city.
Back with Spider-man…
Peter eventually caught up and jumped on his back, throwing two web strands on his head and pulling to make him stop. The titan stopped and Peter barely avoided the titan that tried to grab him. The monster looked even more angry than usual.
Even if this is my last battle, this thing won't hurt anyone.
As pedestrians around him were starting to watch and film from afar, Spider-man fought the giant, evading his blows and countering as much as he could since the titan seemed even stronger than before. For each attacks Peter avoided, it seemed like he threw dozens back but to no avail. He jumped on him and threw a continuous stream of webbing while running and crawling all around the giant, slowly trapping him in a giant cocoon. He reeled back and, jumping up, used a web to fall back in the monster's face, feet first.
The wrapped up titan fell down from the blow but broke the web and grabbed Spider-man who did not have time to jump. To his surprise the titan did not try to smash him, he threw him away and continued his charge, it took Peter mere moments before he realised where the titan was heading…Back to where he first stopped him.
Spider-man recovered mid-flight with his webs and dashed after the behemoth, he had to stop him there. And now he had yet another motivation for doing so.
When he arrived at the GCPD, the titan was already there and up to his old trick: ripping the main door off its hinges and making a mess inside.
Over my dead body…I think I don't have much of a choice…
He threw multiple webs on the titan while he had his back turned and jumped backwards, making the monster take a couple steps back and drawing its attention back to him.
The two adversaries stared at each other, unaware of the police officers that were coming out of the building by the same door the monster was trying to remove. The officers clearly recognized Spider-man and his opponent and decided against involving themselves and just silently evacuated as the two started to fight again.
As he fought, Peter started burning inside again, he ignored it for now. At some point he heard a wind-like sound and Batgirl dropped from the sky beside him, shortly followed by Batman.
"Batgirl? I asked you to leave, you're going to get hurt." Peter said a little harshly.
"Well I'm not so get used to it." She replied. Batman was observing Peter's behavior.
Spider-man said nothing as he jumped at the titan, leaving them alone. Batgirl grappled upward while Batman ran and started to fight the titan with Peter. When Barbara got on the adjacent roof she started to throw batarangs at the titan's back to try to weaken him enough for her two allies to finish him. Suddenly he punched the ground with such force it sent the two crime-fighters back a few meters away. The titan saw Batgirl and suddenly made a great leap to get to her. In that split-second of realization, Peter and Batman dashed to the roof, but too late to prevent the titan from grabbing her and starting to crush her in a bear-hug, her tired state preventing her from fighting back. Spidey and Batman hit the giant at the same time, making him drop her on the ground and fall from the impact. Peter caught her before she hit the ground and held her in his arms while looking at her. Batman knew he had to weaken the titan while he was dizzy so he ran at him and continued the fight.
"Are you allright? Please don't…" Peter asked as she did not move but slightly opened her eyes and coughed a little blood.
"Been better, but you must stop him before anyone else is…" She fainted before she finished. It did not take a second before he turned his suit to black and slowly put her down before jumping toward Batman and the titan.
He knew he looked more fearsome with this color scheme and for some reason he liked that. He also felt stronger. He landed on the giant and, to Batman's and the titan's stupor, tackled him to the ground then…lifted him in the air before throwing him off the roof, back in front of the GCPD. Batman saw his suit and this attack and understood. He activated his wrist radio.
"Alfred, send the car to my location, Batgirl is in bad shape."
"Oh my, what happened?"
"She was attacked again by the new titan, she may have internal injury. Spider-man is fighting him right now."
"I hope he does not do anything he might regret sir…The car is on its way now, good luck sir."
With Peter, on the street…
Peter was feeling weird, the burn was everywhere yet he still felt normal, better even. He was enraged but he knew what he was doing. Some policemen remained to restrict the area and watch Spider-man in action, which was starting to worry them, his black suit made him look more like a villain than a hero and the way he talked was not helping.
"So you like to hurt the ones who are weaker than you? Let's see how you handle me!" He said as he took the offensive, he was hitting the titan with all he had, a blurring series of attacks that made horrible sounds each time they hit their target. After a powerful kick that sent the titan on a wall, the latter picked up a car and threw it at Spider-man. Everyone thought it was over, but Spider-man merely caught it mid-air and raised it over his head.
"That's all you got? Well let me return the favor!" He jumped and smashed the car on the titan, putting him on the ground. The titan weakly removed the remains of the car from him before he saw Spider-man, standing over him. For the first time feeling fear as he looked at the black-suited hero. The last thing he saw was Spider-man jumping and using one web to bring himself down, his fist aiming at his face.
When Spider-man stood back up, lightly shaking his fist and pushing on his arm making his suit revert to red and blue. He looked at the officers looking at him and made a "thumbs-up" sign.
"Heroes, two. Giant, zero."
The officers were advancing toward the downed-again monster when Batman landed close to him and, with a small injector he held in his hand, stabbed the titan in the shoulder. Under everyone's eyes, the giant creature reverted to a normal, yet muscular man, still unconscious, covered in bruises and bleeding from his mouth and nose.
"You found a cure?" Peter asked as he watched the officers taking the man away.
"Yes and no, I managed to make a quick serum using the Batwing's equipment, but I will need to go back to the cave to get a complete serum from the lab, this one won't cure him for very long." Batman answered gravely. "And tell me, why do you only use the feature on your suit when you're angry?"
"I guess having a dark appearance and making puns at the same time would break the purpose, no?" Peter answered while smiling a little under his mask. He then remembered Batgirl.
"Where is…"
"She is safe, the car is almost here and we will bring her back to the cave." As he finished his sentence, the Batmobile arrived, making everyone on the scene jump.
"Normally I would advise a hospital, but I guess the identity thing isn't helping." He jumped on the building and almost immediately got back, Batgirl in his arms. Batman opened the "back seat", putting Batgirl in, before climbing in the driver's seat. He gave Spidey a last look and drove away at blinding speed, leaving Peter on the scene, knowing he had to stay there.
A few cars arrived and, to Peter's horror, Gordon got out of one and walked to him.
"Do you know where is my daughter Spider-man? She is not at home." he asked directly.
Gotta improvise on this one…
"She's safe don't worry, she called for me and I got her out of harm's way. By the way, since you gave the spider-tracer to your daughter, would you want another one?" he asked innocently before showing him another one. He reminded himself he would have to make more the next time he went to the cave.
Gordon took it before looking at the damage around him and the officers who were getting back in the GCPD. He smiled a little.
"You sure have your way of fighting, thank you again for helping us."
"If I did not do what I do, dozens of people might have died, although Batman does lend me a hand sometime." He added to keep Bruce's reputation alive.
"Maybe so, but you are still the one who saved these officers and my daughter when Batman could not." Gordon said before going to the rest of the officers to take care of the defeated monster.
Spidey sighed before starting to swing away, going to the cave in his own way.
Elsewhere…
The man in green entered the apartment, still laughing from the earlier confrontation. He was in a dream, he fought two heroes at the same time and managed to return to his home barely tired.
"This stuff is great, can't wait to try again, those loser won't boss me around anymore…"
When he finished his sentence he heard a laugh behind him, he quickly turned around. But still received three bullets in his chest, making fall to the ground with a grunt. He looked up to see the Clown himself, grinning widely as he lightly blew on the tip of his silenced oversized pistol.
"You know the best part about being me? It's not caring about people dying, as long as it's fun. You made me smile for a bit, but you disappointed me when you called me a bad name. You are right on one thing: I won't boss you around no more. And besides, you were just a trial run." With these words he shot the man in the head, slowly forming a pool of blood on the ground.
"Too bad, I actually thought about using you again. At least now I know it's fun. Don't worry, you will be replaced shortly enough, there are many guys who would want this too." The Joker walked away calmly, but not before putting a joker card on his dead body. "I'll send my regards to the heroes, pretty sure they will love this. Don't you agree?"
He calmly laughed while walking out of the apartment, getting in a car waiting for him and driving away.
A/N: That the 10th chapter everyone. Hope you enjoyed!