It's great to see that everyone's back for next chapter of The Red Fox. Now that we're right in the middle of the three part battle chapter, I feel that it's a good time to warn about something that's coming up. Once said battle is concluded, we'll be going into a time skip. We'll skip from Naruto at age eight all the way to him being at age twelve. There's going to be some changes that come with the timeskip, some of which you might be able to guess. Basically, now that Naruto's all settled in to Gotham and has started his training, I'm going to skip to the age where things start to get interesting. Well, you guys get the picture. If you have any questions about the timeskip, I'll be happy to answer. Keep an eye out for some foreshadowing for later on in the fanfic in this chapter as well. Thanks for reading and please review.
Chapter Soundtrack-Three Days Grace: Animal I Have Become
From all across the halls and cells in Arkham Asylum, people could hear a battle being fought. Skulls cracking against walls and bones breaking echoed through corridors to let them know what was going on. The morgue was indeed the grounds of a an impressive fight. What these people couldn't see, was that the League of Assassins looked like amateurs in comparison to their opponent.
Of the ten assassins that had entered the fight originally, only half of them remaind. It had only taken Kakashi and Tsunade ten minutes to do this, and they were greatly holding back. If Tsunade used her full strength, she'd kill these people with a little love tap, and if Kakashi broke out almost any of his jutsus, they wouldn't even have the time to ask what going on. Bruce had been very specific to Tsunade about not killing anyone, so she promised that she wouldn't . The same rule applied to Kakashi of course, so Tsunade made sure he wouldn't kill anyone either. Even with that rule, they were still beating the Assassins as if they were common criminals.
"Is there some kind of reason that we have to keep these guys alive?" Kakashi asked as he jumped backwards to avoid one of the remaining assassin's katana.
One of the assassins tried to sweep Tsunade's legs, but the older woman just flipped over his head and gave him a solid kick in the head, "Because we're not in our own territory. We can't just start killing people in a place that has a hero who's known for refusing to murder anyone!"
Some of the assassins were getting angry, as they could only figure out parts of what they were saying, "I don't understand it. All of us know Japanese, so why can we only figure out some of their words?"
"I don't really think that knowing their language would help us at this point," One of them said, taking out a few shuriken and throwing them at Kakashi.
The reason that they could not understand the ninjas was because they were speaking the ancient version of Japanese that Alfred had mentioned before, which was much more complex. Kakashi also wished he could know what his enemies were saying, but had to make due with what he had. He took out his kunai and knocked the shuriken away from him, "Are these guys it, or do you think there's more?"
Tsunade grabbed the head of the man she'd kicked and threw it on the ground just hard enough to knock him unconscious, bring the total down to four, "There's probably a couple more somewhere around here. If we can track them down, we'll finish them, but I think taking these guys out will scare them off. We're good either way."
Hearing the sound of another katana slicing through the air, Kakashi turned and deflected the blade with his kunai. Once the he was no longer in any danger, he took the assassin's head and slammed it into his knee, "Great, that's seven down, three to go. How do you wanna divide this up?"
"Way ahead of you Kakashi," Tsunade said, appearing behind two of the assassins that were still up and fighting. She grabbed their heads and slammed them together, making a loud thumping sound. They both fell to the ground, leaving their comrade all on his own in there.
The assassin could see he stood no chance, so he took out his katana and held it to his chest, "By the Head of the Demon, I shall say nothing to the likes of you!"
Kakashi could see he'd been trained to kill himself before he could be captured, which was a common practice in the Ninja Nations as well. He couldn't allow the man to do that, so Kakashi took out a kunai and threw it at his hand, knocking the blade from his grasp. The assassin went to reach for something else, but Kakashi ran to him and gave him a shot to the temple before he could. With that, all ten of the assassins in the morgue were done. However, that didn't mean that the ninjas had one that day just yet.
"Well, that's one room down," Tsunade said, admiring their work, "The question is, what do we do now?"
Suddenly an alarm went off in the prison, and a red light in the room began flashing. A man's voice came over the intercom, but they had no idea what it was saying, "You speak more English than me, any idea what those things are saying?"
Tsunade didn't know, but she could find out. Bruce had given her a translator before she'd left, but she hadn't needed it to now. She took it out and placed in her ear, then listened for a moment, "Sounds like the ninjas that are left are trying to bust out some of the prisoners. The guards don't stand a chance against them, so we need to get this place's holding cells fast."
"We passed those on the way in," Kakashi remembered, tracing it back in his mind, "It shouldn't be too hard to find it again."
Considering how dangerous these criminals likely were, getting their fast was priority, "Then let's go. I don't wanna know what these psychos could do if we left them out for too long."
Kakashi knew she was right, so he began to lead his way back to the cells which contained Arkham's most deadly inmates. As they ran through the halls, he asked the older woman, "Do you have any idea who exactly Naruto's parents are? I'm just curious, that's all."
"Believe me, I'd like to know that as badly as anyone," Tsunade grumpled in an irritated fashion, "I know he's got Uzumaki blood in him, but that's not exactly a ton to go off from. I'm hoping I'll be able to work it out of sensei one of these days."
There was one thing that Kakashi wasn't going to try to deny, and that was that Naruto reminded him very much of someone from his past, "I swear, that kid looks just like sensei used to. His blue eyes, his spiky hair, and that damn grin, it's all dead on. I'd heard that Minato and his wife had a son, but I was told that he died during the attack."
Tsunade thought back to the times when she'd met Minato back when he was still training with Jiraiya, "Damn, I guess that kid does look like the Fourth. There a chance they might've changed Naruto's last name to keep him safe from the hidden Rock. That doesn't explain how he'd have Uzumaki blood in him though."
"You do know that Minato's wife was Kushina Uzumaki, don't you," Kakashi asked, putting the final pieces of the puzzles together, "I would know, because I was her personal guard the entire time she was pregnant."
It took a lot of control for Tsunade not stop in her tracks so that she could figure this thing out, "That would explain it. If he was their child, it'd be much safer to hide who he was both because of the Kyuubi and the hidden Rock. The more I think about it, the more it seems like Naruto's their kid."
Something like that should've made Kakashi feel better, but it actually made him feel guilty. He heard about the beatings the boy had gotten over the years, "He was my sensei's pride and joy and I didn't even bother to stop him from getting beaten like some old rug. I really can't protect anyone that's important to me, can I?"
"Look who you're talking to Kakashi," Tsunade remarked, certain that the younger ninja would understand what he meant, "If anyone knows about loss, it's me. You've got to find something to drive yourself, something that you can focus on to keep yourself training. I've got Shizune, and now Naruto too. Find something like that for yourself Kakashi, and cling to it. That's the only advice I can give you."
Kakashi heard these words and took them to heart. Perhaps the lady was right. Maybe it was time for him to stop pushing everyone away and to find someone he could fight for. The question was, who could that be?
Deep beneath the sewers of Gotham, a more mental battle had begun to wage on. The Riddler was just about to give Robin his first question, one that was literally life or death. Robin listen closely to riddle as it was presented to him, "To find this first path, you're going to need something. The more of it that there is, the less that you can see. What do you need, bird boy?"
"The more there is of it, the less you can see," Robin repeated, so that Yin and Batgirl could hear, "What would we need that would stop us from seing?"
All of them began thinking, trying to solve the the puzzle. Batgirl suddenly yelled, "Darkness! The more darkness there is, the less that you can see!"
Robin looked up at the lights hanging from the top of the sewer and took out a few of his Wing-Dings, his version of a Batarang, and threw them at all of the lights, breaking them. Yin ducked to protect herself from the glass, "Robin, please warn me next time you're gonna do that. I get that the answer was darkness, but I don't know if that meant knocking out the lights was necessary."
"Oh really, then what do you call that," Robin said, pointing to the luminous paint that was leading them to the third tunnel down. She couldn't see him pointing, but she still got the idea.
The Riddler was surprised they solved his first riddle so fast, "You surpassed my meager expectations of you. I'm impressed, but only mildly. Things only get harder from here on out. Follow the paint, if you've got the guts little Robin."
With the the Riddler's message complete, they walked to the pipe with the luminous paint. They walked down it about 300 feet when something stopped them. It was a wall with luminous paint in the shape of a question mark. Robin started to take out his explosive gel, "Don't worry, this wall won't hold us back for long."
"Tsk, tsk," The Riddler said over his communicator, "I'm not about to make it that easy on you. That's indeed the way you need to go, but the wall you're about to knock down is the only thing stopping a cave in. Blow it up, and Croc will have to dig for his meal. Now, it is possible to get passed this wall without killing yourselves. Let's see if you can figure it out, shall we?"
Robin took his hand off his communicator and cursed. This was going to be a tough one, "The wall is holding back a cave in. We have to get through while finding some way to keep it up too. Any suggestions?"
"How bad of a cave in or we talking about?" Yin asked, trying to get a grasp of the situation.
Robin turned on his vizor and scanned the area. It didn't take long for him to get a structural analysis of the wall, "It's nothing that would take down the entire pipe, but if we were in the area of it, we'd almost certainly be crushed."
Batgirl couldn't help but wonder, "Is there any chance that we can bust through the wall fast enough so that we don't get buried alive?"
"Hm, let me do a couple of calculations," Robin said, pulling up his holo-computer and inputting some numbers. He seemed skeptical at the results, "It's possible, but I don't like the odds. If it was just one of us, it'd be no problem. However, we've got three people here, making things much more complicated. The timing would have to be nearly perfect for us to pull this off."
Just as he said this, a large roar come from the other end of the sewers. They could hear someone chanting, "Tick Tock, it's time to feed the Croc! Come on people, it's dinner time!"
Yin turned to the wall, "And if we wait any longer, we'll get eaten alive. I think I like our odds with the wall better."
"You know what? I think you've got a point," Robin said, getting the explosive gel out once more and spraying it on the wall, "Everyone back up as far as you can and get ready to run. I'm going to set off the gel just before we get there. If we're even a few seconds late...well, let's not think about that."
All of them stepped back, not liking the idea of being crushed by the bricks of Gotham's sewer system. Robin held tightly on to the detonator as he they got ready to start sprinting. Batgirl counted down for them, "In three...two...one...go!"
The three heroes began running for the wall at top speed. They had summed up all the strength that they had to do this, so it'd had better work. Once they just a foot from the wall, Robin blew it to pieces. Without the wall to hold it up, the corroded stone soon began to fall. When the three of them saw this, they dove to make sure they could make it under the descending stones. It was close, but they all made it through. Well, for the most part.
"Ahhhhh," Yin yelled in pain. One of the stones had caught her ankle, "Get this thing off me!"
Robin and Batgirl went over to Yin and freed her from the stone. They got her back up, but it was abundantly clear that she wasn't going to be able to stand on her own two feet, "Well, that's going to be an issue. Looks like either Robin or I is gonna have to help you walk from here on in."
"Just when I thought this day was as good as it could get," Yin said sarcastically, then looked at the pile of stones behind her, "At least that'll keep Croc from getting to us, right?"
If that had indeed been the truth, Robin would've been much happier, "It might slow him down, but I think he'll find a way to dig through it. Like I said, it's not that bad of a cave in."
That meant that it was time to get moving, and no one had to tell them that. Although the Riddler felt the need speak, as usual "Well, that was a crude way of getting passed my challenge, but also effective. Well, I won't' argue with results. Instead, I'll let you push forward and discover my next lovely puzzle!"
"It's like it never ends around here," Robin muttered, finding Nygma even more aggravating than usual, "On to the next section of this sewer. Who knows what else this prick has set up for us."
Batgirl noticed that the only tunnel they could go down next was one that veered off to the left. Once they reached the end of the tunnel and took the turn, they instantly saw what the problem was going to be, "It can't be simple, just one time? He can't just give us one easy puzzle."
What she Batgirl was referring to was the fact that the floor of this section of sewer was covered in metal plates, all of which had electricity flowing through them. One touched and they'd be shocked to death, and Robin knew it, "Electricity, the one thing this little mission of ours was missing. Alright Nygma, what do we need to do to get past this one?"
"Oh I'm so glad that you asked," The Riddler said, his voice full of glee, "On your left, you'll see a console that is able to turn off the electric panels. If you input the correct code, it will switch off."
That wouldn't be a problem for Robin. He looked over at the console, which had a green question mark painted next to it, because this was the Riddler after all, and smirked, "Ha, give me about five seconds and I'll have this thing hacked. I can't believe Riddler even tried this."
He activated his holo-computer and tried to gain access to the console. Much to Robin's shock, his screen began to fill with static and he couldn't get anything to work. The Riddler chuckled as his troubles, "My dear, foolish boy wonder, did you really think I was going to make it that easy on you? I've placed a sonic jammer in the wall down there with you which will prevent anyone from hacking into the console. Don't worry though, I'm going to give you the solution to your problem right now."
"Are you really going to give me the solution, or are just planning on giving me another riddle?" Robin asked, though it was painfully obvious what was about to happen.
The Riddler gave the boy his answer, "Let me put it to you this way: What has twelve letters, yet, can be spelled in only one?"
Robin repeated the question as it was relayed to him. Yin didn't even have to think about it, "I've heard this one before. The answer is a question mark. Type a question mark in on that console."
"I guess it wasn't as hard as we'd thought," Batgirl said, reaching for the console. Robin grabbed her hand before she could press the desired button, "Hey, what are you doing? Don't you wanna get out of here?"
The teen didn't answer. Instead, he raised up his hand and clenched his fist, slamming it into the question mark on the wall next to the console. It began to crack, causing the two women to look closer. Robin pulled his hand away and the question mark continued to crack, "Wait for it…"
A moment later, the stone the question mark had been painted on fell from the wall, revealing a small black box had been hidden behind it. Batgirl grabbed it and looked it over, quickly discovering it was the sonic jammer, "Well, that makes things a little easier on us. How'd you know?"
"I don't think I would have known if you weren't so damn smart," Robin said, making his girlfriend blush, "You said before that with Nygma it's never that easy, and you're right. Something tells me that putting in that question mark wouldn't have ended so well for us."
Yin felt like they'd done enough talking, "Not to be a downer, but we've still got Croc on our tail. You might wanna start hacking that console before he digs his way back to us."
Robin reactivated his holo-computer with a small nod. They'd only completed a few of the Riddler's challenges, so now was not the time to be cocky. Who knew how much they still had left to go.
With their hopes of killing Crane completely dashed, and ten of their men out cold, the League of Assassins decided it was time to make up for their losses. They might not be able to kill their target, but at least they could grab a few of the more valuable prisoners. In this case, valuable actually meant dangerous, as that was exactly what they needed. If they could snag a couple of dangerous men to bring back with them, and then train them to be used as weapons for the league, the day wouldn't be a total loss.
The five assassins that were left in the asylum were running past the cells, trying to decided which prisoner would be the most valuable to them. All of them had some value to the league, but only a select few would be worth the trouble of breaking out. Prisoners were yelling at them as they ran by, "Hey you ninja fuckers, can't you help a guy out? Come on, just bust the lock! This asylum makes people go crazy!"
So far, the assassins weren't impressed, "Perhaps we're not in the proper wing of the asylum for something like this. The criminals here don't seem to dangerous."
"Oh, they're plenty dangerous around here, more than you could ever imagine," A dark voice said from the back of the cell block , "If you don't believe me, just unlock my cell, and I'll be happy to show you."
All of them discovered the source of the speech was no other than the pale skinned, red lipped, green haired madman known as the Joker, "We're no where near mad enough to let you out of your cage, clown!"
The Joker acted as though he was hurt, "Oh dear, your words cut me so. Just when I thought that you and I could be friends."
"We need you about as a friend about as much as we need a brain aneurysm," One of the assassins muttered. Everyone knew how dangerous he was.
There wasn't a whole lot of room for the Joker to argue on this one, "That may be true, but can you at least do me a favor? Take care of that damn Dr. Strange a few cells down. He's been screaming about knowing who the Batman since he got here, and frankly, I don't care! He's trying to spoil the fun having a nemesis for me!"
A man who had been able to discover Batman's identity? Now that was worth looking into, "If he really is smart enough to figure that out, perhaps he could be of some use to us. Shall we go and find this Dr. Strange and see if he's right? After all, the master does know who lies beneath the mask."
"I'm afraid that we can't let you do that," Said a woman in Japanese. It was Tsunade, who'd snuck up behind the five assassins, along with her partner Kakashi, "It's too bad that you can't understand what I'm saying, because I'd love to talk shit about you amateurs right now."
The assassins had a look of fear on underneath their masks. Based on what they'd heard, these were the people who'd taken out their friends. If they'd beaten ten of their guys with such ease, five would be nothing to them. There was only one option that the assassin had left to use, "You four, go and retrieve Dr. Strange. I believe that I can hold these two off long enough for you to get him out of the building."
"One of you holding off the two of us," Tsunade said with some amusement, "After what we did to the others, how could they possibly think they could hold us off?"
Kakashi heard that and nearly laughed himself, "They better have one hell of a weapon that they haven't used yet if they think that they're going to match up with us."
As if he'd understood what Kakashi had said, the assassin took out a vial with an injector on the end and stuck it to his neck. There was a small click, as the man cringed, "I don't know if you can understand what I'm saying, but if you can, you need to run. I've injected myself with a substance known as Venom, a powerful drug that increases a person's physical strength astronomically. The only person ever to use it more than once and survive is Bane. It's a good thing I don't plan on getting out of this alive I suppose."
"Increased physical power?" Tsunade repeated as her earpiece translated, still not feeling threatened, "Clearly this guy has no idea who he's dealing with right now. Kakashi, just run ahead and handle his buddies. This one should be no problem for me."
Kakashi did just as she'd requested, calling as he ran past the first assassin, "As you wish lady Tsunade."
Just as he ran past, the assassin's body began to twitch and contort. His thin black clothing could be heard tearing as he grew about six inches in height and tripled his muscle mass in mere seconds. By the time he was done, his eyes had a strange green glow to them and he looked more toned than a bodybuilder, "Now, you bitch, you will see the true power of the League of Assassins!"
"I'm sorry, what the fuck did you just call me?" Tsunade growled as the monstrous man charged at her. He brought his fist above his head and swung hard at the woman, who simply raised her own hand up and caught the blow. Now she was quite possibly the strongest person in the world, at least in the physical sense thanks to her super strength technique, but this punch still had her skidding back on her feet a bit, "Damn, what was in that stuff you took? Doesn't matter I guess, now I don't have to hold back!"
Tsunade threw his fist to the side and kneed him so hard in the rips that it broke three of them. After he was sent reeling back, she went into berzerker mode. With her super charged attacks at the ready, Tsunade began to lay a barge of hits on the man that would've killed him if it hadn't been for the Venom in his system. All the man could do was grunt in pain as her quick strikes laid waste to his body, breaking dozens more of his bones.
After just thirty seconds of this, the assassin fell down on his knees. His whole body was shaking, and his mind had no idea what was going on. He rasped out, "How did you...do this?...You defeated... the Venom...as if it was...nothing…"
"Even if you could understand what I was saying, I wouldn't explain it to you," Tsunade muttered, before silencing him with one last smack to the head. Once she sure he was out, Tsunade leaned down next to his body and used a medical jutsu to get a better look at what the chemical had done to him, "That stuff gave him so much power, but it destroyed virtually every system in his body. I don't think he'll last a week like this. Hopefully they never come up with anything more powerful than that Venom chemical..."
She was still pondering the power of Venom as Kakashi ran back to her, "The good news is, I took down the four of other assassins right after they busted the lock on the Strange guy's cell. Unfortunately, Strange managed to get away in all the commotion. Sorry, I figured he's got no powers, so I don't need to pay much attention to him. Never thought in a million years he'd be able to sneak away like that.
The older woman could've cared less, "He won't get far before the guards get him I'm sure. Let's get out of here before more people show up and start wondering who we are."
"The less we're seen, the better," Kakashi said, remembering what they'd spoken about before, "We did pretty good here, not to brag or anything. I wonder if anyone else doing anything this crazy tonight?"
Back in the darkness of the Gotham sewer system, the heroes had managed to solve three more of the riddler's puzzles. With each one that they solved, the Riddler became more and more frustrated. He couldn't understand how they had gotten as far as they had, "You're cheating! I'm certain of it, you have to be cheating! There's no possible way that you could've solved my riddles that quickly!"
Yin could hear Riddler screaming on Robin's intercom, enjoying his anger very much, "He always has been a sore loser, hasn't he? Can't wait to see how he reacts once we actually manage to make it out of here."
"You fools laugh it up while you can," The Riddler said, confident they wouldn't be getting out alive, "Because you've still got one puzzle left, and Croc's starting to close in. You'll never get passed this one, and I'll be up here laughing as that freak rips you apart limb from limb!"
Robin knew the Riddler always saved the best for last, so he got himself ready for the worst, "This next puzzle is it guys. If we can get ourselves through it, we'll be home free."
"What about Croc?" Batgirl asked, curious about one thing in particular, "If we escape, that means he'll escape too. We can't just let him roam the streets of Gotham when he's all bloodthirsty."
Robin knew that was going to come up sooner or later, "We'll just have to set a trap for him before we leave. I don't know what the plan is yet, but we'll think of something. It's not like we haven't taken Croc down before. The only problem is, I don't wanna fight him when we're all closed in like this."
"I don't wanna fight him at all," Yin said, remembering the time Croc nearly bit her head clean off, "He's one of the most dangerous people in Gotham. How sick do you have to be to become to start eating people?"
That was something Batgirl hoped she never found out, "Well his life was pretty rough when he was younger. I guess with a dead mother and constant ridicule, he just kind of snapped."
It was a little freaky to hear someone defending Killer Croc of all people. Not as freaky as something else Robin was about to discover though, "Guys, look, I can see some light up ahead! We're so close that I can taste it!"
"Then help me hobble faster," Yin said as she started to hop a little on her good foot. The two heroes led her through the final few pipes before they got to what was supposed to be the end of the sewer. What they found when the reached it was maddening to no end.
Robin saw a set of iron bars blocking the exit to the sewers, with a strange electronic device on the wall beside it. This wasn't the first time he'd seen one of them either, "Detective Yin, that's one of the DNA scanners that you use back at GCPD, isn't it?"
After getting a better look at it, Yin agreed, "Yes, it is. How did the Riddler manage to get his hands on one of those?"
"It's Gotham, if someone wants to buy it, someone's gonna be selling it," Batgirl remarked, with a quote from her father.
The joke got a laugh from Yin, but Robin was preoccupied with scanning the device that was the source of their current issues, "It's definitely hooked up to the lock that's holding up those bars. Give me a second and I can tell you who's DNA we need to open it."
Yin was wondering how they'd get a hold of someone's DNA when they were down here, "Is Nygma just trying to give us an unsolvable puzzle or something? What can we really do when we're stuck in this sewer."
"That's not even a riddle, that's just cruel," Robin suddenly burst out in rage, "The only way we're getting through that gate is if we get DNA that matches that of Waylon Jones, AKA…"
Batgirl finished it for him, "Killer Croc. We're supposed to find a way to get some kind of DNA sample off from him? The guys skin is an inch thick and trying to knock out one of his teeth would put us dangerously close to his bone crushing jaw!"
Her frustrations were completely understandable to the other teen, "It's not gonna be easy, but we don't have much of a choice. The easiest DNA to get would be his saliva, but again, we'd have to be close to his mouth to get enough of it."
"Wait, are you actually going to do this?" Yin asked, not sure why they would willingly go up against these odds, "Did we not just talk about how difficult it would be to fight him in a place like this?"
There wasn't a whole lot else Robin could think of for them to do, "It's either that or we stay down here and try to find another way out. Croc's must be close by now, so we might as well just wait him out. All we have to do is get his DNA, we can manage that much."
Yin started to back herself into a corner, "I guess you're right. I'm gonna do my best to stay out of your way for this one, I'm already injured as it is."
"I can smell your fear little ones," The deep voice of Croc interrupted, getting closer and closer, "Did you really think those pathetic rocks were going to stop me?"
Getting his bo-staff out and at the ready, Robin decided not to be caught off guard. Batgirl was in battle stance of her own, "We've never done this without Batman before. Let's hope that doesn't end up getting us killed."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Croc turned around the corner with his teeth bared "Oh good, you're going to be put up a fight. I always did like to earn my food!"
"Batgirl, under and over, now!" Robin commanded, trying his best to seem as forceful as Batman would have. He ran at Killer Croc, who ran right back at him. Once they were close enough, Robin leaned back and skidded between the man's legs, trying to use his bo-staff to trip him as he did. It didn't quite trip Croc like Robin wanted to, but it did make throw him off his balance a little.
He yelped in pain a little, which meant it was Batgirl's time to act. She reached in her belt and grabbed her Batclaw, then jumped on his shoulders. Dangerous as it may have been, she aimed the Batclaw at his gaping maw. Batgirl fired it into Croc's mouth, forcing him to gag, "That's right, choke on it big boy!"
Robin smirked as he watched the girl retract the claw, which was now covered in Croc's silva, "Get over to the scanner, I'll hold him off until you're done!"
"What in the hell did that bitch just do to me?" Croc grunted, still trying to figure out what just happened.
Robin jumped up and got back in front of the villain. Now that they had his DNA and could escape, the rest would be a cakewalk, "What she just did is seal the deal for us. Sorry Croc, but your little adventure in the city is about to end!"
Over by the scanner, Batgirl was dripping all of Croc's spit into the scanner, "Oh, this so freaking gross! This better be worth it!
As soon as the spit hit the scanner, the iron bars clicked and shot open. Yin would've ran out right then if her legs would've let her, "Thank god, we can finally get out of here! I don't ever wanna see another sewer again."
"Doors are open Robin, let's get out of here," Batgirl yelled, running over to help Yin make her way to the exit.
Robin did as he was told, slowly backing his way out of the sewer. There was something discreetly hidden in his hand, "I'll give you one chance to go quietly Croc. If you decide to fight, I promise you, it aint' gonna last long."
Croc licked his sharp teeth, "And give up on an easy meal? Not a chance!"
"Suit yourself," Robin said, spraying something on the ground as Croc began to charge at him. The boy wonder turned and started to run before his opponent got to him, "This is gonna hurt!"
What Robin had sprayed on the ground was some of his explosive gel, and he'd sprayed right where the ground was the weakest. The moment Croc's feet hit the location of the gel, Robin detonated it. All the villain could do was let his feet fall out from underneath him as the stone surface was destroyed. He screamed as he fell from the top layer of the sewer to the many layers below, "Gaaaahhhhhhhhh!"
"And that, my friends, is how you take down a crocodile," Robin said, listening to Croc crash though one layer after another.
Needless to say, the Riddler was not happy about this, "NO! This can't be! That sewer was one of the greatest challenges I've ever created! I didn't even think Batman would be able to beat it! How did you do it?"
Robin could only think of one comeback that would perfectly irritate the Riddler, "You know what you are Nygma? I'll give you a hint. You can be cracked, you can be played, you can be told, you can be spoke. What are you?"
"...A joke," The Riddler spat out, "You're saying that I'm a joke. Say that all you want, but I will be back! You're going to regret every last insult that you threw, you little brat!"
The odds of Robin regretting any of his insult was very low, "Now that's not gonna happen. I'll see you soon Nygma. Once the night's over, we're gonna be tracking you down. Until then, have fun."
Batgirl loved the way her boyfriend was torturing the man, "I didn't hear all of that, but I heard enough to know you really stuck it to him. Nice job, but we'd better get Yin to the hospital. That ankle isn't gonna fix itself."
"Good point," Robin said, seeing that Yin hadn't gotten any better, "We'll get her fixed up and then see if Batman and the Red Fox need any help. Shouldn't take too long."
There was one thing that still bothered Batgirl about all this, "Why did Riddler throw Yin of all people down there? Was she just a random choice, or did he pick her specifically?"
Yin had a theory of her own about that, "I actually think that Jonathan Crane, that guy running for mayor, told him to do it. Turns out there was this incident when he was a kid that makes the idea of him being elected seem pretty unseletting."
"Really? What the heck did he do?" Robin asked, never seeing the answer coming.
"You killed your own grandmother?" Batman asked in utter disbelief. After he and Red Fox began to fight to Scarecrow, Throne's men cleared the way for them to duke it out on their own. The fight had barely began when Scarecrow began to use his fear tactics on his foe, and he started with a story from his childhood.
What was truly frightening was that the man wasn't lying, "You heard me correctly Dark Knight. I took the life of the very woman that raised me. If you had been where I stood, I doubt you would've acted any differently. Part of me thanks her for driving me to that point. The pain that she caused me is what transformed me into the master of fear that you see before you today."
These words were disturbing enough to get Batman to lunge for the man, intent on stopping his mad ramblings, "No pain on earth can justify what you've done! You're going to answer for your crimes."
"The only one who's going to answer to anything is you Batman. You're going to answer to fear," The Scarecrow hissed as he brought his syringe fingered glove down on Batman.
Grabbing his wrist, Batman stopped the glove just centimeters from his face. He looked at the twisted eyes that lied beneath the man's mask and knew who it was instantly, "So it really is you in there Crane. How could you do something so horrible to your own family? What has to break inside of you to think that's right?"
Scarecrow smiled as he sprayed a mist at the Batman from a hidden dispenser in the wrist of his glove. He told more of his tale as Batman let him go to wipe the toxin from his eyes, "Fear breaks inside of you! That woman would lock me in an abandoned church for hours upon hours of a day. Now I hold no quarrel with God, but I do hold a quarrel with the crows that dwelled inside that place. Crows can remember human faces Batman, and they remembered the fear on my face every time she locked me in there. They'd peck at me, and scratch at me! My fear caused them to attack me without mercy! Finally, after years of that damn woman locking me away, I decided to do something about it. When she came to retrieve me one night from the church, I was ready. With a rusty knife I'd found near the chapel, I painted that place with her blood! Do you know what happened? Those crows never bothered me again…"
Seeing what had happened to his father, the Red Fox knew he had to stop the villain, "Well good for the crows, but that don't mean anything to me! No one does that to him and gets away with it!"
"You just don't get it," Scarecrow said in irritation as the Red Fox prepared a flurry of kicks and punches for the man, "By killing her, I was liberated from fear. The world won't bother you if you don't have any fear. I'm going to show this world the power fear has over it, so that they can liberate themselves as well."
The Red Fox appeared in front of him, crashing his foot into Scarecrow's leg, then burying his fist into the villains rips, "Liberate this!"
These hits were far harder than any child his age should've been able to throw. The Scarecrow cringed in pain and slashed at the Red Fox with his glove, barely scratching the boy's face. Lucky for him, a scratch was all he need, "Ha, now you'll see boy! Now you'll feel the wrath of fear!"
"No," Batman yelled, trying to reach his son, but it was no use. A strange dark fog formed in front of him with dozens of eye staring at him from within it.
Suddenly, the fog began to spin around him, and all of the eyes turned into bats. As the vortex of bats closed in on him, he could heard the cackle of the man he feared the most in this world, "You see Batsy! There's nothing you can do to save him. That boy and all the others that you've trying to help, they're going to fall. They'll fall to this city, just like we all have! You're just as crazy as we are you fool! You might not wear the twisted grin or green hair like I do, but you just as crazy if you think that you can save any of them! Hahahahaha!"
The Scarecrow was overjoyed to see Batman in such a state of fear. He looked over at the Red Fox as well, who'd begun to have his own reaction. Yet, the boy's fear seemed very different. He'd begun to yell something in Japanese that Scarecrow couldn't understand.
The boy just kept screaming, "No, it wasn't me! I'm not the fox, none of it was me!"
A red cloud formed over the boy that the other in the area could clearly see. It gave off a dark aura that had everyone terrified. Even the Scarecrow was having trouble controlling it. The Red Fox had become the focus of attention for everyone, with no one being sure what to make of it. All they could do was watch in dread. What they were about to see, whether they understood it or not, was something incredible.
