He didn't know where he was, all he knew was that it was dark. Were his eyes closed, or was it just that dark out? What happened? What the hell was going on? He tried to move his arms but they weren't responding to him. He tried the same with his legs, but was met with the same response. Was-was he paralyzed? No…no that wasn't right, he could feel something poking him in the arms and legs. Like they were being pressed down by a tremendous weight.

He wracked his brain, and tried to think back to where he'd been and what he'd been doing. In a flurry, the memories of the previous several hours came rushing back to him.

Winston.

The breakout.

Harley Quinn.

The Bat.

Bane.

He coughed, something, the roof more than likely, was pressing down on his chest extraordinarily painfully. His shield had protected him for the most part, and he must have just managed to hold out long enough to avoid being crushed entirely by the collapsing building.

He let out a soft groan, and decided that he desperately needed to figure out his way out the mess. He must have been buried beneath a fair bit of rubble, because he was surrounded by inky blackness, and couldn't make out even his nose in the darkness. He gave his fingers and arms an experimental wiggle, but found that he couldn't move them, though his fingernails did scrape across the cold and granular surface of concrete.

Growling in frustration, he tried to flex his muscles and force the debris off of him, but a sharp pain tore through his arms and his pecs and he had to bite back a scream of agony. It felt like he'd torn something, or rather like he'd torn several somethings. Biting down on his lip, he considered his options for a brief moment, before sighing in annoyance.

Loathe as he was to do it, he was truly seeing no other option than to vapor travel. A flash of anger and annoyance coursed through him, but there was simply no helping it. Closing his eyes for a moment, he concentrated and focused on the nearest body of water he could find. Lucky, they were quite literally on an island, so finding nearby water was far from tricky. With an agitated sigh, he called upon his father's powers. As though it was all too eager to answer its master's command, his father's element cocooned around him in a comforting embrace, before the weight of the building disappeared from on his limbs. A moment later, the pain in his body began to disappear as he found himself in the comforting embrace of the sea.

He didn't know how long he stayed in the icy waters, allowing the cool water to heal his battered body. Entirely too soon however, his tranquility was interrupted.

"Detective Jackson, Detective Jackson are you there? I saw that you disappeared from the debris of the building. Are you there?"

"Hey Alfred," Percy said, his voice coming out hoarse and rough. "You were monitoring me? How?"

"Satellite imaging," he said, sounding rather relieved,

"Of course you have a satellite," Percy grunted, closing his eyes and trying to will away the pain in his joints. "How long was I out?"

"Three hours,"

"Damn," He grunted, "What I miss?"

"Not too much," Alfred said coyly, "Batman destroyed the Titan Venom production facility in the botanical gardens, the Joker let Poison Ivy out of her cell, and her plants became infected with the Venom and nearly destroyed the island. Dr. Young was murdered, and Warden Sharp is being confined in Intensive Care."

Percy let out a slow breath. "Jesus. Fucking. Christ."

"Indeed,"

"What's happening now?"

"Now, the Batman is currently navigating the sewage system in the hopes of finding the necessary components to create a cure for the Venom."

"And the Joker?"

"As far as I've been able to tell, he's tucked away in the Visitor Center. At least that's where the majority of his transmissions have been coming from."

"Well then," Percy sighed as he opened his eyes and began slowing swimming back in the direction of the island, "I think it's high time I paid the madman a visit."

"You've thought about my request then?"

"Unfortunately," He grunted in annoyance as he breached the surface of the water and scanned his surroundings. He was on the north side of the island, which if his mental map of the island was right, meant that he was still some distance away from the Visitor Center.

"As much as it annoys me, you got a point. Joker's a fucking menace to society, and he needs to be put down like the mad dog that he is. If the Bat can't do it, then I will."

Alfred didn't respond for a moment, and when he finally spoke up, he sounded mildly choked up,

"You are making the right choice sir."

"I'm not doing it for the Bat," he was quick to say, "This isn't because of him."

"I understand," Alfred said, "I will let you know of any obstacles along the way, detective."

"Anything I need to be made aware of?"

"Joker has finished his modifications on the formula, and has begun his human testing. Several inmates and officers have been affected by the formula. The formula mutates the poor souls into something similar to Bane."

"Wonderful,"

He pulled himself free of the sea and clambered up onto the shoreline,

"How durable are they?"

"They have not appeared to be as durable as Bane was. Likely their musculature and internal systems have not become accustomed to the substance like Bane's has. They are strong, but a few good hits should take them out of the fight."

"Bulletproof?"

"Hard to tell, but more than likely not. However they do seem to have a far higher tolerance for pain than average, so it is likely that your preferred choice of weapons would not be the wisest choice."

"Can't make it too easy, can you?" Percy groused.

There was a station house not far from where Percy had pulled himself free from the ocean. His rifle and side-arm had been lost in the fight with Bane, and he was hoping that he might be able to find something inside the building that he could use.

"What's the camera situation looking like?"

"Most cameras on the island have been disabled, and everything else I have managed to gain remote access to. You shouldn't have anything to worry about once you make it inside the facility."

"Well that's good to know," He muttered to himself as he opened the door to the station. He bypassed the obvious weapons locker, that had already been broken into. Percy was banking on the probability that there was a sidearm hidden in the room. It was something he would do after all, and he knew for a fact that many of the guards at the Asylum were former military as well. Chances were high that someone wouldn't be comfortable storing all the weapons in something as obvious as the locker.

As he checked the underside of a cabinet besides the computer terminal, his hunch proved to be correct. His fingers found the course fabric of a holster taped to the underside of the cabinet. Pulling the weapon free, he found that it was loaded with a single twelve-round magazine. Nodding in satisfaction, he pulled his pant leg up, and slipped the weapon into the empty holster wrapped around his ankle. It was typically where someone checked the least, for additional weaponry in his experience.

"Detective…" Alfred said hesitantly, "May I-may I ask a question?"

"Hasn't stopped you before," Percy snorted,

"I suppose not," he said, then hesitated, clearly waiting for Percy to give permission. Rolling his eyes, Percy gave his permission.

"Why is it that you don't use your powers? I have been…briefed on your specific power-set, and yet I have only seen records of you using your abilities in your fight with Klarion."

It hadn't been a question that Percy had been suspecting,

"Y'all haven't looked that much into demi-gods, have you?"

"Only what Batman has managed to learn from watching you and speaking with Wonder Woman,"

"Remind me to have a talk with him about that," Percy muttered, still rankled by the knowledge that he was being babysat by the League of all people.

"Growing up as a demigod means that you're hunted from the time you're born, until the day you die a horrible, painful death. We don't get to have a normal life; we don't get to pretend to be like the rest of the world."

It was strange talking about all of this again, but after speaking to Meg about everything, it seemed…easier than it had been before for him to talk about all of this.

"I don't know how much Diana has told you, but nearly a decade ago there were a few wars. We…we lost a lot of people, and after it was done, I was too. I wanted out. I'd done enough to earn myself a boon from the gods and they took away the thing that allows monsters to find me. I guess you could say that I just wanted out, I wanted to try and be normal. I just want to live a normal life and I can't have that if I'm using my dad's powers."

It wasn't the whole truth; it wasn't anywhere near close to the whole truth. But he thought he knew exactly why Batman was watching him so carefully, and he didn't want to give the man any reason to watch him any more closely than he already did.

"I…I see…Well thank you for telling me that Detective."

Percy didn't respond, and the comms went silent. The walk to the Visitor Center went relatively peacefully. Only once was he forced to duck into the shadows to avoid patrolling inmates. Truly, things had gotten bad inside the Asylum while he was out of it. He had stopped counting the number of dead guards and civilians after he reached twenty. It was making him sick.

He was now dead-set on murdering that homicidal clown.

Ducking into the shadows of a small alcove near the entrance to the Visitor Center, he scowled in annoyance. There were at least three inmates working on putting some kind of cover over the entrance. He couldn't exactly make out what it was from where he was, but he was pretty sure that it was a large clown face.

Jesus Christ this was too much.

His temples still pounding, and his body sore, his patience officially pestered over the edge.

"Fuck it," He murmured, as he stepped out of the shadows.

Their backs were turned to him, occupied as they were with their construction project. One of the inmates was on a ladder, hammering something into the wooden frame above the entrance. Gripping the ladder rungs with one hand, Percy effortlessly tossed the structure over to the side. The inmate on top only had the briefest moment to realize what was happening to him as he soared through the air. He let out a startled scream, which turned into a grunt of pain as he landed on the hard, rocky terrain. A terrible crunching sound reverberated through the stillness of the late night, as his arm shattered upon impact.

The other inmates were disoriented by the sudden scream, turning around in utter bewilderment, but Percy was already descending on them. Grabbing the nearest man around the face, Percy slammed the back of his head into the wall of the building. His body jerked, as blood trickled down from the wall and congealed into a small pool on the ground.

Percy didn't release his grip on the man, instead he hoisted him into the air, and shoved him bodily into bewildered and terrified remaining inmate. The man stumbled, the weight of the sudden body slamming into him, and he collapsed to the ground with a yelp of surprise. He tried to shove the body off of him, but Percy slammed a boot into the ribcage of the body laying on top of him, pinning the poor man to the ground. Cocking an arm back, his fist connected with the forehead of the last inmate. His eyes crossed, before rolling into the back of his head and fell into blissful unconsciousness.

The inmate Percy had thrown off the ladder ground had finally succumbed to the pain of his shattered arm and had finally fallen silent. Stepping over the mass of bodies, Percy opened the door to the visitor center and was immediately put ill at ease. The visitor center was a long hall of two-way mirrors and intercoms, they allowed visitors to speak with any of the patients at the Asylum. At the end of the hall was what looked at first glance to be a stuffed doll of the Joker with a large television on his end, but as Percy scanned his surroundings, he could feel that it wasn't actually a doll, but a living being.

Walking down the corridor, the television burst to life as he came even with the two-way mirror blocking the man. The now annoyingly familiar figure of Joker appeared on the television,

"Well look who decided to drop in!" He smiled, "The dashing do-gooder who's been damaging my dastardly designs!" His face contorted into a sneer, "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Sorry to disappoint dickhead." He snarled, and the Joker began to say something else, but Percy had had it with the clown and with a mighty swing, he shattered the glass between him and the clown. Glass shards cut and dug into his arm, slicing his skin and smearing blood across the window. But Percy ignored the pain and wrapped his hand into the stained suit coat on the man. He barked out a surprised scream, as Percy pulled him back and bodily tossed him across the hall. The television shattered as it impacted on the ground, and the Joker howled in anger and pain as he rolled to his feet.

"You nasty little cheater!" He screeched, "You're ruining everything! Months of planning down the drain and all because-gah!" His screeching turned into a startled choke as Percy wrapped a hand around his throat.

"No…more…" Percy snarled, as he increased the pressure on his throat.

"This…won't…be…my…last…laugh…" The Joker wheezed out.

His hand started to reach for something in his suit coat but Percy wrapped his other hand around the man's wrist,

"Not today!" Percy hissed,

"Jokes…on…you…" The Joker half-laughed and half-wheezed,

His other hand shot up and latched itself onto Percy's arm. Electricity, sharp and hot electricity shot through his body. He felt his muscles seize and his body contort as his hold on the Joker loosened. The clown scrambled out of Percy's grip, panting and scratching at his throat, and clambered out of the room.

Spitting, Percy tried to get his body back under control, as he stumbled forward. He gripped onto the railing along the wall and forced himself to stand up. Stumbling into a run, he clambered through the glass and staggered his way through the doorway on the other side.

What he walked into…was hard to describe. He didn't know what the usual purpose for the room was, but the Joker had converted it into a throne room of sorts. With an enormous throne at the end of the long hall. The Joker was in the process of climbing the large set of steps up to the throne.

"It's high time that you learn the pecking order!" The Joker hollered, pulling a remote free from the throne, "Time for a warmup before the grand finale boys!" He hit the button on the remote, and a pair of large cages fell to the floor.

"Oh that can't be good." Percy muttered, shaking off the last dregs of the shock from his system.

The doors to the cages burst off from the hinges, and a pair of some of the most horrifying monsters Percy had ever seen before stepped free. The monsters were nearly eight-feet tall, and built exactly like Bane. They had clearly once been human, guards at the inmates if the shattered remnants of the flak vests on their overly large torsos were anything to go by.

These must have been the creations that Alfred had warned him about, the mixture between human and Titan Venom.

The creatures let out bestial roars, before taking lumbering steps towards him. The ground itself seemed to shake with every large step. One of the creatures swung a mighty fist at him, and Percy ducked under the blow. Catching the fist from the second creature, he was nearly thrown to the floor from the force of the blow. Tugging the creature towards him, Percy buried a fist in the groin of the monster. It roared in pain and fell to a knee. Hearing the approach of the second monster behind him, Percy dove out of the way, avoiding the creature as it barreled towards him. It couldn't stop its momentum though, and it careened straight into the other Titan. They roared and fell to the ground, and Percy was certain that he could feel the foundation of the entire building shake from the impact.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, he dashed forward and leapt onto the back of the nearest Titan creature. Wrapping a hand around its neck, Percy slammed a palm into the temple of the creature. He repeated the process several more times, the Titan creature crying out in agony with every blow. Percy poured every ounce of his strength into the blows, and the creature collapsed to the ground. Blood streaming from its ears as Percy's attacks liquified the monster's insides.

Leaping from the back of the Titan creature, he leapt at the remaining creature. Grappling the creature around the ears, he used his downward momentum to slam its face into the ground. Cocking back another fist, he threw blow after blow into the back of the creatures head. With each successive blow, the Titan's head smashed into the ground. Teeth, blood, and spittle spewed from its lips. The creature gave one last shuddering shake of breath, before falling still on the floor.

Taking a step back, Percy tried to collect his breath. His knuckles were chaffed and raw, and bleeding profusely. His arm throbbed from where he'd shoved it through the glass, and the blood from his arm mixed with the blood on his hands, dripping onto the ground in a small puddle.

He was about to turn his attention back to the Joker, when he suddenly jerked backwards, as something warm and sharp seemed to slice through his stomach. A moment later his ears registered the sound of a gun being fired. Looking down at his chest, he was confused as he saw blood spilling from a small hole in his left breast.

Looking up, he met the eyes of the Joker, a manic look on his face, and a pistol held shakily in his gloved fingers.

"You're ruining everything," He spat, his already manic face becoming somehow even more incensed and insane, "Months of work, months of planning, all the bodies, for nothing! NOTHING!" He bellowed the words.

Percy rolled onto his back, and tried his best to stem the flow of bleeding from the wound in his chest.

"I like a good joke as much as the next guy, but THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" He fired another round, but his hand was shaking so badly in his mounting rage that he missed to the right. Percy started crawling on his elbows, trying to gain some distance between himself and the Joker. Should worst come to worst, he supposed he could always get out of this, but judging by the rapidly approaching body of water, he didn't think it would really come to that.

Joker was descending the stairs, bounding towards him two steps at a time.

Percy grunted as something sharp collided with his rib-cage. Joker had kicked him with the point of his dress-shoes that Percy was sure had been sharpened to a point. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, he snarled up at the Clown, and hocked the biggest loogie he could up at the maniac.

The person had reached the roof of the building.

"I'm going to fucking kill you clown," He spat,

He got a mouthful of cold steel in answer.

The body was nearly right on top of them.

"I'm a funny guy, I have patience, but you have stepped on my last. Damn. Nerve." He cocked back the hammer on the revolver,

"This, detective, will be the last punchline you ever hear."

The world exploded.

BREAK

With a final stroke of the keyboard, the sequence began and the antidote began synthesizing. Brining up a new command on the console, he sent the formula to the Watchtower to be ready for any potential distribution. Should worse come to worse then they needed to be prepared for mass distribution of a potential cure.

He'd hoped that he would never have to use the Batcave he installed on the island, but he was forever thankful that he'd had the foresight to build it. It had turned the night from an unmitigated disaster, into something that had become somewhat manageable.

"Master Bruce!" Alfred's voice was urgent, and tight. Something was wrong, very very wrong.

"What is it?" He asked, already moving away from the keyboard and heading towards the exit.

"It's detective Jackson!" Alfred said quickly,

"He's awake?"

They'd discovered his body buried under the rubble of the Medical Center, given what the satellite imaging was showing, he'd been alive albeit unconscious.

"He's awake and it would appear he's confronting the Joker sir, I'm registering gunfire coming from the building but the caliber's don't match the acoustic range of any standard issue GCPD weaponry."

He didn't need to hear any more. He was already at the mouth of the hidden cave entrance. Leaping off of the cliff-face he allowed his cape-like glider to take his weight and he soared through the night sky, high above the fields of the Asylum. Swooping into a dive, he picked up momentum and then sharply pulled up out of the dive and used the momentum to carry him towards the visitor center.

"Sir, judging from the imaging I'm seeing, it looks like detective Jackson has been shot. You might wish to hurry."

He didn't respond, instead he pulled his grappling hook out and he shot it at nearby railing at the top of a nearby guard tower. Feeling the line catch, he pulled himself up, before releasing the hook and using his momentum to catapult himself in the direction of the Visitor Center. There were several large stained glass windows, and through the light of the moon, he could just make out the silhouette of someone walking towards a strange lump on the ground. Activating his thermal scanning, he could see that the body on the ground was experiencing rapid blood loss. But even with the injuries that were clear on the figures form, their heart rate was surprisingly calm.

It was a sharp contrast to the other person in the hall, whose heart was pounding so quickly that they were at risk of suffering a serious injury.

Feeling his pulse begin to race, he braced himself, before he crashed through the glass window. Years of training and experience allowed him to control his descent in such a way that he was able to direct his body straight into the path of the Joker, who was standing over top of Jackson, his overly-large revolver shoved in the mouth of the detective.

Hist fist connected with the mouth of the Joker, sending him sprawling to the floor. He immediately checked the pulse of Jackson, but he needn't have worried,

"Behind you!" Jackson spat out, but it was too late. Even as he whirled around, Joker had already whipped out a new weapon. This one vastly different to the revolver he'd previously held. It had the appearance of a stun gun, but as the Joker depressed the trigger, instead of a cable of electrically charged cables, a syringe launched from the barrel and connected with the side of his neck.

The Joker let out a maniacal cackle. A gleeful and horrifying sound. Though he barely noticed as he fell to his knee.

"Oh this is just perfect!" Joker cackled, "Here I was, worried for nothing! Oh Batsy, you beautiful bastard! Always have to be the hero dontcha! You can't even help yourself, here I was thinking that everything I had planned would be for naught, but here you are! My proverbial knight in shining black spandex! Oh, you stupid bastard I could kiss you!"

Something…strange was happening to him. He could feel something fighting its way into his system. A strange desire to crush, to smash, to destroy, threatened to take over his entire being. He could feel the muscles in his body pull, and contort, threatening to split as they tried to grow.

He fought it. He fought the change with every fiber of his being.

"Ohoho, here we go ladies and germs!" The Joker announced, "The show we've all been waiting for," He knelt to the ground beside him, and inspected him closely. But his expression of glee morphed into one of apocalyptic anger,

"No…no no no no no! You're resisting the change? That's-that's cheating!" He reared back and kicked Batman in the chin. He collapsed to the ground, and very nearly lost his hold on himself, but he managed to keep his composure.

"It's not fair! Come on! Give in damnit! Give in!"

He gritted his teeth, and he could feel the vestiges of the Titan Venom flood from his system. Cocking back his fist, he caught Joker by surprise as he punched him clean in the jaw. The Joker stumbled back, dazed, and Batman got unsteadily to his feet.

"All I wanted was to bring down that grim facade!" The Joker sighed dramatically. His voice adopted a strange tremor, and if he hadn't known better, then he would have sworn that Joker was on the verge of crying, "For once-just once, I wanted you to see the world the way I see it, giggling and bleeding in the corner. But you've robbed me of even that!"

His voice was dead, cold, a sharp contrast from the way that he usually spoke.

He didn't like it.

Then he remembered the gun in his hand, and realization hit him. He tried to stand, but his body still wasn't responding. He couldn't move. Couldn't react.

"I suppose…that I have nothing left to live for…"

He put the barrel of the syringe weapon under his chin, a manically excited gleam in his eye.

Time seemed to slow, and Batman could see the Joker's finger slowly press down on the trigger. Inch by inch, the metal trigger slowly lowered.

Lower.

Lower.

'BANG'

The shot tore through the silence of the hall, and for a moment, a horrifying moment, Batman thought that the Joker had actually injected himself with the syringe.

But that wasn't the case.

The Joker's eyes were wide, his eyes bulging in their sockets, his mouth opened in a silent scream. Something red trickled down his cheeks, and that was when he noticed it.

The hole square in the middle of the madman's forehead.

His arm fell limp at his side, the weapon falling free from his grasp and dropping to the ground with a clatter. He took one stumbling step forward, before he collapsed in a mangled heap on the ground.

Mustering the strength to turn around, he saw what he had known would be there.

Percy Jackson was lying on the floor, his right pant leg rolled up revealing an empty ankle holster. Clutched in his shaking hand, was a small service pistol. The barrel still smoking.

Jackson, his face pale, and blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth, panted heavily. A bead of sweat trickled down from his forehead, and coagulated with the blood on his lips.

"I…fucking told you…that…I'd kill you…you smug bastard…"

The words came out rough, harsh, and tremulously. Before his eyes rolled back into his skull, and he collapsed back onto the floor, the gun clattering away at his side.

For the first time that evening,

Arkham truly had fallen silent.

AN: AND THERE WE HAVE IT! I know a lot of you wanted it, but how many of you actually thought I'd go through with it? Oh baby did that feel good! This is going to kick up a whole hell of a lot of shit, I'll tell you what. What kind of bullshit is Percy going to get wrapped up in next? I know, but you'll have to wait to find out! Unfortunately, this marks the end of my pre-written chapters, but I promise that this one is one of my priorities at the moment and I'll get back to One-Seven sooner rather than later. As always shoutout to Double0Sxvxn for being an awesome Beta and dealing with my bullshit and as always if you enjoyed this but haven't checked out my other work, give them a try you never know you might find something else you like. I'm also on discord now, where I and a bunch of other writers hang out, chat and brainstorm ideas, you just have to copy the link that's in my profile bio if you want to come and hang out with us. Stay safe, stay healthy and have an awesome week.

All My Love, and I'll see you soon,

LilDB