After the family moment, I went back to the safe house, Shawn sat down on a chair taking care of some bruises with a first aid kid on my left arm while I sat by my computer waiting for the call from Robin about Joker's blood. We always took care of our injuries back when we were kids, sweet memories. The Safehouse was around the block near the Arkham City gates. It only took 20 minutes to get there.
"So how was the family reunion? I heard it was quite explosive." Shawn asked me. I scoffed. Explosive would be a huge understatement.
"It was Pleasant. My dad was not exactly his usual boisterous self."
"What do you mean?"
I thought about what my dear old dad had told me underground. How the effects of Lazarus was starting to fade after 600 years. "Let's just say that the years of using Lazarus pit was starting to take its toll. Did Robin call about the blood sample?"
"He did and it's bad." Shawn admitted grimly. "Gotham General have at least 32 confirmed cases and nearly 50 at Mercy. It looks like the pattern repeats itself all over the city. I've also ran a simulation. Joker's tainted blood may be in 2000 people. The First fatalities are expected to be soon after that."
And that was it. The Joker's final gag. If he's going to Hell which he will get a vip treatment, he's going to take down as many as he can. "Well hopefully my father's blood sample will be enough to complete the formula."
"I hope so. Listen..." Shawn sighed as he tuned into the radio scanner. "I never had the chance to tell you this but I picked up some interesting tapes of Strange. You should listen."
He played the audio. "Here is a purchase order for the various firearms you required. I must say, you selected an exotic selection." Strange mused.
"I only take the best." Penguin chuckled, leaving me flabbergasted. Strange suppling Cobblepot with the military grade weapons? As I continued to listen to various tapes of Strange, it dawned on me that he was the master puppeteer. He was the one that ratted to Cobblepot about the strike team that worked undercover and the one who have arranged Mr Freeze's Kidnapping allowing Cobblepot to do his dirty work. As well as Telling Harvey Dent about Catwoman who was going to try to steal something from his vault. What's his endgame in all this?
Shawn's eyes widened in surprise when he caught something else on the radio chatter after the tapes had ended. "You're not gonna believe this. Mayor Quincy Sharpe was brought in to Arkham City by Strange personally just moments ago."
Of all the things I've been through tonight, this was an unexpected surprise. The Mayor in the super max prison by the guy he put in charge in? It smells cover up. "Tell me where he is."
It's hard to believe that I went from serving at my father's side at the League in Nanda Parbat to fighting super villains in New Jersey. Here I was, thousand miles away from Middle east, cleaning up a mess that wasn't even mine.
"No, Please No!" Sharpe begged as he was hanging on the ledge of a building by me. He was scared to his pants. I saved him from getting killed by a couple of thugs that were the unofficial welcoming committee when he was and then took him to a building outside of the old A.C.E. Chemicals for questioning.
"I want to know everything about Strange and how are you involved in all this!" I demanded.
"I'll tell you everything." Sharpe said. "Strange came to me back at the Asylum several months ago. Told me that he had friends, powerful friends. The sort of friends that makes things happened. All he wanted me to do was turn a blind eye to his experiments, so I can work on my campaign. He assured me that I would win the election."
"Who are they?" I asked and when he didn't answered immediately, I loosened some of grip on Sharpe. He whimpered in terror.
"I never met them, they funded everything. Money was no problem. When I became the mayor, I had to fullfill my part of the agreement by setting up Arkham City and put Strange in charge. It made perfect sense. The scum of Gotham needed to be punished. It would be my legacy!"
If there was one pathetic pawn in the elaborate scheme Strange had contorted, Sharpe would've won the award for it. "The only Legacy you will have is one of death and misery. Strange has eliminated everyone with a connection to him and sent them to Arkham City. Enjoy it while it lasts." I tossed him back to safety. I sigh, trying to contact Barbara.
"Barb, I know I'm the last person that you want talk to right now but I just had a conversation with the soon to be ex mayor Quincy Sharpe."
"What?! The Mayor is in Arkham City?!" Barbara exclaimed.
"Yeah and apparently he's been in cahoots with Strange the whole time."
"How deep are we talking about his cooperation with Strange?"
"Since his days as the Warden of the Asylum." I told her truthfully. "Strange is tying up any loose ends that would lead up to him and he doesn't want good ol' Quincy to rat him out."
"My God."
"Sharpe also told me that Strange is working with someone else. Someone with enough funding to Sharpe's mayoral campaign. I'm gonna find out right now."
"You can't. You got to stop by GCPD to check on Freeze."
"I Will, I..."
"Look, I know we aren't exactly on good terms right now but Bruce was supposed to get back to me about 20 minutes ago about the cure. Please. I'm starting to get worried."
I sighed. When can I say no to my girl. "Fine. I'll check on him."
"Thank you."
As I was about to enter the old GCPD I spotted a flare on top of an abandoned Toy factory next to the old precinct. Curiosity getting the best of me, I went to check.
When I entered the Kranko toys factory, I saw a certain Luchador with a storage tank on his back. Bane. A criminal who grew in one of the most brutal prisons in World and the man known to have broken the Bat.
"Hola Bane."
Bane turned around and measured. "Hola, so you must be Jericho."
"Oh, you've heard of me, I don't if I should be flattered or nervous." I smirked. "I'm in no mood for fight, Bane. What are you going here?"
"Dr. Young's Titan formula, the clown managed to send some off Arkham Island before Batman stopped him." Bane replied.
"I know, Penguin had his own Titan guards." My face darkened at that remark of my visit to museum. "How much did he get off the Island?" I asked.
"Too much, that's why I am here. I will not allow the basura of this city to abuse the Titan. Dr. Young used me to create it, it is my duty to destroy what remains."
"Alright, I'll help you. But understand this, if you double cross me, I'm taking you down too, we'll find Titan containers, we destroy them, ok?" I stated the terms of the deal knowing that he wants titan for himself, but I have a plan.
He chuckled to himself thinking that I was new to this. "Of course. They were twelve of them left in this city, each has its own radio transmission built in. we take six each then we meet back here."
"No problem, you better not screw up the deal, Bane. Remember that." I said as I left the building.
"Huh, Honesty my ass." I said as I went searching for the containers, most of them were in the steel mill. They were difficult to find but I managed to take out 3 of them with some explosives.
The last three were outside of the museum. They were guarded but I took them down easily.
"This is for you, Doc." I said as I took care of the last one.
After that I went back to Bane.
"I destroyed the containers, Bane." I said.
"Good, now we.." He was cut off by some thugs entered the building.
"Give us the Titan, Bane!" Awesome.
"Help me, Jericho. We must not allow these puppets to take the Titan." Bane said as the fight took place. Two of the goon's tired double team me but I evaded in time and smashed their heads together, the third goon tried to kick me but I countered it and gave him a clothesline from hell. The fourth had a knife in his hand, I disarmed him and broke his arm in two. Bane took out the rest of them with ease considering that he is on Titan himself.
Once it was over we continued where we left off.
"Now as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I've destroyed the containers, have you destroyed the others?"
"In a matter of speaking, yes." Bane answered as he said as he opened a garage door to reveal six remaining containers of Titan. Hehe, he was falling to my trap, so far so good.
"Titan is too powerful to be used against me, I needed all for myself, Jericho. Now do me favour and DIE!"
He roared as he charged at me but I dodged him as Bane ran into a freight elevator. Then I pulled out my gun and fired a round into the switch. Heavy bars sealed Bane into the elevator as I walked over to the Titan.
"Did you really think that I was that stupid, your big ape, huh? I knew I couldn't trust you, so I used you to gather the remaining Titan containers. Now i can put Dr Young's problem to rest, permanently!" I said as I put the explosives walked from them in a good distance and detonated them
"No!" Bane screamed in vein as the containers were destroyed, brains beat muscles any day of the week.
"Have a nice day, Junior!" I said as I left the building, they never learn. When I was outside, I looked up to the sky with a small smile on my face.
"That was for you, Penelope. I hope you're proud of what I've done." I said as I made a cross knowing that Dr. Young was in a better place.
When I entered the police station, I found Freeze slumping on a desk with his suit heavily damaged. It looked like he went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
"What the hell happened?" I asked him.
He shrugged my question off. "It's not important. That harlot Quinn has taken the cure. She has also kidnapped Nora."
"Son of a bitch." I said as I saw an empty vault. "You kept the cure in vault, may I see it?"
"Of course, why?"
"Just curious." In the vault there were two Joker cards laid there. One of them had a 'get well soon' written on it. The other had joker's real face and I got a bad feeling that something terrible is going to happen.
"He's leaving clues." I noted.
"For what?"
"His master plan and I don't like it one bit. I'll bet that Batman is heading to Steel Mill, correct?"
He nodded. "I'm going after Nora right now. Do you know she is?"
"YES. SHE is being held up in the Steel mill." Freeze informed me.
"But the Steel mill is under lockdown last time I heard. It's not going to be easy getting in."
"Perhaps I can help." He said as he led me to the back of the lab and gave some sort of freeze Blast, as I'll like to call it. "I've developed a new projectile weapon. It should give you the edge you need."
"Don't worry, Viktor. I'll find Nora." I said as I walked out of the lab.
"Why would do you this for me?" Freeze asked.
I thought about Barbara and the impossible dream to see her walk again for a moment.
"I may not approve for what you did in the past, but I understand why you did it. If I were in your shoes, I would do the same thing for the woman I love." I answered
"You care a lot about her do you?"
"More than you'll ever know." with that I left the precinct.
I made my way to the building Nora was held. As it turned out they held Nora in Warehouse 5b at the old Shipping yard that was once owned by the Falcone crime family. I snuck behind them and used my Freeze blast to restrict them and took them out in one move, too easy. I tapped into my earpiece to contact Freeze.
"Where is Nora?" he asked
"She's in Warehouse 5b at the Falcone shipping yard, She's completely safe."
"Thank you, Jericho. I'll be there." Freeze said.
As I waited for Freeze to arrive, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for him.
He cares about Nora as much as I care about Barbara. It's a shame that he became a criminal because of the lab accident. But I really hope that some day, Nora would be cured and they can live happily ever after, he deserves a happy ending after all.
"Father, please give me strength to survive this night." I said as I made a cross hoping that He would answer to my prayer.
After Freeze got there, I left the warehouse when I heard a phone ringing from an old phone booth. Strange. Most people use their cellphones.
Cautious, I picked up phone to answer the call.
"Hello, my new friend. Do you recognize my voice?" that voice just send a shiver through my soul.
"Victor Zsasz." I snarled.
I remember Zsasz. The former billionaire who lost his parents in a boating accident and having lost every dime in gambling. he became a serial killer targeting women to fill his body with Marks to remind him of the kills he made. He's a cautionary tale of what Bruce could've been if he got swept by the madness that is here in Gotham.
"In the flesh, I'm so happy that you've heard of me, I'll never forget you. I got a game just for you, ring, ring."
"What game?"
Zsasz cackled manically. "Oh, you sounded impatient, my friend. That is good, that is very good. You and will need that to answer my little game. You may heard that I've been providing salvation to the mindless drones luckily enough to answer my calls." Victor ranted.
"Hardly salvation. More like fixation when you take innocent lives." I argue.
"That's a question of perspective. For an example, from where I'm standing, I can see three little piggies just waiting for me to cure them of life. From their perspective, I imagine they see things differently."
"If you hurt them, Zsasz. I swear to God we will hunt you down and beat you to death." It wasn't a threat, it was a promise.
"I bet you will, but first let's play a little game. Right now there is a phone ringing in Arkham City. I know it's a big place, but you need to find it. Take too long and they will die. And don't try anything clever. I had a friend to help me bounce this signal through every relay from here to Bludhäven. You'll never find me. Now. Did I ever tell you about my first kill? No. As I am sure that you have not heard of, my parents were dead and I was rich. So rich that I could have anything that I ever wanted but I wanted them back of course. I know it's impossible now but back then I had yet to experience.. the joy of cold steel cutting through warm flesh. I had no idea how I could save these people from the misery of their existence."
"You should have stayed that way." I stated.
"Really? Then I should stop now. Find another telephone, my friend. Goodbye."
As the call ended, Shawn contacted
"Have you got Zsasz's location?" I asked him.
"No, not yet. Damn, tracking the signal is more difficult than I thought." Shawn answered sounding a bit frustrated.
"In other words the process is slow. He is crafty, I'll give him that."
"No argument from me."
"Alright, keep tracing his signal. You'll find him." I said as I found one near the carousel and picked up the phone. Zsasz started to ramble about how his life had taken a turn for worse as he went for gambling or vice versa. That's when his story gets a little bit interesting. He formed a plan so to speak in an attempt to get his money back and what a better way to do it then in the Iceberg Lounge owned by Penguin.
"The Iceberg Lounge was crawling with the disgusting flesh of humanity. You could find anything there if you had the money of course. At the beginning I seemed to be winning The cards all went my way and I found myself at the owners table. Some reason I thought that I would win, that he would play fair. I looked around the table. I saw the people that I was against: card sharks, thugs, princes and that disgusting midget who ran the place. One by one they all lost or folded, the chips were pilling up and it was just him and me." He said as he hung up. we got in to the car and drove to the next phone booth.
"They called him the Penguin, even back then. He had both eyes of course, that little accident hadn't happened yet. And both of them were looking at me when I put down my cards. The six of clubs. The six of diamonds. He looked scared. He leaned forward and I could smell the cigar stench on his breath. The six of spades and finally, the six of hearts. I felt good. Then he started laughing, he belched out smoke as he put down his cards. Card by card, my heart sank. A three, a four, a five, a six, a damn seven. His straight flush ended me there and I was thrown out into the city, penniless."
Damn, even back then, Cobblepot already ruined the lives of people who were lost in a sea of sins, mentally. That sick son of a bitch.
"Shawn, how many more calls do we have to answer?" I asked Shawn.
"Two more. I'm running a bypass to locate his signal. Almost there."
"Good" I said as I picked up the phone.
"Can you imagine what it was like? I was numb, I had lost everything and I was alone. Crying like a baby, staggering through the streets of this city until I found the answer that I was looking for. I stood there on the Sprang Bridge looking out to the sea. I felt the warm breeze on my skin and it felt right. I looked down and imagined myself falling into blessing arms of my mother until he appeared. He held out the knife and demanded my money. My money! Can you believe it? I looked into his cold, desperate eyes and I saw something familiar, something evitable. I saw oblivion; I saw that we are all the same, stuck on a miserable loop demanding for salvation. So I gave it to him."
After he hung up, I went to another phone booth for a last call.
"Can you imagine the vagrants surprise when I grabbed his knife from his hands? It was instinctive, it was beautiful. In one movement I sliced out his throat and gave him the gift of salvation. It happened so fast but I felt every joyous sensation. The blood sprayed in my face as I saw what was left of little life in his eyes leave. But then it was over, I was lost. Like it had been meaningless, no one would acknowledge my sacrifice and then it happened. Without realizing what I was doing, I plunged the knife into my forearm and made a deep cut. I felt my body elevate to a higher place. It had become a temple to my work."
He said as he hung up for a last time.
"I got his location, his hideout is at Industrial District." Shawn Reported.
"Good work, Shawn. We're heading there right now." I complimented her as we drove to his refuge and got there.
I had to be careful of not alerting Zsasz as we entered through the ventilation system. He was in a control room, three hostages.
"You will probably praying I will end your lives quickly, I won't." He then started to laugh sinisterly as we entered through the window; I threw a flash bang that stunned him temporarily and Talia took him down quickly knocking him out.
When we freed the hostages, I locked Zsasz into a cage.
"This is not over. It can not be over. My blade will bathe in the crimson rivers of blood that will pour from the holes of your body. You cannot deny me the mark. I need to make the mark. It's all I have left." He pleaded but it was to avail. I shake my head sadly, poor bastard.
After leaving Zsasz to his fate, I called Oracle to inform about the cure.
"Barbara. It's me. Sorry to keep you waiting but we got a problem. Apparently the Joker got a little anxious and sent Harley Quinn to take the only completed cure Freeze made. Batman is heading back to the Steel Mill to get it back."
"Of course. It would be too easy for things to go smoothly." Barbara let out an exasperated sigh. "Anyhow, I figured out what Protocol 10 is sorta."
That got my interest. "I'm listening."
"From what Dad told me over the phone, it's a worst case security measure. Strange had an emergency meeting with the high council at the City Hall, telling them that the Protocol 10 should be activated. He told them that he failed to stop the illegal smuggling of high tech weapons within the prison."
And suddenly everything clicked. This was Strange's grand master plan. Gather all criminals in Gotham under one roof and then wipe them off the map, making it look like he lost control of Arkham City leaving him with no choice to but kill them all. He'll be hailed as a hero and Batman as a villain for his failure. I'd be lying if I didn't admire the irony in it all. "The weapons that he provided no doubt. This was his plan all long."
"It certainly looks that way. He sounded like the inmates were planning a mass escape and attack Gotham."
It wasn't a far fetched lie, given the reputation some of the inmates had here. But while I was talking to Barbara, I was about to find out that some of exterior design here was not made for vigilante. The floor beneath me crumpled and I fell down a hole deep into a underground room lightened up by green lights and a question mark.
"Jericho. What happened? Are you hurt?"
"Just my pride." I groaned as I got back up and looked around. The door was locked. So I used ventilation shaft to crawl under and that was when I heard the arrogant voice..
"That's right, worms! Keep Walking! You remember how to walk, don't you?"
Edward Nygma. The Riddler. His real name is Eddie Naston. Former head of the GCPD Cyber crime's unit. Got kicked off the force after he was exposed as the Enigma by the Batman for encrypted exortion data on some of the most prominent figures in Gotham on Christmas several years ago. Got a fetish for solving riddles and luring people into death traps. He's an egomaniac obsessed of proving his intellect.
"Riddler, When I get out of here, I'm gonna hurt you! You hear me?!"
Oh, Cash. What the hell did you get yourself into this time.
Sighing to myself I crawled to the left and jumped down to a room where I see some of the Emts from church excluding cuffed while walking aimlessly at a rail. They looked exhausted. Fatigued even. I spotted a helmet that's attracted to Semtex explosive on their backs. In fact, everyone had them. Looks like if I get close, they'll die if I stop them from walking. I had to move quickly.
I moved as fast as I could without preventing the hostages from walking until I activated my glasses to spot Riddler in his control room right below me. I thrusted my hand up, grabbing him by his scrawny leg and dragging him down to the floor before knocking him out.
So after freeing the hostages from their fates, I decided to give the Riddler a taste of his own medicine.
"This cannot be happening! I didn't even give you the opportunity to solve my riddles!" Riddler exclaimed in disbelief as he was suffering the fate that his hostage had. Cuffed and strapped to a bomb on his back. Only that the bomb was disabled. But he didn't need to know that. "You cheated!"
That's pathetic. "With all due respect, you're a man child." I said.
Riddler scoffed. "You're not gonna kill me."
I sighed. Why does he think I'm like Batman. "Do I look like Batman to you?" I declared as I pulled out my side arm and pulled down the hammer. Riddler gulped as he stared down the barrel.
"Get ya ass movin' Riddler before my new friend here pumps you up with lead." Cash demanded.
"You can't tell me what to do!" Riddler pouted.
"Do I need to press the button?!" Cash held up a remote detonator. And soon enough The Riddler was starting his long walk.
"You'll pay for this you sniveling cesspooling fop doodle! Do you hear me?! I Edward Nygma..."
Not wanting to hear the long winded threat, I took the detonator from Cas and nearly pressed the button making him wet his green dollar pants. "What you're saying?"
Gulping in dread, Nygma wisely didn't finish as he continued the walk of punishment.
"You sure this thing won't work?" Cash inquired me.
"Yep. But there's no point of letting him know that right?" I said.
"How'd ya find us anyway?" Cash wondered.
I shrugged with a confident smirk. "I dropped by."
That egomaniac can endure this humiliation.
AN: Comment kudos and bookmark for more updates.