Batman vs The 6 6 6
Chapter 10: Poltergeist
Batman came to the conclusion that Laurie Strode was under the assumption that an exorcism would finally allow Agitha William's soul to be release from the Devil, but he also had a strong feeling that Agitha's intentions were much more sinister than that. He believed that Agitha's soul would be released on Earth, fueled by the blood of the descendants who murdered her children in the year 1673, and soon after that, all Hell would follow. He would now have to figure out a way of getting inside Arkham Asylum to try and stop the ritual from taking place.
Batman stood atop the tallest building near the asylum which was nearly six blocks away. His plan was to use his cape and hang-glide beyond the fiery wall which was surrounding the building, unsure of what type of resistance he might be facing once he made it to the other side.
He stepped back on the roof as far as he could because he was going to need a running start in order to get enough air to hang-glide the distance that was necessary.
After a short sprint and a quick burst, he leapt off the roof and soared into the air.
Moment's later, Batman approached the fiery wall. He pulled up on his cape so that he could get enough lift to clear the rising flames. The blazing heat felt as if he was drifting over Hell itself.
After emerging from out of the cloudy, smoke filled sky, Batman suddenly faced immediate resistance. Small demon trolls were launching fire-balls at him from the ground, causing him to adjust his cape in order to dodge them. But that wasn't the only thing Batman had to dodge. Three metallic spheres were also heading in his direction, all three having spinning drill bits, ready to harvest Batman's brain. He tried his best to evade them, but the flying orbs were much too fast and they pierced his cape, creating large holes in it, and causing him to rapidly speed up his descent.
When he touched down on the ground, he immediately went into a tuck and roll maneuver because he was coming in too fast, tumbling over and over several times before finally coming to a stop.
He had to get up quickly because the flying orbs were still coming at him, plus the demon trolls were also still trying to attack.
After looking off further into the distance, he could see the Tall Man using some sort of telekinesis to control the spheres and the trolls.
Batman then threw several smoke bombs at the ground, creating ample coverage, not allowing the Tall Man to see him, because if the Tall Man couldn't see him, he wouldn't be able to use his minions to try and attack.
In a split-second, several sharp Batarangs flew out from the smoke hitting the Tall Man, embedding into his arms and chest.
The Tall Man was hardly fazed by it. However, the Tall Man looked down because he could hear a beeping noise coming from the devices that had just struck him. And then…
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The Batarangs exploded, blowing off both of the Tall Man's arms and knocking him backwards at the same time. Yellow fluid oozed from out of his severed limbs. The Tall Man raised one eye-brow, giving Batman an evil stare.
Suddenly, the Tall Man's arms turned into large spiders and then quickly began crawling towards Batman.
Batman shot out a grappling hook and tried to attach it to the roof of Arkham Asylum, but when the hook landed, it instantly dissolved, allowing for only the test-line to flutter back down.
That's when Batman realized that the walls of the asylum were covered with some sort of slimy ectoplasmic protective barrier, apparently vaporizing anything that came into contact with it. He wasn't quite sure of how he would get in to the asylum now.
Before Batman knew it he was surrounded by minions and killer spheres. To make things worse, the Tall Man's arms had regenerated and he was stead-fast heading in Batman's direction.
Suddenly, as the minions converged in on Batman, a wall of mud formed around Batman, protecting him from the chaos.
"Batman, it is me, Preston Payne. You must follow me. I will get you to safety."
"Clayface?" Batman retorted. "You just tried to kill me not that long ago, now you are trying to save me?"
"I know I did, but that was before I found out about Agitha's true intentions."
Batman cautiously followed along, staying behind the wall of mud. It was either that or face the Tall Man and his minions, with a fiery wall on one side and a vaporizing wall on the other.
Seconds later, Clayface had led Batman to a manhole cover. "Remove the cover and head down below. I will continue to hold off the demons." Clayface declared. "Once you get down there, head north. I will catch up to you later."
Batman quickly removed the manhole cover and dropped down into the sewer, his boots were now covered up to his shins with mucky water.
Batman headed north, hoping Clayface wasn't luring him into a trap.
As Batman winded around a curved tunnel, he was suddenly startled when he ran into Killer Croc. He immediately got into a defensive fighting stance.
"Calm down, Batman. I'm not here to fight you." Croc declared, holding his hands in the air.
Croc looked as if he had been badly roughed up. He had multiple razor claw marks along with multiple stab wounds all over his body.
"I saw what they were planning." Croc proclaimed, hunching over, leaning against the sewer walls for support.
"What are you talking about?" Batman snarled.
"During my fight with the trio from Hell, something happened when I struck one of them, which allowed me to see what Agitha was planning. A premonition of sorts, if you will… some end of the world type of shit. Apparently I'm a clairvoyant and I didn't even know it."
"Well, the entire place is surrounded by some sort of ectoplasmic force-field, which will vaporize you if you try to pass through it, so there might not be anything we can do about it."
"I know another way in." Croc retorted. "Do you remember how the security guards at the asylum found a hidden underground room below the Joker's cell? And then they filled it in? Well, that was only one of the hidden rooms they found. In fact, there are several other rooms and hidden passageways below the asylum that nobody knows about."
"I would need to get to the cell that was once occupied by Amedeus Arkham." Batman insisted. "I believe there are incantation spells written on the floors and walls that he thought would help him conjure up spirits or possibly warn them off. And somehow Agitha is using the asylum as a conduit between the spirits and the living, but I'm not exactly sure of how."
"It is a conductor all right!" Croc exclaimed. "During my encounter with the demons I saw several disturbing things. Did you know that hundreds of years ago, before Gotham City ever existed, Indian tribes would place a curse on a child that commanded the child to kill his entire family as a blood sacrifice whenever the constellation Thorn appeared in the night sky, which in turn would spare their entire community from events such as plague and drought? The curse also turned the child completely evil and allowed that child to have great strength along with the abilities to withstand serious injuries that would result in death for any normal human being. Arkham Asylum was built on the burial ground of those families that were sacrificed, making it a perfect conductor for a poltergeist to enter through the portal, but they can only enter tonight while the constellation is at its brightest point."
"Hmm… the ectoplasm surrounding the building must be some sort of cocoon."
"Indeed. Except… this cocoon won't be releasing any pretty butterflies." Croc stated. "It will deliver the Hell Priest himself! We must not allow Laurie to open the puzzle box."
"Puzzle box?" Batman asked.
"Yes. The box holds Agitha's harvested soul. Laurie has only opened one lock thus far, but there are three combinations in all that need to be unlocked in order for her soul to be free. Once freed, Agitha will join the Hell Priest, Pinhead, and they will harvest all of the remaining souls on Earth.
As they continued walking through the sewers they began to see ectoplasmic slime seeping through the cracks, making a sizzling noise when it dripped down into the sewer water, which also let them know that they were getting closer to the secret tunnels below the asylum.
Finally they came to what seemed to be a dead end because there were large metal bars blocking them from going any further, but that wasn't the case. Croc pulled down on one of the bars, causing the entire structure to open up. That led into the secret tunnels.
The walls in these tunnels were much skinnier and the ceilings were a lot lower, causing Batman and Croc to crouch down while walking, eventually becoming so small that they had to get on their knees and crawl the rest of the way.
Soon Croc lifted up on a square stone, allowing them passageway into one of the holding cells. Croc peaked his head in to check out the surroundings. He couldn't believe what he saw next. The body of Victor Zsasz was sprawled across the floor. A hole had been drilled into his head. Blood was everywhere, one last and final cut to add to his trophy of scars.
Batman followed behind Croc. He too was appalled at the slaying that had taken place.
"The blood of Victor's brain has been drained and his soul has been harvested by the Tall Man. That is what the flying spheres do." Croc explained.
"Victor must have been one of the descendants. I imagine we are going to find a lot more dead bodies before this night is over with." Batman proclaimed.
After leaving the holding cell Batman wanted to check out the security room cameras to see if Laurie was anywhere in the building to be found.
Upon entering the security room, several television screens were turned on, but everyone of them had a scrambled screen and white noise blaring from out of them.
Suddenly, the silhouette of a head formed in the fuzziness of one of the scrambled screens.
Then, every single screen suddenly had the shape of a head on it and it looked as if they were trying to get out.
Soon after that, they all began talking. "Let me out! LET ME OUT!" They screeched in agony and rage.
Croc looked over at Batman. "THEY'RE HERE!"
