Batman and the associated characters are owned by DC and the Matrix and it's characters are owned by Larry and Andy Wachowski. This is set before the original Matrix film. With thanks to everyone who has reviewed and commented on this so far.

Chapter Thirteen – Hostile Takeover

Arkham Asylum. Alfred was just dabbing the corners of his mouth with a napkin when a shadow loomed over him. A huge hand grabbed Alfred by the neck and lifted him up.

"I still don't trust you…" said Bane. Suddenly a shadow loomed over Bane and an even bigger hand wrapped around Bane's neck. Bane dropped Alfred in shock and looked behind him. It was Amygdala. Possibly the only man apart from Batman who scared Bane.

"Hurt my friend! You no shouldn't hurt my friend!"

Alfred lifted an eyebrow. "Now, now Amygdala. What did I say about having a double negative in a sentence?"

Amygdala was the only man in Arkham to tower over Bane. He was nearly nine foot of muscle and sinew. He had just two likes. Violence and food. Alfred was a master of food so Amygdala would defend him with as much violence as he could.

Amygdala threw Bane over a table. "Sorry, Alfy. Me want more food."

"The word is 'I'. 'I would like more food please.'"

Amygdala's forehead furrowed as these new thought processes ploughed into undiscovered territories in his brain. The part to do with conversation. "Sorry, Alfy. I would like some food please?"

Alfred put down his napkin and smiled. "A pleasure, Amygdala. A genuine pleasure. What about the rest of you gentlemen?" Alfred looked over at a table of some of the most vicious psychopaths ever to wage war against society. By the cheerful looks and hands in the air, Alfred was onto a winner.

Bruce Wayne blocked a kick to his face and simultaneously sent a punch to his assailant's face. Morpheus was sent flying back against a pillar. Bruce's arms were blurring as he blocked and kicked his way round. His lip was bleeding where he had been hit and one eye was swollen. A foot came lancing into his stomach. He knew it should hurt and he should go flying back into the wall but he didn't. He grabbed the person's foot and twisted it around sending the man spinning into a wall. Tim was running around the room on the walls. Bruce back flipped onto the chandelier and kicked two people in the face, and then he swung around, grabbing Morpheus who was just getting to his feet and threw him against the wall.

"Enough! Enough!" said Morpheus as he struggled to get to his feet.

Bruce and Tim stopped fighting. Tim grinned but Bruce maintained his stony exterior.

"Do you think we did well?" said Tim.

"You two are good," said Morpheus, dabbing some blood on his chin. "Extraordinarily impressive, but you are not up to agent standard yet. I have seen agents evade bullets and punch through concrete walls."

Morpheus muttered into his mobile phone. The temple disappeared around them and they were suddenly on top of a huge skyscraper in New York. Tim walked to the edge of the skyscraper and raised his eyebrows to Trinity.

"Hey Trin. I know a great place in the West Village called Magnolia that sells cupcakes? The best on the planet!"

Trinity walked over to Tim and says. "Hey, short stuff, I'm sure you do, but," she waved her hands around. "We are not in the Matrix. This is just a training program."

"No cup cakes?"

"No cup cakes."

"So what's the deal here, Trin?"

"We want you to jump."

Tim leapt up in the air and landed again. She smiled at him. "Not up and down, to there." She pointed to another skyscraper about fifty feet away.

"That's impossible," murmured Tim.

"Not to an agent. Not to us and possibly not to you." She took a step back and raced to the edge. She soared across the chasm and landed safely on the other roof. Morpheus followed her, his coat flapping in the wind like a superhero's cloak.

Bruce turned to Tim; they were suddenly both alone on top of the skyscraper. "We could just go home," said Tim.

"We throw ourselves off buildings twice this size every day."

Tim waved his finger under Bruce's nose. "True, Bruce, but we normally have grapnels and gadgets."

"True."

"Also Gotham has lots of handy flagpoles; patriotic lot in Gotham, balconies and fire escapes. Not to mention telegraph wires. In fact it is difficult to take a step off a building in Gotham and hit the street." Tim waved his hands around at New York. "This is New York, totally different place."

"Also true."

Tim looked nonchalantly at Bruce. "So do you want to jump first or second?"

Bruce looked over the side of the skyscraper. "We'll jump together."

They both took a step back and raced towards the edge of the skyscraper. They both stamped hard on the edge of the building and suddenly they were flying over the chasm. Tim looked below and could see the cars and people in the street below. They were halfway across. They were three quarters of the way across. Suddenly gravity, which up to now had been not paying attention; in fact it had been making sure that the rain was falling straight down and not any of this side sweeping stuff that gets under the umbrella and is so annoying, suddenly noticed them. The edge of the building in front of them started to disappear from sight. They were seven eights across. Fifteen sixteenths. The edge of the building in front of them was getting higher. Thirty five thirty sixths. Bruce grabbed the edge of the building with one hand. Tim grabbed hold of Bruce's foot. They slammed against the skyscraper. A spider's web of cracks formed around Bruce and Tim. Tim got his breath back first and clambered over Bruce to get to the top. Bruce climbed up second.

Morpheus and Trinity were standing at the top. "Easy," said Tim.

Bruce was too busy rubbing his sore ribs to say anything.

Morpheus gave a mirthless smile. "You've done well."

"Now what?" said Tim.

Morpheus pushed his arm forwards and like an ancient god the world moved around him. The skyscraper they had jumped from suddenly moved back another fifty feet. Now the distance was a hundred feet.

"Follow us," said Trinity.

"Anywhere you want!"

Morpheus and Trinity ran at the edge and leapt to the other skyscraper.

Alfred was in his cell. He had washed and cleaned himself as much as he was able and was now lying on his bunk waiting for lights out. He was sharing a cell with Jervis Tetch. The Mad Hatter. Jervis was reading aloud from his favourite book. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

"In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad." Jervis was prancing on one foot and looking at Alfred with a strange glint in his eye. Alfred was doing his best to ignore him. "But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." At that Jervis started giggling and lay down on his bed.

Jervis jumped back to his feet and, staring at Alfred in the face, started singing another song. Father William by Lewis Carroll. "'You are old, Father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head - Do you think, at your age, it is right?'" Alfred looked at Jervis's hands. In one hand he could see a small glint of metal. A razor blade. "Tell me," said Jervis, dropping his sing-song voice, "why I should not just cut your face to model a snark?"

Alfred fixed him with his eyes. "'Said his father,'" said Alfred, finishing off the Father William rhyme, "'Don't give yourself airs! Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs!'"

Jervis's eyes started to mist up. "Sir, you are a scholar of Lewis Carroll." Alfred lowered his head slightly in acknowledgement of this. "You are as rare as a snark, sir. I will do you no harm. You may sleep as well as the Dormouse at the Mad Hatter's tea party. It will be lights out soon. We can discourse further on this in the morning!"

Jervis threw himself onto his bed with a contented sigh. Alfred groaned slightly to himself. He was more a student of Jung, Shakespeare and Dickens. He only knew Carroll's work from reading it to Bruce as a child. From what he remembered Bruce did not find it serious enough to warrant his attention even as an adolescent.

There was a heavy thumping sound outside and the lights dimmed and died. Outside the cell he could hear whimpers, howls and the occasional screams of the inmates. Every few minutes a high-pitched cackling laughter could be heard echoing and re-echoing around the prison. Alfred was thinking. If Bruce was still alive he had to get out of Arkham. Even if Bruce was not alive staying in Arkham did not bear thinking about. He would escape. He had to. All he needed was a plan. His lip started to curl back and he started to chuckle. A sound quite at odds with the sounds of madness about him. It was the sound of genuine humour.

Bruce and Tim were again standing at the edge of the skyscraper.

"What did baldy say?" said Tim.

"Morpheus," corrected Bruce. "He said we had to free our minds."

"Hey, my mind's always free, you should see some of my school work."

Bruce stared at him. "Yes, I've seen some of your school reports. Anyway, let's concentrate on this."

They both took a few steps back. Breathed deeply and ran at the gap. This time it was about one hundred feet across. This time they jumped farther than fifty feet. This time they did not reach the other building. They had made it about seventy feet across when gravity took its hold. They had no lines. They had no gadgets. They had nothing to grab hold of as they fell to slow their fall. They landed in the middle of the road. Instead of a bone-breaking fall, the road seemed to bend like a trampoline as they crashed down. They both got to their feet and looked in amazement at the drop they had survived. Morpheus and Trinity walked out of a door at the base of the building and walked over to them.

"Don't worry, everyone falls the first time. Still, you both jumped farther for a first jump than anyone else we have brought back."

Bruce and Tim squinted as they exited the training program. Bruce put his hand to his chin and was surprised to see blood.

He looked over at Morpheus who was just leaving the training program. "I thought you told us that the Matrix or whatever that was is not real?"

"If you die in the Matrix, you die here. The body can not survive without its mind."

Bruce looked over at Tank. "Where is Alfred now?"

Tank glanced down at the screens, full of rapidly dropping green numbers. "He's still in Arkham."

Bruce clapped his hands together. "Okay Morpheus. We have been through your training programs. Now we go back in and rescue Alfred."

"You are still not ready. Your mind is not yet attuned to the Matrix."

"I don't care. We are going back in."

"You will not survive and we need you to kill the Joker."

Bruce fixed him with a stony glare.

"Forgive me. It was a poor choice of words. But we still need you to remove the threat of the Joker to enable us greater freedom in the Matrix."

"I've already told you. I will do that for you, but you must help us out."

"Fine." Bruce and Tim sat back again in the chairs. This time a different plug was brought around to the back of Tim and Bruce's neck. Tank plugged them in….

When Bruce next opened his eyes all he could see was white. As far as the eye could see. There was nothing to see. He turned around to Morpheus and Trinity.

"What is this trickery?"

Morpheus waved an arm around. "This is the construct. From here we can build whatever we want. Or we can use it so supply ourselves with whatever we want before we enter the Matrix proper. What do you want before we go back in?"

"Gadgets," said Bruce. "Lots of gadgets."