YIN AND YANG
CHAPTER 6:
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
Harry sat across from Doctor Young in one of the small offices in the Sanitorium area, knowing that the gaze of his helmet made his staring all the more uncomfortable for Young. They had cleared out the upper floors of the Medical Facility of goons. "We know about you using Ivy's plants to refine Venom into something else," he said. "Ivy herself told us. We saw the way Joker threatened you. And we know some of what's going on. So…come clean."
After a moment, Young looked at Gordon. A plea for help died on her lips when she saw the Commissioner glaring. Eventually, she said, "I was contacted by a man called Jack White. I didn't know he was the Joker, I swear it! But he had read my research notes, about strengthening patients to allow for better treatments. He claimed he wanted to help my research, supplied me with money, resources, as well as a test subject. You know him as Bane."
"He escaped from Blackgate, didn't he?" Gordon asked.
"I don't know how he ended up here exactly. I guess the Joker managed to get a hold of him after he escaped Blackgate. All I know is, the warden created a new facility for Bane, who we dubbed Patient X. We studied him to see how Venom and the TN-1 derivative affected his body, as well as take samples of his blood to derive a new hybrid chemical from it. Titan was, as far as I was concerned, intended to strengthen the patient, not turn them into a monster. Jack White, however, insisted on the process being fine the way it was, which made me suspicious. But when I learned White was the Joker, and tried to back out…he threatened me. He rang me up, and told me he wanted his army of monsters."
"Hence why he allowed himself to be taken into custody," Gordon muttered. "He wants the formula, doesn't he?"
Young nodded. "I need to get to the Arkham Mansion and destroy my notes."
"But do you know the formula yourself?" Harry asked.
"Yes. If there was any way of erasing that from my memory, I would, but…"
"Doctor Young, I can erase that from your memory. I just don't do that without consent." Unless it's necessary, he thought to himself. Or we're taking revenge. Like when Luna erased Rookwood's toilet training.
"Very well. I don't like destroying my research, but better that happens than it gets into the hands of the Joker," Young said. "You'll have to destroy the covert lab in the Botanical Gardens. Bane's held down below. But...when Cash and I first got here, I heard that Crane's loose down there."
"Crane? The Scarecrow is loose?!" Gordon demanded.
"Shit," Harry muttered. "That's all we need, the psycho who's like a living Boggart."
"A what?" Young asked.
"Long story." After a moment, Harry said, "The Batman has antidotes to Scarecrow's fear toxins. Of course, our helmets could keep out the toxins, so we'll wait until he's in contact again. As for your formula, we'll have to destroy it, along with the covert lab. Joker's probably got backup plans. I'll bet he's seized whatever Titan he could get. He already used it to create one monster. For the moment, we need to secure this place before the Joker's goons take it over."
Some minutes later, Luna Apparated into the Medical Facility. Harry conversed with her over the private comms channel, with Barbara listening in. Batman was currently en route to his auxiliary Batcave, having procured some explosive gel from the Batmobile.
After hearing everything, Batman eventually asked, "Luna…is Jason all right?"
Luna nodded. "He's at our apartment, Bruce. I took him back there and sedated him, as well as gave him some potions. He's in a pretty bad way, physically and mentally. I don't think he wants to talk to you for a while, given that he thinks you replaced him. He's got too many Wrackspurts thanks to the Joker. But he's alive and, given time, he will be well again."
A sigh down the line. "Thank God," Batman said. "I was certain Jason was dead. Yet another life lost on my conscience."
Barbara added, "I'm glad too. Is he willing to talk to me once he's fine?"
"He asked after you quite a bit, actually, Barbara," Luna said. "He said when he saw what the Joker did to you, he wanted to cripple the fucking clown himself: his words rather than mine."
After a moment, Batman's voice came back, all-business once more. "Are those helmets of yours capable of filtering out Scarecrow's toxin?"
"It did the last time we met him," Harry said. "They basically do what's called a Bubble-Head Charm, replenishing oxygen in an environment without it."
"One of you should guard the doctors and Gordon," Batman said. "The other should go deal with Scarecrow, as well as find Bane and, if possible, release him, or at least make sure he's secure and out of the Joker's reach. I will head to this covert laboratory they used to make Titan and get rid of it. Whoever intends to stop Crane, be careful. Even if he can't gas you, he may still inject you with his fear toxin, he's been known to do so."
"I'll do it," Harry said. "Luna, look after the others. It's about time I did something proactive."
"Gotcha. Harry, be careful," Luna said.
Harry, on Barbara's advice, snuck into the elevator shaft rather than using the elevator proper, just in case the Joker had any nasty tricks in store. He also sealed the helmet completely, reliant on the Bubble-Head Charm to keep out Scarecrow's fear toxin. His breath echoed eerily in his helmet as he opened the lift doors, and came across bedlam.
Behind a glass window, he saw inmates and guards writhing in agony, flailing against unseen foes. And amongst them was a frightening figure, thin, lanky, dressed in burlap, with a hangman's noose around his neck like a bizarre necktie. He had a hood and mask that looked like a crude scarecrow's head, albeit with nozzles of a gasmask protruding from it. On one hand was a Freddy Krueger-like array of needles, filled with a sickly, glowing liquid.
The grotesque figure of Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, noticed Harry. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Yang," he sneered mockingly. "Did Yin dump you?"
"Crane, isn't that projection?" Harry said, as a jibe at the former psychologist and psychiatrist. "You're projecting so hard, it's in 3D with Dolby surround sound. No wonder you enjoy inflicting suffering on other people."
"Take off that helmet and say that!" Crane snarled.
"Yeah, no, I'm not an idiot," Harry said, before Apparating right behind Scarecrow. A quick Body-Bind spell sent Scarecrow crashing to the floor, with more of them sending the crazed inmates and guards to the floor afterwards. He then stripped Scarecrow of his syringe-glove, before destroying it with a spell. "Compared to Boggarts, Crane, you're a rank amateur when it comes to instilling fears in people." He then looked around the room, and began drawing runes on the walls. Until Harry or Luna erased them, only Harry or Luna could get in or out of this room, unless they took people with them. It wouldn't last more than a day or so, and hopefully, that was all they needed. It was a stopgap measure.
Harry Apparated between the area where Luna was guarding Gordon and the others, ferrying the guards who had been affected by Scarecrow's fear toxin. Batman would come with an antidote later. Once he was done, he made his way through the lower floors of the Medical Facility, making his way to the experimental chamber Young had spoken of.
"So, we have a snarky do-gooder here?" Joker's voiced jeered mockingly Harry entered, speaking from a TV screen. "Hafta say, you're more entertaining than Bats at times. Oh, I love the fear he instils in my men, but you, you can backchat better than he can. You and your lovely Yin. Still, I hafta say, you're spoiling my party plans."
"What can I say?" Harry said. "I'm a party pooper. Anyway, Scarecrow's not the sort of person you'd invite to a party. People prefer unspiked drinks."
"Ah, but that's so boring!" Joker retorted. "Seriously, having Batman as Party Pooper One is bad enough, but you and Yin spoil it."
"Bite me. Anyway, this party needs a clown, one who isn't a homicidal maniac." Harry grinned behind his helmet as an impish notion occurred to him. "Hey, does the Creeper do parties?"
The torrent of expletives the Joker unleashed was quite impressive, as Harry looked at the chamber below. There were convicts acting as guards everywhere. Harry Apparated in, knowing the noise of the Apparition would alert them, and he sent Stunners and Body-Binds at them. Within a minute, the guards were down, and Harry went for the chamber where Bane was kept.
The moment Harry saw the figure, attached to the tubes, he didn't waste any time. Doctor Young had said it was possible for Bane to be flooded with Titan via the system, so he cut the tubes with Snape's Sectumsempra, automatic safety valves preventing Bane from bleeding out into them.
Bane fell heavily onto the floor, groaning, while Harry gently turned him over. While the man's muscles were defined, it was as if he had something literally sucked out of him. He wasn't the muscled, hulking powerhouse that Batman encountered before: indeed, the only sign that this was Bane was the distinctive mask, like the lucha libre mask of Mexican luchadores.
Harry had to admit, he actually felt a little sympathy for Bane. Not much: the man had been ruthless when he first fought the Batman, utterly ruthless and without morals, given what Barbara and Bruce had told them. But Bane had been condemned to the hellish prison of Peña Dura before he was born for a crime his father had committed: namely trying to overthrow the government of Santa Prisca. He was raised in the prison, and Harry, having spent ten of the first eleven years of his life with a cupboard for a bedroom, sympathised. Bane only escaped after being used for experiments on creating super-soldiers, using Venom to enhance them.
However, Bane was also one of the assassins who accepted Black Mask's reward to kill Batman. Bane himself, reportedly, had been haunted by images of a monstrous bat since childhood, and viewed defeating Batman as a form of catharsis. In the process, however, Bane learned Batman's true identity, and beat Alfred to the edge of death, Batman barely saving him. Bane and Joker collaborated to try and force Batman into taking Bane's life, or else the Joker would die. Batman managed to outwit their macabre little game, and when Bane tried to use a variation of Venom called TN-1 to beat Batman, the resulting battle and trauma caused Bane to forget that Batman was Bruce Wayne, thankfully.
The man himself groaned in pain on the floor, too weak to even so much as sit up. "Hijo de la chingada, I have such a headache," he moaned, his eyes flickering open. "Who are you? You're not the Batman."
"Call me Yang," Harry said. "You may have heard of me."
Bane coughed, and rasped, "Of course. The bruja and the payaso spoke of you."
"Bruja?"
"Witch. I mean Doctor Young," Bane said, scowling.
"Oh. Well, technically, I'm a wizard, and Yin is a witch, so…yeah. Doctor Young will be held to account, Gordon's already been told about her, as has the Batman. We know about her using your blood to create Titan."
Bane nodded, closing his eyes in pain. "Normally, I would not be so glad to go back to Blackgate, but the time I spent here showed there are even worse places than Peña Dura, and not just in the fires of perdition."
"Believe me, you haven't felt pain unless you've experienced the Cruciatus Curse," Harry muttered, before taking Bane by Apparition to Gordon and the others…
The Joker paced around the room in annoyance. While he had calculated for Batman to try and cause problems with his plans, he hadn't counted on Yin and Yang. Having one goody two-shoes hero messing things up was problematic enough, but he could deal with that. Three, on the other hand, well, as much as he liked Yang's snark, they were causing too much trouble. Crane was down for the count, Bane was removed from his harness before Joker could flood his system with Titan, and his little toy Robin had been stolen from him.
But who could he count on to try and hamper the three would-be heroes? Scarecrow and Bane were out. Harley was busy guarding Sharpie, Killer Croc was lurking in the sewers…
Suddenly, Joker realised something. True, it would be a bit of a risk, and he wasn't exactly on the party list, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Magic they may have, but that wouldn't matter much when they couldn't tell friend from foe.
Joker cackled to himself, rubbing his hands together with unholy glee. It was time, he thought, to spring Basil Karlo from his cell. It was time for Clayface to have a part in these proceedings…
CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:
Sorry about the wait for a new chapter (and it may be a while before the next one: sorry). I'm surprised at how quickly this story became popular. Not quite as much as my other Batman crossover, Verdant Magic, but I also didn't quite have enough of an idea where to go next. I thought this story would have Harry and Luna being a bit too awesome, but then, as this chapter came to a close and I had to think of a fresh obstacle to throw in their way, well, I think Clayface (who is in Batman: Arkham Asylum, just in a cell) is a good idea.
Review-answering time! Guest (regarding Batman/Bruce Wayne's faults): I'm pretty sure Bruce Wayne heads up a lot of charities and actual political drives and campaigns to better the lot of Gotham. He does more than beat the crap out of criminals.
No numbered annotations this time.
