Dinah had needed time to herself in order to try and collect her thoughts. There was too much to consider and she didn't need the presence of rambunctious teenagers interrupting her thought process.

She had a safe-house one Zeta tube transfer away back in Gotham, which gave her the peace of mind that she needed. She set herself down at the desk and monitor at the end of the small safe-house, and leaned bag in the chair as she thought on her conundrum.

Dinah didn't know what to do with her newfound information. So, Percy was wanted by the League of Shadows, and apparently the best assassin in the entire damn organization was in on the job too.

It was disconcerting that, of course, Percy had somehow managed to get himself wrapped up in this kind of nonsense. She decided that she needed to start with what information she did know. She knew that Percy was wanted by the League of Shadows, why, she still didn't know. They clearly wanted him dead, but what could he possibly have done to get himself on their radar? She highly doubted that it had anything to do with his status as a demigod. The League of Shadows didn't work like that. For all their glitz and glamor, they really were little more than glorified contract killers. Taking out targets for the highest bid.

Conventional wisdom told her that someone had put a hit out on Percy. But that didn't make sense either. As far as the rest of the world knew, Percy was nothing more than a promising young detective for the Gotham Police Department. While there were undoubtably those that wouldn't like him, she didn't think any of them would have the status or resources necessary to utilize the League.

Contracts weren't cheap, and the Shadows were as expensive as it got. She thought again about Falcone. Percy had definitely made his way onto the mobster's shit list, but did Falcone even know about the Shadows? She didn't think so. In terms of underworld hierarchy, the Falcone crime family were little more than sea plankton in the ocean of the villains.

She was spending too much time around Percy.

It just wasn't plausible that Falcone would know enough about the Shadows to be able to contact them and get them to commit to this kind of a job. Furthermore, while Falcone was influential in his own right, he wasn't in the same league as the likes of Bruce, Oliver, or even Lex Luthor. She was fairly confident that he lacked the resources and influence necessary to call in the Shadows.

But where did that leave her?

Absolutely nowhere.

She decided that she would rule out conventional criminals, and instead focused on the other elephant in the room. The only thing that she could think of was the death of Klarion. Sure, it was possible that Percy had done something in his time in the military where he would have crossed paths with the Shadows or someone influential enough to use them, but she had already cross-referenced Percy's military history with the League's database. There was nothing in his record, even the stuff that the Navy's censors had redacted, that would lead her to believe someone would want him dead.

The only outlier was Queen Bee, but considering what she'd done to the rest of Percy's team that had infiltrated Bialya, it was more than likely that she thought he was also dead.

Which only left Klarion.

But that still didn't make sense to her.

The League had looked into the magical disaster from several weeks ago. While there had been several known magical criminals involved in the attack, the League had accounted for every member of the attack. As far as she had last checked, which had been only a few hours ago, all of the villains were currently in lock-up in Belle Reve.

But there were still questions that hadn't been answered about the attack. Chief among which was why so many powerful criminals had worked together as they had. Aside from the Injustice League, villains didn't work together, maybe the odd twosome, but never more than that. But even that had been odd. Interrogations with the villains hadn't cleared anything up either. The ones that had said anything, had merely reiterated that they had felt that the time was right to begin working together in order to forward a common goal. But what had that goal been? To hold the world at ransom for billions of dollars? Count Vertigo on his own had enough personal wealth amassed that it seemed…unnecessary.

The League had been utterly befuddled by the attack. Then the attack by the magical villains had made things even more confusing. Had the villains of the world finally smartened up and started banding together? It was possible, but the timing seemed just so off to Dinah. Once was happenstance, twice was coincidence, maybe. Did she really believe in a third time? Or had it already occurred? Clearly the Shadows were involved in some capacity with the attack on Arkham tonight.

She groaned in frustration, and stood up. She needed coffee, she was pushing on being awake for nearly thirty-six hours and it was beginning to weigh on her. Walking over to the instant coffee machine, she poured herself a cup, dumping in plenty of creamer into the beverage and taking a long pull on the bitter beverage.

She needed to get her thoughts in order, having everything jumbled up in her head was beginning to confuse her, and she could feel the beginnings of a migraine behind her eyes. Approaching the whiteboard beside her computer terminal, she set the coffee down on a coaster on the desk and began working on writing down everything she knew, and everything she thought she needed to know. It took about fifteen minutes, but eventually she had a comprehensive list of everything she had been thinking about and considering all evening.

She picked her coffee back up and took a step back, examining her work. And as she did so, a thought occurred to her. A terrible, horrifying thought. Placing the coffee cup back down on the table, she re-approached the white-board and began writing down more information. Names, dates, events, and known villains that had been involved with certain activities or attacks.

She was outlining every mission that the team of young proteges had undertaken since and including the mission to, break Superboy out of Cadmus. The incident on Santa Prisca, the attempted break-out at Belle Reve, the plant attack and the Injustice League. None of what appeared before her was adding up. There was something more going on, something else happening behind the scenes that they just weren't seeing.

Was it possible…no, surely not. They would have noticed right? They would have been able to tell if something else was going on, if there were other players pulling the strings.

Wouldn't they?

But it didn't sit right with her. It didn't add up. Adding Percy into the mix only served to hammer the point home even further.

It made sense.

It made too much sense.

Why else would the League of Shadows be so damned insistent on killing Percy? Why would they want him dead only weeks after he'd killed Klarion? And why would they go about trying to kill him in such an off-the-beat way like using the Joker's breakout? If they really wanted him dead, then why not simply send one of their many highly-trained assassin's to kill him? Unless they wanted things to be discreet. Unless they didn't want to tip their hand to the fact that they were operating in Gotham. Killing a prominent member of the police force, weeks after he killed off one of the most powerful beings on the planet…weeks after he'd been fully revealed to the rest of the Justice League…It would draw entirely too much attention.

But that led to a simple question, why would the Shadows want to kill Percy for killing Klarion? The only explanation that came to mind was that it was payback of some sort. Payback for killing Klarion, but why would they want to kill Percy for killing Klarion unless there was a connection between Klarion and the Shadows.

Dinah felt the mug slip between her fingers.

Life had just gotten infinitely more complicated.

BREAK

Percy cleared the magazine on his rifle and loaded a fresh one. The Joker had decided not to make their job any easier as they approached the medical facility, and he and the Bat had been fending off a seemingly unending wave of inmates. He had been initially surprised that the Bat had been willing to let Percy tag along, but he must have known that Percy was going to be stubborn about things, and the Bat was nothing if not a control freak. With someone like Percy running around on the island, it didn't surprise Percy that the Bat wanted to keep him under a careful eye at all times.

More surprising, at least for Percy, was his lack of a complaint that Percy was opting to shoot his way through the Asylum. Perhaps it was because Percy had made it emphatically clear that he didn't want to use his father's gifts, and he was insisting on trying to make his way through life as normally as possible. Maybe it was because the vigilante was aware of the terrible situation that the pair had found themselves in, either way, it didn't matter.

Percy ducked back around the pillar he'd been shooting around as rounds streaked through the air in his direction. The familiar "snap-hiss" of bullets flying through the air was oddly calming to Percy. In the midst of the odd night and suspicious circumstances of his being there, combat was something he understood. The heat of a firefight, with bullets flying and the only thing keeping his attention being the bastards on the other end of his rifle.

Crouching low to the floor, Percy poked the end of his rifle around the corner, and depressed the trigger, a small bust exploded from the muzzle and tore through the inmate's shoulder, throwing him to the ground in a cry of pain and a spurt of blood. Out of the corner of his eye Percy could see the Bat descending from some hiding place on high and ripping the rifle out of another inmate's hands, and battering the man into the ground with a painful combination of quick blows.

Darting out from behind cover, Percy raced forward. He came to a sliding stop at the end of a small chest-high wall just in time to miss being blown to pieces as buckshot scorched through the air where he'd just been. Poking his head over the top of the wall, he was just a hair quicker than his opponent, and another burst took down the inmate with a shotgun, and moments later Batman burst out of the shadows, and took care of the final inmate with a vicious looking chokehold.

Knowing that the room was secure, Percy stood back up, doing a quick mental count of his remaining ammunition, and how much he had left in the one remaining magazine. He was starting to run low and would have to rely on his side-arm soon, that or begin scavenging for ammunition from the inmates.

"This is getting ridiculous," He grunted as he fell into step beside the vigilante,

"With the Joker, it always is." The Bat responded gruffly.

That Percy could agree with, and his mind subconsciously reverted back to what Alfred had asked of him. The further he got into the facility, the more dead comrades they came across, the more he was beginning to think that the man had a point. He already agreed with the man that Joker deserved to die, but he was also starting to agree that maybe tonight would provide the perfect opportunity to take care of the bastard for good.

The only problem with that plan, was that Percy now had what he assumed was a permanent babysitter in the form of Batman. While Batman might have been willing to let Percy shoot his way through the Asylum, he somehow doubted that the man would be quite so willing to let Percy off his arch-nemesis. Alfred was quite right, the pair seemed to have an almost strange connection. A bond. Sick and twisted though it was, Percy rather felt that there was no way he'd be able to kill the sick clown as long as the Bat was by his side.

It would have been a simple task to get away from the man, mist-travel was a boon like that, but Percy loathed to use it. More to the point, he didn't know what the man would do should Percy use his abilities, and more importantly, should he use his abilities in conjunction with killing the Joker.

It was one thing to kill the bastard in the heat of a fight, it was quite another to use divine abilities to pull the clown's spine out through his throat.

Percy would not put it past the Bat to reveal Percy's true nature to the world, or at least make him seem like a meta-human out of spite. Such a revelation would, at a minimum, cost him his job. Worst-case scenario it could even cost him his freedom. The world simply didn't trust meta-humans, and it was all but a certainty that, even though he really wasn't a meta-human, he would be detained and shipped off to Belle Reve in a matter of hours.

He decided he would wait it out, see if his opportunity presented itself, and if it did, he would take it. Maybe it was selfish on his part, maybe it was for the best that he used his abilities for the betterment of mankind and kill one of the most dangerous people on the planet, but Percy thought he was allowed a moment of selfishness. He'd given everything for his planet more than once. Had been forced to give everything and then some, he deserved to have his normal life. Deserved the happy and normal life that he so desperately craved.

So while it was selfish, hypocritical even, he was able to live with that decision.

He hoped.

"He's through there," Batman said, nodding through a pair of double doors. Percy noted with some curiosity that the eye-pieces of his cowl seemed to be glowing somehow, likely there was some form of thermal imagining built into the cowl. Given the ludicrous shit the man had at his disposal, it didn't seem too far-fetched.

Percy grunted an affirmation, and stacked up on the far wall, expanding his senses to check and make sure for himself that there wasn't a trap of some kind waiting for them inside.

"Wait here," Batman ordered, "I'm going to check for traps."

Percy nodded, he wasn't overly fond of taking orders from the Bat, the given the circumstance he was willing to put his own pettiness aside for the sake of his boss. Especially when the Bat more than likely was much better equipped for looking for potential traps than Percy was. A few moments later, the Bat descended down from the top of the small building housing the Commissioner and, without even a second glance in Percy's direction, opened the door and stepped inside. Rolling his eyes, Percy followed the man inside.

The Commissioner had very clearly seen some better days. Quinn must have been playing with him a bit, because his face was beaten, bloodied, and bruised. Blood trickled down from what was more than likely a broken nose, and his right eye was swelling so badly that Percy wouldn't have been surprised if he couldn't see out of it whatsoever.

"Damn," Gordon huffed, "Never been happier to see you in my entire life, and-" He finally noticed Percy, even as he approached and began cutting through the man's restraints,

"Jackson? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Trying to figure that out for myself sir," Percy said, undoing the handcuffs restraining the Commissioner using the all-purpose restraints key and freeing the Commissioner from his restraints.

"Winston ordered me here right after we got word about the Joker."

"Winston?" Gordon asked, confused. Then a dark expression flashed over his expression, "Rat bastard," He snarled, spitting a gob of blood and saliva onto the floor.

"Your words sir," Percy chuckled, as he took a step back and came to a relaxed attention.

"Any idea what that madman is planning?" Gordon asked, directing the question to Batman, an action that Percy was only mildly bitter about.

"Something to do with Bane's venom formula." Batman explained, and Percy interrupted him. While it might have been petty, this was his boss, and he wanted it clear that the Bat wasn't the only one who was getting work done tonight.

"One of the doctor's here, Young, she's been experimenting with bane's Venom formula. Joker seems to think he can use her new formula to make himself an army, of what, we don't know yet."

"If it has to do with Venom, we can assume that it's nothing good." Gordon pondered, "By the way, we aren't alone in here." He walked over to the window in the room, and pointed down at the strange structure in the room below them. It looked an awful lot like a Greenhouse to Percy, and as he focused his senses, he could feel someone inside. Looking over to Batman, he gave the man a subtle nod, which the vigilante returned.

"What a blabbermouth!" Interrupted a now obnoxiously familiar voice, and the three men turned as one and looked at the monitor on the wall. It was Percy's first time seeing the Clown Prince, and he was…certainly something else. He could understand why the people of Gotham had grown so wary of clowns, if the haunting visage before him was anything to go by.

"How dare you, Commissioner! How dare you spoil my sweet little surprise." The Joker sat back in his chair, more like a throne if Percy were honest, and pouted petulantly, "I had wanted to give Batsy something fun and exciting to play with, but you had to go and ruin all my fun. What a killjoy." He sighed dramatically, then threw his hands into the air,

"Oh what the hell, why don't you go down there and see what I've been cooking up!" He chuckled ominously,

"I promise you won't be disappointed."

The maniac's haunting laughter seemed to follow him, even after he disappeared from the monitor.

Sharing a look with his boss, Percy gestured towards the door and the three men made their way from the room.

The Greenhouse was warm, and a thick fog obscured most of his vision, still Percy could feel the body at the end of the room. Though it was odd, even though he knew for certain that there was someone else in the room, he could have sworn that the person was flying or floating in the air.

Marching past him and Batman, Gordon immediately approached the computer terminal along the nearest wall. Cursing violently, he slammed a hand on the table.

"It needs Dr. Young's password," he said, but Percy and Batman weren't paying attention.

"Commissioner…get behind me." Percy ordered, as he hefted his rifle into his hands and took aim.

The fog was starting to dissipate somewhat, and the men could make out the other occupant in the room, and what Percy saw was possibly more disturbing than anything else he'd seen that night. Hanging at the end of the room, suspended by an intricate set of tubing and wires, was a man.

At least Percy was pretty sure it was a man.

It was difficult to discern, given the emaciated state of the poor creature. The skin on the man's body was flappy, and wrinkled. As though he'd lost a substantial amount of weight in too rapid a period of time and his body hadn't been able to compensate. He was so sickly thin that Percy could count the individual ribs on the poor man's body.

But it was the strange mask on the man's face that was the most identifying marker. It looked disturbingly similar to a luchador mask.

"Bane…" Batman breathed out, and it was the first time Percy had ever heard any emotion besides gruff agitation from the man.

"Cut…me…down…" Bane breathed, his voice was heavily accented, and it was easy to tell that he was in a considerable amount of pain.

"He broke out of Belle Reve months ago…what the hell is he doing here?" Gordon asked, to which no one seemed to have an answer.

"Who did this to you," Batman asked, and Percy saw his hand twitch near his utility belt.

"The bruja…Dr. Young…drained my blood…took my venom…I must stop her…"

"Sorry Has-Bane! But the good doctor won't be a problem for too much longer." The video monitor at their side sprang to life, and once more Joker's horrifying visage disturbed the room's attention.

"How do you boys like my new puppet?" He giggled in excitement as he drew a detonator out of his breast pocket, "What do you say we cut him down?" He cackled maniacally as he pressed the button on the remote. They could only watch as Bane let out a horrified scream, as the multiple tubes began to glow orange. A strange green liquid began flowing from somewhere above them, and pumped steadily into the poor man's body.

Bane's body began contorting; pulsing and undulating as it began to grow and mutate. The man's emaciated body became thick with large and corded muscle, and his eyes turned a deep and iridescent shade of green.

"Oh that ain't good." Percy muttered, as he brought his weapon to bare. He depressed the trigger, but it was too little too late. Bane let out an ear-shattering roar, and tore himself free from his restraints. Even as Percy's bullets ripped through the bestial man's chest, he didn't slow in the slightest. Whether or not he even felt the projectiles didn't seem to matter, as he raced towards them at a speed that was inhuman. Percy barely had enough time to shove the Commissioner clear before he was thrown off his feet as he was hit by a force similar to a speeding locomotive. He felt himself get thrown through the air and smash through a table on the other side of the building. Groaning, he got shakily to his feet in time to watch as Batman struggled to fend off the behemoth.

Darting forward, the beasts back was turned to Percy, and he leapt up onto the man's overly large back. Wrapping his hands around the thick neck, Percy buried a fist into the man's temple, but it was like punching concrete. He's even used a decent portion of his full strength behind the blow, but whatever they had done to make his venom more potent was making Bane's skin as hard as steel.

Cocking back again, and leveled a blow with as much of his true force as he could possibly throw, which seemed to actually do something. Bane stumbled, badly missing as he lunged for Batman who leapt clear of the man's large arms. However the action had the unintended consequence of destabilizing Percy, who toppled from the man's back into a heap on the ground.

Acting out of pure instinct, he scrambled out of the way just in time to avoid the large fist the shattered the tile floor where Percy had been mere moments before. But Bane was not to be deterred. With an all-mighty roar, he barreled across the hall at Percy, too quick for Percy to even try and react. Once more Percy was hit with force of a locomotive, and he could practically hear his ribcage scream in protest as the man's large arms wrapped around him. But the beast didn't stop, he continued running, and try as he might, Percy couldn't break the man's grip on him. Percy just had the time to meet the eyes of a horrified Commissioner Gordon, before he was slammed roughly into something strong and sturdy.

Concrete and plaster exploded around him, as Bane barreled through the wall of the building. Debris fell from the ceiling, and Percy could feel the ground shake through Bane's body. There was a terrifying crash, as the brick, mortal, and concrete of the wall began to tumble down and inward.

He thought that he heard Commissioner Gordon call out to him, but it was cut off by the collapse of the wall behind Bane. The tremors of the crash threw the large man off-balance, and Percy was thrown free of the behemoth. Rolling across the floor, Percy popped smoothly back to his feet some distance away from Bane, and took a brief glimpse at their surroundings.

They were in what looked like the boiler room, if the grated floor, and boiling hot temperatures were anything to go by. His eyes darted back to the hole that Bane had made in the wall, only to swear in frustration. The crash he'd heard had indeed been from the wall collapsing. Bane must have run straight through a support pillar, as the entire wall had caved in, effectively locking him into the room with Bane.

"Detective! Detective! Are you there? Are you all right?"

Percy hadn't thought that he'd be relieved to hear Alfred's voice again, and yet the man's dry British voice was a calming reassurance in his ear.

"I'm here Alfred." Percy panted out, "Bane tossed me through a wall, there was a cave-in. Pretty sure we aren't getting out of here without tunneling and I don't think that the big guy is in the mood for a team-up."

"I should think not," Alfred replied dryly, "Luckily for you, there aren't any cameras or terminals in the boiler room. You should be able to use your…abilities without any worry."

"You guys really don't know anything about me, do you?" Percy growled out, as he dived out of the way. Bane had reached down to the ground ripped a chunk of the godsdamned floor free and threw it at him.

"Any advice for taking this asshole down?"

"Cut the lines on his neck and arms supplying him the venom."

"No shit!" Percy snarled, dodging out of the way as the man-beast let out another bestial howl and charged at him. Bane missed him and charged headfirst into the nearest wall.

"I thought Bane was supposed to be smart!" Percy shouted as he took the opportunity to charge Bane himself. "But he's acting like a wild animal!"

"It must be the experimental venom." Alfred hummed thoughtfully, as Percy rammed a fist into the jaw of Bane.

"It must revert the user to a near animal-like state. Most intriguing."

"Fascinating!" Percy snarled, clapping his hands together into one large fist, and following up his previous blow with another to the underside of Bane's head. Teeth and spittle spewed from his mouth, but Percy didn't let up. Gripping the back of the man's mask, he leveled a vicious elbow against the side of his temple. Bane gasped in pain, and Percy seized his chance. Planting a foot on the man's fallen knee, he vaulted himself up and over the large man's shoulder, clutching onto the many tubes on his back. Gripping two of the tubes tightly in his hand, Percy planted a foot in the man's back and pulled with all his might. There was a horrifying popping sound as the tubes came free, and Percy had to close his eyes as excess venom spewed from the tubing and covered him. Bane let out a howl of misery and Percy very nearly lost his footing on the large human. Wrapping a hand around the final tube, he was about to pull it out when Bane jerked suddenly. A large, meaty hand swiped back at Percy. Given his precarious position on the man's back, Percy wasn't in a good position to defend himself, and Bane managed to grab hold of the front of Percy's vest and toss him across the room.

Growling in agitation, Percy got back to his feet.

"Well, it sounds like you're certainly handling things well down there." Alfred mused casually.

"You are just, the least helpful motherfucker on the planet," Percy growled.

"Happy to be of service."

Bane roared, gearing up for another charge. Tired of being thrown around like a rag-doll, Percy decided that it was time to meet strength with strength. At the same moment, both of them charged forward. Willing every ounce of strength into his being, Percy caught both of Bane's arms as he tried to swing down and crush Percy. Grunting under the force of the blow, Percy felt his feet slide across the floor. His arms strained, and he could feel the muscles in his arms and shoulders scream in protest, but as he had so many time before, he ignored the pain.

With a mighty heave, Percy disengaged from Bane, throwing the man's hands high into the air. Once inside the man's guard, Percy leveled a pair of his heaviest blows into his solar plexus. Bane gasped out in pain, collapsing to one knee as he clutched at his stomach in pain.

But Percy wasn't about to let up the advantage. With a mighty clap, he smacked the palms of his hands against Bane's ears, hoping to both disorient and potentially burst the man' eardrums. Bane's eyes screwed shut as another bestial roar escaped his lips, his own hands clapping around his ears as though he would be able to massage the pain away.

With his opponent stunned and disoriented, Percy vaulted onto his back once more. Wrapping his hands around the tubing, Percy heaved with all his might, and with another squelching 'POP' the tubing came free.

Dropping to the floor, Percy took a step back, breathing and panting heavily. He was hopeful that with the source of venom gone, it would leave the man down and defenseless.

Luckily, he was right.

Bane swayed to and fro, green venom spilling down his back and down his arms. His body twitched for a moment, before he collapsed face-first into the ground. Completely motionless.

"Thank fuck," Percy muttered, spitting a glob of blood and saliva on the ground, and wiping the sweat off his brow.

"Well that didn't go the way I wanted!" Joker's voice filled the room, and Percy groaned, how the hell did he even know what was going on? There weren't even any cameras in the room! His eyes landed on the small neck-brace on Bane's neck, and Percy's eyes narrowed. It was a restraint collar; one used to monitor and potentially subdue inmates. That must have been how Joker was monitoring the progress.

"I had this great plan to let Bane and Batsy have a little go at each other! To give me and my boys a show! And you ruined it! You spoilsport!" He sighed dramatically, "Ah well, can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs I suppose. Well…in this case, I suppose you can't create an army of mutated freak shows with killing a few detectives, bahahahahahaha!"

"Gods would you just shut up already," Percy growled,

"Awe, don't be such a sourpuss, you should feel honored! I don't normally have this much trouble killing a cop, it's beginning to get on my nerves…"

"Sounds like you problem," Percy grunted, as he hauled himself away from Bane and began inspecting the walls. He figured it would be possible to punch his way through the walls, but he would need to be careful, he didn't want to bring down another support pillar and risk a cave-in entirely.

"I really wouldn't agitate him detective," Alfred warned in his ear, but Percy ignored him.

"Well that's putting it mildly," snarked thee Joker, "But it won't be a problem for much longer. You see detective, I'm a man with a plan…and a plan….and plans for those plans…and you get to see the beautiful fruits of my labors. It was nice to have you boyo, but now it's time for you to have a blast! Sayonara!"

Percy's head whipped around, as suddenly several lights popped up on the many support pillars in the room.

"Detective!" Alfred said hurriedly in his ear, "Those are bombs, get to cover immediately!"

Knowing he didn't have enough time to break his way out of the room, he was forced to react purely on instinct. Pulling on the water from inside his own body, he summoned a spherical shield of water around himself, and not a moment too soon. The room exploded, as the bombs planted inside the support pillars blew. Brick, metal-work, piping, and debris slammed against Percy's shield. The structure of the building creaked and groaned, and Percy could feel the floor shifting under his feet.

There was another groan from the building, before the awful sound of brick splitting. Something heavy and hard slammed into the top of Percy's shield, throwing him onto his back and nearly breaking his concentration. Blinking through the sweat in his eyes, he could see that the roof of the building had crumbled, and was caving in entirely. The support pillars fell with a mighty crash around the room and Percy gasped in pain. Using the water in his own body was hard enough on him, and was a painful enough experience, but with every chunk of rock or mortar that fell on top of his shield, it was as though a hammer was being battered against his temples.

His vision began to blur as more and more of the building collapsed on top of him. He was being buried alive. But he didn't have the time to think about the reality of his situation. He was just trying to survive. But as the building fell on top of him, his vision finally began to go dark, and as the last lights of the starry sky began to disappear behind the rubble, he could faintly hear Alfred calling out his name.

Then everything went black.

BREAK

"Jackson!" Gordon cried out in horror. An understandable reaction, Batman decided, given the fact that he didn't know what the man was truly capable of. Looking at the pile of rubble that Bane and Jackson had disappeared behind, he was far less worried. Even with this worrying new strand of Venom, Jackson was more than capable of dealing with the likes of Bane, he just hoped that he didn't sink the entire island into the sea to do it.

"There's nothing we can do for him now," He said gruffly, "We need to get you out of here."

Gordon's look of horror turned to one absolute disgust,

"That's easy for you to say. But he's one of my detectives, and he's trapped inside with that monster."

"Jackson is resourceful, have some faith," Batman placated,

"He's still just a man!" Gordon growled,

"So am I," He replied, turning his back on the Commissioner and making his way out of the ruined structure. He needed to get to Dr. Young. She was the key to all of this. If he could get his hands on the formula that she created, he could send it to Alfred and the League, and hopefully get an antidote in the works should things get even worse.

"That's bullshit and you know it," Gordon groused, as he fell into step beside him, glancing over his shoulder in worry as the entire building seemed to shake at once.

"Then how about this, you're needed on the mainland." Batman countered, "Joker claims he's placed bombs all over the mainland, and he's said that if he sees even one member of the League he's going to blow them simultaneously."

"I hate this job," Gordon sighed, running a ragged hand through his hair as they stepped through the exit. "And I hate you for being right." He looked over his shoulder again, looking at the entrance to the Medical Center, "Just promise me you'll go back and look for him…if worst comes to worst…he deserves to be buried."

"He'll be fine," Batman swept the worry aside, leading the Commissioner to the dock, he'd had Alfred radio ahead to the department that he had Gordon, and there was a boat already waiting for him. He recognized the man at the helm of the small craft, and knew him to be one of the few trustworthy men in the department, Gordon would be able to get back to the mainland safely at least.

The building behind them, at that moment, suddenly shook as an explosion rocked the still silence of the night air, and both Gordon and Batman whipped around to watch. The building creaked and groaned, before it began to crumble. Bit by bit, part of the support structures began to fall, before the entire medical facility fell in on itself.

They stared in sunned silence for a moment. Whatever he'd been expecting, he hadn't been expecting that. Jackson was capable of a lot, worryingly so, but he couldn't cause an explosion of that scale could he? He wasn't certain, it was possible that the boiler had ruptured, but that wouldn't have caused an explosion of that kind of a magnitude. That kind of an explosion required high-end ordinance at least.

Looking back at Gordon, he caught the haunted and defeated look on the man's face. He turned away from him, stepping into the boat and hauling a life jacket onto his torso.

"Still think he can handle it?" He asked bitterly.

He didn't give Batman a chance to respond, as he waved a hand at the man at the helm. The boat spurred to life, and within moments the boat was carrying Gordon away from the island, and back to the mainland.

He waited until the boat was nearly out of sight, before clicking the radio link on his gauntlet, keying him into the private and encrypted channel he used with Alfred.

"What happened?" He demanded,

"I have no idea," Alfred said, from the sounds of rapid typing coming from Alfred's end of the line, he was scrambling to find something.

"Did Jackson-"

"No," Alfred said quickly. "I've been monitoring the NWS and the USGS, there have been no reports of strange weather patterns or of underground seismic activity in the last several days."

"Explosives then," He mused,

"I believe so, sir. Would you like me to reposition the satellite for global imaging of the wreckage."

He hesitated for a moment, thinking through his options, before nodding to himself,

"Do it. Let me know what you find."

"Will do sir, and what will you be doing?"

"Dr. Young's formula is still missing. I'm going after it."

"Very good sir, and best of luck."

AN: Whew, this was a fun one. Percy throws down with Bane and beats the ever-loving piss out of him, too bad Joker is a sore loser huh? Only one chapter left before this arc comes to a close…hope you're ready because it's gonna be a HELL of a lot of fun. 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 see you next week,

LilDB