My first encounter with a supervillain acting like a supervillain was educational. I couldn't actually see him doing his thing, but what I could hear explained a lot about how they managed to be so successful.

It was the Ventriloquist. Or rather, Arnold Wesker and Scarface. 'They' were one of the supervillains who ruled the more conventional parts of the underworld, or rather, Scarface did. Most everything I'd found here suggested that Scarface was just an alternate personality of Arnold. However, my previous life suggested that there was more going on than a simple multiple personality disorder.

He was one of the people one my list.

In the comics, Scarface had 'outlived' Wesker, They also implied that Scarface had a life of its own in several cartoon series. The memories of both were pretty fuzzy, but they gave me hope that an ...unorthodox treatment could help the poor man. Preparing for the first steps of his treatment was so easy that I had started getting ready for my encounter with Wesker a week ago. I needed to get rid of the evil ventriloquist dummy before I started though.

I'd spotted the two of them leaving a car that looked like it was made in the late thirties and entering an old wooden building in part of Gothams abandoned historic district.

He had a bunch of thugs with him, all dressed like stereotypical 1920's gangsters. Rhino, Scarface's right-hand leg-breaker, stuck out like a sore thumb. He was practically the size of a compact car, and according to what I'd dug up, about half as smart. I don't have a clue how he had fit inside the car though.

Sneaking in after them was been pretty easy. The creaky floors had been loud enough that my boosted ears could hear them from outside the building. I stayed one floor below them and listened in on their meeting.

It was a recruitment drive. The Ventriloquist had gathered a bunch of more modern gangs and was attempting to absorb them into his group.

I had to admit, as nutty and weird as the Ventriloquist was, he was certainly charismatic. They weren't the kind of men who trusted others. They didn't work their way to the top of their gangs by lacking ambition or a certain amount of ruthlessness. For a short, chubby man with a dummy to be able to draw them in and make them even consider working for him was really impressive.

Not just anyone could get the kind of results he was getting just by talking, Not without a very big carrot and a very heavy stick. The fact that he did it with that dumb, psuedo-mob boss act made it even crazier.

"Gotham ain't the easiest place ta operate. You don't see many honest businessmen like us around here, mostly just freaks."

I felt myself smirking as I heard the Ventriloquist's audience shift awkwardly. None of them wanted to be the first to point out the hypocrisy.

Having my ear plastered up against the ceiling let me hear the wooden floor shift from their slight movements. It was easy to hear the chairs creak as they leaned forward in interest, or them leaning back and trying not to look at each other or say something that would get them riddled with holes from a puppet's miniature tommy-gun.

"Still, this city is a full piggybank ta those that got a big enough hammer. If youse lot can follow orders, I'll make sure every one of ya is rollin' in the dough. But if any of youse gets ideas…"

The wooden mafioso's voice lowered as he practically growled like a bulldog.

"You'll be sleepin' with the fish in Gotham harbor before the day ends, got it?"

I could hear the floorboards creak ever so slightly as most of them nodded. One or two of them didn't seem so agreeable. They shifted forward, probably to glare at either Scarface or his 'dummy.'

"And what's stopping us from cutting you out? Why should we listen to you?"

Arnold Wesker shoved a hand forward, probably the one holding Scarface. I thought I heard a click and I definitely heard Rhino's bulk shift as he stepped forward to loom over Wesker's shoulder.

"Sounds like you're getting ideas, but first I gotta ask: are ya stupid or are yer ears made a' wood?"

The guy stood up, offended, but Wesker's chair rattled as he turned towards the man and the gangster sat back down.

"Youse lot have got the muscle, but none of youse have the know-how to operate in a city like this. Gotham doesn't use the same rulebook other cities do. The freaks are coming out of the woodwork around here."

And that was my cue.

I used an energy blast to 'soften' up the ceiling to make it easier to shove my head up through it. My head popped out of the floor with a burst of wood splinters. I gave the group of criminals a wide grin and spoke brightly.

"Someone call my name?"

The reactions were pretty entertaining. Everyone jumped, and a few of the out of town gangsters actually fell out of their chairs. Everyone was cussing up a storm, except Arnold Wesker, who yelped like a kicked dog. Strangely enough, Scarface was swearing as he did, which was either a really impressive demonstration of Arnold's skill at ventriloquism or evidence of Scarface's true nature.

I pulled myself up through the floorboards before they got their act together. Scarface and his gang reacted first. I was forced to run and jump about the room to avoid testing how bulletproof I was. It got harder when the out of towners got over their shock and started shooting too. While the other gangsters had modern firearms, the Ventriloquist's men all seemed to be equipped with Tommy-guns like Scarface was. Still, bullets were bullets.

And I would have bet at least a million that their guns were more modern than the outsides looked.

I cartwheeled and somersaulted around the room, cackling at the top of my lungs. This was strangely hilarious. I especially enjoyed their faces when I pulled down an eyelid and blew a raspberry at them. The morons got so pissed they blew through their ammo like drunks at a firing range. Scarface's men were better shots and stuck with burst fire, but even they ran out pretty quickly. It was pure chaos.

I was shocked that they didn't accidentally shoot each other.

"Neener neener!~ Your aims are as shitty as your faces!"

Once their bullets ran out, Scarface's men ran forward to fight hand to hand. The others hesitated a bit, but they eventually followed the locals' lead. A variety of knives were produced, from actual switchblades to more ridiculous stuff like meat cleavers. Rhino didn't have an edged weapon, but he did have a set of massive knuckle dusters that he slipped on.

I wasn't going to fight all of them. I could, but it seemed like an awful waste of time. I jumped back as if I was retreating and stepped next to the hole I'd left earlier. The glider on the lower floor fired a pair of pumpkin bombs up through the hole with a *foont foont* noise. I caught them out of the air and armed them, setting the explosive force to what I mentally referred to as 'riot control' and tossing them into the crowd.

The explosions were weird. Each 'bang' was accompanied by a short scream-like sound and a billow of green smoke. The thugs were each hit with a blast that must have felt like a tackle from a professional linebacker. It didn't do much damage to their soft tissues though, which didn't make any sense. Without a lab to help my tests I had been forced to chalk it up to either comic book physics or alien technology bullshit.

It still didn't make much sense to me for the cube to make me a copy of the Green Goblin, especially the one from the Spectacular Spiderman cartoon. But, it wasn't like I had any answers, so I had decided to roll with that too. It was pretty stylish, so I wasn't complaining.

Suddenly, Rhino barreled out of the smoke and charged at me, just like his namesake. It was a miracle his stomps didn't punch holes in the floor. He crossed the space between us in moments and swung a fist at me. On a whim, I decided to match his punch with one of my own. Our fists hit each other with a nasty cracking noise.

Despite the heavy lump of brass wrapped around his knuckles, punching his fist didn't hurt. It felt more like knocking on a door a bit harder than normal. The problem was how little mass I had compared to Rhino. Although to be fair, plenty of bears were smaller than the enormous thug. My arm was knocked back and I lost my balance. His other hand smashed into me with an uppercut that knocked me flying.

I was slightly over a hundred and fifty pounds in my armor, but that one punch from the oversized mook bounced me off the ceiling and smashed me into the wall.

I wasn't injured at all. Unfortunately, Rhino couldn't say the same. The skin under his knuckle dusters had torn and the fingers of his right hand had probably been broken. He shook his hands with a grimace before glaring at me. The Rhino in marvel had superstrength and an animal themed suit of body armor, but this guy was just way bigger and stronger than any human had a right to be.

I was, as far as I could tell, at Captain America levels of strength without transforming. My small size meant that my stats were a bit lower than that, but I was still superhuman, if barely. However, with my armor, I was a lot stronger and tougher. It was difficult to estimate without proper measuring equipment. I managed to pick up a compact car, and could almost lift a normal-sized one.

It was a nice level of strength. Sure, I wasn't going to be able to fight Aquaman hand to hand, but that's not something to complain about. For most opponents, I had to be careful not to use too much strength.

Rhino and I danced around the table, swinging at each other. He had a ridiculous reach, so I was forced to duck in, throw a punch, and zip out of the way. He also was willing to take a hit if it meant that he could get one of his own in, which wasn't something I wanted to encourage. I kept an eye on Albert, firing an energy blast at his feet whenever he tried to leave. This was a good opportunity to finetune my fighting technique against squishier people, and I wanted to take advantage of it.

Eventually, Rhino took one punch too many and collapsed to the floor with a boom. I straightened up and brushed my hands off with a grin.

"Welp, that was fun. Didn't think fighting a shithead the size of a fridge would be that cathartic, but there you go."

I turned to the Ventriloquist and started walking towards him while cracking my knuckles. Just when I was almost within arm's reach, a dark shape smashed through the window and flung something at me. I leaned back to dodge the batarang and turned to face Batman.

"Do you mind? I was just about to punch someone who really deserved it."

Batman stalked over. Somehow, he managed to loom better than Rhino ever did, despite being about a foot shorter than the thug. The dark silhouette practically sucked the light out of the air. I kind of got why criminals treated him like the boogeyman now. He was good at being scary.

"I'm not going to let you do that. Wesker doesn't deserve that sort of treatment."

I gave the hero my best shocked and offended expression. Part of me was, even if I had been deliberately misleading.

"Wesker? Wait, you thought I was gonna attack him? What kind of monster do you think I- ...You know what? I don't care. I'm after termites-for-brains here."

Albert made a relieved sound that was cut off by Scarface's enraged screech.

"Termite for brains!? I'll kill you, you halloween reject!"

Without any bullets in his little tommy gun, Scarface just wasn't that scary. Yeah, he was still unnerving, but his stupidly overdone accent made it a lot less creepy and more silly. I threw my arms out and thrust my chest out.

"Come at me pinocchio: I'll wreck your shit!"

Scarface let out a wordless scream of rage and lunged towards me, dragging Albert along with him somehow. Albert unconsciously pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and passed it to the ventriloquist doll. I waited till the last second before slapping Scarface hard enough to knock him off Albert's arm.

"Grah! Dummy! Grab me!"

"Yes Mister Scarface!"

Albert Wesker scrambled for Scarface. I quickly stepped forward and got between them. I'll admit I hesitated a bit, but I did step up to Wesker and give him a slightly awkward hug. Mostly to stop him from going after Scarface, but partially because He looked like he really needed a hug.

He flinched a bit, but didn't really struggle. I had the feeling that without Scarface attached to him, Wesker wasn't going to make any aggressive actions. Turns out, I was right. I ignored how embarrassing and uncomfortable hugging a random stranger was.

He needed this. If I wasn't willing to do this to help him I wouldn't be able to claim that I was serious about my goal to help people.

"Hey. It's okay. You're okay."

"I…"

"Get over here Dummy!"

"Don't listen to him okay? Look at me. You don't have to do this."

"You need me! You're nothing without me!"

"H-he's right… I can't."

"No."

I pulled back and grabbed Albert's shoulders. He stiffened with shock and looked at me wide eyed. I stared at him as seriously as I could.

"You don't need him. He needs you."

"I-"

"No. Listen to me. Look at him."

I kept a hand on his shoulder and stepped to the side, letting him see Scarface flopped limply on the floor.

"Look at him. He can't even move without you. If you walk out the door right now, he won't be able to get up, he won't be able to commit any crimes, he won't even be able to talk. He depends on you, not the other way round."

'Scarface' continued to shout insults, but strangely enough, Albert didn't seem to be listening. I took the time to reject and counter everything it said though. Scarface was still part of Albert Wesker, so I needed to answer his fears if I wanted to make any progress.

"You will find someone who will help you. A friend and neighbor who won't force you to do this stuff and will be there for you. I promise."

Wesker sobbed and hugged me again. This time when we hugged it was a lot more sincere. We both ignored Batman, and when the police arrived they bundled him in a car separate from the group of gangsters and wannabe mafioso. I answered a few questions with Batman hovering behind me and the police drove off.

I waved to Albert while smiling reassuringly before speaking to Batman without turning around.

"Before we talk, there's something I need your help with."

Batman's eyes narrowed suspiciously but he followed me back up into the meeting room. I picked up Scarface and looked towards the superhero.

"Do you have Nth metal handcuffs? Holy water too."

Batman raised an eyebrow, which was weird to see with his cowl, and handed them over. The cuffs were thin and compact, and the vial of holy water was tiny, but the fact that he actually had them was impressive.

That utility belt really did have anything and everything.

I clipped the cuffs around the ventriloquist puppet. It was awkward and wouldn't actually have bound him if he was animate, but I would work fine for my purposes. I popped open the holy water and sprinkled it over the puppet.

*Skree!*

The dummy screeched and its wooden body smoked and twitched. It didn't take long for it to settle down though. I wasn't sure if it was dead, so I didn't take off the cuffs as I handed it over to Batman, who took it carefully, like I'd handed him a bomb.

"Thought so. I'm guessing it's something nasty that latched onto Albert a while ago. I dunno what it is; might be a ghost or just coagulated spiritual evilness. Either way, it was given a convenient body thanks to a ventriloquist dummy made of wood from slaughter swamp and a connection to Albert via his multiple personality disorder. You might want to have someone in the League take a look, maybe put it down for good."

Batman looked down at Scarface then up at me, staring with an unreadable expression.

"You think this will cure him?"

"No. It might take the edge off though, give him a chance to recover. He'll probably struggle the rest of his life with his issues to a greater or lesser degree. Mental disorders aren't that easy to deal with though. I think we both know that all too well."

I internally flinched as the words left my mouth and Batman turned to skewer me with a glare.

We spent the next few seconds in a one sided staring contest. I looked everywhere but at Batman, while he patiently waited for his gaze to set me on fire.

"...Um, sorry. That was a little rude."

"Why are you here?"

I suppressed a flinch at his tone.

"I want to make a difference."

He glared a bit harder, although he seemed less mad. I kept talking before he could cut me off.

"I'm ninety percent certain that you're like me. You didn't start out like this."

I gestured at myself, then him before continuing.

"It probably only took one day. One bad day that changed everything. I won't hypothesize on what yours was. You deserve your right to your privacy. I won't insult you by guessing what you would have been if it hadn't happened. But I do know this: Whatever it was, that event derailed everything about your life."

The sane, intelligent part of my brain was screaming about how stupid it was to remind Batman of day his parents died. Even worse, my mouth apparently decided to use some half-baked, amateurish imitation of one of Joker's most iconic speeches. As soon as I realized that, the sane part of my brain just threw its hands in the air and stalked off to let the rest of me keep digging the hole I'd found myself in.

"This city, this world…. It's full of people who've had that one bad day. All of us got a taste of reality. We realized how horrible it could be, how unstable everything was. We went crazy. Most put on the costume and stop following the rules that don't make sense to them anymore. They give up on the world once they see how doomed it is."

I gave him a serious look, but I couldn't help the small, happy grin that appeared on my face.

"But some people, people like us, try to make the world a better place. Maybe we want to prevent others from dealing with what we had to, maybe we want to give people a second chance, maybe we want to make the world a happier saner place. I don't know. I wouldn't call us heroes though; people like us are just a bunch of nutjobs who are doing the only sane thing we can imagine."

Batman grunted. I couldn't really tell what he was thinking. I couldn't even read his emotions.

He turned without speaking and left the building. I heard the noise of a suppressed grappling hook. It made me sighed slightly.

"Well, that was rude. I was looking forward to his 'stealth hi/bye' thing too…"

Oh well, I had to get ready for phase two of my plan to help Albert Wesker.