Chapter 4
Fear of the Living Dead

A massive football game was undergoing at the moment within a large stadium. The crowd was going wild as they watched the football players rush around the field, passing the football from person to another in attempt to get it past the goals.

While the game went on, Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter, and their henchmen were in the basement. It was just like Batman anticipated, they intended to spread the fear gas a in a place of large gathering which was currently this place. They watched the game go on from a television that was broadcasting the event live. "We'll let them enjoy a little while longer," said Scarecrow. "And then..." He turned to look at some of his men, who were dressed like employees of the place and had metal packs on their backs. They were in fact disguised as beer vendors. "...you lot will go out under the pretense of selling beer, and when I give the signal, put on your gas masks and go crazy with it! After that, sit back and enjoy the bloody chaos that goes on! I wonder how the football players will react to seeing the crowd being more active than them!"

"What about Batman?" one of the henchmen asked.

"Don't worry; I've brought an extra muscle to deal with him," Scarecrow told him. "I will make sure to keep him busy down here, while you lot get the job done!"

Batman was currently on his way to the football stadium as fast as he could. He had to stop the villains before they spread the gas. There was no way he could save such a large amount of person infected by the fear gas. He wasn't sure if he could convince everyone in the stadium to evacuate, and as much as he valued life, he wasn't sure if he wanted to spoil everyone's excitement for this night. If possible, he wanted to stop the villains without interfering with the ball game.

Unknown to him, another Batmobile, an older model, was traveling down the same path he went through. Nitori was behind the wheel of said Batmobile. She didn't actually want to catch up with him, because he obviously would find it weird that his older ride was out in the public and tailing him. Thanks to a secretly planted tracker on Batman's suit and the smartphone-like device that showed his current location, she was able to not lose track of him. Having skills in driving helped currently too.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I think he'll get angry if he sees us..." said Kogasa in a worried voice.

"He'll have to deal with it!" said Nue. "By the time he finds out about us, he'll have no choice but to let us stick around and help him!"

The audience went wild when one team scored a goal. The team members of the scoring team ran towards the player who scored to hug him and give him high fives. It was a moment for celebration, but only for a short while, as the game was going to continue, and they might not win if they didn't play well enough again.

The goal was seen by Scarecrow and his men from the TV in the basement. "Well, that was fun, but it's time to get to work!" he said to his men. "Get your packs ready and go out there and sell beer to thirsty people! This is going to be most shocking beer they'll ever taste! Heheh!"

"You won't be selling any beers tonight, Scarecrow!" said an angry voice. They all turned to see Batman standing in the darker part of the room, and he stepped out of it to let the light shine onto him for them to see clearly.

"Ah! So you came at least, Batman!" Scarecrow said to him in a way that implied he was glad about his presence.

"We should've acted earlier!" said the Mad Hatter in panic. "You insisted that we wait and let the ball game progress a bit first!"

Turning to him, Scarecrow said, "Are you afraid that we will fail simply because Batman is here? Relax! I have everything planned out! Remember that guy we brought along? He'll be sure to keep him busy!" He then turned to some henchmen. "Let him out now!"

Batman watched curiously as some henchmen ran over to a large crate bound with chains placed at a far corner of the room. One of them knocked on the crate, and in doing so caused the whole thing to shake, and someone was heard speaking from the inside. "Born on a Monday! Christened on a Tuesday!" Hearing this sent a sweatdrop running down Batman's face.

"Oh no... Not him..." he thought.

One of the henchmen used a key to unlock all the locks on the chains, and the moment he did so, the crate burst open, causing them to fly away. Out came a towering and hulking monster of a man with gray skin, white hair, and dressed in ragged, blue clothes. The monstrous person let out a loud cry while stretching his arms to the sides. "Married on a Wednesday!"

"Solomon Grundy..." Batman said under his breath in annoyance.

"We knew that by ourselves, we'll have a hard time trying to get rid of you, so we hunted him down and brought him here for the purpose of defeating you!" said Scarecrow. "You may be a good fighter, Batman, but skills won't help you against pure muscles like Solomon Grundy!" He then pointed at Batman and commanded the undead to go after him.

Grundy glared at Batman, thus causing memories of his losses against him in the past to resurface. Filled with rage, the zombie cried out loud, "GRUNDY HATES BAT MAN! RAAAAAARGH!" And he charged towards the Dark Knight. He latter jumped to the side and threw some exploding batarangs at the zombie, but they didn't do anything other than enraging him. Grundy brought his hands over his head to slam them down like a hammer on Batman, who avoided it.

Landing from his jump, Batman turned to Scarecrow's henchmen and saw them putting on their metal packs containing fear gas and getting ready to leave the audience area. Acting quick, he threw bat-shaped devices at the metal packs. They attached onto them and let loose electricity, zapping both the metal packs and the people carrying them, and they fell to the floor as a result of it.

"How dare you?!" the Mad Hatter angrily said to Batman.

"Electricity is the nanobots' weakness!" explained Batman. "By electrocuting the packs, I have disintegrated the nanobots mixed with the fear gas inside them! You can no longer harm people with your gas now, Scarecrow!"

"You sure are smart, Batman!" said Scarecrow, not looking worried at all. "But I have a load more fear gas mixed with the nanobots mass produced at S.T.A.R. Labs in my vehicle! Once I've gotten rid of you, I'll spread it throughout this place! Kill him, Grundy!"

"Grundy hates bat man!" Grundy shouted as he swung his hand at Batman, who ducked and then rolled out of the way before throwing more exploding batarangs at him, but the result was the same. Grundy closed in on him and swung his fist, but Batman jumped towards his head and socked him across the face. Doing so caused the zombie to cry in pain and move away from the Dark Knight while holding one hand on his face. When he removed his hand, a bat-shaped burnt imprint was seen on his skin. Batman was revealed to be wearing brass knuckles that were glowing red with heat. The zombie hated fire and was also weak to it, so Batman did the right choice of bringing such a weapon.

"GRUNDY HATES FIRE!" the zombie shouted before running at Batman in an attempt to grab him. Batman rolled out of the way and delivered several punches to the side of his body with his heated brass knuckles, making the undead cry in pain constantly. Enraged, Grundy grabbed a nearby table and flung it at him, but the latter got out of the way and then threw a couple more exploding batarangs, which Grundy blocked using his arm. Grundy picked up another table and this time used it as a bludgeoning tool against the Dark Knight. With each hit, which always missed, the table broke and became smaller and smaller until there was a only a small board left in the zombie's hand.

Batman charged at him to punch him with his heated brass knuckle, but Grundy pulled off a surprising move of flinging that wooden board at Batman, which he did not anticipate. It hit him hard in the face and made him fall on his back. Before he could get back up, Grundy caught him by one leg and slammed him against the floor over and over before flinging him into the wall. Batman cried in immense pain as he hit the wall and fell to the floor, and the zombie proceeded to close in on him.

"Yes! Get him! Kill him now! Don't give him any chance to do anything!" Scarecrow ordered Grundy with excitement.

Acting fast, Batman threw a pellet onto the floor to fill the place with smoke. Grundy closed his face with his hands when that happened, and then he tried to look for the Dark Knight through the clouded vision. He felt several punches to the sides of his body and knew that the Dark Knight was striking him. He swung his hands around in an attempt to catch him and was lucky enough to score a hit. Batman once again found himself flying through the air and hitting a wall.

The Mad Hatter turned to the other henchmen and said, "What are you standing here for? This is fun to watch and all, but hurry up and go get those extra fear gas from the truck!" The henchmen nodded and then ran for the staircase leading upstairs. Shortly after they ran up it, the sound of commotion and beating could be heard, and they rolled back down and piled on top of each other. "What in the?!" the Mad Hatter said in surprise.

Nitori, Nue, and Kogasa came down from the stairs shortly afterwards and stood side to side, looking proud that they've finally arrived at the place. "Surprised to see us, Batman?" asked the kappa.

By this time, the smoke had cleared away, and Batman saw them and said, "What are you doing here? I told you go back to your own world!"

"You're not giving us orders, especially when you look like you're not in the condition to handle things yourself here!" Nue said to him. She saw Grundy closing in on Batman, who was still down on the floor, so she ran towards the undead and plunged her trident into his back, making him cry in pain. He shook his body around to get her off, but she held firmly onto her trident, which was plunged deep in his body, to avoid flying away. She eventually pulled out her trident and flew back through the air while pointing her wings at the undead to shoot him with laser beams.

Grundy tanked the projectiles and cried angrily about wanting to crush a little girl. He charged at her, but she swiftly got out of the way and allowed him to run straight into a wall. "What on earth is that?!" asked Kogasa in shock.

"Looks like a zombie to me," said Nitori.

"I remember when Futo was in this world, she mentioned fighting a large zombie before being found by us and the League," said Nue. "Maybe this is the one she was talking about."

"You shouldn't have come here," Batman said to them as he walked up to them.

"Is that what we get for helping you? You're such an ungrateful person!" Nitori angrily said to him. "You should be glad that we saved your hide! You were about to get killed by that monster!"

"Whatever... Now that you're here, can you help me hold off Grundy, while I deal with Scarecrow and the others?" Batman asked him.

""We'll show you just how useful we are!" Nitori said to him, sounding confident.

TO BE CONTINUED