Roman Sionis, better known as the crime lord Black Mask, was sitting alone in his office with a man he had called in to take care of a certain problem.

"This Zeus freak is the reason I called you hear today," Roman said.

"It's not the Batman for once? I am honestly surprised. But what is so bad about this... Zeus?"

"He took out the Penguin and thirty of his men after kicking down his front door. And he did it with his bare hands!"

"He sounds impressive."

"Impressive?! Have you lost your mind? He's dangerous to me and my profits! If he went after Penguin, how long before he comes after me?!"

"What makes you think he will even try to kill you?"

"Easy, he's just like everybody else out there, he wants money and power. And since he's already got Penguin, the only way he can go any higher is ME!"

"How do you know he has taken out the Penguin?"

"The midget decides to go on a long trip and give away all his connections? That's not him at all! Zeus must have like a robot or something in Penguin's place, because the real Penguin would sooner kill a guy than give him a single cent!"

"I see your point Black Mask."

"Good. So will you take him out?"

"That depends. What's in this for me?"

"Four million up front. Seven million when he's good and dead."

Roman's hired muscle thought for a moment before answering. "Alright. I shall break this god for you just as I broke the Bat."

The two of them shook on it. "Pleasure doing business with you Bane. But how exactly do you plan on finding him?"

"Oh I have an excellent idea..."

XXXXXX

Jeremiah was sitting in his office almost sick with worry. Over the past week, nearly half of the workers in the asylum had began coughing roughly every five seconds. Clearly something was going around, and it was spreading like wildfire.

"You need to keep everyone who's sick away from everyone else." Jeremiah spun around and saw Batman had appeared in his office.

"It never startles me when you do that," Jeremiah replied catching his breath. "But why?"

Batman handed him a vial filled with black liquid. "That is why."

"What on Earth is this?" Jeremiah asked as he closely looked at the vial.

"It's a piece of the weapons Zeus uses. I know because it is identical to a sample of him I found elsewhere. I found this spread out in Specific Treatment."

"Okay." Jeremiah looked back over to Batman. "But why is it a problem?"

"I ran some tests on my own sample. It's capable of absorbing living flesh and perfectly imitating it. From what your workers have told me and from what I've gathered on Zeus on my own, it's a biological weapon, most likely a manmade virus, and is highly contagious."

"Oh dear." He looked back at the sample and then back to Batman. "But why doesn't it affect Zeus if he's constantly surrounded by it?"

"Zeus isn't human. He had his throat torn completely open by Zsasz, and then he made Zsasz soar into a wall."

"That's... both disturbing and amazing. But what exactly does this stuff do?"

"Aside from the imitation, I'm not sure. It could kill the host, it could simply lie dormant. It might even make those who have it similar to Zeus."

Jeremiah pictured the Joker with the spiked arms Zeus always had, and that alone was enough to convince him to do what Batman had said when he first arrived.

XXXXXX

President Lex Luthor was in the Oval Office with Cadmus' Amanda Waller. She had just told him several reasons for a very random and somewhat pointless plan.

"Quarantine all of Gotham..." He repeated her plan back to her.

"Yes Mr. President. That is my proposition."

"I would like to know why we should exactly."

"My men and I have evidence that Gotham is the sight of an incredibly contagious and deadly virus." She pulled out a small vial full of the ooze her men had managed to blow off of Mercer in front of Arkham. She handed it to Lex. "It has no cure. It's most likely airborne. So there is only one way to contain it..."

XXXXXX

It had taken Mercer a lot of time, searching, and work, but he had finally found a crook who knew where to find Black Mask. He stood in front a desecrated and abandoned warehouse near the Gotham shipyard in the dead of night. He had expected to find Black Mask in a more high quality place, but then again, that would have been rather predictable. He got his claws at the ready, and charged into the building straight through one of the rotten walls. He looked rapidly around, expecting hundreds of men armed to the teeth to surround their boss and kill the man who intended to murder him. Instead he found the entire place to be empty. He couldn't understand since the man who told him that Black Mask was here had done so by being consumed. It was then that he heard slow clapping from inside the warehouse. Slowly, a very big and muscular man walked out of the heavy shadows. He was wearing a white and black mask and had a tube running from his left wrist to the back of his head.

"Well done Zeus. I did not expect you to find me this quickly."

"So you are the infamous Black Mask." Mercer responded fanning out his claws. "I'd have expected a little more security. Or any security at all."

The man let out a laugh. "You have the wrong man Zeus. I am not the crime lord, but his muscle. You may call me Bane. And I don't need help to tear you to pieces. I also devised the ploy that would lead you here, but I must admit that it was a rather simple one. You see, while the majority of my plans are precise and complex, the one that led you here was... pathetic. All we did was lie to all the underlings about moving Mask's HQ to here."

"You're right. That's a very pathetic plot." He quickly kneeled down, scraped his claws along the ground, and brought himself back up into a fighting stance.

The man smiled and cracked his hands and wrists. "No man can defeat Bane. You should reconsider what you plan to do with those before I rip them right out of you."

"Well Bane, I can now see that you ran into this blind." He changed his arms back to normal. He decided to have some fun toying with this hitman before consuming him. "Enjoy your last moments."

Bane charged at him. Zeus waited until he was about to land a punch on him, and then he easily sidestepped out of the way and elbowed Bane right on his back. Even though Zeus had only used a fraction of his power, it still sent Bane crashing through the wall and out into the street. Zeus climbed out of the hole he had just made and saw Bane picking himself up. Zeus looked to his side and saw an empty car which he walked over to. He dug his fingers into the front end and tossed it right towards Bane, who just managed to get himself into a standing position before the vehicle rammed into him. After colliding with Bane, the car lost almost no momentum and only stopped after Bane wound up sandwiched between it and the side of another building. For a few seconds the car remained in the air before finally falling off of Bane, who had made a huge imprint of his body on the wall and was stuck in it. After groaning for a moment Bane pushed himself out of the wall and looked at Zeus with fury in his eyes. He let out a war cry as he once again charged at Zeus, who once again waited for him to get close, and once he did he caught Bane's assaulting fist in his hand and then kicked Bane away from him, sending him right through the wall this time.

"You just signed your death warrant Zeus!" Bane roared as he climbed out of the hole, glaring at Zeus, ready to commit mass murder.

"I'll be sure to put that on your headstone." Zeus replied dryly. He watched as Bane apparently adjusted something on his left arm just below the spot where the tube started. In the next few seconds, Bane let out a loud groan as he grew to be almost twice his size.

"Now the real game begins." Bane said with a smile on his masked face as he pounded his knuckles together.

Zeus then noticed the whirring sound above him. He looked up and saw a helicopter hovering above the two of them. "How about a round of catch?"

XXXXXX

Batman was once again going in any random direction as he raced around town looking for Mercer before he went on a full blown rampage when Oracle messaged him.

"Batman, I know where Zeus is. And you won't believe who he's with."

"Where?"

"Listen to this."

She remotely adjusted the signal and Batman was now looking at one of Gotham's many news broadcasts one the small screen just below the dashboard.

"For those who are just joining us, we are currently above what appears to be a death match between the terrorist Bane and Gotham's vigilante known as Zeus. We cannot tell who is winning, but we are hoping that Zeus doesn't fall in this fight to the death."

Keeping one eye on the road, Batman began tracing the signal and watched as the camera show Bane charge at Zeus, who simply stopped and then viciously kicked Bane through a building. Bane climbed out and activated his Venom. Zeus looked up directly at the helicopter.

The reporter again began to speak. "It seems Bane has just made himself even more powerful than before. I only hope that Zeus doesn't get every bone in his body broken..." He was cut off when the helicopter suddenly thrashed around for a moment as if violent winds from multiple directions rammed into it simultaneously. The chopper then began hurtling towards the ground.

XXXXXX

Zeus shot his whipfist into the bottom of the chopper above him and thrusted his arm down, making the chopper almost went into freefall towards Bane. The Venom-high strongman caught the helicopter in his arms and the impact made his feet slide back on the street several feet. When he came to a stop Bane tossed aside the chopper and made his way towards the man he would either kill or be killed by, and he didn't plan on dying that night.

"That's the best you can do Zeus? It looks like your all out of tricks." He had a mad smile on his face as he cracked his knuckles.

"'The best'? Ha! I've not even scratched the surface." Zeus bent his neck to the sides, cracking it multiple times. He was actually having a little bit of fun with this sturdy, resilient, and almost dangerous freak. He changed his whipfist back into his normal arm.

"Well then, let's start scratching."

Even though he was huge now, Bane ran towards Zeus with impressive speed. He swung his arms downwards in an attempt to crush Zeus into the ground. Zeus again sidestepped his foe's attack and forcefully slammed his fists together. The impact created a shockwave and sent Bane back several yards. Zeus looked down and saw that he had made a small crater with the shockwave as well. He then ran over to Bane with his own incredible speed and jumped into a flying kick, which landed right on Bane's side. Again Bane flew back and Zeus landed gracefully upright.

"You know Bane, normally when I fight people like you, they've been dead for ten minutes by now. But since I spent almost a week chasing a ghost thanks to you, I'm going to enjoy myself and beat your fucking brains in."

XXXXXX

Batman watched as the helicopter free fell, but was caught by Bane, who then tossed aside the chopper to resume his brawl with Zeus. He was then notified that the signal was triangulated.

"Oracle, I'm headed over to stop them before they level half the city."

"What?" She had blatant concern and worry in her voice. "Are you sure you should do it alone? You remember what Bane did to you. And we have no idea how Zeus can get if his adrenaline takes over. Batman... I really don't think you should get involved on this. Zeus might turn his attacks onto you!"

"That's a risk I'm going to take. I won't just stand by while the two of them try to crush each other and take out hundreds of people with them."

Oracle let out a defeated sigh. "Alright, but you will please at least let one of them help you? Maybe Nightwing can rendevous."

"Fine. Bane and Zeus are at the eastern shipyards."

XXXXXX

Zeus continued to toy with Bane. Every time his opponent would try to attack him, Zeus would either dodge or counter it. Bane had yet to manage to hit him once. Bane thrusted a fist forward Zeus caught it in his open hand. After getting a firm grip, Zeus lifted Bane into the air and slammed him into the ground. He repeated this a few times before deciding that he had had his fill of amusement. He threw Bane as hard as he could over the buildings and leapt after him. After soaring in the air for a few seconds, they began to fall. Bane landed first. He struggled to pick himself up. He didn't even manage to look up before Zeus landed on his back upright. The impact of Zeus landing on him with such force instantly created a small crater around them in the road they were in.

"Thank you Bane. You were... amusing." Zeus brought up his left leg, and brought his foot down hard on Bane's neck. Zeus consumed the hired muscle. After Bane was completely gone, Zeus felt even stronger than before due to Bane having Venom coursing through him when he was consumed. Zeus cracked his neck a few times before walking off.

After ten minutes of making his way back to his base, Mercer saw a familiar car screech to a halt in front of him and watched a familiar man jump out of it.

"What happened to Bane?" Batman asked in a leveled voice.

Mercer smirked at him and took the form of his most recent meal. "You missed quite the show Batman." He changed back into himself.

"You killed Bane." Batman stated. His voice had just the slightest hint of shock.

"You really are a detective. I would say that I'm sorry that you didn't arrive in time to stop me, but I've never been much of a liar."