Mercer was sitting on the edge of the makeshift bed of his and Ivy's while she slept soundly. Even though it was made of nothing but plants, she managed to make it feel softer than a cloud. He actually did feel comfort when he laid down in it, and Ivy always looked forward to the one time of the week where they would actually share the bed and sleep together. She felt something for him she hadn't felt for anything but plant life in years.

Alex intently stared at the trophy he had be given. It never stopped glowing. He couldn't figure out what it was for. Was it some sort of custom key? Did it activate something? He just didn't know.

Suddenly a noise of electrical static began to emit from the question mark shaped object. Then an unfamiliar voice filled in.

"Can you hear me Zeus? I know you can."

"If you, then why bother asking..." Alex trailed off. He was unsure if this communication system was like a phone line or just one-way. Ivy came back to the world of the awake and wrapped her arms around Alex's waist while resting her head on his right shoulder.

"I am the ingenious enigma known as the Riddler. And you have definitely caught my attention. It's obvious that you're stronger than a berserker, but are you smarter than a chimp? I have decided to deduce this by concocting a little match of wits. And if you don't play... innocent people will die." His voice was completely serious. "So why don't we start? Riddle me these: What kind of bird packs a wallop? Secondly, a man gives one of his sons ten cents and gives the other one fifteen cents. What time is it?" The noise from the trophy died completely.

Mercer knew that his trophy had served its purpose and crushed it in his hands. Ivy let out a barely audible sigh. This sort of thing and action meant Alex would once again take a leave.

XXXXXX

He walked down the empty streets. It was another brisk night and snow was lightly falling. It was unusually quiet, and for the first time since he had arrived in the decadent city, Mercer thought it actually looked... somewhat peaceful. His thoughts were focused on the riddles he had been coerced to solve. Either of them made any sense, but the answers were obviously related to the final destination. Why else would Riddler have given him both at the same time?

"Packs a wallop..." Mercer murmured to himself. He had decided to deduce the solution to the bird one first since it sounded easier. Initially he thought the answer had been an ostrich since it was clearly something large. But he shrugged it off. Riddler would have been crazier than the Joker to want Mercer to track down some random ostrich. He put his left index finger and thumb on opposite ends of his lips and began thinking again. If these were question revolving around science, he would have the Riddler in an iron grip at that very moment. But these riddles weren't scientific, they were just random and lead him to wherever Riddler wanted him to go. He looked up and saw a building half way through construction. The city had unanimously agreed to build a new hospital to treat those who were infected with the virus. Mercer knew it was pointless. Once they got Blacklight, the only way they would even have a prayer for survival would be if he injected a little bit of himself into them. That would be a very bad situation. He continued to look at the building. He glanced to the side of it and saw a...

"Crane..." Mercer said slowly to himself. Realization struck him. He found the answer. Before he do anything about it, a car rocketed past him, nearly hitting him head-on.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Mercer shouted as he jumped back a few times after the vehicle zoomed past him. He decided to return later. Right now someone had to be taught a lesson on looking at what's right in front of them. He ran after the speeder. It didn't take long to catch up.

"Hey! Are you blind?!" Mercer shouted towards the driver side window. It was deeply tinted so he couldn't see inside. It rolled down and Mercer was surprised by what he saw. The driver was androgynous since he or she was wearing something that was a cross between a labcoat and an overcoat. It was a dark grey. It had a very large hood that concealed the owner's face and head completely except for a few green dreadlocks that snaked onto his or her shoulders. He looked past the unidentifiable person and at the passenger. He saw a woman's body dressed in a very skimpy outfit. He could tell she was dead because she was unnaturally pale and her eyes were frozen open.

The driver could tell that Mercer was fully aware of the situation and floored it. Mercer was appalled by what he had seen and slowed down. But he almost instantly regained his wits. He formed his Whipfist and fired it forward into the car's rear bumper. He made the mistake of pulling back too hard too quickly and the silver metal piece of the vehicle dislodged from the actual car.

"Damn it." Mercer growled to himself. He decided to pursue this... he didn't exactly know what it was. A murderer? A necrophile? Either way he leapt to the roofs so the culprit wouldn't see him following.

Mercer made sure to stay invisible the entire time he tailed the vehicle. The driver made sure to not draw anymore attention to him or her. He went the speed limit and didn't even get close to the few walking pedestrians he came across. After about an hour, the car pulled into the drive of a very huge mansion. Mercer stopped at the iron gates as he watched the driver pull up to the main doors. Even though he was very far away Mercer could tell that the driver was pulling the dead woman out of the car and into the manor. After a minute of waiting, Mercer effortlessly jumped over the gate and made his way into the huge house. He was thankful that the door was unlocked, since forcing it open would have brought him a lot of undesirable attention. He quietly walked in and was surprised by how normal it looked. Stereotypical of the lobby of a mansion, except everything was dusty. Over to the left he thought he saw a very realistic mannequin. He looked to the dust-covered floor and saw that his prey had left him a trail off footprints. He followed them up one of the two flights of stairs and down a hallway. He found that unlike the front room, everything was tidy in the halls he ventured through. As he past one of the dozens of doors, he stopped and listened as voices emitted from the other side of it.

"Aaahhh, a perfect specimen. Excellent work Matilda."

"Thank you father. It took a while to lure her away from everyone else."

"Well your patience never fails to pay off generously. Come, the night is still young. Perhaps we can go and find another potential doll."

"But what about Zeus?"

"Don't worry about him. His agenda involves searching for crazies and walking into explosions. Unlike all the other idiotic criminals in this city, our family takes its time to be discrete whilst fulfilling our vision."

Mercer made himself disappear as the two of them opened the door and walked out of the room. One of them was the driver he had followed there, and the other was a sight to see. He had dreadlocks shorter than his accomplice's but they were the same color. He wasn't wearing a hood and his mask made him look like a zombie that had been pieced together with several different patches of flesh. His outfit made him look like a mixture of a butcher and a surgeon. They both lumbered off down the way he had come earlier, and Mercer emerged from the darkness and crept into the room the hideous duo had just exited. He initially thought about going after them, but his curiosity as to what was inside the room got the better of him. When he looked inside, he immediately regretted it. In the room there was a lot of mannequins, except after he took a closer look he could see they weren't dummies at all. They were bodies. Or at least they had been. Now they were ceramic looking and their faces were frozen without a definite expression. And they all had poses that made them seem to be still alive but frozen in time. All of them had small rows of stitches going out from both ends of their lips. He felt himself getting sick to his stomach at the sheer sight of all of them, and he staggered backwards out of the room. Then he felt something massive collide with his back.

XXXXXX

Dollmaker and his 'daughter' Matilda, who had since recreated herself as Dollhouse, were just about to exit the mansion when Dollmaker heard a crash from up stairs.

"An intruder?" He wondered out loud.

""Should I go back and help Orifice?" Matilda asked as she pulled out a knife.

"No." He gestured for her to be calm and she obeyed. "He can handle it."

"But what it's someone who's a collectible?"

Dollmaker let out a laugh. "If it were someone of that stature they wouldn't have been seen and assaulted by Orifice so quickly. Let's go."

XXXXXX

Mercer crashed into a desk inside the room and it shattered behind him. He groaned and shook his head to clear his vision. Whoever had punched him could really brawl. He looked over and saw his assailant cracking his knuckles. Like the other freaks in the house he looked like his face was made up of several people's dead flesh. But unlike the others, he was huge and extremely muscular. Almost like Bane or Killer Croc.

"Hope you enjoyed the scenery punk," he said with attitude. He pulled out a large knife. "Because my old man's gonna make you a permanent part of it!"

Alex picked himself up and cracked his neck. This zombified freak had no idea who he was fucking with. "I'm gonna tear your head clean off your shoulders and have it bronzed."

"Look at what you did!" Orifice shouted. One of the corpses his father had dollified was now shattered after he tried to throw a vicious punch at the hooded intruder and missed.

"What I did? I'm not the one who killed them." Mercer spoke calmly.

Orifice then became extremely angry. He ran towards Mercer and swiped his knife across his face. Mercer let out a sharp cry of pain and slapped his hand to his left cheek to find that the damage had already been repaired, but the pain still lingered for a moment.

"Nobody destroys my father's work! I'm gonna rip your eyes out of their sockets and shove them down your throat!"

"You're a rather crude person you know that?" Mercer said with his signature calmness. He formed his Hammerfists and waited for his assailant to charge closer to him, and when he did Mercer swung one arm forward and made the freak soar backwards through a wall and clear into another room. He then reared his other arm back and made himself fly as well by thrusting it forward. He very nearly met his target but missed by centimeters. His heavy fists collided with the floor and it collapsed, making both of them fall down to the mansion's ground floor. Mercer coughed a few times to clear his mouth of debris. After he stood up Orifice delivered a powerful punch to his stomach and he slid back several yards on his feet. This dead looking freak was wasting his time; Mercer needed to find the man who could only be the Dollmaker. He struck the floor in front of him with a punch that made the entire house shake. In the next second a portion of the ceiling collapsed and landed on top of his opponent. Satisfied with his deconstructive handy work, Mercer turned around and made his way for the huge doors but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a growl, and then the sound of several things being flung into the air.

Orifice was now aggravated into a blind rage. He charged at Mercer screaming a bloodcurdling war cry. In the second he was sliced cleanly in half.

Mercer changed his blade back into his normal arm as he watched a pool of blood slowly cover the floor. "Brainless moron..."

The next second Mercer sprang out of the mansion to find that the other two had disappeared. He had to track them down. He sprinted across the vast lawn and jumped over the metal gates, headed back towards the city's core.

XXXXXX

"Hey Batman, have you noticed anything... strange about Zeus lately?"

"Like what Oracle?" he asked with actual curiosity as he raced down the streets in hot pursuit of bank robbers who were trying to lose him. They would fail horribly.

"Well recently I've been observing him, and he hasn't harmed anyone except the Rogues. I mean back when he and Bane butted heads he brought down a news chopper without a second thought. And before that he slaughtered dozens of Joker's men without a moment's hesitation. But nowadays he acting a little more like you. Why?"

"Maybe I'll just ask him myself."

"What? What do you mean?"

Batman didn't answer. He disconnected the line and looked down. He car was suspended in the air as it was being held there by Mercer who was looking back up at him. Batman killed the engine and Zeus set down the Batmobile with neither contempt nor carefulness. He walked over to the driver side window.

"We've got a problem Batman..."

XXXXXX

"Did you really have to kill him?" Batman asked. He could see the uneasiness Mercer had the first time they raced through the city in the Batmobile.

"It was him or me." Mercer stated.

"Are you sure you remember where the mansion is?" Batman asked letting go of the subject. There was nothing he could do.

"Yeah. We're here." The car came to a screeching halt and Batman looked out to his side and sure enough there was an old looking manor house.

XXXXXX

Mercer stood in the doorway fighting the need to shiver. Despite being through such a nightmarish reality back in Manhattan he still felt disturbed by the sight of Dollmaker's handy work. He had seen so much more, and yet Batman could handle this situation far more better than he currently was. "What is wrong with me?"

"What?" Batman called over as he continued inspecting the 'dolls' carefully, as if they were still among the living.

"N-no-nothing!" Mercer quickly replied. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. His discomfort would thankfully come to a close when Batman abruptly stopped his investigation and put two fingers up to his head.

"... We're on our way Oracle... yes, 'we' Zeus is standing right next to me... he knew where to find Dollmaker's safehouse." He lowered his fingers and looked at a slightly confused Alex. "We now have another problem."

XXXXXX

One the department's detectives enlightened them of the entire situation.

"We got a tipoff. Gordon's gone missing, possibly kidnapped."

Zeus and Batman looked at each other at the exact same time. It couldn't have been just coincidence that Gordon had vanished and Dollmaker had gone out to search for more victims on the same night.

"What's the name of the informant?" Batman demanded.

XXXXXX

"You can just forget it Bats!" the informant spat out. He was gripped by his neck and the Caped Crusader was looking at him with violence radiating off of him. "If I tell ya where he is, the doc will kill me!" He smiled wickedly. "And we both know YOU won't."

"Perhaps... but I can't say the same about him." Batman spoke with a very leveled voice.

The informant's smile vanished. "Who?" In the next instant he felt something take a strong grip on his cranium and what felt like knives dig into his face. Batman released him, and he went higher into the air. Whatever was holding him turned him so that he was looking at a face he never wanted to see in his life. "Oh no..."

Zeus looked at him with a faint scowl. "I've no time for your insipid mockery." He raised his free hand and placed a claw on the informant's forehead.

"WAIT! Okay okay..." The informant began to weep in pure terror.

XXXXXX

"You know, since he called Dollmaker 'the doc' this is rather obvious." Mercer said as the Batmobile pulled up to the old and now abandoned hospital.

"If you're trying to be funny, it's not working Zeus." Batman dead panned.

"And if you are trying to be boring, it IS working," Mercer retorted with a smirk. He had an unexplainable urge to mess with his incessantly brooding colleague. "Shall we?" He began to walk towards the desecrated building, but he didn't make it two steps before Batman took a strong hold on his right arm.

"If we're going to work together on this, I need you to give me your word that you won't kill any of them, and if you find the Commissioner first you'll help him to safety."

"No promises on the first part."

They entered the apparently empty building. It was dead quiet. The main hall led in two different directions. Batman wordlessly gestured for Mercer to take the left, which he did after giving Batman a dismissive wave of his now clawed hand.

XXXXXX

"We have uninvited guests." Dollmaker said to his family as he observed security monitors; the hulking Bentley, Sampson, and Matilda who was now dressed in a white nurse's uniform all awaited for his orders. "Deal with them and bring them to me."

XXXXXX

Mercer walked down the halls with a nonchalant aura. If he made noise and they came after him it was their funeral. For nearly twenty minutes he wandered the halls no exactly sure where he was going but positive he would get there eventually. Finally he felt something out of the ordinary as he passed a door that led to a room for the ill. He slowly pushed it open and looked inside. There was a barely conscious James Gordon lying down handcuffed to a hospital bed. Next to him sitting in a chair was a young girl. And she was holding a knife.

"I'm sorry..." The young girl said. She advanced toward the Commisioner.

"No you're not," Mercer spoke up catching her attention. She stopped on a dime and stared at him. "But you will be." He walked towards the duo and grabbed the knife out of her hands and crushed it in his fist. Even though he had just destroyed her weapon and was towering over her with his claws reflecting what little light was in the room, the little girl didn't seem fazed at all.

"Zeus?" Gordon slowly said with a struggle.

"In the... flesh I guess it's called." He leaned down and grabbed the chain on the cuffs and like the knife crushed it into metallic dust. "Listen, when you leave this room, take a right and follow the hall. Eventually you'll reach the building's entrance."

"Thank you." Gordon needed help to get into a standing position."

"So what should I do with her?" Mercer nodded to the little girl.

"Nothing!" Gordon answered quickly. He knew Zeus would rip her to shreds without a second glance. "She was kidnapped by Dollmaker. I'll take her to safety."

Mercer looked at him questionably for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders and left them to their own devices. He had promised to help Gordon, not be his bodyguard. Besides, the Comissioner was a seasoned cop and the girl was now unarmed.

For another lengthy interval he crept down the empty halls. He was about to come across the very end of the building and begin making his way back towards the front when he heard even more voices in another room and he pressed his head up to the cold door. The voices inside were somewhat familiar.

"Can we record our newest Doll-to-be? I'd like to have more than just my memory to remember the fear you put in their eyes."

"No. Wait until after tonight's event."

"Tonight's event?" Mercer repeated to himself with a whisper so quiet he could barely hear it himself. His attention shifted to the door near the end of the hall. Bright lights were shining out from below it and inexplicable noises could be heard. He walked to and opened it. He found himself in the observation level of the hospital's operating theater. And in the pit he saw Batman with thick wires digging into his hands and feet. Charging at him was a small horde of...

"Jokers?" Mercer said to himself in disbelief. "What the fuck is going on here?"

Mercer looked on in confusion and shock as the cavalry of clowns charged at Batman. The Dark Knight attempted to fight back, but was instead flung around the room via the thick cables ensnaring his limbs. It didn't take a genius to see that this was going to end very badly very quickly. As he continued to watch the horrific scenario play out, Mercer didn't realize that someone was looking at him.

"Oh my God..." Matilda said quietly but just loud enough for Dollmaker to hear her.

"What? What could possibly be going wrong?" he asked without diverting his eyes from the pit filled with clowns and a bat.

"It's Zeus." She walked over right next to him and guided his startled eyes to the inhuman antihero by pointing at him across on the opposite side of the operating theater.

"A minor setback," Dollmaker stated. "Bentley, go take care of him."

"Yes Doctor," the massive family member said as he lumbered off.

XXXXXX

Things looked bleak for the Caped Crusader. His hands and legs were no longer under his control, but were being forced around by the cables imbedded in him which were obviously being remotely controlled. The Jokers were continuously charging at him, but they all came to halt at the sound of shattering above them. Immediately after, Zeus landed hard in the middle of the pit on his back. He let out a groan as he rolled over onto his stomach and planted his hands at his sides and pushed himself up back into a standing position.

He looked at the multiple Jokers staring at him in shock. "What?" Bentley then landed right behind him and delivered a powerful punch to his back, launching him across the pit and embedding him in the wall. He pushes himself out of the wall and turned to face the hulking zombie. He had murder in his eyes. The Jokers had enough since to clear a path unless they felt like getting in the crossfire.

"This could be interesting." Dollmaker said to both himself and Matilda as he eyed the imminent chaos about to unfold beneath him. "Get the camera..."

Zeus cracked his neck. He wasn't in the mood to mess around with this freak like he did the other one in the mansion. Slowly his entire body became coated with Blacklight. It hardened and became spiky all over him. His face became covered by a sliver visor that covered him from head to neck. He challenged Bentley to attack him with a mocking gesture; the zombie-like behemoth responded with a loud battle cry. He charged and came at Zeus with a running punch. Zeus caught Bentley's massive fist with his hand and shattered all the bones in it with a light squeeze (it was light to him at least). Bentley let out a pain-filled shriek and grasped his destroyed hand in his still intact one. He stepped back a few times grimacing. He growled and looked up to see a black and grey blur bury a seven foot long Blade in his head right between his eyes.

Zeus didn't even bother consuming the freak, he looked incredibly... unappetizing. He then felt like someone had just given him a friendly pat on his back and a loud bang. He turned around to see one of the Jokers grinning at him and holding a sawed-off shotgun with smoke coming out of the barrel.

"Idiot." Zeus stated. With his Armor active and the visor covering his visage, his voice strangely sounded as if it wasn't there at all. He replaced his blade with his Whipfist and launched it right into the fake Joker's stomach. The false clown let out a gasp which also made a cloud of blood escape from his lips. He dropped his gun and put his hands on the spiky black cable that was going clear through him. He looked at the Whipfist's line and then up to Zeus with wide eyes and a stream of blood seeping from his lips. Zeus retracted his weapon out of the jester, and the freak fell to the ground already dead.

The rest of the clowns met the same horrific fate in about twelve seconds.

He made his armor disappear and looked over to find that Batman had since freed himself from the metal strings.

"Was that really necessary?" Batman asked him in his emotionless voice.

"Them or me, Batman. Them or me." He turned and began to walk away. "Anyway, I found Gordon. He's out and safe. Now shouldn't we find Dollmaker?"

They looked up to the spot in the observation deck, and saw that it was empty. They sprinted off to find what was left of The Dollmaker Family. After searching through nearly every room on the floor they were on, the unlikely duo made their way outside. There were scores of police cars waiting outside.

"Have you captured the Dollmaker?" Batman called out.

"No, we thought you got to him." Gordon responded.

"Impossible." Mercer said to whoever would listen. "They couldn't have possibly snuck past all of them..."

"On that we agree." Batman said. He began looking around very carefully. He then walked over to Gordon, who was sitting down covered in a blanket. Dollmaker had damaged him while he was still unconscious. "Dollmaker and his accomplice are no longer inside the hospital. And rather than letting Zeus do it, I suggest all of you can out and find the two of them before either Zeus does, or more people become Dolls."

Gordon nodded approvingly and stood up to address his force. "Everybody listen up! Dollmaker is somewhere around here and we are NOT going to let him get away! Fan out and form a perimeter! If you see him, take him alive at all costs! He may have more hostages hidden around the city!"

They all let out and did as they were told. Within twenty seconds Batman and Zeus were the only ones left, and the latter was deep in thought. How could that man get away? Then it hit him like a speeding car. There was more than one way out. But that still didn't explain where he went.

"This just doesn't make sense." He muttered to himself. A whirring sound came from above, and it instantly caught his attention. He launched himself into the air and successfully got a hold of a helicopter at the tail. He buried his claws into the metal hide and then thrusted himself forward to the door which he then tore right of its hinges. He looked inside to find two frightened police officers screaming and then staring at him. He cut his loses and let go of the chopper, landing on a rooftop. He looked around for another police helicopter to search.

"Oh shit..." Apparently when word got out about Gordon's disappearance, it turned into a full-on witch hunt. There were at least twenty choppers spreading out around the city. By the time he would happen upon Dollmaker, the killer would've caught on to what he was doing and bailed.

He let out a sigh and gave a dismissive wave to the dark horizon. "Let the cops handle the freak. I got something to do..."

He made his way back to the rotting hospital and made his way into the crane's control room. He tore the door off and stepped inside the control room. He casually sat down in the chair and rested his legs on the control console. He began to ponder on the riddle he hadn't yet solved.

"Two sons... ten and fifteen..." He let out a frustrated groan. "God, I hate riddles." He let out a sigh and continued wracking his mind. "Two kids... two... fifteen and ten... twenty-five... Wait a second." The answer dawned on him.