The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn

Part Seven: Someone must pay the price

Mention the Batcave, and one conjurers up an image of the dark and damp mysterious lair of the caped crusader, filled with flying rodents and spiders. In actual fact, Batman's headquarters is a large underground complex filled with high tech equipment, laboratories, medical facilities, jail cells and sleeping quarters. It has a large garage filled with various sorts of vehicles (including the famous batmobile), and an aircraft hangar with equally fantastic flying machines. The entire facility is devoted to the support of law enforcement, and disaster preparation. The entire complex lies deep underground beneath stately Wayne Manor and it's outlying property. Part of the Batcave was once a natural cavern, it was enlarged, waterproofed, and sured up to accommodate the needs of the caped crusader.

The main entrance to the Batcave was carved through the solid granite of the hillside upon which the Wayne Estate sits, by tunnel boring machines. The roadway leading to the Batcave's entrance snakes away from a two lane state highway and is mostly hidden by huge outcroppings of rock, trees, and various bits of camouflage. The entrance itself is hidden behind a large steel door decorated to be indistinguishable from the side of the cliff it sits in front of. The door is so well balanced, that when unlocked, can be slide open or closed by a mere touch of a finger. The door is operated by an electronic controller that automatically opens it when the Batmobile is leaving the cave, or when triggered by a coded radio signal when the Batmobile is returning.

There is a separate entrance to the hangar leading to a hidden airstrip behind the Wayne Estate. Another entrance leads in from a rundown piece of property just off the state highway. And, of course, there is the secret elevator between the Batcave and Wayne Manor.


With the arrival of Dr. Blackjack in the ambulance the group in the Batcave was all present and accounted for. Zoran ran toward Dr. O'Shay and gave him a huge hug. She was relieved to see that he was unharmed. Pinoko similarly greeted Blackjack. The two of them had been brought to the Batcave's utilitarian entrance by Alfred.

Batman gave cast a look of disapproval and disappointment toward his adult guests. "You gentlemen are responsible for unleashing a potential terror on this city, and probably the entire world." He said. "Though I realize that you didn't have much choice in the matter, and part of the blame falls on myself as well. I failed to uncover his plot early enough to stop it. The Joker used the good name of the Wayne foundation to lure you here, I didn't catch that either. Now I need your help to neutralize this threat."

Dr. O'Shay spoke up first. "I assume you did some research on Dr. Tenma, and you know what the Joker acquired from him?"

"First of all, I don't really think that Dr. Tenma willingly gave up that robotic body." Batman said. "As for its technical specifications, I have only limited data, other than the fact that it has superhuman strength."

"That is putting it mildly." O'Shay barked. "Astro has 100,000 HP. The robotic body Tenma built has twenty times that power output."

"TWO MILLION HP?" Batman said, "It's worse than I thought!"

"We have two advantages over him." Reno replied. "One, it will hopefully take the Joker's mind a while to fully adjust to the body he is in. We will have a limited opportunity to put him out of commission before command of his full abilities are available to him. Two, Astro can connect to his AI to read his thoughts, and locate his position. We don't think that the Joker will be aware of this. We will know what he is planning, and where he is."

Astro sat down and held his head between his hands with his elbows resting on his knees. He concentrated and slowly began to form an image in his mind.

"It's working, Reno." Astro said. "It's a bit hazy now, but slowly getting clearer."

"Have you located him?" Batman asked.

"Yes, he's hiding out on a ship docked in the harbor." Astro said. "I've command his GPS to give me the coordinates."

Astro typed the data into the terminal on the Batcomputer and a map display appeared.

"Excellent!" Batman said. "That part of the dock complex is full of old buildings which block the view of the streets from the wharf. We'll be able to sneak up on him in the Batmobile, with the engines running in stealth mode."


The Joker and his motley crew sat in one of the cabins on an old tramp steamer. The ancient cargo ship had once been part of a merchant marine fleet carrying tea, coffee, wheat, or other such goods between ports on both sides of the Atlantic. It was now long past its prime, having made its last cargo run many months ago. It's current owner was in bankruptcy literation, and the ship would probably be heading for the scraping torch in a short while. Nobody had been on board her quite some time, she made a perfect hideout for a criminal looking for a place to operate from for a short time.

It didn't matter that the ship's engines were way out of tune and probably wouldn't run well, if at all. The Joker had no intentions of having the vessel leave the dock. A quick bit of tampering with the electrical hookups on the wharf using some stolen copper wiring from the streetlights, gave him some free power and access to the Internet.

Joker found a length of heavy chain that had separated from one of the ships broken cargo hoists. It must have weighed several hundred pounds, but he was able to lift it like it was made of balsa wood. He tried snapping one of the metal links and was able to break it like it was a pretzel, yet it was made of steel an inch and a half thick.
"Will you get a load of me!" the Joker laughed to himself. "I wonder what else this body can do!"

"What do you have planned, boss?" The man in the wool suit asked.

"I think I will visit some of my pals in the Gotham State Pen and convince the warden to let them all out on good behavior!" The Joker laughed. "I owe the warden a visit anyway, I need to pay him back for the way he treated me. Let's get going, we'll boost us a nice car and drive over there in style!"


Astro and the Batman drove through the darkened streets of Gotham in the Batmobile. As they reached the docks along the Gotham river Astro concentrated on tuning in on the back door to the Joker's AI. It was a little easier the second time to make contact, and he was able to read his thoughts a little more clearly than the first time.

"He's heading for the State Prison." Astro said. "He's planning on freeing a bunch of the inmates, and I think he intends to kill the warden."

"Is he on his way there?" the caped crusader asked.

"Yes, The Joker broke into a Mercedes dealer on 11th Avenue and drove off in a high powered automobile. He's in route to the prison now." Astro reported.

Batman quickly changed directions and turned the Batmobile onto the Gotham River Parkway.

"With any luck we might barely beat him there." Batman said.

"It seems that the Joker hasn't figured out that his new robot body can fly." Astro said. "He may not be aware of the other weapons at his disposal either. The only indication I got tapping into his AI was that he is aware of his physical strength. He knows he's stronger than he was a human, but he doesn't yet know by how much."

"As Reno said, that does give us a slight edge" Batman said, "But we don't know how long that will last."

"Not very long." Astro sighed. "It didn't take me very long to discover my abilities after I was first reborn. I'd give us a day or two at the most."


Warden O'Leary was counting the days till his retirement. In just a few months he would be eligible for a full pension, and he didn't intend to stay on the job a day longer than necessary. He still prided himself on running a model prison, and he thought that he treated the inmates with a fair, but firm approach. The Warden sometimes stayed at a small apartment flat on the prison grounds when he worked late, and tonight was one of those times. He was in his office finishing off some paperwork for a few parole requests when an uninvited visitor kicked his door open.

"Hello Warden, remember me?"

O'Leary stared at the intruder. The voice and the jacket with the crazy color combination he did recognize, the face he did not. The Warden quickly pulled a handgun from the top drawer of his desk. He kept the nine mm pistol there for quick access in situations just like this one. He'd only had to pull it once before.
"You've changed Joker, assuming that is you!" O'Leary stated. "Brash as usual breaking in here unarmed."

"Hardly." The Joker smiled. "This is a totally new me." He knocked his fist on his head producing a metallic 'clink'. The Joker advanced toward O'Leary, who raised the gun and took aim at the Joker's head.

"Not a good idea." The Joker explained. "You might get hit by the Ricochet." The Joker quickly grabbed the weapon by the muzzle just as O'Leary pulled the trigger. The gun exploded in the Joker's hand, and the robotic criminal then squeezed what was left of the pistol into a ball of metal which he tossed onto the Warden's desk.

"Now let's talk." The Joker laughed.

O'Leary crossed his arms and stared at the robot Joker. He knew that when he'd removed the gun from the desk drawer he had activated a silent alarm. At this very moment a group of armed guards would be on their way toward his office. He only needed to keep the Joker's attention occupied on him, and away from the door to the office.

"OK then, what's on your mind?" O'Leary asked.

"First of all some of your guests are very good friends of mine, and they'd like to leave this fine establishment. I'm here to make that request known to you, and I won't take no for an answer." Joker said. "Secondly, you owe me, and I'm here to collect payment."

It was at that moment that the office door burst open as a dozen well armed guards stormed in.

"I think not." the Warden answered. "It seems my reinforcements have arrived. I suggest you give yourself up."

The Joker slowly backed away from the Warden and walked toward the guards with his arms raised. The guards moved to surround him, and at that moment the Joker spun about. In a blur of movement, he grabbed the rifles from the policemen and bent each of them in half. He threw the weapons on the floor in a heap, and then picked each man up and threw them one by one toward the far end of the room where they lay in a heap. The far wall was now marked by blood stains where some of the guards had struck it head first.

"That was a bad move on your part!" The Joker growled at the warden. You can blame yourself for the death of any of those men, I acted in self defense."


The Batmobile arrived at the main entrance to the Gotham State Prison. It was clear that the Joker had arrived first, the front gate had been rammed open, and a Mercedes SLS with a badly mangled front end sat not far from it. The caped crusader and "Tetsuwan Robin" entered through the main door which lay on its side, ripped from its hinges.

"The Joker is in the Warden's office." Astro said.

"We'll have to be careful and surprise him." Batman said. "I'll take the frontal attack and just walk in on him though the door to the office. Listen carefully to what goes in and crash in though a wall at the opportune moment for the element of surprise."

"Hai!" Astro nodded.

Batman appeared at the door to the Warden's office just in time. The Joker had the Warden tied up in his office chair and had started to torture him with a sharp knife. He intended to carefully peel his skin layer by layer. He'd already started to lay raw the Warden's forehead and was about to slowly scalp him, Apache style, when he heard the caped crusader enter.

"Well, well, well." The Joker laughed. "I guess I'll be able to add your cowl to the Warden's scalp for my collection!"

"Not so fast!" Batman said.

"Really?" Joker asked. "I'm not the same petty crook you're used to tangling with. If you don't believe me, ask those guys in the back of the room." He said, pointing to the pile of bodies that had been the prison riot squad.

Batman slowly walked toward the Warden to divert the Joker's attention away from the windowed side of the room. He saw that the Warden's wounds were superficial and that the Joker's torment of him had been more fear than actual disfigurement.

"You'll recover, Sir." Batman told O'Leary.

"Watch out!" the Warden warned Batman. "This mad man has the strength of a rhino!"

At that moment Astro came crashing through the window. He flew towards the Joker, grabbed him, and crashed through the outside concrete wall into the prison yard.

Batman quickly ran after them, carefully stepping though the hole in the wall.

Astro slammed the Joker into the concrete ground cover of the yard. Joker-bot got up and took a few steps back.

"So it's Astro Boy-Blunder!" He snarled. "I'll give you what I gave the the previous Robin!"

Joker ran toward Astro and rammed his fist toward him. He put a huge amount of horsepower into his punch, but Astro side stepped his delivery, and countered with blow of his own that connected with the jokers torso. Astro's blow sent the joker flying backwards and he crashed through the wall of the building housing Cell-Block A.

Joker-bot came running out of the building in a rage. He ran through the exercise yard, yanking a basketball goal post out of the ground and swung it like a giant Louisville slugger. Astro ran to push Batman out of the way a fraction of a second before the Joker could have sent him over the center field fence for a home run. The Joker then manged to bring the steel post down on top of Astro, knocking the stuffing out of him.

Astro quickly came to his senses just as the Joker came running toward him again, this time using the steel pole as a jousting spear. Astro grabbed the makeshift weapon out of the Joker's hand. Now he was mad! Astro flew toward Joker-bot and grabbed him by his feet. He flew upwards to an altitude of ten thousand feet and dropped the Joker, letting him free fall. Astro followed the Joker down, waiting to relish seeing him create a crater in the concrete yard of the prison.

Strangely enough, the Joker didn't feel panic as he fell. He watched the ground approach him, and he saw Astro out of the corner of his eyes. At the last minute, the Joker willed himself upwards toward the boy robot. He'd discovered the jet engines in his bodies legs, and he quickly accelerated toward Astro with his right fist extended.

Astro quickly realized that the game had changed. He and the Joker engaged in aerial combat, dog fighting like the old WWI aces. Astro was able to dodge the Joker's thrusts at him, and manged to score a few hay-makers. On the ground below, Batman looked up and realized with horror that it wouldn't take long for the Joker to be in full control of the robot body. Astro had better finish him off quickly, he thought.

The same realization finally struck Astro. He didn't want to do it, his programming usually kept him from using his most powerful weapons, but it was obvious that his speed and strength were not going to be enough to stop Joker. Astro backed off as the Joker took aim and came flying at him, this time at Mach 1. Astro extended his left arm and took aim at the incoming Joker. His hand folded back into his wrist, and his arm morphed into an energy beam cannon. He fired a blast of pure energy at the Joker.

Watching from the ground, Batman saw the white hot beam emerge from Astro's left arm and envelop the robot criminal in a ball of plasma, hiding him from view.

The joker saw the beam of energy coming at him and had little time to react. He held up his hands in front of his eyes as if to shield himself from the incoming beam. Without realizing that he was doing it, the joker brought a force field on line, surrounding himself within a magnetic plasma. Astro's energy beam struck the field enveloped it. The blast of energy propelled the joker backwards, and he plummeted toward the ground. Just in time his systems came back on line, and he used his jets to stop his fall. He hovered beneath Astro, and glared up a him.

The dust cleared and Batman saw that Astro's energy blast had been ineffective. The Joker balled his fists at Astro as if he was about to fly back at him as a guided missile. Instead, his left hand folded back into his wrist and the arm morphed into some kind of cannon. The Joker took aim and let loose. A blue hot beam of energy flew from the Joker's arm cannon. The beam hit Astro head on.

Astro saw the incoming fire and had no time to get out of its way. He felt a momentary wave of pain, and then nothing. Astro fell toward the ground and hit the concrete of the prison yard hard. He bounced several times and came to a stop. He was seeing double, and triple images spinning. Sparks were emanating from under Astro's chest panel. Batman ran toward him, but the Joker landed in front of him.

"Keep back, Batfink!" he snarled.

Astro lay on his chest. He raised his head to see the Joker preparing to blast him again. Suddenly, Astro's twin machine guns stuck their barrels out of his hips and took aim. The guns fired at a combined rate of 1000 rounds a minute, the shells hit the joker's torso hard and knocked him to the ground before he had a chance to raise his shields.

"Now you've really got me mad!" he yelled, getting back to his feet. Joker's left arm cannon fired, sending Astro skidding across the yard, to crash into the main building of the prison. The Joker ran toward the now defenseless Astro. He picked him up and slammed him down toward the ground. Joker leaped into the air and landed a crushing blow on Astro's torso. In a state of rage, the Joker ripped Astro's limbs off, and then severed his head. He left the smoking remains of the boy robot sitting in a heap on the ground.

"Pick up this trash and get out of here!" The joker roared at Batman. "You can take the Warden with you. I've changed my mind. I've got bigger fish to fry!"

The Joker fired a few warning shots at Batman's feet. Defeated, the caped crusader left the prison and headed back to the Batcave with Astro in a body bag.