Chapter 9: The search for TITAN
Authors Note: Thanks to everyone and sorry that this chapter is to long I just could find a good place to stop. Hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Arkham Asylum.
(Arkham Mansion/ Jayden's POV)
Darkness…
Endless darkness….
I want to get up…I want to fight, but I can't.
I see a light…I hear a voice.
"Jayden…" The voice echoed. "Jayden come to us."
The light got brighter as I got closer. That voice it's so familiar.
"Mom?" I said.
"yes," She said with glee. "I've waited so long for us to be together again."
"But I still have to fight," That's when it hit me. "Dr. Young, she's in trouble!"
"Jayden," Another voice echoes.
"Young?"
"It's not so bad here," She said in a soothing voice. "We don't have any more worries, we can let it all go."
"My special boy," My mom cooed. "I have been so sad since we separated, but your father is here as well we can be a family again."
She reached her hand out to me, I reached my hand out towards her I was ready. This world was no longer my problem or my burden. It was time.
Before we could reach a bigger hand reached over and gently grabbed her hand and pulled it away from me. I looked over her shoulder to see my father standing right next to her.
"Father," I gasped.
"What are you doing, Leonard?" My mother shrieked.
"Sarah, he still has a home and family waiting for him," He reassured. "It's not for us to take him away from that we will see him again, but not yet."
She was hesitant at first, but nodded and stood next to him. They stood together like they did in the portrait I had of them on my wall as my father looked at me.
"Jayden, it's no longer my place to tell you what to do, but if you want to come here you must stop your talk of killing." He told me.
"But they must die," I argued. "They're evil no one will miss them. I'm using your knowledge to make this a better place."
"Son, to take one's life is not the way of justice, I tried to do that and it cost me my life and almost cost you yours." He looked at the corners of the light. "You have to go now, live well and give my regards to Bruce."
"What?"
My mother tried to reach out to me. "Jayden, Jayden, Jayden!"
I awoke to see that I was in still in the study with the fire still burning in front of me.
"Jayden, Jayden...Are you there?" Breeze asked franticly. I pressed my ear piece.
"Calm down babe, I'm fine," I reassured, she scoffed.
"Fine, FINE!" She yelled so loud that static broke through the mic. "You're vitals weren't responding and you didn't respond for ten minutes!"
"Don't worry Batman saved me," I lied, I looked over to my side to see Dr. Young lying on the ground…Dead. I let out a heavy sigh. "Dr. Young's dead."
"I'm sorry," She sighed. "Listen, I was looking over the messages Joker sent Young and I found something disturbing. Joker's going to use Bane's venom to create a very unstable TITAN formula, if he gives this to his men…"
"He'll have an army of monsters at his fingertips." I finished.
"Is he really crazy enough to do this?" She asked. There was a silence for a few seconds before she talked. "Sorry I asked."
"Don't worry I'll stop him." I told her.
"Okay, some of the criminals are causing trouble in Gotham, Dusk is trying to keep things calm."
"Alright, I'm heading after Joker."
"Okay, be careful."
The line went off as I walked over to Young. I picked her up bridal style and carried her out of the study. I walked over to the library where Cash was and left her with him.
"Who are you?" He asked. I didn't answer as I put Young down on a nearby couch.
"Watch over her," I said in a dark voice. "And actually protect her this time." I yelled as I stormed out of the room and out of the mansion.
I walked out of the mansion and down the stone steps to be attacked by a bunch of the lunatics the Asylum kept underneath the penitentiary. They jumped at me as I knocked them back one by one. I missed one of them as he jumped on my back and started pushing his mouth on my neck. I flipped him over my shoulder to see that he had a muzzle over his mouth and was trying to bite me. I shook my head in disappointment as I punched him in the face. I looked around to see a dozen crazies lying around wearing strait jackets, muzzles and metal hooks that kept their eyes forced opened for reeducation.
"Ugh, what are they doing to these poor souls?" I asked myself. "I know they aren't meant to live in the world as normal people but they shouldn't be left underground to rot like wild animals. They should just be put down."
"My thoughts exactly." A new voice said.
I turned around, but was jumped from behind by Victor Zsasz. I spun around trying to shake him off, but he just clung onto me as he raised his knife. "I got a special mark on my body for you." He said as he raised his knife and stabbed it at my throat. I raised my hand and blocked his wrist with mine before his knife before he could reach my throat. I then flipped him over my shoulder and twisted his wrist causing him to drop his knife. I picked it up and held it to his throat.
"Where's the Joker," I snarled, he gave me a sadistic grin.
"Why, does your blade ache for his flesh that bad," He said poetically. "To have his blood all over your once clean blade stained by your victim is just so…" I pressed the blade to his throat.
"Cut the crap Zsasz, I want to know where the Joker is." I snarled.
"Oh, to avenge your sweet Dr. Young," He said with false sincerity. "Sorry dear boy, but you have nothing to threaten me with, so you may as well…"
I growled as I took the knife from his throat and flipped it upside down and stuck the tip into the flesh of his forehead just at the edge of his tally mark. I grinned as his face fell in horror.
"NO!" He shrieked. "You can't!"
"So I think we've reached an understanding, you tell me what I want to know and I won't rob you of your mark. Start talking."
"Okay," He said taking a deep breath. "When we left you we thought you were dead, Quinn then took the warden to the penitentiary and Batman followed them and defeated Quinn but not before Joker released the crazies and Ivy." My eyes widened at that last part.
"Ivy, as in Poison Ivy?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yes, she pleaded with Quinn to let her go and went to the Botanical Gardens to tend to her plants. Joker went with her so he could manufacture his TITAN formula."
"Manufacture, at a green house?"
"Turns out Joker had it installed in a secret chamber hidden in the Garden, if you want to find him that's where he'll be. That's all I know I swear."
"Thanks." I said, before flipping the knife and smashing the butt into his forehead knocking him out cold. I tied him up and left him hanging from the warden's statue as I made my way to the garden. Lucky for me it was right across from the mansion. "Lucky me." I strolled right over before a certain caped crusader walked up the steps of the building. "Damn it."
I turned on my camouflage as I snuck up to the building, being as careful as possible not to make any noise. Knowing Batman, which I do, he probably already knew I was there he was just waiting for me. He slowly walked in and closed the door behind him. I gave it a good five minutes before going in after him.
"Breeze," I said turning on my radio. "It turns out Joker has a manufacturing plant for the TITAN formula in the botanical garden. I'm going after him, when I'm finished I'm going to send you a sample of the TITAN formula. I want to see what Young was trying to do."
"What!" She asked in disbelief. "You want to make more of this?"
"That and find a cure if possible."
"Okay, listen we've been getting threats from Joker not directly," She reassured. "That there are bombs scattered throughout Gotham, but…"
"But there are no bombs are there?"
"No, the cops opened one box and all that was inside was a bunch of kittens and a jar of marmalade. Then Dusk went to the museum were some Joker thugs were spotted, he took them out of course but when he opened the box there was a box of expired condoms and…" She let out a sigh. "Pamphlets on abstinence."
"Good lord," I grumbled. "This guys really out of his mind."
"Of course he is," She said. "Okay, be careful I'll keep in touch. Wait how are you gonna find his lab?"
"Just follow the broken bodies." I said looking at the two unconscious bodies by a set of large doors.
"Batman," She said casually.
"Batman, over and out." I said as I walked through the doors.
I snuck in to see that I was in a large room surrounded by tree branches and vines, there were about three floors and each one of them had their own set of guards. I turned on my detective mode on my glasses which thankfully didn't break from the explosion and saw that there were two guards on the ground floor, two on the second floor and two on the third floor giving me a total of six guards each armed with machine guns. Scratch that, make it seven as I looked up and sure enough perched on a gargoyle there he was, the Batman.
I ignored him and turned on my camouflage as I snuck up on one of the guards. I grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around and planted my fist to his face. He fell but not before a metal collar on his neck started blinking and…Laughing?
"Hey, over there!" One of the guards yelled as they all started closing in on my position.
"Oh crap," I said as I hid in a nearby corner.
"Oh, dear, is someone missing," Joker said over the intercom. "I keep losing count."
They all piled over to the body as Batman took down one of Jokers men by the stairs.
"Oh god not you too," One of the guards said. "Who could have done this?"
"Who do you think idiot? It was Batman." Another one said.
"I don't know I heard Joker say there was some other lunatic running around with a sword." Another one stated.
"He's worse than him!" The first guard shrieked.
"Don't worry we'll be fine we just gotta keep our heads on straight. Now let's spread out and find him."
They all spread out as my cloaking device ran out of power. I quickly made my way to one of the ventilation duct in the floor. One guy walked over and I popped up and jumped him from behind knocking him out. I heard some noises from around the corner as I made my way over. I looked over to see Batman crouched over another guard and slam his fist into his face. He got up and looked at me with a surprised face.
"Jayden," He gasped as he walked over to me. "I thought you were dead." I shrugged my shoulder at him.
"Who's Jayden?" I asked. He shook his head.
"How are you still living Shadow?"
"My injuries can heal as long as my heart or brain isn't damaged to badly."
"What are you doing here?"
"What do you think?"
"Dammit Shadow," He yelled. "You need to stop this!"
"And that's what I'm gonna do," I explained. "Don't worry, I won't kill him but I am gonna kick his ass."
"Shadow," He said in a soft voice before regaining his original posture. "Just stay the hell outta my way."
"You took the words right outta my mouth." I joked as we left the crippled guards in the glass room.
"Really they both beat you again," Joker gasped. "What's it gonna take an army of monsters." He said and the started laughing manically again.
"God I really hate him." I said as we moved onto the next room.
We both walked in to a flooded room to see Joker restraining a security guard. Batman stepped forward.
"You need to stop this now," He ordered. "Before it goes too far."
"Stop?" He asked. "But everyone's dying to see what I do next." He said as he held the guard out in front of him. Good thing to because I was going to take a shot at him.
"You had better let him go now if you value you miserable life." I snarled.
"You," He said in disbelief. "I thought you got blown away with the good Doctor."
"I took some medicine and got better. Now let him go."
"Really, okay if you say so Shadow Boy." He then kicked a fuse box into the flooded floor as electricity started cackling throughout the water. A second later he kicked the guard into the water, he let out a dying gargle as his body went limp in the water.
"No!" Batman yelled as Joker strutted into the next room laughing.
"You should just do us both a favor and ditch your new partner Bats," He said as he pulled out a device. "He's really slowing you down, at this rate you'll never catch me." He laughed as he pushed the button and blew up the doorway blocking it with rubble.
I was tempted into jumping over the water but the ceiling was too close to the floor and I didn't have enough room to jump.
"Dammit," I grumbled.
"Don't worry we'll make things right." He said as he walked out the room. "We need to shut off the power first."
"The generators though the statue corridor on the second floor of the Glass room." I said as we made our way back through the glass room and through the corridor. We finally made our way to the generator room as slowly opened it. I looked inside to see a lone man in a chair being attacked by Joker's men.
"Please stop," The man begged causing all the men to laugh.
"Why?" He asked as he raised his fist.
His question was answered by a Batarang to the side of his head. He went down as all the guards looked towards us.
"That's why." I said as I cracked my knuckles.
We both dashed forward and begun our assault on the men. I punched one man in the stomach and delivered a kick to others head. Batman jump kicked a man in his face and swiped another man's eyes blinding him temporarily and then delivered a barrage of attacks to his stomach before delivering an upper cut to his chin knocking him out cold. We both looked behind us to see one guy standing still in fear. We both ran towards him and punched him in the face together, he fell to the ground as we tended to the engineer.
"Are you guys okay?" He asked.
"Yeah don't worry we eat losers like these for breakfast." I reassured.
"What did jokers men do to you?" Batman asked.
"The ones that weren't hitting me were doing something to the controls," He said. "What though, I don't know."
After that Batman walked over to a terminal in the wall that had green tanks attached to its sides.
"Looks like Joker has booby-trapped the control box," Batman said as he pulled out a small device. "This will be a little more difficult."
"What's that?" I asked as he started playing with some switches.
"It allows me to hack into terminals like these," He said as the terminal exploded. "I shut down the electric current to the next room it should be safe for us to cross."
"Lets go." I said as we ran out of the room.
We crossed over safely as Jokers voice came on the intercom again.
"Well aren't you the persistent ones," He sniped. "it won't be long before I have an army of TITAN monsters at my fingertips. Just think me being carried through the streets over the corpses of all the innocent people. It'll be glorious." He then started laughing again as the line went dead.
"He will never get that crap off the island." I growled.
"We will stop him," he said as he ripped off the vent next to the door that the Joker blew up.
After a few minutes of crawling around an abandoned sewer and beating down more of Jokers men we made our way to an aviary where more of Jokers men were patrolling. We looked around trying to see how many men were dealing with when we heard a doctor screaming for help.
"Please get me down!" He yelled as Jokers voice came on.
"Listen, the gruesome twosome are on their way, if you here a collar go off send the doctors to hell," There was a silence. "That's the down one right?"
"Yeah," one of his men chuckled.
"Good, if you hear a collar go off Bats and Shadow are hear." He informed. Batman turned to me as we hid behind a corner.
"If we make any noise those Doctors die," He explained. "You wait here while I go deal with him."
"Wait, I have cloaking," I told him. "It last a good four minutes before giving out. I'll go take care of him and then you can take out those other guys."
"Jayden," He sighed.
Whatever he was going to say was cut off as I turned on my cloaking and snuck towards the control booth. I snuck past some guards and scaled some walls before reaching the control booth. Good thing too because my cloaking had turned off right before I could enter the ventilation ducts. I slowly crawled in and hung over the thug with the switch as he overlooked the aviary. I dropped down and knocked him out cold. Before I could gloat about how sneaky I was Batman had already wasted all the thugs.
"How the hell could he do that?" I asked in disbelief. "I just took this guy out?"
"He's Batman." Breeze's voice said teasingly. I angrily turned my radio off as I lowered the doctors down to the ground floor.
I walked down to them as Batman tried to comfort them.
"I'm sorry," One of the doctors expressed. "I thought I was working for Dr. Young. I had no idea Joker was involved until he burst into the lab."
"Where's the lab entrance?" I asked.
"It's behind a hidden door. I always got buzzed in, there's a hidden terminal but it's you know, hidden." He said sheepishly.
"Don't worry we'll find it." He said as we walked over to a small hidden spot. Batman as if he'd already knew pulled off a panel revealing a hidden terminal and hacked into it. Just then a wall started moving revealing it to be a hidden passage way. We wasted no time in walking in, ready to take down the Joker.
We walked through the doors to see tanks of this TITAN crap being carried by Joker's crew. Sure enough the man of the hour was standing in the center of it all.
"Well look who's discovered our secret lab," He said. "Since you made it this far, let me show you what I've cooked up." He then stepped behind two of his goons and pulled out a gun. He fired it shooting darts into ones back and into the center of the others chest.
They both started screaming in pain as their bodies started transforming. Their veins glowed green and their muscles started expanding, their heads started having spikes poking out of and their spinal cords broke through their back. When it was all over they were no longer human beings but monsters of TITAN. I looked over at Batman who looked right back at me with his fearless expression.
"I'll take the one on the right." I said as we both slowly approached the monsters.
They both roared as they charged at us, Batman jumped over his while I tried to take mine head on. I pulled out my sword and plunged it through his stomach but it didn't seem to bother him to much as he snarled in my face. He grabbed my arm and pulled my blade out of his stomach when it was out he picked me up and threw me against the wall. I smashed into the wall leaving a crater from the impact as he stopped over towards me. I got up and landed multiple punched to his chest and a hard one to his face. Even with my Adonis formula he was still able to shrug them off and tried to squash me. Lucky for me the dumb bastard was too slow and I was able to dodge him with ease.
Batman was having some trouble with his as he threw a Batarang at the oncoming monsters head. It blinded him as he stumbled into the wall. Batman ran over and landed some punches to his stomach, but was cut short as he swung his giant fist blindly at him. He leaped back and regained his attack pose as the monster regained his vision.
I was running towards a nearby wall as the hulking horror charged at me furiously. Apparently firing my stun gun at his face was not a good idea as I ran up the wall. I jumped off as he crashed into it and fell to the ground. He started to get up when a light bulb went off in my head. I pulled my sheath off my back and ran up behind the monster. I climbed up his back and held the sheath around his neck good and tight. He swung his arms at me trying to reach me but was no good as I steered him towards Batman's direction.
It swung its fist's blindly as I steered it towards the TITAN tanks. Batman had the same idea as he climbed on the others back and steered him towards the other tanks. We destroyed them one by one as the green liquid spilled onto the floor. When the last one was destroyed Batman got thrown off as I steered my monster towards the other. In a loud roar he swung his massive fist into the monster head knocking it down on the ground.
I didn't have much time to celebrate as I was thrown over his shoulder and onto the ground. He raised his foot ready to crush me when a small black object was thrown into its face. He roared in anger as he stumbled back I skidded out of the way and stood next to Batman. We gave each other a look before we both ran towards the monster leap at it with our fists raised and landed two hard punches into his tiny head. The monster let out a groan as he fell to the ground. We took a minute to look around at the destroyed TITAN plant.
"Well, I don't think this place will be of much use to anyone anymore." I said.
"No, but knowing Joker he's got enough to cause some mayhem." Batman grumbled.
"Don't worry we'll stop him."
"Hey," He said as I looked over to him. "Good job." He held out a hand.
"Thanks," I said as I shook his hand.
It was then that I realized he respected me enough to work with me. So I should do the same. In respect I wouldn't kill anyone or do anything to violent. Like his friend Robin I would listen to him and respect his decisions.
For now.