She awakens with an aching head and blurry vision, only leaving her to realize that she is in a white room. As her vision gradually clears, she realizes she is in a padded room, with an old framed mirror in front of her, showing her to have been put in a medical bed to which her chest, arms and legs are restrained to, while having been tilted against the wall so she is standing up. Also, for fun it seems, she has been fitted with one of the medical gags the Arkham-staff used when patients might try to bite others; a close fitting piece of white rubber, with a grilled opening over her mouth and holes for her nostrils as it covers her face from chin to the bridge of her nose while being secured behind her head with a strap. It is a needless piece, since Batgirl's costume covers her mouth anyway and the 'fun' part is that it is while an uneven smile has been drawn on it with red. Next to the mirror a small, and old, television is broadcasting static as it's placed on an old chair, while a camera is sealed off in a box in one corner of the room at the ceiling. She doesn't waste much time as she begins wiggling around get her arms free.
"Good! You're awake!" Raven stops as the Jokers voice erupts from a loudspeaker. "Now you are no doubt wondering why you are here, and where here is? I would direct your attention to the TV in front of you for the first part. Raven begins working again as the screen shows a color image of Nightwing slumping in the chair from the warehouse, dressed in something that looks like his first Robin costume, a red vest over a green T-shirt, along with green underwear and the 'elf boots', as Richard called them. "Now my boys and I have been working to keep this dangerous patient nice and calm, while making sure he is comfortable again." The Joker giggles. "As your welcome aboard mission, it will be your job, to rescue the poor birdie before he has a little accident or something. But of course, we can't have it become all too easy for you, so I give you contestant number two!" Raven looks up again as the channel is changed to show a young black woman tied to a chair and gagged with a piece of cloth, she is obviously scared and crying; Tam Fox. "According to my boys, she is the daughter of some rich man. Of course there will be all sorts of things in your way to them both and you most likely won't reach them both, just look at all those armed men, what's a girl to do?" He asks as the camera alternates between pictures from different security camera's showing gun wielding men patrolling hallways, but most importantly giving away where she is, New Arkham Asylum.
The bat's had thought Jeremiah Arkham a nut when he emerged with plans for this new asylum, having found them in an old safe he uncovered in the ruins of the old asylum, claiming that this was the original plans his grandfather Amadeus Arkham had for the Asylum, but were unable to fund it then. While the old Asylum had once been an old stately mansion, belonging to Amadeus' family, consisting of old crumbling structures with hasty repairs being added when security did not suck up all the funding. The new asylum is a concrete labyrinth, Bruce admitted he dreaded this new structure more than old Arkham, the design was a mess, almost impossible to decipher and he was sure there were secret rooms and corridors hidden in the plans, and Raven had agreed with him, no sane mind would have made such a thing. But the city funded the project without a second thought, making this multi-story building a reality.
"But you bat-freaks are compulsive do-gooders, so try you will. But don't take too long...tick, tock… tick tock…" The Joker continues as Raven frees her other hand while the TV begins running a countdown from ten. Quickly she removes the strap over her chest before freeing her feet and storms out of the room, still wearing the mask. The room is destroyed in a deafening explosion as the TV's countdown reaches zero, showering her in dust as the ceiling over it collapses while she is thrown to the ground.
Getting back onto her feet, she removes the gag and tosses it aside before attempting to make contact with the computer back in the cave, growling as the link fails to penetrate the thick walls of Arkham. She would have to mention it to Bruce when she gets back. "Navigating this place by memory would be foolish, they could have changed everything, and I don't even know where in Arkham I am. First priority, I need to find out where I am. But the explosion is sure to have been a signal, I have to get out of sight." She thinks before realizing there is nowhere to hide, other than the air vent that's running along the ceiling. Quickly she picks out a closed maintenance opening, moving to stand under it before jumping up, kicking the lid up and lets herself squeeze feet first into the pipe as she hears heavy footfalls pound down the hallway. She lies still as two thugs, one carrying a baseball bat and one with a pistol pass underneath her.
"Jezz…" One mutters. "Boss, something blew up down here." He says.
"I told that lunatic we should have killed her." Comes a deep crackling reply, Raven's cowl identifies the likely owner of the voice to be Two-Face. "I take it there is no body?"
"Uh uh." The speaking thug says, making Raven roll her eyes, obviously the man was not first in line when brains were handed out that day.
"Damn it!" Two-Face replies. "Search the area, find her and kill her! To hell with the Clown!" He roars.
"Got it boss." The thicko henchman replies. "Come on, bet she went this way." He says before the pair head down the other way.
"Wish they were all that stupid." Raven thinks before she begins crawling along the air duct, taking peeks out of the vent grills she passes on the way, getting around 70 meters before the pipe passes through a wall, leading into a small office, where she decides to get out, dropping silently into the dark room. Engaging night vision she scans the room, finding it to belong to an administration clerk, who obviously has a dislike to Jeremiah Arkham, if the photo with darts in it is anything to go by. Deciding there is nothing to gain by searching the place, she turns off the night vision after making her way to the door, she quietly opens slightly before taking a peek outside, finding herself looking into the bare back of a shirtless bald man. Freezing she lets her ears work, only picking up faint chatter, she opens the door more. The man doesn't register the attack before he has disappeared into the office, leaving no trace of him outside.
Batgirl carefully pokes her head out again a few seconds later, wary of alerting anyone to her presence. "I am going to assume that that everyone else have either been captured or killed." She thinks as she looks from side to side of the broad, well lit corridor, like the rest of the place, all of the surfaces are white, except for the black handrails on each side. An interesting feature is that there are large screens suspended from the ceiling down the hall, currently turned off, used for information displays and commercials. Across from her is a maintenance cart with several bundles of electric cord on it. "Hmm, guess even the regulars would need this." She notes as she walks out of the office and over the information map next to the door. "Let's see, I am here. Both Nightwing's and Tam's feeds were live, meaning there must be surveillance camera's where they are held, I need to get access to the feed. Hmm, control post at the entrance has them no doubt, but so does the checkpoint two floors below me." She thinks while plotting the route to the destination.
"Hey it's the bat!" Someone shouts, breaking her train of thoughts, cursing herself for being so careless as a group of men storm out of a nearby corridor, all of them wearing some kind of double shaded clothing, marking them as members of Two-Face's gang. She quickly pulls out her retractable bo-staff and charges them as well when she spots one man with a pistol and one with a semi-automatic rifle. Being outnumbered 12 to one is only a minor disadvantage for her as she lays into the gangers with the staff, kicks and punches while not taking any hits herself. The semi-auto is swiftly sent sliding down the hallway as it is kicked out of the wielders hands, leaving the pistol wielder to take two shots at her before it is lost as well, one impacting on her cloak with no damage done and one clipping the knee of an unfortunate ganger before the gunman is sent to the ground as he takes a heel to the cheek, breaking the jaw underneath as the last man standing up.
"Oh, jezus christ it hurts!" The shot man cries as he clutches his knee, being the only one capable of answering, Bargirl moves over to look down on him, placing the tip of her staff at his throat, getting his full attention as he lets go and lies back regarding her fearfully. She kneels down to inspect the wound, nothing serious. "Don't… arg!" he cries as she puts two fingers into the wound and begins writing on the floor with his blood.
"Prisoners where?" She writes before directing his attention to it.
"Dunno, we hardly know where we are in this damn maze… ARG!" He cries as she grabs the wound again, squeezing it. "God stop!… I don't know! We were only told to get to this floor!" He cries as she keeps up the pressure. Satisfied he is not lying, she leaves him to get some of the cables before returning to tie all of the men together in pairs by their wrists, making sure all of them are secured before leaving them. After wiping her boots and gloves clean of blood in one of the men's jackets, the weapons are quickly disassembled, while she takes the trigger springs with her.
Moving down the hallway the men came from, she comes across a stairwell. "Probably safer than braving the elevator." She reasons and grabs the door handle and pushes the heavy metal door open. Almost immediately she is thrown back as a bomb goes off on the other side of it.
"Ah ah ahhhh! You aren't done on that floor yet and I'd hate to have to bring the boys down on you." The Joker laughs as Batgirl looks up at one of the screens and spots the mad man on them. "Oh did I forget to tell you everything? Well… sorry." He says sarcastically as he pulls up a piece of paper. "Now hear this." He says, changing his tone to that of a courtroom ballot. "Tonight's tests will have you clear each floor of all the party animals waiting for you… Or else!" He says the last part suddenly as he leans into the camera. "Or else I am moving up the time table and letting a few special someone's have their fun with your objectives. Someone's like good old Victor Zsasz, I know he is dying to have some work to cut into." The maniac laughs. "Who knows, I might just do that anyway. Oh and in case you are a thicko and haven't realized it, each floor has been accommodated to someone. Good luck kiddo." He says before the screen goes dark, while Batgirl confirms the door to be bent so out of shape it won't open unless she cheats.
"So he wants me to just clear out how many thugs and freaks in a limited amount of time? Just wonderful." She grumbles before moving back to the map of the floor. "Hmm Harvey is on this floor, but where?" She asks thinking for a few seconds, looking over the map. It's the administrative level, nothing but offices for the people who are employed to keep the place running and a number of other rooms that shouldn't be there. "Duh." She sighs as she realizes that Harvey Dent, former district attorney could not be holed up anywhere other than in Arkham's very own courtroom at the far end of the north wing. Because of its nature as doubling as a maximum security prison on top of being a mental institution, the courtroom was installed to avoid the risks of bringing some of the inmates to a normal courtroom outside the facility.
Copying the image of the map into her cowl and her current location, she makes off towards the duality obsessed man. "Odd, Dent usually has a small army of thugs working for him." She notes when she makes her way quietly down the hallways, meeting no one. What annoys her however is that there are no alternative ways of entering the room. As she always does, she slows down when turning a corner to take a careful peek before continuing. "Hope there will be less theatrics from the rest." She notes as her thermal scanners show over thirty different heat signatures on the other side of the double doors to the courtroom, she opens them after palming several smoke bombs. Being met with a room filled with masked men, all in the style of the mask Slade once wore, but in a host of different shadings and materials seated in the spectator rows who all looks up at her when she enters, some murmuring.
"Defendant may approach the stand." Dent says as he appears out of a doorway next to the judge's seat, dressing in a half-decent half-ruined suit, assuming it was her he was talking to Batgirl walks calmly to enter the closed off area before the judge's stand, but remains standing between the two tables, while Dent has seated himself before her. "In the case Batgirl versus the innocent residents of Arkham Asylum, we find you guilty!" He says while pointing a finger at her, getting cheers from the people behind her, while she just stares at him. Quickly she picks out a pen and a pad of paper holding up for him to see before writing a question.
"Bad day?" It reads.
"What?!" He snaps, getting the crowd to shut up in surprise.
"No coin toss? No adherence to due process? Hardly the way you usually play this. You even have a real courtroom today." She can see him thinking about it after reading it. "Good, means it wasn't just down to a coin toss." She thinks, reminded about the time that Dent actually ended up putting himself away when a crafty policewoman wanted him to defend her case against himself, that situation had also taken place in a real courtroom and apparently Dent had gone all out on the theatrics back then.
"Just one of those days." He shrugs. "What's it to you?"
"I just have the impression you seem like you'd rather be somewhere else."
"Hmm." The man grumbles as he leans back in his seat. "I guess you could say I am more indebted than privileged to preside over this courtroom."
"You owe the Joker to be here?"
"Who else could get me to return to this place?" Dent shrugs, obviously having forgotten he was about to order her execution at some point, and his goons were apparently unsure what would happen if they decided to think for themselves.
"Written or verbal?" She asks.
"Verbal." He shrugs again, crossing his arms over his chest before she slips him another note.
"A verbal agreement is not binding and would not hold up in court. Unless it was actually recorded otherwise." He seems to light up at this for a second before the expression is muted again and he picks out his coin and flips it. Seeing the result he stands up.
"Come on boys we are leaving!"
"But boss?" One of the men asks, pointing at Batgirl.
"She hits harder than him." Two-Face shrugs as he walks past her and makes for the exit. "Now come on, there is a pair of banks I want to make a withdrawal from." He says as he exits the room.
Batgirl watches as the confused henchmen get up and leaves the room, some sending her daggers with their eyes, one younger wanting to pull a gun on her, but his friend behind him quickly dissuades him. Inwardly she smirks at this, it told volumes of the respect and fear she causes in these people. Eventually leaving her in the empty room, without having resorted to violence. She looks up at the statue of Lady Justice that is leaning out of the wall behind the judge's stand, wondering if Dike was sensing through such creations as the more religious Amazons thought the Gods did.
"We are omniscient, more or less, but I do think it was well played." Batgirl snaps around to spot a man in a white toga and a golden helmet with wings on it and a bundle of scrolls in a sack, sitting on the left table, realizing who he is, she quickly bows to him.
"Hermes, how may I serve?" She asks, knowing now it was how to address the Gods properly, when they were of the friendly variety.
"Now now Champion, I am just passing through. But it was a good ploy considering how well you know this place." He says.
"I would be surprised if he doesn't know it; with Arkham overrun, there's bound to be an iron ring of police outside. I hope so at least."
"True, but such are the chances. Oh, before I forget, Demeter wanted you to have this… ah, here it is. Good luck." He says as he tosses her a scroll after some searching in his bag and before he disappears in a blast of wind. Knowing it must be important for the goddess to send word, she rolls open the scroll.
"Champion of Themyscira, I send word now because the trials you will soon face, while it is up to you to see them through, I will bid you tread carefully in places where the Great Mother presides. And beware the future when the Champion of Earth will reign." After reading this, the scroll instantly crumbles to dirt between Batgirls hands.
"Hmm, this has Clayface written all over it." She muses. "I have to go." She continues before leaving, storming down the hallway's, forcing the elevator doors open before swinging down to the next level, arriving on the floor in complete darkness. "Crane." She thinks as her throat begins to tingle and fear begins to grow in her mind. Holding her breath, she gets her gas mask on and turns on her night vision before moving into the dark and quiet world.
"Uhhhh you!" The Jokers voice startles her, telling her that the gas was potent. "I expected gun wounds and bruises! And you let Dent walk right out the door! I expected you to emerge bloody and wounded… is that too much to ask?!" He goes quiet after that.
"Idiot." Raven sighs as she continues exploring the floor, finding two security guards who were beyond help in an office, victims of the gas. "I miss my empathy." She adds, having the impression that she is being followed, but with the gas and the loss of her other senses, it is hard to tell. "But I still have ears." She realizes how to test if she really was being followed and moves to stand with her back against a pillar and the wall of the hallway. She waits for several minutes, tracking the noise coming closer to her, before she is certain the maker is right beside her. Breaking cover, she quickly grabs and pushes the figure against the wall with her lower arm, resting the scallops against the figure's throat. "Mom?" She thinks in surprise at the face of the person in the robe.
"Raven… what are you doing?" The woman asks. "This wasn't what I raised you to become." Batgirl just stares at the woman, who she knows isn't her mother. "You've fallen, you aren't my child… daughter of Trigon!" She snaps as two extra eyes form on her forehead along with Scath's runes before she disappears, leaving Batgirl to stare at the wall.
"Gas is affecting me more than I thought." She thinks, trying to calm herself, she had almost replied to the insult, but she had recognized the distinct sense of vertigo that comes with the fear gas, making her dread the thought of Crane having changed his gas to make it go through skin rather than lungs. Her calm is blown again when something trips over something in the darkness further away and out of sight, followed by some deep rumbling cursing. "That's real." For the lack of better hiding places, she jumps up to the ceiling, cheating by using her Amazon strength and suspends herself by supporting herself between a ventilation shaft and a cable tube.
"Damn you Crane for flooding this place with poison, can't get a straight sent in here!" A deep grumble is heard down the way she came.
"Look on the bright side Waylon, at least you are inoculated." A small squawk is heard from a guard walkie talkie as Scarecrow turns off. "Think about her reaction to when she see's you now."
"Yeah, that's what worries me." Killer Croc grumbles before squashing the walkie talkie in his huge hand as his huge scaly body walks slowly under her hiding spot. Working out a strategy, she drops down after he moves on and silently follows him, picking out a small flare sphere from her belt.
Ever since Jump City, and according to Batman, probably for the rest of his life, Waylon Jones has mutated further and further, now having actually grown a short snout of a crocodile and a tiny tail that pokes out of his only garment; a ripped pair of pants. His strength also continues to increase along with his size; a photo in the cave depicts him lifting a car over his head. These days, Batman is concerned about Waylon, years ago he considered him a thug, more brawn than brain. Now there seemed to be even less brain involved but much more muscle, which makes Waylon that much more dangerous if cornered. The Falcone family had found this out the hard way when they thought they needed to make an example of a Gotham Mask, 30 of them had him cornered in a forgotten sewer maintenance room and none of them made it out alive when Croc went completely feral. Now he stands at an intersection, sniffing the air, while Batgirl leans down and lets the small black ball roll down the hall and in between the reptile man's legs.
"Huh?" He looks down at the noise just as it explodes in a flash of white and sparks. "RAAHH!" By now Batgirl has moved from where she was, to stand on his left as the huge reptile-man swings his nose around, sniffing the air deeply. "I got your sent girl!" He says while moving around himself, Batgirl doesn't doubt his claim, his nose is like her hearing, far sharper than their eyes. "Ha!" He says before he throws a quick punch at her that leaves a hole in the wall as she dodges aside, running past him and kicks him behind the knee before moving further away from him.
"Either I get him to head back to Crane or I take him down now." She knows both scenarios are unlikely as the situation is; fortunately she always carries something for everyone, in Croc's case; a Taser. As big and resilient as he is, electricity is still a weakness and the one she silently pulls out is more than enough for the job, the problem is that she also needs the pepper spray to block his nose in order to slow him down and make it possible to hit him the right place.
"I got you now!" The reptilian man roars as he storms right towards her, slicing the air with his claws, while she dodges and weaves aside while the walls suffer, culminating in her doing a back flip, planting her feet onto his big head and jumps down behind him, aiming to mace him when he turns around. "Minx!" He growls, before turning faster than anticipated, barely allowing her to land. Catching her chest with the back of his arm, getting a groan from her as she is sent flying into the wall, dazing her. "I've been waiting for years for this!" He says as he seizes her by her left leg and arm and lifts her into the air. "Bat flesh!" Her mind snaps out of the daze at the words, instantly realizing the Taser isn't in her hand anymore, only the mace canister.
"Oh crap!" She thinks as he lowers her to take a bite out of her midsection, almost before realizing she does it, she leans over and shoves the mace canister into the back of his mouth, forcing him to swallow it whole in surprise. The action is enough for him to let go of her and lets her fall to the ground, banging her head against the floor.
"Yuk, I hate pepper." He spits after seemingly trying to sample the object he swallowed. "Better eat you to delude the pill." He growls as she is again hoisted into the air, with one arm closed around her chest. "Think ill want those ears." He says as he closes the other hand around her head, intending to pull it from her shoulders, she had enough of a mind to pull out two batarangs before getting seized again and stabs them both into the scaly underside of his arm as the hand closes over her head, getting him to pull back as if stung. "Keep fighting, get the adrenaline pumping… it will make the meal all the more tasty…" He says after sniffing the two pieces of metal and his own blood. "Maybe I should do what Bane did and make myself a name? The guy who hugged a Bat?" He asks, after seemingly having an idea, before she can say anything he wraps her in a bear hug, crushing her back against his chest, she can hear her own bones creak under the administration as she heaves for air. "Almost there girly, few more seconds." Croc growls as she begins to lose consciousness, before he suddenly stops applying pressure as his stomach rumbles and he burps loudly. Much to her surprise, she is dropped again. "Oh crap…!" Croc growls as he clutches his stomach before burping loudly again and sinks to his knee. "Jesus Christ what did you give me?!" He shouts at her as she slowly tries to get up again, while gas seeps from his throat.
Mace, or pepper spray, is measured on the same chart as a natural chili pepper, only regular mace is five times stronger than any natural fruit, and the canister that just dissolved inside Croc was fresh. Leaving him heaving for breath and burping uncontrollably on the ground while his system overheats. With his inhuman biology, he is left panting with his mouth open, since he doesn't have sweat glands anymore.
Batgirl however strains to walk in a straight line without support of the wall, failing as she bends over to pick up the Taser, falling onto it. "Get up!" She growls at herself, forcing herself to get up while her bruised ribs continue to protest at her movements.
Croc looks up sluggishly as she moves to stand over him. "No… " He manages before the sting of the Taser is felt at his neck, lighting up the corridor in blue light, she lets it work for several seconds before releasing him to unconsciousness, Bruce had mentioned they could never be sure with Croc because of his condition.
She stands over him for several seconds before she groans and drops to her knees, dropping the Taser as well. "Damn, how does the others handle this. Oh…" She groans as she tests her ribs, finding two bent and one cracked. "Remember what Bruce said, we keep going till we drop, so get to your feet!" She heaves as she gets back onto her feet and re-holsters the Taser before making her way back down the corridors, stumbling as she goes. "Crane must be down here."
Passing by the elevator and making several turns, while she gradually masters the pain poking her cracked rib, while becoming increasingly certain she is getting closer, memorizing the empty corridor ending in the crossroad ahead of her, she switches to the thermal vision. Spotting a far off heat emanation, she lets it guide her along, ignoring the pipes and radiators on her way. Along with the odd imaginary flare the gas adds. Funnily, she feels like the alien in the movie Tim and Bruce had her watch with them, though she wasn't really paying attention to it while it stalked and butchered a group of marines. "There you are." She thinks as a massive heat signature appears on her vision; something she was taught to look for when looking for Cranes laboratories, as she comes closer, walking silently down the hall she begins to hear grumbling.
"I can't find a thing in here!" A weasely sounding voice complains in the dark as she turns a corner, spotting a moving signature through a half closed door. "And he paired me with that colossal handbag!" Crane growls, she confirms his identity by switching back to night vision; seeing him feel his way over a table with his hands, while a boiling vat stands in the background of the kitchen.
Picking her way silently over to stand next to him, she watches as he fumbles, unaware how close she is to him. "Where is that blasted container?" He asks, she can see why he has a hard time, most of the counter is covered with various ingredients he needs to make his poisons. Picking out a small liquid filled plastic container, she puts it and her hand in the path of his and waits. First point of contact from him is his pinky bumping into the tip of the container. "Ah there, you ar…" He says as he closes his hand over hers, he freezes for a second while she watches him. He gasps in fright and back away rapidly, Batgirl realize too late where his fear takes him, right into the stove with the boiling pot on.
His scream is ear piercing as he first burns his rear on the stove before his flailing hands pushes down on one of the pots handle's, turning it over and pouring the boiling contents down his back. Without hesitating, she moves to scoop him up as he falls unconscious from the shock and pain. Putting him face down on a free counter, she rips open the loose shirt he is wearing and the pants, spotting the swelling skin underneath. Grabbing several towels and cloths, she drenches them in temperate water before draping them over his wounds that now covers some 35 percent of his body. It is all she can do for him, leaving him chained to the counter with his head near a sink and his mask in the opposite corner of the room. Stepping back out into the hallway, she is blinded as the light suddenly comes on again.
"Well, well…aren't you the trouble maker?" The Joker asks over the speaker systems, as she blinks after turning off the night vision, in an attempt to regain her sights. "Giving Croc indigestion and boiling the good doctor! But I gotta say, it's more entertaining than how you handled old Dent." He says while lowering his voice. "Now, I am feeling generous, for your efforts I will let you arrive unmolested to where you are going. Come and get me!" He says, sounding menacing before turning off the speakers.
"Yeah, and I am the Easter Bunny." She growls to herself before breaking into a run, making her way back to the elevator she came from, the doors fight her as she forces them open standing with her arms spread wide.
"Strike two!" Batgirl doesn't get to curse in her mind as her head is struck from behind again by Harley Quinn, making her tumble through the doors and into the emptiness of the elevator shaft. She has a saving grace as she doesn't pass out as her head scratches against the opposite wall, tearing off the gasmask, before the rest of her body does as well, reflectively she pushes back and turns in the air grabbing for the elevator cables. Suit and skin is torn from her palms before she collides feet first with the elevator at the bottom, leaving her lying on the roof for several minutes, while Pain wails her eyes out at the injuries in her head.
"Bruce will kill me when he finds out about this." She sighs before groaning and sits up to inspect her injuries. "If I survive the night that is." She sighs at the sight, confirming it was superficial, but still hurts and bleeds.
"Ding dong, Warden Joker would like to announce that so far tonight's score is; Harley girl 2, Batgirl squat!" The Joker laughs over the speakers inside the elevator. "And the Bat is down for the count, but let's not get our hopes up, they have a terrible habit of not dying."
"By the pits, I should have known there would be something waiting." Batgirl curses herself, as she gets up, deciding it is too risky to grapple up to the floor she wanted to go to, Harley could be waiting for her again, so she opens the service hatch and drops into the elevator.
"Oh there you are." The Joker continues as she stumbles out of the elevator. "Ohhh is the witto Batgurl hurt?" He asks as she stumbles to her hands and knees, her body protesting about the injuries and what was evidently gas that had seeped into the elevator shaft. "Well don't you worry none, we have just the people to make you feel better. Oh and a bonus tip, one of your targets is on this floor, congratulations!"
"Thanks, you lying bastard." She growls while trying to get up and make her way down the corridor, conveniently lighted for her, leading her to an open door, revealing a closed off garden outside. She pushes her pains away and focuses on the job at hand; the twenty thugs waiting for her, armed with clubs, chains and crowbars. She doesn't wait for them, and they don't wait for her as the two fronts charge each other.
There are hits, punches, kicks and throws, mingled with the noise of curses, shouts, cries of pain and surprise. She doesn't pull punches deliberately, but part of her is still reigning her in, but they seem to have no concern to who they actually hit with their weapons. But after six minutes, Batgirl is the only one standing, battered and bloody, but standing nonetheless, in a torn suit.
"Now is the time for the lead actor to take the center stage." A deep rumbling voice is heard, while she backs away and picks out a small grenade. In front of her; the ground buckles and heaves as it rises, first to a lump, then gaining a bulky humanoid form composed of brown, almost fluid dirt, with one arm growing into a hammer and one into a spike. "Ta-da, Clayface!" She sighs and throws the three special 'Clayface repellants' as Tim calls them, one in his chest and two in his shoulders. "Huh?" He asks dumbly before they explode a second later, freezing all the water in his body, rendering him a block of ice.
"I've just about had enough of theatrics for one night." She sighs.
"Boo! What a damp squirt!" The Joker howls in annoyance. "But I guess you have fought him enough to come up with something to take all the fun out of him. Better go collect your prize." He says, as she limps onwards through the only other doors.
"Guess I found the staff." She notes flatly as she enters an auditorium, where every seat is occupied, by a doctor or security staff member, most of them dead our out cold by the looks of it with slashed throats, bullet wounds or other obvious signs on abuse showing on many of them. They are all observing the two on the floor of the room. One is a tall, wiry, bare chested man with short blonde hair, with a large kitchen knife in one hand. His skin is covered in scars, self-inflicted, one for each victim and standing between two chairs. And the other a young dark skinned girl, wearing a black dress, is strapped into one of the wooden chairs with a cloth gag in her mouth, obviously at her wits end.
Batgirl knows she has to tread extremely carefully now, Victor Zsasz, while not physically imposing, is one of Gotham's most dangerous men. Cunning and unpredictable, you can never know what he might do before his compulsion to murder takes over, Batgirl fears Tam Fox has been witness to him subduing this lust for murder on some of the audience, using the knife in his hand. She has heard Bruce mention, that Victor is his most hated enemy, even more so than the Joker. Because of the things Victor has done and will do, the Joker he can understand to a degree; he will murder for a laugh. Victor kills because he holds that nothing has any meaning and that he is really saving people from their pointless lives, making him another opposite of what the Bats do; save everyone, regardless of who they are.
"I knew you'd get here." He says quietly as she walks down the stairs, noting that he is too far from Tam to kill her without throwing the knife. "But it matters not, nothing matters." He says as she stops at the foot of the stairs. "The Joker said I should try something new. It doesn't matter, but I want to make you an offer." She raises an eyebrow at him at this. "Sit in this chair and take three cuts from me, and I will let you all leave." She takes a look at the chair he patted once, same type as the one Tam is occupying, before looking at Zsasz, she has seen numerous photos of him and she can see one difference here. It is in his eyes, on all of the photo's they are essentially dead, be it mug shots or pictures of him taking a knife to someone, no emotion has ever been captured in them. But now, she can see a brief spark of excitement in them. She doesn't have long to decide, she knows and the beatings she's taken so far will affect her throw if she wanted to throw a batarang at him. "Can I afford it?"
The two of them have not met before, Victor had only been active once after Richard left the second time and Bruce and Tim took him down while Raven was on the other side of town. So perhaps it is because of the first meeting she can see it, but she doubts it, it's something else. "I'm going to die." She sighs to herself before nodding once.
"Sit then." Victor says motioning at the chair, while Tam moans and whines as Batgirl walks past her, thinking her would-be savior had just signed both their death sentences and Batgirl can't help but think the same as she sits down. "What I intend to do requires finesse and for you to sit still." He says as he makes to fasten her right hand to the armrest, she just nods again and he proceeds to strap her arms and legs to the chair. Again she wonders if she just made her last mistake when he stands up after finishing and gets the knife out. "Don't scream." He says as he examines her body with his eyes, noting her already substantial injuries. Taking a little more interest in the bruise front part of her left shoulder that is visible through the tear in her costume.
He moves to her right shoulder instead and lifts the fabric a little with his fingers before cutting a rip in it, letting the pale skin underneath show. "I wonder if the Bat thinks you foolish or brave?" He asks as he let the tip of the knife play over her skin. She breathes heavily when the knife is pushed forwards and into her shoulder. "That was one."
"The arrow didn't hurt so much." She growls inwardly as she bites down, trying to calm her breathing while he goes back to studying her. It doesn't take him as long as it did before, making another quick jab at a torn section of her tight, getting another heave out of her that turns to rocking, forcing herself not to scream. "By Azar…"
"And now the last one." Zsasz says as he leans forwards and lifts up the part of her mask that closes over her neck. Batgirl notes, with a little worry that the counter measures usually in place there, must have been destroyed or damaged since he is not gassed. With the skin of her neck exposed, she really begins to wonder if she made a mistake in doing this, when he grabs her head with her free hand and forces her to expose her neck further. "One movement and you could die." He says before slowly forcing the knife to enter her again, making her perform a superhuman effort in not moving or breathing as the knife is pushed deeper in, it creeps her out when she can feel the metal on the wrong side of her windpipe. Ever so slowly, he begins pulling it out again. Leaving her to slump in the seat, breathing slowly. There is a brief second where she fears he will continue as his eyes seems to flash, but he sheathes the knife. "You are very brave. We will meet again one day." He says before untying her. "But I must think. Take them and go." He says as she gets up and shuffles to Tam, untying her, hushing her before she can say anything after the gag is removed.
Getting up the stairs, proves more difficult than first anticipated and Batgirl ends up leaning on Tam for support, the wound in her leg proving to be a serious disability. But they manage, when a burly security guard with a prosthetic hand relieves Tam. "Come on, let's move people." He says quietly and a small crowd of people quickly gets out of their seats and hurries out of the abattoir, leaving Zsasz to sit with the dead while the living gather outside. The guard guiding Batgirl to sit on a bench, while the others just stare at Clayface and the twenty men on the ground outside.
"Rest, you've earned it." The man says, Raven looks up to regard the middle-aged black man, with Aaron Cash written on his name tag, Arkham's Chief of Security. She shakes her head before getting out the pad and pencil before writing with a shaking hand.
"Joker still has Nightwing. Croc and Crane are on the floor below the courtroom. Tam was just the distraction."
"You know my name?" The girl asks as she reads over the man's shoulder, or elbow to be precise.
"Can't let you go after him alone, not in your condition." Cash says.
"You need to keep these people safe, Zsasz is still loose, along with Dent, Joker and Quinn. Get them out if possible." Batgirl writes getting up while studying the exterior of the building, noting the widows. "Don't worry about me."
"All right." Cash sighs, knowing Bat's weren't up for arguing when their minds were set on something. "Everyone grab a weapon, we are moving out!" He shouts at the others. "Good luck." He says to Batgirl before moving to find a weapon for himself.
"But…you could get hurt." Tam quips, Batgirl just holds out her arms, showing off the many rips and tears that reveals the wounds underneath, telling her it was too late for that. "I… Thank you." Tam stumbles over the words before embracing Batgirl. "I was so scared!" She continues as the emotions overrun her and she breaks down in tears, Batgirl can only hug her back and soothe her while rocking her gently as Tam clings to her.
"She didn't deserve this."
"Miss Fox, come on, we have to go." Cash says as he returns armed with a lead pipe, a few minutes later when the worst of Tam's breakdown has passed.
"O… ok." She sobs as she tries to dry her eyes. "You be careful." She says to Batgirl who just nods, before picking out her grapple gun and fires it at a window, several floors above them tugging on it before letting it pull her up, leaving the group to watch her as she disappears through the window beneath it. "Please be careful." Tam whispers.
"Ah there you are. Bloody, wounded, victorious… how wonderful!" The Joker laughs over the screen outside the office Batgirl crashed through adding more rips to her costume and skin. "Follow the lights! Now come and get me!" He says again as the lights outside the hallway she is in, go out.
"What choice do it have?" She sighs and walks down the lighted path for several long minutes before coming to a pair of double doors, leading into gym hall. Pushing against them, she is admitted into the huge chamber, where the Joker is sitting in one end in a big green stuffed chair, mounted on a pile of mannequins and dolls with a walking stick in one hand, while leaning his feet on the back of Jeremiah Arkham who is on his hands and knees. While a laptop computer with a small camera mounted on the top stands on a rolling table next to them.
"And here she is! The hero of the night!" The madman exclaims as he claps his hands, while she walks in, both claps and her boots makes echoes in the otherwise empty room.
"Get her girls!" Raven spins around at the sound of Harleys voice, spotting a darkened storage room where two huge hyena's emerge, storming towards her with hungry gleams in their eyes.
Batgirl only has time for one and tosses the batarang, bringing one of the hounds down as it is struck on the side of the head while she carried to the ground by the other one, keeping it at arm's length as it snaps at her face and scratches at her body.
"Aww, witto Batgirly getting woozy?" Harley asks as she appears besides the two, her huge mallet slung over her shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll help you." She says as she raises her hammer high. Batgirl thinks fast and twists, forcing the hyena to take her place on the floor right as the hammer lands, getting a long wounded whine out of the creature. "Ah oops." Harley says as she looks down on her wounded pet. "Oh, crap!" She says as Batgirl gets to her feet. "Stay down Batgirly!" She continues, charging with the mallet raised.
"Right." Batgirl growls inwardly as she arrests the mallet's decent with a single hand on the shaft, before moving forwards and digs her fingers into Quinn's stomach, letting the woman fall to the floor with a groan before she does what Guy Gardner once did; vomits while on all fours, while Batgirl watches.
"Mista J?" She asks weakly, before a boot bears down on her back, forcing her face first in her own mess, Batgirl holds her there as Quinn struggles to be allowed breathe, seeing the struggle lessen, she shoves her off the pile, leaving her to cough and spit, before she turns to the Joker who just sits and smiles at her.
"Well, well, well, aren't we brutal?" He says before getting up, stretches his suit taking a crowbar with him. "But now it's time for the old master! AHAHAHAHAHA!" He says before a toxic green cloud is spayed from the flower in his jacket, obscuring everything around her while the Joker charges in. "What?!" he exclaims when the swinging crowbar is arrested like Harley's mallet, before Batgirls head comes crashing out of the cloud, ramming him on the nose, making him drop onto his back with the force that breaks it.
"Not funny BG!" He growls as she emerges from the cloud that has some chuckles in them, as she reaches for him, he rises to grab her with one hand. She is quick enough to twist away and grab his arm as she spots the buzzer in his palm. "No fun!" He growls, getting a smirk from her before she slowly guides his palm towards himself. "Hey! Get your own act!" He cries, unable to counter her superior strength, she deliberately holds it for a few seconds before she shocks him with his own device for several seconds. Getting drool and giggles out of him, before she drops him on the floor.
"He's ill." Arkham says as he sits up and rubs his back as if nothing overly odd had happened. "There's someone in the showers." She just nods at him and moves to the adjoining room.
She is moves as quickly as she can when she finds him, wearing only his mask and the shorts, covered in bruises and cuts and his own blood, still tied to the chair, parked in one of the shower stalls, with a TV in front of him, untying him before checking for injuries after his shallow breathing tells her he is alive.
"Raven… is that… you?" He mumbles quietly while slumping to the side, forcing her to catch him before he hits the ground.
"It's is, your safe now." She whispers while she breaks apart on the inside when she confirms the many injuries he has, but none that meant he couldn't be moved.
"I knew… you'd come." He mumbles. "Despite my… orders."
"Anything for you." She whispers as she takes off her cape and wraps it around him, before slinging his unbroken right arm over her shoulder and pulls him to his feet. "Let's get out of here." She says and slowly but surely pulls him along.
"Batman?" Jim Gordon asks in surprise as the huge black tank arrives on the edge of the iron ring of police and National Guard surrounds Arkham Asylum with screeching tires, and the Dark Knight jumps out.
"Anything Jim?" He asks, spotting the mass of people moving towards the Asylum.
"It's all over. Got a call five hours ago that Arkham had been seized, but it was accompanied with a threat of bombings if anyone entered the building. Dent emerged an hour ago with some of his goons. Ten minutes ago, Aaron Cash led a group of surviving staff and Tam Fox out. Said Batgirl had saved them from Zsasz. Didn't you know?"
"I was…" The Dark Knight says before getting cut off.
"Sir at the door!" An officer yells, drawing both their attentions to the point, spotting two black figures emerging, one draped in a cape, leaning on the one next to him. Batman runs to meet them, knowing who it is and Gordon following, while the pair begins shambling down the stairs, stopping at the foot where they are met by Batman, who has to fight to conceal his shock at the sight of the two.
"He needs help." She whispers, breaking him off from the stare he was giving them, making him scoop up Richard in his arms and carries him away. Leaving her to stumble down alone, before being met by Gordon, who doesn't hesitate to swing her arm over his own shoulder, letting her lean on him as he guides her towards the batmobile, only to be met half way by Batman, who takes over and carries her to the car as well, she barely has time to register her being seated before she finally allows the exhaustion and wounds to overwhelm her as she loses consciousness.
Author's Notes: Heavily inspired by the Arkham Asylum games. :)