Chapter 2: Back To School, Back to Arkham

Three days later…

Batman bolted through the hallways of the Asylum, taking out Joker's followers on the way when he suddenly stopped in front of an empty cell window. He saw a slab of concrete with a beetle on it in a makeshift graveyard outside. Deciding to scan it, he downloaded an audio recording from it.
"I am the spirit of Amadeus Arkham."The voice spoke. "Through my actions, I have saved this cursed city, though my own curse is to forever remain in the shadows. My story is carved into the very soul of Arkham and will only be revealed to those dedicated enough to discover it."
"Amadeus Arkham?" Batman wondered. "The man who founded the asylum? How long has this slab been here? By the looks of it there must be more nearby…"
He quickly raced outside of the asylum and was immediately forced to jump behind cover.
Looking up, he could see snipers on top of the towers. He counted four in total.
"Simple." The Dark Knight thought.

"Welcome to Biochemistry 351!" Pamela Isley greeted her new class. "Now you should have all received your syllabi by email. If not I have some extra copies on my front desk that I can pass out if need be."
James sat in the back of the class extremely tense. He didn't realize how strange the class felt until he sat down.
"God…" He thought. "This feels uncanny…"
"I understand your issue, but I'm sure you'll get used to it." Alcor said. "It is the first day of the semester."
"True."
"We will start with the structures and functions of biological macromolecules…"
"Although it's scary on how she sounds just like a real teacher." James thought.
"Well James, she IS a real teacher."
"Damn you're right."
An hour and a half later after James walked out of the classroom, another class was already filing in giving him no time to talk to her.
He sighed. "So far nothing unusual."
As the young student walked through the halls to his next class, he suddenly stopped and looked at a bulletin board in front of him. Out of the many paper ads on the board, one white one caught his attention:

The Biggest Party of the Semester is Already Around The Corner! No one is left alone! A girl and boy for every one of you!

"The hell?" James muttered. "Sounds like a giant orgy party."
"A what?" Alcor asked.
"Err…I think you should look this one up."
"…Good lord."
"Yep."
After James's second class ended, he made his way to one of the lounges on the Arts & Sciences building. He saw down on a chair with his backpack and took out his Ari1.
"Let's see if we can eavesdrop on some people…"

He put his headphones on and booted the Ari1 to life. Immediately he started tracking the conversations.
"Did you hear about the crap going on in Arkham? Good god is it scary."
"I know! I mean I'm sure the Batman can handle himself but…"
"I don't know man this looks like one hell of a takeover."
"Nope, nothing." James muttered then switched to another group.

In an unknown location

A man in a suit was struggling to escape his bondage. He jerked around trying to remove the rope that tied his hands and his legs together. The man looked around the dimly lit room desperately looking for something to free himself with.
Just then, a door opened and a dark figure stepped into the room. The figure closed the door behind him and shut the dim light off, flooding the room with darkness.
The man shook in fear. "W-What do you want with me!?"
"Tell me." The figure spoke. "Do you know why you're here?"
"No! I don't!" The man cried out desperately.
The figure procured a manila envelope and opened it.

"Let's see here…" The figure continued. "Name: John Stevenson; owner of the Lifeline Insurance company. Worth an estimated $24 billion and made money by jacking up interest rates for working families and running smaller business venues out of the market. Lobbied Congress and the state congress to kill the Family Needs For Benefits Act and threatened half the state house of representatives. Apparent connections to the mob and ally to Theodore Wilson, one of the richest preachers on the planet; my my Mr. Stevenson, you've run up quite a record here…"

"Please don't hurt me!" Stevenson whimpered. "I'll pay you anything you want!"

The figure sighed. "And that's the big problem with all of you big rich captains of industries. You all think that you can write a big check and then all your problems will go away. Unfortunately that is not the case here."
Just then, a door behind him opened, and he gasped loudly at the sight of three large black panthers slowly crawling into the room.
"You see Mr. Stevenson," The figure said finally. "You should've let the government arrest you and put you in prison. It would've done you a world of good. But no, you instead paid a fine and refused to admit to any wrongdoing. And now you will suffer."
The figure raised his hand and snapped his fingers. John Stevenson screamed loudly as the panthers attacked and ripped his body to shreds. Blood splattered everywhere, as the former rich owner's skin was torn open. The screaming eventually stopped when one of the panthers ripped his throat out.

"Now now my children you know what I use this room for." The figure scolded. "Please don't dirty my floor."
The three panthers looked at him for a moment before dragging the remains into the room where they emerged. The figure closed the door and sat down on a chair.
The figure took out a large list and pen. On the top of it he crossed out the name 'John Stevenson.'
"Deed done." The figure chuckled. "Now for Eugene Fredrickson."

"Ah! Got something!" James thought.
"So has it worked then?" A boy asked.
"No." Another boy replied. "In fact I've been feeling sicker every day. I knew it was too good to be true…"
Immediately, James looked and saw two boys conversing in a corner. One boy was tall; light skinned and blond while the other was shorter, light skinned and dark hair.
He scanned the blond boy and found something interesting.
"That boy has Chlamydia…" Alcor said. "One of many STDs rumored to be rampaging through the campus. However his disease looks a bit strange. There seems to be some sort of virus attacking his white blood cells. It's attacking the disease but also destroying his good cells."
"The virus looks like it was engineered." James added. "Someone's been experimenting with STDs…"
"Whoever it may be, we'll need to find him or her." Alcor said.
"Yep, and I think I know just where to look…"

Batman continued through the courtyard, defeating more and more thugs before stumbling upon Quincy Sharp's office. He saw some smoke billowing out of an open safe. In front of the safe was the charred body of Dr. Penelope Young.
"Damn…" He cursed. "Dr. Young must've tried to retrieve something out of the safe but the Joker had rigged it…"
"Barbara, tell me more about Dr. Young's history here at the Asylum."
"Okay." Her voice sounded. "It seems like she was experimenting with a formula that bears a resemblance to Bane's Venom drug. However this concoction is much more potent than Bane's; you've seen the juiced up thugs around the asylum which means Joker is using this stuff now."
"Not good, and it looks like he's planning to distribute it to more and more thugs when he perfects the formula." Batman replied.
"It's looking more and more like he's building an army; an army of mutant criminals." Barbara suggested. "This isn't good Bruce, you gotta catch him before he finishes with the titan."
"On it." Batman hung up. He turned around to leave the Warden's office when he suddenly spotted something strange about the far wall.
"What's this?" He thought. "This wall is wooden. Normally that would be a given considering the age of the Asylum. But one part of the wall appears newer than the other…"

Pondering this for a moment, he took out his explosive gel. He sprayed the wall and stood back.

BOOM.

The wall collapsed, revealing a hidden room. Alertly, he slowly entered the space and saw an office in front of him. He looked and saw a computer with data running at a furious rate on the monitor.
The Dark Knight then spotted a blueprint on the right side of the wall. Inspecting it, he saw a top-down schematic of Arkham Island and Gotham City. However he also noticed someone had circled a piece of Gotham and drawn a bridge from that section to the island.
"Connecting Arkham Island with Gotham City?" Batman wondered. "Is this Quincy Sharp's plan? Move all the inmates to the mainland? Why?"

Whatever this idea was meant to do, Batman thought, it did not sound good.

"Eugene Fredrickson." The figure spoke.
The man cowered at the corner of the room, shaking in fear.
"Let's see here…" The figure pulled out another folder. "Ah! Eugene Fredrickson: Spokesman for the World Soccer Association and also its Vice-President. Has served 20 years of service to the organization and operated many charities…looking good so far Eugene."
The Vice-President started to calm down. "What do you want?"
The figure ignored him. "Hmm…Charities, monitoring soccer games, and…oh dear…"

"W-what!?" Eugene protested.

"Caught rigging multiple World Cup qualification rounds in 2010 and 2006, and was allegedly responsible for rigging the World Cup 2022 voting for Kasnia. The man was also accused for stealing billions of dollars from poor countries that hosted the event including Brazil, South Africa, Mexico—"
"Please stop!" Eugene interrupted. "I did not do any of that!"
The figure stopped. "How amusing. Even though you have blatantly committed many crimes you still claim innocence. I am no fool Eugene Fredrickson, and I have proof that you are the cause."
The figure pressed a button next to them and a panel opened up revealing a screen behind it.
The screen blared to life and Eugene saw himself in a board meeting with the President of WSA.

He gasped. "H-how did you—"

"I know everything." The figure responded. "You also should not assume that every room you and your colleagues go in would be secure."
"Let's have a listen shall we?" The figure turned to the screen.
Eugene looked at the figure in front of him. He could see it was a person, but the light of the TV screen did not illuminate them. For some reason, he could not tell whether the person in front of him was male or female. They seemed to be covered by some sort of shadow…
"Congratulations on a successful World Cup this year everyone!" President Alan Branch raised his glass while motioning everyone else to do the same.
The other board members (Eugene included) raised their glasses.
"To a profitable…er…prosperous game!" President Branch toasted.

Everyone laughed and toasted.
While everyone was talking amongst himself or herself, Eugene could see himself standing next to the President and talking quietly with him.
"Oh that will not do. Some volume then?" The figure raised the volume and now their conversation could be heard.
"So how much did we make from the Cup in South Africa?" Eugene asked.
"$3.65 billion." President Branch grinned.
He nearly screamed out. "3.65 BILLION!?"
The President's grin widened, "Oh yes. And let's just say the country itself didn't make out with the majority. Bah semantics, they got their economy going and that's that."
"Unbelievable…" Eugene sighed.
"Look, let the country develop on its own." President Branch continued. "Those countries have never made money, and I am not about to let them have it easy. Besides, they'll probably squander most of it just trying to stay stable."
"And as for your vote in the 2022 Cup, well I think that result is assured." He nodded. "Kasnia has boomed and it looks like the perfect area to start our plans."

Eugene nodded, and the TV screen shut off.
In the present, Eugene cringed as the figure turned back to him.
"Plans?" It said. "How curious. And what is your plan after the World Cup in Kasnia?"
"P-Please! W-we just thought—"
"That having these countries host the World Cup were too bothersome for you? The figure interrupted. "That maybe if your schemes continued it might breed an investigation? Or maybe the fact that 'human rights' aren't in your vocabulary?"
"Th-that's n-not—"
Suddenly, the figure burst out laughing. Their maniacal laugh echoed throughout the hallways and back into the room.

"That's why people like you amuse me." The figure chuckled. "You lie, cheat, extort, and steal, yet proclaim innocence when it is time to take responsibility. Eugene Fredrickson, you just made my list longer."
"H-huh!?" Before Eugene could react, the figure had placed its hands on its head. The Vice-President screamed loudly and suddenly went silent. The figure removed his hands, and Eugene was now a hunk of flesh neither thinking nor talking.
"Ahh…" The figure sighed. "So that's your plan. Looks like I was right after all. Oh well, more to do..."
The figure took out his list, crossed out Eugene Fredrickson from his list and started writing a few more names.

"Soon…" It spoke. "The thieves will burn and the victims will learn that the world will turn and give them for what they yearn."