Hi, uh, what can I say, I've had awful block and I'm unable to write on my laptop; I wrote this on my tablet... so yuh
Batman spent the next two hours looking over the plans Joker had given him. It was essentially a spike that could be stuck into somebody's lower spine, which would release a chemical that would disable them until its removal, one time use. He assumed it was for use on the Justice League, his former friends. Though why it was necessary was unknown to him still. He again assumed that he would find out at this big meeting.
Which should be starting soon. Perhaps he should go and see who had arrived. He knew Two-face was here already, and was sitting in the former bedroom with Riddler, he had no idea what they were doing but there was a lot of laughing coming from the room now. He had heard a fair amount of movement in the house and he was sure that Riddler and Two-face were not the only people in that room now. He had heard at least 5 people cross his door, all being rather quiet, probably told not to disturb him.
He walked quietly from the room and popped his head into the livingroom, Joker wasn't in there anymore, obviously he had moved upstairs when the others had arrived.
He ascended the stairs and cautiously waited by the door, listening for any distinct voices, but he misstepped and a loud creak came from the floor under him. He let out and exhale as he heard the room go silent.
"That'll be Batman," Joker's voice came from somewhere behind the door. Batman stood silently as the door opened, feeling slightly embarrassed at his own mess up. "Don't just stand there," Joker growled, "We have your seat saved."
He felt his throat grow dry as he stepped into the room, he had never felt so self conscious as every eye in that room turned to him. So many people there who, last thing Bruce had known, were intent on killing him. Now they smiled.
His entire body was screaming at him to run, to get away from them because this had to be a trap. There was no way these people would look at him like that, as if he were a friend, a saviour. This felt so wrong.
As he walked he felt something knock his hi, he let out a hiss of surprise at the force of it and looked down in terror thinking that this maybe was in fact a trap and he had just been hit by something, but he looked down and saw a pair of large, glassy eyes looking up at him. Hatter, smiling with crooked and unkempt teeth, let out a small squeak, "Bruce!" he called up to him as he tugged at his belt again, "It's been days since we saw you last why did you leave so fast?"
"Jervis," Riddler snapped from the front of the room, "I told you, he doesn't remember, leave him alone until he adjusts."
Hatter flinched at Riddler's tone but brightened up again immediately, his voice dropping to a whisper, "So we are watching a baby deer now? Mustn't scare the poor baby, so cute," he smiled, giving a small titter as he retook his seat.
Riddler hung his head and let out a small exasperated sigh, "Yes, Jervis, a baby deer…" He looked back up at Batman with a slight smile, noticing how incredibly uncomfortable he seemed, "Bruce," he said, gesturing to one of the chairs by him, "Your seat is here. Unless you would prefer to stand?"
Batman straightened himself, "I'll stand," he grumbled, moving to the corner of the room, near the window.
Riddler gave a swift nod to the man and pulled a copy of plans from under his own chair, "Ok," he said as he looked them over and pinned them to the board on the wall. "From what we can tell from the intel that Joker collected on his last round of the city, the Justice League has moved it's base 18' north, that means that we will, again, have to recalculate. This is the third time they've moved this month and there does not seem to be a pattern."
"I don't see why we need to know," Ivy snarked from the back of the room.
Riddler's head dropped, and he lifted his hand to push his hat down on his head, "It is important that everyone knows what is going on. If you want to ignore this bit, then you can." He turned his head to Batman, "You looked over the plans we gave you, do you still agree that disabling the members if the best course of action?"
Batman paused, then nodded. This was all so surreal, Riddler seemed to be the leader of this group, he had never thought that would be the case, though as he thought about it, it did make sense. Riddler was the one that knew them all, he did work regularly for all of them so it made sense that in a crunch he would be the one to bring them together.
Riddler nodded happily, "Good," he smiled, "Ivy, I hope you have almost finished your toxin I-" he stopped midsentence, "Where is Jon? He's in your group isn't he?"
Ivy nodded, "Yes, he is, he wasn't feeling very well this morning so he decided to give the meeting a miss."
Riddler sighed again, "I keep telling you, Ivy: You cannot poison people in your group because they're annoying you!"
"I did warn him," Ivy growled in reply, "I don't need him anyway…"
"Everybody here is important," Riddler spelled out, "I know we don't all like each other but we're stuck like this until this is over."
Batman frowned as he leaned against the wall, still unable to get over how odd this all was. He couldn't stand much more of this nonsense, he was beginning to see why he'd left so many times.
"We have everything almost finished," Riddler continued, "It should take no longer than three weeks, maybe four if the League moves their base in that time, which seems likely."
"And then our dearest Bruce will do infiltration…" Joker added.
"Yes," Riddler said gently, "But as you know we've not had time to go over that yet so I would appreciate if you shut up."
Batman frowned and looked between the two. He was supposed to go in there? He didn't even know what was going on and they expected him to do it?
"What is it exactly that I'll be doing?" he asked tentatively, crossing his arms.
Riddler help up a finger to shush him, "All in good time. I want to get everything ready before we try this. I'll need help from you in making the device, I'll go through it with you slowly so you don't get overwhelmed."
"I won't get overwhelmed," Batman growled in answer. He was almost shocked as Riddler began to laugh.
"Oh, no, Bruce, you're forgetting that I've been through this before. I know exactly how much your mind can take."
Batman grit his teeth, anger rising in him, he couldn't stand this, if they talked to him like this he could see why he'd left before. He wanted to leave but he needed to know what was going on, so he stood and took the abuse, glaring at Riddler as he continued to talk.
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