Batman dropped in through the Asylum's ventilation shafts. He wanted to remain cloaked in stealth for as long as possible as his first task was to find out all he could before making his presence known. He needed to know who all was still holed up inside Arkham, and who the police were trying to keep pinned down that had made it outside. In order to maintain knowledge of both areas, he'd had to reluctantly reach out to Tim again while the boy and Alfred were on their way to Bludhaven. Batman instructed Tim to use the onboard computer system while in transit to keep an eye on the situation with the police. He needed to know if they were able to hold their lines and keep all the inmates from getting too far out into the city. He left the channel open for communication as he also wanted to be kept in the loop regarding the rest of the Batclan. In the meantime, Batman focused on his own objective as he traveled silently through the ductwork, looking for a good opening to exit. He could hear things as they were smashed or slammed around as well as yelling and echoing throughout the facility. The sounds could only be described as chaos as the lunatics were running around, looking for any possible escape. It had already been enough time where the organized crime bosses such as Falcone or Black Mask would have gotten together with all their imprisoned men. They would then have either formed alliances or started attempting to take control from the other group using any form of weaponry at their disposal. Batman just hoped that the main gallery of villains was still safely locked up in their isolated cells. Batman went through some twists and turns before he was able to locate a safe enough area to exit without being seen. He pulled out a device that would lock on and unscrew a ventilation grate that was blocking his exit. As the last screw was removed, Batman latched onto the grate with his free hand to ensure that it didn't drop to the floor and make a clanking sound. He moved the grate to the side and looked around for a moment to ensure that the coast was clear before he jumped out and landed. He set the grate down against the hall and made his way down the corridor. His focus remained on what was in front of him as well as watching the angle of the surveillance cameras. If any of the inmates were in the security offices, they would be able to see him inside if one of those cameras was to catch a glimpse of him. At first, he thought of just trying to weave his way through, but then he thought better of that and approached the closest camera to his position. After finding one, he reached up and unscrewed the cable attached to it, and opened up his gauntlet covered computer. He took the line and plugged it into the gauntlet before he started typing commands. Soon, on the screen Batman could see every camera feed in the entire facility. Unfortunately some of the feeds showed him that the isolated cells had been opened, and no villains remained locked up. Batman clenched his fists into tight balls as he knew that he would now have to deal with the most violent criminals Gotham had to offer. No doubt that Two-Face and the Joker would have rounded up men that would follow them to where they believed the best chance of freedom would be. Batman wouldn't have much time to sulk in the knowledge of how busy his night was going to be as he could hear two voices coming his direction. He slinked into a dark corner and waited as they approached. "Patience Victor." A deep voice called out. "I'm taking you the quickest way to what you want." "You better not be jerking me around doc." The voice of Victor Zsasz responded. Batman watched as one of the psychiatrists came around the corner with his hands behind his head just in front of Victor Zsasz, who was handling a piece of broken glass with a towel wrapped around as a makeshift handle to a shiv. He was prodding the psychiatrist in the back with the shiv just softly enough to keep it from penetrating. "How much farther?" Victor yelled. "Just down this hallway and to the left Victor." The doctor responded. Neither the psychiatrist nor Victor Zsasz noticed Batman as they walked by him. This worked out perfectly for the Dark Knight as he stepped out and followed behind them closely for a few steps. Victor thought he had heard something behind him and he froze in his tracks for a moment just before both of his wrists were confined by two large black gloved hands. The hand with the shiv was slammed against a nearby wall, and even had Victor held onto it, the shiv was now useless as the glass shattered into small pieces. Batman released his hold and ducked a wild right hand before he returned fire with an overhand left that struck true against the side of Victor's face. That was all that it took to leave the man in a crumpled pile on the floor. He turned to face the doctor, who was watching in awe. "Are you alright doctor….?" He began to ask. "Doctor Strange." The doctor finished for him. "Doctor Hugo Strange. I must say Batman; it is an honor to be in your presence. You are quite the intriguing specimen, intriguing indeed." Batman gave the doctor a sidelong glance due to his comments for a moment. "Are there any other staff members being held here?" He asked. "Oh yes Batman, I'm sure that there are." Strange answered. "But the question is, why are you here I wonder." Batman wondered if this doctor had been drugged or something. He didn't understand Strange's fascination. "Where were you leading Zsasz to down here?" He asked trying to regain the focus of the conversation. "Victor desired more firepower and believed that I had access to, um specific items that he could use other than a shard of glass." The doctor began to answer. "My main weapon you see is the couch. It's somewhere I intend to have more intricate discussions with someone like you Batman. I want to understand why you do this and place yourself needlessly in danger by yourself. A man such as yourself must really not believe of themselves as worth living in order to do what you do each night." "I don't have time for this Strange." Batman cut in. "Do you have a secure area to stay until Arkham is under control again?" The doctor began to answer again before Batman cut him off. "Get there and stay until the coast is clear." Batman stormed away from the doctor towards the next source of trouble as he wanted to leave Strange as quickly as possible. The name certainly seemed to fit the doctor, he thought. Strange stood there watching until Batman disappeared from view. He was musing to himself for a few moments before turning and heading in the direction that he had been leading Zsasz earlier. ~~ Bludhaven ~~ Alfred pulled the car up next to the location where the homing beacon had been pinging since he and Tim had left the Manor. Clouds had moved in quickly on this night and a storm was threatening to dump a large quantity of rain down on the two sister cities. Both Alfred and Tim exited the car with the tracking device in hand as they walked together following the source of the beacons. Eventually they walked up to a dumpster and realized that they were as close to the beacons as they could get. Alfred reached up and flipped open the dumpster lead before he peered inside. Tim was relieved when he heard Alfred sigh before beginning to climb into the dumpster. "Master Timothy, if you would please fetch blankets from the trunk of the car." Alfred said as he checked over the two fallen heroes. Dick was in fairly bad shape. He'd been beaten severely. Barbara had some nasty bumps and most likely a concussion to say the least, but she hadn't been beaten as severely. Alfred placed a comforting hand on her cheek, and she started to come to. "Easy child." He said in a tender and calming voice. Barbara's eyes snapped open thrashed for a moment until her eyes focused on the older man hovering over her. She visibly relaxed from seeing Alfred's face as he began to help her sit up. "Wha….What happened?" She asked. "I thought we would be dead for sure. He had us." "Who had you?" Tim asked as he appeared over the edge of the dumpster with blankets in hand. "Now's not the time for that." Alfred said. "Right now we need to get you and Master Dick back home for treatment." Further realization struck her as she glanced around until she spotted a still unconscious Dick still laying there. Alfred took one of the blankets from Tim and wrapped it around Barbara before removing her mask and helping her out of the dumpster. She limped over to the car and climbed in the back seat. Tim climbed into the dumpster and helped Alfred wrap Dick in the other blanket before they hoisted him up over the edge, and climbed out themselves. Then they carried him over to the car and set his head onto Barbara's lap as his body laid across the back seat. Alfred and Tim climbed into the front seats of the car and took off for the manor. Barbara was trying to keep her emotions intact as she removed the mask from Dick's face. He was already turning purple from the beating he'd received. She knew the lives that they led were dangerous, but until tonight, she'd never expected that she would see Dick beaten so soundly by one man. Dick was so athletic and was very well trained by Bruce. The man that had beaten him had been a well conditioned and exceptionally trained fighter in order to have done this much damage. She fought through her memories as she tried to recall details about the attacker. She'd never seen him before he struck her in the back of the head with a great enough force to instantly knock her unconscious. The next thing she remembered was the monster as he approached her and latched onto her throat. She fought him as much as her body would allow, but she was losing the fight and dying in that man's strangling hold. She then recalled two beeps followed by an explosion. Then there was a freefall and the world went black again. Who was this attacker? What were his intentions on going after the two members of the Batclan? She tried to think back to what the man had said to her before he began squeezing the air from her. Alfred could see the concern on Barbara's face from the rear view mirror. "Don't you worry Miss Barbara." He said trying to calm her. "Master Dick is almost as resilient as Master Bruce, and I've seen that man take a much more violent beating and come out of it just fine." Barbara sighed. "I know Alfred. It's just that…..that Dick…..He didn't stand a chance against this guy. When I came to, Dick was beaten and from what I remember, the man that attacked us didn't even seem to have a scratch on him. It was like Dick couldn't even hit him." "Just one guy did this?" Tim asked. "I can't believe it." "Master Bruce needs to be made aware of this revelation." Alfred said as some concern etched on his face. "Right." Tim said as he reached for his communicator. "B, this is Tim. We got them both and are headed home." "Good." Batman responded. "What's their status? Why weren't they responsive." "We found them unconscious and beaten." Tim answered. "Dick's in pretty bad shape, but Alfred thinks he'll be okay." "Who's responsible?" Batman asked. Tim looked at Barbara, but she could only shrug her shoulders before she reached for the communicator. "Batman, its Batgirl. We don't know who it was. It was one masked man. He knocked me out and beat Nightwing badly. We didn't stand a chance against him, and we don't know what his plans are, just that they required us to be out of the way." "Alright." Batman responded. "I'm in Arkham now sorting through the mess. Have your driver give you the updates. I'll be back when I'm finished here. Batman out." ~~ Back in the Asylum ~~ Batman closed the channel on his communicator. He looked around the room he was in and all the fallen goons that had been transported there from Blackgate in preparation for the upgrades to that prison that were coming thanks to the success of the charity event the Justice League had attended. All of the men were unconscious as Batman had landed in the middle of them and took them out one by one. He'd taken a few shots from the group mob, but nothing too serious. Just a couple of extra bruises to contend with. So far he'd been able to subdue about thirty of the lower level inmates. Mr. Freeze compliantly stayed in his area, not wanting to deter his plea deal to where he could continue researching the cure for his wife. He was not going to jeopardize that for anyone. Black Mask had been able to avoid capture to this point, and actually snuck outside the walls of the Asylum to take his chances with the cops over dealing with Batman. His men fought valiantly, but in vane as they were too few to present much of a challenge. Even though they had some makeshift weaponry from what the Asylum had to offer, they still were taken down quickly. That brought the total number of men to thirty that Batman had subdued. He actually ran out of plasticuffs and had to resort to items he too had found to bound the men up. Up next were Falcone's men. They had been spilling out into the open yard once they'd broken through the armory doors. The guns helped to bring about a level of confidence that they just might be able to escape into freedom. Falcone meanwhile stayed behind as he wanted no part of being in the front lines, only to get gunned down himself. There were enough dirty cops out there that would have itchy trigger fingers due to the knowledge that he had on them. If he could he would find another way out, and joined forces with Waylon Jones. The deformed former crocodile wrestler went in search of the sewers for an outlet, but Batman had caught them both on the surveillance feeds, and tracked them down just as Killer Croc located the entrance to the sewers. Batman wasted no time in tossing a bola at Croc. Before Falcone knew it, he was leveled by a kick to the gut and a knee to the face. That was all the time Jones needed to break free of the bola, and lung at Batman. He was able to ram a shoulder into Batman's midsection, slamming up against a wall. That was a hard enough shot to cause Batman to see stars, but his shook it off quickly as Croc started throwing haymakers. The first few hit their intended target, but as the fight wore on, more and more of his attempted strikes were blocked or came up empty. Batman relied on his training to make certain the strength Croc had was deflected off as much as possible. Eventually he was able to start attacking Croc with some well placed shots. Batman didn't want to resort to it so quickly, but he needed the fight to end quickly so he threw an exploding batarang at Croc, and as soon as it exploded, he grabbed Croc's head and began ramming his knee into Croc's face repeatedly until the deformed man fell to one knee. Batman then dropped an anesthetic gas ball at the deformed man's feet before leaping away. Within seconds, Jones was no longer a threat. Batman dragged both men up to a cell where he locked them up by welding the bars together with a portable gas welder. He took a deep breath as he assessed his injuries. He'd definitely bruised his ribs, and the back of his head did make hard contact with the wall that Croc slammed him into. Possibly a slight concussion, but it was nothing to deter him from pushing forward. That was until he heard an explosion outside the facility. Batman rushed up to the hole in the wall from the previous explosion, and peered outside where he could still see the smoke rising through the air. Someone had set off a bomb by one of the police barricades, and the criminals that were outside had escaped during the confusion, and were now traipsing about Gotham. He surveyed the area, and after a few moments was able to locate the commissioner. He breathed a sigh of relief as he approached his old comrade. "What happened Jim?" He asked. "Someone caused an explosion Batman. We're still trying to figure it all out ourselves." Gordon answered. "I saw you enter from the roof earlier. What can you tell us about inside?" Batman went on to describe everyone that he'd come across while inside. After Gordon found that thirty-two men were restrained, he sent out the order to enter and look for survivors aside from Dr. Strange, whom Batman vouched was safe inside. After they settled everything on the outside, they looked through the list of people that were accounted for and found quite a few missing. Among the inmates still on the loose were Joker, Harley, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Black Mask, and Firefly. The rest of the men and women were either subdued by police already, or had been found after the second explosion unconscious from being too close to it when it occurred. Batman knew that his night had just begun, and he needed to hunt everyone down, and do it quickly. ~~ Washington state ~~ Members of the Justice League were working feverishly on the active volcanoes as they tried to stay ahead of the molten lava that was oozing out of the mountain tops towards innocent civilians. The instantaneous activity had given the people no time to evacuate before the eruptions began. Superman was working below the surface as he tried to locate any form of device that could be triggering these events. He'd scoured every area of the state that he could think of, and was to the point where he had to begin searching out in the ocean for anything. Flash had used his super speed to create some ruts in the landscape that would cause the lava to flow out to sea, but he needed the help of Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and J'onn in clearing the path and getting closer to the volcanoes themselves. Diana and J'onn worked as a tandem in moving some large chunks of land out of the way so as to control where the lava would travel while Green Lantern created some makeshift columns for the lava to travel through with his powers until it reached the ruts Flash created earlier. Shayera took point and made certain that no one traveled near where the other heroes were intending to direct the lava flow. She also used her mace in smashing some of the boulders that were in the Flash's way. To this point their plan was working, and with that in mind, Diana began to think about Batman's predicament. No one had heard anything from him since he'd initially informed them that he would be staying in Gotham. But with all the inmates potentially running free, that had to be quite a taxing task for one man to take on. She wanted to go off and help him, but his vehement denial of her offer had left her dumbfounded as to why he wanted to always do things on his own. She was suddenly aware that her thoughts were being shared by one Martian as well as he connected telepathically to her. Is everything alright Diana? He asked. Yes J'onn, I'm just concerned about Batman. She replied. He really should have accepted help, but like always he refuses to let us help him in his city. Batman is very capable and I believe his intentions were in the right place. J'onn responded. Batman never does anything without diagnosing it, and I would guess that he believed this to be more important a task. I know J'onn. Diana conceded with a sigh. Can you reach out to him from this distance just to make sure he's not in any trouble? J'onn remained quiet for a few moments before he responded. Batman is beginning to become tired, but he is otherwise healthy and has moved onto catching the straggling escapees. Diana was relieved to hear that he was not hurt, and she returned her focus to their task at hand. Mt. St. Helens began to erupt at that point, and their attention had to return to the two mountains that were simultaneously erupting now. Superman had done what he could underneath to subdue all the activity, but each interaction seemed to only strengthen the volcanic activity. At that point he decided to focus solely on the cause and stop it. That seemed to be the only option at their disposal, but he knew nothing about what the device looked like, what it did, or how to stop it aside from destroying the device as soon as he found it. Hopefully then he would be able to do something to cause the rapidly deteriorating conditions below the Earth's surface to stabilize. ~~ Gotham ~~ Batman had been hunting two hours for the inmates that had broken loose from the police after the explosion at Arkham. He chose to go with whichever lead he came to first. Black Mask would be the hardest to find as he would simply lay low or find someone to get him out of town as quickly and discreetly as possible. The first real lead that Batman came across was in the context of some fires to amusement parks and playgrounds. He had no doubt that Firefly was the culprit, as the man was obsessed with burning down childhood places that he wasn't able to go to. How Firefly had gotten hold of his weapons was yet to be determined, and there would be time for that later. Batman deduced that the Gotham Zoo would likely be on the list and headed that way. Sure enough as Batman approached, he was alerted to a silent alarm that had just gone off at the zoo. Lynns was already inside, and Batman entered the zoo cautiously and trying not to let Firefly know of his arrival. As he walked into the zoo, he could see light flickering about inside and quickly realized that Lynns had already begun setting things ablaze. Using flamethrowers, it was only a matter of time before the entire zoo would be up in flames. He quickly worked his way through the various animal exhibits looking for Lynns, and eventually stumbled across the man setting fire to a store that carried stuffed animals for the children that attended the zoo next to the Australia exhibit. Batman got as close as he could before he let loose a batarang. The sound of the batarang slicing through the air was enough to catch Firefly's attention, and purely on reaction he spun around letting loose a fiery blast which began to melt and deflect the batarang harmlessly to the ground. "Ah c'mon Batman. Not even out five minutes and you're already trying to put me back on ice." Firefly called out before shooting another flame towards Batman. "Where did you get your suit so quickly Lynns?" Batman asked after ducking for cover and disappearing into darkness as he circled around his target. "It was a gift from the man that sprung me." Firefly answered. "Torching you up will just be the gasoline on top of the flame for me. If you come out now, I'll make it quick for you." "I hate to disappoint you Garfield, but the only thing you're getting tonight is a trip back to Arkham." Batman responded as he continued to work his way around. "It's Firefly now!" Lynns yelled as he began shooting flames out while spinning around manically in no specific direction. Batman was able to dodge the blast, but he was forced to duck for cover and back away from Firefly. This confrontation wasn't going as well as he'd hoped, and he decided to change the stakes by trying to get to some higher ground. In order to do that, he had to fire off his grapple towards a bridge further into the exhibit and flew off in a position where he knew that Firefly would notice, and notice he did as he took flight after Batman utilizing his jet pack. This had worked out just as Batman hoped it would. Now he just had to find an area where he could disarm Firefly and take him down. He landed on a bridge crosswalk that hovered over the crocodile pond. Firefly had been catching up to him the whole way there, and just as Batman landed, he zoomed by before turning around. "Roasted Bat on a catwalk, eh Batman." Firefly taunted. "That's fine with me." Firefly pulled out a grenade launcher and shot two blasts at each end of the bridge that took away any chance of escape on foot for Batman. As he assessed how to end this, Batman pulled out two batarangs and threw one into the air as he ran towards Firefly. He watched and waited to make his move until Lynns shot a blast at the oncoming projectile. At that moment, Batman fired his grapple up to his target and retracted the line, pulling himself into the air towards Lynns. By the time he'd gotten to reaching distance, Firefly had noticed and attempted to maneuver out of the way while shooting another scorching blast at Batman. When he opened fire though, Batman had taken the other batarang in his hand and jabbed it into Firefly's fuel tanks. That caused some fuel to splurge out and come into contact with the stream of flames from the flame thrower. Not even a second passed by before the fire trailed up to the tanks and exploded. The force of the blast shot both men away from each other. Batman slammed into what remained of the bridge while Firefly dropped towards the crocodile pit. Batman didn't have much time to gather the wind back into his lungs as he fired his grapple gun again at the fast dropping villain. The claw end latched onto Firefly just as he hit the water. Batman retracted the line in time to prevent Lynns from becoming a snack for the crocodiles, but not before the water had safely put Lynn's flame covered body out. If not for his protective suit, Lynns likely wouldn't have survived the blast. Batman secured Firefly at the front entrance of the zoo and noticed that he was bleeding. He looked himself over and realized that he'd taken a piece of shrapnel from Lynn's fuel tank in the lower right side of his body. It didn't hit a major artery so he wasn't overly concerned about it as he still had other criminals to bring down before the night ended. Once the police arrived on scene, Batman took to the sky once again in search of any other escaped inmate of Arkham. Batman wasted little time in going back to work. He was quickly on the trail of all the others that he needed to find. The approaching storm would make finding clues more difficult if he didn't hurry. Fortunately for him, the inmates had little time to have taken to hiding. It wasn't long before he spotted Harley Quinn snooping around one of Joker's old hideouts. She was obviously looking for some items that they'd left behind from the last time they stayed there. She and Joker were still wearing the Arkham jumpsuits, so they hadn't been there long. Batman's patience was growing thin as he wanted to get all of the inmates locked back up and this would bring him up to half of his goal. He watched for a moment as Harley snooped around before she turned back around and signaled to someone that Batman knew could only be Joker. He leapt off the building using his cape to slow his descent downwards where he landed directly behind the Joker. "We seem to have an uninvited guest Harls." Joker said. "You could have told us you were going to show up Bats, we would have cleaned up first." Joker turned around and threw a punch at Batman, which was deftly dodged and countered with an uppercut into Joker's gut. Harley charged at Batman, leaping up onto his head with her arms and legs. The weight of Harley on his head caused Batman to lose his footing as he fell backwards. Harley quickly jumped up off of him as Joker approached with a lead pipe. "You know Bats." Joker said with a swing of the pipe. "I think…." Another shot from the lead pipe. "You should take a vacation." He swung the pipe like a club and struck Batman several times. Batman tried to block the shots as best he could, but they were doing their damage. He knew that he had to do something quickly, and he used his arms to thrust his legs around in a sweeping motion. This took Joker's legs out from under him, and he landed on his back right next to Batman. Before he knew what hit him, Joker was met with a backhand punch on the bridge of his nose. His head had nowhere to go in order to absorb the blow, and it nearly knocked the clown out. Harley once again jumped onto Batman, and proceeded to slap him repeatedly across the face. Batman managed to eventually grab hold of both Harley's wrists. She reacted to that by head-butting Batman, but that did more damage to herself than it did him. Batman tossed her off of him, and rolled over to stand on his feet. Both Harley and the Joker were still trying to shake the cobwebs when Batman threw a bola at them, tangling the two together. He dragged them over to a pole where he could raised them up off the ground, and leave them dangling for the police to handle. Just as Batman finished pulling the two criminals up and raised his grapple to return to the rooftops, he was interrupting by clapping coming from down the alley. "Very impressive Batman." Came a voice from the same direction. Batman could just make out the profile of a large man approaching him. He squatted down into a defensive stance as the man continued to come closer. "Very impressive indeed. If I'd have let you continue, you would have surely captured all of the criminals that escaped tonight." Batman stood upright and allowed his cape to cover him completely as the masked man came into view. "Who are you?" Batman asked. "I am the man that defeated your precious protégés on this night." He answered. "You may call me Bane."