After what happened with Scarecrow, Ladybug and Stinger followed the path they came, Ladybug desperately trying to rid herself of the images she had seen, trying repeatedly to remind herself they were only hallucinations. As they rounded the corner after exiting the morgue, they saw the body of a security guard that looked like Roger's body build and had a similar facial feature as Roger.
"That was where I saw Roger's body." Ladybug said.
"It was just a hallucination." Stinger reassured her. "There's no way you would've known."
"I guess." Ladybug said awkwardly as they walked past the body. "But for some reason, this batch felt stronger than usual. Seems Crane has been experimenting with new chemicals."
"So Roger's still alive?" Stinger asked hopefully.
"It's very likely." Ladybug said. "Joker can still use him as a bargaining chip. He won't kill him just yet." Suddenly, Joker thought it was a nice time to taunt the heroes again.
"Are you lost, little bug?" Joker asked. "Having trouble figuring out what's real and what's just a figment of your twisted little mind? Same here! Just roll with it gets easier once you give in. It really does. How about you, Blondie? Is your FRAGILE LITTLE mind starting to CRUMBLE?! If it is, let me know, so I can get my camera." The clown laughed evilly.
Suddenly, the doors in front of them burst open revealing 2 blackgate inmates, one carrying a pipe and one Arkham patient in an orange prison suit, wielding a pair of knives. The pipe-wielding thug swung at Stinger, who ducked under it. The pipe then came towards Ladybug 's chest, but she simply caught it and smashed his cowl into the man's face, knocking him out. Meanwhile, Stinger had ducked under the pipe and fire both bracers behind her to launch herself at the other Blackgate inmate, bringing her feet up and planting them firmly into the man's face, sending his unconscious body flying. She then turned towards the knife wielding inmate and blocked each knife, then boxed the thug's ears (she bashed her palms into his ears and fucked up his ear drums), causing him to drop his knives and hold his ears, leaving him open for a punch to the face, knocking him back into and bouncing his head off the wall behind him, knocking him out.
"Nice technique." Ladybug complimented.
"Thanks." Stinger said with a smile as the two continued. "I've been spending a lot of free at the Team's HQ. Improving my own close combat skills."
"Listen, no more tricks! Just one last puzzle and you can have Gordon; and a little more! Oh, I can't wait!" The clown laughed before cutting off the speakers. The two made their way to the next room and the TV sparked to life. "You're precious Police Commissioner is just through the glass. Take a look!" He ordered.
The two turned to their right to see Commissioner Gordon tied to a chair while Harley held a rifle that Yang had already seen and knew to be automatic, wandering around the small room, not noticing the two vigilantes. Ladybug growled at this, looking back at the screens. Joker clearly had a challenge for him to fall prey to.
"Harley's under strict orders to kill the old man if my guys even think you're in the room!" Joker started. "They're patrolling down down there. I've told them all your on the way. So here's the deal. If you can find a way to get to Harley without anyone realizing, I'll give you your next present. Hell, I may even give you Harley. It looks like you could use a new sidekick."
They quickly spotted a vent they could enter. As entering and crawling through the vent, Ladybug kicked the cover off. As she did, she quietly moved along the wall. She saw a goon and silently took him out. She made a few hand gestures to Stinger, which she understood and went one direction while Ladybug went the other. They took down a patrolling goon on their respective sides. All that was left was the final one. Stinger quickly ran to the thug as Ladybug ran by them to the stairs. She yo-yoed up to the section above where Roger was being held. Once Quinn was in position, Ladybug smashed down and knocked Harley out just as Stinger appeared.
"Well, you two took longer than I thought, but thanks." Roger said.
"There were a few times we got sidetracked." Stinger admitted.
"He's out of control." Ladybug admitted. "He's trying to prove something. I'm not sure if I can stop him this time."
"You'll do it. Ladybug listen, we're not alone. He has something down there. I don't know what it is." Roger explained, pointing to a small building in the middle of the room the thugs had been patrolling.
"What a blabbermouth! Spoiling the surprise!" Joker said, appearing on the television.
"Be quiet!" Ladybug snapped at the clown on TV.
"Ooh, someone's getting angry! Now you know how I feel when you keep messing with my plans! No matter, I'm sure you'll just LOVE the next surprise I have in store for all of you." Joker said, before cutting off the feed once again as the group reached the glass building in front of them.
It opened easily enough, smoke pouring everywhere and blinding the young huntress, who stayed close to Ladybug as Roger went to a computer and started typing, before reaching a security wall. "It wants Dr. Young's log-in." He said.
"Never mind that." Ladybug said. "Get behind me! Now! Stinger, get ready!"
"What? What is it?!" Stinger asked, looking in the same direction as her wife, beginning to see a figure as more of the smoke cleared.
"Bane!" Ladybug said.
This was in fact Bane. The same that man she had met as a teenager the very first time she went to Gotham. She had her back broken and nearly paralyzed by him, had Batman not fixed her back a couple seconds after. She still carries the scar, both literal and physical, and one of the few things that pushes her to keep on going.
Now, the smoke cleared enough for everyone to see and incredibly dried out man hanging in the middle of the room, red tubes extending into him from a huge storage tank on his back. His face was covered by what looked like a wrestler's mask. His arms were held back by two massive bracers that looked like they could cover his entire forearms.
"I thought you told us he broke out of Blackgate!" Roger said.
"That's what our sources said." Stinger said, still shocked seeing Bane so skinny.
"Cut... me... down..." Bane said, exhaustion and pain evident in his voice, as well as a thick Spanish accent.
"Who did this to you?" Ladybug asked.
"Dr. Young. The 'bruja'." Bane wheezed out. "She drained all the Venom from my blood. Must... Stop... Her..." Suddenly, the TVs showed Joker.
"Sorry, Has-Bane." Joker said. "The good doctor won't be a problem much longer." He smirked, then looked at the heroines. "How do you like my puppet? What say we cut him down?"
Bane suddenly began screaming as red emergency lights began flashing along with blaring alarms and the tank on Bane's back started pumping a strange green liquid into him, the veins in his body becoming visible as the liquid flowed through them and his once-brown eyes becoming a neon green much like the liquid he was receiving. At this moment, his muscles began expanding and becoming absolutely massive, easily allowing him to break free of the tubes restraining him.
"Roger, run! Stinger, get behind me!" Ladybug ordered, the Commissioner taking off and Stinger cautiously stood behind her wife.
Now free and standing at his full height, Bane charged at Ladybug as Stinger had rolled out of the way. Ladybug ducked under one of the hulking, tree trunk arms, then moving to the side just enough dodge as Bane swung the other arm downwards, hitting only the floor. Ladybug threw a right hook, but Bane barely flinched, only roaring in anger as he grabbed and lifted Ladybug, before throwing her into and through a brick wall, landing in some kind of boiler room.
"Play nice, ladies." Joker said as Bane climbed through the wall.
Ladybug struggled to get up, but Bane was upon him before he could, grabbing her by the head and throwing her into the back corner of the room, but Ladybug thought quickly and caught herself with her legs. Stinger came up besides her and the both got into fighting stances and Bane charges at them.
He swung his right fist at Ladybug, but she ducked under it and rotated her upper body to the left, driving her right fist into his stomach, causing him to lurch forward from the impact. Stinger then fired down at the ground with her right bracer, hitting him with a left uppercut, then firing in mid-air to hit her with a reverse kick, causing him to stagger back, at which point she unloaded several blasts from her bracers into Bane's upper body: head, stomach, face, wherever she could hit. In this moment, she actually managed to bring Bane down to one knee for a moment.
"I went through all this trouble and that's the best you got, Bane? Help him out, boys!" Joker ordered, several thugs dropping down from the upper levels.
"Get them, they're the ones who locked us up!"One of the thugs said as they ran alongside the behemoth to attack the heroes responsible for their imprisonment.
They had dealt with the inmates and turned their attention to Bane. They was initially shocked at the man who ripped out a huge chunk of the wall and threw it at them, but snapped back to reality quickly and Stinger fired a blast from her right bracer, obliterating the wall-turned projectile and sending harmless debris flying around her. What wasn't harmless, however, was the massive train of muscle that is Bane barreling towards them, having charged directly the chunk of wall he threw, knocking Ladybug to the side and slamming into Stinger and grabbing her, charging towards the wall behind her and opening up his arms at the last minute to crush the bee hero in between him and the wall, creating a small crater in it, but not fully breaking through. He then pulled himself back and grabbed her by the head, squeezing and slamming his fist into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. He smashed her into the wall behind her one more time, before turning and throwing her to the ground behind him.
He brought his arm back, preparing for a powerful punch, but once he threw it, Ladybug came up and easily caught the fist, allowing Stinger to launch her fist into Bane's chest, sending cracks through his sternum and several winds as well as knocking the air from the mercenary's lungs. She then flipped the massive luchador over her shoulder, slamming him into the ground on his back, kneeling down on top of his stomach and throwing several intense punches into his chest and head, before pulling him up and grabbing the tubes extending from the tank on his back. She had figured this out from the moment they started pumping the fluid into him that whatever was being administered to him was making him stronger, so the solution was simple in her mind: stop his supply and that will stop him. With a shout of anger and determination, she easily ripped out all of the tubes connecting the tank to Bane and for extra assurance, she got around behind Bane as the behemoth was struggling from his sudden venom cut-off and slamming her fist into the storage tank, sending the green liquid bursting out onto the floor.
The battle was finished. Bane was in the middle of a Venom withdrawal, no longer a threat at this time. However, there was no time to celebrate. The two superhuman fighters caused too much damage to the small room, which began to shake and fall apart, pipes and debris crashing around everywhere.
"We've got to get out of here!" Stinger said urgently.
As she said this, Ladybug was already looking for a way out, before quickly finding a manhole opening they could use to get to safety. She quickly wrapped an arm around Stinger's waist and pulled out her yo-yo, throwing it and reeling the two of them to safety as debris crashed down on Bane as he apparently came back to his senses and attempted to charge them. Ladybug opened the manhole and climbed out, Stinger quickly following. As she climbed out, Ladybug was pressing several buttons on her arm.
"Ladybug, Stinger, you okay?" Roger asked.
"We're fine, Roger." Ladybug said, before remembering. "Where's Quinn?"
"Oh, man, I completely forgot about her!" Stinger said.
"She's gone. Must've gotten loose while Bane was throwing you two around." Roger said.
"We need to get you off the island." Ladybug told Roger.
"I'm not a rookie. I can handle myself." He argued.
As if by the will of some unknown force, Bane suddenly burst through the wall, knocking the 3 to the ground, grabbing Ladybug immediately after and squeezing her in a crushing bearhug.
"I will break you, Ladybug!" Bane roared. "Then the bee! Then the 'Bruja'!"
"No, Bane. This time, I break you!" Ladybug said. Then, a car was heard and everyone saw Ladybug's Lamborghini driving towards them with a passenger on board.
"Hey there, jackass!" Rena Rouge yelled.
Ladybug was quickly putting her arms together to get as much space from Bane as he could, before pushing off with her legs. Then the car came and slammed into Bane, sending the two of them flying into the water and sinking. The heroes and Roger looked at the water, as if Bane was gonna pop out again. Once he didn't, they walked to the boat, coming to a stop just before it.
"Roger, you have to get back to the mainland. It's too dangerous here." Ladybug ordered.
"I don't like leaving you here." Roger said, crossing his arms.
"The radio claims he's planted bombs all over Paris." Rena said. "One of our teammates reported to me saying that the bombs were fake. But everyone else doesn't know that. People will panic. You're needed there."
"We're ready to go now, sir." The guard driving the boat notified.
"By the way, Bane called Dr. Young 'bruja', what's it mean?" Roger asked.
"It's Spanish... For 'witch.'" Ladybug explained, before walking away.
"Micro, go through the city's computers." Ladybug said. "Pull up all you can find on Dr. Young. I'll go through anything you find once I get to HQ."
"HQ?" Stinger and Rena asked.
"A HQ? On Arkham Island?" Micro asked.
"I helped Batman build it years ago. It's best to plan ahead for situations like this." Ladybug explained.
"How did you keep this a secret?" Micro asked.
"He's Batman, remember?" Ladybug stated with a small smirk.
"Why is that your response to everything?" Stinger asked, jokingly.
"9 times out of 10, ever since we met him." Micro replied, that two sharing a small laugh. "But do you think Dr. Young is experimenting with Venom, the same chemical that turns Bane into that animal?" She asked.
"Yes. I'm worried." Ladybug said. "Bane seemed more powerful than usual. Joker wants the Venom and that can only be trouble. We're heading to Dead Man's Point in Arkham North. I'll contact you once we're in HQ." Ladybug said, ending the connection.
"Was there ever a point you were gonna let us know about this?" Rena asked.
"I didn't think it was ever an option at first." Ladybug said. "But Bruce said that it's better to be prepared than sorry. So he made this suggestion. I guess it paid off."
"Yeah, I guess." Stinger said. "Still bizarre that you didn't tell us."
"Sorry." Ladybug said, apologetically.
"We're not mad." Stinger said, wrapping her arms around Ladybug. "Just promise us that you'll tell us stuff like this, ok?"
"Ok." Ladybug agreed.
The three left for the headquarters, to get more information on Dr. Young.
So I've been watching My Hero Academia because I've been wanting to do stories for this series. I'm still playing catch up with it, so it might be a while.
But other than that, here's the next chapter. Next time, the heroes will be going to the HQ on Arkham Island.
As always, let me know your thoughts.