After taking a moment to help Ben recover from his exposure to Scarecrow's Fear Gas, the trio hurried through the doors and down the hall, stopping when they saw a thug in front of the door with a shock stick.
"You try and get past me, Bats and I will fry you and your friends!"
The three stared flatly at the thug before Ben flicked his finger out and caused the shock stick's electricity to overcharge, zapping the thug in the process and sending him convulsing to the floor.
"Oh, there you are!" Joker chimed in as he appeared on the TV monitors. "I've been waiting for you, listening to Zsasz make the good doctor scream while Mr. Elemento played around in Scarecrow's world. How was it this time? Learn anything about yourself? Oh, tell me! Pull up a seat, talk to me! I'm all ears!"
Penny glared, a feeling of anger welling inside her at the fact Joker would so casually laugh about the pain Ben must have been going through. Without thinking, she sent one of her Floating Array blades through the screen, shattering it.
"Oooh! Who knew Missus Pinocchio had a temper!" Joker laughed. "Also, that reminds me; I could have sworn I heard Zsasz cutting the doctor's ears off. Certainly sounded like it."
"Penny, trust me. Joker will pay for what he's done." Batman assured the android. "But for right now, we need to worry about Zsasz."
Penny took a deep breath and nodded as she turned to Ben, who was pretty troubled by the taunts Joker threw in his direction before she squeezed his hand gently and smiled at him.
"It'll be okay. I'm with you."
The trio walked through the door, greeted by the scene almost ripped from a horror movie as Zsasz dragged Dr. Young into the main room of the office while she begged for help.
"You and your little friends stay where you are, Batman! Listen to me CAREFULLY." Zsasz ordered.
"Help me! Please, somebody help me!" Dr. Young screeched.
"What do we do?" Penny asked in a worried whisper.
"Don't worry. I'll handle this." Batman said, moving along the wall between the room they were in and the next, crouching around the corner, readying a batarang, and waiting.
"If any of you come any closer, I'll paint the room crimson with her blood!" Zsasz warned, peeking his head out from behind his hostage in order to see what was happening.
That split second was all Batman needed, flinging the batarang around the corner, slamming into Zsasz's scarred forehead with enough force to knock the psychopath unconscious.
"So. Awesome." Ben whispered in admiration.
With the threat dealt with, the three walked out to see Dr. Young was having a small breakdown, beating on Zsasz's unconscious body.
"You monster! You evil, evil, EVIL monster!"
"He's not going anywhere. You can stop now." Batman gently said as he helped the doctor up. "I saw Bane."
"I know. I-I-I... Joker threatened me. I wanted to stop the experiment. I tried to give him his money back!"
"Joker doesn't take no for an answer." Batman clarified.
"He wants an army. A horrible, twisted force to destroy Gotham! But he couldn't do it without the formula! I hid it, but..."
Penny nodded. "But Zsasz forced it out of you, it seems."
"And now he has Venom. And your formula." Batman finished.
"God, he has gallons of the stuff! There's a lab, hidden in the gardens! It's locked off, but the security codes for the whole island are in the Warden's safe!" Dr. Young explained, moving to the safe and starting to open it.
"What else is Joker planning?" Ben asked. "I mean, besides creating an army of Banes."
"How should I know? You think anything he says makes sense?" She asked, opening the safe, revealing a green face, along with some confetti and noise makers that shot off. "Oh, my god!"
"NO!" Penny cried.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Batman shouted but it was too late as an explosion engulfed Dr. Young and knocked Batman back. Penny was also sent flying but her Aura protected her while Ben formed a forcefield.
When the blast settled, Ben and Penny gasped in horror when they saw Dr. Young's horribly burned and mutilated body. She was barely breathing as Ben quickly ran over and placed his hands on her, a soft gold and red glow emitting from his palms as he tried to heal it.
"Hold on! Stay with me!"
"Y-You..." Dr. Young wheezed out as she took something out of her pocket, a picture of her with another woman. "Please...G-Give this to her..."
With that, Dr. Young dropped completely dead as Ben turned to Penny with a horrified, helpless expression on his face.
"What do I do...Penny, what do I do...?"
"Poor Dr. Young. Still, you know how Mistah J hates a squealer."
The two turned to see Harley Quinn and some of her thugs approaching. Penny glared and prepared to send out her Floating Array blades but Harley crouched beside Batman and aimed a pistol to the side of his head.
"Ah-Ah-Ah, sweetie! One move and Bat's Brains go splatty-splat!"
Penny and Ben were left at an impasse as Harley walked over to Warden Sharp, who was being held by two of her thugs.
"Talking about squealers..." Harley began, walking up to the Warden, who was gagged and held in place by another thug. She then took his cane before jabbing him in the stomach with it.
"Oh, please! Someone help me!" He pleaded.
With a shout of exertion, Harley cracked the cane across the Warden's face, breaking the handle off and drawing blood.
"That old loony actually thinks he runs this place! Talk about crazy! Well, kids! Places to go! Get 'em, boys! If Bats gets up, knock him back down, but not too hard! Mr. J needs him at the party." She said, leading the Warden away. "Oh, and be gentle on the kids, K? Don't want their cute wittle faces all bashed up."
"We're not babies..." Ben muttered as Harley and the Warden left, leaving the thugs with him, Penny, and the still-unconscious Batman.
"Are you sure it was a good idea of her to leave us with them?" One of the thugs asked his buddies. "I mean, you saw all those crazy magic tricks they could do!"
"Yeah, but we're not the ones you should be worried about." Penny giggled.
The thugs were confused before Batman suddenly sprung back up to his feet, having regained consciousness a little while ago and had been playing possum until the right opportunity arose.
Two of the thugs could barely react as the Caped Crusader grabbed their heads and slammed them against each other. He then delivered a roundhouse kick to the third thug's face, sending him spinning into the fourth and final thug, knocking him to the ground as Batman flew over and slammed his fist into his sternum.
With the punks out of commission, Batman frowned as he saw Dr. Young's mutilated charred corpse. He saw the pained look on Ben's face as the young elemental shook his head.
"I-I tried to save her...I did, I..."
"You did your best." The Dark Knight gently said and made a call as Penny squeezed Ben's hand reassuringly. "Orace, Dr. Young is dead. Have you figured out a way to get past those security gates? Before she died, she told us there's a production plant hidden somewhere here in the Gardens."
"The WayneTech security protocols seem to be hack-proof. Lucius did a good job. It's a two-part biometric sequence, apparently generated by the Warden, using a code sequencer." Oracle explained.
"And destroyed by Joker in the safe explosion." Penny realized.
"Harley Quinn has the Warden. And he's the only chance we have to get past these gates." Batman finished.
Ben then perked up as he saw the broken cane and tapped on his goggles to use Detective Vision, smiling when he saw that he could scan for DNA and then used it on the broken handle.
"Hey guys! I think we can follow the Warden's blood trail!"
Batman nodded in approval. "Good job. Quinn did make the mistake of hitting him too hard, it's clear that there's a lot of blood that will lead us right to them."
The trio returned to the main hall, finding three armed thugs in the middle of the room, waiting for them. Quickly grappling up to a gargoyle, they each chose a different target and moved accordingly to take them out.
Batman went for the thug in the very back, silently dropping behind him and choking him out. Penny dropped down on the one in the middle, behind the furthest one, knocking him out by dropping on him and mimicking Batman's chokehold while Ben dove down and pinned the last one to the ground before turning his skull into metal and headbutting him hard enough to knock him out.
Heading through the doors, the trio suddenly heard an announcement.
"Let me go, you crazy bitch!"
"Um... Sharpie said a bad word. Mama spank!" Harley teased, followed by a scream of pain from the warden. "Hey, Bats! Gonna join the party, or what?"
"I believe I'm not going to like this party..." Penny frowned.
"Me neither..." Ben nodded.
They hurried ahead, dealing with a few more thugs along the way until they reached the penitentiary building, finding the thugs beating up on a helpless doctor.
"Wanna take my pulse now, Doc?!" One of the thugs demanded, kicking him again.
"Hey, he's just doing his job." Ben spoke up, getting the thugs' attention. "Sort of like what we're doing now."
Ben then punched forward, sending out a bullet of air that sent the thug who kicked the doctor screaming over the railing. Penny rushed forward and knocked the second thug off his feet with a sweep kick before knocking him into the air with Floating Array and then shooting him rapidly with laser blasts from their ray gun configuration as Batman grabbed one thug and used him to spin around and kick the other thug in the face before slamming the first one down into the ground.
"Thank you..." The doctor said as Ben helped him up. "The guard wouldn't have lasted much longer."
"Is he okay?" Penny asked as she and Batman came over.
"He struck his head when they knocked him to the ground." The doctor explained as he checked on the fallen security guard.
"Move him away from here as soon as you can. Take him to the Medical Facility, it's the safest place on the island." Batman ordered.
The trio went through the doors and looked around to see three thugs. Moving slowly closer to them, Batman waited for the right moment and threw three batarangs at them, knocking all three down and leaving them open. Penny knocked out the first one with a ground takedown she picked up from the Dark Knight while Batman and Ben moved quickly and repeated the action on the other two.
"Man, is this what it feels like doing what you do?" Ben whistled as he dusted himself off.
"Don't get too excited. A clear head is best when dealing with these low lives." Batman advised.
The trio went on, heading through a set of doors, before finally stopping at another set of doors where, thanks to their Detective Modes, they were able to see dozens of people in the next room.
"Get ready. This might be a little disturbing." Batman warned as he went through, revealing the figures in said room to be crazed lunatics, barking and screaming like mad dogs.
"Define 'disturbing'..." Ben winced as one of the lunatics screeched and tried to reach for him.
Penny frowned as she saw one lunatic who didn't seem violent and was just curled up and hugging himself fearfully, whimpering in terror at some unseen nightmare. The android couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy in her core at the poor broken soul.
The trio went through an open security gate and walked up to a large cell in the middle of the room, filled with some strange form of smoke. And sitting inside was a strange woman with green skin that had vines all over her and long, flowing red hair, somehow moving on its own. Y
Ben blushed a bit, seeing the woman dressed revealing enough to put even Yang to shame, the strange green woman dressed in a small red Arkham shirt that revealed a good amount of cleavage and only a pair of leaf-like panties to cover her lower body.
"Whoa...is that Poison Ivy?"
Batman nodded, unfazed. "Unfortunately."
"Stop! Stop! Batman, please!" Ivy said as she hurried up to the door. "You've got to help my babies!"
"I'm really not interested in a bunch of flowers, Ivy."
"They're in pain! Crying for help!"
"That's weird..." Ben muttered. "I think I can hear what she's talking about...whoa, is this what she feels like? I mean, I know she can talk to and control plants, but..."
"Don't let her get to you, Ben," Batman warned. "The last thing we need is someone like her running free."
"What ever happened to make her this way?" Penny asked as the trio left Ivy.
"Long story short; she was a botanist who was exposed to dangerous chemicals that turned her into a plant/human hybrid," Batman explained. "Since then, she's been waging a one-woman war on humanity to save all plant life."
"Yeah, I've seen the news articles about her." Ben shrugged. "Sheesh, she takes 'Save the Earth' rallies to a whole other level, I'll tell you that."
The trio proceeded onward, looking into the tower in the middle of the room, where they could see the warden. They started moving toward it, but Penny was then shocked to see Officer Cash in the cell in front of them.
"Batman! It's me, Cash! You need to let me out!"
"Wait, stop. Something ain't right." Ben said as he stopped Penny from moving.
"Good move." Batman approved. "We're not going to fall so easily for your tricks, Karlo."
The fake Cash stopped pretending and chuckled in amusement before suddenly morphing into a huge clay-like humanoid with black eyes and a jagged mouth, grinning down at the trio.
"Ever the critic, Batman?" The monster said in a mocking voice.
"What in the name of Monty..." Penny began.
"I know who this guy is. It's Clayface, right?" Ben said as he turned to Batman, who nodded.
"Yes. Stay in your cell, Karlo. You're another person we don't need running free right now."
"That is alright with me. This stage is not up to my standards." Clayface smirked as he morphed into Penny. "But that girl...she is different, I can tell."
Ben stood in front of Penny protectively, glaring at Clayface as the android blushed. Clayface then turned into Warden Sharp and smirked as he simply returned to loitering in his cell as the trio left him.
"Wait, look there!" Penny alerted the other two, who looked at one of the TV monitors to see Harley heading down the hall away from them when suddenly Ivy ran up to the glass.
"HARLEY!"
Harley yelped. "Ivy? Jeez, you look like crap! Maybe I can sneak you some shampoo."
"The plants, can't you hear them?! They're crying out in agony!"
"Yeah? Well, I really don't have time for this." Harley shrugged.
"Please, you have to let me out! They'll die without me!" Ivy pleaded.
"I don't know, Red. You're not on Mr. J's party list..." Harley said, pulling the list from her cleavage and inspecting it.
"PLEASE!" Ivy begged.
"Eh, what the heck, I'll cut you a break," Harley said, heading over to the controls for Ivy's cell and swiping a card to release the plant woman.
"Aww crap..." Ben muttered as he saw this.
"They seem to know each other. Then again, all your adversaries must have connections." Penny noted.
Batman nodded. "Harley and Ivy are a special case. Ivy is one of the only people that Harley cares about besides Joker."
"I could watch those two all day, what a riot!" Joker laughed as he appeared on the monitors. "And speaking of riots... Here's a bit of civil unrest I cooked up, just for you!"
With the flick of a trigger, the doors opened, unleashing the lunatics, allowing them to run free and attack whatever they wanted in their mad frenzies.
"Whelp, we're boned!" Ben said.
"We'll worry about that when we get there. The Warden is just ahead." Batman said as the trio made their way up to where Warden Sharp was tied up.
"What are you waiting for? Cut me free!"
Batman sliced the ropes holding him with the blades on his gauntlet and walked around to face the man.
"He's taken control of the security overrides! I have the sequence generator, but without the terminal in my office, it's useless!" Sharp explained in a defeated tone.
"Your terminal has been destroyed. Give me the sequencer." Batman said.
"What? Oh! Yes, of course." Sharp confirmed, looking over his person, before handing the card to the vigilante. "It's useless. Half the code won't get you anywhere. We're trapped in here."
"You underestimate just how awesome Batman is." Ben smirked as the Dark Knight inserted the card into a strange gadget, before pulling it out and discarding it.
Batman then moved around the analog sticks for the device, locking onto the frequency and overloading the terminal, causing it to explode and shutting down the gate. He gestured for Penny and Ben to come towards him, closing the gate to the room behind them after she walked out to keep the warden inside.
"You stay here. Lock this gate when we leave."
"Good idea. Can't have someone of my stature falling back into their hands, now can we?" The warden agreed nervously.
"He's certainly got my vote." Ben joked as the trio headed on back to the main room where all the crazies were previously held.
One of them just so happened to lunge towards Batman but he easily took them down. The trio headed back into the main room with Batman in the lead when Harley suddenly burst from around the corner.
"Surprise!" She announced. "You know, Bats, I always thought there was a spark between us."
With acrobatic grace, Harley leaped and flipped onto the platform above before kicking a panel that activated the electric floors, frying an unfortunate guard.
"I know, I know, you're shocked! Come and get me, Bats! I double dare ya!" She dared.
"Oh yeah, well how about a Triple Dog Dare, huh?" Ben smirked as he suddenly became coated in electricity, absorbing the electricity coming off the floors as he launched himself onto the platform, Batman and Penny grappling and flying after him.
Boys, get in here!" Harley ordered, calling in goons to help her. However, even with a number of thugs to help her out, they were no match for the trio of heroes.
Batman delivered a roundhouse kick to one thug's face as another tried to kick him, but he kicked his leg to knock it back, spinning to knock him into the air and finished by smashing his fist into his stomach, slamming him into the floor.
Penny boxed the next one's ears and knocked him out with a hammer fist, then launched herself forward to headbutt the next one.
Ben took a deep breath and then let out a sonic shriek that caused all the thugs to cover their ears in pain before collapsing unconscious from sensory overload. He then coughed a bit and cleared his throat afterward.
"Nice technique."
"I saw Black Canary on TV once."
Knowing she was outgunned, Harley jumped away and swung into a new hallway, the security door closing behind her.
Was that as easy as it looked? Well, it won't be so easy trying to catch me!" She boasted, blowing a kiss afterward as she hurried ahead to her next goal.
Batman went into the side office and shut down the electric floors, the three heroes following after where Harley went, deactivating the security door and continuing their pursuit of the villain. They rushed into the room ahead of them and were shocked to see a couple of guards strung up over electrified water. Harley then showed herself on the other side of a window in a different room.
"Look who decided to show up, The Dork Knight himself. And his new little sidekicks. How's it hanging?"
"There's no escape, Harley Quinn!" Penny declared as she prepared to use her Floating Array blades to cut through the glass.
"Uh, uh, uh, Pinocchio! Got a little problemo for ya!" Harley said, pointing back to the officers. "See those two guards over there? I know, shocking! How you gonna save 'em?"
"Uh, like this." Ben casually said as he flicked two fingers up and the wires holding the guards were cut but wind swirled under their feet, gently carrying them to safe ground.
"Excellent control." Batman praised.
"Awww, no fair!" Harley whined. "If you weren't so adorable, I'd be even more mad!"
"I'm flattered." Ben smirked as Penny felt a weird pang of jealousy.
A ticking sound was heard as the trio realized Harley had rigged the place to blow. Batman quickly used his Cryptographic Sequencer to unlock the door, allowing everyone to escape safely.
"Whew. I thought we were both gonna die in there." One of the guards said, relieved.
"You're safe now," Batman assured him.
"And we're going after Harley for what she did!" Penny said.
"Good. I saw her head out the door as we got out of the room." The guard explained.
"She won't get away. We'll stop her, then her boyfriend." Batman said.
"And after that, I'm gonna see if we can get her therapy. That bitch needs a better boyfriend." Ben added.
The guard nodded. "Good. I'll try to get the ventilation system back online. If you find her, don't go easy on her, for me!"
The trio then backtracked to the main cell block, Ben knocking out one of the crazies by grabbing his head and doing something that put him to sleep, before they found the path Harley obviously took, blocked with a security door.
"Come on, you getting tired? Let me help ya!" The villainess said, shutting down the door. "You're getting warmer..."
"The panel must be in the office up there," Batman said, firing at the vent at the bottom of the office and pulling it off, causing a crazy to drop down and lunge at them.
Fortunately, Batman's reflexes were lightning fast as he caught the lunatic and slammed him into the ground hard enough to knock him out on impact. Penny then flew up the office and shut down the gate, meeting Batman and Ben in front of the next set of doors into the extreme incarceration room.
"How'd ya do that?"
"It comes with having built-in technology." Penny beamed.
"Here they come, Mr. J!" Harley announced happily to Joker from the tower in the center of the room, while the Clown Prince of Crime observed through the screens.
"Excellent! I'll leave it to you then, my dear!"
"Get 'em!" Harley ordered, sending out six thugs to attack the three heroes.
Penny flew forward with an elbow to hit the first thug, bringing her fist up into his face and staggering him, before throwing the other fist forward and sending him back into the door to the tower Harley was in. She then dodged a punch from the next one, launching herself into the air while throwing an uppercut, taking the thug with her before blasting laser bolts from her Floating Array, sending the thug flying.
Meanwhile, Batman threw a batarang at one of the thugs running at him to knock him down, landing several powerful hits on the thug still standing, before knocking him down, quickly moving back to the first thug before he could get up and knocking him out with a ground takedown.
As for Ben, he ducked under one thug's haymaker before coating his fist in stone and delivering an uppercut that knocked out a few teeth. He then formed wood around his fist into a hammer that he swung into the other thug, sending him into the railing hard enough to knock him out.
Suddenly, the floor began flashing and charging up electricity, forcing the heroes to quickly jump to the right section of the room. Eventually, the middle section shut down and the right section was about to be activated, prompting the trio to move back to the center, where four more thugs waited for them after coming from the left side.
"Stand back!" Penny said as green flames emitted from her eyes.
Using the power of the Winter Maiden, Penny created a torrential blizzard that hit the thugs, freezing them in place with green and black ice and leaving them trapped and shivering from the cold.
"Let's turn up the heat! Anyone up for friend bat wings?" Harley asked, activating the middle section again, which the heroes dodged by going to the left section.
"Let's hope that ice is insulated!" Ben noted.
The next group of thugs came from the right section and jumped to the middle as soon as it was safe, starting to rush at the heroes. Batman started to move towards them, but Ben held up his arm.
"Hang on. I got this one!"
Running and jumping onto the rail, leaping high into the air and then waving his hands as light began building up before releasing in a brilliant flash. Batman and Penny shielded their eyes but the thugs weren't so lucky, being left blind and staggering around before Ben snapped his fingers and generated bubbles that grew in size before trapping the thugs in them.
"Sensational!" Penny cheered.
Batman nodded. "Nice work, both of you."
"They've done it again! I don't believe it! I'm on my way now!" Harley snapped.
"Oops! Change of plans, kiddo!" Joker suddenly said.
"But I tried my best!"
"Sorry, but there is no prize for second place!"
"Oh come on, a silver medal is as good as any!" Ben argued.
"Yeah! What he said!" Harley agreed.
"Regardless, I'm afraid you're off the party list! Better luck next time!" Joker said with a cruel laugh.
"Nooo!" Harley whined as she threw a tantrum, before rushing down to them. "Die, you big, ugly bat!"
However, Ben suddenly stepped forward, his body turning into steel as he grabbed Harley in a tight bearhug, which she struggled to break out of as he marched over and threw her into a nearby cell.
"Hey, what's that?" Penny said, reaching towards Harley's cleavage and pulling out a list, handing it to Batman.
"Hey, that's my party list!" Harley snapped.
"Quiet." The Dark Knight told her as he inspected the list. "Why the smiles next to certain names?"
"You're the detective, you tell me!" Harley snapped. "And you won't find Mr. J! He's in the secret lab in the gardens and...Oh, crap!"
Penny giggled at Harley's screw-up and even Batman had a small smirk on his face but Ben just had a look of pity toward the villainess. As Penny and Batman left, the elemental stayed behind briefly to say something to Harley.
"I don't know why you bother sticking with Joker. All he ever does is treat you like his punching bag for all his sick jokes and cruel laughs."
"You don't know him like I do!" Harley defended but Ben shook his head.
"I don't know what happened to you in your life that led to you falling in his crowd. I honestly can't tell what made you think following him was a good idea or why you fell in love with him in the first place." He turned and walked away. "But...there are still people out there who actually give a shit about you. I mean...Poison Ivy cares about you, doesn't she?"
"Don't you say anything 'bout Red!" Harley snapped before slumping and sitting down as she began to weep in self-pity.
Ben shook his head before following Batman and Penny. The Joker still needed to be stopped, after all.
Harley Quinn Redemption Arc maybe? I dunno, tell me what you guys think. I could use some ideas.