Bruce Wayne slowly drifted back to consciousness, being met with the sight of a large, bespectacled bearded man he was all too familiar with.
"I feel I should thank you. Capturing Bruce Wayne is so much easier than Batman, and now that we have you, Protocol 10 is ready to commence. It will be my legacy. A monument to your failure. And if you try to stop me, I guarantee everyone will know your secret." Strange warned as he walked away.
Blinding lights then kicked on and Bruce found his hands and feet cuffed together as he sat in a chair in front of a mirror in what looked like a small warehouse. He quickly wiggled left and right until he toppled the chair over, setting off an alarm, and causing a TYGER guard to burst in.
"What the hell are you doing?! Did you think we wouldn't hear you?!" The guard demanded, preparing to kick Bruce while he was down, but the billionaire countered his attack and knocked down the guard, getting up and snatching his radio as the guard called for help.
Just as Bruce took out the encryption key inside the radio and hid it in his sleeve, another guard burst in and hit him in the gut with the stock end of his gun before bashing his head into a nearby screen. Dazed, Bruce could do nothing as the guard dragged and pushed him outside.
"Welcome to Arkham City, Wayne."
Bruce got back to his feet and made his way forward, ignoring the threats from the inmates... and the guard who shot one of the inmates advancing too close.
"What are you waiting for, Wayne?" The guard who fired his gun said gruffly. "Line A. Move!
With no other choice, Bruce moved through Line A towards the entrance, ignoring the jeers of the surrounding inmates and the guards brutalizing Roman Sionis AKA Black Mask except for one familiar-looking one; an African-American man with a beard.
"Bruce Wayne...you're on my list." He warned before aiming a finger gun and pretending to fire. "Bang."
Blowing out the 'smoke', the man backed away to let Bruce pass him by. It was no secret to the billionaire that the man in question was one of his old adversaries; Floyd Lawton AKA Deadshot.
As Bruce passed the gates, an alarm went off, causing the guard standing point to hit him with the butt of his rifle and pin him down.
"Lower your weapons. Mr. Wayne will not be any trouble. Will you, Mr. Wayne?" Hugo Strange smirked, having been standing there. "The cuffs can stay on. We don't want to make things too easy, do we?"
With that, Bruce was shoved forward into the next area with two other political prisoners, one of them being Jack Ryder, who noticed the billionaire.
"Bruce Wayne? Great, here I was reporting on your crummy press conference, and now here we both are. I guess that'll teach you to get involved in politics." Ryder snapped.
"Listen to me carefully, when they open the door, do not panic. Stay close to me." Bruce calmly said.
"You think I'm taking advice from some guy who's never even been in a fight?" Ryder questioned.
Bruce rolled his eyes. It was almost hilarious that Ryder was saying such a thing to him, considering he was actually Batman.
"Stay calm. They're trying to scare us."
"Sorry, man. It's every man for himself!" Ryder said as he and the other prisoner took off.
Other prisoners began to climb the fence and dropped down on the two defenseless political prisoners and the supposedly defenseless Bruce Wayne, who countered their attacks and easily knocked them out and took out the thug beating on Ryder.
"On your feet, Ryder." He ordered the reporter, who stayed on the ground in shock before Bruce forcefully pulled him to his feet. "I said get up!"
He carried the injured reporter a few feet before the doors in front of him opened and one of his most bitter enemies appeared in front of him; Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot AKA the Penguin.
"Well, well. Look who it is!" Penguin said before another thug dropped behind Bruce and hit him in the leg with a bat, sending him to his knees. "Welcome to hell, Brucey-boy!"
The thug hit him in the head with the bat, dazing him and knocking him onto his side as Penguin mockingly approached him and raised his foot.
"Lights out, rich boy!"
With that, everything went black...
"Wakey-wakey, Wayne!"
Bruce woke up to find himself being dragged to the diminutive crime boss.
"Aw, what's up? Do you need me to call your butler?" Penguin asked mockingly.
"Cobblepot...!" Bruce snarled, glaring into Penguin's good eye and the bottom of a broken bottle that now permanently covered his other one as a morbid monocle.
"Aw, you remember me. I'm TOUCHED." Penguin scowled. "Your family destroyed mine, Wayne. This...well, let's just call this good, old-fashioned revenge."
Slipping on a brass knuckle, Penguin prepared to beat Bruce down, only for the billionaire to counter and twist Penguin's hand with a satisfying CRUNCH, making the villain let out a bird-like cry of pain as he hobbled away.
"Get him!" He snapped. "Hurt him! I think he's broken my bloody hand!"
As the thugs closed in on Bruce, a familiar female figure suddenly dropped down on the thug directly in front of him, knocking the punk out, before she spun in a circle with her arms out, taking out the two beside her.
"Felony Assault is not tolerated!"
Bruce smiled as he looked up to see Penny Polendina had arrived on schedule. However, ever since being taken in by the Bat-Family, she had adopted the moniker of 'Winter Maiden'. Her outfit was one of Batgirl's old costumes remodeled to look more cybernetic yet also have a fantasy theme to it as well.
"Oh crap, it's that robot girl!" One of the thugs cried.
"Her name is Winter Maiden, you uncultured swine..." Another familiar voice spoke up as a hooded figure wearing armor that was a mixture of both a bat and a dragon dropped down. "And I'm sure you know who I am..."
"It's Bat Dragoon!"
Batman had taken one of his old prototype suits and, with help from Barbara, Tim, Luke, and Cassandra, made an outfit for Ben that suited his style, fitting his dragon heritage and also representing the Bat Family with pride.
The thugs were unprepared as Bruce used their moment of shock to turn, put his cuffed hands behind one thug's neck, and knee him in the face, breaking off the cuffs.
"He broke free! How'd he do that?!" Another thug asked before Ben lunged and took him out with a flaming roundhouse kick and Penny delivered a rising knee to the final thug.
"You're gonna pay for this, Wayne! First, I'll deal with those two little twats, then, after I'm done with them, you're going in my COLLECTION!" Penguin cursed before Bruce approached him and knocked him out with a powerful uppercut.
"What are you two doing here?" Bruce demanded.
We were watching the whole conference." Penny explained. "Alfred wanted us to watch over you, so here we are."
"We made sure to save the political prisoners that got transferred with you first," Ben added. "That's why it took so long to find you. But I feel like you could have still handled things here without us."
Bruce chuckled. "I appreciate the faith. But we need to get to higher ground, something isn't right."
Penny nodded and gently picked up Bruce before flying up with her jet boots to the rooftops, Ben sprouting his wings and flying after them. Once on the roof, Bruce contacted Alfred.
"Alfred, have you got my location?"
"Only just, sir. There's more interference than usual."
"I need an immediate drop on the roof of the ACE Chemicals building. I'm on my way there now."
"Of course."
"Alright, let's go!" Ben said as he and Penny flew Bruce to the roof of the ACE Chemicals building in a matter of seconds.
"I watched your incarceration on the evening news. Was getting yourself arrested a part of your plan all along?" Alfred asked.
"Not exactly, although I did get some one-on-one time with Hugo Strange," Bruce explained.
"And how was that?" Alfred, Penny, and Ben all asked at the same time.
Bruce frowned. "Not good. He knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman. He also told me that something called Protocol 10 will make him famous."
"And that is BAD," Ben said. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say he probably knows me and Penny's secret identities too."
"Undoubtedly." Penny nodded.
"We can't leave Arkham City until we find out what it is," Bruce told his wards.
"Did the Batsuit arrive, sir?" Alfred asked.
Looking up, the three heroes saw the Batwing flying overhead before dropping its payload. Bruce simply gave a smirk as he walked up to it.
"Right on time."
Putting his hand on the biometric scanner, Bruce backed away as the pod opened up to reveal his Batsuit in all its glory. Bruce stomped into the boots and adjusted the gloves, which included his own black version of Ember Celica that Penny had inspired him to make with her stories of Remnant, complete with arm blades. He clicked on the famous utility belt and donned the iconic cape and cowl, completing the transformation into Batman.
"So...awesome...!" Ben gushed in fanboyish glee.
"I took an encryption key from a TYGER Guard. I'm going to hack into their communications." Batman told his wards.
Penny nodded as she watched over Batman as he took out his Cryptographic Sequencer, slotting in the key and searching around a bit before finding the right frequency.
"All units, this is Air Tyger 4. We have confirmation that Prisoners 4011 and 4012 are in the courthouse. I repeat, Catwoman and Neopolitan are in the Courthouse."
"Are they in danger?" Hugo Strange asked.
"Affirmative. Targets are being held by Dent. We believe he intends to kill them. How should we proceed?"
Strange chuckled. "Stand down. Let Two-Face have his fun."
"Understood."
"That doesn't sound good," Batman muttered.
"No, it does not. Mr. Dent's predilection towards all things binary may not bode well for Miss Kyle. Even less so with Miss Neopolitan there." Alfred noted. "With two prisoners, he now has two victims. Surely he's more excited than usual."
Penny bit her lip; despite all the pain and trouble Neo caused her and her friends on Remnant, she knew she couldn't let Two-Face kill her. Ben gently squeezed his girlfriend's hand as she turned and smiled at him, which he returned.
"If there's one person in Arkham City who knows what's really going on, it's Selina," Batman said. "Her...ward, is a bonus."
"That, and you care for Catwoman more than you let on to the rest of us." Penny giggled, getting a dry look from the Dark Knight in the process.
"Come on, let's make our objection known to the court." Ben quipped as the trio headed to the courthouse.
Meanwhile, nearby was a slender figure swinging on what looked like webs across Arkham City before perching himself on top of a water tower, seeing the courthouse in close sight as he put two clawed fingers to his ear.
"You gettin' this, Hilds?"
"Loud and clear, 'Bert. How's the new suit?"
"Loving it! Whoever you got in contact with to tailor it really knows their stuff."
"Glad you love it, babe. I'm nearby, making sure some innocents that Strange threw in are safe from the punks running around."
"I saw HIM entering the courthouse along with Winter Maiden and Bat Dragoon. Something important is obviously going on in there."
"See if you can lend them a helping hand. I'll be there shortly."
Hilbert Black was once a mild-mannered teenage boy. He idolized Batman and admired the good he did for Gotham. Then, one day, he happened to be one of the many Bang Babies hit by the Quantum Juice. In his case, his powers were to do whatever a spider can but scaled to a human's size.
He could shoot webs from spinnerets in his wrists, had a precognitive sixth sense that helped him detect incoming danger and see his surroundings in a 360 peripheral vision, had superhuman physical characteristics like strength, durability, reflexes, speed, and agility, the ability to cling to any surface, optical camouflage, produce bio-electric 'Venom Blasts', and even protrude 'stingers' from his knuckles.
Seeing this as his chance to live his dream of being a hero just like Batman, Hilbert dressed up in a makeshift costume and dubbed himself 'Spider-Bat', performing acts of daring vigilantism, saving people, thwarting bank robberies, and even confronting a supervillain or two who were admittedly low-tier, such as Crazy Quilt or Killer Moth.
However, a lapse in judgment resulted in the death of his parents. Fortunately, his girlfriend, Hilda White, and her mother were happy to take him in, but that tragedy told Hilbert a very important lesson; With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility.
As he continued to fight crime, he came across the Bat Family a few times, even helping Signal and Batgirl against Killer Croc on one such occasion. But now, he was in Arkham City, having snuck in with help from Hilda and a few tech-savvy friends who managed to find a way in without TYGER detecting him.
"Well, guess it's a good a time as any to help out your heroes."
With a graceful leap, Spider-Bat swung his way to the courthouse...
And so the adventure begins and we've already been introduced to one of our vigilante allies; Hilbert from Pokemon Black & White, who is basically an Expy of Spider-Man in this universe.
Hilda is also here and yes, she also has superpowers, but the way she got them is different from how Ben and Hilbert got theirs. You'll learn more in the next chapter and these two teens with attitude aren't the only vigilantes who will be lending a helping hand to Batman and Co.