Chapter Text
(Batman P.O.V)
Upon alighting his vehicle - he staunchly refuse to call it, the Batmobile. Batman felt his left ribcage sting painfully at the trauma it had endured just some minutes ago.
Like all times, any fight against Clayface always results in being smashed against walls and punted on floors - especially in cases when one is not fully prepared for such a confrontation.
Without making his presence known, Batman slinked pass the bustling crowd making his way into the building. The ambience within the building was tense as the officers within it jumped upon feeling his presence – not like he was trying to hide it either way.
While moving pass the GCPD officers who gave way without a word, Batman discreetly noted the queasy expression on their faces – it was a bilious impression. Some officers by the side were even heaving up bile bearing haunted looks on their faces.
Something had happened.
Though Batman suspected that much - during the call he had with Batgirl, he could tell by the nauseated tone of her voice. Something rather macabre had taken place in the crime scene.
A 'Something' which had to do with the gigantic mass of darkness that enveloped the entire mall some minutes ago.
Batman had originally suspected the Shade's involvement in all this. Though he would not come into conclusion yet, as he couldn't exactly pin on why would the Shade involve himself with the fight between the Joker and Penguin.
There is something amiss in all this.
Ignoring the sting from his ribs that returned with a vengeance. Batman slowed down his pace while his body instinctively tensed a notch - there was a thick scent of iron in the air...
Batman smelled blood... Lots and lots of it.
Cowl narrowing, Batman quickly picked up the pace, ascending the flight of stairs towards were the origin of the scent came from.
In reaching a corner, Batman spotted his protégées; Batgirl and Red Robin. Both were resting against the wall. Though they both bore similar looks to the officers downstairs.
Batgirl's eyes were narrowed in a frown despite the obvious sickly look on her face, while Red Robin had a hand cupped against his face letting out occasional wheezes.
"Batgirl, Red Robin." Batman called out, mildly impressed by the alertness in their spring up despite the happenings.
They've both come a long way.
With a scouring check, Batman let out a mental sigh of relief as he saw that they weren't in any harm. Batman, no, Bruce had sworn to himself that he wouldn't let any of his family be hurt ever again.
Batman wouldn't let what has happened to his parents and Jason repeat itself... Never again.
"Batman..." Batgirl greeted, moving away from Red Robin whose face was still green. "It's great that you're here. We both arrived 3 minutes earlier. The... Scene is that way."
Batman nodded in affirmation as the location Batgirl pointed correlated with where the morbid smell was coming from.
"And you both?" Batman asked.
"We'll live..." Batgirl replied. "Though I'll be skipping my biology classes for at least, some weeks."
Raising his hands, Red Robin said. "Second that, Batgirl. Reckon I'll be veggie for quite a while. Won't be looking at meat the same way after today - that's for sure... Darn, and I'd just ordered fried chili chicken legs and fries... Urp! The image..."
Red Robin abruptly cupping his mouth as his face turned green once again.
Batman looked at both his protégées. "I'll take it from here. You both head back to base. Nightwing and I are enough to handle this... Mess."
"You'll get no complaints from me on this one." Batgirl said, raising her hands. "Things are really taking a nosedive ever since Joker and Penguin had begun ramping their fights."
Moving towards Red Robin, Batgirl nudged him.
"Hey, we're heading back to base. We're done for today."
"Ah-Ah..." Red Robin nodded a bit relived. "Right... Wait, how about helping me up."
"Nope~ I can just tell what'll happen with your face being that green. I don't wanna explain to Alfred why my suit's got bile on it. So suck it up, big boy."
"Ugh..."
Watching as Batgirl and Red Robin head out, Batman whirled while muttering. "… I don't think Joker or Penguin's got anything to do with this."
No actually, Batman could see the former doing something like this – his sick twisted 'works' littered the outskirt graves in their thousands. Nevertheless, this doesn't have Joker's M.O on it.
The clown is more 'louder' than this...
Batman swerved upon watching the last of his protégée's shadow faded pass the hallway. Matching towards the miscellaneous area – where the horrid smell of death was currently emanating.
ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ
Hell... That was the 'term' which manifested in Batman's mind to aptly describe the macabre scene before him.
This isn't the first time Batman had been met with such a ghastly scene. Joker, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Black Mask and many others... They all had their ways of recreating scenes like this by means of their various expertise.
But this... This is different.
This 'Hell' felt too raw...
Entering the concerned part of building, Batman was meet with a literal pool-sludge of blood and gore. With amble strides, Batman's boots dyed a cadaverous red as he took in the sight.
The ghastly sight.
Some feet away, a head without a body could been seen on the floor. Spread carelessly on a table were an array of bodies lain with their stomach insides spread outsid—no, their insides had been brutally torn apart. Body parts dangled on cloth hangers. Intestines billowed on rails. The very picture of a torture house...
There were 3 main facts Batman had manage to gleam from all this; they all died slow painful deaths. They all died with holes at the right side of their chests – probably what had killed them had interest with their hearts, and Batman had the gut feeling it wasn't for organ dealing, and most importantly... Whoever did this was someone he hadn't meet before.
With that thought in mind, Batman pursed his lips moving towards the corpse situated in the middle of the room. It was the one corpse mutilated in a way unlike the rest – it was the corpse of Victor Zsasz.
Standing before the said corpse was a familiar figure.
"Commissioner Gordon." Batman gruffly greeted.
"Hmm. Batman..."
Gordon tilted his head sideways as acknowledgement. His head hadn't moved its position as Gordon stared straight ahead in a horrific trance.
"There are times I used to think that I've finally gotten used to this job of mine. But... Hah... Gotham's the kind of city that keeps finding new ways to astound me."
Standing beside Gordon, Batman made no reply as he scrutinized the unholy view before him.
Victor Zsasz was hung, crucified on a mass of darkness. His body wasn't a pretty sight to see. Cuts, cuts, and cuts – there were cuts everywhere.
It definitely wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Victor Zsasz had been thoroughly flayed and from his now hollowed expression, the act had been done while he was still alive.
Batman studied the mass of darkness that held Victor Zsasz for a few seconds, noting the way it quivered as if alive before producing a thin penlight from his utility belt – its intensity was stronger than normal.
Like it had meet its nemesis, the spot upon which the light landed on squirmed jerkily before it slowly began disintegrating, and then abruptly replaced by more mass of darkness.
Gordon's eyes widened at that. "Came across this kind of thing, before?"
"In a way." Batman curtly replied.
Internally, Batman was on a different train of thought as his suspicion has now been confirmed -this is not the Shade's doing.
Shade's darkness doesn't dissolve underneath light. This darkness employs a similar trick in terms of construct creation and if the information Batman had gotten earlier from Batgirl was correct, monster summoning – in the end though, it's just a pale imitation.
" In a way, huh." Gordon snorted, he tucked a hand into his coat and produced a tape. "Well, what or whoever did this messed up the mall's electricity and its connected appliances... Just not all of it. Here, we already have a copy."
As Batman took the tape, the Commissioner smoothly continued.
"Haven't watched the contents, yet. Don't think I've got the stomach to process anything macabre- much less watch how it happened. At least for tonight. Though, if you find anything on your end—..." Gordon's words died down as he realized that Batman was no longer there. "Please let me... Know. Hah... I really gotta learn how he's doing that vanishing act of his."
Sparring one last look at the scene, Gordon stuffed his hands into his pocket walking away.
"God, what I would do for a stick right now..."
Barbra might not be happy with Gordon's melancholic thought – it's been a quite a while since he'd quite smoking and Barbra had played a large part in it. But with this, and the Joker and Penguin still at large having their hazardous spat.
He deserved a drag, to say in the least.
ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ
(Joker P.O.V)
It was an amusement park that had seen better days – abandoned by its possessors due to lack of funds, and the heinous miscreants wandering about its premises.
Considering the fact that one of Gotham's dangerous villains is known to reside in such kind of places, the owners see it as a prudent choice to abandon the theme-park rather than to lose their money... And their lives.
In one of the edifices within the amusement park, there was a gathering of sorts – a dark gathering.
"Hmm~ what's this, someone's offed my new stabby friend~?"
Joker relaxed on his chair languidly while cupping his left ear to which one of his henchmen whispered to with a nervous expression.
At the henchmen, Joker raised a brow bemused. "What's the matter, Jimmy? Joker doesn't bite..."
Before the henchman could heave a mental sigh of relief. A pale gloved fist slammed into his face, sending him up into the air and crashing down on some crates a few feet back.
"When he's happy. Hahahaha..." Joker pointed at the downed henchmen, "... Can someone be a darling and get this stain off my floor."
Relaxing back as his henchmen hastily began carting away their comatose comrade – with the broken teeth and squashed in face, the downed henchmen was out for the count. Joker twisted his lower jaw as he put on what he calls his dissing face.
"I am an intellectual... But the fact that I had a pawn taken off this early tickles my fancy."
Joker knew that whoever did this had no affiliation to his beak nose playmate, so he wouldn't bother going down that road – of course, Joker would have known it that isn't the case.
"The question now is do I have an idea our new player is, or is it just some upstart who can't keep his pants down. Hmm... Nope, zip, nada, no clue at all! But forget all that... I actually lost Round 1 to that snow duck and I will not let that stand!"
Joker suddenly gave a smirk that send bout of nervousness through his minions.
"Luckily for me, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve..."
With a flourish, three tarot cards appeared on Joker's hands which he promptly chucked the cards at a map billboard before him nailing 3 spots.
"Draw! A Jack, Queen, and oh, what do we have here... A Joker. My kinda' card!"
Springing off his chair, Joker strutted towards the map. Eyeing the map locations that the cards had landed on, Joker saw that 2 had landed on sites he wanted while the Joker card landed on... Cherry Hill.
Shrugging, Joker snapped his fingers.
"Little mole! I've got a fun job for you... One that's gonna' put plenty smiles and lots of fires on faces in the upcoming weeks. Hehehehehe... PuHahahahahaha..."
From the dark gathering, a familiar greedy shadow smirked.
ᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥᴥ
(Ekko P.O.V)
With a thought, I dispersed darkness that encased my form, after I flew into the safety of my room through the window. My powers were getting weaker – though that shouldn't be much of a surprise considering the dawning sun...
Just like back in the mall, my powers over darkness is horrendously weak before light. Especially, one as bright as Earth's yellow star – utterly useless before that one.
I had already dismissed the Darklings back to their realm. The gremlins might be very useful, but they are damn hell dangerous. Who knows what might happen I decide to leave them behind and Unload my form back to Ekko once more...
The memory of Zsasz's men urge me not to find out.
Speaking of Zsasz's men, the memory— or rather, 'last memory' of Zsasz made my lips unwittingly spread out in a wide smirk.
To be honest, I would never in a hundred years imagine that the feared Victor Zsasz, the famed serial killer of Gotham, would make such colorful expressions.
It took all I had to stifle my snicker when Zsasz had begun praying when I'd told him too – the bastard's willingness to do just about anything to live was hilarious as it was angst inducing.
Though, the look on Zsasz's face when he had truly given up... Cathartic.
'Whoever said, 'revenge is best served cold' deserves a fucking award!'
Sighing, I eyed the rising sun feeling very light - like a load that had been on my back for years has finally been lifted. I've finally avenged my sister.
I feel like a fucking million bucks...
"All good things must surely come to an end... For now." Raising my blood-soaked hands, I muttered. "Jackie Estacado... Unload."
With a static-like sound, and white particles of light that obscured my vision for a split-second. The blood, clothes, and white skin was gone leaving me... In my shorts.
"Tch, I'd forgotten to store the clothes in my Item Grid's free space. Lesson learnt. Although..." I gagged upon taking a sniff at myself. "Ugh. A trip to the bath is needed, ASAP. The blood may be gone and all, but the sweat from my workout is damn suffocating..."
Tilting my head, I exhaled at the satisfying neck pops before heading for door—
"So that's why you were so secretive, yesterday. Well, I shouldn't be surprised. Powers do tend to have that kind of effect on people."
Like a chill coursing through my spine, I froze at the familiar voice behind me.
'H-How did I not see her there in the first place?' I thought while slowly turning back.
Elaine stood up from my makeshift cushion, outfitted in a flowery dress and a blue apron. Her eyes that gleamed an eldritch-like gold couldn't hide the dark bags beneath them – she must have been awake for quite a while and .
Walking towards me, Elaine cupped my face with a sad smile. "After you've finish taking your bath, come to the rooftop. I'll be waiting for you there."
I could only nod back dumbfounded while wondering, what the hell is going on.