New Batman Adventures - Predators and Prey Ch. 3

“Are we there yet?”

Barbara Gordon let out a tired sigh under the cowl that hid half of her face. “Did you memorize the layout of Arkham like He told you?”

Tim Drake scowled behind the mask on his own face, which Batgirl caught.

“Keep practicing that look and you just might scare an inmate.”

“Keep joking like that and you might become a comedian.”

She couldn’t help but laugh lightly at the joke as she continued to crawl through the air vent. Streaks of rust dotted the dim tunnel and thin cobwebs crisscrossed their path. They had heard the call to Commissioner Gordon as they had left the roof twenty minutes ago including the part where all radio communication was down. So they decided to keep together as they made their way inside. Despite the building’s staff on alert after the communication blackout, everyone appeared going about their business in a normal fashion. Of course speaking from experience, appearances can be deceiving.

“Are we there yet?” he asked again for the umpteenth time.

“Only a few more turns.”

“That’s what you said a few questions ago.”

“We’re on the third floor on the West Wing. Does that ring any bells?”

“…None that I can think of.”

“Well, maybe if you were to quit talking and try and remember what the Asylum is like, you won’t have to quit asking for directions. And maybe, just maybe, you won’t have to do any homework after this is done.”

“I already have enough homework as it is.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________

“Jailer! Jailer!”

The two guards that monitored the third floor of the West Wing approached the bolted door.

“What is now, Mr. Gunthrie?”

“The voices! The voices from the walls! Can’t you hear them?”

“This again? Thank you, Mr. Gunthrie.”

“No, please!” exclaimed the inmate as he slammed against the door, his face contorted in panic. “You have to stop it! It’s…gone…”

The inmate staggered away from the door only to step into the light from the hallway. Both guards became alarmed as they noticed what was on his throat.

“Alert medical! Let’s get the Doc and a stretcher.”
________________________________________________________________________________________

“Wait. We came all this way to get into an office?”

Batgirl put a finger to her lips and pointed at the grating. Through the cracks, the young boy could see into the neat and tidy office that was occupied by the chief medical examiner, who was talking on the phone. The man was wearing a lab coat and the disheveled hair, circles under his eyes, and the bubbling coffee maker in the corner indicated that he had been working all night without much of a break.

“What were her injuries? Well apply the basics and…I don’t…has she told that to the warden? Well, why are you telling me? Tell the warden…and maybe even the chief psychologist. I’ve got another call coming in, so do what you can for her.” He pressed a button on the phone receiver to switch to the next caller. “Ethan Hawke here.” The message on the other end made him stand up. “Are you sure? All right, I’m on my way. Get him to the medical wing.”

The pair of vigilantes watched as he set the phone down and left the room before carefully removing the grate and entering into the room. Batgirl immediately went to the computer and turned it on.

“Well, it’s good to know that the building’s system is working,” she said to herself. “You would think that a person who is this tidy would have better organization on his computer.”

“What are we looking for?” asked her partner.

“Well, since we have the Joker as a suspect, and I think we should take a look at what he’s been up to while he’s been here. Also we need to figure out the location of the device causing the jamming.”

“You can do that?”

“I can do a lot of things on a single computer. At least you would know that if you ever paid attention.”

“I do pay attention,” muttered the Boy Wonder. “It’s just on something else.” His eyes widened as she turned to look at him. “Oh no! Ew! I didn’t mean that! I mean you.”

“Get over here.”

“Wh-what?” he slowly approached to stand next to her.

She brought up the blueprints of the asylum onto the screen. Robin was seeing a bird’s eye-view of the top of the complex, which was a rectangle with four circles for each of the towers, which he remembered were used for solitary confinement. At least for those patients that weren’t part of Batman’s Rogues Gallery, of which were kept in a specially constructed ward.

“These towers are the highest points of the complex. However, back when this place was built, they were treated as little more than broom closets. When they were reconfigured for solitary confinement, the rooms at the very top were sealed. These are the best locations where we can find the jamming device.” She looked to Robin. “That will be for you.”

“What will you do?” he asked her.

“Figure out where the Joker is. Or how he managed to accomplish this. Keep your radio on and contact me when it is done.”
______________________________________________________________________________________

Rain pelted down in an unending stream against Robin’s face, matting his dark hair against his head. His gloved hands gripped tightly to the wet cord that he had launched to the next tower after finding that both the first and second had been empty. This wasn’t his first time walking along the top of a building in the pouring rain, but he could count the number of times that he had done so on one hand. And each time he had his adopted father, guardian, and trainer, Bruce Wayne, with him otherwise known to the majority of the inmates in this complex as the Batman.

However, with Batman not watching over him, he had to remember what he was taught; that was to keep a steel grip to the cord and a sure foot to the ground. He was to keep the wire to his left and under his arm, and pull himself one hand after another. Unlike the trapeze performer who was the first Robin or the Olympian level gymnast that was Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake was just a street urchin for most of his life. Well, a street urchin with an obsession over Batman after watching him in action. After picking up a batarang left at one of the sites where the Caped Crusader had stopped a crime, he had practiced with it to the point where throwing and receiving it became as natural as tying his shoes.

He entered the third tower through a small window soaked to the bone and cold. He made a mental note to tell Alfred to make a cup of hot chocolate and his famous nachos when he got back.

“Make that two cups of hot chocolate,” he muttered to himself as he wringed his cape to release the water that had soaked into the fabric. “And tell him to make a better water resistant costume.”

The words had barely exited his mouth when he heard it: an electrical hum from above. Taking out his flashlight, he sent it up to see that a large, boxy device with several blinking rods that jet out in several directions. It was nestled perfectly at the very top of the roof with rolls of duck tape. Activating his grappling hook, he attached it to his belt, allowing his hands to be free, before rising up to stop below the machine. Figuring that explosives would bring unwanted attention and not to mention make a big hole in the room that would bring the storm in, he looked to the antennas that protruded at random.  After several repeated kicks to each of the rods that made them all break off, the device seemed to hum a little less.

“Batgirl, you there?” he called on the radio.

“You stopped the device?” came her voice from the other end.

“I believe so. It was placed really well up here though. It would’ve taken a cable and a few ladders to put it in place.” He shone the light on the ceiling to find no splintered wood from a possible cable. However, he did notice something else. “No indications of a cable but there are some pretty deep scratches all along the ceiling and walls.”

“Like claw marks?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.” He dropped back down to the floor and directed the beam to find it worn but more from age than of use. “Floor doesn’t appear to have any dents from ladders either.”

“Well, I searched through the daily logs and the Joker hasn’t done anything lately. Although, I did find that there has been a lot of electrical disturbances from that wing, but none of the inmates ever broke out. The most recent was twenty minutes ago. Hold on…there was a sixty-second window each time from when the electricity failed to when the guards showed up. You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Plenty of time for a visit and to plan something with someone,” concluded Robin.

“Yep.”

“I think I found something as well,” said the Boy Wonder as his light illuminated a small hole in the floor with a tiny splash of color on it. He approached it cautiously to see that it went down into a padded cell and that the color was orange, like those of the uniforms of the inmates. “Was there an inmate in the north western tower?”

“I’ll check. Oh, and there was something that I was going to tell you but you already left. I had looked into the records of the blueprints of the asylum and saw that it had been pulled up on a maintenance computer only nine minutes before me.”

Robin frowned at that. “So, someone else had been trying to find the same thing we were?”

“Looks like it. I’m making my way to the control hub to try and find what happened to the doctor. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“And I’ll do the same,” he said before he put the radio back into his utility belt.
______________________________________________________________________________________

“This is definitely going on my top ten list of tight spaces I’ve been in,” grumbled Van Helsing as he crawled his way through the ventilation shafts. “Heehee, you said, ‘shafts.’”

…Of the asylum. Oddly enough it reminded him of the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond, Virginia and the labyrinthian Paris catacombs.

“Especially since both had vampires in them,” he grunted as he made his way around a corner. “By the way, enough with the exposition already! We already talked about how dark, gritty, and cob-web-y this place was! How about let’s get straight to the important thing? Like, what am I doing now? Well, since a flashback doesn’t really work as smoothly as in say a show or comic, I’ll just summarize: I logged into a maintenance computer (you guys already knew that), found the highest point of this place, and was right about to deal with the jammer when I spotted an inmate exiting out of his room. Like, as if his room as unlocked or something and he was waltzing out humming a particularly creepy tune like some psycho. But the second weirdest thing that set off my inner alarm was that he was as pale as Blondie with red eyes. And when he saw me all sinister and gothic-y, he took off into the ventilation system. So, I’m following him in hopes that he will lead me to his master.” The sharp sound of metal clanging alerted him that his quarry had made an exit a level bellow him.

He found the grate that the former patient had busted open only to see a hallway that was different from the rest. Instead of a row of thick, wooden doors on either side, there were illuminated cells with glass doors that allowed the residents to be seen. A few tiny holes allowed both breathing and conversation for them as well, but from the pipes along the floor that Van Helsing saw lining all along the cells, they also allowed knockout gas to be filtered in. Not too dissimilar from his previous establishment.

Carefully, he removed his hat from his head and set it before him on a space between him and the grate entrance. Reaching into his coat, he felt around and concentrated on what he needed for situations like this. Almost immediately, his hand grasped around the object and he pulled it out to reveal the katana. Slowly and meticulously, he set the hat on the point of the weapon and extended it out into the hallway. Nothing happened. He gave it a little shake, but not too hard to make it fall. Still nothing.

“Good. I’d hate to replace another good hat,” he said to quietly himself as he tucked the sword back into his coat and gripped the hat with his hand. Like a hibernated animal peeping out of its burrow after a long rest, Van Helsing poked his head out and took a whiff. The scent of his quarry was in the room but it was leading him up and not down.

“Well, that vague information sure confirms it,” he stated in a whisper. “He’s a vampire if he can climb walls.”

“What was that, Van Helsing?”

“Waller! I so missed our chats.”

“Shove it,” came the stony reply over the radio. “I need an update before I set off the explosive inside your head.”

“Same old, same old. Speaking of which, it’s definitely Him. The place is crawling with bloodsuckers, but they’re not the lawyer type. We should definitely abort.”

“What about the jamming device?”

“Well, I kinda got sidetracked by another vampire that’s sorta probably maybe leading me to ‘The Guy.’ And I do mean Him because I’m capitalizing and using apostrophes as quotes-“

“Focus, Van Helsing. The device?”

“Haven’t seen it.”

“Then someone else has gotten to it and stopped its signal. Also Gotham’s Dark Knight-“

“Is there any other ‘dark knight?’”

“-Is heading back. Which means you need to finish this fast.”

“Or else the Boogey Man will realize this was an op and he will start sniffing around, which is something you don’t want to happen right now. Come now, Waller, you don’t trust me? Oh, and before you hang up, I’ve got one question: how long was each of the serum supposed to last?”

“You’ve used one already?”

He continued as if she hadn’t interrupted him. “An hour right?”

“Well, yes, and our scientists told me that it would continue that long even if it was under stress.”

“But this was their first actual test of that?”

“You know it was.”

“Yeah, being one-of-a-kind really has its perks. I really wish that I wasn’t stuck in the fan fiction of a kid’s show so that I can say a string of curse words.”

“You focus on the mission,” ordered the woman on the other end, ignoring his idiotic outburst and regretting in using the vampire hunter. “Get it done. The extraction team will be there in five hours, and now you have more of an incentive to get this done quickly with the decreasing effects of the serum.”

“Oh, you see, I knew you were going to go there. I knew you were going to say that and-“ He heard a small beep on the ear piece. “I knew that you were going to shut me off. Well, since I don’t have the wall-crawling abilities as my new cousin, I’ll have to walk it.”

He jumped down into the hall and made no effort to keep himself concealed as he strode down the corridor of prison cells. As he turned his head back and forth, he caught sight of each inmate within their confinement and wearing a grey uniform with a serial number pinned to them. To his left there was a man with one half of his face scarred and purple with the other half giving the only indication that he may have been handsome once. To his right was the Jolly Green Giant…if he had scales and a mouthful of teeth that would probably match a vampire’s. The next pair contained a thin, straw-haired man with a beaky nose and a man with an impressively baldhead that had score marks at random. The next two was a well-kept man with combed red hair and had a slight smirk on his face as if he knew a secret that no one else knew, while the other inmate was an absolute doll! Van Helsing’s steps slowed as his bright green eyes remained fixed on the similar shade within the woman’s irises, which were set perfectly in the heart-shaped face that was enshrouded by a halo of lush scarlet. When he finally did break their eye contact, he couldn’t help but follow the smooth curvature of her figure, which was on the level of top models. He wasn’t even fazed by the light green complexion of her skin, and it only seemed to enhance her own beauty. The only thing that tarnished her perfection was the bland one piece uniform that covered her body.

“It’s rude to stare, Darling,” she spoke in a husky voice, which made the monster hunter’s mouth drop and hang for a few seconds.

He made a complete stop in front of her cell, and finally got his brain and mouth working again.

“I could listen to your voice all day.”

A small piece of his mind gave a mental face-palm at the corniness of the statement, but he quickly shoved the imagery away. However, Miss Gorgeous gave him a seductive smile that erased all thoughts of resistance, and she pressed her hand against the glass as if to reach out to him.

“Why don’t you let me out so that you can, Handsome?”

“Who you talking to, Red?” came a voice with a strong New York accent.

Van Helsing peered around the barrier between the two cells to see a woman that was close in height to the Beauty Queen but had fair skin and blonde hair, which was kept in two pigtails and shook at the slightest movement of her head. Her mouth formed an “o” as she caught sight of him.

“Ooooooooo, you’re quite a catch. A bit dark, but not as big in the theatrics as B-Man…or Boy Wonder.”

Van Helsing turned around to see a small boy in a red costume with a black cape and even a simple facemask jumping down from the same chute that he had come out of.

He pulled out a small radio and spoke into it, “Uh, Batgirl? I think I found our hacker. And it looks like he came straight-”

“Out of Hot Topic?” Van Helsing finished for him.  “But look who’s talking Mr. Pre-Halloween. Not that I have anything against cosplay, but does your mom know that you are out dressed like that? What are you supposed to be anyway?”

“I’m Robin,” declared the kid as he pulled out a batarang from the utility belt at his waist.

“Robbin’ who? Me? I don’t have anything on me.” The batarang flew through the air only for it to be caught in the air between Van Helsing’s thumb and forefinger. “Except for ridiculously fast reflexes. Hmm, this is very durable but the balance is perfect. Can I keep this?”

However, Robin seemed to have gotten over his surprise and pulled out two more of the nonlethal weapons in either hand.

“Are you working with the Joker? Where’s Dr. Young?”

Instead of answering, Van Helsing turned to Harley Quinn with hurt look. “Does it look like I’m wearing a clown costume with facepaint?” He turned back to the costumed kid, who was trying his best to appear as threatening as his teacher despite his small stature. “Look kid, I don’t who this Dr. Young is or where she’s at. I’m on my own mission.” He reached into the shadowy folds of his cloak to pull out a pocket watch complete with a chain. “I’ve spent enough time here already. Besides, why don’t you ask the Joker himself?”

He gestured to the cell across from Harley Quinn, and Robin slowly approached it while putting his batarangs away. He looked in to see the occupant sitting quite still at the end of the bed with his signature grin stretched across his face. Too still in fact. He wasn’t even blinking.

“Hey Joker, you’ve been awfully quiet,” said Robin, trying to goad the Clown Prince of Crime. “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?”

“He’s been like that ever since the recent light show,” commented Harley with pouty face. “Couldn’t even get a laugh out of him.”

“How long ago was that?” asked the kid.

“Oh, about twenty minutes ago.”

There was a movement at the corner of his eye, and Robin turned to see that Van Helsing had stepped closer to the glass of the Joker’s cell, his face contorted as if in concentration. Suddenly, to his amazement the bright green eyes shifted to blood red. The shift seemed to hold for several seconds before he relaxed, his eyes closing as he took a few calming breaths. When he opened them they were green again.

“There are traces of a poison in his blood,” he stated. “Most of it is concentrated toward his face where I’m sure that was where it was applied. It also seems to have attacked the nervous system, creating that lovable and not-creepy-at-all smile.”

“So, he’s a fake,” concluded the kid. “The Joker had switched places during that light show.”

“Rightee-oh, Wonder Brat!” came a voice over the loud speaker that was all too familiar to the costumed vigilante. “Unfortunately, unscheduled visiting hours are not permitted at this facility. You two will have to be escorted out…” An alarm sounded and the emergency lights came on as the glass doors of each of the cells were opened to liberate their occupants. “In pieces.”

Crazed laughter echoed through the hall