Bab 7: Why. So. Serious?

Joker and Bane were arguing over their plans but didn't notice the disappearing guards. Not that anyone who wasn't paying attention would as each individual was hit by a silencing spell before getting taken out. But they did notice the anomaly when over 40 of the 50 men disappeared.

"Well, well, well. You're finally here Batsy!" Joker laughed maniacally while Bane activated his serum and the remaining men picked up their weapons. But all was followed by an eerie silence, opposite to Bane's expectations. He was sure because of Batman's anger and irrational thinking due to the lack of strength he had for running around three days, He would have attacked from the front, not hide.

All lights cut off, plunging the tent in darkness, and the men in only heard sounds of the rain crashing on the roof of the tent and thunder crackling. Joker and Bane were on guard while the mob was absolutely terrified. Batman was a symbol of terror for the normal goons. But they also had some sort of pride considering they work under Joker and Bane, two of Batman's most nefarious opponents. But both, fortunately, and unfortunately, they were actually visited by someone less scary than Batman, as the man had years of experience in theatrics, but one who came for vengeance, hence more deadly.

And the deadliness was witnessed by them firsthand, as they were targetted by a bunch of kunai. Like Bane, the ones paying attention avoided them just by instinct on hearing something cut through the air. Or at least tried to as they were used to avoiding them being thrown at them by humans, not superhumans. And the kunai's were special as well, as they exploded reaching them, and the blast was a big one, throwing them away with burns and molten shards of metal on them. In one move their assailant, only Joker, and Bane were left standing. Not because they succeeded in guarding against them, but because they were never meant to target them.

Bane stood up thanks to his enhanced healing and strength supplied by the venom serum when he saw something shine on his left. He turned his head and lifted his arms to guard, but was too slow as he barely made out a punch coming towards him, but the shine was because the punch was made of steel. The slight shift prevented his jaw from shattering by the impact, but his nose instead paid the price.

Bane crashed and rolled a few times because of the strength of the punch. He gained his bearings, only for his leg to be grabbed and him getting swung and slammed into the ground, then thrown into a bunch of carts, which, unfortunately for him, contained explosive barrels Joker usually uses.

They didn't explode but he saw some form of spark reaching him, and Bane knew he was in for a blast. And it was a big one. The force blew out most of the tent, triggering any traps Joker had set up as well. The explosion cleared the crashing rain on a small radius because of its shockwave, but it resumed falling, trying to douse the fire that was ignited.

The smoke cleared a bit to show a blue aura bubble filled with cracks, which shattered showing a masked man dressed in black from head to toe. It consisted of a simple hooded jacket, mask, fingerless gloves, jeans, and sneakers, except it was plated with some sort of material, giving it an almost metallic look. But the most eye-catching part about him was that his skin was made of a black-metallic substance as well, while his eyes glowed eerily blue, lacking any emotions.

The assailant looked at the destruction he caused and looked towards his arms. He got carried away by his rage.... but he felt nothing. Even though throwing someone into their fiery doom was supposed to be considered immoral by the 'Heroes' of this world, but he felt nothing. Nothing at all.

But Ben was snapped out of his self-evaluation by a bullet that aimed for his heart but failed to even dent the armor of his hoodie. Ben looked towards who shot him, and his anger came back full force, seeing a bloodied and burned Joker looking at him with a psychotic smile, which faltered a little after he saw the bullet had no effect.

Joker aimed again, but Ben covered his soles with aura, which gave a blue glow and accelerated him right in front of the Joker in a second. He swung his hand, which now had a crowbar in it. The Joker could barely react as the crowbar hit him, right at his mouth. Or precisely his teeth, which shattered like weak glass.

Joker felt it and stood in shock as his mouth bled. But he started grinning again as he looked towards his attacker, who didn't give him the time to laugh and was hit again, and this time on his temple, which also damaged his eye completely. Joker staggered back as he felt a hand wrap over his throat and was tazed. He tried moving the hand, which opened and he fell down.

The Joker took deep breaths and tried speaking, but then noticed why exactly his opponent had tazed him. He targetted his throat, as he couldn't speak a word, much less laugh. Even in all his craziness, Joker panicked a bit. He long wanted to die, but by the hands of Batman, making Batman break his rule. Not by some nobody.

"What's the matter, did my jokes kill your mood? I don't hear you laughing." The guy taunted Joker, who was absolutely livid at him messing with his, THE JOKER'S PLANS!! "Well, your smile doesn't show the expression you're feeling. Oh, I know!" The assailant adopted a thinking pose and acted like he got an idea. "Why don't I transform the smile? At least you'll now have a legit reason for your new 'scars', won't you?" As the Joker noticed the bottom of the crowbar become red hot with electric arcs surrounding it, he said that he felt a very bad feeling about this.

What followed was torture. Not to break the Joker mentally, but his pride. Ben broke every bone in his hands and legs, preventing them from working. Meanwhile, Batman was finally able to put the pieces together and rushed towards the circus in his batmobile, and Gordon with his police cars followed as well. His assumption on the location became more solid as he heard an explosion nearby.

When he reached there, he saw men in clown masks running around in panic and away from the explosion. He detained them while Gordon and his team arrived as well. Batman finally left to the blown tent and was shocked seeing the place. He saw a man, no, a boy with a well-built physique as of an athlete, which he quickly realized was Ben. But Batman was more shocked by what Ben did. Ben made Joker's scared smile into a sad expression. His forehead had a bat-shaped scar, with his hair shaved in between in the shape of a dick. And all of them were done by something hot, making them probably last for quite a while.

He also realized Joker had limbs bent at odd angles, with an eye busted as well. Though crushed would be a better term to describe it. And he did notice one thing, The Joker, for once, wasn't laughing. Ben looked towards Batman and said, " Huh, late to the scene as always, aren't you?" Ben's tone was filled with sarcasm and mockery.

"What.. did you do?" Batman asked, narrowing his eyes. Gordon arrived with his team and they were more than shocked seeing the condition joker was in. Gordon actually felt happy to see the bastard who crippled his daughter in that state, even if it was against the law.

"Something if you had done before, Robin wouldn't have died," Ben replied back with the same intensity. This was a shock to most officers as well as only Gordon knew Joker had kidnapped Robin.

"You don't get the right to decide their punishment" Batman growled.

"Oh, and you have permission from the president to beat criminals left and right in a Halloween costume?" Ben snarled, and the temperature around them started getting colder, even making the raindrops around Ben freeze and shatter on him. "That's all it is to you, isn't it? A game of cat and mouse you keep going on again and again, with a convenient excuse of your no killing rule. And the ones affected by it are those who he and his gang kill. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. HE. ESCAPES."

"It isn't that easy son. I want nothing more than to fill his body with bullet holes, but he needs to pay-" Gordon spoke, but was cut-off by Ben.

"Pay? By going to the same place he escapes from again and again, on the basis of mental issues? You could have always done something commissioner, all it takes is to press the trigger. A perfect encounter, one everyone in the city would actually be glad you did. But no, you have to encourage their game of chase and now you realize what everyone else had been through when you felt the loss." All of Ben's words hit Gordon's heart heavily and he couldn't utter a word.

Ben was about to say more when he lifted his hand swatted a Batarang aiming at his face. He then jumped back and avoided another one, but that was a flashbang, which impacted more severely than normal because of his enhanced senses. He could barely tell that his orientation was forcefully changed but recovered quickly. He realized Batman was trying to ground him and gave him a headbutt, which was a bit quick for Batman to avoid completely, but he still minimized the damage.

All the anger Ben took on Joker came back to him and focused on Batman in front of him. Ben's skin turned a metallic sheen as his eyes glowed blue and he rushed forward. The next 15 seconds made Ben realize why Batman was able to keep up with all the superpowered heroes of Justice League. Even with Ben enhanced strength and speed, Batman perfectly avoided and redirected his blows.

But Ben was not a beginner in fighting. He quickly analyzed the speed, strength, and flexibility Batman had and charged again. And this time Batman barely managed to minimize the damage of each blow. His continuous search for Robin and guilt also affected him as he couldn't keep up anymore.

Batman crashed to the side of one of the swings and Ben held his face by one hand. To his surprise, Batman had stopped resisting him. This angered Ben even more as he didn't want to see him guilty now. But he was snapped out of his rage by a gunshot which sent a bullet flying behind him. Ben looked sideways to see the one who shot was Harvey Bullock. But the bullet had missed him intentionally as he just wanted to stop Ben from strangling Batman.

"Look kid, honestly I myself may not have suffered by the clown's hands, but I have seen enough. But taking your rage on him isn't gonna do anything. Even if the Joker is doing it for his attention, Batman had done a lot of good for the city and its people. He's probably just as angry with himself over Robin's death." He tried to calm Ben, which worked for a few seconds until Ben realized what he was really doing. Buying time, as he saw the other officers place Joker's limp yet conscious body into the car to drive away.

Ben wanted to rush to it but noticed his mana was about to run low and cursed in his mind. Looking around, he found the crowbar he made to beat Joker and rushed to it. Harvey noticed his distraction failed but Ben was too fast for him to follow. Ben picked and created a layer of mana on the crowbar. He aimed and threw it exactly at the head showing through the car's window, but it got intercepted by an explosive Batarang.

Ben was too low on mana to follow the car and hatefully glared at Batman who blocked the crowbar. " I'm sorry... but I cannot let you cover your hands with blood for revenge," Batman said as he stood up. The remaining officers also surrounded him, but had slight reluctance in their movements, as they could tell Ben was young and he was probably close to Robin.

Ben gritted his teeth in frustration at not being able to kill Joker and said "... You stopped me for today, but mark my words. If he escapes once more and terrorizes the people, he's dead. And you wouldn't be able to stop me then."

After saying that Ben suddenly disappeared. Hw was completely camouflaged as they couldn't spot any bending raindrops, but Batman was able to see a slight change on the ground where the rain didn't fall, deducing the direction Ben went through.

Gordon kept looking at the place Ben disappeared from with conflicted eyes and looked at his gun. But he clenched it and kept it back into the holster. Though the boy told him how easily Gordon could have prevented many crimes of the clown, he was a faithful servant of the law and would always be. He turned to look at Batman but found he'd left as well. Gordon gave a tired sigh and decided to go back to Barbra for now. She needed him the most.