Legends of the Batman #8

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Legends of the Batman #8
Attack on Arkham

Written and Edited by Daniel Dyer

Below Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne prepares himself.

“This is insane, Sir.”

Bruce ignores this, changing into his alter ego.

“Those madmen have taken over the asylum and you wish to charge in there with nary a worry for your own safety,” Alfred ranted.

Bruce puts his cowl upon his head. “The police can’t go in. There are hostages. I can get in without being noticed. I could be their last hope.” The Batman hops into the Batmobile. “Besides, I won’t be going in blind.”

The canopy closes as the sleek car roars and speeds off, leaving Alfred alone, praying that the Batman doesn’t get Bruce Wayne killed.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Upstairs, in the Manor. Dick decided he wanted a snack. As he walks back from the kitchen, he sees Alfred leaving the study, mumbling something about “...getting himself killed...” Dick stays out of sight until Alfred is up the stairs and then rushes into the study. As he guessed, Bruce wasn’t there. The question is, however, if he and Alfred came in together, where’d Bruce go?

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

"Harvey,” a voice says from behind the Distract Attorney.

Startled, Harvey turns around, seeing the Dark Knight, standing next to the window. “I suppose you’ve heard about Arkham.”

The Batman nods. “Any idea what to expect in there?”

“A lot of the inmates simply fled when ‘released’. We’re unsure who’s still there and who escaped, but we do know one thing.” And Harvey hands Batman a file. The Dark Knight Detective opens the file and a playing card falls out. A joker.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Outside of the asylum, with the police that are covering the front gate. James Gordon holds a megaphone to his lips. “We have the place surrounded. There’s no possible way of escape. Release the hostages.”

The cops notice a window in the asylum opening, the Joker leaning out with his own megaphone and shaking his fist. “You’ll never take me alive coppers! Hehhahahahoo!” The Joker’s face suddenly appears serious. “Besides, who said I’m planning to escape anywhere?”

The gathered police notice the chalk white maniac drop the megaphone and begin to turn around.

“What’s he doin’?” Bullock asks.

Gordon lowers some binoculars from his eyes. “Mooning us...”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The Joker sits back in his chair, watching a security monitor. “Boring.” He switches to another camera. “Boring.” And to another. “Boooorrrriiiing!” The Joker turns to one of the asylum guards who just stands there, almost motionless. “Ya should really invest in some cable.” As the Joker switches to a camera in Jonathan Crane’s office, he sees a dark figure enter through the window. “Eh? And who is this?”

The dark, mystery man, is then revealed even more on the camera.

“A bat? A pointy-eared bat? Hew-ha!”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

In the office, as the Batman looks around, he notices some notes on the desk, but not the notes he’s searching for. Instead, they are formulas. Going through the drawers, he still finds no notes on the Joker or Crane’s progress. From what Harvey Dent was able to tell Batman, the Joker is a complete mystery. A wild card. Nothing is known of his past or why he turned into a murdering psycho. No medical records regarding his skin condition. Nothing.

“Attention, there is a bat on the premises that needs exterminating. Hee-haawww!” the Joker’s voice announces on the intercom.

Batman’s stealth has been compromised. He looks up noticing a camera, cursing his carelessness. The Dark Knight quickly puts the office back in order, noticing a computer disk. Thinking, it could be important, he snatches it.

Suddenly, the door swings open, a couple of the mind controlled guards enters, accompanied with a shirtless man, short blonde hair, and slash marks all over his body.

As one of the guards looks out the window, he’s pulled out.

“What?!” the knife wielding man with slashes all over his skin, a Mr. Zsasz, says in shock.

That’s when the guard gets thrown back into the room, hitting the other guard, hard.

“Show yourself!” Zsasz screams.

As Zsasz cautiously approaches the window, when the Batman lunges at him, tackling the demented killer to the floor. Zsasz tries raising his knife, but the Dark Knight holds his wrist tight, and slams the back of Zsasz’s wrist to the floor, causing him to release the knife, just before the Bat head butts him, knocking him out.

The Bat then gets to his feet, looking over the unconscious bodies of the guards. He looks through their hair and finds a patch, quickly removing it. “Hmmm....”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The Joker watched the whole thing. “Now this is entertaining. Hoo-haw! But he might ruin things. Better to burn the place and take my show on the road. What do you say to that, Garfield?”

A normal-looking man stands behind the Joker. He wanted to leave with the other inmates. He wasn’t like the Joker. He found none of this fun. But now there’s a twinkle in his eyes. “Burn...”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Dick has searched the entire study, twice, but hasn’t found anything. He knows there’s got to be another exit to this study. That’s when he remembers something he saw in a movie. Dick grabs one of Alfred’s dusters and lightly dusts the piano keys. A single fingerprint appears on a single key. The young boy pushes that key and the book case opens up, revealing an elevator. “Wow...” And the boy hurries into the elevator and goes down into the depths of the cavern below.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Arkham Asylum, as the Dark Knight comes upon the cell holding Crane and Arkham. Batman stands in front of the class wall. “I’ll have you out in a second.” Batman then pulls out two small explosive devices and tapes them to the hinges of the metal door. “Stand back!”

But as he’s about to detonate the explosives, Harley Quinn smashes a chair on the Bat’s head from behind.

“Hiya, doll! You ain’t ruinin’ Mr. J.’s fun!”

“Harleen, this ain’t you! Let us out!”

“Now, now, now,” the Joker says as he walks into the hallway, a wide grin on his face, Garfield Lyons right behind him. “He’s not ruining my fun. He’s increasing it.” If at all possible, the Joker’s grin grows wider.

The Bat notices a gasoline can in Lyons’ hands. “No!”

“Oh, yes,” the Joker states as Lyons begins to pour gas all along the hallway. And the Joker sings. “Deck the halls in gasoline. Falalala.”

“The entire place will blow! There are explosives wired to that door!”

Harley kicks Batman in the face as he tried to get up. And the Joker continues to sing, lightning a match. “Light a match and watch it gleam,” he sings, tossing the match.

And the hall becomes ablaze of flame.

“Burn the asylum down to ashes. Heehee-haw! Aren’t you glad we played with matches! Falalala, la, la, laaa! Heh heh ha ho!”

“Down! NOW!" yells the Bat to Arkham and Crane as he detonates the explosives. They explode, the fire spreads further and Harley gets blasted back, her mind-control patch short-circuiting and making her lose consciousness.

The Joker looks down upon the Bat, surrounded in flame. “You were amusing, Bats, but I gotta take my leave. Ta-ta.” And the Joker grabs Harley and makes a break for it.

“What do we do?!” Arkham asks the Bat.

“Back in the cell!” the Batman yells as he rushes the doctors back into the cell. “This is going to be rough,” he states as he tapes another explosive to the barred window. “Down!” As Batman detonates the explosive he covers the two psychiatrists, draping his cape over them. The Bat turns and goes to the newly made hole. Taking out his grappling hook gun and firing it downward, connecting with the fence down below. Batman hands Jeremiah a Batarang. “Use this to slide down.”

Jeremiah slides down the line and Batman turns to see Crane just watching the fire. “Harlene...”

“Dr. Crane! DR. CRANE! We leave! NOW!"

Jonathan Crane looks at the Dark Knight, then back at the fire. He decides he can do nothing more here and opts to follow the Bat.

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Later in the night, the Batman makes another stop to Harvey Dent.

“From what I’ve learned, there were no casualties,” Harvey informs. “Fortunately, Arkham and Crane were the only two being held where the fire took place.

“No arrests either,” the Batman states plainly.

“Well, the Joker did get away, as did the arsonist, but we did find a Mr. Zsasz, however, in Dr. Crane’s office.”

Batman tosses one of the patches on Dent’s desk. “The Joker’s handy work.”

“Yes. He was controlling several faculty members with these patches, and the situation is now being rect...” Harvey sees he’s now alone. “...ified.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The Batman is tired. Its been a long night. After leaving the asylum, he searched for any sign of the Joker. He turned up none. So, after meeting with Harvey Dent, he decides to call it a night. As he pulls into the cave, he wonders about the fate of his city. Not only is the Joker loose upon Gotham, but several other deprived, deranged, and dangerous psychotics are now at large.

Batman gets out of the car and is greeted by Alfred.

“Sir, there’s a bit of a problem.”

Batman then sees his computer chair swerve around with Dick in it. “Hey, there, Bruce.”

“Dick?!?!”

“When do I get my costume?”

“What?!”

Dick stands up. “That’s why I’m here, right? To be your partner, right?”

“No, Dick. I wasn’t looking for a partner. It’s too dangerous out there for...”

“A kid? Bruce, I’m not your average kid. I could....”

“The answer’s no.”

“Fine,” Dick says as he turns to leave. “Whatever.” Dick turns back to Bruce. “But you can’t do this alone, Bruce. No one could.” And Dick heads up the stairs thinking, And this isn’t over, either.

“Smart, lad,” Alfred comments.

“You’re encouraging him?”

“Why not? I ‘encouraged’ another young boy once.”

***

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Epilogue

Vikki Vale isn’t sure why she’s at Harvey Dent’s apartment building. If he hasn’t taken the time to call, why should she come to him? As she reaches Harvey’s floor, the elevator doors open, and she sees Harvey with the short and stout Oswald Cobblepot. She sees money exchanging from Oswald’s hand to the DA’s. “Harvey...” she says quietly.

Harvey and the “Penguin” both turn to see Ms. Vale.

“Vikki.”

Vikki quickly pushes the button to close the doors, but the Penguin hurls his umbrella that seemingly never leaves his side between the elevator doors, keeping the doors from closing. “Now, now, my dear. What’s the hurry?”

Harvey looks at Vikki and then at a silver dollar he’s holding in his hand. He flips the coin. He tries to fight it, but the verdict is already passed.

Continued...