#12: From the Pit, Pt 2 (HoM / Tupper)

“They always forget me.” The Question leapt over the rooftop, his long trench coat whipped around behind him. “It’s always ‘Batman and… Uh… Whoever!’ Never, ‘Batman and The Question!’ or better yet, ‘The Question and Batman!’” Vic turned to his friend and came to a stop. “What are you thinking?”

“Zsasz wanted us distracted, and we’re lucky that Essen was on the scene or else someone could have got hurt.” He looked around. “He’ll want to go off radar, so he can come back prepared, ready.” He pressed a button on his gauntlet and a low buzzing emanated from his glove. “The car’s coming, we need to track down any possible places he could lay low.”

“Get Al to triangulate nearest possible hideouts for him. He used to be a businessman, was he not? He’ll head for old buildings he used to own. But it’d have to be close, on foot I’m thinking… And given the time he’s had as a running start…”

Bruce smiled slightly and leapt down into a chasm like alleyway, bouncing off the roof of his arriving car and landed solidly on the ground. Vic looked down reluctantly and clambered down the fire escape, and then sat in the passenger seat of the car. “That’s good thinking.”

“What can I say? I’m a talent.” Vic shrugged and rummaged through the inside of his pockets, taking out a pen and notebook.

Batman glanced towards his friend and arched an eyebrow, confused. “What are you doing?”

“Writing down some notes. It helps me visualise the problem. You beat guys up, I write down.” He laughed. “He’s a serial killer, ran free for three years before anyone pegged to the fact it was him. How so?”

Batman didn’t look away from the road as he navigated the streets. “His wrist.” He pointed to his own. “A colleague noticed fresh scar tissue on his wrist, in the form of a tally mark. When confronted about it Victor reacted like a trapped animal. He pulled his weapon and slit the throats of seven people in his boardroom. All caught on security video.”

“Sounds like a real freak. Fast too.”

“But he doesn’t show it. Truth is, even I didn’t ‘peg’ it… Zsasz was working contracts with Wayne Enterprises. I met with him personally. His eyes… He had strange eyes. Dead. I just thought nothing of it, maybe my Batman mask was falling into place when I was Bruce Wayne…” He grimaced. “That seems to be happening a lot recently…”

“You never refer to yourself as ‘yourself’… Always Bruce Wayne. It’s strange you know. Its like Batman is a mask and Bruce Wayne is a mask… So what lies beneath?”

“Don’t psychoanalyse me. You’re the one who was in Arkham for six months.”

“Great detective you are, you didn’t find that out till Nightwing told you.” Vic paused for a moment. “Unless you knew and didn’t come visit? Didn’t come see what had happened? I don’t think you’d abandon me like that. Not after what we went through.”

“I didn’t know.”

Vic paused for a minute, and pressed a button on his belt, the gas shot outwards and obscured his features for a moment before it peeled off his mask. “Look me in the eye and say that.” Bruce turned to him for a moment, his eye slits white and lifeless. “Or not.” Vic grimaced and removed his hat and placed it on the dashboard, placing his mask inside too. “Y’know what I was doing in Gotham to begin with back then? I was heading here. I needed help because things had turned upside down in…” He paused, not wanting to talk about his past but forcing himself to. “…In Hub City. I needed a friend, so I came to you, y’know? But I was beaten unconscious by some guy inches away from your walls. Then I wake up six months later, everything a mess, and everything falls apart once more. It’s taken me a year to build myself back up, alright?” He paused. “You knew, didn’t you?”

Bruce grimaced. “I’m sorry.”

“You knew but didn’t come see me.” He laughed. “God, I sound like an ex-lover, it’s pathetic.” He suddenly turned serious, grabbing his mask and hat. “Stop the car.”

Batman turned to him, confused. “What?”

“You heard.” He placed his mask back on and put his hat back atop his head, and then opened the car door as Bruce came to a stop. “I’ll speak to you some other time.” He slammed the door shut and vanished into the night, leaving Bruce with an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. He dismissed the thoughts and pushed down on the accelerator. Time later for rebuilding burnt and lost bridges, but time enough for Zsasz to be stopped? Brought down and prevented from killing another innocent? He grimaced and pushed down on the rocket boost.

The building was quiet, a little bit too quiet for his liking. This kind of place, abandoned but stable, no sign of being knocked down and paved over, you’d expect squatters… Especially here. He kept to the shadows, his cape drifted behind him in the gentle breeze coming through the broken windows. Where are the vermin? The roaches? Something… He felt a wetness sticking to the underneath of his boot and paused, and looked down as he changed his lenses. His eyes widened as he saw the blood, all the way down this corridor, all the way into all the rooms ahead. Lakes of it, all… He sneered and took out a batarang, and then continued his search. “Gordon, this is Batman…”

He waited for a reply, and a hurried noise buzzed to life on the other end of the transmitter. “Batman! I heard about your confrontation with the men an hour ago, what’s happening, have you located Zsasz?”

“I’ve walked into something a little more… ugly, Jim.” He heard a rustling, and then turned a corner, and if it weren’t for years of training, he might have vomited right then over his boots. Bodies, all homeless or junkies, or both, piled up like they were ready for some mass burial. Sickening. “It’s bad. Over a dozen bodies here… I’m on Batson and Hiest, 456th, there’s a lot of blood, and some of these people have track marks, you might want to warn your people…” He paused as he heard a faint rustling in the corner, “Wait!”

“Hmp…” He spun around and saw someone against the wall, blood dribbled down their throat. “Hpp. Hpp muh…”

“I’ve got a survivor! The closest medical facility is the Thompkins’ clinic, get a patrol car down there now, she doesn’t look like she has much time!” He tore his cape and hurried over to the woman, blood poured out of a wound across her throat. “It’s deep, but not as deep as the others. Ma’am… I need you to move your hands…” She looked at him for a moment with glassy eyes, and then her hands fell to her sides, and he tightly wrapped the make shift bandage around her throat, making sure no more blood left the wound. “Try to hold on.”

He got there as fast as he could. The batmobiles tires screeched to a halt in front of the door just two minutes after he fled from the killing zone. He’d wanted to explore the building more, but this was more important. Leslie stood at the front of the building, two men at the door in uniforms, and he recognized a plain clothed officer on the inside. “She’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Let me take it from here, Batman.” She said as two orderlies pulled the wounded girl onto a stretcher. As the officers escorted the victim into the building, Leslie paused for a moment. “Find him Bruce. Don’t let anymore die.”

“I’m trying.” He leapt back into the car, and then sped away, his eyes grim as the blood begin to harden on the passenger seat of his vehicle. He knew the grim truth even before he pulled away. She wasn’t going to pull through. He reached out and pressed a button on the dashboard. “Alfred.”

The voice of his butler came through loud and clear on the monitor of the car. “What is it, Sir?”

“I need you to collate the locations of Zsasz’s victims this past night. I need to know where he’s headed.”

“He just killed two more, by Millie’s…” Millie’s was a donut bar that catered well to the GCPD, gave them discounts and the like. It was a popular haunt for uniforms about to get off duty.

“Officers?” He knew the answer before Alfred spoke.

“Yes, Master Bruce.”

“He’ll have moved on by now.” He shook his head, and then the car computer sprang to life as a small map with red dots appeared on the screen. “This didn’t take you long, Alfred…”

“I was already working on it.”

“Thank you.” He turned off the computer and followed the map of deaths, heading in the direction of the murderers next possible killing zone.

“His communication link was cut off suddenly, but the line was open for moments afterwards, running separate to his cowl… He’s going to go after Thompkins! The clinic. She runs the clinic. Please, sir, you must know of the Leslie Thompkins’ Clinic… On Park Row? Yes, it’s on a map. I’m going to try and locate him, do what you can.” Alfred then sat back and sighed.

He smiled in the darkness of the alleyway, and then opened the back door to the clinic. Everything was quiet, a silent ambience to the practice Thompkins runs. His hands were full with the daggers, their sharpness and deadly nature and extension of his own body, ready, waiting to be used. He crept through the dark kitchen, and then spun around, a noise behind him. “Hey buddy.” He slashed backwards, catching shadows and nothing else. He was then punched hard in the back. He rolled with it, kicking backwards and catching his attacker in the knee, causing him to cry out in pain and buckle over to the ground.

“Zombie!” He slashed down with his knife, but his attacker rolled, grabbing the man’s knife. He twisted his wrist and opened his hand, making him drop the weapon beside him.

“That was some time last year.” Zsasz pulls another knife with his free hand and slammed it down in his attackers shoulder, and then twisted it, causing his enemy to scream louder. “And I’m not supposed to talk about it!”

“No jokes.” Zsasz pulled another knife, longer than the others, and slammed it down, but his enemy jerked to the side, the metal clattered to the ground and sprung out of his grip. “Grr…” Zsasz was thrown off him, and then sprang back to his feet like a cat, a rabid animal corned as he pulled another knife from his belt.

“I’ll joke if I want to.” His attacker smiled, but the serial killer couldn’t see it. “But if you want me to stop, look me in the eye and ask politely.”

“I’LL MAKE YOU EAT YOUR..” Zsasz dove for his foe but his eyes widened when he realized his attacker had no facial features. Surprised by this, he lost his concentration and collided hard with the Question, sending them flying into the wall of the kitchen.
Zsasz rose quickly, his knife glistened in the darkness. “Faceless.” He drove the knife down hard, and it nearly went through Vic’s arm, but he jerked down at the last minute, the blade cut through his thick trench coat and sliced his arm. “Kill you!” He drove the knife back up, his foot against The Question’s neck, but then when he went to cut down, he realized he couldn’t and looked at the black glove that held his wrist tightly.

“Victor. Round two.” Batman punched the serial killer so hard there was a loud click as his jaw broke, and he collapsed to the ground.

Vic stood up, holding his bleeding arm and looked around slowly. “KO.”

Batman looked to his faceless ally and nodded. “No visitors for the dead.” Vic Sage looked around the kitchen. He found a saucepan and then battered the villain with the makeshift weapon. When he was sure the mass murderer was unconscious he took out a pair of handcuffs from his trench coat pocket and attached them to the man’s wrists, then looked back to Batman. “What? I’m just making sure.”

“My God…” The duo looked over to the double doors in front of them that connected the main clinic to the kitchen. Leslie Thompkins ran through, a medical kit in hand. “Did you really have to do that?”

Vic smiled as he helped Batman drag the villain into the clinic. “Well, y’see… I don’t have any Question-a-rangs in my pockets, only some bits and bobs that would work when… I’m fighting an ant. Seriously… So don’t tell me what we did was extreme… WHEN HE IS A MASS MURDERER WHO TALLIES HIS VICTIMS ON HIS NAKED FLESH!” Batman looked to Vic, his brow furrowed, and he placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry Ms., but I don’t feel there’s any real mercy needed when these sons of bitches kill hundreds and are just locked away in that safe little happy Asylum up on the hill, alright? So please, ease his suffering. Please. Because he’s gonna’ get off easy at Arkham. He’s gonna’ get off easy and then run back to the streets happy as Larry.”

Leslie went to argue with Vic, but then looked to Batman as he shrugged his shoulders slightly. “I suppose I should actually thank you, Mr. …” She cleared her throat and continued. “You warned me, you set that trap… You saved my life.”

Batman turned to The Question, who shrugged. “It was a favor for a friend.”

The Dark Knight nodded slowly and then turned to Leslie, his eyes wide. “I’m sorry.”

Leslie turned to him, and looked at him strangely. “You’ve nothing to apologize for, Batman. You did what you could.”

Vic smiled slightly and nodded, and then turned to exit through the kitchen. “Catch you on the flip flop, people.”

Batman watched him leave and then removed the weapons from Zsasz, who groaned in pain for a moment. Without pause Bruce swung down, and knocked the villain out once more. “Batman, please! What is it with you heroes and gratuitous violence?”

“The Question is right, Leslie, he’s getting off easy.” He threw the man over his shoulder and walked over to a stretcher, and then moved any potential weapons from around the room, and then re-handcuffs him to the bed, making sure he couldn’t escape. “Gordon will send an EMT team to escort him back to Arkham. Don’t let anyone near him, he’s an especially gifted murderer.”

Leslie nodded slightly, and then leaned up to his ear. “Do you want me to have a look at your hands?”

“No, Alf… I’ll be fine.” He turned and left the room. Batman hurried out into the kitchen, kicked the back door open, and then looked around, searching for his friend.

“You don’t need to kick things, they have handles.” Vic pushed the door closed. “I’m sorry about earlier.” The vigilante’s coat was around his waist, his shirt open as he bandaged his own wounds.

Bruce took a breath and then looked to Vic. “I didn’t come see you because you were a liability.”

Vic paused, but continued to bandage his arm, a confused expression beneath the mask. “I take it back, I don’t apologize. What the hell?”

“It’s ridiculous of me.” Batman leaned against the wall in the darkness opposite The Question. He removed his gloves and examined his own wounds. “But ever since Julie…” He cringed at the words. “I’ve been angry at myself, at everyone. Very…” He moved his hand down in front of him, pointing it forward. “Focused with what I do.” He leaned his head back on the wall. “I pushed Robin… Nightwing away, I pushed Batgirl away, and they did fine without me. I think I might have been pushing Alfred away too, I don’t know. But I had to have focus. And you are the least focused person I know in some respects. If I had come and seen you, I didn’t know if you were going to blurt out my name, spill my secret… In Arkham no less.” He laughed slightly.

“But you left me there, so that must mean…”

Bruce interrupted. “That I was being ridiculous.”

Vic smiled, and leaned down the wall next to his friend. “That you must have SOME trust in me. Trust in, whatever condition I’m in, sane or… Otherwise…” He laughed quietly for a moment. “That the promise we made to each other, the promise not to reveal each other’s identities… It would stick.”

“Maybe… Thing is, I feel like I’m only nearly whole when Dick is here, in Gotham… In the manor…”

Vic smiled and took out a bottle of water from his coat. “Here.” Bruce nodded gratefully and took a sip. “Cops’ll be here any minute. Let’s go.” The two vigilantes nodded and stood. Then they vanished into the night.

“Alfred won’t mind stitching your shoulder by the way…”

“I would appreciate that.”

“The point? WHAT WAS THE POINT?” She screamed the words, angry at the question asked. “The point was to discover how… easy it is to manipulate the GCPD into distraction. Oh, it was easy really. Release a myth, a legend, and they run in terror at the almighty threat of Victor Zsasz. They were like headless chickens. But the goods at the harbor have been transported, and we’re nearly ready.” She taped the computer, words appearing, an email from a loved one. “Yes. Yes. Everything does go well…” She smiled and then looked around. “Zsasz was just phase one. The technology is nothing compared to what we have developed. Yes, yes, everything will go ahead as planned. Just keep in contact.” She smirked, and then turned off the computer, examining her quarters. Her bodyguard was outside, and after such a hectic night, it was time for her to get some well-deserved sleep.

The End… For Now!