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Absolute Insanity

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After a (semi-)failed insurrection upon the HQ of the Justice League by their evil counterparts, the Injustice League, the defeated villains were detained and separated. The Batman and his quarry, Harley Quinn, took the teleporter back to their home city of Pittsburgh, PA. Batman and Harley, who was blindfolded, materialized in the Batcave, Batman’s hideout, and he loaded her up on his Batcycle to take her back to her apartment and leave her tied up. But, as he was driving out, he got a audio message from Barbara Gordon, wherein she was seemingly attacked by an unknown individual. Realizing she’s in trouble, Batman simply left Harley in a dumpster and sped off for Barbara’s apartment. 
He broke in and found the place was in shambles, but Barbara was missing! Left behind was a message wrote on Barbara’s computer from the kidnapper, a hacker calling himself The Riddler. The message left was long, poorly written, and filled to bursting with Riddler’s self-absorption and delusions of superiority. Then, Batman noticed that there was something off about the characters in each sentence. He pieced together that the altered characters spelled out the address he was keeping Barbara; a clue, or riddle, he left behind that only proves he’s too confident in his abilities. Batman tracked the address and peered in through the window. He saw Barbara lying on the floor, and a man with a machine gun, and a black outfit pock-marked with green question marks, standing over her. He knocked out the Riddler from afar with a Batarang and swooped in through the window. He saw that the Riddler was actually already unconscious and tied up in a way so that he’s standing up and holding the weapon. He then saw that Barbara wasn’t tied up, but actually beaten within an inch of her life and lying in a pool of her own blood. Batman anonymously called the police and her father, FBI official James Gordon, and gave them the address, but he was attacked soon after. The assailant got the upper hand and knocked out Batman with a crowbar. The attacker who defeated Batman and left Barbara a bloody mess? None other than The Joker
When Batman woke up, he was being carried on a stretcher, strapped in tight, through a corridor. The Joker was hauling him through, dressed as an orderly from the Arkham Institute. He was still fully disguised, but Joker had his utility belt and a bag full of the weapons and tools he keeps in his other pockets. Batman asked how Joker was still alive. Joker said that “one of [his] employees had a BA in acting!” Enraged, Batman thrashed and tried to escape until he was brought to the main lab of Professor Hugo Strange/u>. Strange handed a file disc to Joker, as payment for capturing Batman, and the demented clown left our hero at the mercy of the good doctor. Strange admitted that he calculated Batman’s true identity of Bruce Wayne before pulling off his mask, proving himself right. Bruce Wayne and Hugo Strange had collaborated on projects in the past, and he demanded to know what Strange plans on doing to him. Strange lowered a computer monitor and said he’s going to test the final version of his “subliminal photofluctuation weapon system” on Bruce, a weapon that Algol, the Injustice League’s masters, wants to use against the world at large in service to their masters. He calls it… ANTI_LIFE
Meanwhile, a party was raging for all the big wigs of the city, and a mysterious host was about to make his appearance. The Joker, a beloved multi-media artist with a dark, murderous secret, revealed himself to the party as the host the world as still alive. He then plugged in the disc and played his copy of ANTI_LIFE on a huge monitor to the crowd. The program drove the guests insane and they began rioting and killing each other! The Joker, already insane himself, wasn’t affected and he slipped out with the disc. In the alley in the back, a blonde woman in a red-and-black leotard crawled out of a dumpster and recognized him. It was Harley, and she got angry that the Joker, the man she loved and thought was killed by the Batman, had faked his death. He tried to explain that faking his death was necessary to break Batman’s spirit and he needed it to be as realistic as possible, but she wasn’t having that. They got into a fight, and they both collapsed from their near-lethal injuries; the file disc for ANTI_LIFE in the Joker’s pocket was broken beyond file retrieval. 
Back with Professor Strange, he had subjected Bruce to an hour of the ANTI_LIFE program! Where as a few seconds were enough to affect a normal person, Batman had the strength of will to resist the effects for an hour. Strange, on the other side of a window, angled so that could only show him Bruce, shut down the program and entered the test chamber. He commended Batman for resisting the program, and commented that his willpower is his greatest asset. But Strange wasn’t giving up just yet. He then wheeled in another gurney, but strapped to that one was Bruce’s younger cousin Cassie! She was exposed to but a flash of the ANTI_LIFE before Bruce finally broke free from the straps and smashed the monitor with his fists. Batman put his mask back on and carved a swath through the Algol minions that stood between him and the escaping Hugo Strange. Strange ended up in the room of a comatose man. Hugo implored Bruce to spare him, trying to speak to the young boy he saved in from the riot that killed his parents year ago. Batman said he has every reason in the world to kill Strange, since he knows Batman’s real identity and could reveal it to the world at the drop of a hat. Hugo then told Batman that the comatose man in the bed is his son Adam Strange, an astronaut who was critically injured in a near-disastrous space launch. Hugo only joined with Algol because they promised to bring him back to the waking world! Batman demanded to know where Algol’s main headquarters is. Strange was about to say, but then one of Algol’s men threw a knife at his neck, killing him instantly. After examining Strange’s laboratory, Batman discovered that Algol had used a construction company as a trojan horse to build a facility in the sewers of an American city. This city was the same city that a metahuman named Patrick O’Brien had wrecked some years ago…Washington, DC! Batman called in the rest of the League, saying he knows where the invasion of Earth will begin!

Notes:

* Barbara Gordon was saved and is now recovering in a hospital. Unfortunately, the doctors say she may never walk again…

* The Riddler did NOT plan this with The Joker and Strange. The Joker simply saw the opportunity and incapacitated Riddler.

* Batman and Cassie had to sneak out of the Arkham Institute quietly to hide the secrets of Hugo Strange, one of their best doctors. Otherwise, it would ruin the stellar reputation of one of America’s best mental hospitals…

* Joker and Harley were also hospitalized.

* Bruce might need some time off after this to assess the lingering effects of the ANTI_LIFE.

** And God knows how poor Cassie might have been affected by the weapon…

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Count-Hoenhiem's avatar
He's BAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!