Brutal Foes of Batman #3
Arkham Asylum, About ten seconds after Last Issue
The Getaway Genius right?! He's turned up right at the very moment I didn't want him to. And now the Carpenter is about to wrestle control from me in 3...2...
"You got my message Genius." The Carpenter announces as the aforementioned villain drops a light weight duffel bag on the yard floor.
"I did although 'Pinky' didn't make the last trip back to the agreed meeting point." The Genius answers in a cold flat voice, one that seems so unlike him. Something is going on with him but the cries of the Ratcatcher pull my attention elsewhere.
"P...pinky is d...d...dead." Otis cries, tears running down his face, distress gnawing like a rodent at his soul.
"Pull yourself together!!" The Carpenter snaps as she removes her tools from the duffel bag. "It's time to leave now that we have employment outside these walls."
"I knew you'd come around even...oh c=@p." I state in excitement, something that drains from my voice as NKVDemon puts a pistol to my head. "Oh okay I see what's going on here."
"Good." The Getaway Genius announces as he drops a set of smoke grenades onto the floor, my teammates vanishing in a flash of fog. I could pretend I'm angry but those fools have done me a favor, when they leave they'll be hunted, when I leave I'll have nobody on my tail, and I'll be the one who ends up on top.
In the meantime I have a promise to keep...
**
Intensive Care Ward, Arkham Asylum
The man strapped to the bed is Joseph Rigger AKA the Firebug, although with a broken jaw, cracked knee and snapped ribs he doesn't look the part. I don't expect him to be terrified by all the commotion, the man's a soldier, unfortunately for the both of us he's also a rat.
Silently I walk up to the drip stuck in his arm and think about how I'm going to kill him. He may be a rat but the man is a good soldier, and I respect him enough to grant him that at least.
"Drak...lisen to me." Rigger grunts surprising me. "Ples lisen."
"Uh sure." I cough as I rest my hand on the intravenous drip, ready to remove it from the traitors arm.
"Somen taled, afer the heis somen tol him whe I wa." Rigger moans, his unexpected words staying my hand.
"Tell me." I hiss, my words audible over the chaos of escaping felons as their screams envelop the ward, and the astonishing tale Firebug tells me.
**
Tribune Alley, Gotham Industrial Zone - The Previous Day
Footsteps echoed down the alley as the armored figure of Firebug headed away from the smoking ruin of the Steel Mill. The crew he was part of had just pulled off the biggest heist of the year, his part had been simple, burn the decoy building to attract the target's attention and get out the area as fast as possible. He was making good time, Black Mask's men had lost the trail in a few blocks, and the GCPD were heading in the opposite direction. That only left...he stopped, standing at the end of the alley was a dark man shaped shadow, one that radiated fear from its very presence.
"Well look who showed up!" Firebug sneered. "Let's go Bat, I ain't the same old Firebug, I'm hot stuff now." He added before opening fire with his long barreled chemical sprayer, a thick jet of fire engulfing the figure in a corona of flame. "That should..." He stopped as the figure emerged from the fire before leaping towards Firebug, the villain returning fire with jets of liquid flame, the attacker soaring over his head and vanishing into the shadows.
"What nothing to say Batman? " Firebug taunted as he turned, the night vision goggles scanning the darkness for his target. "Where are you?" He grunted as the figure emerged behind him, before cutting through Firebug's backpack mounted fuel tank.
"What in the..." Firebug yelled before receiving a bone shattering blow to the face. "Baman?" He grunted as he triggered a pair of incendiary caps in his gloves, only for his foe to duck under his strike before delivering one of his own, the punch to the knee felling Firebug.
"Oay I gif." He moaned as the mystery man kicked him onto his back, before removing a pair of rotating saw blades. "Pleas do't do it!" He pleaded as the man stabbed them into Firebug's chest plate, before calmly turning and walking away.
**
Intensive Care Ward, Arkham Asylum
I shake my head, there was no mention in Firebug's story that he talked to whoever this Batman impersonator is. This guy and the fake Batgirl make two people wearing the costume, but I doubt they are related, the 'Batgirl misfit' whoever she was didn't go overboard when she arrested us.
"You didn't talk?" I ask, already knowing the answer.
"Nu wy." Firebug groans as I let go of the IV drip. "I usd the excus I cae u wih befor th hest."
I slump down in the chair, somebody talked, not to this thug but to someone related to the Bat. As I muse over what I'm going to do when I'm going to do when I get out, the sound of jackboots and the heavy feet inside sounds from outside, Arkham Security, locked and loaded for a fight, they won't get one from me, I have work to do...on the outside.
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