Chapter 7

There was silence in the batcave, the only sound permeating through the air being the sound of clicking keys on the large computer.

Batman, unmasked, sat in front of it with an ever present scowl on his face. His encounter with the Joker had gotten even more complicated with the introduction of whatever it was that took down the clown's thugs. 

He'd get to the bottom of it. 

Joker himself had vanished for the time being but Bruce knew that it was never a good sign. The clown was volatile and unpredictable. It almost gave him a headache thinking about how Joker would react to this foil.

"What's all this?" A young voice suddenly came from behind him.

His lack of reaction other than a raised brow made the dark haired boy that walked into view scowl a bit. 

"Alfred said you went out to catch the Joker. How did it go?" The boy asked. 

The scowl on Bruce's face seemed to grow even further. "Not well. Joker escaped, he planted a bomb at the other side of the city ahead of time to throw me off his tail. Someone else got to it first."

Dick Grayson looked confused at that turn of events. "Who would have the balls to do something like that?"

Interfering with any of Joker's plans was something that even the criminals in Gotham tried to avoid if they could.

"One of the thugs began hallucinating and he had a bite wound on his neck. This toxin is similar to snake venom but fortunately it isn't lethal, simply painful and dangerous in small doses at least." Batman explained, his eyes hardening a bit. "From the size and angle of the bite wounds, it seems we're dealing with a metahuman."

"So not feeling the aster." The Boy Wonder muttered, knowing how his mentor got about that subject of other vigilantes in Gotham. 

-[Liam]-

He might have underestimated the effects of the euphoria drug. Whether David and Jerry gave their friends a taste was unknown to him but as he handed over twenty packs of it to David, the six hundred dollars he received brought a smile on his face. 

He'd spent exactly ninety five and gained a profit of just a bit over five hundred dollars. That was just with this batch.

The trip to the flower shop had him stocking up on a lot of flowers in his inventory to make much more of it readily available. 

"There's a lot more where that came from." Liam said. 

They were in the boys bathroom in school. It lacked cameras and current inhabitants so it was as good a place as any to conduct their business.

"Let me worry about that. These guys know their stuff. If they like it as much as I do, your friend's going to be swimming in more money than he knows what to do with by Christmas." David said with a crooked grin, stowing the packs in his bag.

"That's good to hear." He watched as David turned to leave. "By any chance, have you heard from Vincent? I haven't heard from him since we hung out at the arcade."

The other boy had a look of confusion. "Same here. I tried calling him. I'm sure he's just moping after getting his ass kicked at all the games."

A small frown etched on Liam's face at that before he quickly hid it. "It's probably nothing."

With that, they went their separate ways but Liam's mind was still on Vincent. It might have been his memories, but he couldn't just ignore the boy. He'd stuck with predecessor for a long while, he could at least respect that. 

As he entered his next class, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for the moments in preparation for the wonders of chemistry class. 

The science nerd in him hadn't waned in the slightest.

Vincent could wait a few more hours, right?

•••

Wrong.

Standing at the door, he could tell that something was wrong. It was quiet, too quiet. His boosted sense of hearing made it even more eerie. 

'If he's not home, where could he be?' He thought as he knocked on the door like he had done for the past ten minutes with no response. 

Vincent's phone wasn't going through either. He didn't need to be a detective to see that something was up.

'Plan B then.' He thought, fishing out his phone and fiddling for a moment.

A quick use of the 'Find My Phone' feature gave him a location, with a slight issue. It was quite a distance from where he was and that was his phone's last known location as of ten hours ago. 

'It's a start at least.' He thought as he looked around for a moment before setting off as fast as he could manage. 

•••

Half an hour later, he found himself in the more dangerous parts of Gotham. The streets were more hollow than he was used to but he could feel the stares he'd drawn as a boy wandering about by his lonesome self. 

He had a frown etched on his face. The reason for that being that while he had reached the last known location of Vincent's phone, said location was right in the middle of the street. 

Massaging his temple, he took a moment to examine all his could, taking in his surroundings. For all he knew, this could all be for naught. 

A particular scent caught his attention. 

'Blood.'

Subtly sniffing the air, he followed the metallic smell which led him to a torn piece of cloth with dark red dried stains. He could discern the slightly sour smell of saliva. 

'Someone was gagged with this.' He realized. He hadn't spoken to Vincent after his merge so he had no clue about Vincent's scent so he didn't bother guessing. 

+++++

-[Bloodied Cloth]

-[A torn piece of clothing that was used to gag Emily Jones. It is stained with her blood.]

+++++

He froze. 

'Please tell me I'm hallucinating.' He thought, rereading the description multiple times to make sure he was seeing it right. 'This just got a lot more complicated.'

Henry and Emily Jones were Vincent's parents. So far in his search for Vincent, the thought of his parents or even his sister hadn't crossed his mind. A bit of guilt welled up within him but he pushed it down.

He could recall the numerous times he'd been invited to dinner over there in the past year. 

'At least this makes it a bit easier. Wherever she is, the rest of them would hopefully be close by.' He thought as he closed his eyes to focus his senses. 

The gag made it clear that this was forced and he could only think about the one person who, to his knowledge, was currently out and about; the Joker. 

Liam may not have been a dog but his nose was enough to pick up the fading trail of the blood in the air. Knowing what to look for among the other smells of the city, he got it in a few moments. 

The trail led him further into the city with barely anyone walking around outside. The sky was beginning to darken and he was getting even more worried as time passed. 

•••

By the time he got to the point where he failed to pick up the trail of her blood, there was no need to chase it anymore. 

The familiar smell of what he recognized to be face paint mixed with actual paint along with that of sweat hit him. 

'So I was right.' He thought, turning a corner to see a rundown building with Joker's henchmen patrolling the area. 

His eyes jumped from each of them to the guns in each of their grips. 'Eight men in total. Or at least they're the ones I can see outside.'

Picking up a stone, he tossed it to the side, using enough force to make it loud before hiding himself in the corner. 

"What was that?" He heard one of them ask. 

"I don't know. Go check it out." Another one said. 

"What? Why do I have to be the one to check it out?" The first one asked. 

"Because I'm not going there." The previous voice said with a scoff before adding. "This place gives me the creeps."

He heard a sigh before the sound of footsteps approaching.

Shaking his head at the simplicity of their thought process, he carefully hid in the corner, waiting.

And waited until the armed man was within his sights. The moment the goon turned the corner, his widened eyes met Liam's. 

"Don't shoot. Act natural and follow me." Liam ordered before his victim was able to fully react.

The gun that was in the process of being raised was lowered as the goon's eyes glazed over, following Liam who led the man out of the sight range of the others. 

With privacy now ensured, he compelled him once again. "Answer all my questions to the best of your knowledge."

"What is inside that building and what are you doing here?" He asked, feeling the success of his orders. 

"There is a man, his wife and two kids inside there. Joker's using them as leverage while he dukes it out with the bat. There's also a bomb in there. We're here to make sure nothing goes wrong." The goon answered. 

Liam clicked his tongue in annoyance about the Joker's love for bombs. "How many of you guys are there?"

"Eight."

"Alright, that's good." He nodded in satisfaction. "Go back there and knock out your fellow thugs for me."

The unfocused look left the man's eyes as he gripped his gun and began making his way back to his position in front of the building. 

Everything looked normal even as the other goons saw him walking back to them. 

"Really took your time. What did you do? Pee your pants?" The goon from before mocked him, eliciting chuckles from the rest of them.

"Fuck you man."

All hell broke loose after that as he smashed his gun into the other man's face very harshly. The hit was hard enough that Liam wondered whether they really had it out for each other or it was all his compulsion. 

In the confusion goon managed to land another hit, knocking the man out. 

"What the fuck man?!" Another man yelled only for the man to aggressively rush towards him as well. 

He didn't get far as someone else delivered a concise blow to the back of his head. 

Seeing his (unknowing) minion getting downed, he found his opportunity to move. Allowing his scales to grow on the surface of his skin, having learnt from his previous mistake, he shot into the scene faster than they could reasonably respond. 

With two down, that left a reasonable six for him to deal with, a number that quickly reduced as he grabbed one man by the neck, smashing him into the wall.

He threw that same man at another goon who had raised his gun to fire, both of them crashing to the ground. 

Bullets tore into his clothes as the other men finally reacted, his scales stopping them from piercing the skin. 

"What the hell is this freak?!" One of them screamed as he continued shooting. 

He immediately slipped forwards with unnatural grace, throwing a punch into the man's stomach and flipping him onto the floor. 

Grabbing the gun, he threw it with surprisingly good aim, hitting another man straight in the forehead. 

The remaining two were shaking in fear, their legs wobbling as they took a few steps back. The final nail in the casket was when the guns stopped fire, having run out of ammo. 

"Run!" One of them screeched before turning tails and doing just that.

No matter how scared he was, his legs weren't fast enough to carry him to safety as Liam was in front of him in a moment, throwing a right hook that had him wondering whether he broke anything. 

Turning back to the lone man standing, he only heard a 'thud' as the man fainted all on his own. Liam's brows arched in confusion only to squeeze his face in disgust at the smell he caught. 

"Really?" He muttered, moving as far away from the body as possible. 

He walked towards the building only to pause and walk back to a man he knocked down earlier.

"Are you done faking it?" He caught the subtle shift in his chest as his breath hitched. 

He bent low, grabbing him by the neck and applying pressure. Almost immediately, the man began struggling to remove his hand, his eyes now wide open in fear as he lost access to his breathing.

A few moments later, he was limp and unconscious. 

Liam didn't waste anymore time, heading into the building. He found it almost barren and dusty but nothing else. Searching as thoroughly as possible he quickly found a door that led to what he assumed to be the basement. 

Stalking down the stairs, he heard hushed whispers and a bit of sobbing. A few more steps down and he was looking at the whole Jones family bound and tied up to chairs in a circular manner with their backs to each other. 

That wasn't what caught his attention. That was the camera that was pointed in their direction, no doubt broadcasting to Joker. Another thing was the bomb in the middle of the circle. 

As he got to the bottom of the stairs, Vincent's head snapped straight to him. Before the boy could talk, he silently gestured for him to be quiet.

Walking behind the camera, he crushed it within his hands. For a moment, he imagined the camera as one of the goon's heads but quickly threw that thought away. 

Turning back to the family of four, they looked worse for wear. 

If the Joker was watching it, there was a chance that he would blow them up now that he had lost sight of them. He didn't have much time. 

Rushing to them, he took hold of the bomb. 

"Don't…" Vincent managed to say. "They said that if anyone tried to tamper with it, it would explode."

Liam smirked confidently. "Well I'm not trying to tamper with it." 

With a thought, the bomb vanished into his inventory. He could swear he heard it beep just before it disappeared. 

"Liam?" Vincent muttered in recognition, eyes wide. 

He then remembered that he'd had his hood up the whole time. Maybe it was because he could make people forget about him that he wasn't too bothered about people seeing him but he knew the real reason…

He didn't care that much about it. 

He wasn't going to walk around in spandex and domino masks. It was cool watching it on the big screen but it was different in person. He wasn't a master strategist either, he'd do what he wanted to do.

After all, you only live twice. 

"In the flesh." He said in answer to Vincent's question as he tore through the rope with ease. 

The other boy looked too exhausted to even move. That wasn't surprising, he doubted the Joker kept them fed. 

"Eat this. It should get your strength back up." He said, handing him a white pill. 

It was a testament to his trust that he didn't think twice about it before tossing it into his mouth. Before his eyes, Vincent's body language changed, shifting to energized and alert. 

His eyes snapped to Liam. "What was that?"

"A lot of nutrients and proteins squeezed into a tiny pill." He answered as he freed the rest of the family. 

He'd gotten the idea from the Akimichi pills in Naruto. 

As soon as he got the last rope free, he heard a low hissing sound. "Do you hear that?"

"Um, Liam?" Vincent called out as he saw it. 

Green smoke began to flood in from the corners of the room. Liam's eyes widened in recognition. 

'Of course he had a contingency plan. Always wanting the last laugh.' He realized as he turned to Vincent. "Hold your breath and get your sister upstairs! Now!"

Before Vincent could ask the question on his tongue, Liam answered it by hefting his mother and father over his shoulders, rushing through the room and out the door. 

Laying them on the floor, Vincent came out moments later, immediately shutting the door behind him.

"That was close!" Vincent breathed, calming down slightly from his panicked state. 

A quick use of appraisal on the parents showed that they were safe. As he used the skill on the young girl, his blood froze. 

"What's wrong?" Vincent must have noticed that as he spoke, trepidation clear in his voice.

"We were too late. That was Joker venom and it's in her system." As soon as he finished speaking, the girl's eyes snapped awake as she slowly descended into a coughing fit. 

"No! No! No!" Vincent muttered, volume increasing as he tried to stop her coughing to no avail. "This can't be happening!"

Every resident of Gotham knew about Joker Venom. One thing specifically, it was incurable.

"Fuck!" Liam cursed under his breath, his hands running through his hair in frustration. Numerous thoughts ran through his mind at that moment.

He tried to think of any instance where Batman or someone else had managed to survive it after being exposed to it but he could think of nothing. 

Then it hit him. 

'Joker Venom is in essence, a poison. A toxin! The human body just isn't strong enough to resist this kind of toxin.' He realized.

"I've got an idea. Stay here!" He said to Vincent who barely heard him, running as fast as he could. 

'I recall seeing a pharmacy on my way here.' He thought as he kept an eye out. 

He soon found the place which was thankfully empty besides the attendant at the desk. 

"Shut up and get me all the immune boosters you have. Immediately!" He ordered with urgency as the man scrambled to do so. 

Within moments, he had different types of immune boosting medications in front of him. He barely took a second to appraise them before he started merging them together. 

When he was done, he pulled out a nutrient pill from his inventory, throwing it into the mix and merging it as well. 

+++++

-[Pills Of Immunity]

-[A powerful product of medical innovation that boosts the natural immune system to supernatural levels, cleansing it of any diseases, toxins and poisons. This lasts for 24 hours.]

+++++

Quickly grabbing a bottle of water he saw in the corner of the room, he compelled the attendant to close up for today and wait for him to return before speeding out of there. 

He soon found his way to the building and as he entered, he could already hear the girlish giggling. That didn't stop him as he got to where Vincent was staring at his sister with terror and tears in his eyes, the girl's eyes wide and her mouth giggling with reckless abandon. 

"Hold her down!" Liam said as soon as he burst in. 

"What?" Came Vincent's intelligible reply, stunned by the speed at which he moved. 

"Hold her down!" He ordered, forcing Vincent to spring to action as he pulled his sister to the floor. 

Liam immediately uncapped the bottle of water, dumping the pill in her mouth despite her thrashing. Holding her head steady, he forced the water down her throat, pushing the pill into her system as well. 

For a moment, he thought he was too late but barely a minute later, the laughs began to quieten and before long, they stopped completely. 

Placing his ear to her chest, he released a breath of relief as he fell back to sit on the floor, his back against the wall. 

"I did it." He muttered, panting a bit. It was more mental than physical exhaustion that had him panting like that. 

His eyes flickered to the adults who were still unconscious. He'd forgotten about them for a moment with all the pressure. 

'Fuck you Joker.' He thought before turning to Vincent who was looking between him and his sister, Valerie, tears streaming down his eyes. 

"Is she…is she okay?" He asked. 

A tired smirk emerged on Liam's lips as he chuckled. "Yeah, she is."

===========

[Author's Note: Not all chapters are going to be this long. I just happened to be free enough to write this much.]