The true villain

Fuck. This word very briefly and succinctly describes the picture that has been revealed to us. The Titan clearly has a "wonderful" effect on people, which had already been demonstrated by the fake Joker through the TV broadcast, but the size of those mutated bandits was hard to estimate, but now we could see a huge three-meter carcass with disproportionately bloated limbs and white bone growths, which stood next to the destroyed barricade and angrily looked around with one single eye. In the place of the other was a gaping bullet wound that had missed its brain, if the creature had one. Greenish pus oozed from the large pores of the mutated bandit, giving it a resemblance to the trees on the island.

The defenders were scattered about the hall and were pinned down by parts of broken furniture from which the barrier had been made.

The battle temporarily froze until one of the discarded guards decided to move, picking up debris to get to his lost rifle. The monster immediately focused his gaze on him and roared again, deafening everyone around him and causing the windows to vibrate.

He moved slowly toward the crawling man.

Well, here's my cue. My actions may seem completely inadequate, but there are three reasons for that. The first is to present myself in a favorable light before the clinic staff and the whole world, if the mansion's camera footage gets to the big earth (which I will try to do). Two, I am confident in my abilities and the effectiveness of the batarangs. And the third, most important, is to show off for Mousey. Her light kiss still warms my heart and gives me goosebumps. Damn, I'm acting like a teenager, even though I'm almost a teenager. Just the body of a thirty-five-year-old man who bathed in chemical waste, but at the same time, if you take away the pain, this receptacle is a hundred percent healthier and stronger than my old one.

"Ha-ha," with a laugh, my concentration soars to the max. "Hey, leave him alone!"

My shout didn't impress the mutant at all, who had already outlined his target, so in goes Bats toy.

"R-r-r?"

The monster stared perplexed at the metal bat symbol stuck a couple centimeters into his swollen shoulder. His skin was too rough and dense to do any serious damage with such a frivolous weapon. I doubt he felt any pain at all, but I wasn't on a mission to do maximum damage. The blue diode on the batarang flashed brightly and gave off an electrical discharge.

"R-A-A-A?" the beast roared, but it was not about to lose consciousness, throwing off the dangerous toy. Now I was its target.

"It's a impersonator!"

From behind the mutant's back, an unarmed trio of escaped patients appeared. That's a little out of order. I need to focus on the most dangerous enemy, not on the little bastards who can beat me up if I'm distracted, but a pumped-up body without skills can't be very effective.

"Mousey, they're yours, and I'll take care of the monster," saying that, I ran across the center of the hall, drawing the mutant's attention. He roared again, making the bandits cover their ears, and dashed in my direction, covering an entire eye.

Hmm, so he's not completely stupid.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha! What, motherfucker, you didn't like the invigorating discharge?"

The monster behind me accelerated even more and almost caught up with me, but I dodged at the last moment, rolling to the side.

"Ha-ha! Short arms!"

I ran again, but now to the end of the hall, where two staircases leading to different wings of the mansion converged. In between them there was a kind of dead end, where I lured the mutated patient. Almost reaching the right place, the new electro-batarang is sent into the monster's carcass.

"Rr-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a!"

"What, you still don't like those great energizing charges?" I asked, watching my opponent slow down and shake off the annoying obstacle. "Maybe you haven't had a chance to taste them yet?"

The monster's only surviving eye was a sea of rage. I was now wedged between two three-meter walls and shook the three remaining batarangs, which should be enough to carry out my plan.

~Whoosh~

The throwing weapon traveled the distance between us with a quiet rustle and slammed into the target's shoulder.

"Tsk, I was gonna take your other eye out. Because what the hell do you need it for? God forbid you see your ugly face in the reflection!"

Without the electrical stimulation, the damage was negligible. The monster looked at the batarang, then at me, surrounded by walls.

"Smash!"

"Wow, you can talk, can't you? I thought your brain was rotted by Titanium! Ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"R-a-a-a!!!" screaming, the monster put his shoulder forward, completely blocking his view and ran in my direction.

I threw another batarang at the mutant, and then, like Jackie Chan, I got out of the trap, pushing myself off the walls a couple times.

~Bang!~

Shards of marble spattered from under the patient's shoulder, tearing through the tough skin. The carcass staggered, trying to regain its balance, but I was already there, and I began to deliver powerful blows to the right kidney, where the muscular frame was weaker. It was just at the level of my face. For some reason I had associations with beating an oak tree, so strong was the monster's body, but physiology can't be deceived, and in a second he collapsed to his knees, holding on to the broken organ.

"U-u-u-u."

He was clearly in pain, but I had no other non-lethal disarmament options. While I was playing cat and mouse with the mutated patient, Batgirl, aided by the waking hospital staff, had disposed of her targets and was standing nearby with the warden and a couple of sturdy orderlies.

"What do we do with him? I don't think the ropes will hold him..." said one of the escorts.

Yep, then you tried to shoot him, and now you're talking like this.... Although it's true, it's one thing to kill in the heat of battle and quite another to kill a disabled mutant.

"R-r-r."

With a quiet roar, the monster managed to stand up, holding his head.

The hospital staff raised their weapons, preparing to use them, but they didn't need to. The monster howled softly, and then its head swelled and burst open, spilling its contents. Hmm, its brains had rotted away after all.... A green slime that only remotely resembled gray matter flowed out of the skull.

"Again J... I mean, Clayface was up to something nasty," Sharp wrinkled his nose, shaking a piece of green slime off his boot.

It was a good thing that I had no claims against him, because I really didn't plan to kill or maim him, or I would have easily knocked out his other eye. I had to take part in rebuilding the barricade, building up a positive reputation. Now the slanted glances in my direction were noticeably less.

Having dealt with the current problems me and Batgirl returned to the east wing.

The girl was full of enthusiasm, as if she had ants in her pants. She still couldn't believe that she had managed to participate in such a serious case and replenish her arsenal with real Batman stuff.

"Which just goes to show you should stay close to me and Harley."

"Well..." Barbara thought for a moment. "It's silly to argue with that... But it's best not to get too close to you..."

"Hmm, your hug and kiss tells a different story."

After I said that, she blushed.

"About that. Forget it. I was too happy and I didn't realize it."

"Huh, no way. That memory will always warm my heart now. Ha-ha!"

There was a strange rustle behind me, and I turned around, ready for battle, but instead of an unknown danger, I stumbled into the figure of Bats. I'm so cool to spot the master of stealth himself! I didn't even expect that from myself.

"I've synthesized an antidote based on Tanitium Tractex. I'll have to bring a whole ship to get rid of the poison on the island," the superhero was not at all surprised by my reaction and handed me a large syringe of green liquid. Part of the container was concealed by a wide metal rim, and the device itself looked rather technological, if such a term could be applied to a piston with a needle at the end. "Here, inject Poison Ivy with this, and I've got to stop Clayface."

"All right! Wait!"

The hero was about to leave, but my exclamation slowed him down.

"Borrow some more batarangs."

Bruce thought for a moment.

"No. I'm facing an uphill battle against a very powerful supervillain, so every little bit counts."

"Uh, okay."

Batman swung his cape and headed for the center hall, and we headed for Ivy.

"How is she?" I asked my assistant, who hadn't left her injured friend for a second.

"Shh," the harlequin put her finger to her lips and pulled us toward the exit. "She got better. She's sleeping now to regain her strength."

"And we have good news too, Batman delivered the antidote," the red-haired girl came in, unaccustomed to seeing a distraught blonde.

"That's great! Then what are we waiting for?!"

The sadness is gone from Harley's voice.

I looked questioningly at the syringe in my hand. This was the cure, one shot and everything would be fine. Ivy would recover, and with her support we could easily crush the rebellious patients and regain control of the island. Bats will take care of Clayface, it's no use beating that pile of shit, he doesn't even have the bones to break them, though it would be nice to electrocute him a couple times, he's obviously not doing him any favors. I cautiously approached the sleeping dryad and touched her shoulder.

"Ivy, wake up."

"Mm-hmm. Jay, I'm too tired, do what you want, but not on my hair, it doesn't rinse well..." her hand started to undo the buttons of her shirt, but then stopped, and the girl opened her eyes.

"Jay?" Pamela stood up in the tub. "Damn, so it wasn't a dream..."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mousey's face glow.

"Ivy, I'm so glad you're feeling better," Harley was at her side and hugged her wet friend.

"Oh, keep it down. I still feel like shit. I feel like I've been on a serious bender."

"We'll fix it soon, Mr. J has the antidote. Mr. J?"

"Here," I took the dryad's hand and put the syringe needle to it, taking my time to press the plunger.

"Mr. J, what's the holdup?"

"Harley, stop calling him that, it's not like he's the Joker now."

"But he's still Jay, and I like the sound of that. Mr. J, let me help you."

My assistant gripped the syringe and tried to push the plunger, but I yanked my hand away from the antidote.

"Stop. That's not right."

"What's wrong?"

"This whole situation," I tried to put my thoughts into words. "Harley, did I ever spot Bats when he tried to sneak up on me? Just standing there, not waiting for him."

The girl booted up.

"Uh, you were usually surrounded by minions, so it was hard to approach you stealthily. But once he knocked me out, I didn't feel his presence at all."

My assistant may have worse hearing than me, but hardly by much.

"Hmm. Look at this syringe, it's not exactly standard, but I don't see a bat emblem on it. I'm sure Bats even has toilet paper with that symbol on it. And most importantly, when he left, he didn't share the batarangs with me, and he was supposed to restock his secret hideout on the island."

"Is he has hideout on the island?!" Harley's reaction was not at all different from Barbara's.

"Yep. To add to that, he waved his cloak as he left, but he didn't do it in a pathetic way," I said it in jest, but I got the feeling that it was the phrase that had the most impact on those present.

"If I may..." the red-haired heroine said shyly. "He called Pamela Poison Ivy, though he'd addressed her normally before."

"Harley, bring the black potted cactus, it's in the far right corner, I never really liked it," asked the dryad.

The harlequin quickly rummaged for the right plant.

"Are you sure?" I thought I'd check with the conservationist.

"If you do, before I change my mind."

The needle stabs into the cactus flesh. I wanted to squeeze out some of the antidote to test the reaction, but after a gentle push, the plunger comes to the end on its own, instantly injecting the green liquid.

"Damn it, he did it!"

Harley and I jumped away from the sharply increasing in size plant, from which a vile pus protruded.

"Saw, oh."

The vines wrapping around the girl's wrists grew, grabbed the now-dangerous cactus and sent it through the window into the street.

"Damn, that's a tough one," the dryad plunged back into the tub. "I now had a huge score to settle with one bald freak."

An emptied syringe was left lying on the floor, with a green question mark and small text painted on its transparent walls.

"Guess who else isn't getting out of Arkham anytime soon?" Barbara read out the message.

"Fuck, if I'd injected you with that stuff, you'd have mutated too, and then you'd have blown up half the island."

"So the Riddler is behind all this?" the young heroine asked rhetorically.

"Exactly," the Dark Knight appeared silently in the passage.

It was really strong. I took my eyes off him for a second, and he was already standing there, his cape hanging calmly to the floor, demonstrating his lack of inertia. Gotham's protector seemed to appear out of thin air. Judging by the way the girls present flinched, it was unexpected for them, too.

"Prove it's you and not another one of Clayface's disguises," I've prepared the electric batarang for battle.

"The armor is to the left of the fireplace."

I immediately realized that this was about our meeting at the Wayne Mansion. There was no way the supervillain could have known that.

"Ladies, relax, he's real."

My words lowered the tension a bit.

"The antidote," said Batman.

Now it wasn't some shabby syringe, but a real injector resembling a pistol with a black bat emblem.

"Well, then, I can't wait to take someone's head off," demanded the dryad.

"I'll administer the antidote, but you stay here. I can handle this. Gordon's practically cleared every building in the city, so SWAT will be arriving on the island soon. And I advise you," Batman looked expressively at Harley and Barbara. "Leave the island as soon as possible."

"Then get out," Ivy replied, struggling to get out of the water. "I'm feeling much better now, so I can deal with Riddler without your help."

I picked up the swaying girl.

"Bats, give her the antidote. I promise I'll make sure she doesn't kill anyone. You can see she's not well."

Bruce was next to the green-skinned girl in two steps and leaned the injector against her neck and injected the drug.

"It's still green fog outside, so stay here, I'll handle everything myself."

The Dark Knight waved his cape and ran to beat up the supervillains. I carefully helped the dryad back into the water, and then I approached the pretty blonde and kissed her passionately.

"Harley, I've missed you so much."

"I can feel it," the girl stroked my protruding reproductive organ through my pants. "Didn't Ivy take good care of you?"

"No, Sunshine, everything is top-notch, but it's you I miss."

"I can right now…" the girl started to lower herself, but I didn't let her.

"After all this running around, I want to wash up first. You better get ready for a hard fuck as soon as I get out," my hand gripped the blonde's butt. "Now I'm asking you to make sure Mousey gets home safely."

"All right, Mr. J."

"Mousey, make sure Harley doesn't get into any trouble on the way."

"I'll keep an eye on her," said Batgirl quietly,

The young heroine was fully aware of the risks, and the idea of getting caught by the SWAT team did not inspire her at all, especially in the company of a criminal. Batman is semi-officially cooperating with the police and has some preferences, and the unknown heroine may find herself in a delicate position, especially if she is captured and learns her real identity. Her dad may not say goodbye to his job, but he will definitely be demoted.

"That's great!"

I kissed Harley again and then escorted the girls out of the room. I sat down on the chair next to the bathroom and stroked Ivy's hair.

"Knock it off, asshole."

"I'm not an asshole."

"Huh, tell me," the dryad replied, making no attempt to pull away. "You're not happy with Harley and me anymore. Have you started looking at the young ones?"

"I can't argue with that."

The girl turned her head and looked intently into my eyes.

"If you leave her, I'll–"

"You'll kill me?"

"–no," the red-haired beauty said gloatingly. "I read a book about an interesting use of lianas." the girl wrinkled her brow, remembering. "There was a magical girl and a plant monster with tentacles. So, if you offend Harley, then you will be in the place of the magical girl."

I shuddered at the prospect, and also realized that Ivy would actually be able to carry out this threat.

"Damn, what kind of books they give patients at Arkham."

"I read it while I was out."

"There's no way I'm leaving her. And it's not because of your extreme threat. She's the closest person to me who hasn't abandoned me in moments of weakness. Harley has always stood by me and been there for me," a fleeting smile appeared on my face. "She's also so damn beautiful. If I ever leave her, you can kill me, because it won't be me."

"Hmm. And you wouldn't have come on to me if she didn't want you to?"

"I wouldn't. And I only came to you because she asked me to. She considers you the closest person to her, after me, of course."

My fingers continued to run through the girl's damp hair.

"Are you serious right now?"

"Yes, absolutely. What was it like, I was a simple man who couldn't keep up with my lover. Even years of gymnastics couldn't make up for the difference in our strength... When I first came to Arkham, I was on the brink. You abandoned me. You threw me away like a piece of junk, trading me for Bats. But Ivy helped me, pulled me out of the depths of despair and strengthened me without asking for anything in return... Just so I could follow my dreams."

Thanks to my excellent memory, I was able to quote my assistant's words in full.

"We were discussing who we should take into our bed at the time, and you turned out to be Harley's only candidate."

"So that's how it is..."

The room fell into silence.

"Are you really going to leave it like that?" said the girl suddenly.

"If you mean the situation on the island, of course not. I'm just waiting for you to regain your strength."

"I'm fine now," Pamela stood up, but I still had to support her. "Tell me what you're thinking."

As we moved toward the exit, I shared my thoughts, and they were simple. If Edward Nygma is behind the whole situation on the island, who is not inferior in intelligence to Batman and the original Joker, then all this mess has some sense, and the option with a personal island can be immediately discarded, because the output from such an idea is close to zero, and Nygma likes to get material benefits from his schemes, and no one will allow anyone to pull away a piece of the States. In any case, there will be only prisoners left on this island, which are not too bad for a missile strike. The Joker could do something like that for nothing, but not the Riddler. And this cunning bug also likes to give clues to his next actions. It's worth remembering the words of the fake Batman. If you think about it, it becomes obvious that Tanitium Tractex is an anagram of the words Titanium Extract, and his next phrase hints that all this nasty stuff will be taken off the island by ship.

Poison Ivy recognized that my ideas made sense, and she was willing to help me. While Bats is busy dealing with Clayface, who has occupied the secret laboratory in the greenhouse, we'll find the ship that's carrying the synthesized titanium.

I told Sharp of my plans on the way out, but the man just waved me off. He had a lot on his plate, so a little outing for two patients who were about to be discharged was the least of his worries, and we weren't going to run away, or my getting into the hospital wouldn't make sense.

"There's that nasty fog again..." the girl shivered when we were outside. The surrounding landscape was still as gloomy as ever. "Where to find the ship?"

"The only convenient spot is on the west side of the island, the Gotham River is wide enough there to be able to be approached discreetly by ship, and the greenhouse is within easy reach."

"Okay, let's give it a try."

The dryad stretched out her arm and tried to summon plants to carry us over, but the stalks emerging from the ground instantly mutated as they passed through the vapors rolling off the ground.

"Damn, I'm not touching them."

"I see, then let's do this," I was still supporting the red-haired beauty, so I had no trouble picking her up in my arms. The wounded leg was shot through with pain. "Ha-ha-ha-ha. Now, you won't touch the fog now."

"Come on, let's go," Ivy didn't resent it, because she wanted to get to the freak who'd organized all this.

We only encountered a couple of knocked out and bound patients along the way, hinting that Gotham's protector had been here.

"There was the ship."

The silhouette of a cargo ship was barely recognizable against the night river.

"I can see I'm not blind."

The concentration of fog was much lower here because of the incessant wind, so the girl was able to grow a normal liana that lowered us from the fifteen meter slope of the island to the water itself.

"Here we go."

A small mental effort of my companion, and at the end of the liana grew a huge lily, which became our raft.

"Hold on. Let's start by shutting down their clandestine route. They're shipping the titanium from somewhere."

"Uh, okay."

After sailing only a hundred meters along the island, we came upon a cave, from which right now a small ship with a tank on board was coming out.

"Hold on, you bastards!" the dryad was very angry.

"Don't kill anyone, or you'll be seeing Harley for a while," I had to cool her off.

"Shit. Okay," the girl tensed and slowly raised her arms as if a heavy weight had been strapped to them.

The whites of her eyes turned completely green, showing the maximum use of her powers. At first nothing happened, but then giant green tentacles erupted out of the water. It was like I was in a Kraken movie. The algae immediately enveloped the ship, preventing it from moving, but it didn't stop there and began to branch out, taking in the escaped patients who were steering the ship.

It only took a couple minutes for the conservationist to take down the ship's crew and it was awesome. I won't be able to do that anytime soon, if ever. It's the equivalent of magic, and it's powerful, and the system doesn't give me much in the way of reinforcements.

After taking a bit of a break, we swam towards our final destination, if my calculations were correct, the Enigma Man would be waiting for us there.

It was hard to see the ship from the island, but it was now apparent that it was a relatively small freighter about fifty meters long, designed for transport within the mainland. There were several titanium tanks and cargo containers on deck, as well as a loading crane.

The parking lights were off for camouflage, so we were able to stealthily approach it without difficulty.

"Can you "unleash the Kraken" again?" I asked, hoping for a positive answer.

"No, I'm still not feeling well and I'm still pretty far from the ground, but there's enough of my strength to clear the deck."

"Then let's try stealth for a change, since we don't have the strength for Blitzkrieg."

The dryad grew two vines, one of which wrapped around my waist, making me nervous, and the other caught on the railing and carried us upstairs. Here already I had managed to prove myself by going forward and knocking out patients. The people in this world were really stronger and tougher, so I wasn't afraid to hit them in the head, they'd be fine, Ivy was slowly following, tying up the stunned bandits.

"Did you have fun?" asked the girl when we had completed the circle.

"Yeah, I wanted to test my strength."

Suddenly the floodlights flashed, illuminating the deck, and a cheery voice from somewhere above greeted us:

"Hello dear guests, I thought it was Batman pranking, but it's just my good friend and crazy nature lover."

On one of the shipping containers stood Edward Nygma in his villainous outfit, which consisted of a green cape, a similarly colored bowler tied with a purple ribbon, and a dark green shirt dotted with question marks. A purple tie and purple gloves fit perfectly into the created image. The man pulled out a gilded staff with a question mark on the end from behind his back and twirled it deftly with one hand a couple of times.

"The Joker... Jay Arkham, actually. That's what you're calling yourself now, isn't it? You know it's not good to screw over your business partners, don't you?" said Riddler with a wide smile.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, let me enlighten you, and also your companion, who is now grinning evilly. Ivy, this is not a good look for you," the supervillain clearly felt like the master of the situation.

"Freeze!" Nygma exclaimed, showing off the detonator as Pamela and I took a step in his direction. "One more step and I'll blow up the ship!" looking at us carefully, he continued more calmly. "Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. You can't ditch your business partners, Jay!"

Damn, this is a bust. I might survive the blast, but the girl's gonna get poisoned if she's exposed to this stuff. I gotta stall for time and wait for a chance. Or organize it myself.

"It was your idea with the titan, you dug up some mutagen somewhere. Except it was financed out of my pocket for some reason. You promised me a working serum, but I ended up having to oversee it myself. Do you have any idea how hard it is to do that in a cell?"

The girl turned sharply, glaring at me.

"Then it's all your fault!" the dryad was clearly angry with me, as signaled by the ruffling of her red hair and the greening of the whites of her eyes.

Oh, here's a chance to live it up.

"Ha-ha-ha," I need maximum concentration right now. "What are you gonna do, hit me?"

~Slap~

She gave me a sensitive slap.

"Ha-ha-ha, you hit like a woman!"

"You bastard!"

The girl tried to hit me again, but I intercepted her arm at the last moment.

"Is that the best you can do? Yeah, well, a week ago you couldn't even touch me," a realization flashed in her eyes.

"Jay, you shouldn't make her angry," Riddler spoke up warily.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha, what's she gonna do to me? She owes me, otherwise why would she be so compliant.... Check me out."

My hand began to fondle the green-skinned beauty's breasts.

"Oh fool..." the man on the container performed a facepalm.

"Yeah, come on," I shouted to the supervillain as I continued to play with Ivy's breasts. "I could handle one more slap in the face."

"So it won't be a slap!" the dryad pushed me away, and I gave in to the impulse and flew three meters away, landing on my ass, sometimes forgetting how strong she was. In a second her clothes turned to rags due to the dramatically grown plants all over her body. The lianas sharpened and covered in thorns. She looked like a mutated Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft.

"I'll kill you."

Several sharpened spikes flew toward me, and I rolled away from them.

"Damn it, Ivy, what's the deal?!" I yelled, running in circles around the deck.

"Fuck the deal, prepare to die!"

"And I told you not to make her angry," Nygma shouted, standing on a shipping container.

"Riddler, save me!" as I came in for another lap, I turned sharply and began to climb up.

"Stop or I'll blow the place up! I've got the detonator!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha! Shove it up your ass!" I couldn't stop looping around, climbing on the containers. "You can see she doesn't care!"

The girl behind me was throwing wood spears and whipping vines that flew just millimeters from my body.

The supervillain couldn't stand the approach of the enraged dryad, who was clearly inadequate, and started to run away too.

"Stop following me!" he exclaimed, noticing that I was keeping up.

"Where else? You're supposed to have a fallback plan in case of trouble," I jumped into the captain's cabin, following the villain through the open window, and started downstairs. A little more and I'd catch up with him.

~Bam! ~

Ivy had decided not to make a fuss about it, but I could see that I was in the middle of a straight corridor. There was an almost straight corridor ahead, and my gap from the villain began to shrink inexorably. Three meters, two meters, one! I grabbed the Enigma by the shoulder and sharply knocked the detonator out of his hands.

"What?"

Before the man could be surprised, my punch to the jaw sent him into dreamland.

Phew, now we can exhale and pick up a dangerous toy.

"Ivy?"

The corridor began to slowly fill with plant tentacles.

"I've already dealt with the Enigma, so you don't have to pretend anymore."

"Who said I was pretending?" the dryad, in her fierce fascination, emerged from the tangle of vines.

"Uh..." I started to back away slowly. "You're not gonna kill me..."

"Oh, no, I'll do something much worse."

While we were talking, the plants had completely covered the corridor, cutting off my escape route, and then they sped up, swaddling me.

"You wouldn't dare... "

Instead of pointed vines, green tentacles approached me. I tried to resist, but the forces were not equal, and even my pumped-up the First Beggining was useless. Something slowly slid inside my pant leg. My already pale face turned even whiter, and my eyes expressed absolute terror. Suddenly it was over, and the grip loosened.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ah!" the girl gasped with laughter. "You should have seen your face! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

I was being played, but I couldn't explain it to my shaking knees. Shit! I wanted to do something to release the stress. I walked over to Ivy and kissed her roughly, pulling her by the hair, surprised at first, but then she started to respond.

"Ow!"

The dryad was indignant when I bit her lip lightly.

"Now it's even."

I licked the bitten spot.

"Ahem..."

Someone coughed behind the girl's back. Batman was standing in the hallway.

Man, how does he manage to sneak up on her so stealthily?

"Are you done?" asked the superhero.

"Ha-ha-ha, yeah."

"Where's the detonator?"

I even flinched at that phrase, so much so the intonation was similar to the ones in the movie.

"How do I know you're not Clayface?"

"Clayface is already sitting in his cell. A combination of gray hair and dark mustache."

Is he talking about Alfred? I think so, plus the character appeared silently in a viewable hallway.

"There."

A dangerous object has passed into the hands of the Dark Knight.

"Let's go," the man hoisted the knocked out Nygma onto his shoulder, remembering to put a coupler on him, and headed for the exit.

"A batboat, really?"

A water vehicle shaped like a batarang was bobbing on the waves.

"Let's go," Bruce was the first to get into the boat and looked at us expectantly.

It was a breeze to get to the island. Ivy kindly offered her services for transportation to the top, but the hero refused, using a hook. The island was bustling with activity. The toxic fog had almost cleared, medics and police special forces were scurrying here and there, helping the injured bandits and handcuffing them, and then escorting them to the prison block, the corpses being bagged. Our company was spotted pretty quickly, and several people hurried in our direction. Bats handed Riddler to the medics. Two SWAT officers approached Ivy and me, preparing to handcuff us, but Bruce stepped forward.

"They had nothing to do with it."

"But Batman. He's…"

"There you are!"

Oh, no, it's that idiot again: the happy commissioner was rushing toward us.

"Gordon."

Batman practically shielded me and Ivy with his cape from the gaze of the red-haired man.

"It was Clayface. Jay Arkham and Pamela Isley helped me a lot by dealing with the real culprit, Riddler."

"But, but, but, but how could it be..." the man's shoulders slumped.

"They have nothing to do with this, so could you spare some men to escort them to a room on the east side of the mansion?"

"Ah, now. You and you," the commissioner jabbed his finger at the two men who were planning to detain us. "Show them out..." he sighed heavily. "Only properly."

"Yes, sir."

"Thanks, Bats," I had time to thank the hero before I left.

Everyone around us cast suspicious glances at us on the street, but in Arkham Mansion they changed to surprised and incredulous looks. The rescued men seemed to be sharing their impressions of our acquaintance.

As I entered the room, I realized how tired I was. The wounds were making themselves felt, adding an unpleasant palette to the standard pain, but if I was still physically strong, my mental strength was completely gone, so I collapsed onto the only bed I could find, falling into a deep sleep without feeling Ivy gently enveloping me in healing leaves and then lying down beside me.