Chapter 49

As the fight erupted again between the mutant gang and the remaining Jokerz, Cedric, Don and Batman crouched down as they care for the shot down mutant leader.

"Terry..." The mutant leader uttered as he reached out towards Batman as he lied down on the ground.

Cedric and Don widened their eyes as they glanced at Batman inside their huddle.

"Haha...I knew your smell was similar..."

"Is that what gave it away?" Batman asked ignoring the current situation of his secret being known by two more people.

The mutant leader faintly smiled as patted Batman's shoulder. "You were the only one I told my name to."

Fletch. It was the name he told Terry and Terry only. Even Cedric didn't know this. Terry reflexively called out his name when he got shot.

"Save your strength...if we can get you out of here and take you somewhere warm, you'll still be able to-"

"No...there isn't enough time..." The mutant leader turned his head and saw the mutant gang mercilessly taking out the remaining Jokerz. He furrowed his eyes in regret. "If only I was stronger..."

"You're already stronger than anyone I've known..." Don said with a rueful tone.

"That's right. Don't say that and fight it...we can still help you recover..." Cedric was choking up and holding back his tears.

"My most loyal friend..." The mutant leader looked at Cedric. "You can go and live however you like now that you don't have to follow me..." He smiled.

"I won't accept this!" Cedric shouted.

The mutant leader just looked at him with a melancholic smile. "...It'll be okay...you'll be fine without me..."

Cedric couldn't hold back his tears anymore as he stared at his best friend dying in front of him.

"Terry..." The mutant leader uttered. "Take care of them for me..."

"Ha...." He sighed. "That's a lot to take in, boss." Batman was still in his suit but he decided to turn off the voice changer to talk as Terry.

The mutant leader chuckled. "Who would have thought that the day would come when the Batman would call me boss..." Then he looked at Don. "Don...I know you doubt your own leadership..." He looked at Don's division that were standing behind him with grieving faces. "But you did good holding this team together...I'm proud of you...all of you-"

That was it...he breathed his last breath.

The three of them bit their lips in rage and in remorse.

As they all mourned, the remaining Jokerz are now all dead.

"From now on! Until we avenge the mutant leader and take down the Jokerz! We will be called the Sons of Batman!" Red Hood furrowed his brows. "....Because who else, but the sons can correct the wrongdoings of their father...Batman should have never left the Joker alive!" He raised his fist and shouted.

The members of the Sons of Batman shouted and raised their fists as well.

Batman, Cedric, and Don narrowed their eyes at them.

"Will you join us?" Red Hood pointed at them.

Batman was the first to step forward. "This goes against the code that's been given to us, Red Hood."

"You talk as if the old man is still alive...he's dead. And so is the mutant leader!" He pointed at the mutant leader's body that was being picked up by Cedric. "He's proof that these maniacs shouldn't be kept alive..."

"You're wrong..." Batman said. "He's proof of someone that can live through a just set of principles and morals...morals that you have turned your back on."

"...Then...you choose to join with the enemy..."

"Neither...I'll fight you both on two fronts if I have to!"

"...So will I..." Cedric said.

"And us..." Don joined and his division all stepped forward.

Red Hood narrowed his eyes. "...Kill them..." He ordered.

"Huh?" A member of the Sons of Batman tilted his head.

"I said kill them!!!"

These men, until recently, were part of their group, and all of a sudden they're enemies. Of course they would be a little bit reluctant to attack.

The Sons of Batman hesitantly started to move forward against Batman and the others.

"?"

Clink. Clunk. Pooffffffft.

Batman threw smoke bombs and it clouded their vision.

*coughs* *coughs*

When the smoke cleared, they were already gone...

----

Batman and the others were running in the subway while being led by Cedric who was carrying the body of the mutant leader.

The environment started to change as it transitioned from an abandoned part of the subway, with mold and dust all over, to a nicer maintained walls of a currently used subway track.

"It's here..." Cedric said as he pushed a part of the wall and a doorway appeared in front of him.

Dudududu...

"Follow me." He turned around and said before advancing through the passageway that had stairs leading to a deeper place in the city.

As they were walking down the stairs, they could hear the door closing behind them as the source of light from their back slowly went off and the only source of light was ahead.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they saw a room filled with passageways leading to unknown locations.

"This is his hideout? Where do these passages lead?" Batman asked.

"It leads to various parts of the city. It's the tunnels that the court of owls used long ago. We don't know why they didn't use it again when Fletch first got wind of them rising from their ashes. I accompanied him here years ago before the mutant gang was formed and repurposed it for ourselves." Cedric replied as he continued walking and gestured with his head to keep following him.

Batman released two drones to map out the entire place. He watched the map beginning to form and was in awe of what he was seeing in his holographic screen. The map was so complex that it even leads near where the batcave was. It was a whole underground city.

They reached a large space where it has been refurbished to look like a proper living area. There was a lounge area, a kitchen, a dining area, and other rooms.

"This is it..." Cedric stopped in front of a room that had a luxurious door frame. Cedric smiled. "He's always been fond about these things." He said as he marveled at the luxurious door frame and glanced at the mutant leader's face resting on his shoulder like he is just in a deep slumber.

"You're going to keep him in there?" Don asked.

"Due to our nature of business, he has already prepared a final resting place for himself in here...It still bothers me how he could sleep next to a sarcophagus intended for him."

Cedric opened the door and revealed the mutant leader's room that, much like the door frame, was also luxurious in the design and the furniture. He walked up to the sarcophagus that was beside a wall and opened it with one hand. The lid covering it looked heavy but he lifted it like it was made of a light material.

Before Cedric could put Fletch in his final resting place, Batman held his arm.

"Wait."

"What is it?" Cedric asked.

"Don't you have any dionysium left?"

Cedric made a regretful smile and shook his head. "That was the first thing he destroyed when we came here. He didn't want it to be used by anyone else again..."

Batman pulled back his hand. "Sorry..."

"It's okay..." Cedric put the mutant leader in the sarcophagus and made everyone look at him one last time before closing it.

Don and his division were all teary eyed as well as Cedric.

"Go outside and pick a room. We'll be staying here from now on."

The members of Don's crew nodded and made a slow exit out of the room. When the door closed, the three of them could finally talk about what's to come.

But first...

Terry removed the cowl of his suit... Or more like it creeped down towards his neck and revealed his head.

"So, that's why you didn't want to go back to the gang..." Don asked.

"...Yeah...I didn't think Fletch would figure out this way..." Terry looked at the sarcophagus in the room and furrowed his eyes in regret.

"...I know we all talked big earlier, but I really don't know how we're going to fight both of them off..." Cedric said to get to business.

Terry made a thinking pose. "First things first, just to get it out of the way...Terminal wasn't the one that shot Fletch earlier tonight..."

Cedric and Don widened their eyes and looked at him.

"I think it was Red Hood..."

"What? Why would he do that? He clearly killed the guy that shot the mutant leader-"

"No...It would make sense if his goal is to take over the gang..." Cedric looked at Terry once again. "But did you see him shoot the mutant leader? How can you be sure?"

"I didn't, but the way Terminal fell down was suspicious to me...his posture before he collapsed wasn't in a shooting form...Plus there wasn't a bullet in the mutant leader's body to prove this...like it was purposely so to hide the identity of the real shooter. The Red Hood is the main suspect but since the muta- the Sons of Batman are too blinded with rage during the situation, they wouldn't put suspicion on him."

"That motherfu..." Don gritted his teeth. "What does he need the gang for anyway?"

"It has something to do with the Joker and getting revenge...he calls it justice but it's just for his own selfish desires." Batman replied.

"What's the plan?" Cedric asked.

"...Let's rest for now and mourn for our friend..." Terry said and stared into space for a while. "We can do this some other time...I'll have to relay this to the commissioner too."

----

"You did it again..." Barbara furrowed her brows and sighed as she stared outside the window.

-What was I supposed to do? Besides, it's probably better this way so I can gain their trust.

Terry was on a call with her and told her what happened in the Jokerz hideout including the fact that Don and Cedric found out he is Batman.

"Whatever...if you trust them that much, that's fine with me..." Barbara widened her eyes and then deviously smiled like she had eureka moment. "Matter of fact, have the girl that found out your secret help them. They won't be able to go out because they're wanted men, have her be their eyes to lessen the burden on you."

-I don't know, Barbara...it's too risky. And she still has that thing with that Carter guy.

"She won't have a problem with him anymore."

-Huh?"

"Terminal was recently identified as Carter Wilson...that's what we found out when my investigators went to the Jokerz hideout."

-So, that's why-!!

"Yeah..that's why the Jokerz went looking for you and Don at the party. What happened to your friend Dana after that?"

-I was going to go check on her at their house, but she already sent a text to notify everybody that she got home safe, along with a picture.

Barbara looked turned around and looked at her computer screen projecting a map of Gotham with a blinking dot in it. "It was good thinking that you put that tracker on him..."

She's talking about the nano tracker that Terry flicked on the Joker to trace his location.

The blinking dot was at an abandoned candy factory called Jolly Jack Candy Factory.