Chapter 16

Harry Potter sat around the table with people around him. They were all faceless, submerged in the shadows. The chorus of "Happy Birthday" echoed. Harry moved towards an amazing birthday cake, blue, with red frosting in the shape of an "S" on it. The "S" was breaking from the cake. Harry leaned in and blew out the candles.

The next minute the world had been surrounded by fire. Everything looped around and made Harry's head spin. He watched, and he was back in the cave with Harry's girls around him.

Suddenly, the girls were replaced by rotting corpses. Some kind of red cloud surrounded them. Harry moved to fight it off, but the hallway Harry ran down to get rid of the crowd got longer and longer. The stench of decay filled Harry's nostrils when he chased it.

Pounding drummed against Harry's head. Harry Potter shifted into Harry Kent and he stood in a graveyard. Familiar names appeared on the gravestones. Artemis Crock. M'gann M'orzz. Helena Wayne. Whitney West. Kara Zor-El. Caitlin Fairchild. Karen Starr. Dinah Laurel Lance. Sara Lance. Thea Queen. Claire Kent. Lena Luthor. Harry saw the names one by one and there was loud chanting.

"You failed us."

Harry closed his eyes. He realized none of this was here, but his mind was slowly trying to convince him it was a possibility. Harry stood in the graveyard and a figure appeared to him. The long skeletal hand shifted out of the cloak as he approached.

The cold high laughter, achingly familiar, rang through Harry's ears. Harry moved to blast the cloak but he disappeared into dust.

"There will always be spares, Harry. For you are a fool who cares. The only salvation is to burn the entire world down."

A hand on Harry's shoulder caused him to jump up.

"Even upon the end of one world, I still haunt you in the next," the figure hissed. "Forever, and always. I'm underneath your skin. And soon I'll be in control. Who will save them now?"

Harry's eyes lit up in heat vision and began to fire out into the world. He could not stop the rapid fire attacks if he wanted to, and there was a small part of Harry who realized he did not want to.

No, he had to. Harry wanted to. This was an illusion.

"Foolish boy, you cannot run from your demons!"

He had to get out of this place, now.

Harry's eyes glowed which spooked Huntress, White Canary, and Batgirl, and rightfully so. They had their gas masks on knowing there could be and would be more fear toxins. The various assassins they fought in the tunnel had disappeared.

"Harry?" Helena asked.

Harry began to fight an invisible enemy and fired a couple of heat vision blasts at it. With a bold, daring, and quite frankly reckless maneuver, Helena jumped on his back to try and redirect him away from the gas pipes. He could blow up the entire tunnel.

"Huntress! Jump back!"

White Canary launched a Canary Cry at full blast. It only lifted off of the ground and slammed him into the wall. In a completely zombified state, Harry rose up into the air like it was nothing.

"I'm going to burn it all down!" Harry yelled.

"That doesn't sound good," Batgirl said.

"You think?" Sara asked.

Batgirl got an air sample of the fear toxin. It was more potent than the usual Crane had used, although the Scarecrow being involved in this made a bad night look.

Huntress prepared to go after Harry, but she saw a figure skulking around the tunnels. Trenchcoat, a mask with sunken in eyes, and a hat, which he carried a walking stick. Huntress realized the man himself was here.

"Superman, well that is interesting and a quite prolific reaction," Scarecrow murmured. "This could create a fear which would lead to a bloodlust which would destroy everything. And once the blood is spilled, it will ignite a powderkeg."

Crane made his way up the steps, and Huntress gave chase to him. She left Batgirl and White Canary to track down Harry, for if Crane had more of that toxin and unleashed it onto Gotham City, there was going to be a bigger problem thant a rogue Kryptonian running amuck and shooting fire out of his eyes.

Huntress kept on Scarecrow's trail and chased him up the stairs to the top of a large building which overlooked Gotha Square. Crane stopped a second short from the edge and smiled.

"There's nowhere to run other than for you to jump down."

"He would have disabled me in three ways by now," Scarecrow said. "Not that it matters. For, one step closer, and you'll have a bigger problem on your hands than what's going on with Superman."

Scarecrow pulled out a vial of red dust and dangled over the edge.

"One slip of my fingers and it will fall and shatter," Scarecrow said. "The result is the biggest epidemic of mass panic throughout Gotham City.."

Scarecrow paused and cackled madly.

"On the other hand, I have nothing to fear from you."

With a lob, Scarecrow threw the red vial over the side of the building. Helena bolted after it like a bat out of hell and jumped off the building. She raced to catch it. She was almost there. Helena accelerated her descent and reached out to grab the vial before it hit the ground.

A cord wrapped around Huntress's ankle and pulled her back up to prevent her from grabbing the vial. Time slowed down as the vial shattered right in the middle of Gotham Square. A few people screamed and within a minute, everyone began to panic as the toxin took in.

Huntress had been pulled up as she could hear the sounds of trampling Gothamites.

"Jumping off of buildings is dangerous. You should thank me for the rescue."

The Bogus Batman appeared and came face to face with Helena.

"Okay, just who the hell are you?" Huntress asked.

"I'm Batman!"

This caused Huntress to dive at "Batman" to attempt to kick him in the ribs. "Batman" blocked her kick and returned fire to twist her leg down to the ground. "Batman" grabbed the back of Huntress's head and tried to drive her face first onto the concrete.

The imposter caught Huntress's arm and nailed her with a couple of elbow strikes to the shoulder. Her legs buckled and everything went numb underneath her. Batman kicked Huntress off and almost knocked her to the side of the building. The faux Batman pulled her up and slammed his elbow down into the back of the head of Huntress.

"You know everything."

"Because I'm Batman."

Huntress blocked his foot from coming down into her face and jumped up. The staff whipped out and the imposter broke it in half and nailed her in the stomach before he dropped her down.

Batwoman appeared next to them. "Batman" triggered a sonic device which sent bats coming down from above and swarm Huntress and Batwoman.

Huntress and Batwoman escaped the swarm of Bats and Huntress dropped to one knee. The bruises of her battle were obvious and Batwoman pulled her up.

"You okay?"

"Kate, I….he knew everything, he had an answer to everything, and he had a few tricks of his own," Huntress said.

The rioting down below signified a much bigger problem than Helena's wounded pride at being taken down by this carbon copy of her father.

"What now?"

"I don't know," Batwoman said. "We need to think outside of the box. Think of something he wouldn't expect."

And Helena understood Kate meant both he as in the faux Batman and also her father. Oh, that was tough. This man had everything about Batman down. The thinking several steps ahead, the fighting style, everything. Helena closed her eyes deep in thought.

Hugo Strange sat back and watched the news footage of the ravenous and rioting people in Gotham City. He pondered before he gave his assessment of the entire matter.

"It is very fascinating how in the face of great terror, men and women go about their base instincts."

"And Gotham has turned into everything that I said it would be," Ra's said. "It is as I warned the Detective over a decade ago once we first met, Gotham is not worth saving. And now Phase Two is almost complete."

Ra's only wished he had made the Detective see the light sooner. But, perhaps once he returned to Earth, he would understand what Ra's had been trying to tell him this entire time. And if he should never return, well Ra's had a Batman who would follow his ideology.

It's a shame it was such a poor carbon copy, but Ra's resolved to adapt his plan.

Heat vision fired. Thankfully, by some sheer miracle, Harry moved to an area of Gotham City, which had been mostly shut down. Still, White Canary and Batgirl followed Harry at a quick pace and avoided, by the sheer force of narrowly escaping him, getting incinerated.

"Any good ideas?" White Canary asked. "Because, I'm fresh out of them."

"He's immune to Kryptonite," Batgirl said. "Magic could work, but by the time we get Zee or Raven or even Nora here….Gotham could be ashes."

"Alright, Tom, it ends now!" Harry yelled.

They had no idea who Tom was. Such a common name for someone who appeared to be such a weighty threat on Harry's mind. Harry swooped down and then paused. He started to rub his temple.

The fear toxin locked it's fingers deep into Harry's mind. He struggled, valiantly fighting it every step of the way. The toxin edged a little bit deeper into Harry's mind and caused him to groan and grumble.

"Stay away from them!"

Sara and Barbara dodged a blast of heat vision which went through a torn down warehouse. The fires shot through the air. The sounds of rioting nearby indicated there were other problems with Harry tonight. They had no idea what was going on because they had been focused on him.

Suddenly, suddenly, a force brought Harry down to his knees.

'Relax your mind.'

A dart shot into Harry's neck and brought him down to the ground. Sara and Barbara held their breath. While Harry was sedated and relaxed, it was not a guarantee that anyone good helped him.

Emma Frost and Talia al Ghul turned up from the shadows.

"The dart did the trick," Talia said.

"Yes, but not for long, as his mind is still troubled," Emma said. "It's causing me trouble to keep it at bay."

Emma pinched the bridge of her nose to stave off the bleeding. Talia put an inhibitor collar on Harry. It would only hold for maybe twenty minutes before it burned out. That would have to be enough. Talia and Emma, joined by Sara and Barbara, moved Harry to a truck where Caitlin and Lena were waiting.

"We're going to have to work quickly," Lena said. "Thankfully, we've prepared for this."

"He took a dose of Crane's toxin," Sara said.

"He's not the only one," Talia said. "Gotham's being torn apart and my father's...his plan of burning down this city is going to come true."

This caused the entire group to get worried. Barbara suspected something was up tonight.

Harry was the problem they could deal with quicker, and if her father was moving tonight with the plan, they needed all of the help possible. Caitlin and Lena put Harry into a containment unit and began the process of extracting the toxins from his body.

"Two hours," Caitlin said.

"Let us hope there's still a city standing in that time," Talia grimly concluded.

Scarecrow stood out to view the carnage. It was beautiful. A true vision. A masterpiece.

"You've committed a heinous crime, Doctor Crane."

The imposter Batman turned up. Scarecrow looked at the imposter Dark Knight and eyed him.

"And it's quite an interesting predicament, how you've become the mask," Scarecrow said. "You believe you're a crusader for justice in Gotham."

"The jig is up, Crane!"

The GCPD made their way up to the top of the building, lead by the former Police Commissioner and the current Mayor, James Gordon.

"I have it handled, Mayor Gordon," Batman said.

"Oh, you think that, wouldn't you?" Scarecrow asked. "I wonder what the James Gordon would think if I brought the Batman's demons to life. His greatest fear, proof that Batman is unhinged, and should be locked up in Arkham, just like the rest of them."

Batman headbutted Scarecrow and knocked him down to the ground.

"Okay, Batman, you have him now….BATMAN!"

Batman brutalized Scarecrow with such force that it caused the members of the GCPD great pause. They saw it, but none of them scarcely believed it.

A news helicopter caught a glimpse of the beating Batman laid down on Scarecrow. A yell of "he's finally snapped" could be heard.

Batwoman and Huntress rushed across the rooftop, ready to deal with the imposter Batman. A loud crunch echoed and they were too late.

"Batman" snapped Scarecrow's neck and killed him right in front of the Gotham City Police Department, James Gordon, and the members of the press. The limp body of Crane fell to the ground.

"It was long overdue," Batman coldly replied.

"Batman doesn't kill," Gordon murmured, almost in shock.

"Take him down!" the leader of the squad yelled.