Chapter 4

Trigger Warnings: Excessive Violence, Attempted Rape.

With his costume now on Henry was officially Ironhide, and he decided to climb out of his window, and stalk the streets, looking for any crimes to foil.

…It was an unsurprisingly short walk, as not even a block away from his apartment, Henry found a man getting assaulted in an alleyway by two larger men. From what he could hear, they were trying to take his money, and he just wasn't giving it up.

So, Henry quickly went in, and knocked them out with a pair of steel fists… before rifling through their pockets, and taking their money.

He managed to get $30 in total from the two men. Not much, but for a quick second of combat? Not a bad amount.

He then left as the victim got up and kicked the shit out of the two unconscious men.

With that done, he set off to stop more crimes throughout Gotham City.

He managed to stop a few more muggings and assaults with relative ease, as most of the people doing that sort of shit, at most carried pistols on them… which was relatively easy to block when he absorbed the properties of the concrete in the buildings around him. Even if the bullets chipped his 'skin', he simply shrugged it off. Especially as most people aimed center mass… right where he was most defended, after all… he was wearing a padded jacket that transformed into concrete alongside him.

Predictably, most of these crimes happened in alleyways. Out of sight from the public… nobody would care about what happened within them.

But then, as he was looking for his next crime to stop, he heard the sound of a woman screaming.

And so, Henry ran towards the screaming, to see a terrified woman… and a filthy, grimy man with his pants down hovering over her.

She looked Henry in the eye, silently pleading for help, tears running down her face.

So, Henry did so, as he tackled the man to the ground, sending him crashing down with a sickening crack.

Hoping he'd broken something in the fall, Henry proceeded to turn his hands into steel, and absolutely wail on the man, punching him everywhere he could.

His face became bloodied, bruised and broken, blood, teeth, and bile flying out as Henry caved his face in.

He then proceeded to move onto the rest of his body, cracking ribs, breaking arms, and even at one point pulling off one of his finger nails.

The sounds of his bones breaking, blood squelching, and horror-filled screams were like music to Henry's ears. A true symphony the likes of which could never be perfectly replicated.

He gave no mercy to those who would rape or murder others… in fact, he make sure that people would be terrified to do so within Gotham City, lest they suffer his wrath.

And so, after the red left his vision, Henry got up, and left the man with his bloodied crater of a face… he'd been dead after the third punch.

The screams were coming from… somewhere else… somewhen else. An entirely different timeline, a different multiverse. In which Henry beat him with his bare hands, no powers involved.

He saw so much of what else he was doing at this very moment… in one reality he was with his lovely wife, Barbara and they were learning how to raise their first child, Jimmy Jr. together. It had been hard since the accident, but Barbara's been around to support him every step of the way.

Then there was another, where he worked for Carmine Falcone and was fighting The Batman in hand-to-hand combat… The Caped Crusader was winning, but he gave as good as he got.

A third one reared its ugly head, as he was chained to a wall, being tortured for information on Taskforce X, but he knew that if he said a single thing… Waller would have him killed in an instant, and he simply wasn't one to break under any amount of pressure. So, he remained silent, even as he was whipped, stabbed, cut, and flayed.

Then there was a fourth reality, that showed him and his best friend Cornelius Stirk, fighting crime together as a superhero duo. Having befriended each other in Arkham Asylum, and 'redeeming' Cornelius with the power of friendship.

And there was yet another reality, where he was seemingly a menial janitor at Wayne Enterprises, but was secretly spying on Bruce Wayne's movements, to inform his boss, Kirk Langstrom also known as The Batman, of The Bruce Wayne... otherwise known as Man-Bat's location at all times.

…His pills. Henry needed his pills. And quickly, before it all overwhelmed him. Again.

Rifling through his own pockets, he took out a few gray-tipped cylindrical pills, and swallowed them dry.

All of a sudden, the screams and the visions stopped, and everything around him was normal again.

He looked down to his blood-covered hands, and saw that they were shaking violently, before he took a few deep breaths to attempt to calm himself.

He didn't want to relapse into his previous near-catatonic state and get shipped back into Arkham… he was lucky that they were capable of making medication to treat his condition within the four years that he resided with their halls.

He's had this ability to… see other versions of himself, ever since he was a child. Back then, it wasn't too distracting, usually only occurring whenever he slept. But since the incident, he began to see these alternative realities in his daily life, making it hard to keep track of who or what he knew, and who or what… other versions of himself knew.

Which sure made it awkward when he asked Barbara Gordon to prom… only to remember that he had never had a meaningful conversation with her in this reality, while in the other… They were childhood friends, practically inseparable from each other.

He had to constantly remind himself of what he knew, and what he didn't… but his curse made it nearly impossible to keep track of inconsequential and important details alike… like, for instance the origin of his powers, and how he got his scar.

But he shouldn't be thinking about this… he should instead be acting, and making sure that Gotham City was safe.

Sure, Batman and the 'Batfamily' would usually have it handled, but from what he knew of the other realities… they'd need all the help they could get, even if a certain Caped Crusader didn't exactly welcome it… or him, and his brutal style when it came to the scum of the earth.

And so, he had continued on his righteous path of ridding the world of scum… and making sure that the other criminals got their just desserts for their crimes.

This ultimately led him to the docks, where he spied… an arms deal going on between two gangs.

The first, he had recognized as Ventriloquist's Gang… because Ventriloquist and his dummy were giving out orders to his men, who were carrying crates of what looked to be extremely expensive firearms.

Ventriloquist was a balding old man, with a pair of circular glasses, and a brown suit. The most notable thing he had was Scarface, his mobster-like dummy, with a working 'toy' tommy gun.

"You got the money?" Ventriloquist asked through his dummy, "'cause if you don't have the dough, we're leaving"

The second, was led by… a gorilla in a suit and tie? Okay… that was certainly strange, but Henry had definitely seen stranger things. The gorilla's men were all relatively normal looking men, so at least it wouldn't be too hard to take them down.

"Oh yeah, we've got the money. If you're not stifling us on the weapons" The gorilla mob boss guy said, as he loomed over Ventriloquist intimidatingly, "But fine. I'll show you the money"

Then the gorilla… boss guy. Fuck it, he's just going to call him Gorilla Boss. Gorilla Boss opened the briefcase in his hand, showing Ventriloquist the contents within… which were what seemed to be a lot of money.

"Good… good. Guys! Give our friend here, our finest arms" Ventriloquist shouted through his dummy, as his men raised their weapons at Gorilla Boss.

"Goddamnit! I knew this was a set up!" Gorilla Boss shouted, as he pulled out a comically oversized handgun, as he ducked behind cover, keeping a tight grip on the briefcase.

Then the gunfire started, gang against gang… already a few men on either side of the conflict had been shot down.

But, all of a sudden, a loud SCREECH echoed throughout the docks, drowning out the gunfire, as Henry looked up… to see the goddamn Man-Bat, swooping down… and grabbing Gorilla Boss by the arm, lifting him up into the air.

Ventriloquist decided to seize the opportunity, and fired the dummy's tiny tommy gun at Gorilla Boss, and that was when Henry decided to join in on the conflict, by touching a nearby shipping container and turning into bright red steel.

He then quickly tackled Ventriloquist to the ground, and broke the dummy in his hands, before pocketing some for later use… it was a surprisingly durable wood, after all.

And if he remembered correctly, at least in a few of the other realities he's seen through… Scarface is a haunted dummy. So, it'd be interesting to see how his powers react to a seemingly magical material.

He'd test this in a safe and secure environment though… and certainly not with his whole body. He wasn't becoming possessed that easily.

"I- ah… I'm free!" The Ventriloquist shouted happily, smiling joyously, "Thank you sir, thank you"

Knowing that without his dummy, that The Ventriloquist was no real threat, Henry let him go and took his attention elsewhere.

Elsewhere, being Man-Bat… who Gorilla Boss was struggling to get out of the grip of, the gorilla mobster attempting in vain to beat off the bat man, with his large meaty fists.

But, his fear-induced flailing was doomed to fail, as Man-Bat seemed to grow bored of its prey, and dropped him… from ten stories up, directly onto a shipping container, which gained a large dent due to the sheer mass of Gorilla Boss.

"Uuuuuugh" Gorilla Boss groaned in pain, as he just laid on the shipping container, briefcase still in his hand.

With nothing else to do, Man-Bat flew away, with a loud "SCREEEEEECH" to send himself off.

So, Henry decided to round up all of the mobsters… well, those that hadn't died in the shootout, or ran away with Man-Bat's attack, at least.

Then he grabbed Gorilla Boss and made sure to tie him up in some rope… normally it'd be useless, but he seemed to be far too injured to really do anything of note.

And so, Henry decided to call the GCPD, informing them of the two gang bosses, and their respective gangs tied up for them to book and hopefully imprison.

Oh, and Henry made sure to take all of their money… The briefcase had a lot of damn money in it.

At least, until he took a closer look, and instead of Benjamin Franklin… There was the image of a gorilla.

Looking at the rest of the money, he saw that they were all gorillas.

Fuckers were carrying around counterfeit money… damn it, that meant that his looting was in vain.

"Shit" Henry muttered to himself, honestly annoyed at himself for getting tricked by such obvious counterfeit cash.

At least, he could take solace in the fact that they were all going to prison… or Arkham, whichever is worse for them, for a long time.

______________

And that's the update.

A bit longer than the normal ones…

And Henry's other ability has been revealed. Multiversal Comprehension is what I'm calling it.

Basically, Henry constantly sees, hears, smells, and feels other, alternate versions of himself. He has no control of when this power happens, and takes pills to suppress it.

The power's been hinted at since the first chapter, with him being unable to remember how he gained his powers, along with other parts in the other updates.

I know it's not an actual Osmosian Power, but I wanted to give Henry something else, to make him different from other Osmosians… and people with a similar powerset.

Just so you all know, this is also on QQ, SB, SV, and FFN.