Chapter 18- Escapades

[2008]

In the dark of night two figures jumped across buildings and through alleyways until they finally stopped behind an abandoned storehouse.

Both figures are quite short and barely visible in the darkness of the night. One of the figures had quite colorful clothes which were hidden under the cover of his black cape. The other was almost unseen due to his dark attire covered by a black cloak, the only part visible would be strands of silvery white hair peeking out of the cloak and his amber eyes that reflected the light of the closest street lamp.

"Are you sure we should be doing this without the go ahead from Batman?", asked the cloaked boy.

The other boy casually replied,"Relax, I have done thus alone before and Batman is busy with the Arkham outbreak that just happened. He is making sure Joker is still in his cell.

Leaving that aside I was able to track down one of the escapees."

On his wristwatch the display screen showed a scarred bald man in the patient clothes of Arkham Asylum.

"Victor Zsasz. A complete lunatic with a count of 43 homicides 12 of who were children and 4 cases if rape. He believes that he is helping people by killing them. He thinks that he is releasing them from suffering.He got out of Arkham 3 days ago and he has yet to do anything but we can't take any chances. Batman is busy and Zsasz is non powered and not a schemer so we just have to take him down and give him to the GCPD."

{Nicholas Kyle Dunamis POV}

I realized what Robin was trying to do. He was trying to guilt trip me and it was working, especially seeing that there won't be too much danger agreed to this escapade of his.

I really hated those bastards like Zsasz and Joker who did all this shot and got away due to being classified clinically insane.

I mean I get why the heroes don't kill in their own sense of morality and righteousness of not putting themselves over the last line of the law but why hasn't Joker been put to death by the state? It is really frustrating seeing this happen in real life and not through a screen or pages in a book. Some political drama or some other villains helping out.

But Zsasz is not as dangerous as the Joker so we should be fine.

Still it was always good to be prepared and I had a Arya prepare a message that would be sent to Batman as soon as any trouble pops up.

I did not think myself infallible with my powers as in this absurd universe sometimes a normal human can somehow defeat a planet destroyer.

I have joined the occasional 'night prowl' with the Bat but this is the first time I am doing something like this without supervision or rather without the safety net called Batman.

We entered the storehouse through a window and seperated.

We looked about for a bit till we found a sleeping Zsasz. Huh. This was easy. A bit too easy though I was not complaining. But just in case I spread out my haki to cover the room.

Ahah. I knew it. Victor Zsasz is already awake and there are traps in the room. And a few cameras which have yet to spot me but they still know that Robin and I have infiltrated.

Probably some detection device I missed earlier.

'Have to be more attentive' I note to myself still wary of the surroundings.

ROOM

SCAN

Reinforced by ROOM and SCAN my haki gave a bery detailed response which told me that while this was not setup to be an elaborate trap it could still be very dangerous for us if I didn't find these traps.

"Found him. Target is awake but acting asleep. Many detection devices alongside multitudes of traps. He couldn't have got these many without help. High chance of another one showing up later."

Robin answered from the other end, "I am coming around to you. On my way I am checking out the rest of the storehouse."

"Be careful of the traps."

The area my haki covered wasn't enough to sense Robin but I did sense traps from the path Robin should take.

"I am taking him out. Using power discreetly."

"Ok. Just don't be noisy."

When I scanned the room I got feedback of the positions of the detection devices along with the knowledge of Zsasz having a wire in his ear. Probably to communicate with whoever was orchestrating this with him.

I kept a few stones on the ground.

SHAMBLES

The stones were replaced with upside down cameras and an ear bud which I crushed.

Zsasz must have felt something different from his ear when I jumped at him from behind and caught him with a rear naked chokehold while grappling his body with my legs.

Using the contact to SCAN him I quickly found a few acupoints which h I pressed with my steel pointed boots causing him to be unable to his the strength of his lower body.

After a few moments he was unconscious but I double checked with SCAN just in case.

I informed Robin of my success.

"Panther to Robin I have caught and incapacitated Victor Zsasz."

"Ok coming now. Was he able to put up a fight?"

I looked at Zsasz and answered,"Yes, a bit but I was able to handle him."

After speaking I lifted him up and bashed his head onto the ground making sure he was still unconscious letting his head bleed a bit. I then kicked the inside of his left thigh hard.

INJECTION SHOT

The point where I kicked with a lot of force was ''coincidentally' quite important and with this he would never be able to use his left leg again unless some magic or super high technology is used. But Zsasz is quite low in the villain list and doesn't have access to those options so at least until some miracle happens he should no longer be a problem.

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Robin and I got back inside the cave after making sure we weren't being followed or tracked.

"Someone must have orchestrated the Arkham outbreak to get particular people out."

"Obviously, but the problem is that this is someone smart. Whoever it was purposely put Zsasz as bait, most likely for Batman, to judge his capabilites even if it was too easy. It might just have been yo judge us as Baan is busy in Arkham."

"Great! Just what this city needs. A new villain", Robin sneered.

"Well the detective part is for you to figure out and for me to sleep on so bye."

"Wai- "

I smiled opened ROOM selected a safe place and SHAMBLES.

"Hah. He is getting as annoying as Batman with that."

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After I left I went through a mental lost of possible suspects. It could be an older villain like Penguin or Two-face but unlikely as they aren't interested in personally duking it out with the Bat.

Joker is a no as this isn't his modus operandi.

It is probably not Bane as he is currently taken control of Santa Prisca.

Ra's Al Ghul while very cunning has too much pride to do this so it is very likely a new player.

Though Scarecrow might do something like this he was currently too busy trying and failing to run from Batman.

No matter when it happens it happens.

I really don't want to stress out about possible future threats like Batman and stop enjoying the present. I am just not that paranoid about future threats. Sure with my knowledge I could probably prepare a bunch of stuff which I already am but I really don't want to waste brain cells thinking about every possible threat and it's counter measure.

I mean it's good to prepare but there are others *cough*Batman*cough* already preparing and the Justice League exists for a reason.

I am not going to take all responsibilities for myself.

Tomorrow's problem for tomorrow's me.