Fear of Bats

"What... when?" Bane's gray eyes flickered with confusion. "When did you..." Adam ignored him, biting down harder, trying to sink his fangs deeper into the flesh. His teeth sharpened, piercing like syringes, injecting an unknown substance into Bane's body.

Was it a toxin?

Ridiculous. What toxin could affect the Black of Decay? Even the deadliest poison couldn't kill a corpse. The very concept of death was meaningless to the Black of Decay.

Adam felt a cold detachment settle over him. The indecision and hesitation that plagued him as a transmigrator from a peaceful era vanished. The ruthless brutality of Bane merged with Batman's unwavering resolve, amplified by the dinosaur form and Venom enhancement, creating a terrifyingly efficient predator.

"Fool! You dare come so close... Let the Black of Decay consume him. After all..."

Bane rolled his eyes. "This Batman, even with his abilities, is still mortal. And mortals can never resist the Black of Decay..."He paused. "Wait... why isn't it working?"

Bane was baffled. He couldn't infect Killer Croc because of the Red, or Poison Ivy due to her connection to the Green. Solomon Grundy was an undead zombie, but this man—even with superpowers, he shouldn't be able to resist!

Wait...

Zombie Bane's gaze drifted downward to Adam's teeth, which were transforming from dark green dinosaur muscle into gleaming silver metal. The Black of Decay encountered an inanimate object, rendering it as helpless as a fly trapped in amber.

The insectoid limbs that sprouted from Bane's back clanged uselessly against Adam's metallic face. Adam slowly opened his mouth and stepped back.

"Hmm..." Bane seemed... perplexed. Poison Ivy had never seen such an emotion on a creature of the Black."Well then, dear Ivy."

Poison Ivy wanted to retort, "We're not that close," but decided against provoking him, especially since Batman remained eerily still.

She had a suspicion about what Batman had done. "You're not going to join us, the Black of Decay? I hold you in high regard, Ivy. Why do you think I haven't killed you, but played with you for so long? But playtime is over."

Bane looked Adam up and down. "You're relying on him? You need me to defeat him before you'll abandon your foolish hope? Just like that pathetic zombie over there? Oh, little girl."

He sneered. "You're so naive."

But Poison Ivy's gaze unsettled him. She looked at him with a strange pity, as if he were already dead—which, in a sense, he was. "You've never lived in Gotham, have you?" she asked.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, it has everything to do with it." Green vines sprouted behind Poison Ivy, weaving into a throne-like chair. She sat down gracefully, like a spectator awaiting the start of a show.

"Let me teach you some basic Gotham rules, some common sense that any self-respecting supervillain should know," Poison Ivy said, raising a green-tinged finger. "First..."

Pop!

Bane's body convulsed as a vibrant green spread from his back. Half of his body uncontrollably transformed into plant matter, contrasting starkly with the decaying, putrid flesh of the other half.

"How... how is this possible? You—"

Poison Ivy's cold voice cut him off. "First, Batman never fails. He cannot fail, because countless lives depend on him. Therefore, Batman always wins. He has won in the past, he wins now, and he will continue to win in the future."

With a thud, Zombie Bane fell to his knees, clawing at the plant-infused half of his body. Chunks of rotting flesh were ripped away by the growing vines, each tear accompanied by a spray of black blood.

"No matter who he faces, no matter how invincible they seem, Batman will win. Even if it's a miserable victory, even if it costs him everything. And if Batman wins... that means the villains lose. So, the criminals of Gotham fear Batman because they can never defeat him."

Poison Ivy's voice lowered, a hint of nostalgia in her tone. "You'll exhaust your cunning, try every trick in the book, like Sisyphus pushing his boulder—but you'll never win. That's Batman. He's always one step ahead, always and forever."

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...

The Venom tank on Bane's back activated without warning, pumping the drug into his body. He howled in agony. "No! You're being controlled! Damn it—get out of our minds!"

"Second, Batman cannot die. This is an absolute truth."

"You can't kill Batman with a gun."

"You can't kill Batman with a knife, or a tank."

"You can't kill him with poison. No matter how lethal the attack, no matter how many claim to have killed him, no matter how convincing the evidence, as long as crime persists, Batman will return, stand before them, and end their criminal careers with his fists."

"Even riddled with scars, even shot multiple times, he will always reappear."

"No! What have you done to me?"

Bane writhed on the ground, his two voices merging into a single, ear-splitting shriek. "Let me go!"

Poison Ivy's voice continued relentlessly.

"Third, Batman possesses unwavering resolve. Nothing you say, nothing you offer, will sway him. No one can shake his conviction or make him abandon his cause, his identity. He is a man of few words, and he won't listen to your nonsense. All he needs to know is whether you will surrender or not."

Poison Ivy spoke with a tinge of sorrow. "This is Batman. He's difficult, if not impossible, to reason with. His appearances are unpredictable. He's like a shadow, yet sometimes startlingly human. He's nearly impossible to kill."

Her tone softened. "Batman is a monster, in a way. He cannot be defeated, cannot be persuaded, cannot be bargained with. He only wins... and never loses."