"What? How many people did you say died?" Gordon asked shocked.
"I… I don't know, I really don't know... wuwuwu..."
The soldier in front of Gordon was a mountain of a man—at least 2 meters tall— a head taller then the police commissioner. Yet here he was, uniform stained with mud and blood, shoulders hunched like a crying baby, his big hands hiding his face as sobs wracked his body.
"There are dead bodies everywhere," he choked. "Bane killed most of us. The National Guard is finished … the military is finished. Everything is finished!"
Gordon stepped forward. "Where is Bane? Where did Bane go?"
The soldier trembled, lowering his hands slightly. "He..."
Suddenly, he gripped his forehead as if trying to claw the memory out. "Wuwuwuwu... He went… he went to find Batman!"
Gordon opened his mouth again. "You—"
"Wuwuwu... Wuwuwu!"
The sobbing grew louder. Gordon tried twice more, but the soldier seemed lost in a spiral, rocking on his feet. Gordon grew frustrated by the minute.
"I think his post-war traumativ stress just detonated," Sergeant Bullock muttered, stepping beside him. "There's nothing in his head right now we can use..Calm down, Commissioner. First, get him a sedative, then—"
Bullock froze mid-sentence.
The soldier's shoulders stopped shaking. Slowly, he lifted his head. The grief on his face had evaporated.
In its place… a smile.
A wide, unnatural smile. Wide enough to rip the corners apart.
And then—
"Hahaha… hahahaha… hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
The sound tore through the camp like a serrated blade.
---
Bruce stood over the huge collapsed body of Jason Woodrue, the Plant Master. Poison Ivy's vines wrapped around him in a cruel, elegant knot, each strand filled with spines stabbing the bark-like flesh. He looked less like a man and more like a crab waited to be dumped into the pot.
Jason glared, his voice a rasp. "Pamela… damn you."
Poison Ivy's lips curved faintly. "Yeah, right, right," she said, and the vines extending higher, wrapping his head, sealing his mouth...hmmmmm?
Bruce watched as she summoned another vine, shoving it between Jason's teeth. Even he had to blink at the brutality.
You really can't underestimate a woman's appetite for revenge.
At least Jason was essentially a tree—if he were human, the seal would've killed him in seconds.
From the side, Harley Quinn squatted on her heels, swinging her mallet idly. "Y'know, a little heads-up before you start mouth-gardening your ex woulda been nice," she muttered.
No one paid her any mind.
Poison Ivy's gaze sharpened. "You wanted to say something, Batman?"
Bruce's voice dropped low, words slow and deliberate. "I suspect the Black of Decay is still among us."
Her body stilled.
"Don't turn around," he whispered. "Your priority is Professor Goldblum. That potion—the one that could amplify the Green—exists only because of his wisdom. If I were the rot, I'd kill him before as soon as possible. Beforehe is able to create the potion."
"What do we do? We can't babysit him forever," Ivy replied.
"Which is why I intend to weaken the Black before they have the chance. As for on keeping the professor alive, pamela… I think we can agree."
His eyes hardened. "You and the other elemental avatars can be reborn—but not without a price. We've already taken down one of the Rot's agents. There's at least one more hiding in the ranks… maybe more. And I don't intend to let them walk away."
"I have a plan."
---
Rumble.
Rumble.
Rumble.
Somewhere in the forest, something enormous was tearing through the trees—snapping trunks like matchsticks, uprooting them in showers of soil.
"I've been feeding those mercenaries. Controlling what water they drink." Ivy's tone was distracted, as though the sound beyond the treeline tugged at her attention.
"I've prepared everything," Bruce continued. "And when the time is right, I'll draw the Corruption out—"
On the other side a massive thing broke into swamp.
The massacre swamp even without its magical properties and dangerous creatures is a death trap. Even a mammoth would sink into the ground of this swamp helplessly, but it was powerless against this giant figure. It moved so fast as though it was teleporting. Each step sent swamp water detonating outward, spraying mud like shrapnel.
"We can—Poison Ivy, are you even listening?" Batman's voice cut off when he caught her expression.
She was staring past him, face tightening. "Something big's coming. Looks like an enemy."
Then—
"Hahahahahahahahahaha—hohahaha, hohahahahaha!"
The laughter felt terribly wrong. Too joyful yet at the time too evil. The kind of sound you'd hear from a child on a playground—if that child had just burned the playground down.
Batman turned around to see Bane come out from behind a tree.
He was laughing, his head tilted back, a tree trunk gripped in one hand like a club.
Before no matter how much venom Bane used ,it just made him taller..and bigger. But now...the muscles on his body pulsed and writhed like it was alive. The grotesque veins bulged while the endlessly increasing muscles bulged his body in unnatural layers.
His skin—stretched thin over the swell—was abnormally white— tearing and healing in the same heartbeat, over and over. He looked less like a man and more like a living, breathing mass of muscle balloons.
Bruce's mind reeled.
What?
We definitely had an unwritten agreement.
To consolidate our strength now and fight later.
Why are you here now?
This is definitely unlike you.
For a moment, doubt flickered—had he overcomplicated things? Maybe Bane wasn't playing a long game. Maybe he simply wanted to break his back.
Then Bane turned his head.
The bottom half of his mask was gone.
And on his exposed face… was a grin Bruce knew too well.
"…Joker."
Bane's teeth gleamed red. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Batsy!"
The laugh rolled over them, a carnival of madness wrapped in muscle and blood. Bruce couldn't tell if the crimson dripping from Bane's mouth belonged to someone else… or to Bane himself.
(Note: Joker toxin is different in every DC mythos. Here anyone infected with it will slowly become joker himself. With their thinking almost the same. Of course it takes a lot of time. And Bruce has an antidote for it. Which will definitely not work on bane's massive body.)