P o s s e s s i v e m u c h ? Batmanxjoker

5-MASTERPALNS

"Do you think I should take the bat mobile out or is that too flashy?" Bruce asked walking into the kitchen. Alfred who had been preparing dinner looked up surprised to see that Bruce had woken himself up.

"I wasn't expecting you to be up this early, it's only 10:30." Alfred implored. "I thought you were leaving at 11:00 PM?"

Bruce shrugged, he leaned up against the wall, still feeling very tired. Though he hadn't gotten the full seven hours of sleep, he felt somewhat replenished. Six hours and thirty minutes were better than none. Besides crime doesn't sleep.

"Well Alfred, I've decided that whatever the Joker is planning I have to stop it before it starts," Bruce replied, unfortunately, he yawned mid-sentence. Alfred raised an eyebrow.

"I see, and you'll do that functioning on six hours of sleep?" His voice radiated "not convinced."

"Six hours is all the time I need." Bruce said persistently, he shook the sleep from his head stubbornly.

"Well, whatever you say," Alfred replied in his trademark cynicism. He turned to Bruce, hand on hip as he asked. "And may I ask master Bruce how do you know the Joker is up to something?"

The young millionaire almost immediately rolled his eyes as if it was the stupidest question asked in the history of a stupid question.

"He's the Joker Alfred, he's always up to something." Bruce said with such condescension.

Well, I never would have thought. The butler thought to himself mischievously. It always amused and worried him to see how worked Bruce could get over one criminal.

"Alright, no need to get your panties in a twist." Alfred chuckled. Bruce went red slightly, he sighed before clearing his throat.

"I need to go now, I'm already behind." He stopped leaning against the wall and turned to the direction of his study. "Don't wait up for me, I don't know how long I'll be out." He yelled walking out.

"Alright." Alfred yelled through the kitchen, "and to answer your question I would take the bat pod!"

Bruce stopped in his tracks. "Huh?" He yelled from the hall rather confused. The grogginess from sleep had already made him forget his own question.

"The batmobile is too flashy, and many civilians will be out, better to take something small." Bruce thought it about it reasonably, it was only 10:30, civilians would be swarming the place, he didn't need the attention.

"Good idea Alfred, I was thinking the same thing." Bruce smiled.

Alfred from the kitchen shook his head, returning back to his cooking.

"Sure, you were."

********🐧🐧🐧

Adrenaline pumped through the Dark Knight's body, the ecstatic feeling of adventure traveling through his blood. The night was his for the taking, once the mask was on he became the eternal guardian, with determination in his mind and strength on his side nothing could stop him.

Batman sped through the streets of Gotham, he specifically passed through the most abandoned roads and uncommon paths. He did discreetly hoping not to be noticed, in a moment like this he needed to a shadow, unnoticed and absolutely invisible.

After thirty minutes of driving around the bat pod, Batman reached the other side of the city, far off into the slums away from his suburban neighborhood. He slowed down, parking his motorcycle in an alley secluded only a few blocks from where the remains of the old medical warehouse were, he slipped away from the alley carefully, scaling the wall and standing on a roof nearby. He observed with tense eyes. The building was destroyed just as Alfred had informed him on but some of it still stood, enough for him to do some investigation. Yellow police tape covered the scene with multiple do not trespass signs. The Police were dealing with it as well now.

I'll see what commissioner Gordon on what he knows, later. Batman mentally noted, for now, however, he would just have to scout for his own information. Yes the police probably had a lead and the forensics team might have scooped up most of the evidence but Batman had the two things the Gotham police department didn't, the money to buy expensive gadgets and no moles or corrupt officers lurking around. Moles are everywhere in that department. Batman worked alone, finding leads and busting crooks, he didn't have to worry about crooked cops who could report back to the mob or double-cross him. Being Bruce Wayne the billionaire who everyone thought was a reckless playboy also helped.

Batman jumped off the rooftops, gliding past the warehouse stopping at its back entrance. Before entering the building he turned on his night vision contacts. He could now see the broken beams and charred outsides of the warehouse. He walked around careful, tiring not trigger anything else that could fall.

What did the Joker do here? Bruce looked around, the fire had nearly decimated everything, leaving a trace of only rubble, and burnt wood. Nothing wasn't out of the ordinary though nothing that looked strange or out of place. Batman walked through the many rooms before finding a door with a hazard warning symbol. Now, this was worth checking out, Batman didn't bother to open the door, one touch and the hinges practically gave away and the toppled down. upon entering the dark knight noticed a distinctive difference from this room and the others, where the others room were filled with crates and burnt out boxes this one was filled with plants and flowers that had been torched.

What's that the clown been up to? Batman reached for his utility belt; he found his multi substance scanner. He set the mode to a plant-based scan. Whilst the scanner, pinged quietly Bruce explored his surroundings.

"Science lab huh?" Batman hummed, he found the design to be familiar, despite it being torched. Bruce frowned suddenly. The warehouse had not been used in years, according to general information nor did it ever harbor a science lab.

This was recent. He deducted, Joker is up to something.

"Ping, ping, ping!" The scanner went off loudly indicating it had picked up something. Bruce looked at the bright screen, on the tablet-like device it read a list of herbs and chemical toxins found in the vicinity of the room.

The list read:

-Milk of Magnesia (Magnesium Hydroxide)

-Ativan

-Valium

- Xanax

-dopamine

-endorphins

- Fear toxin

-Scopolamine

"More chemical substances are yet to be scanned, for now, this is all that was picked up." A small robotic voice chimed. Bruce read the list again, at least four of the items on the list he could recognize, mostly common illegal drugs used by the mob daily. However, the last word Scopolamine boggled him. He didn't quite understand but he felt as if he had heard of it somewhere.

"Scopolamine?" He said out loud. He picked and prodded at his brain trying to remember where he had heard such a world but alas he was unable to recall his memory. After all the evidence he had seen here Batman was convinced the clown that constantly terrified Gotham was up to his old tricks again.

He's building or making something alright, I just don't know what! The dark knight paced around, putting his detective mind to work. He futilely tried connecting puzzle pieces of what Joker's new master plan could be but all ideas fell short.

How did he get this stuff? Who imported them for him? Why does he need them? All questioned Batman knew he needed to solve for the sake of Gotham.

How?

Who?

Who?

Batman stopped suddenly, something in his head clicked, something that he had completely skimmed over. Fear toxin! Batman read the list again and sure enough Fear toxin was on the list, he had been caught up in all the other substances that he had completely forgotten the one he was most familiar with.

"Fear Toxin that's it!" Batman said out loud in triumph. "How could I not see it?"

The fear toxin was a substance the dark knight was very accustomed to. While training in Tibet with Ra's Ghul, fear toxin is what was used on Bruce, it had prepped him to be the vigilante he was today, it taught him to revel in his fears and not run from it. When he had come back to Gotham, he found a deranged psychologist rearranging and twisting the properties of the toxin to control and terrorize people.

Scarecrow! Batman knew who could have helped the little psycho with all this research. It was no doubt Scarecrow! He specialized in this science. And if he wanted to find answers, he would have to find the scarecrow.

Batman put away his Scanner. He needed to find out where Scarecrow was, and he had a pretty good idea of where to start looking. Batman left the warehouse, feeling very confident.

He was now a step closer to finding and foiling whatever the Joker's plan was.