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

11- THE TRUTH

Alfred didn't talk to Bruce for the remainder of the night and Bruce couldn't blame him. As Bruce left the Batcave and made his way to the kitchen, he wasn't greeted by Alfred's pleasantries he had retired to bed early. However, His dinner was on the table, a cold steak with mashed potatoes that looked like they were thrown on the plate.

Well, I can see Alfred is being level headed about this. Bruce scoffed to himself, still, he ate the dinner without any complaint. It was better that Alfred was projecting his rage this way.

"I hope, he isn't mad all tomorrow, I don't think I can another cold dish," Bruce muttered. He washed his hands before walking to his study.

Bruce could now get at the task at hand, before dinner he had sent the Joker's blood sample to Lucius Fox, his technical designer, and inventor for Batman's many gadgets. If anyone could spot a potentially deadly and new toxin it was Lucius. Bruce went to his desk, opening his laptop hoping to see an email. Lucius did not disappoint, because there it was, only an hour after Bruce requested for his help. He opened the email, surprisingly there was nothing inside but a sentence that said: Video chat now.

Hmm rather direct, must be serious if he wants to video chat. Bruce complied with Mr fox's suggestion, he opened the video call invitation.

Lucius's face popped up on the screen.

"Hello, Mr. Wayne." Lucius greeted, upon seeing Bruce's face on the video cam.

Bruce smiled sincerely and greeted back. "Hello luscious, how's your night been so far?"

"Uneventful, unlike yours, I'm guessing." Lucius was also aware of Mr. Wayne's nighttime activities, Lucius wasn't invested too much, he built the weapons Bruce needed and kept to himself, he saw satisfaction in the safety of Gotham.

Bruce smiled half-heartedly, indeed the night had been eventful.

"Yes, some of us don't rest."

"I see," Lucius chuckled, he cleared his throat soon after, ready to talk business. "Now on the blood sample, you sent me." Lucius began.

Bruce moved closer to the screen more eagerly. "What did you find?" He asked.

"Nothing much but a bunch of random drugs." Lucius started.

Bruce had thought the same thing too when he first came across them. But Lucius didn't stop there luckily.

"Well, that's what I thought until I combined them."

Combined eh? So all those ingredients were to make a toxin.

"What did you find when you mixed them?"

Lucius looked at Bruce seriously. "Mr. Wayne are you aware that, Magnesium Hydroxide, Ativan, Valium, Xanax, dopamine, endorphins, and Fear toxin when mixed become a physically altering component?"

Physically altering? Bruce wondered. Perhaps the toxin was meant to hurt people.

"As in the way someone looks?" Bruce questioned further.

Mr fox nodded. "Yes, but there's also an eighth component I found in the bloodstream, one not completely listed or found anywhere on earth."

Not on earth, how could it be found then? Bruce thought. was Scarecrow importing things from space now?

"How is that possible?" Questioned, not sure.

"I have no idea." Lucius replied, "But it resembles a plant found on earth commonly used as an anti-aging plant but the properties of this one, are more erratic and severe. Quite possibly man-made."

"So what are you saying someone made it?" If that was the case Bruce could see maybe how Ivy fit into the picture, her powers did evolve around plant life, and it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that she could create plants of her own.

So that's why Scarecrow needed her.

"I have no idea. But what's scarier is that, when you sent me the list of things you found at the warehouse, what jumped out at me was the Scopolamine."

Scopolamine, there it was again, Bruce was sure he had heard the word before.

"What's Scopolamine?" He asked, generally wanting to know.

"Scopolamine is a plant found in the wilderness, notoriously for being a spore that can infest the mind, some say even control. Nothing too dangerous, until hypothetically I looked at it mixed with other compounds and removed the unknown. What I found was interesting."

The mind control spore! That's what he knew it as! He remembered a distant conversation with someone he knew had been about Scopolamine and whether it was real.

"And what did you find?" Bruce was very interested now, whatever Scarecrow was making must have been big. He had some idea, Bruce could slowly form a picture of what the psychologist might have been doing, but it was stretch. It was too ludicrous to be true.

"I found that, mixed with the fear toxin and were looking at a high success rate of mind control on the human brain."

High success rate? There's was no way Scarecrow could've cracked a code like this.

"As in, take over someone's mind?" The words fell out of Bruce's mouth, he was finding them hard to believe. Never had he seen science used like this.

"Yes, completely bend them to your will." Mr fox confirmed.

Bruce slumped back into his seat, feeling anxious. If Scarecrow had this type of power no one in Gotham would be safe.

Mind control? He breathed, how the hell was it possible and how was Joker not affected?

"But fortunately what you found in that young man's system was not the toxin mixed with Scopolamine, it was in fact the unknown variable." Mr fox explained.

The comment left Bruce feeling more confused, as he ran it back in his head he realized two things.

One, Ivy must have double-crossed or ruined the experiment, it was the only deductable reason. Joker was not affected since Scopolamine was never added to the toxin, and it would explain the anger Joker exhibited towards Scarecrow, and why they were so hell-bent on taking him away tonight before Batman had stopped them. But then that would mean the second thing was this other dupe toxin that was used on Joker, had other effects.

Height change, weight loss, voice pitch change, moodiness, erratic behavior, and increased fear. Bruce could understand why the Joker was behaving so strangely.

"I'm sorry what?" Bruce blurted; he still couldn't process the information he had been given.

Lucius smiled understandingly; it was a lot of information to process. However what Lucius said next, would change everything, it was something Bruce Wayne was completely not ready for.

"The young man, you know the 17-year-old who's blood you sent me, a bit too young to have all those drugs in his system if you ask me," Lucius said worriedly.

"He's 17!" Bruce yelled surprised. He shook his head, his ears must have been deceiving him, there was no way Lucius fox had just called the Joker a 17-year-old boy!

Lucius looked at Bruce and shrugged as if he had just something completely normal. To be fair, Lucius didn't exactly know that was Joker's blood Bruce had sent him.

17 years of age? Bruce couldn't fathom it. But Lucius couldn't be wrong, his research never was and all the signs were there. Bruce thought about it properly.

A plant that resembled an anti-aging one on earth, Poison Ivy probably had made it, and Lucius had mentioned that all the chemicals and drugs combined made a physically alerting toxin. Bruce's eyes widened. Scarecrow didn't make a mind control toxin. He had unintentionally made an anti-aging toxin!

And Now Bruce Wayne had a 17-year-old Joker tied up in his Batcave. Somehow it made sense and somehow it didn't. So, that explains the behavior, and why he didn't want me to take his blood. He didn't want me to find out.

"Yeah, well at least that's what his blood tells me, 17 and pumped up on drugs. That's really something!" Lucius reaffirmed.

Bruce nodded sloppily still stuck in a daze, his mind was in a frenzy. Mr fox was quick to notice, he found it odd.

"Mr. Wayne, may I ask why this boy is so full of dangerous toxins?" Lucius inquired.

Bruce looked up, looking into the webcam. Lucius had given Bruce half the answer but he would never know the full story.

"Scarecrow had been experimenting on him," He said, which wasn't a lie in all honesty.

Mr fox nodded; he knew what a madman Scarecrow was.

I really cannot think right now. Bruce shook his head, he really needed some time to think.

"Look luscious, I don't wanna be rude, but can we talk tomorrow? Something's come up." He asked. Mr Fox took no offense to the question.

He probably has some bat mission to go off one. Lucius chuckled to himself.

"It's fine, I was headed off to bed anyways." Mr. Fox smiled.

"Thank you for your research and your help," Bruce said sincerely.

Lucius nodded and waved in response before ending the video call.

Oh god, this isn't good. Bruce thought. Now that Bruce Wayne was fully alone. His face sank into the depths of his hands, he was breathing fast after hearing that plethora of newfound facts.

Scarecrow had learned how to make a mind control toxin and the Joker was now a teenager.

He didn't know which bombshell of the two scared him more.